This is Winston. 🙂 <3 A Bergamasco: Corded Italian sheepdog

I’m in a luncheon group that meets once a month, sometimes more and so this is what I had–grilled shrimp pasta, and Winston was one of the outdoor guests.

In my stories, I add food. BECAUSE characters have to eat. But also it shows who cooks, who doesn’t know how to, interaction, conversation. Hmmm, nowadays, I should just write that the two people were playing on their phones while they ate.

We try to write realistically in our stories even if we write fantasy so readers will be grounded. So why not write what we really see? As a commentary, sure, but to show characterization in a romance, it won’t work. Two lovebirds sit at the table waiting on their pizza while they’re playing: insert game here..until pizza arrives. Then it’s time to take a few bites and continue to play.

While we were at the luncheon, conversation drifted from raising dogs and the silly things they do, losing pets, training them, health issues–one lady had broken her ankle–and about the people at the table behind us both exclusively on their cells.

Maybe those people never had anything to say to each other anyway. Who knows. But I’d walk through the grocery store in Waco and see 3 college girls together, every one of them on their phones. Walking at the same time! I mean, me? I’d have to stop to text or I’d run into someone. 🙂 Yes, I’m a big time multi-tasker, but walking and texting is not one of the combos I can do successfully.

So back to food and writing. I try to be fairly realistic in my writing–my wolves and jaguars and cougars are not vegan. One time, I wrote the wolves ate a lot of salmon. I think they were in the wild, and they had to eat what they could. NO one wanted me to write about eating bunnies or taking down Bambi’s mom or dad. 🙂  So salmon was acceptable. A reviewer commented that the author must have loved eating a lot of salmon. Nope, not this author. I like a lot of shell food–lobster, shrimp, scallops. I love halibut and talipia and haddock and tuna fish, but if the fish is really fishy tasting…nope.

Often, though, I do write about what I like to eat. In one of my Christmas stories, SEAL Wolf Christmas, I wrote about my favorite Christmas treat of all. It only comes out during the holidays–Haviland thin mints. They’re dark chocolate, thin, and divine. And so the heroine is looking for a pregnancy kit for a teen waiting in the car when she spies her Haviland thin mints. After that, she’s taken hostage….etc. And so getting sidetracked by her favorite treat could have been her undoing.

So adding food in a story should be important, the characters gotta eat. But it should help to add something to the story. One of my favorite comments from fans is that while they were reading my story, they had a craving for whatever the food was. 🙂 That’s the power of suggestion.

I’ve had editors take out my meals, and then another editor will come in and say, they ordered, but they never ate. Huh, well, tell that to the other editor who took out the meals. I don’t get into detail about every juicy bite, but just enough to know they ate. And if the eating isn’t important because I need to build a scene around it, I just make it short. They grabbed a sandwich and took off.

I’ve written action packed stories where the characters didn’t eat or sleep for 72 hours. lol Not that I meant to do that… So see? Sleeping and eating are important.

In White Wolf Christmas, the heroine makes the hero make the cookies that he caused her to burn. And that is a fun scene. It’s not just about baking cookies, it’s all the fun surrounding it.

Speaking of writing….

Here is the beautiful cover for Between a Wolf and a Hard Place, coming next spring.

And I have another cover that hasn’t been approved for the next title, SEAL Wolf Undercover, and the mss was approved.

They’re working on White Wolf Christmas’s cover also now!

Okay, I need to walk. I’ve walked for 4 days and I don’t feel like it this morning. Bad me.On my walk yesterday-I’ve been really trying hard to get bokeh in my pictures, so I thought this might be fun with the berries behind the wild grass stalks.

I have a luncheon today with a fellow writer who is a fan and just discovered I live in the same area as her, so that’s fun! Need to get to work on something…14,000 words to go on Cougar.

Have a wonderful day doing whatever you’re going to do!

Terry Spear

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear:

Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear