S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 115

Sun Noodles Shoyu Ramen – A Review

Here’s another review from My Asian Grocery Store! Even though this is the larger ticket item in the Hello Kitty Mango Tropical Marshmallows, it still feels like cheating to review something this good. Everyone knows that there are two basic kinds of ramen: the cheap, flash fried and dehydrated ramen that you can get for $.10 a pack at the grocery store, and the fresh, artisanal ramen you can only experience in a real ramen restaurant. Both styles of ramen have their place. Eating cheaper ramen has an almost nostalgic feeling. It reminds me of my broke college days, when ramen was all I had. Mostly, I want fresh ramen, eaten at a restaurant with friends. But being a mom of two kids with a husband who works late, I don’t get much in the way of fresh ramen often.

Imagine my surprise when I was shopping at my favorite Asian grocery store and saw these packets of fresh ramen in the refrigerator case! I immediately looked at the nutritional label and was pleased to find that the fat content was rather small. One of the bigger problems with cheap ramen is that, despite how yummy it is, it’s really bad for you. The noodles are flash fried and then dehydrated at the factory, leading to a high fat content. But with fresh ramen the noodles are not fried. Yes, this soup has a very high carbohydrate content, but I’m willing to overlook it on occasion.

A FACE TIME Interview

Looking back on the many blog posts about FACE TIME, there were plenty of questions people had about it. Here’s a compilation of interviews I’ve done over the past two years since it was published.

What gave you the inspiration to write this book?

I have a friend who is in the military, as is her husband. When her husband went on deployment in the Middle East, they kept in touch via FaceTime. She would often post screenshots of their chats to Twitter and Facebook, and it was great to see the two of them continuing their daily relationship over an internet connection. I thought, “What would it be like to FaceTime date someone? To have a long-distance relationship online?” I know tons of people do this, but I wanted to explore a brand-new relationship, one that starts in person but then continues long-distance.

FACE TIME is an Adult Contemporary Romance book, what do you like about writing this genre and age category?

Many of my books (The Nogiku Series and SUMMER HAIKUS) focus on characters in their early twenties which is a turbulent decade for most young people. But the thirties are no less interesting. I wanted to write about people who already had crazy pasts, had already made mistakes, and now they had to live with them. With time comes some maturity too, and it was a nice break to write about true adults, ones with jobs and responsibilities, and see how they deal with new changes and new situations. I’m first and foremost a romance writer. I like to explore the relationships between two people who fall in love. So for me, I’m just exploring romance at different ages and in different situations. It’s a lot of fun.

Who is your favorite character in the book?

I think Lee is my favorite character. He’s a good guy, smart, doing well for himself, who’s had bad luck meeting women because he’s always on the road. He has trouble making decisions and so was saddled with a really awful girlfriend for a few years. But he meets Laura, and he blossoms. He takes some chances. He becomes a whole person. I love watching his transformation.

Laura is one of the characters whose point of view we read in FACE TIME, how did you come up with the idea for her character? And how did you decide on her name?

My lovely friend, Laura Taylor, provided me with Laura’s name and Justin’s last name. She’s read everything I’ve ever written multiple times, so she got a big mention in this story. But the character Laura came to me in bits and pieces. Originally she was going to be from a Film background. Her last name is Merchant for a reason! But I made her an English major instead. I wanted her to be the rebel from a wealthy Connecticut family, but not the kind of rebel most people think of. Instead of making a mess of herself in front of her family and friends, she did it overseas because she just wanted to get away. When she returned, everyone had abandoned her including her family. She wasn’t mean or spiteful, just lost, which is something I see often in real life but not in books. She grew organically from my head through many drafts.

Which came first, the title or the novel?

The novel idea. Originally, I was going to use Skype as my method of chatting, and then I wondered what phones or technology would be available overseas, and I got frustrated because getting those technology details right is important to me. I hate when they’re glossed over in novels. So I made them both have iPhones and then “Face Time” just made sense. As one word, FaceTime is an app that a lot of people are familiar with, and it comes from the phrase “face time” which is conversing with other people face-to-face. It stuck immediately.

Family is a topic that’s important in both your Nogiku series and in Face Time, can you explain why family is an important topic in your books?

Family is very important to me as an individual. I set out to write about families in all of my books (and this “family” extends to best friends as well) and I try to experiment with as many kinds of family units as I can. Traditional and nontraditional. Multicultural and mixed versus homogenous. Straight, gay, and bi. Broadening the scope of “family” naturally brings drama to just about any relationship. Because when I boil it down, I’m writing about personalities and how they intermix, and I find that fascinating.

