Faces of Evil [4] Rage (39 page)

From the desk of Roxanne St. Claire

I packed a lot of emotional themes and intense subjects into my writer’s beach bag when I penned BAREFOOT IN THE SUN, from faith and trust to life-threatening illness and life-altering secrets. The Happily Ever After is hard-won and bittersweet, but that seems to come with the Barefoot Bay territory. The heroine, Zoe Tamarin, has to overcome a tendency to run away when life goes south, and the hero, Oliver Bradbury, must learn that, despite his talents as a doctor, he can’t fix everything. During their reunion romance, Zoe and Oliver grow to understand the power of a promise, the joy of a second chance, and the awesome truths told by Mother Nature.

But this is Barefoot Bay, so it can’t be all heartache and healing!

In lighter moments, Oliver and Zoe play. They kiss (a lot), they laugh (this is Zoe!), they swim (some might call it skinny dipping), and occasionally Zoe whips out her deck of cards for a rockin’ round of Egyptian Rat Screws (ERS).

I’ve mentioned Zoe’s penchant for ERS in other books, and readers have written to ask about the card game. Many want to know the origin of the name, which, I have to admit, is a complete mystery to me, as the game has nothing to do with Egypt, rodents, or hardware of any kind. The secret of the name is one of many aspects of the game that reminds me of Zoe… a character who reveals in the opening scene of BAREFOOT IN THE SUN that she’s not the person everyone believes she is.

Like the woman who loves to play it, Egyptian Rat Screws is fast-paced, intense, and not for the faint of heart, but I promise a good time. So grab a deck, a partner, and your most colorful curses, and I’ll teach you the two-person version. ERS can also be played with more people, but I find one-on-one is the most intense… like any good romance, right?

The object of the game is simple: The winner ends up holding the whole deck. Of course, play can easily be transformed into something even wilder, such as Strip Rat Screws (Oliver’s favorite) or Drinking Rat Screws, a game our four best friends, Tessa, Lacey, Jocelyn, and Zoe, played a few times in college.

Before playing, the players face each other across a table and choose who goes first. Player One is selected arbitrarily—closest birthday, rock-paper-scissors, or the ever popular “least hormonal.” Leading off is no advantage, so save your voice for more important arguments, because there will be many. Each player gets twenty-six well-shuffled cards and
may not look at them
.

To begin, Player One flips the first card face-up on the table. If this card is a 2 through 10, Player Two puts her first card on top of the card on the table. Again, if that card is a number card, Player Two goes again.

The action begins when either player puts down a Jack, Queen, King, or Ace. When a face card is revealed, the other player must try to “beat” it by placing another face card of equal or higher value on top of it. Depending on the face card Player One has put down, Player Two has only a certain number of tries to beat it: one for a Jack, two for a Queen, three for a King, and four for an Ace.

If Player Two can’t beat the face card in her allotted number of tries, Player One gets all the cards on the table. (“Strip” ERS losers would shed one article of clothing; drinkers, take a gulp.)

If Player Two lays down another face card in her allotted tries, then Player One has the same number of tries to beat that card. (If more than two players are in the game, just keep moving around the table.) It’s not uncommon for the pile to grow to five or even ten cards, which results in a constant shift of power as each play becomes more and more valuable.

That’s it. Oh, except for the slap rule. And I don’t mean each other. When two of the same card is laid on the pile consecutively, the first player to notice can “slap” the pile and gets to keep all the cards in it. This is why it is very important that a player lays down his or her card without looking at it.

In the case of a simultaneous slap, whoever is on the bottom gets the pile. (Hint: Remove rings and clip nails; there can be blood!)

When I step back and look at the many aspects of Zoe’s character, it’s no surprise ERS is her favorite card game. In many ways, this riotous game is much like Zoe herself: hilarious, unpredictable, fast, wild, addictive, and irresistible fun. Enjoy!

From the desk of Nina Rowan

Dear Reader,

“I want to write about Victorian robots,” Fanciful Nina said as she ate another chocolate bon-bon.

“Huh?” Serious Nina looked up from alphabetizing the spice rack. “You’re writing a historical romance. Not a paranormal. Not steampunk.”

“But look at this,” Fanciful Nina persisted, clicking on the website of the Franklin Institute. “Here’s a robot… okay, an automaton, to use the historically correct term, called the Draughtsman-Writer. It was an actual invention by the eighteenth-century Swiss engineer Henri Maillardet, and it can produce four drawings and three poems in both French
and
English. Look, you can watch a video of it! How cool is that?”

