Shelley Workinger's Blog, page 4

Please Welcome Michael Murphy, Author of The Yankee Club

I met my first ex-wife in The Yankee Club, but I don’t hold it against the place. For my dough, it’s the best speakeasy in Queens. To my surprise it’s not too crowded for a Friday night in the spring of 1933.

I know the knock. A panel in the door slides open, and I’m greeted by a familiar face the size of a hubcap. Fights are kept to a minimum by this broad-shouldered brute who gives me the once over and let’s me inside.

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

Please Welcome Margaret Mizushima, Author of the Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries

My Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries feature K-9 Deputy Mattie Cobb, her four-legged partner Robo, and Cole Walker, Robo’s veterinarian and Mattie’s love interest. Together they investigate and solve crimes in their Colorado mountain community. But in the midst of all the murder and mayhem in that small town, Mattie does take time to eat, and the one person she loves to sit down and share a meal with is Mama T, her childhood foster mom.

As a Latina who has raised many children, Mama T infuses lots of love in the food she cooks. After a hard day, Mattie might stop by to check on her mama, and she’ll take home a bowl of green chili with pork laced with love, as well as a package of warm homemade tortillas fresh from the skillet. (See my husband’s version of green chili below.)

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

Please Welcome Margaret Mizushima, Author of the Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries

My Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries feature K-9 Deputy Mattie Cobb, her four-legged partner Robo, and Cole Walker, Robo’s veterinarian and Mattie’s love interest. Together they investigate and solve crimes in their Colorado mountain community. But in the midst of all the murder and mayhem in that small town, Mattie does take time to eat, and the one person she loves to sit down and share a meal with is Mama T, her childhood foster mom.

As a Latina who has raised many children, Mama T infuses lots of love in the food she cooks. After a hard day, Mattie might stop by to check on her mama, and she’ll take home a bowl of green chili with pork laced with love, as well as a package of warm homemade tortillas fresh from the skillet. (See my husband’s version of green chili below.)

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

Please Welcome Linda Mims, Author of The Neon Houses

The Neon Houses, set in 2071, depicts two worlds. One world shows a food desert where food is genetically modified, dehydrated, plant-based and powdered, if there’s food at all. The other world is a cornucopia of real animal meat, vegetables, poultry, eggs, fish, and fruit.

The main character, Noel Kennedy, has her feet planted in both worlds and is unapologetically sympathetic to the needs of citizens who have barely enough to eat. In fact, when we first meet her flying her autoplane to the family home of a recently murdered girl, she’s leaning out the passenger window yelling bloody murder at a thief who has just snatched a bag of groceries from an old man.

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/03...

Please Welcome Elizabeth McKenna, Author of The Great Jewel Robbery

In real life, food and drink often set the mood and enhance the memories of any moment in time. When I think of my teen years, I remember eating french fries and drinking diet coke with my girlfriends at the lake when we were supposed to be in class. For my twenties, it’s greasy breakfast food at a dirty diner after bars. In my thirties, it’s me sweating over the menu for family gatherings that will please both adults and toddlers. (By my forties and fifties, I was too exhausted to care, but that’s another story!)

And just like in real life, authors incorporate food and drink to enhance a scene. Besides describing the physical setting, what the characters eat or drink can help the reader better connect with the characters and, thus, the story. In my cozy mystery, The Great Jewel Robbery, what my characters eat is a deliberate decision on my part and often shows a part of their personality.

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/03...

Please Welcome Shannon Grogan, Author of From Where I Watch You

In my YA thriller From Where I Watch You (Soho Teen), two food items are mentioned frequently: Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing, and split pea soup.

My protagonist Kara uses her passion for baking to escape two people: her crazy but grief-stricken mom--who thinks her split pea soup will save the world--and the stalker leaving her creepy notes.

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/03...

Please Welcome Kevin McLeod, Author of The Viking's Apprentice

I love food, I love cooking. I love sharing the experience with my daughters. We cook together, we bake together, and we eat together. Every day we sit down for at least one meal, it’s a chance to catch up, and importantly, to reconnect.

In my books whenever there is food there is always family. In the Viking’s Apprentice series when people eat it is a time for connection and for storytelling. Often the food is forgotten as the story becomes the centre of attraction, however it’s the food that brought them together.

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/03...

Please Welcome Kay Keppler, Author of Betting on Hope

A person’s outlook on life, habits, hobbies, patterns, assumptions, and lifestyle, among other characteristics, are based in part on food. People say they’re vegetarian, pescatarian, vegan, or omnivorous. Some people eat some things only with other things, not after 7pm, or only during certain hours of day. They cook at home or order in. They count grams of fiber, protein, or carbohydrate. And so on. You can tell a lot about people by the way they nourish themselves.

So really, why should fictional characters be any different?

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/02...

Please Welcome C.M. Kerley, Author of The Barclan Series

In my view, unless you’re writing a cookbook, food should never be about what someone is eating, it’s about control.

And, since we’re storytelling here, it’s about what someone was doing just before they burned a town to the ground, set a stone fountain on fire, or fell into a deep sleep and aged a thousand years.

In my fantasy series, I found the balance of creating a world of magic and adventure that was believable by bringing in elements of the everyday that the reader can relate to and often these events took place in a familiar place like a kitchen or tavern, or around a familiar task like cooking.

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/02...

Please Welcome Back Tracy Lawson, Author of Answering Liberty's Call

While doing research for Answering Liberty’s Call: Anna Stone’s Daring Ride to Valley Forge (2021) I learned a lot about the daily lives of colonial Americans—including what they wore and what they ate. Food production was a large part of their daily lives, and I was surprised to learn people believed it was not healthful to eat raw fruits and vegetables.

Neighbors often gathering to help bring in crops. When I chose to advance Anna and Benjamin’s interest in one another at a cidering party, of course apples were central to the fun, the work, and their budding romance...

More:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2022/02...