Monday, February 11, 2013

Beer, chocolate, nude photography and hot surfers





My latest book With Strings Attached is the first in a three book series, San Amaro Singles. For anyone who worries about starting a series before all the books are out, all three books definitely stand alone and are mainly linked by the location, which is the fictional California city of San Amaro, and by some of the secondary characters who appear in each story.



San Amaro is a touristy, beachy city, loosely based on Huntington Beach, La Jolla and Santa Barbara. I’ve set many of my books in Santa Barbara, because I’m so familiar with it and it’s probably my favourite place in the world. But there isn’t a lot of surfing in Santa Barbara, so I put San Amaro further south on the coast.






 San Amaro is home to one of the biggest events on the Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour. The ASP is a real organization, however the San Amaro event (the Jackson Cole Open) is fictional. Jackson Cole is a casual clothing manufacturer based in San Amaro and they sponsor the event. They also sponsor Dylan Schell, a professional surfer who grew up in San Amaro.



In With Strings Attached, Book 1, we meet Matt Ferber and Corey Fenwick. Matt owns Laguna Dorada, a popular brewpub in San Amaro. Corey is a chocolatier, producing hand-made luxury chocolates. They’re both passionate about their careers, both loving to create something new, in Matt’s case a new ale or lager, in Corey’s case a new combination of chocolate and other ingredients.



Dylan Schell is Matt’s best friend. They grew up together in San Amaro, spending a lot of time surfing. But Dylan went on to make surfing his career, and he’s on the ASP World Tour, trying to win, when he gets seriously injured. He’s grounded for a while so he comes home to San Amaro to recuperate.



In Book 2, How to Love (June, 2013) we meet Jules Stockwood. Jules is a photographer who does portraits and some commercial photography, and beneath her studio is a small gallery where she displays and sells some of her more artistic photographs. Her nude photos have become very popular, but she needs models willing to pose nude. When two hunky guys, Mike and Carlos, move into the house next door, she thinks she’s struck photography gold.



Carlos and Mike moved into the house next door to Jules, but on the other side of them is Matt Ferber’s house. The “Surf Sisters”, Arabella and Jaden, run a surf shop and school at the beach, and they live on the beach near Matt and Carlos, and Mike and Jules, and hold wildly popular beach parties.



In Book 3, Slammed (September, 2013) Dylan returns to San Amaro a year later for the Jackson Cole Open. He’s really feeling it’s his turn to win, and it would be amazing to be the home town boy who wins the event. But he’s been living life a little wild lately, trying to bury all the bad stuff in his head, and his sponsor, Jackson Cole, isn’t too happy about that. Assistant Marketing Manager Brooke Lowry is assigned the job of polishing up Dylan’s image and keeping him out of trouble while he’s in town.



So we do get to visit with the characters from each book again, with most of the overlap being between Book 1 and Book 3, but each story stands alone.


So what's your favourite kind of pie?


4 comments:

  1. Pie! I love blackberry pie, especially when they're just picked off the bushes and topped with a sour cream crust. Or lemon meringue.

    And I cannot WAIT to enjoy all three of these books! Mmmm!

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  2. I love key lime pie best, but I'm kind of confused. Does pie play a big role in the series?

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  3. No, pie has nothing to do with the series, but I can never think of a good question to ask at the end of a blog post.

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  4. These books all sound good. I guess my favorite kind of pie would either by Coconut Creme Pie or either Apple or Pumpkin. However, I don't eat pie very often, maybe once or twice a year.

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