Hi, and welcome to another edition of The Meaning of! My guest today is Beth Kery, author of Release (among other awesome books!)
Scene:
A plow had cleared Wells Street perhaps an hour ago, but the sidewalks were thick with untouched snow. They walked on the side of the street, because there wasn’t a car in sight. The ”L” tracks over their head and the high-rises gave them a small measure of protection against the swirling, stinging snow for the first part of their trip, but north of the loop they were more fully exposed.
They finally turned right from Dearborn Avenue onto Oak Street. Sean grabbed her hand to keep her steady as the brutal Lake Michigan wind cut through her wool coat as though it were made of tissue paper. The wind came off the lake at Oak Street Beach and zoomed between the buildings, creating one of the most unpleasant wind tunnels in the city.
While shoppers patronized Michigan Avenue for the more famous stores, the block on Oak Street between Michigan and Rush was prized for smaller, high-end fashion boutiques. When Genevieve’s father had passed away, she discovered that he’d named both her and her mother as the beneficiaries on his modest life insurance policy. Genevieve had used it as start-up money for her business.
She’d wanted to succeed in her own right, but part of what had propelled her manic hard work in those early days was the desire to show her father she’d made good on his legacy. She’d burned to make his life worthwhile . . . to make the ghost of him that resided in her brain proud.
She noticed as they plodded along the snow-laden street, their shoulders to the wind, that very few shops were open. She shivered and squinted at Sean. Snowflakes clung to his eyebrows and whiskered jaw. His dark blond hair had been streaked with white. He looked resigned to his frozen discomfort.
“Whose idea was this, anyway?” she asked.
He threw her a dry glance. “Had to have been some crazy girl from Gary, Indiana. Boys from N’ Orleans are too fragile to go out in a blizzard.”
Keeping up with Sean’s long legs in the thick snow had got her heart pumping. She snorted between pants. “Fragile, my ass.”
“Too smart then,” Sean added with a rakish grin that told Genny she’d been forgiven for her foolishness.
Explanation:
The reason this is one of my favorite scenes in RELEASE is a very personal one. It gives me some satisfaction to know that I’ve had life experiences that can give me accurate information for a scene. I’ve lived in downtown Chicago for more years than I care to admit, and the little details in this bit sort of highlight some of my true-to-life-experience in the city. I’ve endured several blizzards and can attest to the fact that a bad snowstorm in an urban environment is a unique experience.
I lived on Oak Street for years. Once, when walking around the corner from Michigan Avenue to Oak, the winter wind coming off the lake/beach area made me stumble and slide on ice—completely out of control—for about ten feet and come very close to being thrown on the pavement before I finally righted myself. I must have looked hysterical. I’ve never experienced wind tunneling down a street like I have on Oak.
It’s little stuff, and most people wouldn’t be aware of whether it’s accurate or not, so I suppose there’s a good argument that it doesn’t matter much. For my own part, though, it really does give me a smile when I write something and I know for a fact there are only a handful of people who would know those little details.
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Find out more from Beth at her website.
March 29th, 2010 at 7:42 pm · Link
Hi Beth:
I think it does matter, a great deal because I know I’ve read blogs who are fans of your books and are from Chicago and they relate personally to your realistic descriptive prose surrounding the city.
I think when a writer is intimately acquainted with the setting of their stories it is relayed to readers and they actually ‘feel’ the surroundings.
Great post.
On a personal note, it was here, at Megan’s blog that I discovered your work for the first time. You were doing guest blog posts promoting Wicked Burn. I’ve been a committed fan of your work ever since.
Warm Regards
L
March 29th, 2010 at 9:09 pm · Link
Hi Beth
Interesting post. From the readers side too, I got a thrill a few months ago reading a romance that took place in Toronto. It was pretty cool picturing in my mind the exact place the author was writing about.
March 29th, 2010 at 9:58 pm · Link
Lea–thanks so much for the nice comment. Funny that you first heard of me at Megan’s! Thanks Megan–for having me at your blog back then and now.
Mary–you’re right. It is fun to read a book where you are intimately familiar with the surroundings. Thanks for stopping by, Mary!
March 29th, 2010 at 10:40 pm · Link
Release by Beth Kery is excellent. I recommend it.
I notice that Everything Changes isn’t available for preorder yet on amazon.com. Curiously Passion Model, not released and not available for pre-order _is_ available used on amazon.com for $40.00+. Looks like a few proofreaders are trying to make a few bucks (???). It’s not available for pre-order either, presumably because amazon.com doesn’t have a release date. I foolishly popped for one of the $40.00 plus issues. A fool (?) and his money are soon parted.
Naked and Selfish is the Heart are available for pre-order. Amazon will eventually be getting my money for these two.
Collide, The Challenge and other future releases mentioned on this website, but not released, aren’t yet available for pre-order. Presumably, like the others mentioned, because there’s no specific release date and/or the publisher hasn’t bothered to tell amazon.com about them.
Stranger than fiction. Just checking in. I keep track of all of Megan Hart’s published works as I have all of them including many not mentioned on this site, i.e., the oldies but goodies, but they’re available on amazon.com with a little use of the search engine.
Cheers.
March 29th, 2010 at 10:49 pm · Link
@JerryT: Omigosh, Jerry…Passion Model is due out the end of April from Samhain (though at this point in electronic version only, possible future print release but not definite.) Waaaaaay less than $40, too! I feel bad you spend that much money!
March 29th, 2010 at 11:13 pm · Link
Megan: I somewhat question my purchase of Passion Model for $40.00+ in paper back edition from amazon.com. But it was a good read.
I don’t do ebooks. To the best of my knowledge, after playing with the amazon.com search engine quite a bit I don’t think I’ve missed many of your paper back published works. Nothing in Common, Always You, Love Match, Unexpected, From Distant Shores, Selfish is the Heart, Playing the Game, Riverboat Bride, A Siege of Herons, An Exhaultation of Larks, Wish List, Convicted, and others (no kindle books only are listed) were interesting to read and show the promise of the presently available books. Guess this makes me a Megan Hart junkie. 
March 31st, 2010 at 10:38 am · Link
Hi Beth I love that little or even big parts of authors books are based on real life happening or occurrances, even if many of the readers wouldn’t neccessarily know , I think it shows an author cares about what they’ve written with a passion
Megan are you still posting on Facebook?
April 4th, 2010 at 10:01 pm · Link
From the readers view, it is always awesome cool, when you run across something in the story that makes you go OMG…how did she know that. Is she from around here?
It just adds a ‘special’ spark in my opinion.