THE MILLIONAIRE'S CHRISTMAS WISH—a conversation with Chance and Marcie

In honor of the season, I'd like to introduce you to Chance Fowler and Marcie Roper from The Millionaire's Christmas Wish (available from Harlequin in ebook) and tell you a bit about their Christmas story.

Good morning Chance and Marcie.  I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me today.

Chance:  Thank you, Shawna.  It was nice of you to invite us.  So…what would you like to know?

My first question is for whichever of you wants to answer it.  How did the two of you meet?

Chance:  (Winks at Marcie) Do you want to take that one?

Marcie:  My pleasure.  I was minding my own business, doing a little window shopping on my way back to my car from the book store, when he came along and accosted me in broad daylight.  He grabbed me against my will then proceeded to kiss me.  I was truly shocked and also a little frightened.  I had no idea who he was or why he had forced himself on me.

Chance:  Wait a minute…in my defense that wasn't quite the way it happened.

Marcie:  (grins) My way sounds more mysterious…and more interesting.

Did he literally grab you on the street, a total stranger, and kiss you for no reason?

Marcie:  Oh, yes…that's exactly what he did.

Chance:  Well…not really…not like that.

Ah, ha!  What's the true story?

Chance:  I was being followed by another one of those tabloid photographers who were always trying to get candid pictures of me that they can exploit, things taken out of context and blown up into something they aren't.

As sole heir to the Fowler Industries fortune, an eligible bachelor leading a very high profile life including yacht racing and making the rounds of the club scene always with a beautiful woman on your arm, I can see where there would be an interest in your activities.

Chance:  Since I was on my way to one of my special projects, I had to lose the guy following me.  I was looking for a place to duck away from him…hide in plain sight, so to speak.  As soon as I rounded a corner and was out of his sight for a few seconds, I turned my reversible jacket inside out to a different color, but there wasn't any place for me to hide.  I spotted her standing in front of the store window. My intention was to put my arm around her shoulder so it would look like we were a couple window shopping together, but for some strange reason she objected.  So I did what I had to do.  The photographer ran on down the street without paying any attention to a couple kissing in front of a store window.  I tried to apologize, explain to her, but she ran off without giving me an opportunity.

Marcie:  It was later that I discovered who he was…Take-A-Chance Fowler, as the media referred to him.  Major playboy, always being photographed with different women, yacht racing, seen at all the trendy clubs.  In other words, a spoiled rich guy living off the family wealth who had never done an honest day's work in his life.

Chance:  Definitely not a very flattering assessment of someone she didn't even know.  I was determined to set her straight and change that erroneous assumption.

Take-A-Chance?  Where did that come from?

Chance:  One of those stupid tags the press pinned on me.  "Always willing to take a chance on some wild stunt."

Marcie:  I can't begin to tell you how embarrassed I was when he told me Chance was his legal first name, not some cute little nickname.  It was his mother's maiden name.  And the more I found out about the real person behind all those tabloid headlines, the more impressed I was and the more I liked him.

You mentioned your special projects.  What did you mean by that?

Chance:  I have several projects I finance and am actively, hands-on involved with, things I don't want the media to know about.  Among other things, one of the projects is a job training program for disadvantaged youth. I don't want the other people involved to find their pictures and names splashed all over the front page of some tabloid newspaper.

What type of projects?

Chance:  (flashes a sly grin) You can find out all about them in the book.

Marcie, did you encounter any unusual problems when you began dating someone of Chance's…uh…notoriety?

Marcie:  (furrows her brow in a moment of concentration) Well, there were some uncomfortable moments with his family, such as the Christmas dinner at his father's house—

Chance:  (laughs) Merely uncomfortable?  That's an understatement!

Is there more to the family story than you're saying?

Marcie:  You mean other than his father being responsible for driving a wedge between us that nearly destroyed our relationship?

 Chance:  My family is synonymous with the word dysfunctional.  They're the personification of that old joke…look up the word dysfunctional in the dictionary and you find their picture.  You'll find out all about them when you read the book.

I'd ask you to explain, but I already know what you're going to say.

Marcie:  (laughs) You have to read the book!

Thank you, Marcie and Chance.

