Guest Blogger: Randy Jeanne

Randy Jeanne grew up a child of the 50's in "The Valley," a suburb of Los Angeles famous for its Bob's Big Boys and indoor shopping malls. A fan of Phyllis Whitney, Mary Stewart, and Victoria Holt, she aims to evoke old-fashioned romantic values in her writing while at the same time creating heroines to whom modern women will relate. Stealing Amy (a romantic adventure along the lines of Romancing The Stone) and Lights! Cameras! Love! (a romantic mystery set on a TV studio lot) are available as digital downloads at all the usual outlets. Visit her blog at www.randywrites.blogspot.com and her website at www.randyjeanne.com.

Pssst!

Over here!

Don’t tell Carol, but I’ve hijacked her blog for the day, and instead of heading for the Tiki Hut, we’ll be spending the day…

Under The Palapa!

Yes, I’m down here in sunny (er, that isn’t a raincloud in the distance, is it??) Puerto Vallarta. (Go away, thunderhead. Take your lightning elsewhere!) First order of business, as always, is a visit to bartender Javier for a piña colada. And, what luck! There’s a cooking demonstration going on, and Jorge’s got shrimp tacos on the grill. So what if I just finished breakast? I’m on vacation!

Anyway, now that we’ve covered the cocktail and snacks portion of our program, let’s proceed to the third part of Carol’s summer challenge. Namely, as I haul out my laptop, what’s distracting me?

Sigh.

I know you’re waiting for me to describe the hunky guy swimming laps across the pool…or the one standing waist-deep in the shallow end flexing his biceps.

Sadly, they’re not what’s distracting me today (which may also explain why I’ve managed to make it to 57 without getting married, but I digress…)

No, what’s distracting me is the mother-daughter duo on the other side of the bar. They’re giggling with their heads together, sharing a private moment of laughter…y’know the type. Best friends. Great characters for a novel.

And that’s when it comes to me that…geez…all my poor heroines have mother “issues.” Which is kinda funny since, although my own mom died when I was young, I couldn’t get along better with the woman who became my stepmother. (Sidenote: Man, if she ever reads any of my books, she’s gonna have cause to wonder!)

Take Stealing Amy, for instance. In that story, the heroine’s identity has been stolen, causing her all sorts of grief—to her socialite mother’s undying embarrassment. And when Amy finds herself tangled in a web of international intrigue (with the requisite hero, of course), her mother arrives on the scene to make things worse.

Likewise, in Lights! Cameras! Love!, plain-Jane Daphne Smith blogs as a seductive alter ego who’s got Tinseltown (not to mention her hunky boss) all a-buzz with gossip. Who do you suppose threatens to expose her identity? Right, dear old Mom.

Finally, in Leftovers (available soon), Rose Thornton laments the life of hand-me-downs which began the day her father married a former actress…and includes the current situation where she finds herself falling in love with her step-sister’s estranged husband—the ultimate leftover of all.

What about you guys? Are there characters across your novels who consistently carry more weight than others? Do you see patterns of re-occuring character types who happen to appear in your real life? And to you readers, what kind of secondary relationships do you enjoy reading about? What sort of dynamics bring those relationships to life?

Hey, thanks for joining me here today…let’s have another round of piña coladas while we discuss, ‘kay? Drinks are on me! (And don’t let the approaching storm scare you—we’re always safe under the palapa.)

 P.S. to Carol—Thanks for letting me hijack your blog today!