When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie…

My fantasy vacation is this month’s theme on Romancing the Genres. I love to travel, although I don’t get to take-off as often as I’d like these days. So, for me and all the other armchair travellers out there…this is a perfect excuse to wallow a while in fantasy-land.

If I had to choose only one perfect vacation spot…I’d choose two. Ha! I cheated. It’s my fantasy and I’ll make up the rules as I go along. Italy and Spain are at the top of my list of amazing countries I’ve visited. Any fantasy vacation would have to include visiting those two destinations again…

That’s amore!

Once I had my bags packed and managed to round up my husband and two boys, I’d be off to Italy. In First Class, of course. I’ve never actually sat in First Class but it’s on my bucket list. Why not travel across the globe in style, sipping Champagne, then actually lie down on an overnight flight?

Photo of Florence – the city at sunset

The city of Florence in Tuscany, Italy, is arguably the most gorgeous and romantic city in the world. I had a chance to travel there twice so far, once in 1999 as part of a university study tour to several European companies. I spent a lot of my spare time there just wandering through cobblestone alleys and winding streets and eating gelati ice-cream.

Then in 2005, I got to travel back with my husband on our honeymoon. One of my favourite things to do there is climb the hill on one side of the river Arno, for the view right over the famous bridge, Ponte Vecchio, and the whole city. I took some photos and stumbled across a small chapel with a group of monks inside singing Gregorian chants, like I'd stepped back in time to the middle ages.

Both times I visited, the city hit me with a double-whammy of romance and history. I’d go back to the Uffizi gallery in a heartbeat to admire one of my favourite paintings in the world – Botticelli’s Primavera. And of course I’d say hello to the statue of David and tour the renaissance buildings such as the palaces and old monasteries in the Tuscan countryside.

Detail of woman in a Botticelli painting

Since this is my fantasy, I’d also eat as much as possible without putting on any weight. The best gelati ice-cream in the world, delicious pasta and steak, and the Chianti wine made by traditional winemakers in the hills. While I’m imagining, I’d stay at a luxurious palazzo with a swimming pool and enjoy the summer sunshine without the heat we get in Australia.

Fiestas of fun

I visited Spain for a month in 2010 when a family member got married there. On this trip I had both my husband and our little 13 month old son in tow! He actually learned to walk in the El Retiro Park in central Madrid, toddling around on the grass. Later, he had hours of fun running up and down the pedestrian mall outside our hotel.

Royal Palace – Madrid

On my fantasy trip, I’d spend hours or maybe days wandering around the Royal Palace in Madrid, before making my way down south to the equally magical south of Spain. I’d let my boys run wild in the acres of park land and then take a trip down to the wonderful Medieval hilltop city of Toledo about an hour away by train. We'd stay somewhere with banquets of paella and Spanish flan, then go see some flamenco dancing.

When I visited Barcelona with my family, the city was in full-swing summer festival mode. A massive stage had been setup by the waterfront for free concerts, the popular boulevard La Rambla was packed with people rambling each night, browsing market stalls and eating tapas. And there were random art shows and performances around every corner. I loved wandering around discovering things such as a parade of giant marionette puppets representing historical characters.

I’d take my boys to the Gaudi-designed cathedral, La Sagrada Familia, which looks like something conjured from a fairytale. We’d buy swords from the traditional armour-makers in some of the old parts of the city and play pretend knights in an old-world hotel that used to belong to nobility.

La Sagrada Familia  – Barcelona

No fantasy trip of mine would be complete without shopping, so I’d be ready with indestructible credit cards to hit all the Italian and Spanish boutiques. Especially shoes, boots and handbags. Don’t ask how many pairs of shoes I brought back from my last European trip…but considering I only have two feet, and I had to buy a new suitcase, it was a few.

Finally, I’d stop off at a few places I didn’t get enough time to see last time, like the seaside resort town of Malaga or the island of Majorca and just relax at the beach.

