 Boomerangs and Brides Posted by Anna Campbell Dec 6 2011, 12:02 am
I’m delighted to welcome back to the lair a wonderful Australian writer Fiona Lowe. I’ve been a long-time fan of Fiona’s warm, emotional Harlequin Medical Romances, going back to her debut PREGNANT ON ARRIVAL in July, 2006. Now I’m delighted to have Fiona as my guest today to talk about her single title romance debut for Carina Press, BOOMERANG BRIDE. This book has been creating wonderful buzz around the traps, including a Romantic Times Top Pick review that called it “one of the best romance novels this reviewer has read in a long time.” BOOMERANG BRIDE has since been nominated for a prestigious Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award in the Indie Press Romance category. Here’s the blurb for BOOMERANG BRIDE: Matilda Geoffrey risked it all for love. She left Australia to be with Barry—the man who had swept her off her virtual feet. Now, wearing a wedding dress, she’s alone on Main Street in small-town Wisconsin, and things aren’t working out exactly as planned… In town for his annual family visit, Marc Olsen had never seen a bride quite like Matilda—staring into a storefront window, holding a tottering wedding cake, and looking desperately in need of a groom. He may not have any warm feelings for his hometown,but meeting Matilda just as she discovers she’s been scammed by her online “fiancé” stirs something in him. Matilda is not the kind of woman Marc imagined himself with, and Marc is anything but the romantic hero that Matilda has always dreamed of. But as unlikely circumstances throw them together, can they let go of their misconceptions and risk their hearts for love? You can find out more about Fiona and her books and read an excerpt from BOOMERANG BRIDE on her website. www.fionalowe.com
I’m so excited to be here and thanks so much for having me, Anna, and all the other Bandits! BOOMERANG BRIDE is a contemporary romance with the added bonus of a secondary love story …a two for one deal. The story goes a bit like this…. Matilda Geoffrey grew up in outback Australia raised on the great love story of her grandmother and the oft retelling of her journey as a World War Two war-bride, crossing the Pacific to marry her Yankee GI. In the family tradition, Matilda left Australia for love and marriage, only to find that love over the internet is a big-time con and she’s giving up the dream for good. Now she’s stuck in a wedding dress in small town Hobin, Wisconsin, at Thanksgiving, without a cent to her name, and not even a jar of Vegemite to keep her warm. Marc Olsen kept his life complication-free and twelve years ago, he escaped his needy family and he only ever comes back to Hobin for a quick visit at Thanksgiving. But this year his sister is seriously ill and needs him to stay and care for her and her moody teenage son, pulling him right back into the heart of a family and a town he wants to avoid. The first thing he sees as he pulls into town is a bride holding a wedding cake and standing on a deserted main street. Both Marc and Matilda are trapped in Hobin. Can he use this crazy boomerang bride to be the carer his family needs and keep them at arm’s length, and can she use him to survive in a country without leaf tea and where no one understands a word she says? But most challenging of all, can they both keep their hands off each other, their hearts intact and both remain dependent-free?
I was sitting on a ski-lift on a sunny day, surrounded by all this white snow and beautiful snow gums and an image of a bride holding a wedding cake and standing in front of an empty shop window in small town Wisconsin, popped into my head. It wouldn’t leave and I found myself asking myself, ‘Why is she there?’ A week later I was listening to The Waifs and the song BRIDAL TRAIN started playing and suddenly a story started to evolve. I love the premise of this story, of an internet bride from Australia stranded in small-town Wisconsin. I know you lived for several years in Wisconsin and that most of your romances so far have been set in small-town Australia. I wondered if you had any thoughts on similarities and contrasts between rural Australia and rural America.
