Holiday Traditions With Caridad

When I think about this time of year, I always think of the traditions that are being passed down in the family. Things like how we go and chop down the tree together, the shopping day to pick up all the foods we will need for Christmas Eve as well as Christmas Eve itself which is filled with a combination of Italian and Cuban foods.

This year we had to wait to get our tree because our daughter was away at school. But as soon as she was home, we headed to go get the tree. Here are some photos from that event!

This week we’ll be heading up to Union City, home to many Cubans, to pick up some of the ethnic foods that aren’t available in my area. Special pastries, candies, vegetables and even my favorite soda – Ironbeer.

On Christmas Eve, lots of food, friends and family. A wonderful combination. Traditions such as these shape who we are and also shape future generations. As a writer, it’s traditions like these and exploring the traditions of others that also help me create the characters in my stories since it’s important to know where someone comes from in order to make them believable. How about you? Do you have any special holiday traditions you’d like to share?

I am going to give away a copy of FURY CALLS and a SINS OF THE FLESH lunchbag to someone who comments.

http://www.caridad.com/

SINS OF THE FLESH: Caridad Pineiro

There are lots of questions that people ask authors, but one of the most common questions is “Where do you get the ideas for your books?”

I don’t know if I’m odd or not, but I actually get the idea for my characters first. They start off as a niggling idea in my brain and little by little become full-blown people who have an interesting story to be told. Even more interesting, it’s usually the female characters that happen into my brain first.

For example, for DARKNESS CALLS, the character of FBI Agent Diana Reyes came to me while I was in the middle of writing another book, but her presence was so strong that I had to put that other book away!

It was a similar situation for SINS OF THE FLESH. I had a sudden flash of a woman, one who had something terribly wrong with her. One who would do anything to try and improve the last few months of her life so that she can continue to do the thing she loves the most – play her music. Enter Caterina Shaw into the picture.

Why music? Well, besides being a science geek (more on that later), I used to be a musician and loved performing. My instrument of choice – the bassoon. Not very sexy if you know what a bassoon looks like, so I changed it to a cello. Very warm and sensual. See what I mean?

The next thing I had to think about with this heroine was what kind of hero would really push her buttons. Someone who would be a little rough around the edges, determined, protective and since her heroine had a dysfunctional family, someone with a family support system. Enter Mick Carrera into the system!

But now that I had a hero and heroine, what could I do with them? Well, enter me, the science geek!

I’ve always loved science so it made sense to use that love and the knowledge that I had learned in college to develop a story that would allow for lots of weird stuff going on, action, adventure and of course, romance.

Since Caterina needed a cure for her illness, I decided to play around with the idea of a radical gene therapy to help her. Unfortunately, the scientists decide to use Caterina as a science experiment, adding a number of other genes to her that will give her all kinds of unusual powers. When one of the scientists decides to blow the whistle on the illegal activities, he is murdered and Caterina is framed for that murder. Luckily, she manages to escape during the murder, but that necessitates sending a hunter after her – Mick Carrera. Of course when Mick finds Caterina, he also discovers that the story that he is being told about Caterina may not be totally accurate.

That discovery puts into place the action and suspense in the story as Mick and Caterina must battle to prove her innocence and also fight the attraction that is growing between them.

So now you know how the glimmer of an idea, in my case starting with a character, goes from that glimmer to a full blown story!

Thanks for dropping by to spend some time with me.

Post a comment and you may win a SINS T-shirt and a copy of FURY CALLS. http://www/caridad.com