Which scenes did you find the easiest to write?

I come from a screenwriting background, so I always find scenes that contain a lot of dialogue are the easiest to write. In FACE TIME, the actual FaceTime conversations were the easiest for me to write. They flowed straight from my head to the computer.

Which scenes did you find most difficult to write?

Scenes with a lot of descriptions are the hardest for me to write, though, admittedly, this is getting easier with time. Practice makes perfect, right? In the beginning, and you can probably see a lot of this in Removed, I had the habit of telling and not showing. Now, I’ve learned and practiced how to show my world in a more descriptive fashion. It’s still difficult, but I’ve seen improvement in the past year, so I must be doing something right!

Who do you think would be most interested in FACE TIME?

Those that want a slight untraditional romance, people who are looking for something modern, real, and contemporary, and those that are interested in world at large, especially Korea and India. If they have any experience with a long-distance relationship, the themes of this novel will really resonate with them!

FACE TIME is currently on sale for 99¢! Purchase this modern long-distance romance today for a steal!

Quotes From FACE TIME… And Why I Chose Them

I really enjoyed writing FACE TIME. Even with the many revisions and copy editing I did, I still love it and will read it again and again. I think I love it because this time, I let myself write some snark. I let my characters have a really good sense of humor about their situation, and they often warm the reader with their good nature. And sometimes, the good nature fades to sadness over their situation too. You can’t be perfect all of the time.

So here are six quotes from FACE TIME and why I chose them.

“…a man who loves his mother will want a wife who is exactly like her, and that woman will never live up to her. He’ll always say things like, ‘My mother didn’t cook stew like that,’ or ‘My mother raised four kids and never needed a babysitter, why do you need one?’ or other such similar things. No matter how hard his wife tries, she’ll never be as good.” She raises her shoulders and takes a sip of beer. “A man who dislikes his mother goes out of his way to choose a mate who is the exact opposite and revels in the fact she does everything different. Now that is a happy relationship. There are men in between these two extremes but these examples are for the sake of this argument.” – Laura

I can’t even begin to describe how true this is for me and for every other woman I know.

I am already trying to make a claim on her. Where does that even come from? Once I find a woman I like, I circle my wagons around her and fight off other men to the death, and I hate when she won’t let me. – Lee

I like this about Lee. He’s gracious and understanding on the outside, but he doesn’t deny the fact that inside he can be jealous. It’s the fact that he acknowledges his own faults and deals with him that makes him an ideal hero.

I want to leave the past in the past, but I also want to share everything about me with Lee. I want to give him my whole trust. I want to, but I’m scared. Rene found out the hard way, and it completely ruined our relationship. I trusted him and he took my love and ground it down to whimper, a silent cry on a bench in Central Park while two kids ate lunch across the path from me. – Laura

This is so New York. You’re exhausted and tired, your boyfriend just broke up with you, and you’re crying on the sidewalk while people stream past you, oblivious to your pain and suffering. And let’s face it, you don’t really want to cry to a stranger anyway. You would give anything for a transporter to send you home without ever having to go into the streets. The only people that are even going to acknowledge that you’re having it bad are kids. Lol.

Laura stops, and my stomach clenches for her. Her eyebrows are pinched together and deep lines form at the corner of her mouth. She’s struggling. If only the network connection here was better like it is in Seoul, I’d be able to see even more details of her face or hear her breathing. She’s so far away from me, she’s drowning, and I can’t reach out my hand to pull her up. – Lee

This is the moment Lee knows he can’t date online anymore. He would give anything to be with Laura and help her, but he can’t, and it’s just not like him to brush her off and not care. If anything, he cares too much. He’s really not cut out for a long distance relationship. Sometimes it takes a defining moment like this to make a decision that will change the course of your whole life.

I burst into a laugh imagining the Orthodox Jewish men at Adorama printing up my photos and handing them over to me. Oh my god, I have to do it. It’ll be hilarious. I can’t wait to tell Justin. He’ll die. – Laura

If you’ve never been to New York, then this joke will go right over your head. But I had to do it. There are a few camera places in the city that are run by Orthodox Jews and I often wonder what they think when they are printing up risque photographs. Lol.

