I visited San Francisco’s Chinatown yesterday to spend some time with my sister who was in town for a study session. We had dim sum at the Hang Ah Dim Sum Tea House, the oldest continuously run dim sum house in the US, established in 1920. After eating a variety of tasty dishes, we decided to walk off the calories by going up and down the various streets and of course, taking pictures to get a feel for the neighborhood and enjoy the sights and sounds.
My first paranormal romance is a sweet romantic comedy set in San Francisco Chinatown. My heroine is an ordinary everyday woman who works as a greeter at a bank, and my hero is the Son of the Kitchen God, whose job is to fight kitchen fires, especially ones that start during cooking.
I got my idea from cooking in my wok and accidentally igniting it on fire when I let the oil get too hot. I didn’t take a picture because I was too busy pulling the wok off the gas range and stopping the fire myself. I didn’t have the help of a supernatural demigod who’d jump out of the wok and put out the fire by pushing the flames around with his hands until it turned into a tiny ball. His name is Johnny Wok, the cosmic firefighter, and hero of my story.
See that wok that is darker than the rest? It is seasoned, meaning there is a polymerized layer of oil that has been chemically bonded to the bare metal. A wok like that is basically nonstick without the use of too much oil, and it is a joy to cook in it. In my story, Sapphire Sing, the heroine is trying to find out her grandmother’s matchmaking skills and she believes it has something to do with a magic wok. While seasoning her grandmother’s wok, she starts a fire that attracts Johnny Wok.
Chinese mythology is so rich in gods, goddesses, magic, and symbolism, that there was literally too much to cram into my story. I had to be satisfied in sticking to only a few of the gods and goddesses, a few demons, and of course magical animals to make the story work. Ultimately, though, it is a romance and a love story, this time between an ordinary woman and a demi-god. It is a sweet romance with no steamy scenes other than hot food.
that stand between a playboy apocalypse and innocent hearts yearning for love.
matchmaking skills. She’s stuck on a not-so-merry-go-round of second-hand men
while wedding bells ring for her snooty stepsisters.
runs afoul of Johnny Wok, the Kitchen God’s Son. When Sapphire’s friends steal
the magic wok, one reputed to cast love spells, she is hurled into an ancient
conflict between love and evil.
hunky demigod both want your heart … and your wok?
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Be sure to check out my Sweet Romances at my website: https://www.rachelleayala.net/sweet-romance and or sign up for my Sweet ONLY newsletter: http://smarturl.it/SweetRachelle and get two free sweet books. I’ll also have a new sweet series after my Hart Family is done, and will be announcing it later this summer.
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