First Fridays with the Crew

RAINY DAY COVERS

or The Crew's favorite "weather" scenes and movie clips

JAN JAN JAN JAN JAN

Protecting His Brother’s Bride is officially available in e-book format and I’m absolutely in love with my cover!  Kissing in the rain…you’ve got to get a little lost in the moment to ignore Mother Nature.  And my hero and heroine have plenty of opportunities to ignore the elements.

Kira Kincaid will go to any lengths to clear her name--even team up with Dalton Matthews, her estranged...now deceased...husband's brother. When their mission exposes an earth-shattering family secret from both their pasts, Dalton must choose between his brother's betrayal and the one woman he should deny.

So...who hasn't gotten caught in a thunderstorm with the threat of tornados? Two weeks ago I was in Dallas for the North Texas Romance Writers of America monthly meeting and our guest speaker was fellow Harlequin Romantic Suspense author, Melissa Cutler. Melissa joined Angi, Lara and I for dinner at a BBQ restaurant and Mother Nature whipped up a wonderful display of power. Thunder, lightning, pounding rain and high winds that made the trees bend toward the ground.  It was Melissa's first experience with severe weather. She's a San Diego girl used to earthquakes. I told her that we were pretty safe in the brick building that looked to be eighty-plus years old.  In my head I'm thinking "where's the basement?"

I'm an Iowa girl who transplated to Kansas.  I grew up with tornado warnings every spring.  Our scariest experience happened about ten years ago when we went camping with my cousin. We borrowed a tent and sleeping bags from a friend and traveled to a lake about 2 1/2 hours away. My cousin had a travel trailer and we set up our tent right next to them.  We'd only been at the lake for four hours when the sky darkened and the wind gusted. There was no way we were staying in a tent overnight, so we threw everything in our SUV and raced for home, with tornadoes visible the entire way.

I picked the movie Spiderman because of this scene where the heroine gives him a proper show of appreciation, even though he's hanging upside down in the rain.  I love the way she peels back his mask, just far enough to see his lips.  They can kiss without revealing Spiderman's true identity.

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SPIDERMAN

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ANGI ANGI ANGI ANGI ANGI

When Jan decided upon this topic, I thought, "this will be easy." I use the weather a lot in my books to shape the story. Well, shoot...I really do. 

My first book, HILL COUNTRY HOLD-UP is set during a flood that forces Steve & Jane to work together. MARINE'S LAST DEFENSE there's a snow storm or "white out" that prevents Mitch & Bree from their journey. PROTECTING THEIR CHILD ... Cord & Kate climb up a cliff in the rain. 

Maybe it has something to do with my childhood. I would ride my bike when it was about to storm, find a place dry but where I could hear, feel and see the rain...and I would write until it was almost dark and time to go home. Maybe. But it also has to do with reading Sharon Mignerey. Her books took on the location/weather as a character. I always hope that I write a book in a place that allows the story to develop there -- and can't be set anywhere else.

SHOOTER (violence)

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LIZ LIZ LIZ LIZ LIZ

I love this crazy Harrison Ford movie because who hasn’t dreamed of being shipwrecked (or plane wrecked in this case) with a sexy man who needs to learn how much he misses being in love? He’s strong, he’s innovative, he’s a little crotchety, and he’s sexy as heck. And he saves you from pirates. “Pirates? As in Arghhh?” (Great line!) I wouldn’t necessarily want to go through the weather that brought our Hero and Heroine to their island. But if my HEA was as adventurous and romantic as theirs—I’d weather the storm!

SIX DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS

Good Guys Wear Black      Beauty and the Brit 

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VICKI VICKI VICKI VICKI VICKI

Don't laugh. I almost always watch this movie. Whenever it appears in the guide and no matter how long the film has been playing, I watch Bridget Jones's Diary. I love the ending.

It's snowing and Bridget and Mark Darcy are not going to get together--in her mind. As she is locking up her flat to leave with her best friends for a weekend in Paris, Mark appears from across the street. He says he isn't going to New York because he forgot to tell her good bye, but in my mind it is hello. They go to Bridget's apartment to rendez vous. As she is pulling on tiny knickers, she hears the door close and rushes to the window, spying him striding away. She sees her diary on the table, pulls two plus two together and realizes she's goofed big time.

