Shelly Ellis's Blog, page 3
March 19, 2013
Cover Reveal for The Player and the Game!
Pre-order here!
It’s business as usual for the infamous gold digging Gibbons women of Chesterton, Virginia. But this time, middle sister, Stephanie, may be the one getting played…
Stephanie Gibbons has finally hit the jackpot. Her new sugar daddy, Isaac, is loaded and treating her in high style. When he proposes, Stephanie is sure she’s set for life —- until she finds her bank account empty, Isaac gone, and a strange —- but very attractive—man following her.
Sexy P.I. Keith Hendricks has been tracking Isaac all along the eastern seaboard —- where the con man has left behind a trail of heartbroken, swindled women. But when Keith confronts Stephanie, he’s not sure if she’s Isaac’s accomplice —- or his next victim. The only thing that’s certain is his overwhelming attraction to her. And when Stephanie joins him on the hunt for Isaac, neither can ignore the sparks. Soon Stephanie is wondering whether true love is worth its weight in gold…
February 26, 2013
“Can’t Stand the Heat” book giveaway!
The “official” release date for the first novel in the Gibbons Gold Diggers series, Can’t Stand the Heat, is slated for April 30. But here’s a chance to get the book a month before its available for purchase!
Until March 31, I’m holding a giveaway at Goodreads for signed advanced reading copies of the book. There’s no entry fee. The contest is open to all members of Goodreads who are U.S. residents. Oh, and I’m not choosing of the winners. To make this as fair as possible, the winners are chosen randomly by a computer algorithm that the good folks at Goodreads created. (Well, aren’t they smart! LOL)
Enter to win!
February 10, 2013
What a Girl Wants! (A La Cornue Range, Baby!)
La Cornue Range (French, professional, and top of the line!)
Lauren Gibbons, who’s story is featured in Can’t Stand the Heat (Book #1) is a sous chef at Creole/Cajun restaurant, Le Bayou Bleu. Though her sisters might adore expensive shoes and handbags, Lauren is all about cooking. Her man, Crisanto Weaver, has a Wolf oven range at his posh mansion, which is nothing to sniff at. But if Lauren had her tippy-top choice of on what oven to cook, it would be… a La Cornue range!
La Cornue has been manufacturing ovens since the early 1900s. The Parisian company is known for its unique-looking stove ranges that are lauded as one of the best stoves a professional chef can use. Brass-handles… French side-swing doors… a separate altitude kit… These ovens usually have a long wait time, but Lauren would be willing to stand in line. (Though I doubt with Cris’s money, she’d have to.) Being the most conservative in the family, Lauren would probably settle for the cheaper $8,600 range above. Don’t laugh! These ranges can put you as far back as $15,000!
January 21, 2013
Love, International Style (Romantic movies)
I write and read books but I looooove movies. I thought it might be fun to share my favorite romantic films. Now if you know me (which you probably don’t LOL), you know my tastes are pretty eclectic. So it would follow that my tastes in movies span a wide gamut. Here’s my list. (Though the order doesn’t indicate best or worse.)
1) Love Jones (1997)
This is the film that made me fall for Larenz Tate, made me want to be Nia Long, and made me believe that even with jaded urban black professionals, love is still possible. I love the vibe of this film, from the acting to the soundtrack (I bought the CD and played it endlessly) to the cinematography. I didn’t always agree with the characters decisions, but I could empathize with them. And the writing in this film is smart. I hate to say it, but in a lot of black films I feel like the plot and dialogue get dumb down for easy laughs. The actors reactions are over the top and inauthentic. I didn’t see that here.
Unfortunately, the writer/director Theodore Witcher didn’t do any other projects after this besides the film, Body Count, which I never saw. (*sigh) I’d love to see another black romantic film made like this one.
2) Eat Drink Man Woman (Yin shi nan nu) (1994)
This is what I mean when I say I have eclectic tastes. I discovered this Taiwanese film in high school and watched it over and over again. It made me a big fan of the director Ang Lee who is probably better known stateside for directing, Brokeback Mountain.
This film is about a group of very different sisters (Sound familiar? LOL) whose father is a world-reknown chef (Also sound familiar?). It shows how each member of the family falls in love and how their relationship with each other change as a result of this. I thought the film was beautiful. Even the opening scene where the dad is preparing dinner for the entire family (shown in the clip above) is amazing and it makes me hella hungry! This was a film that was so well written and acted that it crossed both language and cultural barriers. I became emotionally invested in the characters and loved to see how they evolved in the course of the film.