I see your latest Harlequin Medical Romance, CAREER GIRL IN THE COUNTRY, is still available. Can you tell us about this story? I’d love to! CAREER GIRL IN THE COUNTRY is my fifteenth Harlequin Medical romance and it was inspired by an interview with a female neurosurgeon and how she’d been told when she started her career that neurosurgery took beautiful young women and turned them into ugly ones. Surgery is still a ‘glass ceiling’ for women and they are underrepresented in the profession. It got me thinking and I created Poppy. The only soft thing about Poppy Stanfield is her name. She’s so very close to being made head of surgery at a Perth hospital and finally everything she’s worked so hard for is about to come to fruition, but she failed to factor in her wily boss and suddenly she finds herself in the far north of Western Australia surrounded by gibber plain, heat haze and goannas that go bump in the night. From the moment she steps off the plane at Bundallagong, she’s determined to get back to Perth ASAP. Matt Albright is in charge of the Emergency department at Bundallagong District hospital and he’s barely getting through each day after experiencing a shocking personal tragedy. The last thing he needs is a bossy and opinionated surgeon from the city arriving and trying to run his department as well as his own. But Poppy’s sharp angles and hard edges are all a decoy to hide a damaged heart. Can Matt’s damaged heart help heal her own? You can get CAREER GIRL IN THE COUNTRY from the Book Depository (post free anywhere in the world) – http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Career-Girl-Country-Doctors-Reason-Stay-Fiona-Lowe/9780263886009
Do I? I didn’t realise that! Both BOOMERANG BRIDE and CAREER GIRL IN THE COUNTRY were written with four books separating them even though they ended up being out together so now you’ve got me thinking. I guess both Poppy and Matilda are out of their comfort zones both physically and emotionally. Matilda is definitely a fish out of water because she is in a totally different country and people are staring at her as if she is an alien when she opens her mouth and they can’t quite understand her accent. I think putting someone out of their comfort zone and on the back-foot makes the reader really champion the character. Everyone has felt out of place at some point in their life and they know how it feels. It’s also a great way to have some laughs. What’s next for you? Are you going to continue to write single title and Medical romance? I am currently writing my eighteenth Harlequin Medical romance and, yes, I have plans to write more single title romances because I had so much fun writing BOOMERANG BRIDE. Fiona, do you have a question for our Banditas and Bandita Buddies?
Ooh, two winners. How fantastic. Thanks, Fiona! Get commenting, people! TweetPosted in Anna Campbell, Bandita Booty, Boomerang Bride, Career Girl in the Country, Fiona Lowe, Harlequin Medical Romance Comments105 thoughts on “Boomerangs and Brides” |
  
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By Anna Campbell
What were the inspirations behind this book?
I’ve noticed reading your work with great pleasure over the years that you have a fondness for fish out of water stories. Would you agree? Why do think this theme is so perennially popular in romance?
boomerang, i got it when my boss was travelling to australia 8 years ago (i meant a duplicate, a gift from australia) and i still kept it, love it
your book sounds great and make me curious
Hey, Eli, how cool you got a boomerang. Even cooler, you got the Golden Rooster for the day. Perhaps you could teach him how to throw the boomerang! He needs a hobby other than causing trouble.
Eli, Boomerangs are awesome in the way they just keep coming back. How great that you have one. So glad you like the sound of Boomerang Bride.
Wow, Fiona, I confess I’m new to reading your writing, but I love the sounds of Boomerang Bride! I do really enjoy fish-out-of-water stories because I think that all of us, even if we haven’t traveled widely, can recall a time when we’ve felt out of place or just not quite in tune with everyone else, whether it’s arriving late to an important event and knowing all eyes are on you as you stumble in trying to figure out where to go/what to do or whether it’s when you’re starting a new job and your new co-workers aren’t exactly showing you the ropes warmly and welcoming you.
Looking forward to reading some of your stories, Fiona!
Oh, Fiona, first days on the job are nearly ALWAYS excruciating. Or mine always have been. Sounds like yours haven’t been much fun either. Until you know the ropes, it’s so easy to step on toes or do the wrong thing. I love Fiona’s Medicals. I’m really looking forward to reading Boomerang Bride.
Oops, sorry, Fedora!!!! I’ve got ‘F’ names on the brain at the moment. Didn’t mean to call you Fiona. I KNOW you’re Fedora!!!
LOL, Anna! No worries–an easy slip! I’ve been called all sorts of “F” names before–Fiona’s a lovely one to try on for size
Actually Fiona is a nice name, isn’t it? I think those Celtic names are lovely! Still felt like a goose when I realized I’d done it!
