Today, I'm pleased to have Heather Thurmeier stopping by. She recently released a new book, The Wedding Hoax, which involved copious amounts of research and television. I asked Heather to talk about how she handles one of my favorite subjects–research. I think, even if you're writing a dystopian society story or a contemporary novel, you need to do a certain amount of research to authenticate your stories. Research is not just for an historical writer. But, I'll get down off my soapbox now and let Heather tell you how she approaches it. The floor is yours, Heather!
I’m sure every author has their own set of resources when it
comes to researching for a story. For me, I have my usual ways and then every
book has a few new ones too.
For all of my books, the research starts with the
names. It’s not very often that I know
my character’s final names when I come up with a book idea. Sometimes to pick
their names, I will poll my readers to find out what names they love at that
moment. Other times, I’ll go to baby naming websites and scour their pages to
come up with a short list of names. My favorite site is Nymbler.com. I like
that you can save names and then it generates ones that go with it. I find it
helps with sibling relationships as well as finding names for the hero and
heroine that will sound good together on the page.
Next is usually the setting for the book. If I’m writing
about a place I’ve never been to before, then I usually start with real estate
listings and tourism sites to give me an idea of what it’s like there. I don’t
list places with too many specifics since I think it’s fun to make up
restaurant names and things like that. But when it comes to some thing, like
subway stops in Manhattan, I definitely look up what train line and exact stop
I need. All of that information is easily available online, which makes my job
so much faster and easier!
And it seems I’ve been drawing a lot of inspiration and
research from TV. For The Wedding Hoax, that was definitely true. I can’t tell
you how many episodes of Say Yes to the Dress (and Bridesmaid Dress) I watched.
Oh so many! But it was great since Daisy is a wedding gown designer and Cole is
a bridal magazine CEO. It’s been 14 years since my own wedding and watching new
brides on TV talking about their weddings while they look for their dress was
great research! And it was fun to watch too!
Happy Reading!
Heather's giving away this beautiful Daisy bracelet during her blog tour. Go here to enter: The Wedding Hoax and #Rafflecopter #Giveaway. http://bit.ly/ZEeY2t#romance @AmazonKindle @amazon
Heather's giving away this beautiful Daisy bracelet during her blog tour. Go here to enter: The Wedding Hoax and #Rafflecopter #Giveaway. http://bit.ly/ZEeY2t#romance @AmazonKindle @amazon
The Wedding Hoax
Blurb:
A satisfying category romance from
Entangled’s Lovestruck imprint…
To save their companies, they’ll plan the fake
wedding of the century...
Meet the
bride...
Daisy Willows is a wedding dress designer who
longs for her own happily-ever-after. In the meantime, she’s struggling to keep
her business going even as she covers her mom’s increasing medical expenses. So
when a bridal show expo owner offers to help her out, she can hardly say no.
And all it takes is Daisy pretending she’s back with her playboy ex. And that
they’re engaged...
Meet the
groom...
Cole Benton works for his father’s bridal
magazine, which is on the verge of downsizing. All he really wants is a crack
at an outdoor lifestyle magazine, and if he has to fake-marry Daisy to make it
happen, he’s definitely in. Now Daisy and Cole are playing up their fake
engagement, shopping for rings, and even kissing upon request. All of which is
makes it a whole lot harder to remember that their big white wedding is a big
white lie...
Buy Links:
Amazon: http://ow.ly/BnurJ
Nook: http://ow.ly/BnuST
Kobo: http://ow.ly/BnuCI
iTunes: http://ow.ly/BnvsN
Excerpt:
Cole adjusted himself in the boutique
chair as Daisy came out in yet another stunning dress. He didn’t think it was
possible to be attracted to a woman in a wedding gown, but apparently it was.
And it was maddening.
Damn it. He didn’t want to be any more
attracted to Daisy than he already was. At this point, he wanted her to walk
down the aisle in a white garbage bag so he didn’t have to see the shape of her
curves, teasing him about what he couldn’t have but also couldn’t stop thinking
about.
Nor could he stop imagining those
undergarments she’d mentioned to the women at the bridal show. Was Daisy
wearing something sexy under all that white lace and satin, too? A push-up bra?
A thong?
He sat forward and leaned his elbows on
his knees, ignoring the ache in his groin at the thought of Daisy in a thong.
He didn’t even have to use his imagination. An image
of her lying on her stomach across his
bed came to mind. Her skin had been smooth under his fingertips as he traced
the lace of her thong to where it disappeared between two luscious hills of
milky-white flesh. She’d shivered beneath his touch when he’d caressed the tiny
crease where her bottom met the backs of her thighs. And when he’d playfully
smacked her ass, the apples of her cheeks weren’t the only spot on her body to
blush as she’d rolled away from him, giggling and smiling seductively.
If he’d realized that would be one of
his last moments with Daisy, he would have savored it more, prolonged his own
enjoyment to push hers further. What he wouldn’t give to see that spark in her
eyes when she was on the cusp of going over the edge again. Or the pink tinge
in her cheeks as his tongue tasted her.
“Cole!” Daisy’s voice was sharp,
piercing his thoughts and shattering the nice memory he was currently enjoying
more than the present moment.
“That one is nice,” Cole said on
instinct, forcing himself to focus on the dress she wore instead of what she
might be wearing underneath it. This dress was similar to the others—
sleeveless, white, satin and beads, and expertly hand-stitched. He’d never
really given Daisy a lot of credit for her work before, but he should have. She
was a master of her craft.
She put her hands on her hips. “That’s
what you said about every dress so far. Are you even paying attention?”
No.
“I’m trying to, but you know how I feel
about shopping.” He laid his head back and rubbed his eyes hard, hoping to
erase the memory of Daisy’s thong from his brain long enough to get through
this torture without a raging hard-on.
“How could I forget? You’re worse than
taking a child shopping. At least with a kid you can give them a snack or a toy
to keep them busy.”
“I could go for a snack.” He shrugged.
Author bio:
Heather Thurmeier is a lover of
strawberry margaritas and a hater of spiders. She was born and raised in the
Canadian prairies, but now lives in New York state with her husband and kids
where she’s become some kind of odd Canuck-Yankee hybrid. When she's not busy
taking care of the kids, Heather’s writing her next romance, which will
probably be filled with sassy heroines, sexy heroes who make your heart pound,
laugh out loud moments, and always a happily ever after. You can find out more
about Heather and her books by checking out her website at: http://heatherthurmeier.com.
Social media links:
Email: heatherthurmeier@gmail.com
Website: http://heatherthurmeier.com
Blog: http://heatherthurmeier.com
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/hthurmeier
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/HeatherThurmeierAuthor
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/HeatherThurmeier
Newsletter:
https://madmimi.com/signups/91094/iframe
Watching TV and researching at the same time--sounds perfect! And your excerpt is delightful. I really smiled at that opening paragraph. Good luck with the book!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Barbara! I haven't mastered writing and watching TV yet, but at least I have an excuse to take a break every now and then to veg out in front of the TV!
DeleteThanks, Barbara, for visiting today. I enjoyed the excerpt, too, especially the last line, which shows Heather's humor. Would love to read the book.
ReplyDeleteanother wonderful article for writers. reseach is one of my favorite things to do. The best of luck with the book.
ReplyDeleteThank you, JoAnne. I'm a mix on research. Sometimes I love it and other times I just want to write, not research if the details are correct. I always do check, just maybe not right away! LOL.
DeleteThank you for having me, Becky!
ReplyDeleteYou just added another dimension to writing for me. The link to names is a good one. Characters names just pop into my head as I write. Now I'll do a bit of research as to what the names mean and how they fit in the story. Thanks.
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