A warm welcome to author Jackie North joining us today to talk about new release “Shoulder Season”.
Welcome Jackie 🙂
Thank you, Dani, for inviting me to guest post on Love Bytes.
I write m/m romance and here’s why. In 1993, I went to a Star Trek convention where Leonard Nimoy was speaking. Someone in the audience asked him if he knew what K/S was and if he’d ever read any. The whole crowd (standing room only) moaned and I wondered what all the fuss was about.
Mr. Nimoy, gentleman that he was, said, “Yes, I’ve heard of it but I’ve never read any.” Then he added, “However, I know for a fact that Bill (Shatner) has a stack beneath his bed.” That made the crowd laugh, of course.
I asked and discovered that K/S was fan fiction about the love story between Captain Kirk and his First Officer, Spock. From the first, I was hooked, not only by the romance but also by the passion with which fan fiction authors told the story. After that, I tried writing my own K/S and loved it, and have recently been writing m/m romance. The only difference is in K/S your characters are established for you, and in m/m romance you make up your own. However, the passion remains the same.
Today, though I’m writing about contemporary characters rather than about a starship captain and his space husband, the theme that all my stories share is that food is love. There are many kinds of love, of course, but to me the gift of food and of cooking is among the purest.
As to why this is so, I can, though with some difficulty still, admit that growing up I was a hungry child. While other kids had lunch boxes full of food, or punch tickets for the lunch lady, I had nothing to eat.
Sometimes I’d have a baggie of Captain Crunch and would beg one of my friends for a nickel so I could buy a carton of milk. Most times, though, I had nothing. I would tell my friends at lunchtime that I wasn’t hungry. In truth, I was typically very hungry.
At home, there was plenty of liquor in the cupboard, and cigarettes in the drawer. There were donuts and grape soda, and once a week, fresh white bread and margarine. I would let the margarine soften, spread it on the white bread, and smother the whole thing with sugar. That was breakfast.
I read any book where the character was hungry and would rejoice when the character was fed. Oliver Twist and I were bosom companions, as you can imagine. What Laura Ingalls ate, I wanted to eat. When Sara Crew in A Little Princess gave away five out of the six hot buns she’d just gotten from the bakery I always shouted, “For pity’s sake, Sara, keep three for yourself at least!” But no, she never did.
In later years I read a book called The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser. It’s a time travel story about a woman who goes back in time through a mirror, and her granddaughter comes forward in time through the same mirror. I adored this story with all my heart.
In Chapter 15, one of the characters (Hutch) is eating breakfast, and this is how the author described it:
When his food came, he smelled in the coffee steam from his cup, let tough juicy steak linger on his tongue…The yellow of egg yolk, the warm filling taste of it on a hunk of bread. The salty tang of a fried potato followed by the smooth heat of coffee.
When I read that, I could practically smell the coffee and taste those eggs. And knew that I’d found what I didn’t even know I was looking for: that writing about food in a story allowed me to experience eating food without actually eating it. Consequently, every single one of my stories has food and hunger as a central issue and theme.
Here’s a scene from my upcoming book Shoulder Season where they eat!
“We should go to the black beach tomorrow,” said Solvin.
“In the rain?”
“Yes,” said Solvin. “It’s very atmospheric at the black beach, and the rain makes it even better.”
“Okay,” said Ben. He was happy to go wherever Solvin wanted to go, even in the rain.
“Let’s have some skyr,” said Solvin.
“Some what?” asked Ben.
“It’s like yogurt, but not so sweet. We can put honey on it so it’s like a dessert.”
“Okay,” said Ben. He got up to fetch the yogurt and the honey, but Solvin held on to his hand until Ben leaned down and kissed him. And thought that maybe, after all, he might be invited to stay the night.
They ate the skyr and honey while snuggled together beneath the blanket, and watched the news until the crime show that they had watched together the night before came on. It was a different episode, but the colors were the same, and the tone of the show and the overcast skies in the background of the screen made Ben start to feel sleepy. Then Solvin mumbled into the blanket beneath his chin, and Ben turned his head to look at him.
“Yeah?” asked Ben. “Can I get you anything?”
“I want you to stay the night,” said Solvin, lifting his head to clear the blanket. “But that would mean you going next door to get your things—in the rain—and then coming back.”
“I’d do that,” said Ben as earnestly as he could. “I would, if you’d like me to stay the night. I most definitely would.”
“Please.”
Shoulder Season – Book Blurb
Two young men from two different countries find a common language as they recover from broken hearts and broken bones. Can they rebuild their lives together?
Ben’s boyfriend has not only dumped him, he’s also cancelled their mutual travel plans. Since Ben has the time off and the money saved up, he decides to travel anyway, and based on a last-minute, very inexpensive red-eye airline fare, ends up in Reykjavik, Iceland.
He’s ill-prepared for the weather and knows nothing about the country, so he considers flying home the next day. Except his new neighbor, Solvin, a local Icelander who is currently on leave from work due to a car accident, shows up with a cane and shoulder sling and literally falls into Ben’s apartment. It’s the beginning of an adventure that might show Ben how good life can be… and that coming home sometimes means traveling halfway around the world.
Shoulder Season – Buy Links:
Jackie North has been writing stories since grade school and spent years absorbing the mainstream romances that she found at her local grocery store. Her dream was to someday leave her corporate day job behind and travel the world. She also wanted to put her English degree to good use and write romance novels, because for years she’s had a never-ending movie of made-up love stories in her head that simply wouldn’t leave her alone.
As fate would have it, she discovered m/m romance and decided that men falling in love with other men was exactly what she wanted to write books about. In this dazzling new world, she turned her grocery-store romance ideas around and is now putting them to paper as fast as her fingers can type. She creates characters who are a bit flawed and broken, who find themselves on the edge of society, and maybe a few who are a little bit lost, but who all deserve a happily ever after. (And she makes sure they get it!)
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/JackieNorthAuthor/
Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/jackienorthMM
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JackieNorthMM
Pintrest: https://www.pinterest.com/jackienorthauthor/
Website: https://www.jackienorth.com
Email: jackie@jackienorth.com
She likes long walks on the beach, the smell of lavender and rainstorms, and enjoys sleeping in on snowy mornings. She is especially fond of pizza and beer and, when time allows, long road trips with soda fountain drinks and rock and roll music. In her heart, there is peace to be found everywhere, but since in the real world this isn’t always true, Jackie writes for love.