Tanith Davenport's Blog, page 30

U is for USA

Whenever I'm asked to provide an author bio, I always include the line "would like to take a driving tour of America in a pink Cadillac Eldorado."

The Cadillac is optional, although I've always wanted to own one. However, the driving tour is something I've always longed to do. If money and time were no object, I'd fly out there right now, buy a decent car and be on my way.

Of course, I've been told many times that fly-drives or flying tours might be a better bet, since it would allow me to see the parts that really interest me while skipping the long periods along identical straight roads in the larger states. There's a fly-drive I've seen advertised that begins and ends in Las Vegas, taking in the Grand Canyon along the way - that would be incredible. And I'd love to see Niagara Falls, which would be quite a hike from the coast.

On the other hand, I think the journey would be good for getting a real feel for a state. And I'd love to follow in Billy Connolly's footsteps - or wheels - and drive Route 66.

Any US readers have other recommendations of places to see?

T is for Travel

I'm not a good flier, but I love to travel. I never left the country growing up, so now that I can, I like to go to as many places as possible.

On my honeymoon, we went to Portugal.


Our hotel was on the marina in Vilamoura. We sailed with dolphins, we tried peri-peri chicken, and I discovered a heartfelt love for vinho verde.

Another year we went to Italy.


We stayed in Amalfi and spent the week visiting Pompeii, Paestum, Capri and Vesuvius while indulging ourselves on lemon tiramisu and buffalo mozzarella.

As mentioned in a previous blog, we also visited New York one year after I got tired of staying within Europe. My next plan is to push for either the Great Wall of China or a fly-drive from Las Vegas. I have always wanted to do a driving tour of the US.

Now I just have to learn to fly properly. Although there is one advantage of the queasiness and headaches I get from planes. By the time I reach the checking desk after landing, I'm so ill I look exactly like my passport photo.

S is for Sequels

One of my current WIPs is a sequel to my paranormal novella I Heard Your Voice.
I’m not used to writing sequels. I’ve never written or even planned a series, nor have I taken supporting characters from one story and given them a plot of their own. And in this instance, I’m using the same characters, which threw up one slight problem – what do you do when your characters got their happy ending in the first book?
I write erotic romance, which means there has to be a romance thread somewhere. However, the primary romantic arc has already happened, so my choices are to split them up and bring in a new love, or to find a way to develop their relationship. And I really didn’t want to split them up. I liked them together.
Coming up with a separate story arc was straightforward – they belong to a team of paranormal investigators and my heroine has just discovered her mediumistic abilities, so the sequel takes the next step in her development. But how to handle the romance angle?
Fortunately, on this occasion, I had a side-plot from the original story about sex enhancing paranormal activity. Weave that into the plot and I had a neat way of keeping the hero fully involved, so to speak.
But next time I write a sequel, I think I’ll go the supporting-characters route. This way is too exhausting!

R is for Rock Music

I’ve mentioned previously that music is one of my inspirations. More specifically, rock music is one of my favourite things to run alongside my writing.
For one thing, I find rock ballads to be much more emotional than standard ones. Jon Bon Jovi singing “Always”, Queen’s “Somebody to Love”, almost anything by Meat Loaf. The degree of passion and emotion in rock is far greater than some of the anodyne junk in the charts (even if I do have a strange and regrettable liking for “Call Me Maybe”).
I also find rock works much better as a soundtrack to sex scenes. “Don’t Stop Me Now” was always a good one. I also once saw a supporting band (whose name I wish I could remember) whose songs had titles such as “It Won’t Suck Itself” and one song with the classic line “My heart belongs to you, but my cock is community property”. Gotta love them.
And hearing rock music live is one of my favourite things in the world. I’ve seen almost all my favourite bands live at some point, and every one of them turned in a spectacular show (with the exception of one famous group who shall remain nameless but nearly put me to sleep). In my experience it’s impossible to see a great band live and not have your entire body and soul involved in the experience – which is an inspiration in itself.
Excuse me now, I’ve got tickets to buy…

Q is for Quirks

One of the reviews of my debut novel The Hand He Dealt described a supporting character as “maternal and quirky”. I agreed with the maternal bit, but quirky? There was something I had to think about.
I associate the word “quirky” with women in romcoms, usually played by Zooey Deschanel, who wear crazy clothes, are utterly unreliable and like to do things like run naked on the beach at midnight. It wasn’t something I would have applied to that particular supporting character. But then that’s probably just my bias, because we have to make characters distinctive, don’t we – and doesn’t that mean adding quirks?
It’s actually one of my favourite challenges with a character – coming up with quirks that also fit what we already know, and don’t define the entire person. (As an example of one done badly, in my opinion, I saw a male character in a film whose entire personality consisted of “terrified someone will crease his shirt”. That didn’t work.) When I prepare a new character, I plan out their favourite foods, their tastes in music and film, how they like to dress, and any unusual speech patterns related to accent, dialect or social preference. When I drew up my paranormal investigator Tamar Steele, I gave her a bedroom decorated with posters of nebulas and constellations and a taste for eating Chinese food cold.
Thinking about it, I’m not sure those are necessarily quirks. They’re character traits. So maybe “quirky” really is restricted to those loopy characters in romcoms. Never mind – there’ll always be someone who likes Zooey Deschanel; I’ll stick to Angelina Jolie.

