Barefoot in the Sun (32 page)

Dear Reader,

It’s very exciting to be back again this month with RAGE, the fourth installment of the Faces of Evil series.

Writing a series can be a challenge. There are many threads related to the plots and the characters that have to be kept in line and moving forward (sometimes the characters like to go off on paths of their own!). Former Special Agent Jess Harris and Birmingham Chief of Police Dan Burnett have their hands full as usual. Murder hits close to home in this story and takes us to the next level of evil: rage. We’ve explored obsession, impulse, and power already and there are many more to come. The face of evil is rarely easy to spot. But Jess and Dan won’t rest until they solve the case and ensure the folks of Birmingham are safe.

While I was writing this story, a new character joined the cast. I wasn’t expecting a new character to appear on the page and demand some special attention, but Dr. Sylvia Baron, Jefferson County associate coroner, has a mind of her own. She stepped onto the page in her designer stilettos and her elegant business attire and told me exactly what she wanted to do. From hello Jess and Sylvia butt heads. The two keep Dan on his toes!

I hope you’ll stop by
www.thefacesofevil.com
and visit
with me. There’s a weekly briefing each Friday where I talk about what’s going on in my world and with the characters as I write the next story. You can sign up as a person of interest and you might just end up a suspect!

Enjoy the story and be sure to look for
Revenge
coming in July and
Ruthless
in August!

Happy reading!

I packed a lot of emotional themes and intense subjects into my writer’s beach bag when I penned BAREFOOT IN THE SUN, from faith and trust to life-threatening illness and life-altering secrets. The Happily Ever After is hard-won and bittersweet, but that seems to come with the Barefoot Bay territory. The heroine, Zoe Tamarin, has to overcome a tendency to run away when life goes south, and the hero, Oliver Bradbury, must learn that, despite his talents as a doctor, he can’t fix everything. During their reunion romance, Zoe and Oliver grow to understand the power of a promise, the joy of a second chance, and the awesome truths told by Mother Nature.

But this is Barefoot Bay, so it can’t be all heartache and healing!

In lighter moments, Oliver and Zoe play. They kiss (a lot), they laugh (this is Zoe!), they swim (some might
call it skinny dipping), and occasionally Zoe whips out her deck of cards for a rockin’ round of Egyptian Rat Screws (ERS).

I’ve mentioned Zoe’s penchant for ERS in other books, and readers have written to ask about the card game. Many want to know the origin of the name, which, I have to admit, is a complete mystery to me, as the game has nothing to do with Egypt, rodents, or hardware of any kind. The secret of the name is one of many aspects of the game that reminds me of Zoe… a character who reveals in the opening scene of BAREFOOT IN THE SUN that she’s not the person everyone believes she is.

Like the woman who loves to play it, Egyptian Rat Screws is fast-paced, intense, and not for the faint of heart, but I promise a good time. So grab a deck, a partner, and your most colorful curses, and I’ll teach you the two-person version. ERS can also be played with more people, but I find one-on-one is the most intense… like any good romance, right?

The object of the game is simple: The winner ends up holding the whole deck. Of course, play can easily be transformed into something even wilder, such as Strip Rat Screws (Oliver’s favorite) or Drinking Rat Screws, a game our four best friends, Tessa, Lacey, Jocelyn, and Zoe, played a few times in college.

Before playing, the players face each other across a table and choose who goes first. Player One is selected arbitrarily—closest birthday, rock-paper-scissors, or the ever popular “least hormonal.” Leading off is no advantage, so save your voice for more important arguments, because there will be many. Each player gets twenty-six well-shuffled cards and
may not look at them
.

To begin, Player One flips the first card face-up on the
table. If this card is a 2 through 10, Player Two puts her first card on top of the card on the table. Again, if that card is a number card, Player Two goes again.

The action begins when either player puts down a Jack, Queen, King, or Ace. When a face card is revealed, the other player must try to “beat” it by placing another face card of equal or higher value on top of it. Depending on the face card Player One has put down, Player Two has only a certain number of tries to beat it: one for a Jack, two for a Queen, three for a King, and four for an Ace.

If Player Two can’t beat the face card in her allotted number of tries, Player One gets all the cards on the table. (“Strip” ERS losers would shed one article of clothing; drinkers, take a gulp.)

If Player Two lays down another face card in her allotted tries, then Player One has the same number of tries to beat that card. (If more than two players are in the game, just keep moving around the table.) It’s not uncommon for the pile to grow to five or even ten cards, which results in a constant shift of power as each play becomes more and more valuable.

That’s it. Oh, except for the slap rule. And I don’t mean each other. When two of the same card is laid on the pile consecutively, the first player to notice can “slap” the pile and gets to keep all the cards in it. This is why it is very important that a player lays down his or her card without looking at it.

In the case of a simultaneous slap, whoever is on the bottom gets the pile. (Hint: Remove rings and clip nails; there can be blood!)

When I step back and look at the many aspects of Zoe’s character, it’s no surprise ERS is her favorite card game. In many ways, this riotous game is much like Zoe
herself: hilarious, unpredictable, fast, wild, addictive, and irresistible fun. Enjoy!

Dear Reader,

“I want to write about Victorian robots,” Fanciful Nina said as she ate another chocolate bon-bon.

“Huh?” Serious Nina looked up from alphabetizing the spice rack. “You’re writing a historical romance. Not a paranormal. Not steampunk.”

“But look at this,” Fanciful Nina persisted, clicking on the website of the Franklin Institute. “Here’s a robot… okay, an automaton, to use the historically correct term, called the Draughtsman-Writer. It was an actual invention by the eighteenth-century Swiss engineer Henri Maillardet, and it can produce four drawings and three poems in both French
and
English. Look, you can watch a video of it! How cool is that?”

“You can’t just write about something because it’s cool.” Serious Nina arranged the paprika, parsley, and peppercorn bottles. “You have to have a reason.”

“Coolness
is
a reason.”

“Coolness is a reason for a teenager to wear ear-cuffs. You are writing a historical romance novel. You
need much more than coolness as a basis for your story. You need intense conflict, sexual attraction, danger, and agonizing goals that tear your characters apart before they overcome all obstacles and live happily ever after.”

“But—”

Serious Nina frowned. “Focus and figure it out. Conflict. Emotions. Anguish. Happy ending. No robots.”

“Okay, there’s a war going on, right?” Fanciful Nina pushed aside her bon-bons and hauled out her research books. “Rich with possibilities for conflict and emotion. Did you know that in 1854, scientist Charles Wheatstone invented a machine that transmitted messages in cipher? It drew the attention of Baron Playfair, who thought encoded messages would be useful during the Crimean War, and they submitted the machine to the British Foreign Office. How cool is…”

“No,” Serious Nina said firmly. “No cool.”

“How
interesting
is that?” Fanciful Nina amended.

“May I remind you that you’re writing about Sebastian Hall?” Serious Nina put a bottle of rosemary before the sage. “Sebastian is a musician, a free spirit, a gregarious, talented fellow who loves to perform and enjoy himself. He doesn’t care about robots or cipher machines. His brother Darius, on the other hand…”

“But what if Sebastian has to care about a cipher machine?” Fanciful Nina reached for another bon-bon. “What if something happens that makes him lose his fun-loving attitude? Omigod, what if something happens that makes him lose his
career
?”

Serious Nina blinked. “You would make Sebastian lose his career?”