I glance at the ladies again, and the Indian woman in her late twenties smiles at me, her brunette friend waving slightly. I met Laura in a bar in New York, but I’ll never forget the way she snapped at me and told me to mind my own business, then brazenly bought me a drink. It was unexpected and forward. It was real, not coy or practiced. It was how people who are perfect for each other meet, coincidentally, accidentally.

I can’t explain this to John. He won’t get it — I barely understand — but I know what’s right and wrong this time around. – Lee

This proves that everyone has a preference. What is rude and annoying to one person is attractive to another and vice versa. Laura had probably been brazen and outspoken to many men at bars and drove them all away, but one look from Lee and it was all over. And it’s not like any of us really understand why we love what we love or who we love. We can come up with reasons, but attraction is so much more than logical conclusions. It’s a feeling, a smile, a thoughtful gesture, a call or text just when we need it, a hug or a kiss. It’s everything and more.

FACE TIME is currently on sale for 99¢! Purchase this modern long-distance romance today for a steal!

#ChickLitMay Scavenger Hunt

Hello and welcome to the #ChickLitMay Scavenger Hunt! This is a special blog scavenger hunt to celebrate ChickLit in May, and we have some great prizes for you! First, we’ll get to the post! Rules and the prize information will follow with how to enter!

M is for Multicultural

When I got the letter M, I was truly excited because I knew I wanted to write about multicultural chicklit books right away! Let me start off by introducing myself. I’m S.J. and I’m a Japanophile, and I also love Asia to pieces. I write about Japan and Asian cultures in many different genres, including ChickLit. Maybe it’s my incredible sense of wanderlust, but I’m always looking forward to my next vacation away from the NYC metro area where I live. Since traveling with young kids is not easy, I tend to go places in my books and in my reading! I really enjoy when an author takes me to a new place, don’t you? I love Marian Keyes books that take place in Ireland, Bridget Jones Diary is set in England. There’s chicklit in France, in India, and Australia. And that’s not the least of it! I love when chicklit also features multicultural characters too.

I sought out some chicklit author friends and asked them to share with me their thoughts on why they chose to feature multicultural locations or characters in their books!

[image error][image error]“For MR. RIGHT AND OTHER MONGRELS, Sydney is arguably one of the world’s most naturally beautiful cities with the beach, the harbour and an urban downtown area so there’s lots of variety for me as an author to write about in terms of location and the sorts of things my characters get up to.” – Monique McDonell

[image error][image error] “ALICE IN MONOLOGUE LAND is set on a college campus in Southern California, one of the biggest melting pots in the world. I included many multi-cultural characters in the story to reflect life in the region and to give the book variety and color. The main character, Alice Chalmers, works with an Indian department dean, teaches English to Hispanic, Russian, and Vietnamese students, has a Vietnamese love interest, and shares the stage in a campus production with black, Mexican, and Brazilian women.” – Amy Gettinger

[image error][image error]“I’ve seen both sides of Egypt – the sunny utopia and the darker underbelly. The idea for TROUBLE IN PARADISE came while I was horse riding in the mountains above the town that inspired the book – hot weather, hot men, and a love story with a twist.” – Elise Noble

[image error][image error]“COCKTAILS AT LE CARMEN is set in Paris. It tells the story of Chloe, who, like many British expats before her (myself included), soon discovers that the city can delight one day and frustrate the next. The French capital’s breathtaking architecture and gastronomic delights may well leave you speechless, but so too will its legendary bureaucracy that would test the patience of a saint. But for all its idiosyncrasies, Paris is a city that I adore and one that, even after six years, I still feel incredibly lucky to call home.” – Isabelle Andover

[image error][image error]And last but not least, my chicklit/contemporary romance novel, FACE TIME, is set in several locations throughout the novel: New York City, Seoul, Mumbai, Seattle, and finally a chapter in Bangkok. When I wrote the book, I had a specific idea in mind. I wanted a Korean-American hero who lived overseas and was in New York on business when he meets my heroine at a bar, they hit it off, only for him to be gone the next day. They decide to try dating over FaceTime and a modern long-distance relationship kicks-off while he travels and she stays in NYC and tries to figure out her life. Researching the different cities and the cultures was a lot of fun, and the imagery I evoked struck a chord with many readers. It still remains one of my most positively reviewed works! I’m sure I’m not the only one that enjoyed traveling to those cities in my head!

Prize Information and Rules

Want to win a Kindle Paperwhite + a $100 Amazon gift card?

