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| A little sherry Cheri? |
The Pinterest reveal goes on with the exposure of that wonderful dish of sherry trifle from Cop’s Kitchen. I’m grateful to the site Sharing Links and Wisdom for hosting me.
Purely by chance I prepared this very dessert from Shannon’s Law last night for some French friends. All the plates were clean at the end. The Brits keep groaning about Europe and threatening to leave. At least a little slice of England will remain if we do pull out.
Emma Thinx: Je t’aime mon Sherry.
There’s no let up now in that Pinterest reveal countdown to the launch of Shannon’s Law. My host today is Cometbabesbooks who has the subject of Shannon’s taste in music. She’s a fit girl who trains hard on her mountain bike. On her headphones she listens to Purgatory Hill. The cigar box guitar sound is just so raw and exciting. I could throw a lot of words at but it’s best to click the link and give yourself a treat.
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| If you’ve got it – flaunt it! Power nosh for sexy cops. Just add HP sauce and chips |
The Pinterest reveal today is that fine English dish of Sausage Toad. I’m grateful to Lisa Haselton for hosting me today. The full feature and the recipe from Cop’s Kitchen is here.
The life of a cooking novelist calls for a complete re-think of kitchen design. What I need is a hob with a built in wipe off keyboard. I could be boiling my beans and pouring out some passion at the same time. I’ll be cooking up a dish from Shannon’s Law tomorrow for some French guests. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Emma Thinx; Michelin chefs never tire or deflate.
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| How now brown cow? |
It’s back to the pre launch Pinterest reveal tour today. I’m grateful to crooksonbooks for hosting my feature on the animals in Shannon’s Law. When researching the story at an early stage I went to Bloxington Manor (in real life Avington Park) to get a feel for the place. As I relaxed looking at the view a snort behind me made me turn suddenly. There were the beasts. Being a city girl I’ve had little experience of prehistoric creatures. I’d read enough Thomas Hardy as a kid to have ruled out milk maid as a career. My first thought was woolly mammoth but Oscar pointed out the absence of a trunk.
All assurances that they only eat grass were wasted. I was so moved by the incident that I wrote a bestial encounter into the story. Shannon is a big brave cop but even she was scared . Many of my characters are very like me.
Emma Thinx: You can’t make love or war without the beast within
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| Thank you, thank you – I am alive and I can see. |
I’m home in France. My dear dear Charente Maritime – I love you. You are always here waiting for me. The neighbours kiss me. Your beauty washes down through stone into river and sky. I am so lucky in my life to be here with eyes to see and a mind to abandon to you. Truly I am in awe of this place. It is a watercolour picture of the heart with a smile of church bells.
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| Winter sun , your fine pen of stark beauty draws a summer in my heart |
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| To infinity and beyond those French films of avenues and kisses. |
I am pausing today from the ding dong of Shannon’s Law and blog tours. I took my camera for a walk to try to fix the atmospheric light of this winter’s day. Spring is nibbling at the edges now.The bare trees still expose that truth of Nature’s skeleton. As any of my readers will know, I never hold back in talking openly about love and its worldly hit-man, sex. In a way, Winter is the truth of enduring love. It is the true uncompromising hardcore when all the dressing up, tease, promise and make-up is done. If I’m being OTT Emma let me know. Here are a few shots I wanted to share.
Beauty on this scale is emotional. I’m not one of those posh Wordsworth guys who can express the intellectual power of Nature’s beauty. Even so, I’m a human bean planted in this soil to grow.
Emma thinx: Life grows. You are life. Life is you.
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| My DNA. No wonder I can’t think straight |
My Pinterest reveal tour rolls on into Missouri USA via the site Full Moon Dreaming. Today deals with police forensics. My police consultant Oscar tells me that in the 1970’s the cops immediately rounded up likely suspects when there was a crime. Forensics were for scientists. In earlier fictional times Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson shuffled about over the crime scene shedding fibres and tobacco ash from pipes.
These days the whole police business is far more professional. All officers are very aware of the need to preserve evidence at all costs. A footprint in mud will not last long on a rainy day. Bigger and bigger databases of DNA and fingerprints provide more chances of a forensic answer to that whodunnit question. In Shannon’s Law both DNA and prints play significant silent roles.