She slips on athletic shoes and a flimsy sweater and takes off after him, calling, "Mark! Mark!" The snow continues to fall and we know it is freezing and she isn't wearing much and will she find Mark? When all seems lost, he steps out of a store with a new diary for her.

As they kiss, he wraps his coat around her. "Nice boys don't kiss like that." "Oh, yes, they f****** do."  Sigh. A great Happily Ever After. I love it. 

BRIDGET JONES DIARY

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JILLIAN JILLIAN JILLIAN JILLIAN

Ah, Angi Morgan knows me only too well. Such a brilliant, poignant scene. Death of a replicant.  I often think of this scene when creating backstory for antagonists. The best bad guys are ones the reader can sympathize with––or at least understand his/her pain. 

BLADE RUNNER

Angi was the one who found and posted all these movie clips. Thanks, Angi!  

Coming this year: Jillian's first Contemporary Romance, plus Codename: Dragon

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MAUREEN MAUREEN MAUREEN MAUREEN

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S

The Dust Chronicles

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E.E.  E.E.  E.E.  E.E.  E.E.  E.E.  E.E.  

I love to find ways to use seasons and weather to set a mood or establish the tone for a scene. In the beginning of Her Bodyguard, I open with the hero in a snowstorm on a desolate prairie, which reflects the condition of his life and his heart: desolate, wasted, frozen. Here's a short blurb:

March 1, 1870

Former Cherokee Neutral Lands,

Southeast Kansas

Hell must be like this. Not lit with blazing fires, but cold and gray, barren as the dead prairie. Even the wind howled like a deranged demon, flinging bits of ice into Buck’s face. He drew the blanket and oilskin tighter, although nothing warmed the persistent chill in his bones that had gotten worse as he’d ridden north through Indian Territory. He was a walking dead man here in Kansas, so it seemed somehow fitting he’d entered the abode of the damned.

He patted Goliath’s neck, glad for the company of his horse. He had few acquaintances, even fewer friends, and none who would risk their necks for another man’s cause. Buck wouldn’t have risked getting his neck stretched had the plea not come from his only remaining kinsman. Although at this point, freezing to death seemed more likely than being lynched.

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I love the movie, Singing in the Rain. For one, Gene Kelly's dance scene is fantabulous! Also, I just love rain. I love listening to it, watching it, going outside when it's raining and getting wet. I don't sing or dance. That would frighten the neighbors.

SINGING IN THE RAIN

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LARA LARA LARA LARA LARA  

I know it's not a romance, but one of my favorite movies is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  I love the scene where he busts into the castle in the pouring rain to rescue his father, only to be hit over the head with a vase.  Once his father realizes he's not a threat, he's more concerned with the vase than Indy's head!

Harrison Ford and Sean Connery had such great chemistry in that movie--it's definitely one that stands up to repeat viewing!

In the mood for a fun spring read?  My latest book, KILLER EXPOSURE, releases today!  You can download a digital copy now, or pick up a print copy on Tuesday! :)

INDIANA JONES & THE LAST CRUSADE

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KATHLEEN KATHLEEN KATHLEEN 
I also love the Bridget Jones scene that Vicki picked. But, of course, I had to show you Mr. Darcy's proposal in the rain. I especially love the last few moments where I'm certain he intends to kiss her. Sigh...

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

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Award Winning YA Historical Romance coming May 19th -
A School for Unusual Girls - A Stranje House Novel
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ALEXA ALEXA ALEXA ALEXA ALEXA  

LETHAL WEAPON

CHASING GOLD, A Beyond Fairytales story- NOW AVAILABLE!

WAKE ME, Book 1 in the Hidden Destiny Series- NOW AVAILABLE! 

DANCE AWAY, DANGER, NOW AVAILABLE! 
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DONNELL DONNELL DONNELL   

MATCH POINT

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CLOVER CLOVER CLOVER CLOVER   

BRAVE HEART

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JOIN JAN next Tuesday celebrating the release of

PROTECTING HIS BROTHER'S BRIDE

UP NEXT ON GLIAS:  Sharon Ashwood

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WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE WEATHER SCENE?

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