Dahlia DeWinters – Author – Page 44 – Quirky Heroines, Happy Endings

Recipe for Love

I’m going to do something a little different for today’s recipe day. Love and food. Food and love.

How about Harry Connick Jr.’s Recipe for Love?

“A little bit of me and a whole lot of you
Add a dash of starlight and a dozen roses, too
Then let it rise for a hundred years or two
And that’s the recipe for making love…”

“A little birdie told me you can’t make it by yourself…”

We like things sweet around here so

“Pour some sugar on me
Ooh, in the name of love
Pour some sugar on me
C’mon, fire me up
Pour your sugar on me
Oh, I can’t get enough”

And finally, what’s love without that juicy fruit?

Cherry blossom kiss is what you givin’
Makes my body rock keeps me sizzlin’
Do what you will I don’t care
I’ll be your lollipop
You can lick me everywhere

What’s your favorite food/love song? Leave it in the comments!

Dahlia

Music Monday – Inspiration for Loving Among the Dead

As most authors do, I have a playlist of songs I work with when I’m writing. It’s the playlist I think embodies the story, the characters and the mood of a certain scene. I have all that set out before me, at my fingertips so I can access it at the press of a button.

However, there are those songs that occurs to you after the story’s done, edited and published. That song which pops up out of almost nowhere and declares itself an official sponsor of your story.

It continues to amaze me how much music can not only soothe the savage beast but also bare one’s soul.

Judith Graham holds her own in her zombie-proofed fortress that was once her childhood home. Through the foresight of her survivalist parents, she’s set for at least a year, but overwhelming loneliness and crushing boredom drives her out into the deserted, yet still dangerous streets of her neighborhood. She crosses paths with another traveler, Sky Beckett, who has decided to take the dangerous journey South to find out if his family is still alive in Tennessee.

A reluctant Jude allows him to stay at her home. Determined to remain a “Lonely Stranger” …..

When I walk, stay behind
Don’t get close to me
‘Cause it’s sure to end in tears
So just let me be
— Eric Clapton

she doesn’t want to get close to anyone because anything could happen, at anytime. Sky takes more of a moderate, if not almost optomistic view of post-apocalyptic life, wherein you keep trying until you can’t try anyone. He struggles to get her to see the facts as they stand and staying in her house is only going to get more dangerous, no matter what fortification she thinks she has.

He also sees that Jude is perhaps not as strong as she thinks she is.

Who’s gonna tell you when
It’s too late?
Who’s gonna tell you things
Aren’t so great?

You can’t go on
Thinkin’ nothing’s wrong,
Who’s gonna drive you home
Tonight?

****

Just by chance, those songs rolled up on my playlist (while I was cleaning no less) and I was struck at how apt they are and I had to share.

Thanks for reading!

1Love

Dahlia

Haven’t read Jude and Sky’s story? Check out “Loving Among the Dead” at the following outlets

All Romance E Books

Loose Id

About Friday the 13th

Things I learned about Friday the 13th.

Yes. Today is the fourteenth, I well realize that. However, hindsight is 20/20 and here are seven things about the lucky or unlucky date.

1. A Friday the 13th occurs at least once each year.

2. Fear of the number 13 is known as triskaidekaphobia, while fear of Friday the 13th is known as paraskavedekatriaphobia.

3. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a victim of triskaidekaphobia: According to The Huffington Post, he refused to travel on the 13th day of any month and would not host a dinner party with 13 guests.

4. According to Time Magazine, the stock market mini-crash of Friday, Oct. 13, 1989 was the second largest drop of the Dow history.

5. In the 1950s, the Columbiana, a group of Italian Columbus experts, concluded upon careful study of his ships’ logs and notes, that Columbus actually landed on the Western Hemisphere on October 13, 1492. The date was deliberately changed to October 12, to avoid the shadow of such an evil omen.

6. Thirteen is said to be the most essentially female number — the average number of menstrual cycles in a year. It is also the approximate number of annual cycles of the moon. Thirteen is the number of blood, fertility, and lunar potency. 13 is the lucky number of the Great Goddess.

7. And speaking of the Great Goddess, I was married on Friday the 13th and this marks my 13th year of marriage. Now if that isn’t lucky, I don’t know what is!