Blurb:

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS…

When millionaire Chance Fowler first kissed the pretty stranger in his arms, he'd only meant to dodge the photographer who'd tailed him. Then she ran off—but he couldn't forget her tempting taste on his lips. So he sought out the tantalizing woman who'd ignited his long-dormant desire….

Lovely Marcie Roper was the first woman to close her eyes to Chance's fortune. And though she'd captivated the jaded tycoon, Marcie yearned for what his wealth couldn't buy—a man who would say "I do" and mean it forever. Could Marcie convince Chance that love—for the right woman—would last a lifetime?

 Publisher's Excerpt:

She was certainly different from the type of women he usually encountered. Her eyes sparked with the fire of emotion and her stance declared a very appealing independence. Yes, indeed. Marcie Roper was quite different—a breath of fresh air. He recalled the way she felt in his arms, the taste of her delicious mouth. He fought the almost overwhelming desire to pull her into his arms and kiss her again.

He watched her walk away from him—for the second time since he first encountered her. She had turned out to be a very intriguing woman. He already knew about the golden flecks in her hazel eyes, her soft pliable lips, her addictive taste and how good she felt in his arms. And now he knew she was certainly a challenge—and Chance had never been one to back down from a challenge.

****

Harlequin has reissued 17 of my backlist print titles in ebook including THE MILLIONAIRE'S CHRISTMAS WISH.

THE MILLIONAIRE'S CHRISTMAS WISH, a Harlequin Desire by Shawna Delacorte reissued by Harlequin in ebook and available at http://ebooks.eharlequin.com.  Also available from Amazon for Kindle, Barnes & Noble for Nook, and other online vendors.  Additional information and excerpts available on my website  www.shawnadelacorte.com  Information and excerpts from my other books also available on my website. 

Turkey Trivia…Just In Time For Thanksgiving

It's that time of year again—the Thanksgiving season. This year the fourth Thursday in November falls on November 26^th, the day of celebration in the U.S.  Americans cook approximately 45 million turkeys each year for that Thanksgiving dinner.  So, in honor of the holiday, here are a dozen known and not so well known bits of trivia about turkeys.

1)  All turkeys do not taste the same.  The taste has to do with their age.  An older male is preferable to a younger male (the younger tom is stringy).  And the younger female hens are preferable to the older ones.  Hmmm…that older man and younger woman thing again.  I wonder if there's such a thing as a female cougar turkey.  :)

2)  A turkey less than 16 weeks old is called a fryer and a turkey 5 to 7 months of age is known as a roaster.

3)  Turkeys are a type of pheasant and are the only breed of poultry native to the Western Hemisphere.

4)  Wild turkeys are able to fly for short durations attaining speeds up to 55mph.  Domesticated turkeys raised on farms for food are too fat and meaty to achieve flight.

5)  Benjamin Franklin argued in favor of the turkey as the national symbol of America rather than the Bald Eagle.

6)  The first turkeys to be domesticated were in Mexico and Central America.

7)  The male turkey makes the gobble sound and the female clucks.

8)  A mature turkey has about 3,500 feathers, which is a lot of plucking before it can be cooked.

9)  The most turkeys produced annually come from Minnesota and North Carolina.

10)  The skin that hangs from a turkey's neck is called a wattle.  The fleshy growth on the base of the beak is the snood.

11)  Each year 90 percent of Americans have turkey for Thanksgiving compared to 50 percent on Christmas.

12)  The most turkey consumed per capita is not eaten by Americans.  Israel holds that honor.

One thing that's marvelous about the Thanksgiving turkey dinner is all the terrific leftovers!  Anyone out there having something other than the traditional turkey for Thanksgiving dinner?

9 DANGEROUS SCIENTIFIC WORK LOCATIONS

I read an article about scientists who work on location rather than in a lab…the ones whose labs are out there, in dangerous places and situations where most of us would never go.

So, in no particular order, here are nine of these dangerous scientific work locations.

