Tuesday, September 18, 2012

What's your season?

The choice of seasons can really set the tone for a book. For a romance book, I reckon summer is the perfect season. Heat is tense. It makes us a little crazy, and what's better for sexual tension than that? Also, fewer clothes means more bare skin. Shirtless men, swimsuits, sweat, suntan. If I'm writing a sexy scene, I'll take a hot summer night over frigid moonlight any day.

Or maybe that's just me. I come from a summer country. We don't really do cold in Australia. Our winters are mild and uninspiring. There's no chance of getting snowed into a deserted forest cabin with a hot bodyguard, for instance, or kissing under the mistletoe (what's mistletoe, anyway?) or romantic trysts by the fire on bearskin rugs.

Having just lived through an alleged English 'summer', I have a whole new appreciation for Australian seasons. Aussies measure sunshine in 'sunny days per year'. Here, they measure it in hours per year. I kid you not. Brits pray for sunshine, and when it comes, they bask in it with what I can only describe as desperation. They have to cram all their fun – festivals, vacations, parties, outdoor activities – into this tiny, bleak window between July and September. You can't organize anything without Plan B, entitled In Case It Rains… and honestly, who are they kidding? They should be making Plan B in case it doesn't rain. How the English ever invented cricket – a game where you stop playing when it's wet – is beyond me.

So yeah, maybe I've lived a charmed, summery life ☺ but all my books are set in summer, or at least in the heat. In my Shadowfae series, Melbourne is in the grip of a never-ending, scorching summer… because hey, that’s what you get when you let a demon prince run your town! My upcoming book REVELATION is set in New York during the biblical Apocalypse, which begins with a bay full of blood during one stinking-hot summer… and it only gets hotter from there!

For me, summer—real summer—is sexy. Winter is all drizzle and thermal underwear. Ugh.

So are you a winter person, or a summer person? Do you love the heat, or dread it?

P.S. A quick plug for my sexy new vampire short story for Kindle, HUNTER'S BLOOD. It's set during a steaming hot Halloween, when the barrier between hell and earth is at its thinnest… and a pair of vampire demon-hunters face their toughest foe yet: falling in love. You can check it out here. Thanks!

3 comments:

Judith Ashley said...

Hi Erica, Years ago I attended a conference in Sidney in July. I wore my summer clothes but had brought along a warmer jacket, just in case. Never got it out! Initially I was puzzled by the people in coats, long sleeves, etc. and wearing darker colors. It didn't seem like winter to me.

Laughed outloud at your description of Summer in England. I live in the Pacific Northwest (west side of the Cascade Mountains) and that is an apt description of our weather. On the east side of the mountains it is high desert and when I lived in Klamath Falls, they bragged that the sun shone 360 days of the year. I was depressed - where were those grey drizzly days that meant time indoors (or not), slower pace, etc.
When you live with the grey and wet, when the sun does shine there is a level of desperation to be out experiencing it...
Imuch prefer Mother Nature doing my watering than me out with my sun hat and a hose! lol

Diana McCollum said...

Hi, Erica! Your short story sounds awesome! Is it only available on the Kindle or can I purchase it for my Nook? I'm a fall person. Don't like the super hot weather, just want to sit in front of the fan. And I don't really care for the winter, too cold. :))

Sarah Raplee said...

Hi Erica,

My favorite seasons are fall and spring. Like Diana, I don't like weather extremes as much. But I do enjoy having the changing seasons.

Your new books sound AWESOME!