Fedora, That feeling when you walk into a strange place and all eyes swivel towards you always makes my stomach drop! So thrilled you’re enticed by the premise of Boomerang Bride
I feel like a fish out of water most of the time. I worked in a factory for over 20 years and then went to school for working in a medical office. I felt like a fish out of water the whole time I worked in that office. I didn’t like the work at all. It just didn’t suit me at all.
Hi, Virginia,
It can take a while to find our feet but sometimes we have to accept that we don’t fit with that group and move on. For some reason we often hang in there longer than is healthy. I hope you’re feeling more settled now
Oh, Virginia, what a pity about that job. I’ve usually found my feet after a while, obviously in some places more than others.
Anna, Fiona, thanks for a great interview. It inspired all sorts of ideas for me. Years ago I was very much a fish out of water, neither understanding nor being understood, although I ostensibly spoke the same language as the people I was with! I was a know-it-all political lobbyist from the “big smoke” whose job it was to “help” farmers in a threatened town save their community. As you’d expect, they took grave offence at a blow-in trying to tell them what to do and how to do it, so despite the best intentions all around, it took quite some time to build a bridge between us. And unfortunately, there was no gorgeous cattleman to win them over for me. Until you asked the question, I’d not even remembered that experience, so thanks, and best of luck with the new novel!
Wow, Karyn, that experience SHRIEKS romance novel plot to me. Have you ever thought of writing it as a romance? Thanks for saying you enjoyed the interview!
I have now! Thanks to you both for the inspiration.
Good luck, Karyn!
Karyn, Anna is right…that experience can certainly be turned into a book! The whole city vs country thing really does exist.
Hi Fiona And Anna.
Both of these books sound very interesting and fun. It’s such a shame that glass ceilings still exist.
The first time I really felt like a fish out of water was when we moved to Quebec. I had taken French in high school but it did not prepare me for living in our French speaking province. I will always remember trying to shop at a small store connected to a camp ground. Between my husband and I, we managed to write out a list of almost everything we needed but we could not for the life of us remember the word for matches. Now considering that we needed them to light our camp stove we were quite upset when we couldn’t see any to point at. I’m almost positive that the owner of the store knew what we wanted but she wouldn’t cave in and give us any. We went back to our camp site and roamed around looking for someone to give us some matches. Fortunately there was a really nice family nearby and the father was smoking. We gestured at his matches and he gave us a matchbook. I haven’t seen any matchbooks lately. Now that smoking is banned indoors at all public places they are not a giveaway item anymore.
Kaelee, your description reminds me of my first visit to France. I was in Paris and I’d done French at high school and a semester at university. I wasn’t fluent but I was certainly more than a beginner. I asked for a sandwich (um, French word for sandwich is ‘sandwich’) and this pig of a man in the Tuilleries pretended he didn’t understand me. Given he sold sandwiches and he was in a peak tourist spot, I suspect he was just being a pain.
Oh Kaelee, I feel your pain! Mind you, Quebec French is nothing like French French. I remember being in Greece and ‘baa-ing’ in a restaurant for lamb!
Hi Anna and hi to Fiona too. I’m happy to Be a part of the banditta buddies. About your question the fish out of water, I believe every now and then there willbe time when everyone of us will feel sad, neglected and out of control but no we cannot just simply give up. Love the review of your new book, it really sounds interesting. Wish you all the best of luck:)
Hi Aretha! We’re very glad you joined the Bandita Buddies too. Nobody’s a fish out of water with us. Um, unless the cabana boys are barbecuing whole salmon! Yum! Fiona’s Boomerang Bride is getting a lot of buzz – it’s great to see.
Aretha, you are so right. Not giving up is really important and we need to teach our kids resilience to cope with life. That said, there is nothing so wonderful as finding a place where we feel we truly belong.
Hi, Anna and Fiona!
Congratulations on Boomerang Bride’s wonderful reception (see what I did there?)! I have her on my e-Reader and she’s very patiently waiting for me to finish my current book. So thrilled to see you have a terrific new Medical out for me to devour too.
I felt like a fish out of water on my first trip to Holland when I was 18. I vaguely knew the language, but by the end of my summer there I was speaking Dutch fluently, riding bikes on 40km trails, and eating hot chips and mayo like a local! I’ve kept up the chips and mayo habit all these years.
