by Anne Oliver, author of Mistress: At What Price? (Harlequin Presents Extra, July 2010)
There’s something exciting about watching a movie or reading a book where you get to revisit familiar landmarks and experience local customs through a character’s eyes. Maybe they enjoy a drink at your favourite night spot or, as in Dane’s case in my latest US release, Mistress: At What Price?, live in a beautiful historic home that you’ve driven past and would love to live in yourself.
I’ve always lived in Adelaide, South Australia. (Frog cakes, anyone? Or maybe you fancy a pie floater.) Both are Adelaide icons. Frog cakes are a particular favourite of mine with their jam, cream filled sponge, although I didn’t manage to write them into this story. Dane managed a pretty good pie floater, however.
Frog Cakes. Yum.
Pie floater. A meat pie in thick pea soup smothered in tomato sauce. Yes, really!
This is the first story I’ve set in Adelaide. I so enjoyed walking the streets in historic North Adelaide and the little towns in the Adelaide hills looking for places for my characters to live and fall in love. As it happened, I began this story on the morning of Black Saturday, 7th February, 2009 when 173 people died in Victoria as a result of bushfires. The temperature across the two states was 46 degrees with howling winds. Using the conditions to my advantage, I wrote a scene reminiscent of the day to include later in the book. I had no idea of the devastation and heartbreak that would occur a few hours later.
I love reunion stories so I wanted my heroine, Mariel, to return home, put the heartache of the past behind her and finally be with the man she’s never been able to forget. Their childhood friendship ended the night before she left to study fashion design in Paris when she unwittingly discovered he never wanted her the way she wanted him.
The beautiful Adelaide Hills.
Ten years on, betrayed by her French business partner and lover, she’s fled the scandal and returned to Adelaide, only to bump into Dane on her first night back. And the old attraction is still there.
A reluctant ‘Bachelor of the Year’, Dane is a no-strings man. He wants to concentrate on his professional image rather than his celebrity status and the constant string of women dogging his every move. So he offers Mariel a deal. He’ll help her set up her business if she’ll help him distract the paparazzi by pretending to be his mistress. But their passionate nights together lead to a lot more than either of them intended.
I loved this house in North Adelaide for Dane’s residence.
I loved walking in Dane and Mariel’s shoes and hope you will too. Have you read or written a book set in your home town? Enjoyed a fictional scene in a familiar location? I’d love to hear about them.
I put a lot of Norwich into ‘Sold to the Highest Bidder!’ – anyone who lives in my home town will know exactly where the hero and heroine walked
)
Loved your pic above of the Adelaide Hills – looks like the perfect place to wander along, dreaming (possibly with a dog in tow).
But I guess at the moment I’m doing the ‘visit places before I write them’ – hence Venice earlier this year for the book I’m doing now, Capri at the end of the month for another, and (just agreed with lovely DH) Paris in October. All excited now so will have to do a snoopy dance and then make myself a nice calming cup of roiboos creme caramel tea…
(PS my captcha suits me today – bonehead!! Haven’t quite caught up on my sleep from the RNA conference this weekend…)
Hi Anne – I loved “Mistress..” esp as I adore reunion stories
As an aspiring romance writer, I like to write about things I know and can relate to how you wrote your bushfire scene.
When on holidays or out and about on weekends, I can’t help but conjure up scenes/ ideas for future mss. I take pics, make notes and store them away for later.
BTW – the frog cakes look good but I’m not sure about the pie floater…even though I’m Australian. But I trust you that it tastes better than it looks
Must say I did like the pie floater scene in Mistress 
**Kate – am sooooo jealous of your research trips. For us Aussies, Europe/ UK is just a hop, skip and a 24 hour flight away!!
Hi Kate!
And thanks for dropping by. Yes, I remember reading about Norwich in your book. Do envy you your relatively easy access to Europe. We’re a little isolated here, so the ‘see Paris first then write about it’ is a little expensive to do often. The Adelaide Hills is indeed a lovely place for walking and inspiration when the weather’s right. Hope you enjoy your trips abroad this year; expect to read about these fabulous places in your upcoming books soon. LOL on the bonehead! Go enjoy your coffee…
Hi Joanne!
Glad you enjoyed Mistress. And re the pie floater, can’t say I’ve had one in a loooong time. As I mentioned in Mistress, there used to be a couple of pie carts that would turn up in the city in the evening, but sadly they’re no longer there. I have a feeling though, that I saw something similar to the pie floater somewhere near Sydney Harbour in a travel program last year.
Best of luck with your research and your writing.
Anne
Dane as ‘Bachelor of the Year’…I like the sound of him already.
The frog cakes look delicious – a lovely walk beneath those trees to work them off afterwards. The pie floater looks good too, but that would take an awful lot more exercise to work off. And my captcha today is ‘next foods’
Think it’s trying to tell me something!
Anne, you know I’m a major Adelaide fan already (why wouldn’t I be?:-)) and I love your books so I can’t wait to get my chops around this one.
Congratulations on being a Borders Group Top 10 Bestseller this week, that’s just awesome!
Oh good to see the frogs Anne – looking forward to your book set on my home ‘turf’. I love the photos btw
Hi Anne,
Had to pop in to say that I adored this book, Dane & Mariel had me hooked right at the very beginning, literally!
I could only imagine the pie floater as I read and I have to say that seeing the picture still doesn’t tempt me! Your frog cakes are a different matter. We have something similar here in Ireland, at least they look similar, and they’re called French Fancies. My mother calls them French Fondants for some reason but whatever we call them, they taste fabulous.
I always enjoy when an author introduces me to parts of their culture through reading and when it’s done through food then that’s even better.
Anne, I have MIstress At burning an impatient hole in my overcrowded bedside table right now, and since I’ve never visited lovely Adelaide in the flesh, I can hardly wait to read Dane and Mariel’s story.
I’ve never been seriously tempted to set a book in my home town as yet, but I must say I’ve enjoyed recognising places in books that have had allusions to it. There’s something quite exciting about seeing your hometown enter the realms of fiction. Maybe..one day…
Hi Christina,
After reading this post again I bought 2 frog cakes yesterday. Pink ones. My favourite. There’s only one left now.. and I am not inclined to walk it off either. Think I’ll read instead.
Trish, now YOU could walk off a frog cake or three up there in those lovely bushland surroundings. And thanks for the congrats.
Eleni, hi, it’s nice to see a couple of locals dropping by. Thank you!
Aideen, thanks for the nice words and glad you enjoyed the story. It was a hard book to write..3 lots of revisions to get it right. Maybe I’ll visit Ireland some day to compare cakes.
Anna! Lovely to see you here after your travels. You’ll have to pay Adelaide a visit sometime; not far away and no volcanoes to spoil the trip. I always love reading a book set here, and as you say, seeing it through the eyes of a fictional character. Now my captcha says rubdowns – sounds like a good idea to me.