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Galley 'Ho Chats Up Santa O'Byrne!
“Galley Ho here. Reporting to you from the ship’s galley where I am preparing a special dinner for a very special guest. I’m sooo excited that Santa O’Byrne, NYT bestselling author, has agreed to have dinner with me here in the galley. “
“I’ve prepared a mouth watering pork roast seasoned with grated parmesan reggiano cheese, crushed garlic and parsley, along with rosemary roasted new potatoes and tender baby asparagus grilled to perfection and drizzled with 45 year old balsamic vinegar and first pressed olive oil.”
“What? No, this is a special menu just for Ms. O’Byrne! She’s a gourmand, don’t ya know, and a certified olive oil specialist. She’s even got the pin to prove it. So you know it’s not your ordinary fare for her. Nope, it’s Tuesday so crew’ll be getting breakfast for dinner. Hard tack and powered eggs. Yum!
“Hellooo! Anyone down below?”
“Oh, my goodness! She’s here. She’s here. Squeeee!! Forgive me my fangirl moment but I’ve read all her books and this is the first time I’ve ever gotten a chance to meet her and…and….”
“Permission to come aboard. Oh, silly me! I’m already aboard, aren’t I?”, Santa O’Byrne (did I mention she was a NYT bestselling author)glides down the narrow stairs into the galley. Her face sparkles like Swarovski crystals in the moonlight. Or maybe it’s just the reflection her crystal encrusted jacket throws off. She is glamorous, poised and sophisticated. Everything you’d expect –did I mention the Times-a best selling author to be.
“Ms. O’Byrne, darling. Please come down. Make yourself at home. Dinner is almost ready.”
“Dinner? I thought I’d be handed a cocktail. Terri Osbourn, we’re pals, got a Frozen Nipple out of the deal yesterday! My assistant said the least I should expect to get was Sex On The Beach. Believe me, I could use some Sex On The Beach.”
“Of course you can have Sex On The Beach. I’ve sent Armitage up to get you some.”
“Thank you, darling. I’m absolutely exhausted. I just got back from the Amalfi Coast in Italy. Research, don’t you know. It was exhausting driving up and down that coastline with nothing to see but pastel colored terracotta homes nestled in the hills facing clear azure waters.”
“Research for your next novel, I hope” I can’t help the edge of jealousy that taints my voice, “What part does the Amalfi Coast play in your next book?”
“Well, as you know, I have written a series revolving around three female chefs and the men they fall in love with. This, my third and final installation in the series, features Megan a New York City party planner who’s business has gone bust and she has no choice but to accept a position as private chef to an eccentric couple who live on an estate in Minori on the Amalfi Coast. Feeling liberated for the first time in years, she meets and falls in love with Nico a darkly handsome caretaker on the estate. Her happiness is short lived when Nico betrays her in the basest way possible. All her illusions shattered, Megan loses herself in her cooking, creating masterpiece after masterpiece…for no one until Steve comes to Italy on business. Steve is someone she sparred with in my first novel. They begrudgingly became allies to bring Melissa and Jake back together but not without wanting to tear at each other’s throats. Steve’s just broken off with his fifth fiancée in two years. Val, his best friend from college, basking in his own HEA with Nola, suggests he get away for a while and he unwittingly ends up at the estate of his great-Aunt and Uncle where Megan is cooking up a storm. In the beginning, they fall right into their safe pattern of jibes and jabs.
But Italy-Italy changes all that. In Italy, they let go of their inhibitions. Their bravado. Their one up manship. In Italy, they learn what true love can be.”
I can’t help but sigh.
“Well, look at me going on and on about my book when all this lovely food is getting cold. It looks and smells divine. Oh, and lest I forget, I’ve got some Sex On The Beach waiting for me.”
So tell me, darlings, where do you think true love is found? On the sun kissed hillsides of Italy? A quaint upstate New York town? New York’s ever changing culinary palate? Or right at home in your own backyards – where ever they may be?
Books by the Crew
47 comments:
I think true love is found when you least expect it and sometimes don't even want it. (But if I had to, I'd go to Italy, although Spain is reputed to have the best lovers, at least according to a survey I just posted on my blog. Italy is #3.)
Really? Sex on the Beach was an option? Where is that Bo'sun? She didn't tell me that!
Lovely interview, Santa. And look at the spread. All I got was brownies. Figures, I had to get the non-cooking pirate as my interviewer...
*pushes Terri off starboard side*
Oh look, she must have had some writing to do. Welcome to the ship, Santa. Thanks so much for being here. I'm glad our resident 'ho...I mean Galley 'Ho is taking good care of you.
