Venice Project: Day Two

After my co-author's stint in lovely DC last week, we were both gung ho to tackle round two of our exciting collaborative project. This time it was Anais' turn to host our meeting so yesterday I headed on out north bound ready for a day of lively discussion and toil. When I got to my destination, it was almost time for lunch, and before diving into hard work we thought it wise to fill our bellies with some much needed vitamins and calories. Anais first plied me with mixed fruit. The slices of sweet apples really did it for me. Her welcome spread, however, did not come without some challenges. We both discovered, following Anais' unfortunate experience, that it is quite impossible to make fondue with low moisture string cheese (picture of resulting concoction too disturbing to include here) -- a very useful bit of information we promptly filed away in the "junk in the trunk" section of our mental complex.

Following the fondue disaster, Anais determined to feed me with mouthwatering Italian. However, that didn't work out either as ingredients were, sadly, not readily available (see Anais' crestfallen expression below as she combs through several recipe possibilities).



The only option left at this point: the healthiest quick fix on the planet - a special chicken sandwich which she procured forthwith, to be imbibed in a special way to enhance flavor...there is a particular ritual to this which Anais was so kind as to share with me. Something to do with the sauce...absolutely delicious!!! Anais will record the full, sumptuous, very saucy recipe in our "Author's Diet" cookbook.

After a memorable lunch, it was time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Six hours later, we had complete profiles for all our characters, a 9 chapter and prologue outline, including some dialogue, and a revised blogger page. All in a day's work! How's that for the wrecking crew, eh?

Now, we have names and "visuals" for all our male characters as well (see pics below in order):

Hero: Armin von Reis (Austrian with Italian background. Inspiration: Til Schweiger)

Secondary key character: Marco Cipriani (Italian. Inspiration: Christian Bale)

Rotten villain: Frederick Thaler (Austrian. Inspiration: Daniel Craig)

Other minor characters have also been determined and named. We are rapidly falling in love with all these characters and that's a good thing. Venice never looked so hot and so sweet. Be forewarned - you're going to need some cooling fans when you read this book.

After work was done for the day, Anais fixed for us a delectably artery clogging pie loaded with copious amounts of ricotta and mozzarella. Didn't we deserve such a treat? Anais thought so and I'm grateful. It was to die for! (this recipe will be available in "Author's Diet" as well)

As we sat and reminisced about the activities of our day, another topic we discussed was the RWA conference in July which we have decided to attend. Any others out there heading to San Fran this year? If so, let us know!