You know a foreign film is good when the American production companies try to imitate it. The “American” version of this film is Tortilla Soup, but in this case, imitation was not the best form of flattery. Sorry, that movie sucked!
3) Amelie (2001)
A “best romantic movies of all time” list has to include at least one French film, right? LOL Well, here is mine. First of all, can you say GORGEOUS? This film looks beautiful with its hyper-real colors and expansive scenes. And I loved the heroine, Amelie. This girl is so awkward, she’s adorable. Even the hero is cute too with how downright weird he is. (He works in a sex shop and collects discarded pictures from photo booths for God’s sake!) I love the tangential stories that are all interconnected. I love the quirky feel of the film. Did I mention I really love this movie??? LOL
4) Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Weddings are naturally full of drama, so you can imagine when you’re in a culture where a wedding can literally drag on for days and can include hundreds of people, you’re in for a bumpy ride. This movie doesn’t disappoint. There’s a lot going on here, from a couple wavering over their planned marriage, to a lower caste couple falling in love, to one woman finally calling out a pedophile uncle…. whoa, chile, drama, drama, drama!
And for you Denzel Washington fans, the talented director of this film, Mira Nair, is also known for her work on the interracial romance film, Mississippi Masala, starring Denzel and Sarita Choudhury.
5) Sense and Sensibility (1995)
I know what you’re thinking: “Oh, shocker! A Jane Austen film!” Seriously, I am not a big Jane Austen girl. Never have been. (I’m more of an Edith Wharton fan.) But its something about the film adaptations of Austen’s books that always win me over. Plus, I’m a big fan of the actors in this one: Emma Thompson (the queen!), Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, and Alan Rickman. And again, I have a soft place in my heart for a love story about sisters. Sense and Sensibility is basically a story about women coming to terms with what love really is — not an overly romanticized version, but true love. Seeing them find happiness in the end was incredibly heartwarming.
So that’s my list! What are your favorites? Share it in the comments below, if you please…
January 17, 2013
A Followup to the RomanceU Blog Post (Bonus Material!)
I hate word counts. I’m a notorious overwriter and when I do interviews and have to write an article/blog entry, inevitably there are some good tidbits I have to “leave on the cutting room floor.”
I was honored to do a guest faculty blog post at Romance University (which I recommend as a great resource for aspiring romance writers and those currently in the biz). I shared What Will and Won’t Fly in Multicultural Romance, interviewing fellow romance authors Cheris Hodges (Kensington Publishing) and Phyllis Bourne (Harlequin Kimani) as well as my editor Mercedes Fernandez who acquires and edits fiction for Kensington’s Dafina and KTeen imprints. Well, I thought there were some answers that ladies shared that were interesting but just didn’t fit in. So here are some parts I cut. Enjoy!
Cheris Hodges, Romance Author
Q: What is the difference between books in the multicultural romance market versus “mainstream” romance besides the obvious, which is minority characters? Or do you see a difference?
A: I think the stories are different. You can work in a layer of the black experience that you can’t in the mainstream. She said she reads both Maya Banks and Brenda Jackson, but the difference is “I want to date the brother Brenda Jackson is talking about,” she says with a laugh.
Mercedes Fernandez Assistant Editor, Dafina Books
Q: As an editor for a multicultural imprint, what do you look for in submissions? For romance or women’s lit submissions, do you have any other requirements that maybe a mainstream editor wouldn’t be looking for?
A: I’m looking for an exciting voice, a storyline that’s different and has a great hook or immediate appeal, and great storytelling ability. I’m looking for an author who is marketable—an author involved in different organizations who has an extensive social network and platform already sort of built-in, meaning an online presence on Facebook, Twitter, and an active website.
Q: Urban lit seems to be the big sellers in the multicultural market, but do you see any subgenres gaining traction? More YA? More erotica?
A: Urban lit is definitely popular within the multicultural market, but at Dafina Books we cover a wide spectrum of subgenres so that there is something for every type of reader. From contemporary romance, Christian to faith-based fiction, urban lit, and young adult fiction, we’ve got something for everyone.