I can say with good authority that love does not happen in my backyard. Ever. But I sure would like to test this Italy theory.
Do you include recipes as nice added touches in the back of your books and where do you get your meal ideas for the stories?
Oh, your chef trilogy sounds marvelous, particularly the one with the Italian setting. I can't wait to read them all.
I think some people are "Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places." If only they realized "Love Is All Around." Indeed, "Love Is in the Air." In romance fiction, of course, it may sometimes seem that "Love Is on the Rocks," but ultimately the HEA proves that "Love Will Keep [Them] Together." :)
Oh, my poor Terri. I hope she can swim. At least one would hope she did given she lives in a naval town and all.
I do pepper my books, if you will, with recipes. The recipes and spreads I feature come from my own personal culinary library and the ravenous minds of my chef friends.
Janga, you are right. Love is all around and in so many backyards.
And Maggie, that survey is incorrect. Italy came in third because the respondants in Italy were too exhausted from love making to get up and answer the survey. I'm quite sure that's how it happened. No other explanation signifies.
Back to my deli thugs, darlings. I'll pop back later.
Love happens at the most inopportune times.
I think I loved Mattycakes way before I realized it. I tend to be blind towards that sort of thing, ignore it until it smacks me in the face. But Mattycakes and I were really good friends before we started dating. Need a good foundation to give love a chance.
Your research sounded like such a chore. Poor thing. LOL
Maggie, I like how you call your poll on your blog a "public service announcement." :)
It is an interesting question about where love is found or how we choose a setting. Unfamiliar places or time in history? Exotic locations? Our own backyard or within the general vicinity? Fictitious towns? A whole new world or an alien world? A combination?
Personally, I do feel limited by my experience or travels, but not impossibly so. I couldn't imagine writing a setting in most exotic locations unless I go there but with enough research, I might get by for a brief visit. Sometimes I feel I have to put in an exotic location and hope I can make it real enough for its limited purpose. I have my hero in my current WIP in a Colombian jungle for a couple of flashbacks and longer at the end. (But I don't really want to GO there. LOL) But I also can't imagine a story set in my own backyard. The plot ideas just don't fit for northern Minnesota. :) Not yet anyway! But I do use my years living in Washington, DC for my current WIP.
Oh, as for when not where, I'm in agreement that true love happens when we least expect it or an inopportune time.
I guess that means I've apparently always been in the wrong place at the wrong time!
Santa~These sound wonderful, and I love the idea of including recipes.
I found love in my own backyard~I married one of my brother's friends.
Di
Bo'sun, have a care with Terri! Do you know how hard it is to find a contemporary writer nowadays? (Although Santa's books sound lovely! Like "Under the Tuscan Sun" meets "Like Water for Chocolate" or something... I hope you include recipes, Santa, for your readers! I love cooking!)
Where is true love found? I think as Maggie said. When you don't expect it and when you're least likely to want it. It's usually inconvenient; and it seems to be both simultaneously the easiest thing to do and the hardest thing to do.
But if I could pick a place to fall in love, it'd be Scotland, where I'd hope to trip over Gerard Butler while he was wearing a kilt. Then I'd drag him off to some remote Caribbean beach and make out with him in the white sands...
*looks around* I hope Jack didn't hear that. I love you, Jack!!! *darting off*
Relax, I through her a lifesaver. The sugar should keep her paddling for a while.
Sounds like a yummy series, Santa! I can't wait to sink my teeth into it!
I think love can happen anywhere and everywhere, but it is more fun when it is someplace I've never been so I can travel vicariously!
I also like reading about careers or jobs I'm not too familiar with cause it's fun to find out all the new-to-me ins and outs. You can't get any farther away from my area of expertise than cooking. Should be very fun!
Your series sounds fantastic!
I agree with all the love happens when you least expect it answers.
The hubby and I had known each other for years ( I was best friends with his roommate) but were never really friends. I'd had a crush on him, but he was never interested. Then one night he came in with a group of friends to where I was waitressing - as I took their money and went to the register, he came over by himself and casually mentioned they were having a party that night and he'd like to see me there.
That was it, We've been together ever since. Thursday is my 8th anniversary and we've been together 10 years now.
Well, I be a mutant, I found true love as a junior in high school when I interviewed me future DH for a newspaper article. So...high school???
*patting Terri-o on the back as she chokes
I did say I be a mutant!
I also found true love in me home town. But, give me druthers...I'd opt fer a windjammer cruise on the Caribbean.