P is for Paranormal

I first developed a fascination with the paranormal when I was researching I Heard Your Voice, which follows a “sensitive” who works with a paranormal events team. Since my only experience with paranormal investigations was Most Haunted, I booked myself onto an investigation at a haunted location in Bradford.
I’ll be honest, the scariest thing that happened that night was being abandoned by my satnav on a council estate. However, the techniques used and the way the crew managed the guests was ideal for literary purposes, as was the small group of women who, I’m pretty sure, showed up only to fake phenomena. The moment during table-tipping when the table juddered across the floor may or may not have been genuine, but I strongly suspect they were pushing the planchette on the ouija board (although since the alleged spirit simply told us to go away, I could almost believe it – I wouldn’t want random people in my house either).
After that, I started an online course in parapsychology and began reading some related magazines, Silent Voices and Fortean Times. I’ve also been taking advantage of the many, many paranormal TV shows there are at the moment. Ghost Hunters, Paranormal Witness, Haunted Collector, Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files… you name it. There are LOADS.
Strangely, I’ve found that the more I read, study or view, the less scary I find it. I haven’t had many paranormal experiences, but have always believed in ghosts. However, when you’ve watched episode after episode of investigations which turn out only a couple of bumps and bangs, even the ones where the crew decide to “be provocative” (“Hey! Come on out here and scare us, asshole!”) you gradually realise that there probably isn’t much more to see. True, Ghost Hunters has caught moving objects, voices and occasional apparitions, but even those have ceased to chill me.
I think I’ve been given practical proof of what I should have known already – the truly scary thing is the unknown. Once you start to study it, it becomes really quite mundane.
Maybe I’ll take cryptozoology for my next major enthusiasm. Ghosts are in the past – roll on the chupacabra.

O is for Optimism

Yup, optimism. Because as a writer, boy do you need it.
We spend most of our time putting our hearts and minds into writing stories and sending them out with the knowledge that they may come straight back to us with nothing more than “Not for us.” We work hard touring blogs and doing publicity for every release and dread the day the first month’s sales come in to reveal we sold three copies.
We hear horror stories about other writers whose careers have been skewered or story ideas scuppered by someone dropping the ball. The writer whose novel was reviewed favourably in a major US magazine and received a massive upsurge in sales, only for Amazon to run out of copies due to a print run of only two thousand. The woman whose suggestion for a three-generation saga novel was met with “Maybe you should write about four women who meet in a coffee shop to discuss their wayward children.”
And we have to keep smiling when people say things like “Oh, I could write a novel if I just had the time. What do you write, anyway? Romance? So when are you going to write a real book?”
It’s enough to drive anyone to drink.
So how do we keep our optimistic flag flying in the face of adversity?
In my case, I remind myself that this is what I’ve wanted to do my whole life. I love being a writer. I make sure I have at least three stories on the go at any one time, so if one comes back rejected I’m already way ahead with the next. I remember that my debut novel was turned down several times before being accepted, so a rejection doesn’t necessarily mean “this is crap”.
And I live near a really, really good cocktail bar. That always helps.

N is for New York

My favourite place in the world - New York City.






I visited NYC two years ago with my husband, a keen photographer whose camera nearly went on strike due to overwork while we were there. I spent the entire week with my jaw on the floor from all the sights.

Like this one:





Or this one in Central Park Zoo:





Or Times Square:





I would absolutely love to go back there. Maybe I'll make enough from my next release to pay for the flight.

M is for Mythbusters

Another personal favourite for me - Mythbusters.

Photo courtesy of the Discovery Channel website
For those of you not familiar with the show, Mythbusters follows Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman, Kari Byron, Grant Imahara and Tory Belleci using science and robotics to bust, or confirm, their favourite historic, urban or movie myths. Notable ones have been whether it's possible to wakeboard behind the scoop of a JCB, if you really can't teach an old dog new tricks, and if you can make a boat out of duct tape.

What I love about this show is the degree of utter joy all involved have in their work. Watching Kari, Grant and Tory celebrate as a canister of coffee creamer explodes twenty feet in the air is infectious. Even the smaller myths, such as whether swearing increases pain tolerance, are done with an eye to bringing the most fun possible to the situation. The sight of Adam with his hand in a jar of ice water shouting "Puppies! Kittens! Baby hippo!" will stay with me for the rest of my life.

So I urge every one of you to head over to the Discovery Channel and check out Mythbusters. If nothing else, see it for the truly wonderful fainting goats episode. I don't know which made me laugh harder - the moment Tory leapt out of a trough covered in hay, or the looks on their faces when everyone managed to get a reaction from the goats but them.

Actually, no. It was probably the moment a goat ran up and kicked Tory in the nuts.

L is for Losers in Love

If there is one aspect of chick-lit that I really don’t like, it’s the “loser in love” stereotype.
It’s not ubiquitous by a long shot. I read many strong heroines who don’t suffer from this. But all too often I’m presented with the unlucky-in-love heroine, angsting over her lack of a man, setting all her hopes on catching one.  And I absolutely can’t stand it.
Why does someone have to be unlucky in love to grab our interest? Why can’t they just be an interesting character who doesn’t happen to have a partner? Okay, there may be good plot-driven reasons for not having one, which may or may not give the heroine angst occasionally, but they don’t have to rule her life.
This is more difficult in short stories, admittedly, when you have to cram all the characterisation and plot into a smaller space, so the heroine may end up giving more headspace to the subject than necessary. But there’s a difference between wanting the hero (or indeed, second heroine) and bewailing the lack of any man.
I’m focussing mostly on heroines here, because I haven’t read that many male losers-in-love – maybe they’re not as attractive to readers. Most of the heroes I’ve read simply haven’t found the right person, but they don’t angst about it. Maybe I’m not reading the right books. But then, I don’t fancy reading about that kind of a hero either.
So, for me, I’ll avoid the unlucky-in-love routine. My heroines will get on with life and find the right guy – or girl – in their own sweet time. And my heroes will absolutely love it.