Inspiring images — Kandy Shepherd

Back in the day, I used to prepare a scrapbook style story board for each of my stories. They would be filled with cuttings from magazines and catalogues, key words, even scraps of fabric. The boards were a bit messy and cumbersome and my skills with glue and sticky tape left much to be desired—bits and pieces were always falling off!

Then along came Pinterest! What a joy to make a digital scrapbook for each story. Inspiration for every aspect of my book at the click of the keyboard—hero, heroine, their clothes, their jewellery, their rooms, house, places they travel. I became a big fan. Some might say an addict!

First I start with inspiration for the hero and heroine. What an excuse to trawl through photos of gorgeous males! 

The joys of research!

Equally fun to find my perfect heroine. Even more fun the clothes she wears. As many of my books for Harlequin Romance feature a wedding, I have a page just for beautiful wedding ideas, including spectacular gowns.

For my latest book STRANDED WITH HER GREEK TYCOON, I researched inspiration for the hero Cristos: Greek, exceptionally handsome, tall and dark (of course!) with the kind of looks that made him an international model. After much pleasant browsing, I settled on French model Nicolas Simoes.

 For petite, blonde heroine Hayley, I went no further than lovely actress Michelle Williams. Then there was the blue coat Hayley wore—I found one that was just what I imagined. And her wedding dress of course!

Michelle Williams - inspiration for my heroine Hayley

 The story is set in the Ionian islands in northern Greece. I’ve been there in summer—my research showed my what the islands look like covered in snow in the  winter.

Of course as the writing of the book progresses, the hero and heroine become people in their own right (in my imagination, that is!) and very soon they are uniquely themselves, and perhaps different from the images that inspired me.

Here’s a screenshot of my Pinterest board for Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon. 

Why not hop over to the site and see it in more detail. If you’ve read the book, I wonder if it differs from the image you have in your mind of the characters and the settings! https://www.pinterest.com.au/kandyshepherd/cristos-and-hayley-stranded-with-her-greek-tycoon-/

 Do you use Pinterest for inspiration (I also have boards for home and garden!) Do you scrapbook? I'd love to see your comments.

Kandy Shepherd’s Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon is a February 2018 release from Harlequin Romance in North America; Mills& Boon True Love in the UK; and Mills & Boon Forever Romance in Australia and New Zealand. 

The model on the covers of the UK and Australian editions is just how I imagined Cristos—and not dissimilar to the images I collected on my board!

  

Kandy Shepherd is a multi-published, award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram

Photos of male model and Michelle Williams from Deposit Photos.

Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon—Kandy Shepherd

Have you ever met someone just fleetingly, yet you can’t get them out of your head?

That happened to me with a minor character named Cristos in my last novel for Harlequin Romance, ConvenientlyWed to the Greek (May 2017). Cristos was the cousin of that book’s hero. I didn’t know a lot about him other than he was extremely good looking. But I couldn’t stop thinking about Cristos. Why was someone so handsome on his own? Why did I sense secrets and sadness behind his happy-go-lucky mask?

I had find out more about Cristos Theofanis—so he had to have his own story! I discovered Cristos was estranged from the wife he’d adored, Hayley Clements. They’d married young but trauma and tragedy took the gloss off their marital bliss and they’d spiralled apart. When Hayley unexpectedly reappears, she and Cristos get a last chance to save their marriage.

Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon is set in the beautiful Ionian Islands in Greece. What a perfect place for a couple to reignite the spark of their passion and fall in love all over again—just in time for Valentine’s Day!

I’ve been fortunate enough to visit those beautiful islands and hope to return. Our visit was in September when the weather was hot but not too hot and the water glorious for swimming. People there told me, however, that they could have a cold winter on the islands. I discovered that sometimes it actually snowed.

What’s more romantic? Summer where clothes are minimal or winter where you can snuggle to keep warm? I decided to set Cristos’s story in winter—with snow!

Where I live in Australia, we get snow. Not in Sydney but certainly in the mountains. In fact I learned to ski on the Australian snowfields. We’re having a very hot summer DownUnder. But I know right now friends in the northern hemisphere might be snowed in. Is it actually as romantic as we authors suggest in romance novels like Strandedwith Her Greek Tycoon?

UK edition

What are your thoughts on snow? Comment here for a chance to be in the draw for a paperback copy of Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon.

US edition

Kandy Shepherd’s Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon is a February 2018 release from Harlequin Romance in North America; Mills & Boon True Love in the UK; and Mills & Boon Forever Romance in Australia and New Zealand. 

Kandy Shepherd is a multi-published, award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram

A tale of two romance covers – Kandy Shepherd

As an author, one of the most exciting moments for me in the production cycle of a book is my first sight of the cover.

I spend a lot of time with my characters (in my imagination of course!) from first imaginings to totally falling in love with them as the story develops. My romances generally have the hero or heroine alone—or more often both as a couple—on the cover.

To see how my publisher’s cover designer interprets my descriptions of the characters and setting is always exciting. I’ve been fortunate to have been given some beautiful covers for my books.

My next release for Harlequin is Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon in February 2018.

It’s a passionate, emotional story with an estranged husband and wife stranded on a private Greek island in a snowstorm. Gorgeous Cristos Theofanis has one night to win back Hayley, the wife he'd adored.

UK cover

The fun thing working with a Harlequin Romance title is that my books are simultaneously released not only in North America (Harlequin Romance) but also in the UK (Mills & Boon True Love).

That usually means two quite different covers. Then there is the cover for the Australian and New Zealand editions, also released at the same time or very close to it. These often follow the US cover but not always, so that can mean three covers out at the same time.

North America cover

More cover fun comes in the months after that with foreign language editions where the cover is usually completely different.

Above, I've shared both the North American and UK covers for Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon with you. What do you think? Do you have a preference? (To ask me to choose, islike asking a mother to name a favourite child. I adore the cover hero on the UK edition, he is just like I imagined the hero Cristos—handsome and hot! But I also love seeing the hero and heroine together on the NA cover, and she looks very like the Hayley of my imagination.)

Kandy Shepherd’s most recent book Conveniently Wed to the Greek is a May 2017 release.  Watch out for Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon in February 2018.

Kandy Shepherd is a multi-published, award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram