Close to the Skin, a new Romance from Zara West

Zara West is here today to share with us how writing a romance story is similar to baking a cake. She has also brought us a wonderful excerpt from her new book, Close to the Skin.

Why Writing a Romance is Like Baking a Birthday Cake

It’s my daughter’s birthday today and I have just baked her a cake—strawberry with cream cheese icing. It made me think about how baking a cake is a lot like writing a romance novel.

You start out with the ingredients and then whip them together to tell a story.

For me the plot is the bowl. It holds the ingredients of character, setting, action, conflict and dialogue while you carefully fold them together.

The spoon is the author who must exert some pressure here and some scraping there to come up with the perfect mix.

When it’s perfectly blended, the author pops the ingredients into a pan, sets it aside to bake, then goes back to check and revise. If done to perfection, it is served forth to the world as a new book. Delicious.

Here’s the recipe for my new book Close to the Skin.

Take two people very much in love, add in a dash of mistrust, a heap of arrogance, and one incorrigible villain and turn them loose in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Along the way, spice it up with a dishonest friend, a fearless kid, a very hot explosion, a very cold cistern, and some gigantic dogs. What do you get? A gritty romantic thriller that turns the billionaire lover trope on its head.

Close to the Skin

Never back down, never turn your back, and never fall in love. Head of a multi-million dollar criminal enterprise, Vernon Newell doesn’t let family ties or misplaced sympathy get in his way. But there is one chink in his armor—Sirena Patras, the beautiful young Greek girl he seduced and deserted eight years ago.

When Vernon discovers that Bella Bell, a prospering tattoo artist in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is actually Sirena, he sets out to woo and to win her. Despite her attraction to the fabulously sexy man, Bella wants nothing to do with a hard-headed, ruthless criminal.

But when threatening messages start arriving, and Vernon disappears, Bella must choose to abandon the man she loves, as he did her, or risk her life to save him.

BUY LINKS

EXCERPT from Close to the Skin

The man was dead.

Her brother had killed him in front of her eyes.

Or had it all been a lie?

If anyone knew what was going on it would be Vernon. She moved back into the living room and peered out the window. The sky was still dark. The street light still burned. Dare she call him? He’d think she’d capitulated. Wanted him.

She dropped the curtain and straightened her shoulders. She wanted him all right. She wanted answers. She wanted to know why dead men were calling her and threatening notes appeared in her mail.

Hands shaking, she punched in Vernon’s cell number. It rang once. Twice. She imagined him holding her, kissing her. His low, rumbling voice whispering in her ear. No, she couldn’t talk to him. Not yet. She was still addicted to the man.

She tapped the phone off and curled back up on the sofa. Tomorrow. Tomorrow, she’d send him an e-mail—a nicely worded formal request.

At that moment, the phone in her hand rang. Vernon returning her call? She hesitated. Then flicked it on.

A low pitched voice spoke through heavy static. “Does Vernon know what you did?” A frisson of fear crept down her spine and burrowed deep into her core. She tossed the cell phone onto the floor and buried herself under the silk shawls, struggling to breathe.

Forget all the reasons why Vernon was the wrong man for her. She needed him. She needed him now.

Meet Zara West

Zara West loves all things dark, scary, and heart-stopping as long as they lead to true love. Born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Zara spends winters in New York where the streets hum with life, summers in the Maritimes where the sea can be cruel, and the rest of the year anywhere inspiration for tales of suspense, mystery, and romance are plentiful.

Swept off her feet by her own Indiana Jones, Zara has followed sheep and goats up and down mountainsides in Greece, Crete, and Italy, been stranded on the banks of the Rhine with no money and one chocolate bar, and while she has never been kidnapped, she has been abandoned on an island in the middle of the wilderness for longer than she wants to remember.

A member of RWA, Zara has won numerous awards for her short stories and novels. Close to the Skin was a first winner in the 2016 Pages from the Heart for romantic suspense.

Find Zara West here:

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2 Comments

  2. Thanks, Laura

    I loved being able to combine my two loves of writing and cooking. I think from now on I will have to invent a new cake recipe to go with each of my romances.

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