And a terrible pun always gets you a place at the Bandita table, Vanessa! Perhaps we should draw a veil over any further attempts. Snicker. Ooh, chips and mayo? YUM!!!!
Vanessa! Chips and Mayo? I have never had that. My florist is Dutch and just lovely so I have a soft spot for the country!
Um I had to say your first sentence outloud three times before i got it! Am blaming sore neck for my slowness but DH might disagree.
Fish out of water. Me at the Monroe County Fair in Bloomington Indiana trying to understand some good o’l boys from Nashville Tennessee. My American friends didn’t understand them so I had no hope.
Wow, Keziah, I can picture you. I had similar problems in the more obscure parts of Scotland and Ireland. I generally have a reasonable ear for an accent but these guys could have been speaking Russian for all I understood of what they were saying. And it’s a problem when they’re giving you travel directions!
Keziah, I can picture that oh so easily! Only time in the USA that I couldn’t understand someone was down south.
hey Anna. Great to see a fellow medical author here with the bandits, Fiona. I’ve read Boomerang Bride and loved it and I think as the person who probably paid the most for it here – brought it in the RWA charity auction in Melbourne last year – I surely deserve to have the rooster for today??
Fish Out of Water – going to live in Liverpool in the UK straight off the plane from Australia. I swear I did not understand a single word anyone said to me the entire 8 weeks we lived there. Lots of nodding and smiling and praying no one actually asked me anything!
LOL Amy, you sure do deserve that Rooster! Not only did you pay heaps for it, it probably almost put you over your luggage limit weight-wise! I can just picture you doing the ‘smile and wave, boys, smile and wave.’
Amy, I think you’ll have to wrestle with Eli for the Rooster. May the best girl win! Laughed at you pretending to understand the Liverpudlian. It’s such a distinctive sound, isn’t it? It makes me smile because I think of the Beatles.
Hi Anna and Fiona, how wonderful to address two of my favorite authors in the one salutation!
So nice, Fiona, to read about your inspiration for BOOMERANG BRIDE. I read the story almost as soon as it was released and thoroughly enjoyed it. As you say, it has a bonus love story in the secondary characters which was very moving.
As a fair-skinned redhead who freckles and burns, I always have that fish-out-of-water feeling in the summer in Sydney Australia where everyone seems to be tanned. (And yes, I know a tan is unhealthy but people still think it looks good and fake tan doesn’t even work on me!)
I’ve always enjoyed your HM&B medicals, Fiona, and it is lovely to read a bigger, longer story as well in BOOMERANG BRIDE.
Kandy, thanks for swinging by! Right back atcha on the fave Aussie author thing. So glad you enjoyed Boomerang Bride! Oh, ouch to the sunburn! It’s not a climate for fair-skinned people, is it?
Kandy! As one fellow red-head to another I know exactly what you mean. My BFF at High School had olive skin and tanned so easily and I was always wrapped head to foot in a sarong!
Thanks for you kind words about Boomerang Bride. I equally enjoyed your Castaway Bride!
Hi Fiona and Anna. Thanks for the interview – lots of fun. Fiona I love the description of Boomerang Bride. Definitely one to enjoy! That fish out of water theme is so appealing. I’ve been reading some of your medical stories lately and having a wonderful time with them. You really do small town community well and pack a lot of sizzle into your romances!
Annie, thanks so much for calling by! Sizzle? I take that as an uber compliment from a Presents author! I do love creating small towns that reader want to move to and I’ve quite a bit of reader mail saying they wished Hobin Wisconsin existed.
Hiya Annie! Yes, I love Fiona’s medicals too. I think they capture that atmosphere really well – and she’s brave enough to include a few of the downsides of living in a small community to increase the stakes in her plot. Everybody knowing everybody else’s business, for example. Fiona, what a compliment that people want to move into your fictional town!
Meeting the In-Laws for the first time. Both a fish out of water & NOT making myself understood. It was horrific. They never did get my sense of humour. They were so literal.
Mary, in-laws can be a tough gig! Hopefully your partner loved your sense of humor!
Mary, the SOH not translating thing can be a real problem, can’t it? I’ve been in that situation. Mind you, I have a very silly SOH!
Well done Eli have fun with him
Hi Fiona and Anna
I have Boomerang Bride on my E Reader ready to read and am looking forward to it I so love you Harlequin medicals.