January 4, 2013
Preview! Preview! (Can’t Stand the Heat Chapter Teaser)
So I got the greenlight from my editor to release a chapter of my new book, Can’t Stand the Heat, the first book in the Gibbons Gold Digger Series. Here’s the combustible opening prologue. Hope you like it!
Copyright © 2013 Shelly Ellis
Prologue
Click image to pre-order a copy!
“Lauren? Lauren!”
Lauren Gibbons had been staring blankly at her reflection in her oval vanity mirror, seeing her face glaze over into a brown blur as she became lost in thought. At her boyfriend James’s angry barking, her image and the room suddenly came rushing back into focus.
“Huh?” Lauren murmured. “What?”
James sighed. “Did you hear anything I said?”
She glanced at the hairbrush she held over her head. She had forgotten it was there.
“I’m sorry, baby. I was . . . distracted.” She smiled apologetically. “I was brushing my hair.”
“So you can’t do both at once?” James strode out of his walk-in closet, unbuttoning his shirt cuffs. “Too challenging for you?”
She slowly set the brush on the vanity dresser top and watched cautiously in the mirror as he paced around their four-poster bed.
He had plenty of room to pace—easily. Their bedroom was massive, with vaulted ceilings and enough square footage for eight California king-size beds. It was filled wall to wall with imposing mahogany furniture and decorated with artificially aged gold candelabras, sconces, and knickknacks. James said the decor made him feel like royalty, but Lauren had always had a very different take on the room. Like James, their bedroom made her feel crowded at all sides despite the expanse. She felt downright claustrophobic.
She watched James in the mirror’s reflection. James flexed his fingers anxiously and frowned, making his wrinkles even more pronounced. He seemed in a particularly bad mood tonight . . . agitated, perhaps, but it didn’t take much to set him off these days. His quick temper was one of the many reasons she wanted to leave him. In fact, only seconds ago she had been wrangling over when she would finally do just that, before he rudely yanked her from those thoughts.
“I need to know what you plan to wear. I want to see it.”
Lauren turned slightly on the upholstered bench to face him. “Wear to what?”
“What do you mean, ‘wear to what’? I swear, if you were more focused on what’s going on around you than on primping and preening in front of that goddamn mirror, I wouldn’t have to keep repeating myself!”
She flinched. There it was: the feeling of the walls pressing in, of the furniture getting closer and closer, bearing down on her. Lauren closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes again.
“I just didn’t hear you, James,” she began quietly, trying to placate him. “Calm down, baby. It’s not that big of a deal. Just—”
“I was talking about the cocktail party on Thursday—a very important cocktail party, I might add. So don’t tell me it’s not that big of a deal! I expect very important clients to be there and I want to see what you’re wearing. I don’t want anything tasteless or too revealing.”
Tasteless or too revealing? Funny, those same ensembles were what drew him to her in the first place. Back then, he had liked when she was sexy and alluring. Now, whenever they went out together, he acted as if she should wear a nun’s habit or a burqa.
“You want to inspect my clothes?” She stood, shrugged out of her satin robe, and tossed it over the vanity bench. “James, give me some credit. I’ve been dressing myself since I was seven years old. I know what’s appropriate and what isn’t. I swear that I’ll wear something nice. OK?”
“And I can only imagine what your interpretation of ‘nice’ is. No, I want to see the dress. If it isn’t right, I need time to look through that football field of a closet of yours to find something suitable. I want you to show it to me tomorrow. No later. Understood?”
Lauren clenched her fists at her sides. She was getting tired of this, of James ordering her around and acting as if he owned her. She had tried to ignore it at first. She certainly had enough incentive to swallow down her frustrations: the fifteen-thousand-dollar-a-month allowance, the Bentley parked in the driveway, and the sparkling trinkets he surprised her with on a weekly basis. But she couldn’t keep quiet for long. She had reached her breaking point a few weeks ago and told him that she was tired of him giving her orders, and he had laughed at her. He had actually laughed at her. It had taken all her willpower not to walk out on him that very minute.
“Then I’m not going,” she said.
He took off his shirt and tossed it on their bed. “What?”
“I said I’m not going to the party!”
She pushed back her shoulders. At her full height—five-foot-one-half inch—she wasn’t a very imposing figure. But all the same, she wanted him to know that she meant business, that she meant what she said.