What's your Favorite Bond Theme? Free For All Fridays

I was going over my Google Playlists and I found one that I created a long time ago with the James Bond themes. Back in the day, I would never miss Bond movies on the television. Being a woman of a certain age, my favorite Bond was Sean Connery, next George Lazenby (even though he only appeared in one Bond film) and I tolerated Roger Moore. By the time the franchise worked its way around to Timothy Dalton (yuk!) and Pierce Brosnan, I had lost interest. Thought my interest was somewhat revived with the new Bond, Daniel Craig, my heart still belonged to Sean.

Never mind the movies, though, what about the songs? The iconic songs that told you that a cool movie was about to start? Many of these songs were sung by the hot artists at the time and were almost always chart worthy.

For this blog post, let’s take a look at my top five favorite Bond themes, starting with number five. As always, I’ll add some tidbit of trivia!

Number 5

Die Another Day – Madonna

I can’t even tell you which Bond was in this movie, but the song is hot.

Number 4

Skyfall – Adele

Her dramatic rendition of this theme recalls the old days of Shirley Bassey. While I did not see the movie, Adele does a wonderful job with this song and it won the Oscar!

Number 3

For Your Eyes Only – Sheena Easton

Sheena is the only singer to appear in the opening credits of a Bond movie singing the theme song.

Number 2

Nobody Does it Better – Carly Simon

When it comes to Bond, we all know what the “it” is.

Number 1

Goldfinger – Shirley Bassey

Aww, you knew it. Of all the Bond themes, Dame Shirley Bassey does it the best. She has also recorded the most Bond themes.

From Wikipedia: Bassey did initially have issues with the climactic final note which necessitated her slipping behind a studio partition between takes to remove her brassiere. Bassey would recall of the final note: “I was holding it and holding it. I was looking at John [Barry] and I was going blue in the face and he’s going, hold it just one more second. When it finished, I nearly passed out.”

Bad for her, but good for us.

Loving Blog Hop – Historic Interracial Couples

Although the Loving case was a historic civil rights decision as it struck down laws banning interracial marriage, there have been many, varied interracial marriages throughout history.

Joseph Laroche, 26, a Haitian-born, French-educated engineer who was moving back to Haiti because he could not find work in his profession in France because of racial prejudice. The family was meant to travel via first-class on the French ocean liner France. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Laroches discovered that the ship wouldn’t allow them to dine with their children. They traded their first class tickets for second class tickets about the Titanic.

Due to the protocol of “women and children first” Mr. Laroche separated from his family and went down with the ship.

Pearl Bailey and Louis Bellson, married 38 years

Pearl Bailey, a Black American actress and singer known for vaudeville and for the title role in the all-Black production of “Hello, Dolly!” was married to Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, who went by the stage name Louie Bellson. He was a composer, arranger, bandleader and jazz drummer.

Davis was booed by many of the Southern delegates when he appeared at the 1960 Democratic Convention because of his engagement to May Britt, a Swedish-born actress. Because of his close association with Frank Sinatra, who in turn supported the John Kennedy in the presidential race, Davis was asked to postpone his wedding until after the election. Unfortunately, as a performer constantly on the road, he spent little time with his wife and they divorced in 1968. As a side fact, it is said that the one love of Davis’ life was actress Kim Novak. This relationship caused a mob contract to be put on Davis’ life, thus ending the relationship. (allegedly, of course)

Betty and Barney Hill were from New Hampshire, and claimed to have been ….abducted and probed by aliens. I first saw this story on Mysteries at the Museum and just had search these two out. They

seemed to be a perfectly ordinary couple, he a postal worker and she a social worker. Both were members of the NAACP. On their way back from a vacation in Southern Canada in 1961, they claimed their alien encounter. They wrote a book called “Interrupted Journey” and their experience was made into a movie starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons.

Diana Ross and Arne Naess, Jr. married in 1986 is Switzerland. She and her Nordic mountain-climbing beau had two sons before they divorced in 1999. Shortly after, Naess died in a mountain-clilmbing accident. Ross has claimed that Naess was the “love of her life.”

After this refreshing walk through history, please be sure to visit other authors on the Loving Blog Hop and enter the rafflecopter to earn a chance to win some prizes. See below.

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Leave a comment to be entered in a giveaway for any book of your choice from my backlist. I look forward to hearing from you!

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