“You can’t just write about something because it’s cool.” Serious Nina arranged the paprika, parsley, and peppercorn bottles. “You have to have a reason.”

“Coolness
is
a reason.”

“Coolness is a reason for a teenager to wear ear-cuffs. You are writing a historical romance novel. You need much more than coolness as a basis for your story. You need intense conflict, sexual attraction, danger, and agonizing goals that tear your characters apart before they overcome all obstacles and live happily ever after.”

“But—”

Serious Nina frowned. “Focus and figure it out. Conflict. Emotions. Anguish. Happy ending. No robots.”

“Okay, there’s a war going on, right?” Fanciful Nina pushed aside her bon-bons and hauled out her research books. “Rich with possibilities for conflict and emotion. Did you know that in 1854, scientist Charles Wheatstone invented a machine that transmitted messages in cipher? It drew the attention of Baron Playfair, who thought encoded messages would be useful during the Crimean War, and they submitted the machine to the British Foreign Office. How cool is…”

“No,” Serious Nina said firmly. “No cool.”

“How
interesting
is that?” Fanciful Nina amended.

“May I remind you that you’re writing about Sebastian Hall?” Serious Nina put a bottle of rosemary before the sage. “Sebastian is a musician, a free spirit, a gregarious, talented fellow who loves to perform and enjoy himself. He doesn’t care about robots or cipher machines. His brother Darius, on the other hand…”

“But what if Sebastian has to care about a cipher machine?” Fanciful Nina reached for another bon-bon. “What if something happens that makes him lose his fun-loving attitude? Omigod, what if something happens that makes him lose his
career
?”

Serious Nina blinked. “You would make Sebastian lose his career?”

“You’re the one who said ‘anguish.’ What if his right hand is permanently injured?”

“But… but Sebastian is so dreamy. So devilishly handsome. Why would you do that to him?”

“So that he’s forced to find a new purpose.” Fanciful Nina jumped up and started pacing. “What if Sebastian has to stop focusing on himself for once in his life in order to help someone who needs him? Like his brother? Or Clara? Or his brother
and
Clara?”

“Well…”

Fanciful Nina clapped her hands. “What if Darius knows something is wrong? Being a mechanical-minded fellow, he’s seeking secret plans for a machine that could be used in wartime. And because encoding machines and automata often have similar mechanisms, the plans are hidden in the Museum of Automata where Clara lives. So Sebastian has to approach Clara because he promised to help Darius, only he can’t tell her what he needs. And he doesn’t yet know that Clara has a desperate, heart-wrenching goal of her own. And Sebastian is the only person who can help her attain it!”

Fanciful Nina raised her arms in victory. “Conflict. Anguish. Strong goals. Very hot, sexy attraction. I’ll figure out the happy ending later.”

Serious Nina was silent. She picked at the label of a turmeric bottle.

“What?” Fanciful Nina frowned. “It’s good.”

“But does Sebastian
have
to lose his career?”

“He’ll find his way back to music,” Fanciful Nina said reassuringly. “I promise.”

“With Clara.”

“Of course! Their love is so powerful that they create a new and exhilarating future together. With lots of steamy lovemaking.”

Serious Nina put the turmeric bottle back into place on the rack.

“Okay,” she finally agreed. “That’s cool.”

Happy Reading!

From the desk of Jane Graves

Dear Reader,

Our cat, Isabel, is a rescue kitty. She had it rough her first few years, but after living with her foster mom for several months, she was ready to be adopted. She was so sweet and engaging in spite of what had happened to her that we bonded instantly. Her foster mom was delighted that I was a writer, which meant someone was home all day every day to cater to Isabel's every whim. As she put it, “She hit the jackpot!”

As an animal lover, I’m always on the lookout for romance novels that feature pets. So when I was deciding what to write next, I wanted to include pets in a big way. Then I read a popular legend that revolves around pets—the Legend of the Rainbow Bridge—and I knew I’d found the basis for my new series. According to the legend, there’s a spirit world tied to earth, inhabited by beloved pets who’ve passed to the other side. With all earthly age and disease erased, they wait in this transitional paradise for their human companions to join them. After a joyful reunion, together they cross the Rainbow Bridge to heaven.

From there, I created Rainbow Valley, a small town deep in the Texas Hill Country, which is considered to be the home of the mythical Rainbow Bridge and bills itself as the most pet-friendly town in America. The first book, COWBOY TAKE ME AWAY, revolves around the Rainbow Valley Animal Shelter, a place where animals like Isabel get a second chance to find a loving home.