Wednesday, October 8, 2014

MYSTI PARKER: Five Things Learned Writing THE ROCHE HOTEL



The Roche Hotel
Season One
A serial romantic comedy

After her husband ditches her for a blonde actress wannabe, Jane Seymour needs a job that pays the rent. The struggling Roche Hotel needs a miracle. With the former owner’s wife butting her nose into the renovations and new owners who are in way over their heads, Jane may be the answer to their prayers. Sure, she can handle The Roche Hotel’s quirky staff. But, can this skittish divorcee keep it all together when handsome Henry the Donut Guy makes his first delivery? This collection of serial fiction stories is a Tudorific romantic comedy that will leave you laughing out loud and hungry for more.

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1. My memory’s not shot.

While writing each episode, I remembered some specific details from my real-life days as a front-desk clerk, along with more memorable events like the dead body in Room 12. Other jobs I worked as  young lady aren’t nearly so clear in my mommy brain. Maybe because my hotel job was the first job I worked after moving to Louisville and marrying my high school sweetheart. Or maybe it’s because it was the first job I ever worked a graveyard shift. Either way, I not heading toward Alzheimer’s just yet—yay me!!

2. The choices are endless.

Think about a hotel, even a struggling little mid-priced one like the Roche. From my own experience working in such a place, I saw quite the variety of people and situations. So, I’ve got a limitless supply of quirk to choose from when it comes to the Roche Hotel’s cast. Like Carol, the close-talking desk clerk, Jerry the sasquatch-like maintenance man, and Mrs. Roche who can’t keep her nose out of the new owners’ business and is determined to cover the nether regions of that naked David statue in the lobby. Throw them all together in a 50-room hotel, and I’ve got tons of potential new episodes.

3. Donuts can be sexy.

Especially when delivered by a handsome fellow like Henry Hermann. Just ask Jane:


He opens one of the boxes and holds it within my reach. I pick up a donut and take a bite. 

Still warm and melt-in-your-mouth good.

“Mmm, this is delicious.”

Henry closes the box and takes a tissue from the Kleenex dispenser beside the wall. Why hadn’t I noticed those before I sacrificed my poor sweater [to clean up the spilled coffee]? 

He reaches across the front desk and wipes the corner of my mouth. Warmth crawls up my cheeks.

“You had a little icing there,” he says with that knee-weakening smile.

See?

4. Serial fiction is not dead!

Today we live in the trilogy age. So many darn stories out there come in sets of three, with the first two ending in cliffhangers. Why??? Oh I’m sure it’s a good marketing technique—make the reader HAVE to keep buying them. But, frankly that annoys the crap out of me, particularly when the author isn’t done with the trilogy and you have to wait a year or more to read the next installment. That’s why each book in my fantasy series is a standalone story, and that’s why The Roche Hotel is written in collections (seasons) of episodic stories that don’t leave us hanging on nail-biting cliffhangers. There’s enough of an ending to be satisfying, but enough unresolved conflict to keep us wanting to find out what happens next!

5. No sex, no profanity, no violence—no problem!

Besides my children’s stories and a few short stories, I’ve yet to write a romance that doesn’t contain at least one of those Rated-R items. Until now. Sure, there’s some sexual innuendo—Henry’s pretty darn hot in those Levis after all—but The Roche Hotel can safely be read by young teens and beyond with only mild danger of blushing.  Therefore, if I get any reviews complaining about how racy this series is, they’re either lying or starring in an episode of Extreme Monkover.

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Mysti Parker (pseudonym) is a wife, mom, author, and shameless chocoholic. She is the author of the Tallenmere standalone fantasy romance series. Her other writings have appeared in the anthologies Hearts of Tomorrow, Christmas Lites, Christmas Lites II, The Darwin Murders, Tasteful Murders and EveryDayFiction.

Other writing pursuits include serving as a class mentor in Writers Village University's seven week online course, F2K. She finished her first historical romance this spring and has one children’s book (Quentin’s Problem) soon to be published, with one more waiting for illustrations, and many more stewing in her head.

When she's not writing fiction, Mysti works as a freelance editor and copywriter. She also reviews books for SQ Magazine, an online specfic publication, and is the proud owner of Unwritten, a blog voted #3 for eCollegeFinder's Top Writing Blogs award. She resides in Buckner, KY with her husband and three children.


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There will be special prizes (including chocolates) and other items of interest.

Other books by Mysti Parker:
The Tallenmere Series - Fantasy Romance



1 comment:

  1. Thanks so much for hosting me, Peter! This was fun to write :)

    ReplyDelete