Visit each of the 26 stops on the #ChickLitMay A to Z Scavenger Hunt and collect the alphabet word at each stop (A, B, C, D, etc.), then submit the A-Z list of words via e-mail to traciebanister@gmail.com with the subject “A to Z Scavenger Hunt Entry.” Entries will be accepted until Sunday, May 22nd at midnight E.D.T. A winner will be chosen on Monday, May 23rd. Good luck!

Your Next Stop On The Scavenger Hunt!

Your next stop is –> http://merytonpress.com/chicklitscavengerhunt/

You can go back to “A” here –> http://katieoliver.com/ko/2016/05/chick-lit-a-to-z-scavenger-hunt/

On Sale Now!

FACE TIME is currently on sale for 99¢! Purchase this modern long-distance romance today for a steal!

Sunday Update – May 15, 2016

May is half over! How did that happen? It was another busy week around the house and time absolutely flew. Now that I’m coming out of the funk that I was in in April, I’m beginning to feel more positive and ready to handle anything. And that includes the end of our kitchen renovation! This week the painters came in and worked on bringing color to my kitchen!

Monday I had a dentist appointment that went well. No cavities. The backsplash went up in the kitchen on Monday and Tuesday, and that was fun to watch. Every day after that was a blur. I went to the gym and exercised. I worked on editing THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER every day, prepped a giveaway that starts tomorrow, and visited with my parents on Friday. I worked at my treadmill desk which was nice. Got a lot of walking in. And I published my newest short story, VIGILANTE SLIMMING SCANNER! I also participated in an Instafreebie giveaway that got me a lot of newsletter subscribers! I hope they enjoy the free books I gave them.

What else happened this week?

Love the new backsplash!

Lots of work was done in the evenings.

And I FaceTimed with Tracy on Friday evening as I tried to help her with a Scrivener problem.

Coming up this week: ChickLitMay Scavenger Hunt, Quotes from FACE TIME, A FACE TIME Interview, and another Asian Grocery Store review!

Say Anything Saturday – Reading While Depressed As An Author

I only occasionally talk about personal stuff not related to writing in my Sunday Updates, so I thought I’d talk about this topic today, which plagued me through most of March and all of April. Not surprisingly, it was right around a new release for me, which I should have seen coming, that I slipped into a depression. On the surface, most everything was fine. You probably didn’t notice anything. My husband didn’t notice. My kids didn’t notice. In every respect, I am very good at hiding things and not talking about them unless I’m with a therapist. I’m sort of a power-through person, believing that if I pretend everything is fine, it will be.

The depression was definitely due to 1) another less-than-successful book launch and 2) my home life in upheaval due to a kitchen renovation. I never knew how badly I needed some silence at home while working until my every day was invaded by strange people banging, sawing, turning off the power or water when I would least expect it. I probably could have handled the book launch if it hadn’t happened during renovation as well.

Pretty much all of April was a haze for me. I had one good week where we were on vacation in South Carolina, but it should have set alarms off in my head that I struggled to sit and read during that trip. I would have rather stared out into space, and that’s not what I do on vacation. VACATION IS FOR READING. I line up books on my Kindle for a trip and devour them. It’s what I live for. I tried to read a friend’s book that I volunteered to beta read, and I got 25% in and had to stop and put it away. It was so good. Really really good. Beautifully written. The kind of storytelling I strive for. And if this had been ten years ago before I started writing full-time, I would have devoured it, gushed about it on Goodreads, and told everyone on Facebook. Instead, I turned off my Kindle and didn’t touch it again until last week.

So much of my life has changed for me as an author. Books used to be my escape. I could read to escape a depression or a tough time at work or make it through a rough family event. Now, I can’t do that anymore. Reading a really great book only makes me think about my own books, what I’m doing right or wrong, making the depression I have about my own work even worse. I look back on my years of web development and how I wasn’t creatively fulfilled, but I was hardly ever depressed, and I don’t feel that was any better than where I am now. Before I started web development, I was on anti-depressants in my early twenties because I had decided to give up writing and try to make a career change so I could pay the bills (damned college loans). Now I’m in my forties, I realize that my mood is very much tied to my creative process. Do I want to go back to being a web developer? No. I enjoyed that (still do), but it doesn’t fulfill me like writing does. Though there are ups and major downs to being an author, it’s still what I was meant to do.

