Guest: Cynthia Cooke

Please welcome a great friend, and long-time critique partner of mine, Cynthia Cooke.  Though I think our critique group stopped actually critiquing each others' work a few years back, we've all remained friends thanks to the Internet, and it's a treat when we get to meet up at a conference!  

Getting Lost (and found) in New Orleans

By Cynthia Cooke

Who doesn’t love New Orleans?  Any time of day of night you can hear the lonesome notes of a Jazz horn, or stomp your feet to Zydeco.  The mouthwatering smell of garlic and onions and all things Cajun drift on the air to make your mouth water.  Beautiful iron work, and soaring white columns, and the soft scent of flowers fill the almost reddish purple air.  Everything about New Orleans pleases the senses, sometimes shocking them.  It’s no wonder people flock there by the thousands all to get a taste of all that is New Orleans.

I have visited there twice, and have fallen in complete love with the city.  

My latest book, Black Magic Lover, takes place in an old estate house nestled in the Atchafalaya swamp.  The estate has its own gothic cemetery and a voodoo priestess.  With each turn of the page you will step into a world rich with the mystical.  What looks like a quaint Louisiana bayou town filled with simple good folk is anything but simple.  Its companion story, a Nocturne Bite called His Magic Touch, is set in the same small town. 

Yes, I loved New Orleans for its exotic inspiration.  While there, I did the swamp tour, a river boat tour, a tour of the police station, the morgue and, of course, a voodoo shop.  But most of all, I ate.  And ate.  And ate some more.  Especially Beignets.  Sometimes I dream of Beignets.  In fact, just looking at these pictures is inspiring me all over again.  I think I might need to write another book set in my favorite city!  

So tell me, what inspires you?