Guest post with Carolyn Crane and Giveaway

Carolyn Crane is the author of the urban fantasy series: The Disillusionists Trilogy but also of Mr. Real, the first book of the Code of Shadows series (October 30th, 2012).
Carolyn Crane est l’auteur de la série d’urban fantasy: The Disillusionists Trilogy mais aussi de Mr. Real, le premier tome de la série Code of Shadows (30 Octobre 2012).
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I realized something shocking while writing this post…
Delhia, thanks so much for inviting me here to your blog. In honor of your being from France, I decided to talk about how much I enjoy letting my characters have a break now and then in their dangerous struggles and crazy mysteries to enjoy food.  It seemed especially appropriate since France is so famous for fabulous cuisine.
And then I realized something: My characters are constantly eating, going to restaurants, feeding each other. My books are food-obsessed! Do I think about food ALL the time while I’m writing? Apparently so.  Food has all kinds of meaning in my books. How did I become such a food freak as a writer?
Mind Games, the first novel in my Disillusionists trilogy, takes place mostly in a restaurant, because my hero is magically trapped there for eternity. It’s a Mongolian restaurant, so my gang eats a lot of kebabs.
From Mind Games:
Packard sets out wineglasses, and soon Shelby and Helmut arrive bearing plates piled with skewers of colorful vegetables and fat scallops.
Packard opens a bottle. “Ouzo okay?” He seems to be addressing me.
“For what?”
Packard gives me a stern look. “We’re celebrating.”
Shelby scoots a chair up next to mine and raises her glass. “I will toast to you, Justine,” she says. “May the targets never see you coming.” We laugh and clink and make more toasts. I’ve never belonged to a squad or a club, especially not a secret one like this.
But, why not let them enjoy food? Reading is such an emotional pleasure, and so is food. It has always felt natural to combine the two.
And, if my characters are eating Brie cheese why not make it warm and soft and let it spread thickly onto a cracker? Why not let them have warm cookies, or crusty bread soaked through with garlic butter?
Here, during a very tense scene (at a different restaurant with a different man LOL) my heroine gets yet another meal:
I freeze. Is he toying with me? Would a normal person say that?
I’m saved by the arrival of our next course: crepes filled with caramelized onions and chardonnay jelly.
I actually went through recipe books to find something delicious for my heroine to eat in this scary scene. Doesn’t it sound wonderful? I’ve never eaten a crepe like this, but I know I’d like it.
In the novella I’m giving away, DEVIL’S LUCK, my heroine, who had her childhood stolen from her in a way, discovers cotton candy for the first time and in the first scene, I think she eat three whole cones of cotton candy. (Which, according to my twitter friends, is barbe à papa in French. Dad’s beard. How delightful!)
…she swept up her bright pink cotton candy with her tongue, loving the way it melted to tingling bits…
Later, my hero makes a juicy hamburger, and the hamburger has significance. And the villain eats kiwi fruit, one after another, peeling them with a jeweled knife. 
Now I’m going to be looking for it in other books, to see if other people use food as much as I do. Or is it just me thinking constantly of food? But, oh well. How can you go wrong with a delicious meal?
If you’d like to find out the meaning of the juicy hamburger in DEVIL’S LUCK, or if anything interesting happens to the kiwi-devouring villain, please enter my contest!
I’m giving away my DEVIL’S LUCK ebook novella – the new epilogue edition. (It is part of the Disillusionists series, but it doesn’t matter when you read it.) To enter to win, just tell me what meal you’d like your favorite hero or heroine to eat.
Thanks!
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J’ai réalisé quelque chose de choquant en écrivant ce post…
Delhia, merci de m’avoir invité sur votre blog. En l’honneur du fait que vous venez de France, j’ai décidé de parler de combien j’aime laisser mes personnages faire une pause de temps en temps dans leur luttes dangereuses ainsi que des mystères de la nourriture. Cela semblait approprié étant donné que la France est connue pour avoir la meilleure cuisine.
Et ensuite, j’ai réalisé quelque chose : Mes personnages mangent continuellement, vont au restaurant, se nourrissent. Mes livres sont obsédés par la nourriture ! Est-ce que je pense à la nourriture TOUT le temps que je suis en train d’écrire ? Cela semble être le cas. La nourriture signifie beaucoup de choses dans mes livres. Comment suis-je devenue un monstre de nourriture en tant qu’écrivain ?
Dans Mind Games, le premier roman de ma trilogie Disillusionists, une grande partie de l’histoire se passe dans un restaurant comme mon héros est magiquement piégé là pour l’éternité. C’est un restaurant Mongolien, alors mon gang mange beaucoup de Kebabs.
Venant de Mind Games :
Parckard sort les verres à vin, et bientôt Shelby et Helmut arrivent, portant les plats pleins de brochettes de légumes de toutes couleurs et de coquillages pleins de graisse.
Packard ouvre une bouteille. « Ouzo d’accord ? »  Il semble s’adresser à moi.
« Pour quoi ? »
Packard me jette un regard dur. « On est en train de célébrer.»
Shelby place une chaise à côté de moi et lève son verre. « Je vais porter un toast à toi, Justine » dit-elle. « Puissent les cibles ne jamais te voir venir ». Nous rions et trinquons, faisant plus de toasts. Je n’ai jamais appartenu à une équipe ou un club, surtout pas un secret comme celui-ci.
Mais, pourquoi ne pas les laisser aimer la nourriture ? Lire est un plaisir émotionnel, tout autant que la nourriture. Il m’a toujours semblé naturel de combiner les deux.
Et, si mes personnages mangent du fromage de Brie, pourquoi ne pas le faire chaud et doux, tout en le laissant reposer sur un biscuit ? Pourquoi ne pas les laisser avec des cookies chauds, ou du pain plongé dans du beurre à l’ail ?
Ici, durant une scène intense (dans un restaurant différent avec un autre homme LOL) mon héroïne prend un autre repas :
Je m’arrête. Est-ce qu’il joue avec moi? Est-ce qu’une personne normale peut dire ça?