*leaning over the side, she sees Terri chatting with the Kraken and comfortable resting on one his tentacles
Santa, yer books sound delicious. As does this meal the Galley-ho made fer ya. Let's storm the galley, crew! I'll hold the bar hostage!
Somehow it doesn't surprise me Terri could strike up a conversation with the Kraken. I bet she has him working on his karma in no time.
If this is going to turn into a "I have the greatest love in the world and it was so easy" conversation, I'm out.
*snorts* Terri WOULD have the Kraken working on his karma.
Oh, God, I hope it doesn't turn into that conversation. Sin, quick, tell us some nightmare stories about Matty...
Actually I was at the gym last night, and Matty asked me how my apartment was going. I said I still liked it. (I was a little tired and not feeling real chatty.) "You sexing it all up?" he asked. "He lives in Florida; we don't get to sex it up as much as you think." "I know. When's he coming back?" "Well, I know he'll be around in November. Deer season." His eyes light up--"You know what you should do, don't you?" (This question NEVER bodes well.) "You should get a little pair of antlers to wear down there and then he can shoot them. You know what I'm talking about..."
Boys.
I just threw up in my mouth.
Hey, I never said it were perfect! Santa asked, I answered!
And after 30 years, it weren't easy. Though I seldom be surprised anymore... ;)
I WANT true love to be on any of the Riverias--the Mexican one, the French one, the Spanish or Italian one, the Brazilian one ...
Unfortunately, true love might be sitting next to me, blaming his farts on the kids.
In seven years, the Olympics are in Brazil. Wonder if I could find a reason to attend the Olympics in seven years.
Actually, their in London before that. I need to start writing a series about Olympic athletes. I could write off the trips then, right?
“You should get a little pair of antlers to wear down there and then he can shoot them. You know what I’m talking about…”
I just snorted oatmeal cookie up my nose (that is painful!!!)
Unfortunately, true love might be sitting next to me, blaming his farts on the kids. Mine blames his on the dogs. And then looks at me and says "You are one lucky woman!"
My dad used to blame them on the elephant under the chair. Now I have a daughter who lets fly and doesn't feel the need to blame anyone. You'd think I was feeding this child beer and beans for every meal.
This is the only place I know where a conversation could begin with true love and gastronomical delights and a sigh-inducing Italian setting and end up with farts as a topic. There should be some award or something. :)
Janga, it went sour with me ... so to speak.
That's right, Janga, the stink came from Georgia. Aren't you proud?
I did realize something while reading Jenny Crusie's blog today. She talks about these missed connections ads, which I'd never heard of but find fascinating. Anyway, these people who maybe pass on the street or see each other on the train and don't have the nerve to approach the other, send in ads trying to let the "girl in the green shirt with the blue book" know he wished he'd have said hello.
I got to thinking that this is where our stories come from. Instead of the way things go in real life, people often not taking that one step that could change their fate, our characters take that step. They do the thing we fear doing. They make the connection we are too afraid to make.
So, I'm guessing true love does not matter much on the location, but rather on the courage of the characters involved.
And that's as deep as I'll get today. Promise.
I'm glad you did get deep, Terri. :)
I love those missed connection stories, but usually think of them as nothing to do with courage but only with chance. Kind of like that movie Sliding Doors, where catching the train or not changes the character's future. To proactively search for the "girl in the green shirt with the blue book" is much more brave.
But, funny enough, I can't fathom the GIRL who searches for "the GUY in the green shirt with the blue book." Who is that brave girl? She must be young. She has to be young to be that brave. She must have never had a broken heart. She must not be tired or going back to school or be a single mom. Or something. She must not have baggage.
Nope, can't figure her out. I'd still rather write the first meeting of chance rather than courage.
Ya know, Missed Connection would be a great title for a book. Or a blog...
Could be about relationships or brain farts, to keep on subject.
:)
Melissa - Chance (the old fashioned kind, not our fellow pirate) certainly plays a part. But I mean those times when you have to make a choice.
For instance, in the beginning of SEP's Breathing Room, the heroine is sitting at a cafe (or the Italian equivalent) in Rome or somewhere and this attractive Italian man approaches her. Her life has recently fallen apart and she's trying to find her footing again. She knows what he's asking, for one night. And she has to make a choice.
If she'd have said "no thanks", the love story would have ended right there. How many of us say "no thanks" on a daily basis?
Chance - That would make a great title. You do the blog and I'll work on seeing if that fits any of my story ideas. Or vice versa.
LOL Chance, you're right. I'm stealing that idea too. Lots of paranormal potential there. I might have to bump it up to before the alien romance. Or not. I'm thinking now I have to have one very silly story running at all times.