Fish out of water sounds like work at the moment no one seems to take anything I say the right way these days LOL. I really need to retire and get more reading time.
Just got home from another bad day at work.
Have Fun
Helen
Oh dear Helen,
Hugs on the bad day! Crack open Boomerang Bride…sounds like you need a good escapist read. Thanks for calling by!
Oh, Helen, so sorry to hear that. We go through stages of everything we say being misunderstood – or at least I do. Hope the stage is OVER pronto!
Kandy! As one fellow red-head to another I know exactly what you mean. My BFF at High School had olive skin and tanned so easily and I was always wrapped head to foot in a sarong!
Thanks for you kind words about Boomerang Bride.
I’m going to agree with the first day on the job sentiment, having this year started a new job for a big organisation. Walking into the staff cafe the first few weeks was torture. Then the more folk I met, the more I realised the staff turnover is such that probably half the people there are fairly new anyway! I am so glad that’s behind me.
Lovely interview, Fiona, the books sound great.
Jo, how interesting. Actually you generally do find your feet but it’s awful until you do. Or at least that’s been my experience. I always try and be extra nice to people new in any situation just because I know how excruciating I find it when everybody else seems to be part of the party and I seem to be the smelly shoe left on the outside
Jo, I always find if you hold your head high and smile, you get by. Also helps to realise most people are feeling much the same as you are! Thanks for calling by.
The last time I felt like a fish out of water was at autumn when I returned to the university after a long break. There had been some changes, including the fact that our department had been moved to another town and the new premises are a bit bigger than the old ones.
Minna, it makes it extra hard when you think you SHOULD be familiar with things, doesn’t it? Hope you found your feet!
Minna, I get lost when I know where I am so I can totally feel your confusion!
Welcome back to the Lair, Fiona – great to see you!
LOVE the sound of Boomerang Bride! I’m a big fan of contemps and it’s great to see more of them hitting the market. Plus, in the same year as our trip to Oz (in which we did bring back boomerangs) it’s the perfect read!
I love the fish out of water theme – my 2011 GH finalist is about a Texas cowboy who inherits an English sheep farm *g* – wonder if it has anything to do with my boarding school days when I was definitely a fish out of water. At that point, I was living in the US, had travelled a lot of the world and was not on the same wave length as many of my schoolmates, who’d grown up in the English upper/middle classes. The, when I went home, I was out of touch with my American buddies.
It’s great now, because I feel like I have a home in both countries!
Anna, I’m another boarding school graduate. Perhaps that’s why we bonded so strongly
I felt like a fish out of water there until the day I left. Never really got better.
Anna, thank you for your welcome! My boys are day students at a boarding school and I often find I have a boarder home for a day on the weekends. They crave to be in a house and just on their own so always easy to entertain…they sleep or eat! I love the sound of your story.
I’m going with the “I wasn’t understood” story. Over 20 years ago, I was traveling around Eastern Europe with two college friends (who just left the Army – I was still active duty Air Force). As we tried to look for our hotel in Budapest, I rolled down the window to ask for directions to “centrum”. For some reason, the old gentleman could not understand me … but responded to my male friend with a deep south Atlanta accent. Perhaps it was the male thing. To this day, I am razed by my friends for being unable to communicate something so simple as “centrum”.
Kim, your centrum is my sandwich – hmm, maybe we should get T-shirts printed up saying that!
LOL, Kim. Some countries are harder than others and sometimes I think in some countries men will only talk to men Thanks for calling by
Hi Fiona and Anna
Terrific interview! Both books sound like great reads! I have Boomerang Bride teetering on my e-TBR pile – I think I’m going to have to move it up to the very top and dive in!
As for a time when I had that fish-out-of-water feeling… the one that leaps to mind is prompted by your explanation about how you were sitting on the ski lift when the idea for BB came to you… Before I’d taken any ski lessons, I foolishly allowed myself to be persuaded to take a ride up in a ski lift to the top of a mountain run. The view was spectacular and beautiful … and absolutely terrifying! I had no idea what to do with the planks strapped to my feet! All these competent skiers wove gracefully around me as I shuffled my way to the bottom of the mountain. It took a long, loooong, loooooooong time! I took a lesson after that!
