Showing posts with label driving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label driving. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Writing Cars by Priscilla Brown

 

 

 

 
 
 
Callum, the subject of the 'hot ticket', lusts after both Olivia's red sports car and its stunning owner.
 Will she ever let him drive this magnificent piece of engineering? 


In my real life, I drive small elderly reliable car. In my writing life, I like to give my characters appropriate - or not - vehicles for their needs and lifestyles.  As an author of contemporary romance, I am always looking out for potential character and situation miscellanies. 
 
Yesterday, in a wet, windy and busy shopping centre car park with the indoor levels full of weather escapees, I had to park outside on the top level. This is an area where whoever designed it probably never 'park-tested' it, since the spaces white-lined between them appear to me to be suitable only for tricycles. As I waited in the car for my passenger to finish shopping, I scanned the nearby rows of 'shop mobiles'. In one, a shopper piled so may large bags onto the passenger seat that one fell out and spilled its contents, revealing the purchaser's choice of several pink underwear items. I was sorry for her that these pretty things acquired a damp and grubby surface. Her shopping now safely in her car, she drove away, its place immediately taken by a small truck. Two men, in shorts and t-shirts in spite of the weather, strode into the shopping area. They returned in minutes, carrying large coffee mugs. Reversing out, the driver had one hand on the wheel and the other holding his coffee to his mouth. Me, I can find  trouble reversing from a tight spot using both hands. And who knows, one day this guy may find a place in a story.

Some years ago, a story opportunity drove into the car park of a cafe in a small country town. As I dawdled over coffee and cake on the sunny veranda, I watched a blonde woman park a seriously impressive scarlet sports car, its top down.  She and her car deserved to appear in a romance, and she became  Olivia in Hot Ticket. 

A casual glance at an an advertisement in a road travel magazine sparked the idea of introducing a female car mechanic. Billie, who is better at fixing cars than at fixing her love life,  takes her place in Finding Billie   http://books2read..com/Finding-Billie

 As a writer who is otherwise not particularly interested in cars as long as mine takes me where I want to go, I do enjoy research matching vehicles to personalities. 

To the drivers among you, may you always find the perfect parking spot.

Love, Priscilla




https://bwlpublishing.ca

https://priscillabrownauthor.com



 


 

 

 

 

 

Friday, November 27, 2015

CAUGHT IN THE STORM - by Vijaya Schartz

I live in Arizona, near Phoenix, where storms have become more violent over the years. I never used to fear the storm, not in all my years... not even when a micro-burst half destroyed my house over a decade ago. Of course, I was at work at the time, not inside it. But last summer, I was driving on 59th Avenue on a sunny Saturday afternoon, when one of those sudden monsoon storms hit. Within minutes the sky darkened, like twilight in the middle of the day, strong winds, dust, zero visibility, then rain.

Thick walls of water like gray sails waved beyond the windshield, gusty side winds carried large objects across the road and knocked them against hard surfaces with loud bangs. Through the water curtain, I could see car lights in front and in back of me. The wind whooshed like a turbine. The electric poles along the street shook wildly. Lightning hit, close by. Light exploded all around, and thunder cracked and boomed, echoing inside the car, inside my body like a deep drum roll.

That’s when fear set in. My heart beat faster than after running a 10K. Still, I couldn’t panic. I had to think... and fast.

Although the cars had slowed, stopping on the main road with traffic would be suicide. Driving in this chaos would also be suicide as the electric poles swayed dangerously, waving their array of thick power lines overhead. The street was flooding fast. What to do?

Eyes riveted to the right curb that quickly disappeared under the rising tide, I spotted a faint driveway to the side, and remembered it must lead to the DMV parking lot. Following the curb, I managed to get my car off the road and into the wide open space... anywhere. I couldn’t see the white lines on the pavement anyway. Other cars followed my tail lights and parked in a line next to me, as if taking comfort in company. I felt their presence somewhat reassuring.

Were we safe? Not really. There was no safe place to hide from the storm. The flagpole overhead shook dangerously under the gusty winds flapping the flag, and the ropes snapped against it with loud metallic knocks. Garbage cans, branches, and large pieces of debris flew and swept across the open area with unprecedented force. I feared at any moment the wind might lift my little car and throw it against a concrete building.

Then, as fast as it had come, although it seemed to last for hours, the storm moved away, leaving me relieved and shaken at the sight of the destruction. In the last spattering of rain, I could see fallen poles across the flooded street, downed power lines sparking in flood water, traffic lights strewn in the middle of the intersection, and fallen trees.

A few hundred yards south of the DMV parking lot, on 59th Avenue, where I would have been had I not turned, several electric poles had fallen. One had crushed a car, trapping the driver inside, in the middle of a small lake. No way to get to the car to see if the person inside was dead or alive. It was a woman, I learned later on the news. Rescued by the fire department, she was not seriously hurt, but I felt guilty and glad at the same time. It could have been me.

In the aftermath of the storm, all the streets in the area were flooded or blocked by debris, trees, branches, pieces of roofs. People stood on their front porch, staring at their destroyed property, eyes wide, as if wondering how so much destruction could happen in so little time. Emergency vehicles blared their sirens. After many detours and turnarounds, in dangerously flooded streets and bumper to bumper traffic, it was dark, hours later, when I finally reached my small apartment ten blocks away. I was never so glad to hug my cat.

No matter how strong or fearless we are, there is always something or someone stronger than us, and Mother Nature is teaching us lessons at every turn. The memories of this storm will stay with me forever, and I bet they will end up in a book someday.

In the meantime, you can read my latest contemporary romance with a hint of suspense, set in Scottsdale, Arizona, and available in all eBook formats everywhere.

Buy it in all formats here
ASLEEP IN SCOTTSDALE

When Talia runs over billionaire Kyle Dormant with her bicycle in the dog park, she considers their meeting a happy accident. He believes it is destiny, but her physician's mind rebels at such notions. Their budding romance comes to a grinding halt when Kyle won’t wake up from deep sleep... with no medical explanation. Baffled and deeply concerned, Talia digs into his recent past for a plausible cause. Instead, she uncovers dark family secrets. Convinced Kyle's condition was induced, and someone wants him dead, she is anxious to save him, but the closer she gets to the sordid truth… and a possible cure, the greater the risk to both their lives.
Vijaya Schartz
Romance with a Kick

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