Je suis sauvée par l’arrivée de notreprochain plat : crêpes farcies aux oignons caramélisés et gelée au chardonnay.

J’ai cherché quelques recettes pour trouver quelque chose de délicieux à manger pour mon héroïne dans cette scène effrayante. Cela ne semble-t-il pas merveilleux ? Je n’ai jamais mangé de crêpes comme ça, mais je sais que j’aimerais.
Dans la nouvelle que je vous propose en concours, Devil’s Luck, mon héroïne, qui a eu son enfance volée, découvre les « cotton candy » pour la première fois et dans cette première scène, je pense qu’elle en mange au moins trois cônes. (Ce qui, selon mes amis de twitter, se dit barbe à papa en Français. Barbe à papa. Comme c’est drôle !)
… Elle balaye sa barbe à papa  d’un rose lumineuxavec sa langue, aimant la façon dontelle fond en morceaux qui picotent
Plus tard, mon héros fait un hamburger juteux, et l’hamburger lui même a une signification. Et le méchant dévore des kiwis, les uns après les autres, les épluchant avec un couteau de pierres précieuses.
Maintenant, je vais chercher dans d’autres livres, pour voir sid’autres personnes utilisent la nourriture autant que je le fais. Ou est-ce juste moi pensantconstamment à de la nourriture? Mais, oh ben. Comment pouvez-vous vous tromper avec un délicieux repas?
Si vous voulez découvrir le sens du hamburger juteux dans DEVIL’S LUCK, ou si quelque chose d’intéressant se passe pour le méchant mangeur de kiwis, s’il vous plaît, participez à mon concours!
J’offre la possibilité de gagner ma nouvelle ebook DEVIL’S LUCK la nouvelle éditionde l’épilogue. (Il fait partie de la série Disillusionists, mais ce n’est pas important quand vous le lisez.) Pour participer au concours, dites-moi quel repas vous voudriez voir manger votre héros ou héroïne préféré.
Merci
Carolyn Crane is the author of the Disillusionists trilogy, assorted novellas, and the upcoming Mr. Real, the first book in a PNR series (out 10/30).
She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two cats, and works a day job as a business writer and if you invite her to your party, your cheese plate will be in grave danger.During rare moments when she’s not at her computer, she can be found reading in bed, running, or helping animals.