Sharon
Ooh, Sharon, as a certified member of the I hate heights club, your story gave me the willies. I think I’d STILL be at the top of the mountain huddled into a lump, not looking down!
Sharon, I still remember with terror the first time I rode a poma and fell off. These days the towies slow things down but not then…you sank or stood! I feel your pain. Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Fiona and Anna
I recently read Career Girl in the Country and absolutely loved it.
I have “Fish-out-of-water” moments aplenty. I’m dreadful in crowds (border-line Agoraphobic in fact, LOL) and can often be found clinging to walls at parties and watching the antics of party-goers instead of participating. I just never know what to say! The bonus is that it’s great research for those characters who find their way into my head during those moments where I provide moral support for walls and pot plants!
I loved reading all the comments above. Lots of fun. Thanks
Juanita, aren’t Fiona’s medicals great? So much emotion! Actually are you another introvert? I don’t like being trapped in crowds either. My ideas of hell are things like Oktoberfest or the running of the bulls. Yet I know people who think they’re the bee’s knees. I never feel safe in a crowd.
Juanita, great to see you here and I’m glad you enjoyed Career Girl. I loved creating Poppy and like you , I like people watching as a hobby! Must be a writer thing
Fiona, so great to have you with us today! I love the sound of both these books and will be popping into the Book Depository later this morning.
Fish out of water stories are fan faves, I think, because we all know how it feels…and we’re all glad the person struggling in the story is not us!
When we visited Switzerland a few years back, we were a little unsure what we were doing after we landed at the airport. We needed to buy train tickets, catch the train at the airport, switch trains in Bern, buy bus tickets in Frutigen and take the bus to a tiny village. I know some German, but not Swiss German. We were doing okay until we boarded the train. There were first class and second class cars. We, being on a budget, had second class tickets (and lots of luggage).
We were quite happy once we were settled. Then the conductor came and let us know we were in the wrong car and needed to move back or upgrade our tickets. We took all our luggage and schlepped back to the next car. Then the conductor came into that car and, quite testily, let us know we were in the wrong car – again! It wouldn’t have been quite so bad or humiliating except we were being railed at in a language we didn’t understand and we couldn’t tell the difference between the cars…until we reached the second class cars. Then it was obvious there was less legroom and there were lots more people!
After that, we learned what the (small, indistinct) markings were on the outside of the train cars to tell which was first and second class. After flying from Raleigh to NYC to Madrid to Geneva, we weren’t in great shape to be schooled by a Swiss train conductor (those guys have NO sense of humor, by the way). We learned our lesson, though, and won’t make that mistake again. Of course, there are so very many others to make…
Oh, Caren, I’ve had experiences like that. Aren’t they frustrating? And the thing is they can color your view of a whole country just because of one creep. I remember walking in a park in Germany on a path and this guy zoomed by on a cycle and shoved me into the ditch and shouted angrily to me that it was a cycle path (I had enough basic German to understand that). I could have been badly hurt (I wasn’t, just angry).
When we’re tired everything is so much harder, isn’t it? Of course he could have shown you to the correct car but sounds like he wasn’t a helpful conductor at all. A person in a position like that can make or break an experience.
One of my friends married an Aussie and his accent is great! Australia sounds like such an intriguing place with a fascinating history.
Diane, how cool you love our accent. I must say I could listen to Hugh Jackman talk all day (well, he could do OTHER things if he got bored with talking!).
Come visit, Diane! We have all the odd animals down here
Oy, don’t talk about me that way, Ms. Lowe!
I remember my first few days of college, I was from a small town in Wisconsin and went to the huge University of Wisconsin. I definitely felt like a small fish in a huge ocean!
Thanks for the chance to read one of your stories!!
johns lake at usa dot com
Laurie, I found my first few days at uni daunting too. But I DID find my feet there, thank goodness, and ended up loving it.
Laurie, The campus of UW in Madison is sprawling, isn’t it so not surprised you were overwhelmed! When I am in a new place I permanently have a map glued to my hand. I hope you enjoy Boomerang Bride.