P.S. – Remind me to actually finish writing the book I have in draft, with a few chapters set in Spain!

P.P.S – My debut novel, Girl on a Plane, has a lot of travel in it too. It's on sale now for 99 cents US! Buy links - www.books2read.com/girlonaplane 

 

About Cassandra O’Leary

**Winner of the global We Heart New Talent contest run by HarperCollins UK. Nominated for BEST NEW AUTHOR in AusRomToday 2016 Reader's Choice Awards for excellence in Australian romance fiction**

Cassandra O’Leary is a romance and women’s fiction author, communications specialist, avid reader, film and TV fangirl and admirer of pretty, shiny things. Her debut novel, Girl on a Plane, was published in July 2016. 

Cassandra is a mother of two gorgeous, high-energy mini ninjas and wife to a spunky superhero. Living in Melbourne, Australia, she’s also travelled the world. If you want to send her to Italy or Spain on any food or wine tasting ‘research’ trips, that would be splendiferous. 

Read more or sign-up for Cassandra's newsletter at cassandraolearyauthor.com

Summer Releases: Henry VIII—Way before Anne Boleyn…

As authors, we all get our inspiration from different places. For me, one common prompt comes from my travels to Europe. In 2010, my husband and I took a tour of northern Spain which started in Madrid and ended in Barcelona.

In Barcelona, we visited the medieval Barcelona Cathedral (not to be confused with Gaudi’s 20th-century Sagrada de Familia Cathedral, a work still in progress) and I was surprised to find that the seats in the choir were painted with various knights’ coats of arms instead of saints. This was because the “Order of the Golden Fleece” met there in 1519.

The Order was an elite fellowship of sovereigns and noblemen who forged alliances and solved disputes between their principalities. I came home and did a little research, and discovered that the king of Norway and Denmark was a member. That was all I needed to know to send my Nordic knight to Barcelona as his representative—because we all know that no king ever abandoned his throne for months on end, to travel so far, and sit in a musky Cathedral for weeks.

The next fun fact: Henry Tudor, a.k.a. Henry the Eighth, was also a member.

Clearly, my Nordic knight needed to spend some time in Henry’s court in London, on his way from Copenhagen to Barcelona. I rolled up my virtual sleeves, and began to research Henry in 1518 – at age 27: eight years before meeting Anne Boleyn and begging her to become his mistress, and fifteen years before he married her. At this point, Henry was still in love with his wife, Catherine of Aragon. He only had one documented extramarital affair thus far, with Jane Popincourt in 1514.

The bad news for my research: history pretty much ignored Henry before he attempted to divorce Catherine over a decade later.

The good news for my research: history pretty much ignored Henry before he attempted to divorce Catherine over a decade later.

As I tried to do my due diligence in researching Henry, I ran into blank after blank. For example: how many residences did he have? “This list is incomplete…” and started in 1527. I did, however, find out what his tennis balls were made out of: putty and human hair. What is putty made from? Linseed oil and chalk.

I’m hoping that by including the things I did find – like his early original poetry – purists will forgive any omissions. The truth is, if I couldn’t find it, I doubt they can find it either. On with the story!

Now we jump to the serendipitous part of this tale: I attended Romantic Times Booklovers Convention in Kansas City in 2013, and ran across a videographer from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He had a distinctly Nordic look, so I asked if he wanted to be on a book cover. He said yes!

Jump again to 2014, and the long-distance photography session. Funny thing about the pictures—my videographer looked a lot like a young Henry. So being an author and creator of plots, I wrote that similarity into the story.

In “A Nordic Knight in Henry’s Court,” Jakob Hansen visits Henry in 1518. Catherine is currently pregnant for the sixth (and final) time. And because she miscarried four years earlier after finding out about Miss Poppincourt, Henry is desperate to keep his new mistress, Bessie Blount, a secret from the queen. So he presses Jakob into service as a diverting body-double, to disguise his actions.