I came out of a depressive fog right at the end of April, beginning of May. I spent two days in bed, got up, wrote out my goals for May, and decided to just get back at it. I wouldn’t say the depression is gone, but I’m handling it so much better than in April. And I gave some clear thought to my triggers, which are 1) lack of quiet time, 2) lack of exercise, 3) not writing or working consistently, and 4) unfortunately, GOOD BOOKS. Lol. I can’t escape into books as I used to unless I’m feeling okay. I can’t rely on a good book to bring me back up. I can’t read while depressed now that I’m an author.

I need to fall back on some other hobby, and I think knitting is where I’m going to go. I’ve been working on a shawl for a year and a half, and I really want to finish it. Next time I’m feeling low, I’ll go back to listening to music and knitting. I cannot read while depressed as an author! I guess it’s better that I know that now!

VIGILANTE SLIMMING SCANNER Is Now Available!

I have a new release! VIGILANTE SLIMMING SCANNER is now available, and I hope you enjoy reading this one as much as I enjoyed writing it. This is the fourth story in the Kami No Sekai series and I suspect there’ll be two more after this before I stop writing in this world.

This is the story of Toro, who is out of shape, a bit lazy, and doesn’t take care of himself, but should. He just wants a snack, some chips and something sweet, from the convenience store when suddenly the store scanners have had enough and deny him. I believe I got this idea while standing in line at the self-checkout one day, listening to the crisp voice of the terminal declaring, “1 package, Club Crackers.” Lol. But I also wanted to write about fitness, healthy eating, and exercise (all things I’m into) in a way that wasn’t too preachy. Toro needs to take better care of himself for a reason and the scanners decide that being abrupt and cutting him off cold turkey is the best way to go.

Want to find out what happens next? Pick up VIGILANTE SLIMMING SCANNER today for only 99¢!

Top 10 Indian Dishes

Writing this post made me soooooo hungry as does most of my writing. I’m sure that’ll come as NO suprise to anyone! Besides FACE TIME, I have a Japanese dystopian series that I write, and it also makes me crave sushi, tempura, soba, etc. while I’m drafting. I thought I would be safer with FACE TIME, but Lee and Laura’s first date is Indian dinner in Manhattan’s East Village, well known for good curry. Lee also travels to Mumbai during the course of the novel, and then suddenly I was craving curry like mad! I couldn’t get enough. So here are my top ten favorite Indian dishes from appetizers to desserts! (This list is vegetarian, as many Indians are vegetarians, and I tend to only eat the vegetable dishes.)

1. Idli – These fluffy, savory cakes are usually breakfast but we get them for appetizers when we go out to eat. They’re about 2 inches round in shape, light and airy, and are really good for soaking up sauce. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idli

2. Samosas – Samosas are my favorite Indian appetizer. These fried pyramids are usually stuffed with onions, potatoes, sometimes peas, and plenty of Indian spices. I smother them in tamarind sauce which is a sweet, savory dark brown and red sauce. The two go well together. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samosa

3. Paratha – This flat bread is good to have as a side dish to any curry. They are usually pan-fried and whole wheat and sometimes they are stuffed with onions, potatoes, cauliflower, or paneer (cheese). I usually get them plain since they’re an accompaniment to the main meal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paratha

4. Pakora – Obviously I am way into the Indian appetizers, no? Pakora are delicious and I jump at every opportunity to try new ones. They’re basically battered and fried vegetables and paneer. Typical pakora can be onions, hot peppers, cauliflower, potatoes, or eggplant. If you like Japanese tempura but want something a little spicier, try this! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakora

5. Dosas – My whole family goes nuts for dosas. My girls, both picky eaters, eat the plain version. I love the masala dosa. My husband gets some crazy onion chili rava masala dosa. The Indian men my husband works with eat dosas for breakfast which is why I had Lee eat them for breakfast while he was in Mumbai. I remember the first time I saw a dosa in a restaurant. I said, “What is that HUGE burrito thing?!” loudly and embarrassed everyone I was with. But I got one and never looked back. A dosa is a large lentil crepe wrapped around a filling of your choice. Dip it in coconut chutney. It’s heaven in your mouth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosa

6. Malai Kofta – This is my favorite meal and every place I’ve had it makes it differently, so it’s always a crapshoot as to what I’m going to get when I order it. Malai Kofta is usually large potato and vegetable balls in a sauce. The sauce can either be just cream or creamy tomato with Indian spices. If you look at this link to Google images, you’ll see how there are two different colored sauces. This meal tastes really good with rice and bread, and the creamy consistency of the veggie balls mixed with the sauce is decadent. One of my favorite meals of all time (not just Indian!)

http://www.padhuskitchen.com/2013/03/malai-kofta-recipe-how-to-make-malai.html

7. Vegetable Korma – This is also a creamy curry dish as well with mixed vegetables. It also goes well with rice and bread. The best part of a korma dish is the spices. I really love this when I have a cold. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korma

8. Chana Masala – For chickpea lovers! This tomato chickpea dish can be anything from mild to very spicy. The chickpeas are very filling, warm, and inviting. This is a great meal for a rainy day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chana_masala

9. Gulab Jamun – The first time I had this dessert, I was so happy. There’s nothing better than donuts, until you take warm donuts and you soak them in a sweet, hot syrup. I never pass up on this dessert. It gets me every time! And I’m usually stuffed at the end of an Indian meal, yet I always have room for gulab jamun. Always. http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2006/12/23/gulab-jamun/

10. Kheer (Indian Rice Pudding) – I love this rice pudding. It’s a thinner base than the traditional American-style rice pudding, and the ground cardamom gives this a distinct Indian flavor. Best with almonds, as far as I’m concerned, and I always eat around raisins. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/kheer-rice-pudding/

I hope this gives you a chance to go out and enjoy some Indian dishes today! If you’re still not sure what to get, try the lunch or weekend buffet at your favorite Indian place. It’ll give you a chance to try many different things without committing to just one dish. If you have a favorite Indian dish, leave it in the comments! Let’s share!

FACE TIME is currently on sale for 99¢! Purchase this modern long-distance romance today for a steal!

Researching Cities Around The World

I’m an underfunded writer, I’ll admit it. I’m a mom of two kids and my husband is the main salary winner in the family. If we’re going to travel, we have to travel together as a family, which makes it triple the price and a heck of a lot more stressful for kids who don’t like to sleep anywhere but their own beds. What won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has read my books is that I have a bad case of wanderlust. BAD. I want to travel. I want to experience other countries for myself. I want to smell the air, taste the food, and walk the streets of foreign cities. Until I have the budget to do this, when it comes to researching cities around the world, I have to do it from the comfort of my own home unless I’ve been there before.

Except for New York, I included three other cities in FACE TIME I have never been to: Seoul, Mumbai, and Seattle. I knew what I was getting into when I wrote those sections of the story. I would have to do my research and do it well. The descriptions had to be realistic and believable. They had to fool anyone who had ever been to those places or lived there into believing I had been there too. So I came up with a 5-step approach to researching foreign cities.

Guidebooks – My first approach to anything is always books. Not a surprise right? For FACE TIME, I knew I could get enough information about Seattle online, but I thought I might have a hard problem understanding Seoul online with all the Korean websites in the mix, so I bought a Seoul guidebook from Amazon. I read the guidebook over the course of a few nights. It gave me ideas of where Lee should live, where he would work, and where he would shop. The map was great for orienting Lee’s apartment and the kind of views he would have from his windows. It also included some basic Korean language and information about weather at certain times of the year. It had all the basics I needed to begin my education in Seoul.

Google Maps – Google Maps is always my second stop after I’ve looked at a guidebook and done a little googling about where my characters would go, eat, shop, etc. Google Maps doesn’t have Street View for every city on the planet, but damn, they are working on it. You’d be surprised how many places it does have already. Using Google Street View, I was able to virtually “walk” the streets of Seoul and get a feel for things. I walked around the neighborhood that I placed Lee in and noticed that all the cars in the parking spots were high-end Mercedes-Benz, Acura, and BMWs. That right there tells me a lot about the kind of people that live and shop there. The streets were clean and organized. The people caught on camera were well-dressed and carrying shopping bags. I knew from the guidebook that I placed Lee in a very upscale part of town (“The Rodeo Drive of Seoul”) but seeing it in the Street View cemented that for me and gave me the descriptions I needed to flesh out his neighborhood.

Google Earth – When Street View isn’t available, Google Earth is your next best bet. I’ve never been to India, and though I would rather go back to East Asia, India is high on my list of places to travel to. There is no Google Street View of Mumbai which is a shame. I can’t even imagine how hard it would be to get the photos for it, though, because India is so chaotic. Researching Mumbai was a lot of fun. I used a Lonely Planet online guide to find a place for Lee to stay while he was there and then used Google Maps to see what was around his hotel, what he could see when he walked out the door, where he could eat, and where he could run for exercise while he was there. But there was no Street View so I opened up Google Earth instead. From Google Earth, I could zoom in on streets and see the satellite view. It doesn’t give you much, but sometimes, in very populated zones, there are photos of those areas attached to Google Earth that you can click on and view. This was so helpful! I’m glad this tool is available for use for free.

