Shelley Workinger's Blog, page 3

Please Welcome MK Schultz, Author of Kassius Kanex

As a consumer of stories, I frequently reflect on the ingredients that are consistently present in the ones I love. Sure the story has to be interesting, but how is that achieved? The story has to be good. Well, yes! The story has to take the reader on a trip of the mind. Of course it does! The scenes must contain all, or at least some of the genres of action, comedy, drama, suspense and horror. The story must intrigue, interest, bewilder, sadden, anger or cheer the consumer, regardless of the medium - film, score, theatre, audiobook or the written word. How does it achieve this? What is that most important ingredient - the holy grail of story, or so to say? Character investment! The viewer, the listener and the reader must become invested and they must come to care about what happens to the characters. They must laugh at their jokes, they must cry when they suffer and they must cheer when they succeed. There are an endless multitude of ways readers become invested in characters. One of those ways can be answered by the question, “But what are they eating?”

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https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/10...

Please Welcome Claire Polders, Author of A Whale in Paris

Chantal and Papa live in Paris during the Second World War. Nazi forces occupy the French capital and steal crops from the surrounding farms to feed the German soldiers. Parisian citizens, like the characters in A Whale in Paris, invent new ways to find food and fill their stomachs. Chantal and Papa fish for salmon in the Seine at night.

Unfortunately, they’re often unsuccessful. Most days Chantal eats nothing but stale bread for breakfast. She must get by without the things she once thought essential, such as hot croissants and hazelnut macarons. But sometimes the stars align. Sometimes she and Papa catch a large fish and take it home in a bucket. Sometimes the priest of the Notre Dame gives Chantal an armload of zucchinis as a reward for working in his vegetable garden. Sometimes Papa has enough ration tickets left to buy flour and butter. Sometimes Aunt Sophie trades on the black market and brings them fresh eggs in a bundled handkerchief.

And then…

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https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/09...

Please Welcome Jacopo della Quercia, Author of License to Quill

I've always been more interested in what James Bond eats instead of what he drinks. The latter is pretty scripted, after all: "shaken, not stirred." I'm more intrigued by what he orders for breakfast, lunch, and dinner while crisscrossing the world. (To my surprise, Ian Fleming wrote that Bond's favorite meal was breakfast.)

This interest compelled me to pay close attention to the foods featured in my second novel, License to Quill, a spy-thriller that follows William Shakespeare as a secret agent during the Gunpowder Plot...

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https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/09...

Please Welcome Laura Greenwood, Author of Pumpkin Spice

What if someone had never tried ice cream before? It certainly wasn't the question I thought I'd be asking myself when I was considering what a cute date would look like for Willow and Azíl in the second book of my Cauldron Coffee Shop series, but it was the one I was faced with when I realised that as a three-thousand-year-old warlock who'd been stuck in a teapot, Azíl would never have tried ice cream. And if he had, it certainly wasn't going to be of the modern variety.

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https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/09...

Please Welcome Leigh Podgorski, Author of Desert Chimera

Desert Chimera is the first book in the Stone Quest Series, and introduces recluse, tracker, and reluctant young psychic Luke Stone and his paranormal universe. After escaping his dark nemesis, fleeing the loss of his beloved mentor crossing the country from the north woods of Michigan on foot, Luke has spent countless days in the Mojave Desert. How did he survive?

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https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/09...

Please Welcome Perry Prete, Author of The More Things Change

Although Ethan Tenant is a fictitious City of Ottawa Paramedic, the career and the circumstances I placed him in were not. One of the situations that Ethan and his partner Tom had to deal with was how they ate while working shifts or between calls. Most Paramedics today spend very little time at base and don’t always have access to a microwave, stove, or even a fridge.

Paramedics carry their food with them unless they really enjoy take-out. Ethan and Tom would pack a lot of non-perishable foods in a soft cooler with an ice pack and stow it in a outside compartment, away from patient contact. Easy and quick food usually means processed foods or something a Paramedic can eat on the go, between calls or even while driving. Take-out food for a Paramedic is risky. As a seasoned 40-year veteran, I can’t count how many meals I paid for and never got to enjoy because we were dispatched to an emergency and the food wasn’t ready or I didn’t have time to eat and it spoiled on the floor of the rig.

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https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/09...

Please Welcome Matthew Pallamary, Author of n0thing

After winning the ESports World Cup Finals which is in essence the Super Bowl of eSports, n0thing and his winning Seal Team Zero teammates were treated to a sumptuous feast with everything they could ever want, including sensual pleasures. At their celebration party a long mahogany table held silver ice filled buckets of Red Bull, sodas, beer, shrimp, strawberries, and other fruits. Gold and silver platters of chicken, beef, turkey, ham, and an assortment of the team's favorite snacks filled the rest along with a fully stocked bar.

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https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/08...

Please Welcome Dylan Newton, Author of All Fired Up

Don’t you hate when authors do that rotten thing to their heroines: make them too distraught to eat during the ENTIRE story? Ugh. I won’t mention names, but one specific male romance author does this so often, I won’t buy his books. This predilection of portraying women as creatures who are too constitutionally delicate to eat is toxic. So, when Shelley Workinger asked me to contribute to this blog, I was all in!

As a person with family members suffering from body dysmorphia and disordered eating, food and the portrayal of women eating is important to me as a writer. Next to crafting strong, independent, relatable heroines, being purposeful with what they eat is the next most crucial thing I do in my books. Here’s why: authors have a responsibility to combat food-related myths, especially as they relate to women. While my romantic comedies are funny, I’m deadly serious about my heroines having a balanced, healthy relationship with food.


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https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/06...

Please Welcome Effrosyni Moschoudi, Author of The Amulet

I was born and raised in Athens, but my parents hail from two different Greek islands. My father, from Limnos in the Northeast Aegean, and my mother, from Corfu in the Ionian Sea. As a child, I often spent my summers on these islands, Corfu mostly, and have a plethora of fond memories from big family get-togethers when my mother and my Corfiot grandmother delighted everyone with their cooking. Other times, we’d enjoy Greek food at seaside tavernas and, instead of dessert, we’d all treat ourselves to some Syrtaki dancing for afters!

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https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/04...

Please Welcome Janni Nell, Author of Broomsticks, Buns & Murder

I love using food to help readers get to know my characters better. When I decided to set the opening scene of Broomsticks, Buns & Murder in a restaurant, I knew the food choices of the three dinner companions would be important. Each food choice had to match the character’s personality. With this in mind, I studied a lot of menus before I made my final choices. Since I write mysteries, I thought it would be fun to make this post a mini-mystery. So, here goes. The three meals I finally settled on were seafood pasta, Alaskan halibut with salad and Wagyu beef.

Based on the following character descriptions, can you guess which character ordered which meal? (Answers below.*)

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https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/04...