Author’s website: www.authorcarolyncrane.com
Twitter: @carolyncrane

THERE’S A THIN LINE BETWEEN LOVE AND DOOM.

No wager is too outrageous for Simon Fitzgerald, the most reckless of the Disillusionists. His dark secrets drive him to take increasingly extreme risks, but he’s never lived so quite so dangerously as when he hooks up with Midcity’s most powerful prognosticator.

Fawna Brady is tormented by the destinies she sees for those around her. To Fawna, knowledge of the future is a cage she’d do anything to escape. She’s stunned to discover a taste of the freedom for which she yearns at the side of Simon, the one person in the world who despises everything she is, everything she stands for.

Simon’s defiant attitude toward destiny captivates Fawna, but will her love destroy him? And will Simon rush headlong into the delicious doom she offers?

 
Thanks to Carolyn Crane for this great post. You can win an ecopy of Devil’s Luck, anovella of the Dillusionists series. The giveaway is international and ends on October 1st. You need to answer the question.

Merci à Carolyn Crane pour ce super post. Vous pouvez gagner un ebook de Devil’s Luck, une nouvelle de la série Dillusionists. Le concours est international et se termine le 1er Octobre. Vous devez répondre à la question.

 

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21 thoughts on “Guest post with Carolyn Crane and Giveaway

  1. I would love my hero to be eating fish and chips – a traditional British food, but it would have to be with his fingers as that’s the only way to eat it (preferably standing up outside somewhere windy). This does mean he gets messy with grease, salt and vinegar everywhere but that would just make him more adorable! 🙂

  2. Thanks for the fun guestpost, and it sure sounds like they are eating all the time. I will consider myself warned, and make sure to have enough tasty things in the house to indulge my cravings while reading.
    What should my hero or heroine eat? I love scallops, and Japanese foods, so let them go to a Japanese restaurant.

  3. I’m not participating in the giveaway, I already read Devil’s Luck and loved it.
    I just wanted to add my opinion as a reader of Carolyn Crane books, they are not only fabulous but they make you hungry. Her books should come with a warning sign saying “have snacks handy while reading” or something like that.

  4. Well there’s a lot of food I love so I don’t know were to begin. I think I love as much cooking (and eating of course) as reading. And sometimes it’s kind of torture to read novel’s that’s have food in it, I always end-up hungry as hell and wanting some improbable food they have been speaking of in the book (it happen as well while I watch series or movies, I’m sooooo easly influenced ><). For exemple I've watched one serie where the héroine is constantly trying to improve her "Choux à la créme"... Well I've been doing (without so much success until now) choux à la créme since ><. so if I was logical, I would choose “Oeuf à la coque” (You only cook the white of the eggs, then cut the “hat” and eat it with bread and butter that you cut in fine slice to soak inside the yellow), which are one of my favorite plate ever and are easy to make. But I realize that’s not that “appealing” and sexy xD, so I would say an home made “Fraisier” (which I’m rather good at making and that drive me crazy to eat =p). Thanks for your article and the Giveaway and I will be sure to read your books just before my meals xD
    Oeuf à la coque are that -> https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSlSGs1wyPNlcJv5VAzEmpyCIPlA5A8CbiIi7nDZJd1_46uESWc

    And the Fraisier I make look like that (execept I put chocolat and only two floor)-> http://www.tribugourmande.com/photos/recette_120649.jpg

    • Oh god… My comment is sooo long xD (and I’m going to say some more ><) And I’ve forget to precise I’m even hungrier when I read/see the people making the food rather than just eating it. Probably because I enjoy as much cooking as eating =p. Do you cook ?

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