Flickr – Flickr has one of the greatest online database of images and photos ever. Once you know what city you are going to write about, you’ve researched in guidebooks and Google Street View and Earth, I highly recommend you hit Flickr for a slice-of-life experience. I searched Flickr for photos of Mumbai and was instantly transported into a world of colorful saris, street vendors selling fried Indian treats, kids running in the streets next to large cows, and crowded beaches filled with people trying to cool off after a hot day in the equatorial sun. There’s a great scene in FACE TIME where Laura receives a series of photos from Lee of Mumbai, and each photo he sent was a real photo I saw on Flickr that I described for the narrative. Flickr photos are rich content you can’t get anywhere else.

YouTube – YouTube is always my last stop and usually only for specific things about a city I need to know. For FACE TIME, I researched Mumbai videos because I wanted to hear how noisy it was. I searched for videos of the trains in Seoul so I could see how chaotic the stations were. I searched for videos about Seattle so I could see how rainy it really was there, what the cars sounded like on the streets, etc.

Optional last step, Ask someone who lives there – This is optional because you may not know someone who lives in the city of question, but it does help to run questions by them if you have that resource. For the Seattle portions of FACE TIME, I asked my friend, Becki, to beta read and give me feedback on Seattle. She told me the truth about rain in Seattle (that it’s very misty-like, not downpours) and the other tourist places I could include. It was very helpful to have her input.

So, as you can see, researching cities around the world is a lot of work, but once you have a method, you can accurately depict cities you’ve never been to. Now, the only problem is how much I want to go to these places! My wanderlust was just kicked up two notches. I should start playing the lotto.

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Sunday Update – May 8, 2016

Happy Mother’s Day!! It’s going to be a chill day here because of the holiday. I woke up late, received my gifts from my two wonderful girls, and had tea and a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon for breakfast. For lunch, we’re heading out to our favorite Indian buffet restaurant and I plan to spend most of the day reading, with the exception of working on two chapters of THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER. Should be a nice day despite the rainy weather (again).

It was another busy week around here, but also a bit down too at the same time, mostly because of the weather. As of today, it has rained for an entire week straight. Rain and clouds every.single.day. This is so not good for my mood, which was already pretty down to begin with. I haven’t been writing much since the kitchen renovation began and the lack of a creative outlet is beginning to take its toll on me. All the banging, sawing, and noise have made it very hard for me to be creative, and going to Starbucks or Panera did not make it any better. It appears that I need a few quiet hours every day to feel centered, and I’m only getting that now on the weekends when my family is around, which doesn’t count. So I’ve been working on other things: my website and editing, first and foremost. It’s better than nothing.

The renovation is in its final stages, though! Countertops went in this week, and painting and the tile work will be done this coming week. THE END IS IN SIGHT!

This week saw my lowest energy levels ever. My husband was gone again on a trip to Miami for a conference, and I was struggling to make it through each day. On Wednesday, I was going to exercise and I just couldn’t. Even though there was construction work in the kitchen, I went back to bed from 10:30am to 12:30pm. I turned on the fan to drown out the noise and fell asleep. I must have really needed the rest because I slept through the construction! But I woke up happier and refreshed and got back to work. It’s good that I can take the time to reboot when I need to!

Despite the tiredness and lack of creativity, I got back to work! I started on a new Kami No Sekai short story this week about a secret keeping sakura tree. I love this one as it’s a little bit mysterious. Very fun to write and I hope to finish it up this week. I also did some brainstorming on a new scifi series I want to write. Plus the next Miso Cozy Mystery! I’ve been planning a non-fiction book I want to publish in the fall that I got an idea for only last week. I also wrote a post about publishing 50 books by the time I’m 50. I really needed a goal I could work towards that didn’t involve money-earned or books-sold.

What else happened this week?

I got an early Mother’s Day present! These headphones have helped drown out the construction noise.

I did some dictation in bed this week. I was too tired to do much else.

Due to all the rain, many of the lawns around here are sprouting mushrooms!

And when my husband returned from his conference he had this USB drive for me!