“If you feel you have to approve of what I wear before you’re willing to bring me in front of your precious law partners and clients, then . . . then . . . damn it, I’ll stay home!”
He narrowed his eyes at her. His stare was glacial, meant to freeze all the willpower out of her. But she was too hot with anger to be intimidated by him tonight.
“Lauren, don’t issue me ultimatums. You’re not in a position to. Just be a good little girl and do as I say.” He raised his eyebrows. “All right?”
“You treat me like a child and it’s getting old!” She threw up her hands. “In fact, it’s past getting old! It’s damn near ancient!”
Lauren’s heart thudded in her chest. They had been together for two years, and half of that time she had made excuses for him and excuses to stay, but she finally had to admit it: Their relationship had to end. It was time to tender her resignation. She had fulfilled her role as James’s arm candy, his young plaything, and he as her sugar daddy.
James gazed at her, looking both irritated and dumbfounded. “Lauren, I don’t know what the hell has gotten into you, but if you don’t—”
“If I don’t what? If I don’t what, James?” She blew an angry gust of air through her nose and crossed her arms over her chest. “Look, I’m through listening to you! I’m tired of putting up with all your bullshit! I’m done!”
“You’re done? So you’re done with me and my money? You’re done with all those clothes in your closet? You’re done with the trips to St. Bart’s and Paris?” He chuckled. “I know you, Lauren. I know you better than you know yourself, sweetheart. There’s no way you’re done with me.”
And he’s so sure of himself. He’s so sure I won’t walk away from him.
But she would prove him wrong.
“Go to hell, James.”
Lauren then turned and walked toward the bedroom door, intending to march to one of the guest rooms. There was no way she was sharing a bed with him tonight. In the morning, when she had a clearer head, she would pack her things and make plans about what to do next. She could move in with her mother or one of her sisters. She still had a few culinary classes to complete, but maybe she could get a job as a cook somewhere. She was talented. Why not? Maybe she could finally pursue her dreams for once.
Lauren could feel the sense of claustrophobia waning. She felt freer, lighter with each step she took.
But that feeling abruptly ended when James grabbed the back of her nightgown, pulling the silk fabric tight across her chest, catching her by surprise. She heard one of the seams rip just as he seized a hunk of her hair. The pain radiated from her roots to seemingly every nerve ending in her body. Her hands instantly flew to her scalp and she winced and screamed.
She shrieked and kicked as he hauled her back through the bedroom door, making her lose her slippers during the struggle. Her feet left winding twin tracks in the plush carpet as he dragged her across the room.
James pulled her to her feet and she clawed at his hands and face, leaving a bloody trail along his cheeks and neck, but he made no attempt to fight her off. At six foot two, he practically towered over her and he outweighed her by almost one hundred pounds. He easily had the advantage. It was a fight she couldn’t win.
She had no time to prepare or brace herself when he backhanded her across the face. It felt like he had taken a two-by-four and walloped it across her cheek. He slapped her again with the same force and she lost her balance. She grabbed for her vanity, clutching for its side to keep from tumbling to the floor. But both she and the vanity went crashing to the carpet. Perfume bottles, makeup compacts, hairbrushes, nail polishes, and combs went flying everywhere. The air suddenly filled with the acrid, sickening smell of several powerful scents released at once.
Lauren rolled onto her stomach and tried to crawl away from him. He was blocking the path to the door, so she tried to seek the safety of a corner near one of the bureaus, but he caught her by the ankle and dragged her back. Suddenly, James was crouched over her, slapping her, punching her, and shouting as he did it. His shouts were just as loud as her screams.
He was mostly incoherent, but any soul who was close enough to hear could get the gist of what he was yelling: She had no right to walk out on him. He was James Henry Sayers! No one walked out on him, especially a well-paid hooker like her.
Lauren fought at first, but she grew weaker with each punch. When she couldn’t fight anymore, she crouched into a fetal position, waiting for the blows to end or for her to lose consciousness—whatever came first.
Then suddenly, the phone rang. As if someone had waved a magic wand, the deluge of violence abruptly ended. James glanced over his shoulder at the open bedroom door.
“I was . . . I was expecting this call,” he said with an eerie calm through huffs of breath. He sat back on his shins, licking his lips. “I have to . . . I have to take this.”