Fiona – I Love, Love, Love a fish-out-of-water story. Written a few myself (grin). Both of these sound fabulous, but I have to admit that I particularly like the sound of Boomerang Bride. It reminds me os a scene from a movie – shoot, can’t remember the title – where the bride who has starved herself thin to fit into the dress of her dreams is stood up at the wedding. She’s eating through her misery in “the dress’ at a bar. John Cusak’s sister was the bride. Darn – what is the name of that movie?
Donna, was that In and Out with Tom Selleck? The Joan Cusack plot was a really sweet secondary romance where she’s the local high school teacher and one of her pupils has made it big as a Hollywood star and he comes back and they fall in love. Think it’s Matt Dillon but I could be wrong. Anyone else know?
Donna, Anna beat me to it(it is only 6am here) but I actually know that movie which is a miracle! Also, Joan Cusack is a Madison girl and when I lived there they often ‘claimed’ the terrific Cusaks as their own even though they moved away 30 years ago!
Fiona, always liked the Cusacks. Had a major crush on John at one stage!
BTW – I love a fist-out-of-water theme because I think that’s my life
! I’m so used to being embarrassed about being in the wrong place, at the wrong time that it’s become a part of my nature. Hence I smile alot 
It gets me through all sorts of hassles.
Donna, smiling certainly helps. I’ve learned over the years the mantra, “This too shall pass.” However excruciating the agony, it will be a memory one day. So even if you never find your feet, you’re generally not stuck there forever.
Donna, Smiling certainly helps. I use it a lot.
)
Hi, Fiona, welcome back to the Lair.
What a delightful plotline you have created in Boomerang Bride. I’ll definitely have to put this one on my “to get” list!
Jo,. Thank you so much for the welcome and the kind comments about Boomerang Bride. It’s amazing what can pop into a writer’s head when she lets her mind wander. Sadly I don’t do it often enough. Note to self…ski on my own more often!
Jo, doesn’t this plot line just scream wonderful romance? Hope you have fun with Boomerang Bride and check out Fiona’s Medicals. They’re really great!
Fiona, welcome! What a great setup for a story.
The only story that springs readily to mind is the time I ordered tea in a fast food eatery in NYC and was dismayed that it came hot because ordering tea in the South means “iced,” as everyone understands. Up North, the reverse is true, as my companion explained.
Of course, it was January, so hot probably made more sense, but we drink iced tea in January here in the South.
Nancy, I had exactly the opposite experience so your post made me laugh. When I order tea, I want the hot stuff (snigger! Where’s Tawny when you need her?). I can’t get my head around cold tea. It’s just…WRONG! Remember those couple of conferences in the South where cold tea was the beverage on the tables. I thought it was cordial – pheuch when I drank it. And I had to get used to asking for tea bags when I went to a shop to buy tea. Because otherwise they always directed me to the cold display. And the cold display was always huge whereas the teabags were tucked away somewhere obscure like a guilty secret. I’m an Aussie – we LOVE our hot tea down here!
Anna, I like hot tea, too. But only in the winter and not usually with meals–except green tea with Asian food in the winter.
Yeah, I can believe you had to hunt for the teabags. We love our iced tea here in the South.
Hi Nancy,
There are so many regional differences in the States. I got very confused when i visited the ‘South’ and a ‘coke’ just meant any form of pop or soda. I had only just learned pop and soda so i was very confused. here in Australia tea is hot unless requested otherwise but iced tea hasn’t really caught on here. thanks for visiting!
To make matters worse, Fiona, the “coke” for all carbonated drinks is only in some parts of the South. I never heard it used that way when I was growing up.
Confusion plus!
Great interview, Anna and Fiona!
I love the sound of Boomerang Bride, Fiona. I will be adding to my list.
When we lived in Italy, there were definitely times I felt like a fish out of water, before I learned enough Italian to communicate. There’s only so much that hand gestures can do. *g*
Gannon, how lucky you were to live in Italy. Where were you based? I love Italy. It’s so beautiful and the people have such warmth and vitality.
Thanks so much, Gannon. I am lousy with other languages so I hear you but I am surrounded by family members who hear a foreign word and can say it and remember it. IWaaah. I trail around after them.
[...] Romance Bandits with the lovely Anna Campbell where we’re talking ‘fish out of water’ [...]
