PICTURE FRIDAY: I♥NY -- AMSTER YARD

I found the most beautiful and picturesque courtyard in the city -- Amster Yard at the Instituto Cervantes, an institution that was founded by the Spanish government in 1991, to promote the Spanish language and Spanish and Hispanic-American culture.  The best place to learn Spanish in the Big Apple!

I could spend hours there ... reading, writing, dreaming.  Care to join me?

The Muse

The oasis

Comfy chairs

The view... Up!

TUESDAY TALES: BAD PENNY

Every Tuesday a group of us writers create stories around a different word or picture prompt. Visit our blog and read our stories. They will surprise and delight you. Below is my short for this week. It’s a new story I am working on about two brothers torn apart by one scheming woman. Let me know what you think. ---mcf

Bill drove over the town line and stepped back in time. Same store fronts. Same people. Same lies. He had run like hell from this town and here he was again; right back where he started, but not for long; not if he could help it.

Bill parked his motorcycle outside the blue ranch house. The rose bushes at the front of the house looked a little wilted, like if no one was talking to them or giving them enough to drink. And maybe they weren’t. Seemed his grandmother’s death affect all of them.

The street was jammed with parked cars. Luckily a bike fit anywhere. The crowd on the porch stopped their conversations mid-sentence, but no one dared approach him. His long legs ate the sidewalk and he was climbing the steps in no time. The house looked and smelled the same – lavender and peaches. The scent lingered and brought back memories.

Before he could take another step or another breath, a warm body with lots of curly hair tackled him. He saved himself from falling over by widening his stance.

“You came, you came,” cried the small woman in his arms.

He looked into the trusting eyes of his baby sister. “You are so big.” He didn’t realize he had spoken his thought out loud until she answered him.

“I’m nineteen now and a college sophomore.”

“Good for you,” he said and he meant it. College was one ticket out of here.

“Well, well, well, so the prodigal returns.” His brother John entered the room from the living room. The years had not been kind. He looked older than his 32s. “Don’t expect the fatted calf.”

“I wouldn’t think of it,” answered Bill. “I’ll be gone by this evening.”

“No,” cried his sister Suzanne. “You have to stay. Grandma wanted you to stay, to take care of the family now. She said it was your turn. That’s what she said.”

“My turn?” No f-ing way Bill thought. He loved the old girl but he wasn’t staying any longer than it took to pay his respects and cut the final ties.

Bill turned toward the woman now walking into the room. Darling Eve. The woman he once loved. The woman who cost him all. His brother’s wife.####



READ MORE STORIES. Visit our blog at http://tuesdaytales1.blogspot.com. Happy Reading.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! // FELIZ DIA DE MADRES!!

To all the mothers everywhere, Thank You for all you do.

Have a beautiful day!



I miss my Mami.  God bless you, wherever you are.

PICTURE FRIDAY: I♥NY - FARMER'S MARKETS

   

I♥NY.  Especially the Farmer’s Markets around the city with smiling vendors selling everything from vegetables to flowers to honey to chocolate milk (my favorite!) to goat cheese to lamb’s wool.  It’s a great place to get your greens.  In fact, plenty of the city’s chefs visit these street markets to get fresh produce for their restaurants.  I’ve even seen Rachel Ray at them.  Visit a street market near you.  You’ll never know what you could find or whom.  Happy Friday!

  

Have a good weekend!

WHEN YOUR HEROINE IS A MOTHER

by Maria C. Ferrer

The Ides of March are past, the April showers are over, and now we have May flowers popping out everywhere. Flowers are a great gift for Mother’s Day (this Sunday, May 12, don’t forget!).

My heroine is a mother.

Jessenia Lopez is a single mother of a precocious five-year-old, Antonio. She is also a sexy modern woman who runs a day-spa and drives our hero Rafael Quintero crazy with lust. The two spent three wicked nights in bed following their cousins wedding and Antonio was the result. Unfortunately, after their wild weekend they parted ways. Now, six years later, Rafael is back in town and furious that Jessenia kept his son from him. He gets even by moving into the apartment above her and starting his campaign to claim his son and the woman he has never been able to forget.

So the battle of the sexes is on, but with a child in the house it has to be covert.

I have scenes where Jessenia and Rafael awaken to the lust between them. It never died, but there is a child present so it’s not like they can have sex at the drop of a hat, and certainly not in an open room where their son may walk in on them. (Yikes!)

Readers must see Jessenia as a Sexy Mama, after all, they will identify with her. I want my readers to see my heroine as a combination of Marilyn Monroe and Clair Huxtable – sex goddess and mother.


While many of my scenes are between Jessenia and Rafael alone, Antonio still plays a big part because he is the bone they are fighting over. However, once they agree to “joint custody” that part of the battle is over and now the true battle for sex begins. Rafael wants a marriage of convenience; Jessenia wants a lover not a martyr. It is so much fun to write scenes where Jessenia pushes Rafael’s buttons, and of course, the ones where Rafael pushes back are equally hot.

However, I also want readers -- and Rafael! -- to see the good mother Jessenia is so of course I have to have scenes between her and Antonio, with her being nurturing and motherly. Like when Jessenia wakes Antonio in the morning with a game of spiders and drums; when she cuddles him after a traumatic rush to the emergency room; when she reads to him yet one more story at night; when she turns a blind eye to the dog that he slips into his bed.

When your heroine is a mother, the writer must have a good mix of scenes where the heroine is shown as a sex goddess and then as a mother. The writer must always remember that they are writing a romance novel. Readers will want more Marilyn than Clair so most of the scenes should be between the heroine and the hero; maybe 30 percent with the child. Whatever the percentages, a writer cannot shortchange the heroine or the hero or her readers. If they do, mother will be angry!♥



Maria C. Ferrer is not a mother, but she is an aunt and godmother to nine brats. She loves that she can send them home to their real mothers at the end of the day! Her secret baby book is entitled, DADDY FOUND.  This article was also published in the RWA/NYC chapter blog at www.rwanycblogginginthebigapple.blogspot.com.

 

PICTURE FRIDAY: I♥NY – GIBSON GUITARS

 
I♥NY.  As I mentioned before, I love discovering new things around and about my New York. I will share my findings and photos with you every Friday so stay tune!


Today, I have pictures of The Gibson-Baldwin Showroom, formerly known as The Hit Factory on 54th Street.

The Hit Factory is no more, and the Gibson-Baldwin Showroom is just that a showroom -- empty space for people or corporations looking to throw a party in a different kind of venue, and the Gibson-Baldwin Showroom is very different. It’s also a forgotten part of New York’s music legacy.

The Hit Factory was where Michael Jackson produced his album “Bad,” and where Steve Wonder recorded his mega hit album, “Songs in the Key of Life.” Quincy Jones, Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen and others also recorded there.

The original Live Room (where the band played) is still there with its double-pane sound-proof glass; the control room on the other side of the glass sits empty, its motherboard gone; and two isolation booths are on the sidelines. One was usually used for the singer, the other for a piano or drums. There’s a club in the basement where Michael perfected his moves, and a room filled with guitars, lots of guitars. There are the traditional acoustic guitars, the Les Pauls, bass guitars, electric guitars and even one with a double neck like the one Jimmy Page played with while on tour with Led Zeppelin.

I can’t play for beans, but my father and uncle did. They used to play acoustic guitars. Their signature song for me was “Las Mañanitas.” I love that song and still play it for each of my birthdays and on special occasions.

Happy Friday. May your life always be filled with good music! ---mcf