Her hands were still shielding her face, but between her fingers she watched as James slowly rose to his feet. He gazed down at her one last time, wiping the sweat from his brow.
“I wish you wouldn’t talk so much trash, Lauren. I hate it when you mouth off to me. I deserve more respect than that.”
He turned to head to the doorway, tiredly dragging his feet as he walked.
“Go in the bathroom and clean yourself up. Then clean this place up, will you?”
He rubbed his sore knuckles and shut the door behind him.
Through the bedroom wall, Lauren heard James pick up the phone in his office. She lowered her hands and pushed herself to her elbows, then to a sitting position. Tears spilled onto her cheeks. She was trembling so much that her teeth chattered.
James had hit her. No, he had beat her. It was as if some switch had clicked on inside of him, and for the first time she had seen what was seething beneath his sarcasm, beneath his belittling. He was psychotic. He was a monster. She had to get out of here.
Lauren could still hear him talking on the phone in the other room.
Though her body was riddled with pain, though she could barely see through her burning red eyes, she rose to her feet. She limped toward the bedroom door and, after some hesitation, cracked it open, peering into the hallway. She could hear James more clearly now. He was laughing. Who would have guessed he had been beating up his girlfriend only minutes earlier?
The office door was ajar, but luckily the stairs were in the opposite direction at the end of the hall. If she was going to get out of this house, she had to do it now.
Lauren took a few steadying breaths, feeling her stomach tighten, feeling her muscles jitter. She was in pain, but she hoped adrenaline would carry her the rest of the way. On the third breath, she bolted—too terrified to look back.
Copyright © 2013 Shelly Ellis
December 8, 2012
What running can teach you about this industry
My friend, Camille, and I crossing the finish like at a local 5K. (Camille, who struggled in the beginning, is now running half marathons!)
I started running about four years ago on a whim. A girlfriend of mine, Camille, had done a 5K race (roughly 3.1 miles). Camille said she had to stop a few times before she made it to the end, but she and her running mate completed the race. I thought, “Hey, maybe I should start running too.”
I had gained weight in college (Freshmen 15, anyone?) and had gained even more weight since I entered the working world where most of my time meant sitting at a desk for 8 to 10 hours a day, staring at a computer screen. I had never been a thin girl. I had always described myself as curvy, but I knew my “curvy” was coming dangerously close to just plump. I have never been much of a dieter either (I like food WAY too much), but I had to do something to keep myself from ballooning. I remembered in high school that I liked being active. There was something freeing about being outside of the stuffy classroom, and I figured I could get that same freedom from the four walls of my office if I took up running.
Coincidentally, this was also around the time that I decided to start pitching to agents and publishers again. I had tried pitching a romantic suspense to them a year earlier with no luck. But I had been writing a few stories in the meantime and my husband said it was worth trying again. I wasn’t eager to do it. I didn’t want to set myself up for rejection for the umpteenth rejection, but I figured the stories were just sitting there. Some of them were pretty good, so why not give it a try.
Neither task was very easy. I’ve yet to find another cardiovascular exercise that’s as challenging as running. I ran my first quarter mile and almost passed out. A few months later I could run a mile and a half. (Not the Boston Marathon, but it felt like quite the achievement.) By the end of the year, I could do a slow three miles on the treadmill.
Pitching also came with rejections. I got a detailed and nicely worded reject letter from Harlequin. (Hey, at least the editor took the time out to write it.) And the current editor at Kensington that I have now, also ended up rejecting the first project I sent to her. But one publisher DID say yes. (Thank God!)
My most recent 5K. (I ran this one while almost 5 months pregnant!)
Now four years later, I’ve run several 5Ks, 8Ks and one 10K. I was training for a 10 miler when I found out I was pregnant, so I had to put that goal aside… for now. Also, in the past four years, I’ve published two books and now have a new book series slated for 2013. Running has taught me perseverance. You don’t give up despite the fatigue, the pain, and the frustrations of seeing person after person pass you by. That same perseverance is required in the book industry. You get constant setbacks, disappointments, contracts that may fall apart, etc. In both running and writing you need to be patient, hit your stride, and just hold out for the end goal: crossing the finish line.
November 9, 2012
Yeah! New book trailer is done!
