Sidney Halston draws on heritage for her Cuban hero

Sidney Halston, author of Below the Belt, shares with us what makes her Cuban hero so hot.

Sidney:Below the Belt will be my fifth novel and of all the characters I've created, I can relate the most to Tony, the hero in the story. Yes, he's a male (and I'm not), but his Cuban heritage is close to my heart.

Being born and raised in Miami, daughter of Cuban immigrants, I speak Spanish as frequently as I do English — usually it's a mix of the two at the same time (Spanglish). I think this is a norm in Miami where there are as many English speakers as there are Spanish speakers. I'll never forget my first week in law school (yes, I'm an attorney) everyone asked me where I was from because of my accent. Mind you, I went to law school an hour north of Miami, in Fort Lauderdale, but there were a lot of students from other states. It shocked me that these people thought I had an accent. What accent? I was born in the United States, and my first language is English! This is the case with Tony.

Tony is the kind of man I have known all my life. He's my husband, my father, my brother, my friends. To me, he doesn't have an accent, but to the rest of the world his "you" sounds like "ju" and maybe he says "shair" instead of "chair." Now, I hate to stereotype, but being that these are "my people," I portray him and his family as a little loud and a lot overbearing. They talk too fast and say everything that is on their minds. This, too, is my norm. I'm sure you'll find soft-spoken, meek Cuban somewhere — but I, for one, don't know of any.

Why Portuguese with Francesca? When I began to create the characters I made the owner of Worth the Fight Academy, Francesca's father, Brazilian. Since the series was inspired in part by the fighters from the academy in which my husband trains Brazilian jiu jitsu, it only made sense to make the owner in the book Brazilian. There are so many different cultures in Miami — mostly South and Central Americans — that creating a Brazilian character wasn't a far stretch. My husband, who is fluent in Spanish, trains with Brazilians. There are similar words, but it is a completely different language, and I think people might assume that Tony and Francesca will automatically understand each other in their native languages. But they don't and it creates some comic relief when they go off on a tangent that the other doesn't understand. Here's an excerpt:

"Stop being all . . ." She flailed her arms around. "Sexual. Stop it." She stood up. This conversation was making her very uncomfortable.

"I'm not being sesual," Tony replied.

"Dude, you keep forgetting those x's. Sesual? No wonder she doesn't want to kiss you," Slade joked.

"You're just jealous," Tony shot back, exaggerating his accent. "Women love a man with an accent. Isn't that right, ladies?"

Jessica, Chrissy, and Violet all giggled and nodded, but Francesca was already up and walking away. "Be right back. Going to tidy up a bit," she said over her shoulder, her voice sounding strange.

"Yeah, an accent, not a speech impediment, brother," Slade said.

I think that the Spanish and Portuguese add depth to Francesca's and Tony's characters, and they also add humor to the story. The more flustered Tony becomes, the thicker his accent gets. For me, when I get flustered I tend to revert to Spanish.

And finally, let's face it, what woman doesn't like a sexy accent? "Baby" is a cute endearment but "Cariño" or "Mi amor" — well? Swoon!

Find out more about Sidney and her books at www.sidneyhalston.com.