Mount St. Helens Before and After

1)  Inside Volcanoes

When you think of geologists your first thought is usually the study of rocks and various landforms, something basically safe and stable. But for the branch of this particular science known as volcanology, things are definitely less stable and certainly a little hotter. Having been to Mt. St. Helens, Washington, after the explosive eruption and viewing the devastation first hand, I'm very familiar with the story of David Johnston, the thirty-year-old volcanologist who was on duty at the time of the eruption and was one of the fifty-seven people who died in the eruption. Volcanologists study the intense heat and chaos inside active volcanoes, and recently a team of three researchers descended inside the Marum Volcano on Ambrym Island off the coast of Australia (pictured at top of page) to study lava flows inside. Wearing a heat-resistant suit, one of them descended 1200 feet into the volcano’s crater to capture video footage of the lava’s movement. Normally, scientists use robotic cameras mounted to small helicopters or drones to do this extremely dangerous work.

2) Tornado Country

The movie Twister gave us a good look at what storm chasers do, and those who live in the part of the U.S. referred to as Tornado Alley see the results of their work on the news when the storm conditions are present that produce tornadoes. Collecting data on storms is a tough process. Getting close to a tornado is risky on a good day, and self-proclaimed storm chasers run that risk all the time. Even with such advanced technology as Doppler radar giving us the overall picture of a severe storm, some scientists claim there is some data that can only be gathered at ground level. One of the most noted tornado researchers, Tim Samaras, routinely drove in front of tornadoes to place cameras and pressure sensors to record the velocities of objects swept up by the storm. Unfortunately, in 2013 Samaras, his son, and another storm chaser died in an Oklahoma tornado.

3) Biosafety Level 4 Labs

Laboratories that deal with germs and diseases that can be dangerous or fatal to humans are given a biosafety rating from one to four. Facilities that deal with Level 4 are where the really bad stuff happens. One of the most notable is the integrated research facility located at Fort Detrick, Maryland. The laboratory is housed in a nondescript three-story structure that looks like an office building—an airtight, pressurized environment restricted to only thirty researchers. The germs they work with include epidemic diseases like Ebola and now most likely COVID. The facility has airlocks that separate it from the outside world and anything that leads outside the building, such as light fixtures or electrical outlets, is sealed in epoxy to prevent even a single germ from escaping. Scientists are given a seven-minute showering with virus-killing chemicals before they leave.

4)  Underwater Caves

The ocean is a massive mystery to humanity, covering the majority of the Earth’s surface. Even though it's part of our planet, we seem to know more about outer space than we do the depths of our oceans. One of the most interesting areas under the ocean's surface are what are known as blue holes, underwater caves that can reach as deep as 600 feet below sea level. These caves have difficult topography. They vary in size from massive, sprawling caverns to holes barely big enough to admit a human. Diving there can be very dangerous with unpredictable currents. Despite the dangers, scientific rewards are huge with both biological and archaeological finds waiting to be discovered.

5)  Tree Canopies

Forest ecosystems are made up of distinct layers, each with its own climate and variety of plants and animals. It’s a simple task to study the layers nearest the ground, but botanists have lots of questions about what’s happening up above. And that’s where canopy research comes in. Scientists at Humboldt State University in northern California climb to the top of redwood trees that can exceed 350 feet in height, anchoring their bodies to the trunk. From that risky perch they can observe the canopy ecosystem…as long as they don't lose their balance. At the top of the trees, researchers have discovered a whole ecosystem of moss, lichens, and even whole new trees and bushes growing from dead stumps.

6)  Amundsen-Scott Station

Originally built by the United States government in 1956, the Amundsen-Scott Station sits squarely on the south pole. With temperatures ranging from minus 13.6 degrees Celsius (minus 56.48 Fahrenheit) on a nice day to minus 82.8 degrees Celsius (minus 181.04 Fahrenheit) when winter is in high gear, it’s one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet. Even though blizzards and intense winds are common, astronomers spend months at the station because the six months of total darkness during winter makes Amundsen-Scott a perfect place to observe the night sky. Other researchers study the movements of the Antarctic ice sheet—the station itself moves about thirty-three feet a year as the ice drifts.

7)  Aquarius Lab

Operated by the National Oceanic and Aeronautic Administration, this deep-sea science station comes with a little twist. The human body is only capable of staying underwater for a short period at a time because decompression sickness (commonly referred to as the bends) can cause incredible damage when gas bubbles form and disrupt tissue. Some scientists have long-term research projects that need to happen in deep water, so they do it at the Aquarius Lab. This facility rests on the sea floor outside of Key Largo, Florida at a depth of 50 feet. Researchers spend up to ten days underwater at a time, studying the nearby coral reefs.