Excited to have my new book trailer for Can’t Stand the Heat is out there. Thanks to Winterheart Design for pulling it together. Watch it at below.
October 25, 2012
Can’t… Stay… Awake!
Some people say the first trimester can be the hardest one. You’re nauseous. You’re crampy. You’re moody. As any woman who’s been pregnant can attest to, a growing baby takes a lot of energy out of you too… so you’re usually tired. Hella’ tired! Bone tired! “I don’t want to drag my @ss out of bed” tired. And I am no exception. Seriously, I was pretty much dead to the world by 9 p.m. every night for 8 weeks, and if I went to the gym that morning (doc said to stay fit), you could pretty much forget it. I had my mandatory 2-hour nap at noon THEN would fall asleep at 9 p.m. that night! That meant that I was struggling to stay awake during the work day and basically did no writing (beyond book summaries and outlines) for more than a month. That made me “haz a sad.”
I love writing and really, I love the Gibbons girls. I miss following them through their craziness and adventures. (Not to mention that with a rollout of a book series that basically has novels coming out 6 months apart, you’ve got plenty of deadlines you have to hit. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining! But when you’re struggling to keep your eyes open, plopping down at your laptop to crank out a chapter or two is the last thing on your mind.) So I am happy to report that now I’m in my 2nd trimester (yeah!), I’m finally getting some of my energy back. I fall asleep closer to 9:30 and 10 p.m. than 9 p.m. (Hey, it’s the little things that count!) and I’m working on my stories again. While in NYC last month, my editor gave me some ideas on how to improve the second book in the Gibbons Goldigger series, The Player and the Game. More importantly, how to reveal more about Dawn, the star of the third book. I’m retweaking that and plan to turn in the new manuscript to her by the end of November. I hope readers like it… and I hope I can stay awake long enough to finish it. LOL
October 8, 2012
Back from the Lit Awards!
So I’m back from New York… finally!!! (Actually I took a one-week detour to New Orleans for a business trip, which is why my whirlwind traveling was fun but felt a little overwhelming.) Glad I decided to attend the African American Literary Awards and spend a day with my hubby in the NYC. I had a blast!
Mercedes Fernandez, Kensington editor, (left) and I at the cocktail party of the African American Literary Awards.
The day started pretty hectic. As soon as we arrived in Manhattan, we took a cab from Penn Station, rushed to our hotel on the Upper West Side, then took ANOTHER cab back to Midtown to have lunch with my editor, Mercedes Fernandez. Mercedes was super nice and treated us to a Cuban lunch at Havana NY. We had good food and I got a fruity drink! LOL We mostly talked about the book series, promotion, and each of our favorite TV series. (Mercedes is a big Homeland fan. I am a Supernatural girl. Love me some Winchester brothers.) We said we’d meet up later that night at the awards ceremony in Harlem.
Hubby and I arrived at the shindig at around 7:30 p.m. (I was wearing my control top panty hose to suck in my burgeoning preggers belly but I looked cute! *finger snap) Made it to the cocktail hour where keynote speaker Isaiah Washington was holding court. Authors Reshonda Tate Billingsley, Victoria Christopher Murray, Wahida Clark and Kensington author Zuri Day/Lustisha Lovely were also there. Again, Mercedes was super nice and introduced me to the folks at Kensington. I met Dafina Executive Editor Selena James who said my name would look perfect on the New York Times bestseller list. (Oh, Selena, I wish! LOL) I also met head publicist Adeola Saul. Once the ceremony started, we all sat at the Kensington table. I felt welcomed to the family. 
Gift from Zuri Day that she gave all of us in honor of her nomination. (Thanks, Ms. Day!)
Just as I suspected, I didn’t win in the romance category, but it was nice to go to the awards dinner and meet the Kensington team and be among other authors. I lost to Brenda Jackson, but seriously… how can I be mad???? The lady still routinely makes the USA Today bestseller list! She won the 2012 Career Achievement award for Romance Writers of America! That little ol’ me was even nominated in the same category as her, Francis Ray, Adrianne Byrd, and Gwynne Forester still makes me do the pimp dance. LOL
I didn’t win (maybe one day, right?) but, Kensington Publishing won best publishing house that night. Yeah! And Zuri Day won in the erotica category for Love in Play. Overall, it was good night. The fried chicken, collard greens and fried fish weren’t so bad either.