Hi, Fiona. Both of these stories sounds wonderful. I am quite the fan of fish-out-of-water stories. One of my favorite new TV shows this fall is Hart of Dixie, about a young, pretty NYC surgeon who is told she has to get general practice experience and finds herself in Blue Bell, Alabama.
Trish, that show sounds like fun. Kinda reminds me of an old Michael J. Fox film I really enjoyed called Doc Hollywood.
Ohhh, Trish, I love me a good medical show! I must look out for it.Thanks for the tip and for calling by
Hi Fiona! Welcome back to the Lair! I’m sorry to be so late to the party. Your books sound delightful and now I’ll have to make another Book Depository order! Ha! Thanks for being with us today!
Jeanne, have fun with Boomerang Bride! And it’s always a pleasure to see you, whatever time you turn up
Jeanne, thanks for visiting. Boomerang Bride is an eBook so try Carina Press or Amazon for that one. Book Depository works fine or Career Girl.
Stopping by late to say G’day to Anna and Fiona!
LOVE the concept of this story! Can’t wait to read it.
I studied German for years in grad school. When I went over to study opera in Austria I landed first in Munich. I went from the airport to the train station and in my best Hoch Deutsch (High German) with a full-blown Berlin accent (my professor studied in Berlin) I ordered my ticket to Salzburg. The gentleman opened his mouth, spoke and I thought “I’ve landed in Romania. I can’t understand a word he is saying!” The sad thing is he understood me perfectly. I felt like a complete idiot. Turns out the Bavarian accent in German is akin to the Southern accent in the States!
Louisa, who would’ve thought the accents would line up that way? Too bad the reverse wasn’t true.
Louisa, what a downer! I had to laugh – had a similar experience but from the opposite end. My German teacher at school was a rather eccentric and extremely charming Austrian lady. Therefore I learnt to speak German with an Austrian twang (as the Hoch Deutsch people would describe – I rather like the Austrian accent, it sounds a bit more French and it’s much softer without all the glottal stops).
Hey, everyone, thank you for a wonderful day in the lair. Thanks, Fiona for being such a great guest. Don’t forget to check back tomorrow night to see who won our two books!
Fish out of water…. let’s see. I feel as though I’m constantly like this. I’ve got red hair and the pale Irish complexion, and I burn so easily, I feel dreadfully like a fish out water each and every Summer. However, when I was in the UK in 1997, I was right at home… I didn’t get sunburnt for the first time in my life and it was lovely (yes, the sun was out nice and hot).
The only other time I’ve felt like a fish out of water was when I was in my early teens and people around me were starting to tell dirty jokes and use slang… I wasn’t up with all the cool words. So, I wouldn’t have a clue what they were talking about until my brother would take me to one side and tell me ‘in English’ what the joke was… then one day we were caught out and he had to explain that I had comprehension problem where I didn’t understand some things clearly; but I’d eventually catch on soon.
And you know, it wasn’t until I began reading Stephen King that I did.
Hi Fiona and Anna!!
Ahhh, fun stuff this! My FOOW story is from 2006.
(Now) Hubby and I had gone to Hawaii to elope. We had to get a marriage license from the Dept of Helath. Yep. Easy. Went in a taxi to make sure we got there at the right time and wouldn’t have to wait too long.
Ticked all the boxes, got our license after proving we werent first cousins, LOL, then headed for the bus stop. Thought we’d take the scenic route back to Waikiki.
Read the guide – at least, we thought we did. Bus started going the wrong way! After a few panicked minutes, I got the courage up to go speak to the driver. Wrong bus. He then started telling me where and how to get where we had to go to get on the *right* bus. Meanwhile, we were getting further and further away from the exchange.
Oops.
I had no idea what to do. I couldnt understand what he was telling me. (Im really bad with directions if Im not in posession of a map) I must have looked terrified, all the thoughts of missing my own wedding, to being dumped on a deserted road and bumped over the head then thrown into a boot of a car, running through my head.
The driver then did the unthinkable. He TURNED the bus AROUND and drove us back to the exchange, refusing a tip, or even the ticket price. Just wished us well for our wedding in the morning (on Valentine’s Day).
I dont think I’ll ever forget him. And if I tried that in Brisbane… *vbg*
Best of luck with the release!! Sounds like a wonderful story.
Michelle