8)  Inside Hurricanes

Here’s another meteorological condition where some scientists like to get a little too close. The National Oceanic and Aeronautic Administration employs a number of flight meteorologists who take airplanes into the eyes of hurricanes to gather data on the storm’s strength and direction. They use two planes—one is a Gulfstream G-4 that has the easy job of circling the storm’s funnel, the second is a smaller propeller plane that actually penetrates the fast-moving wind to fly right to the eye of the storm. In addition to using Doppler radar on the plane’s tail, they also release a device called a dropsonde that transmits pressure and humidity data. The hurricane season of 2020 has been the most active one in the 170 years of keeping records.

9)  Outer Space

And finally…what Star Trek referred to as 'Space—The Final Frontier.' There is literally no environment as hostile to the human body as the vacuum of space. Long-term weightlessness has negative effects on muscle tone, bone density and the immune system. Exposure to radiation in low-earth orbit comes at levels ten times higher than the normal dose on the Earth’s surface. And there’s also the fact that outer space doesn’t have any of that oxygen stuff our bodies need in order to live and function. True—humans can't breathe at ocean depths without bringing oxygen with them, but the availability of more oxygen is much closer than it is in outer space. Experimentation in outer space has led to a number of fascinating discoveries in fields as diverse as astronomy and cancer medicine.

And there you have a sampling of dangerous locations some scientists refer to as their lab (minus those white lab coats, of course). 

12 Unscripted Movie Lines That Became Classics

It's a given that actors speak the dialogue written in the script, but that's not always the case. Some of our most memorable movie lines were not in the script. They were adlibbed by the actor and were so great they were kept in the movie. And many of them became classics. Here are some of those now classic lines of unscripted movie dialogue.

Casablanca (1942)

"Here's looking at you, kid."

Humphrey Bogart first said this line while teaching Ingrid Bergman how to play poker between takes. The phrase came out spontaneously during one of the Paris flashback scenes and became a recurring line in the movie, most memorably near the end.

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

"I'm walkin' here!"

Dustin Hoffman was genuinely angry when a taxi ran a red light and almost hit him and Jon Voight. Hoffman stayed in character and the line stayed in the movie.

Taxi Driver (1976)

"Are you talkin' to me?"

Robert De Niro did a brilliant job of improvising the entire scene, inspired by a single sentence in the script—Travis looks in the mirror.

Young Frankenstein (1974)

"What hump?"

For his character of Igor, Marty Feldman kept shifting the hump on his back as a joke for the other cast members. After someone noticed, the improvisation was worked into the script.

 Goodfellas (1990)

"What do you mean funny? Funny how? … Funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you?"

Joe Pesci based this dialogue on an encounter he had years earlier with an actual mobster at a restaurant where Pesci worked.

Jaws (1975)

"You're gonna need a bigger boat."

Roy Scheider didn't have a line right after his close encounter with a Great White, so he made up this one.

Apocalypse Now (1979)

"You're an errand boy, sent by a grocery clerk."

On location, Marlon Brando folded up pages of the script and turned them into a paper hat, which he put on his head. He later ad-libbed some 18 minutes of dialogue for his character, Colonel Kurtz.

The Third Man (1949)

"In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed. They produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Only Orson Welles would have the confidence to add his own lines to a screenplay by Graham Greene.

Silence of the Lambs (1991)

"Hsssssss."

Anthony Hopkins made an unexpected hissing sound right after delivering this memorable line about eating the census taker's liver with fava beans and a nice chianti. He intended it as a joke. The director kept it in the movie, along with Jodie Foster's stunned reaction.

Deliverance (1972)

"Squeal like a pig!"

The most disturbing line in the movie was improvised on set in an effort to clean up the dialogue, with the hope that Deliverance could eventually be shown on television.

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

"Mein Fuhrer, I can walk!"

Peter Sellers, who played three characters in Stanley Kubrick's Cold War satire, ad-libbed much of his dialogue. The lines were later added to the screenplay after they had been spoken.

The Shining (1980)

"Heeeeere's Johnny!"

Director Stanley Kubrick, who lived in England, didn't know the reference to Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Jack Nicholson's dark joke nearly ended up on the cutting room floor.

There are, of course, many more occasions where this has happened, producing memorable movie lines. This is merely a sampling.