Today we have a very special guest author. She’s traveled the world, writes novels set against the backdrops of many different cultures, and apparently has a cast-iron stomach to boot! It’s my great pleasure to present
R. ANN SIRACUSA!
I ATE THE WORM!
I did!
And not just any old worm. A Mopani worm.
Oh, yuck!
Actually, the Mopani is a caterpillar, not a worm, the larvae of the Emperor Moth. It didn’t look like the one in the photo, but no matter how you cook, you can still see what it is.
THE QUESTION IS, WHY?
Why not? I draw inspiration for my novels from my world travels. While I never know what information I’m going to need in the next novel, I’ve learned to pay better attention to the kinds of details that can’t be researched. When I travel, I look for unique locations, attitudes, and customs that result in a story that couldn’t happen anywhere else and be the same story. And I take advantage of new experiences and strange food.
Besides, Africans eat many types of insects (at least 40 types are traditional food), but the most widespread and popular is the Mopani worm. It is considered healthy because of the crude protein content of 61% (three times the protein found in beef), plus they have crude fat of 17% and 11% of mineral content, on a dry matter basis. The worms are cheap and the main source of protein for much of the population of southern Africa. In some places they are considered a delicacy; in others, bush food.
Still, yuck!
THE BOMA RESTAURANT
The momentous worm-eating event took place in 2008 at the well-know Boma restaurant, a class tourist venue near the Victoria Safari lodge. One visitor described it as an “over the top, traditional dining experience that is nothing short of memorable and exciting” and another “an out-of-body experience.” The buffet is huge, with such dishes as grilled warthogs (tastes like good pork), kudu and impala stews, vegetarian dishes and, of course, the worm.
Diners are dressed in chitenges and invited to take part in a hand washing ceremony. The entertainment includes Amakwezi traditional dancers and singers, a local story teller, face painting, a Sangoma (a witchdoctor/fortune teller), and drummers. It’s very interactive entertainment.
WHAT DO MOPANI WORMS TASTE LIKE?
Do you really want to know? I remember the one I ate (and I do mean “one”) as being kind of crunchy but I think I gulped it down without tasting it.
One blogger who ate hers at the Boma but in a stew, puts it this way. “The initial taste of the Mopane worm wasn’t so bad, hidden by the garlic and onions. But as I continued to chew, the real flavor became unmasked and I detected a blend of earth, salt and drywall. It wasn’t very good.”
Others say they taste like leaves. Still another person described them as having the flavor and texture of gritty prawns. I guess it depends on how you cook them.
The three Boma diners in the photo (dressed in the chitenge are holding up their “I ate the worm” certificates.
Okay, you brave people. Would you eat the worm? I’d love to hear from you.
ALL FOR A BLAST OF HOT AIR
The setting for my latest novel in the romantic suspense series Tour Director Extraordinaire, is Southern Africa. My trip to South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia in 2008 inspired the novel All For A Blast Of Hot Air.
You can set a novel in a place you’ve never been and pull it off, but having been there is better. Physical presence gives you a sense of how the location feels, tastes, and smells. You hear the background sounds, feel the rhythm and pace. These details add to the richness of the setting and can even become factors in the storyline.
All For A Blast of Hot Air
By R. Ann Siracusa
ISBN: 978-1-77101-176-1
E-Book only
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A secret pre-nuptial honeymoon, a hot air balloon safari, and a plot to kill the US president all come together at a Vatican wedding.
BLURB
I’m Harriet Ruby, tour director extraordinaire. Finally, I’m tying the knot with Will Talbot, my favorite spy and the love of my life, despite my nagging concerns about his dangerous profession.
He could get killed!
I don’t want my children to grow up with an absentee father…or a dead one, but Will’s work is his calling. I can’t ask him to give it up. When he holds me in his arms, I have no doubt he’ll find a way to make everything right.
To avoid the huge Italian wedding my mother is planning in California, I jump at an offer to get married in the Vatican, only to learn my whole tribe is making the trip to Rome for the ceremony. Darn. Now, I’m stuck planning a big wedding in two months without help. I freak out totally when my boss cancels my vacation time scheduled for the honeymoon.
At Will’s suggestion, we get married at city hall, hire a wedding planner, and then take off on our honeymoon before the church ceremony. The first leg of our trip is a hot air balloon safari in Africa—well, it sounded like fun at the time—but afterward, we’ll have two quiet, relaxing weeks totally alone.
When a member of our tour is kidnapped, I learn Will accepted an assignment from the US government to keep the kidnap victim under surveillance—after he’d promised me his full attention. All my doubts about the marriage raise their ugly heads.
Have I jumped the gun? Sure, we love each other, but is that enough to make this marriage work?
It won’t matter if we don’t get out alive.
EXCERPT
Later, sated and limp with contentment, we dozed. I awoke to him nibbling at my ear.
“Hmm. Is it morning yet?” I eased away, stretched long and hard, then curled against him again. “Will…”
I hesitated so long he pulled back and turned me so he could peer into my eyes, holding me in place so I couldn’t escape.
