Boroughs Publishing Group’s podcast

Where Story Matters®


boroughspublishinggroup.com/podcast


August 18th 2021

Episode #3

The Interview:

Diane Benefiel

The Roundtable topic is:

Stick with reality or suspend disbelief? If Romantic Suspense isn’t 100% accurate

about gadgets, military and police procedure does it ruin the story?

The Roundtable guests are:

Police procedure expert M.A. Taylor,

& Romantic Suspense authors Emily Mims,

Jamie Lynn Miller & Diane Benefiel

From the Editor's POV:

Hosted by John Trevillian

Q & A:

Full-on audience participation

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Author Spotlight

Each month we’ll spotlight an author
and share a little something you may not know

DIANE BENEFIEL

When I was sixteen, I was accepted as a foreign exchange student, and I spent the summer with a family in Sweden. Talk about a growth experience. After going through orientation at a camp in southern Sweden, I was put on a train and told to get off at the Mockfjӓrd station. Another American student was going to a farm in a nearby county and we sat together, but when she got off at her destination I sat alone as the train kept chugging north. I studied my Swedish phrase book and practiced how to say Vart ӓr badrummet? (Where is the bathroom- very important), and was sure I’d miss my stop.

Then my station was announced and I got off the train and met my family. They spoke wonderful English, and, like me, my host sister Kristina was always looking for adventure and fun things to do outdoors. We spent a lot of time with my host brother, Sören, a cool twenty-four-year-old who ran a youth hostel in the beautiful port village of Norrtӓlje.

I’d never thought that Americans were prudes, but compared to the Swedes, we (or at least I) definitely were. Sören took Kristina and I to the beach, and people were changing into their suits right on the beach like it was no big deal. Kristina and I climbed over some rocks and found a couple nude sunbathing. Shocking.

Sören played the violin and danced in a folk music group. I remember going with the rest of the family to the changing room after a performance and Sören asking how I liked the show as he unselfconsciously dropped his drawers right in front of us. I looked him in the eyes, all the while thinking: don’t look down.

This is why student exchange programs exist, right? You experience other cultures and often learn something about your own. My mom said my summer abroad changed me. She was right. I was more confident and self-reliant, and I’d caught the travel bug.

And I was no longer such a prude.

From the Editor's Desk

Food, Glorious Food

Restaurants are open, the weather welcomes us to dine outside, and we can’t wait to partake in the universal feeling of friendship and love that comes from sharing a meal.

Symbolically, food has many meanings. The abundance of it signifies the provider’s ability to take care of beloved family and friends. The craft of creating it is an art raised to a new level in this era of The Food Network and its kin. The intimacy of a romantic dinner is often the place where people get to know each other better, get engaged, or share important news. Weddings often provide feasts to ensure the revelry and joy of the occasion is memorable on every front.

Smell is the sense most closely linked to parts of the brain that process emotions and memory. Everyone has a comfort food they remember from childhood, and catching a whiff of its scent produces a flood of happy feelings we grab on to with both hands. Conversely, a terrible sense memory of hated food is a powerful thing.

Food in novels can serve many functions. For those of you who went straight to whipped cream, okaaay...nothing wrong with thinking of a tried-and-true vehicle for those scenes enhanced by something sweet. Chocolate is another favorite, and it too gives readers a signal of the giver’s intentions, especially effective if they’re misleading. Scenes where the H/H are cooking together for the first time can be wonderful. Intimacies measured in small touches, bodies in close proximity, and meaningful glances across countertops can lead to all sorts of interesting dialogue and tension.

Food as a metaphor is a writer’s dream. Here are a few we all know, and their multitudes of meaning can be used in clever ways in stories: your fingers in too many pies, food for thought, appetite for destruction, you’re toast, a bun in the oven, recipe for disaster, half-baked idea, walking on eggshells, hard to swallow, sour grapes, couch potato, humble pie, and let them eat cake.

Play with your food, and bon appétit.