Food, Romance and Valentine's Day

“When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore.”

Jack Brooks (songwriter) 'That's Amore'

February. Valentine’s Day. The first thing everyone to mind may be hearts, roses and chocolate. I dare say that it does not matter what you plan for Valentine’s Day, or even any other romantic date, it always involves food. It’s probably because it is two of life’s universal pleasures and most people appreciate to have both or, more likely, crave.

Many women have grown up with the age-old English proverb, “A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”  That may be true, but I’m convinced many women would agree with me that there is nothing sexier than a man that cook’s for you. Barefoot in the kitchen - bare-chested too if he’s daring enough, but that’s just my personal opinion.

There are obviously those would recoil horrified if you mention going out for Valentine’s meal or going the whole hock with flowers, chocolates and candle-lit dinner. Others love the idea because that is part of the entire Valentine’s experience. It’s not to say that if you do plan your Valentine’s date to perfection, it should feel staged. It’s crucial that you should consider your partner’s tastes and preferences. What one may think is romantic, does not work for the other one.

To tell you the truth, some people would happily take the one evening of magic and romance if that’s all they are going to get, or they are going to be the one that has to clean up the kitchen mess afterwards if their partner does decide to cook for them. After all, not everyone in the kitchen should get free reign in the kitchen. Some, like me, should leave it to the experts.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Finding inspiration in strange places

Many writers are asked the question: where do you get your inspiration from?

The answer may be different for everyone. I've answered the question about the inspiration behind Eye on the Ball so many times in blog posts and author interviews. I think a better question would be to ask where did I get the idea for the series Playing for Glory from? The answer to that is totally different.

The first seed for writing romance novels about rugby might have been planted years ago while I listened to radio broadcasts with my father and the rest of the family. It might have been spending Saturdays driving from one game to the other watching my three brothers until we ended up at Loftus for the big game of the day, Northern Transvaal against whatever other team. It might have been planted on a cold and miserable November day in Edinburgh, cheering on the Springboks played against Scotland at Murrayfield. Or getting up early and staying up late to watch the World Cup, fighting with my team and for them.

No, that is also not the answer. Those were just hours and hours of research.

I believe that the first seed was planted while sipping champagne on the Fourth of July in 2016, on a boat cruise down the Hudson, watching the fireworks. A chance meeting with a young rugby player from Jersey who was my fellow passenger on the cruise, might have been the instigator. I don’t know his name but when he learned I’m South Africa, he mentioned the Springboks and that set us off talking about rugby. I discovered that night that rugby had become a global game.

I still did not know then that I was going to write about it, or that there was a romance novel somewhere buried in me. That only came on the flight from New York to OR Tambo when I could not sleep. After a couple of days overcoming the jetlag, I seemed to unpack the muse with the rest of my luggage. For six months I wrote almost non-stop until I felt brave enough to show my work to a writing coach. I still needed to do a few re-writes before I submitted Eye on the Ball and the series, Playing for Glory to publishers. But now, only eighteen months later, Eye on the Ball was released on 19 March 2018.

It just proves that you need to keep your eyes open. Be receptive. You may never know where you'll get your inspiration from.