Geez, I've been tying to write a very sad scene all day. Stuck in the black moment..better come up for air. Happy aliens. Yeah, that's it. LOL
Gots ta pay better attention ta that HTML.
Melissa? What be yer blog address again?
Chance,
Blog address is: http://everythingofinteresttoaromancewriter.blogspot.com/
Could you tell I couldn't decide on a title?
Hey, guys, my comment on the discursiveness around here was an admiring observation, not a snarky criticism. OK?
Melissa said, "She must not have baggage."
And that's why we don't write the story. The conflict lies within the baggage.
We know, Janga. LOL! We just show our pride through snarky responses. Reps to protect and all that.
I once observed you never realize how much baggage you have until you try to put it down somewhere. In our stories, we find space for them to put it all down. Or someone to help them carry it.
discursiveness: covering a wide range of topics
Yes, I did have to look it up. LOL I love discursiveness. I'm with you Janga. It's a great thing, and never thought you meant anything else. :)
You are also right that the conflict lies in the baggage. It makes me wonder or ask why? Maybe why, would that heroine make a choice on that day not to say, like Terri mentions, no thanks?
That is a really neat way of looking at, or even for, a storyline, Ter. I never thought of it that way before... you have a choice - choose one way and there is no story, choose a different way and therein lies all the possibilities. I love Breathing Room, but then again I pretty much love everything SEP does.
'ell, ya don't know what the baggage be until yer writin' and discover yer emptyin' that snarly piece a' luggage one bit at a time as ya write. Or it all falls apart on the luggage carousel!
Or at the dinner table when the convo turns ta who farted... ;)
I own me farts. Though it be funny when me Bonnie dog gets offa the couch and looks at me with that special dog look...
Janga, we love ya! Please come back and come often! (A blessin' we could all live wit'!)
Chance, yet another sign you and my seven-year-old son are kindred souls or something. He also makes a point of owning up to it. Immediately after, he says [LOUDLY], "I farted" in case anyone missed it. And I did try to blame him once when it was me, but that doesn't work either. He protested, again...loudly. If anything, he's got scruples. LOL The only one embarrassed in public is always going to be me. Sigh.
Irish - Can you believe I read that far in the book and put it down?
Melissa - Now you're into motivation. LOL! That's a whole other blog.
Chance - Good to know you own your farts. And that you torture the dog with them.
You put it down!??? Why? Didn't grab you?
There are some that say BR isn't her best effort, but I liked it. SEP is kind of like Lisa Kleypas for me - even if the book isn't that great I still really enjoy the voice. They never wander into wall banging moments for me.
Hey 2nd Chance - know who's book I'm buying today? That's right - it's Judi's release day (I'm sure you were all over this as well!) I hope she does well with this one - I love her series!
Hi Santa!
I want to read this book right now. Please, can I come to your dinner party and sit in the corner and read them?
What a great blog! I loved it.. and I could really go for reading a romance set in Italy...
This had me laughing so hard:
"J Perry Stone Says:
October 6th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
I WANT true love to be on any of the Riverias–the Mexican one, the French one, the Spanish or Italian one, the Brazilian one …
Unfortunately, true love might be sitting next to me, blaming his farts on the kids."
J Perry Stone, you are killing me. SO FUNNY.
Santa, I want this trilogy in my hands...right now! I'd love to read about falling in love on the Amalfi Coast. It's second only to actually falling in love on the Amalfi Coast or anywhere in Italy for that matter. I'm anticipating trying out those recipes too. :)
J Perry Stone, my tummy still aches from all the laughing I did in Atlanta last weekend. You are a piece of work, woman. LYG and I'm already missing you!
Yea, Sabrina. I'm flyin' tomorrow so I'll pick up a copy afore I get ta the airport and make it a read- in-the-air book. Along with a few others.
Sorry, Irish, I should have cleared that up. It was totally my state of mind. I just wasn't in the mood for that kind of story. And I didn't buy the motivation for her decision. I have a hard time when you take normal people, and you've made clear they are as normal (relatively speaking) as anyone, and then have them choose to so something so outlandish.
I know it's fiction, and I very much plan on finishing that book someday. It's just not what I want to read right now.
That is pretty much how I was with Ain't She Sweet. I started reading and wasn't liking Sugar Beth or Colin all that much. I just wasn't in the mood for either of them and didn't care about their baggage. Luckily I went back to it!
You guys are fantastic! I really feel jazzed about continuing to write.
I thank you for that and for bearing with me when I can't come back and comment as often as I'd like.
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