Ballerinas: aren’t they allergic to food? Sasha Sinclair, heroine
of Desert Flower and Kingdom of the Shades, doesn’t think so.
She’ll munch on a Danish at the drop of a pointe shoe. After all, how fat can
she get when she dances ten hours a day? Her partner complains, but she knows
he’s only goofing on her. Her father paired them when they were kids, so he’s
closer than a brother. Besides, she eats healthy most of the time. She hasn’t
much choice, having married a pilot from a culture that specializes in vegan
cuisine. It was love at first sight, Tarkei-style—an ancient tradition commonly
dismissed as a legend until Sasha and Danion, without even lifting a finger,
proved the doubters wrong. Neither of them has time to cook, but in the
twenty-fourth century they don’t have to: machines spit out restaurant-level
meals on command.
Danion pays little attention to what goes in his mouth, but
he does have standards. The virulent orange soup his protegé loves because it
reminds him of the one Mama used to make has Danion sending silent prayers of
thanks skyward that Mama is no longer around. Then there’s his old friend
Thuja, who likes her dinner fresh—as in running at top speed in the other
direction. Meals with Thuja pose a challenge. How many urgent prior engagements
can one guy dream up, even with help from his equally disgusted wife?
Ballerinas spend a lot of time on tour, and food means home
as well as sustenance. The vegan cuisine Sasha likes reminds her of trips to India
and Mexico. And when she takes charge of her husband’s adopted daughter, torn
from her native planet and dumped all unaware in San Francisco, the quest for
the right chili pepper offers a way for them to bond. At least the girl isn’t
asking for virulent orange soup….
Thanks for stopping by to share your food for thought, Carolyn!
In addition to Desert Flower and its
sequel, Kingdom of the Shades, C. P. Lesley is the author
of The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel and Legends of the Five
Directions, a series set in Russia during the childhood of Ivan the Terrible
that begins with The Golden Lynx.
http://www.cplesley.com
http://blog.cplesley.com
https://www.twitter.com/cplesley
https://www.facebook.com/cplesley.authorpage
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