What is the
sweetest thing someone has done for you?
A group of friends recently got together and spent
over 300 hours sewing, embroidering and beading a fencing cloak as a present
for me. To be honest I am
extremely lucky in my friends, and they often do nice things for me, like bring
me tea or a flower randomly.
How would
you spend ten thousand bucks?
On a vacation.
I’d love to say I’d do something sensible, but I always spend any spare
cash I have on travel. I would
probably spend it on going somewhere in Europe or the UK. Recently a cheap airline has come in
locally, so I’ve been eyeballing the airfares to England and Scotland, which I’ve
wanted to visit all my life.
Where do
you get your best ideas?
I tend to think ideas form organically, that you feed
this part of your mind…it’s like a compost heap, I guess? You feed your muse with everything you
see and do…every experience, every book, every photo, and that part of your
mind chomps away at it, turns it into the base elements it needs to cobble
together the story you are about to tell.
Now I have this image of a steam punk robot taking apart things for
spare parts and putting them together in her lab…
What comes
first, the plot or characters?
It changes…mostly it is about characters, and my
desire to see them in a story. The
next story I may be working on started with a vision of this man, dressed up in
furs and a uniform like a 1800’s soldier, playing with little foxes of fire
that ran along his knuckles. I
knew he missed his now dead wife, but that he was mostly content being a
soldier. I knew I wanted to
challenge that, but how? Then I
was sick and on bed rest for a week, and I thought, what if there was an
assassination attempt on a princess, so to protect her they sent out a bunch of
princesses, in all directions, who looked exactly like her? So while I was playing with the
mechanics of that, my soldier showed up, with his little foxes made of flame,
and I thought, OK, I think we have a match.
What does
your main character do that makes him/her special.
William is a former merchant sea captain – a very
(generically speaking) masculine, hard, unpretentious job – who thought, one
day, he’s like to quit the sea and make chocolate, because it would sell well
and make people happy. I like the
contrast of this man, who would chase down pirates and slavers and slaughter
them without as part of his sense of duty, yet come home and cook candy,
collect molds, and potter around and be happy that way.
Tasmin is also a person of contrasts. She is very self-possessed, she knows
that she is smart, loves studying, and approaches life very practically, more
so than her husband. When she is
freed, though, and can go do anything she wants, she still goes to see what
happened – she still wants to make her life with him, even though she knows it
means suborning or putting off her goals.
So she’s interesting because she is like a lot of us, balancing
everything.
BLURB:
The
Chocolatier's Wife: ROMANCE, MAGIC, MYSTERY.... AND CHOCOLATE
A truly
original, spellbinding love story, featuring vivid characters in a highly
realistic historical setting.
When
Tasmin's bethrothed, William, is accused of murder, she gathers her wind
sprites and rushes to his home town to investigate. She doesn't have a shred of
doubt about his innocence. But as she settles in his chocolate shop, she finds
more in store than she bargained for. Facing suspicious townsfolk, gossiping
neighbors, and William's own family, who all resent her kind - the sorcerer
folk from the North -- she must also learn to tell friend from foe, and fast.
For the real killer is still on the loose - and he is intent on ruining
William's family at all cost.
The
Chocolatier's Ghost: Married to her soul mate, the chocolatier William, Tasmin
should not have to worry about anything at all. But when her happily ever after
is interrupted by the disappearance of the town’s wise woman, she rushes in to
investigate. Faced with dangers, dead bodies, and more mysterious
disappearances, Tasmin and William must act fast to save their town and
themselves – especially when Tasmin starts to be haunted by a most unwelcome
ghost from her past…literally.
The
Chocolatier’s Ghost is an enchanting sequel to Cindy Lynn Speer’s bestselling
romantic mystery, The Chocolatier’s Wife.
Amazon
author page:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and
Links:
Cindy
Lynn Speer has been writing since she was 13. She has Blue Moon and Unbalanced published by Zumaya. Her other works, including The
Chocolatier’s Wife (recently out in an illustrated hardcover to celebrate its
10th anniversary) and the Chocolatier’s Ghost, as well as the short story
anthology Wishes and Sorrows.
When
she is not writing she is either practicing historical swordsmanship, sewing,
or pretending she can garden. She
also loves road trips and seeing nature.
Her secret side hobby is to write really boring bios about herself. You can find out more about her at www.cindylynnspeer.com
or
look for her on Facebook (Cindy Lynn Speer) and Twitter (cindylynnspeer).
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