Me, Snakes, and All About Charming Alice by J. Arlene Culiner

FEARLESS FRIDAY

Please welcome back to Discover... my guest, J. Arlene Culiner for Fearless Friday with a fascinating post. Snakes and romance!

It was a warm beautifully calm afternoon in the village where I live in France. Birds were singing in the tall trees in my garden (jungle), and I decided to go sit in the (rather wild) cobbled courtyard just behind my house. I was about to step through the doorway when I looked down and saw, a mere two feet away, a very long snake. There it lay, perfectly still, sunning itself. Was it aware of my presence? Probably not. 

I was shocked at first (a natural reaction, apparently, when most of us see reptiles), but I calmed myself, let fascination take over. It was a fairly large snake, possibly 4 or 5 feet long, and wonderfully beautiful. In the sun, its scales had turned a phosphorescent green-gold, and it was also remarkably elegant. 

I do my best in life to harm no creature, and I didn’t want to ruin the snake’s obviously pleasurable sunbath. Taking a few slow steps backward, I sat down on a chair and let myself bask in this rare moment with an unknown creature. So there we were for the longest while, both of us perfectly at peace, doing nothing, and enjoying the calm. 

That snake was probably a Western whip snake. Females can grow to six feet in length, and they are very powerful. They can be obstinate when annoyed, twisting about on the ground, biting and striking. This tactic enables them to overcome threatening enemies, but poses no problem for humans. In fact, like most snakes, they prefer to flee humans, weaving away to safety through grasses and hedges. 

The delightful time with this particular snake came to an abrupt halt when the telephone behind me rang. I stepped back to answer, and when I returned, the snake had gone. It never again appeared in my courtyard, but it did send me a message of sorts: a few months later, I found its outer skin close by—snakes and other reptiles shed their skins periodically in a process called Ecdysis. 

That snake did me a favour. It broadened my world, and I have since sought other snakes in the wetland habitats they are so fond of, in dry grasslands, and ponds. I’m always thrilled when I spot one for familiarity has vanquished fear. And it is my appreciation of these hated creatures that inspired me to create the heroine of my contemporary romance, All About Charming Alice. 

Alice is a former actress who has changed her life by moving to a semi-ghost town in the Nevada desert. She now works as a herpetologist, studying, photographing and protecting snakes—“the most unloved creatures on Earth. As she explains: 

“All snakes are passive, and they would much rather slide away to safety than strike. If you leave them alone, watch them from a distance, they’d never think of hurting you. Even if most people are instinctively afraid of snakes, snakes aren’t instinctively afraid of people, so they sometimes slide into backyards, innocently passing through on their way to somewhere else. They should be left alone, of course, but people kill them as soon as they notice them. Then, there’s the danger of habitat destruction, and rattlesnake roundups. Very few snakes manage to survive their first encounter with humans.” 

All About Charming Alice 

Trust in love and solutions will appear 

Alice Treemont has no intention of falling in love. Living in Blake’s Folly, a semi-ghost town, she cooks vegetarian meals, rescues unwanted dogs, and protects the most unloved creatures on earth: snakes. What man would share those interests? 

Jace Constant is in Nevada, doing research for his new book, but he won’t be staying. He’s disgusted by desert dust on his fine Italian shoes and dog hair on his cashmere sweaters. As for snakes, he doesn’t just despise them: they terrify him. 

So why does the air sizzle each time Alice and Jace meet? A romance would entail far too many compromises. 

Purchase Link : https://books2read.com/Charming-Alice

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l2VyHtsY7A 

Writer, photographer, social critical artist, and impenitent teller of tall tales, J. Arlene Culiner, was born in New York and raised in Toronto. She has crossed much of Europe on foot, has lived in a mud house on the Great Hungarian Plain, a Bavarian castle, a Turkish cave dwelling, a haunted house on the English moors, and on a Dutch canal. She now resides in a 400-year-old former inn in a French village of no interest where, much to local dismay, she protects spiders, snakes, and all weeds. She particularly enjoys incorporating into mysteries, non-fiction, and romances, her experiences in out-of-the-way communities, and her conversations with very odd characters. 

Author Website: http://www.j-arleneculiner.com

And here are all my links in one place: https://linktr.ee/j.arleneculiner