Dr Edmond Locard (1877-1966) is not a household name like Sherlock Holmes, even though he really existed. He was essentially the Sherlock of France. To me he is the philosophical inventor of forensics. His principle was that “Every contact leaves a trace”.
It’s amazing what you stumble across as you research a novel. I was fascinated to find that in Mark Twain’s 1883 story “Life on the Mississippi” a suspect was identified by fingerprints.
Emma Thinx: Love needs no contact to leave a permanent trace
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| You can call me Icon |
The Pinterest reveal goes on and on. There’s been a glitch with my host blogger but I’ve got a little slice of English village life that I wanted to share in any case. OK – what do you see in every postcard from the UK along with the black taxi cab and the double decker bus? You got it. It’s the red telephone box.
In Shannon’s Law the parish council of Fleetworth-Green agree to install a second red box but without a phone. Everyone has a mobile device. The phone box forms the perfect privacy and shelter where you can pull out your electronics without fear of rain damage. It’s a classic British compromise.
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| Love on the phone. It’s easy as A B – See. |
If you want to know the full history of the phone box – it is here. To this day, they remain an iconic element of tradition and continuance. My own memories are of standing outside while other lovers poured their boring sweet nothings into the heavy handset. By the time I got in my own passion had cooled but I still loved the old fashioned rotary dial.
Before I go I do want to share with you a video trailer for a book by the Harper Impulse author Mandy Baggot. Her story, “Made In Nashville” launched recently. It’s a page turner and I’m turning them. The book is about a singer and you can tell the authenticity in the way Mandy writes. She just loves the music.She’s a trouper. She doesn’t hold back. She gives you full music power straight out of her generous talented heart. That’s a star. She’ll be a guest on my blog in the next week.
Emma Thinx: Big up the tip. Mortality will snatch your change.
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| Gustav Mahler |
And onward to the Pinerest reveal of the music of Mahler.
Today I’m on Books and Other Spells.The owner is out there in California. It’s a cool site which has introduced me to the books of Kelsie Leverich (it looks like we have the same views about laundry) and the music of Colbie Caillat.
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| My wobbly tourist shot of the Grand Canal. |
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| A hunk, a trunk, a burning love |
Today my pinterest reveal tour is hosted on the treasure trove site Reviews by Crystal. Take a look, there’s all sorts on there. The subject is the male lead in Shannon’s Law, Spencer Chamberlain-Knightsmith, 11th Earl of Bloxington.
He’s an aristofantastic hero – but a gentle one. The weight of tradition and duty anchor him seriously to his position in life. While writing about him I was reflecting upon the great inequalities of wealth and opportunity that divide our communities throughout the world. It is tempting to take a hard line position. The fact is that much of our visible history and tradition exist only because of our aristocrats. Spencer is no snob. Never once does he consider the social differences between himself and Shannon. Prince or pauper, men are good or bad in equal measure. Oooh – just as long as they’re sexy!
Emma Thinx: Friend is the noblest title.
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| Boy of the hood |
Today’s Pinterest reveal features that most enigmatic of human phenomena – the teenager. We’ve all been one but somehow once you leave its discarded skin behind, you can never quite remember how it was. Your own adoescent skin will be an unfashionable object of derision hidden under an outdated alternative vocabulary. Interrogating current teens often creates more heat than light. Benjamin Chamberlain-Knightsmith is destined to be the 12th Earl of Bloxington. With his mother dead and a great injustice on his shoulders he has good reasons to pull up his hood. In Shannon’s Law one of the quests is to resolve his issues. It’s a bumpy road.
The full feature on our hoodie hunk appears on the lovely blog of Sheryl Browne. As a young sprog of a novelist doing poetry cold turkey I met Sheryl when she led a workshop on how to romcom. Check her out her books and see just how much I don’t know.
I was lucky to have a cooperative model to be Ben. He also wrote the music for my video poem “You are my love” and designed the book cover for the poetry anthology “Freeze Frame”. Such talent – it makes you weep.
Emma Thinx: Youth – from where the desire to escape equals the desire to return.
Emma Undercover 