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‘Follow the Sun’ is here!

LizLocke1 Comment

I almost can’t believe I’m typing these words: I am a novelist.

My debut book Follow the Sun was published by Random House Canada today, and you better believe I am celebrating! Instead of featuring a movie/cocktail pairing this week, I decided it would be more fun to do a book/cocktail pairing. If you’re currently reading Follow the Sun, I recommend drinking a Hemingway Daiquiri!

Hemingway Daiquiri

2 oz Light Rum

1/2 oz Maraschino Liqueur

1/2 oz Grapefruit Juice

3/4 oz Lime Juice

Lime Wheel for Garnish

Combine rum, maraschino liqueur, grapefruit juice, and lime juice in a shaker filled with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lime wheel.

I chose this drink out of all the ones featured in my novel because it’s something the main character shares with a friend at the historic Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach. And what else has Cinema Sips been than my way to share a drink virtually with all my movie-loving friends? The blog has given me a way to connect with so many fantastic people who have supported me in my ten-year journey to the bookshelf, and I don’t have the words to describe how grateful I am. When I started to wonder whether anybody would ever read a single page I’d written, or if this fiction thing was all just a silly, stupid dream, Cinema Sips followers were here for me. Cheering me on, and making me feel a little less alone.

The truth is, Follow the Sun was not an easy book to sell. It doesn’t fit into a perfectly-sized genre box, unless we’re counting “Beach Read” as a box. There’s a lot of romance in this story, but it also focuses on a young woman’s growth in a time where feminism was just gaining traction. It’s also set in 1966, although I’m hesitant about putting it in the historical fiction category. It just doesn’t feel like a lot of other historical fiction reads I’ve come across, due to its breezy style and tone. Maybe I don’t know what this book is, other than an escape. It’s an escape into a world where style reigned supreme, the parties were epic, the people were glamorous, and the settings were grand. A book about the 1960s Jet Set might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you like reading about a world very different than the one most of us have known, then you might just like my ode to “attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places”. That was the Slim Aarons motto, and it’s because of his photographs that I wanted to devote so much of my attention to this era. These pictures made me feel like a time-traveler, and in a world where everything around us is on fire, doesn’t that sound kind of great?

Slim Aarons, Getty Images
Slim Aarons, Getty Images
Slim Aarons, Getty Images

That’s not to say that things were perfect in the sixties, or that women with money had worry-free lives. They still experienced grief and heartache and misogyny just like many of us do now. But it’s my hope that readers are able connect with the beauty in this fictionalized world I’ve created, where swimming pools sparkled in the sunlight, and a young woman’s voice could be the thing to set her free from the golden cage. I hope you fall in love with the love story of Caroline and Jack, and root for them just as much as I did while writing. I hope, if you need an escape this summer, Follow the Sun can provide it. Cheers!

P.S.- If you’re wondering which movies inspired scenes in Follow the Sun, check out my article at Moviejawn!

Dramas

The Door in the Floor

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the-door-in-the-floor
Image credit: The Door in the Floor, 2004

I’d like to give a shout-out to summer beach read season, or what I like to call, “that time of year magazines say it’s acceptable to read the books I actually read all year long.” One book that has found its way to the bottom of my beach bag multiple times is the John Irving classic A Widow for One Year, set in a Long Island seaside hamlet thick with privets and scandals. Although several Irving books have been adapted to the big screen, this one, and its film adaptation The Door in the Floor (DVD/Download), will always be my favorite.

Although this movie only covers the first half of the novel, it does this small bit exceptionally well. With Jeff Bridges as eccentric children’s book author Ted Cole, and Kim Basinger as his damaged wife Marion, the performances in this film are gut-wrenching and powerful. After losing their teenage sons in a tragic car accident, the couple struggle with being parents again to their young daughter Ruth (played by Elle Fanning). Marion starts sleeping with Eddie the intern, Ted continues sleeping with everyone, and little Ruth accepts it all with unnerving maturity. There is sand, there are waves, and there are cedar-shingled mansions. But there are also secrets, monsters, and stories best told in the dark.

For the record, Ted Cole is my hero. The man waltzes around in caftans (even on the squash court!) and a Van Gogh straw hat, just not giving a f*ck. His glass is always full, his barbs always the sharpest, and his squid-ink drawings like something out of a mental hospital. Enjoy this Ted Cole-inspired cocktail while you fantasize about afternoons dozing in an Adirondack chair, and nights drunk-peddling your bicycle home. While watching The Door in the Floor, I recommend drinking an Ink Well.

Ink Well

2 oz Dark Spiced Rum

1 oz Chambord

¾ oz Simple Syrup

¾ oz Fresh lemon juice

½ oz egg white

1 tsp activated charcoal

2-3 dashes Angostura bitters

In a cocktail shaker, add all ingredients except bitters, and give it a dry shake. Add ice, then shake vigorously until egg white is foamy. Strain into a glass, and garnish with bitters.

I have incredibly high hopes that there will one day be a film sequel covering the second half of the book, wherein young Ruth is grown up and experiences the sound of someone trying not to make a sound. Jeff Bridges- you better stick around for that one. It’s a doozy of a story. Cheers!