His voice conveyed concern. “What’s the matter?”
“Mmm, nothing. I was wondering if… Is this going to change when we get married?”
Will stiffened and gazed into my eyes with an unreadable nuance of expression. “If you’re asking if I’m going to whip out a roll of duct tape, run a line down the center of the bed, and put my Kevlar vest and a can of Mace between us, the answer is definitely not.”
I grimaced. “Mace would be risky.”
He laughed with amusement and some other undefined emotion that made me fidget in place. He wasn’t done with me. “With your track record, we’d better forget the Mace. But if you mean this…”
Cupping my breast, he took the swollen nipple into his mouth, pinching lightly and pulling, sending bolts of sexual desire to my core, flushing my body with heat, then trailed hot kissed down my quivering abdomen and between my legs. My body arched, and, in a heartbeat, I flew from unprepared to orgasm to spinning in space among the stars.
He gave me time to come back to earth and relax, utterly contented, and then said, “If you mean that—yes, it’s going to change.”
My heart seized, then slammed against my rib cage. I pushed him away and sat up. “What do you mean, it’s going to change?” Confused and alarmed, I grasped his shoulders and shook him.
Gently clamping his strong hands around my wrists, he pulled me back down onto his chest, our faces inches apart. Our gazes locked in the dim early morning dawn seeping through the slats of the veneziani shutters. “As I understood it, you were asking me if our sexual relationship would change when we get married. I answered you.”
“But I don’t want it to change!”
“Get a grip, Tiger. You know everything changes.”
I sniffed and held back the tears burning behind my eyes. “M-maybe we… shouldn’t g-get married.”
Sucking in a deep breath of frustration, he rolled me under him, nudging my legs apart and settling his weight in the V of my thighs, his gaze boring into me.
“Jesus, Harriet. I didn’t mean that. Think! Do you remember how our relationship was when we first met in Morocco, three years ago? Do you want us to go back to how we were then?”
“Yes, I remember. It was good—really good—but I…I like things the way they are now.” His erection pressed against me. Oh, yeah. I definitely like things the way things are now.
“We’ve both changed, Tiger. Our relationship has changed…for the better, but it’s not the same. We’re at a different time and place in our lives. We’ll never be back there, and we’ll never be back here again, either.”
My lower lip trembled with trepidation and disappointment. “You’re scaring me, Will. Promise me everything will stay the way it is now.” Even as I pouted and sniffed like a child, I regretted my foolish statement. Of course, there was no way to stop life from evolving, no going back. I clamped my teeth on my lower lip to stop the quivering.
His face softened into a tender expression, a faint smile tweaking the corners of his luscious lips. He shook his head. “Can’t. But I can promise you this. As long as I live, I will never love you less than I love you now.”
Music to my ears, a silken caress to my fluttering heart. “You are so…” The word sweet came to mind, but he didn’t like being called that. “Loveable.” I arched my body and brushed my lips across his with feather lightness, then relaxed beneath him.
With his weight on one elbow, he pushed strands of my undisciplined hair off my face and hooked one behind my ear.
“I mean it.” His pause made my heart constrict, as though his next words would be momentous. “But there are a few things I’d like to see change in the near future.”
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AUTHOR BIO
R. Ann Siracusa is a California girl who earned her Bachelor of Architecture degree from UC Berkeley, then went immediately to Rome, Italy. On her first day there, she met an Italian policeman at the Fountain of Love, and the rest is history. Instead of a degree from the University of Rome, she got a husband, and they’ve been married going on fifty years. In Rome, she worked for as an architect and planner for a land development company for several years until she and her husband moved to the US.
1962
2012
Now retired, she combines her passions—world travel and writing—into novels which transport readers to exotic settings, immerse them in romance, intrigue, and foreign cultures, and make them laugh.
Her first novel, a post WWII mafia thriller, was published in 2008. She now writes for Breathless Press which has published five books in the romantic suspense series, Tour Director Extraordinaire, one sci-fi romance, and three short stories.
She loves to hear from her readers and can be contacted through her website, Facebook, Twitter, or Google Circles.
Website/Blog: http://www.rannsiracusa.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1358230809
FaceBook Link
Google Circles Google Circles Link
GoodReads GoodReads Link
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2993012.R_Ann_Siracusa
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AnnSiracusa
Family Secrets http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53ZnnJzeR2s
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Resources
http://vivekananda.hubpages.com/hub/taste_them_once_mopani_worms
http://hughpaxton.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/some-things-taste-like-prawns-mopani-worms/
http://theculinarylinguist.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/mopani-or-mopane-worms-caterpillars-taste-like-dried-leaves/
http://www.thegreenmechanics.com/2013/01/whats-for-dinner-zimbabwes-mopane-worms.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/eats/zimbabwe-favorite-snack-mopane-worms-article-1.1247669
http://www.victoriafalls-guide.net/the-boma.html
http://goafrica.about.com/od/botswana/ss/Mopane-Worm.htm
*Note: Any oddities in formatting are entirely the result of an ongoing disagreement between this blog and its owner. Our esteemed guest is not responsible for any layout problems.