Furthermore, he makes Bessie a promise: if no one finds out about the ruse, then Henry will claim any male bastard she bears. What happens? I’m not telling.

“A Nordic Knight in Henry’s Court” (May) and the second part, “A Nordic Knight of the Golden Fleece” (June) will take the reader to times and places not commonly visited. I hope you will come along, and explore with me.

Paella—Vegans Can Spice It Up Too!

By Linda Lovely

I’m writing a humorous mystery series (with romance, of course) that features Brie, a 27-year-old vegan chef, as heroine. To help her Aunt Eva, a cheese-addict omnivore, Brie has moved to her aunt’s goat cheese farm. Not surprisingly, aunt and niece engage in an ongoing battle of wills over what’s for supper. However, I’ll bet both would agree any variety of paella is a taste pleaser, which is why you’ll find a vegan recipe at the end of this post. Not sure what flavor of moonshine, Brie’s “legal” moonshiner suitor would recommend to accompany the meal. Don't worry, no bulls--or other animals--are sacrificed in this recipe.

A disclaimer: I’ve never been to Spain so I’ve never tasted what many consider the country’s national dish in its natural habitat. But, according to my web research (not necessarily accurate), even different regions of Spain claim their own unique recipes. The oldest variety apparently mixed meats like rabbit and duck with vegetables and rice. Not long after, a coastal version emerged substituting seafood for meat. Inevitably, chefs later started marrying land and sea ingredients with the veggies and rise.

The “mixed” Paella variety is the first one I tried—in Las Vegas, of all places. After one taste, it was a sure bet I’d add some version of this aromatic delicacy to my repertoire. The word paella has its roots in Old French and Latin words for pan, and originally referred to what the dish was cooked in. But you don’t need a special pan to make this. I use a turkey roaster on top of the oven. The biggest problem with paella—at least any version I’ve made—is there are so many ingredients, it’s impossible to make a small batch. The upside is it’s a real crowd pleaser. But, if you don’t happen to have 10-20 friends to invite to dinner, it freezes.

Please excuse my inexact measurements. I tend to measure with my tongue (e.g. needs more saffron) and my eye (looks like there aren’t enough tomatoes). This drives my strict measurement relatives bonkers. I cook like I write (by the seat of my pants) no formal outline or exact recipe. But, hey, it works for me.

“Approximate” Vegan Paella Recipe

Large Onion &1 to 2 cups celery (both coarsely chopped)
Large red bell pepper (or two small) chopped
½ to 1 Tbsp. minced garlic (do you care how your breath smells?)

Sauté the above ingredients over medium high heat in olive oil or coconut oil until “softish”—maybe 2-3 minutes

Add the following 3 ingredients and bring to a boil:

Artichoke hearts halved or quartered (about 2 packages frozen or 3 cans)

I large or 2 small packages of fresh spinach torn

Little less than 3 cups of water with 5 vegetable cubes mashed in water
(Vegetable broth cubes are in same grocery section as chicken bouillon cubes)

Reduce heat, stir in next ingredients, cover and cook about 15 minutes over low heat:

2 cans of fire-roasted tomatoes

(If you buy the variety with garlic, you could leave out garlic in step one.)

1 ½ cups of jasmine rice

¾ tsp salt

½ tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp Saffron

(Recipes usually call for less. Question is: how “old” is your saffron since it loses potency with time. Last time I put in heaping tsp of threads—2-3 years old—
which I mash between my fingers as I add them.)

Stir in frozen veggies (set out earlier to thaw) until rice absorbs water about 10+ minutes.

1 package baby lima beans

1 package green peas

Let sit a few minutes and fluff with fork.

ENJOY!

P.S. If you’re not a vegetarian or vegan, just add chopped up chicken, sausage, and/or all manner of seafood—shrimp, scallops, lobster, crab, etc. YUM.