If you came back to read - welcome back! I'm working to get in a groove of blogging and coming up with topics to do for each entry. It only seems natural that my thoughts gravitate toward food.
If you have read any of my books, you know that food always plays a role somewhere. My books include waitresses, servers, bartenders, bar owners, bakers, restaurants, food trucks, and much more in one way or another. Perhaps I have a food obsession?
Well, not so much of an obsession as a fascination. I do love to cook and make many of the meals for us here at home. I have many cookbooks, online subscriptions and I even have a cooking blog, though it has not been well-maintained recently, at onedadskitchen.com. Taking all of that into consideration, it's not a big surprise that food comes up so often in my books.
I also think food is something we all can relate to you in one way or another. It's an integral part of our lives, and cooking is something people either love to do or see as a chore they would gladly pass on.
Food is also inherently romantic. Our thoughts quickly turn to romance when we think of a candlelit elegant dinner at a fancy restaurant, or a quiet meal cooked at home. Making a meal together can be an intimate experience for both partners, and cooking lends itself to all kinds of spicy and romantic metaphors and word play that you can delve into. The scenes I write may not be of the "9 1/2 Weeks" caliber, but often intimacy and food become intertwined somehow.
The smells and description of food give you the chance to exercise your chops (or pork chops, lamb chops, etc. See what I did there?) as a writer. In my book Sweet Nothings (written under my Lacy Hart pen name), our heroine, Kelly, owns a beachside bakery. I got the opportunity to play with all kinds of aromas and looks of cookies, pastries, cakes, pies and more so you can get a feel for what it is like once you walk in the door. It is one of those smells and appearances that gets the initial attention of our hero, Damian, causing him to strike up a conversation that leads to romance.
For me, romance and food are closely linked and it is something I love to use in my books. Do you find anything romantic about cooking or baking? Do you have favorite romance books or movies that make use of food as a centerpiece? Let me know in the comments below.
You can always reach out to me through this website or on email or any of my social media outlets if you have a question. By the way, The Home Stand Series, originally written under Lacy Hart, is getting a re-release on November 19th with new covers and titles with my name on them, so look forward to that next week. My friend and fellow Scarlet Lantern author, L.M. Reid, has a release today as well called Playing to Win that you definitely don't want to miss!
Until next time, make the most of your day today, whatever that is for you!