5 Favorite Heroes

Each book I start to write, I need to visualize my hero and heroine before I can proceed.

Here are 5 actors who help me with that process:

1) Who can resist this man now we have seen him perform in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace? James Bond fans may have been upset at the choice of Daniel Craig as their new hero but they soon changed their tune when they saw him emerge from the sea, tanned, buff and serious. I recently set a book in Egypt and he was my man. And he performed real well, thank you.

2) Colin farrell is for when I need a younger hero, a man who has secrets as dark as he appears. He is my character in my current manuscript set in Santa Fe, USA, and he has a very dark secret.

3) No one could leave Hugh Jackson off this list. I have never seen him look bad even when he sprouts ears and other bits. Not a lot more to say, but I am looking forward to seeing him in his new film, Australia, as soon as it reaches New Zealand's shores.

4) Pierce Brosnan continues to look good despite the passing years. He was my favorite Bond until Daniel came along. I have used him before but I can't remember in which story. I guess I've written that many.

5) Viggo Mortensen is Lord of the Rings. Each story, each movie has to have a handsome hero and Lord of the Rings has two - Viggo and Orlando Bloom. Now I would have included Orlando but he's just a little too baby-faced still. Give him a few years and some tough living and he will turn out fine but until then I'll take Viggo. Those eyes hold mysteries and secrets that I would like to investigate, hoping to never know the truth.

In my next post, I will show you my heroines.

Meanwhile, which heroes do you visualize while writing?

Another Great review

Coffee Time Romance has just given me a great review for Crash into Darkness. This is the last section:

"No matter what the subject, Suzanne Perazzini masters every detail. Her ability to draw the reader into each and every scene is exemplary. The crashing waves, howling wind, and cold dark fear are such a tangible force, you will actually shiver in dread. Her characters are just as remarkable. You can feel their fear, and their struggle to control the demons inside. Recommending this book as well as Ms. Perazzini’s other work is a real pleasure, and I am thrilled to do so."

LototyReviewer for Coffee Time Romance

Reviewer for Karen Find Out About New Books

Here is the full review: http://coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/Crashintodarkness.html

The Five Things I want for Christmas

Erica Orloff blogged about her Christmas list and I thought I would do the same. But nothing altruistic here. This list is largely materialistic and just for me.

1) A pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes. This is something I will probably never get because I am too sensible to spend that amount of money on a pair of shoes, but this is my wish list and I want these shoes on it.

2) A louis XIV chair. My home is furnished with a mixture of modern and antique. I see one of these chairs in my study near my ultra-modern glass desk. I love the contrast of styles and materials.

3) My own personal masseuse who is on call at least 16 hours a day. My shoulders and back hold my tension and emotions so an undoer of my knots readily at hand would be dreamy.

4) An Alpha Smart Neo. They are so light to carry around. I have a laptop, but they get rather heavy if carried too far, and then I need that masseuse to give my shoulders a rub. And none of that pesky constant editing because you can't see much of what you have written. Ideal.

5) The ideal bra. I seek the perfect bra but it seems to be an impossibility. I want a bra that does its leverage job without effort, that looks perfect under a thin t-shirt, that's not too tight and doesn't dig in anywhere, and that is beautiful to look at. I enter lingerie shops and see all those gorgeous, lacy numbers but under a smooth top all you see are lumps and bumps. Who wears them?

There you go - my five. Give me one of yours. Don't make it practical and it must be materialistic.

EPPIE Finalist

I needed good news and I got it.

I am a finalist in the EPPIE Awards in the action/adventure category for my first published book, Beneath the Surface. The finalists are announced in March next year at the EPIC conference in Las Vegas. I need a travelling companion and I will be on my way. Anyone else out there going to the conference?

My other good news is yet another great review from Cocktail Reviews for Crash into Darkness. I got a score of 6 glasses of champagne out of a total of 5 possible glasses or a full bottle of champagne.

This was the last sentence: This exceptional tale really pulled me in and didn’t let go. I saw everything as though on a movie screen. Most impressive!

My 5 Favorite Temples

If you follow my blog, you will know that I have a passion for ancient churches, temple and ruins. I have already blogged about the temples in Egypt but I thought I would put my favorite ruins in the world all together in one place.

1) Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
I took this photo at sunrise and what a magical way it was to start our tour of this fantastic building. It's hard to imagine that until not long ago, this complex of many temples was buried in the jungle, its existence only known to the locals of the area. I recommend a visit now before the rapidly increasing tourist numbers create the circus that surround most of the more beautiful, ancient buildings of the world.

2) Abu Simbel in Egypt.
Abu Simbel consists of two temples on the shores of Lake Nassar, which were lifted and moved back onto dry land when the area was flooded due to the construction of the Aswan Dam. I won't write about the history of them again as I have done so elsewhere on this blog. Suffice it to say that they are a sight for sore eyes, isolated away from any main centre as they are and perched on the side of the lake in the middle of the desert.

3) Knossos in Crete, Greece.
I visited this site many, many years ago and so have no digital photos of it. This one is from Wikipedia.
Knossos, built between 1700 and1400BC, was the centre of Minoan civilization. Its ruins were only discovered in 1878 and have now been made much more tourist-friendly. But back when I saw it, its raw state struck a cord with me and so it remains among my favorite ruins.



4) The Roman Forum in Rome.
I have visited this site several times but there's always something more to see. This was the civil centre of Roman life back in Roman times. I love visualizing how it was back then when these buildings were intact. Imagine the hustle and bustle, so different from out main centers, and yet basically the same - just a bunch of human beings going about everyday life.

5) Machu Picchu in Peru.
Okay, so I'm cheating. I have yet to visit Machu Picchu but I just know it will be one of my favorites so here it is. I can't imagine the tireless ingenuity involved in building a small city up so high in the mountains. Built in 1460, it was used only for 100 years before it was abandoned during the Spaniard conquest. One day I will get there.

My Clever Son

This is another proud mother moment. As part of the same project as the model Skateboard Park blogged about not long ago, Dario had to design a double page magazine layout with the theme of skateboarding. He wrote about the skateboarder and human being extraordinaire, Bam Margera. Above is the double page layout. Click on it to get a better view, though it is not nearly as clear as the original form. Sorry about that.

Murder on the Mountain

A couple of times I have mentioned the website Authors Promoting Authors, which is purely for the promotion of books which are not published by the larger publishers. Today I would like to promote one of their more eye-catching books, Murder on the Mountain, by Maddie James. Look at that glorious cover.


A Ladies of Legend Novel...In the two long years since her Tennessee state trooper husband's murder, Kate Carpenter thinks she's coped with his death, although everyone in Legend, Tennessee keeps telling her she hasn't. She can't see what the problem is, really.She has her parents, and her best friend Patti Jo, and her students.
What else could a twenty-nine year old woman need?
A man, Patti Jo keeps telling her.
A thought that Kara quickly puts aside.
All is fine until one hot August afternoon when Trooper Mike Lehman invades her classroom, and her life. When she can't get out of working with the trooper, assigned to teach drug abuse prevention classes, she bites the bullet and tells herself it's for the good of her students.
Inside, she's fighting demons she hasn't fought in a while.
Sent to Kate's classroom on a investigation, Mike uses his drug prevention training as his cover.
His mission, however, is to find out what Kate knows, if anything, about Rob Carpenter’s supposed death. Recent reports indicate he is alive and that he faked his death because of his involvement in a drug-running operation.
Mike's task is to expose Carpenter, and if she's involved, Kate.
And he’ll stop at nothing, to get the answers he wants.Buy Murder on the Mountain Visit Maddie James' Website