Christina Hollis - The Dangers of Pure Imagination

Walters Art Museum

I've just finished writing a novel, Bright Danger, which  centres around the discovery of a priceless work of art. Everything about my story is completely fictional, including the beautiful gold and lapis necklace at its heart. I work with inspiration boards pinned with pictures of locations and characters to keep me on track, but there was one glaring omission from Bright Danger's Work In Progress file. I didn't have a picture of the necklace, because it didn't exist.

The idea had come to me in a dream one night. It was after a visit to the British Museum, although as far as I know my imaginary necklace is unique. When I scribbled down the details next morning (I knew keeping a notebook beside the bed was a good idea!) I didn't realise this would pose any sort of problem. It's only now, when I'm going to be working with a cover artist, that I've discovered a big problem. I can't find pictures of anything online that remotely resembles the pictures inside my head.

The closest I've come to it is the beautiful Byzantine necklace you can see here (above). Unfortunately, it's more likely to have been worn by Elena in my latest release, Jewel Under Siege, than by Julia from Ancient Rome. All this has made me  think twice about the things to include in my next book. Online, images are everything. If a picture can't be produced, a piece lacks impact. Bright Danger will definitely have a suitable picture on the cover, but how closely it fits with my idea is something that will need work.

I wish now I'd found a picture to write about, rather than relying on pure imagination. I'm not keen on the idea of sorting out loads of royalty-free images for an inspiration board before I start writing my next book. It might take away all the spontanaeity. On the other hand, I might come across something unexpected which fires my imagination. Don't you love being distracted like that, when you should be looking for something else entirely?

Have you ever been inspired by a work of art? Comment to be entered into a lucky dip for the chance to win a signed book from my backlist.

Christina Hollis writes both contemporary and historical fiction - when she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping. You can catch up with her at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com, on Twitter and Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at http://www.christinahollis.com. If you'd like to keep up to date with the progress of Bright Danger, email Christina at christinahollis(at)hotmail.co.uk.

Christina Hollis - Creative Writing, Chapter and....Prose

Hard at Work...(with biscuits)

Last year, the Romantic Novelists' Association awarded each of its local chapters £100 (around $168) to be spent on a constructive writing project of their choice. I'm a member of the RNA's Marcher Chapter, which covers the border country between England and Wales. We put our heads together, and decided to use our windfall to fund a day-long, fully catered creative writing workshop for our members.

We held Be A Fool For Love For A Day on the day closest to April Fool's Day that we could book at our favourite venue, the slick Hereford Courtyard arts venue.  The photo shows (clockwise, from bottom left) Fay Wentworth, Georgia Hill, Christina Courtenay, Joanna Maitland, Marilyn Rodwell and organizer, Ann Ankers, in mid-session.

My Current Release

A month in advance, we each submitted up to ten pages of a current project to our organizer, Ann Ankers. You can read part of my extract on my blog, by clicking here. Ann collated the entries into one document, removing our names and giving each entry a unique identifier. Members then read and critiqued every entry (including their own) before reading out their thoughts on each piece in turn during the day of the workshop. We then discussed them individually, in depth. This system worked really well, especially as everyone stuck to the ratio of three stars to one strike. That means, three good points were highlighted for every piece of constructive criticism given. The whole day was a really positive experience, and everyone went away full of ideas.

Last Tuesday, 10th June, we had a follow-up meeting. Everyone's made great progress with their projects and several (including me!) had completed their featured projects and submitted them to publishers.  Our first workshop proved such a success we're now planning a second one, to be held later this year. That's given us all a big incentive to start work on new projects.

Are you a member of a critique group? What's the most useful piece of advice you've been given?

Christina Hollis writes both contemporary and historical fiction - when she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping. You can catch up with her at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com, on Twitter and Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at http://www.christinahollis.com

Christina Hollis: Work In Progress - "Bright Danger"

Cover Art - Samantha Groom

I’ve recently taken some time out to write in genres beyond my usual category of contemporary romance. You can read an extract from my historical novel, Jewel Under Siege, by clicking here.  My current work in progress, Bright Danger, is a full-length contemporary thriller with a romantic twist.

Josh Ambrose turned to law-enforcement after a tragedy in his turbulent past. When mysterious woman-without-a-history Sophia Hope finds a dead celebrity at a local make-out point, she proves more dangerous to Josh's peace of mind than any murderer. He's in trouble, but her predicament is about to get a whole lot worse...

OPENING OF CHAPTER ONE, BRIGHT DANGER

'...but I love you!'

That was the last thing she wanted to hear, especially from him. She put on a spurt, desperate to get away. Would this guy never take the hint? She’d moved here to start a new, blameless life. He’d ignored every instruction not to follow her, from gentle hint to firm refusal. What was wrong with the man? He stuck like human chewing-gum. 

I’ll have to get nasty, she thought. Really nasty. 

The track ahead led up a bony limestone spine. Kicking on, she left her unwanted shadow for dead. The winter air burned her face, but she dragged it into her body like vodka.

‘I’m serious!’ his voice drifted up like cigarette smoke from a long way below her.

Something always managed to stop her running right to the summit of this heartbreaking hill. Today, that fawning fruit-loop wanted to hold her back–but it wasn't going to happen. Today, she was determined to find out what life was like at the top...

*

Josh Ambrose groaned and opened his eyes. It didn’t make any difference. His room was as black as an informant’s heart. Without much enthusiasm, he tried to extract himself from the duvet’s warm embrace. Then he remembered it was Sunday. 

Ahhh...Sunday.... 

Next minute, an unholy racket punched a hole straight through his head. Falling out of bed, he groped across the room. After ripping back the curtains, he killed the alarm clock. When the only thing still ringing was his ears, he dragged his hand down over his face. Then he went over to his bedside chair, and inspected the clothes he’d stripped off after coming home from the match.  They were alive with the smells of quattro stagioni and Black Pepper bodywash, but good enough for what he had in mind.

  Throwing his underpants aside, he got into his jeans. As he moved, he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror. Light ran over his body like honey. The double-headed eagle etched across his back roused as he flexed. It had taken a total of seven hours, eighteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds to get that inking done. The pain had been exquisite. He’d only endured it to fit in with the Anderson gang. All along, they’d thought they were using him. They'd realized too late that Josh was the one in charge, playing them like fish on hooks. In the end they’d lost everything. He’d walked away with the biggest prize of all. 

And Lucky.

Pulling on his shirt, Josh thundered downstairs. He almost filled the small kitchen, bouncing from light switch to radio, toaster to kettle and back again.  

In all that time, his new dog never moved a muscle. Brought up to expect nothing but trouble from men, she was screwed into her bed, still and silent.

  ‘Ready, Lucky?’ 

       He strolled toward her, braced for her usual morning routine of flinch and growl. 

This morning, it didn’t happen. His mouth dried. He dropped into a crouch beside the dog-basket. Was she sick? Instinctively, his hand went toward the danger zone, then he stopped himself. He could afford to lose a few minutes, but he wanted to keep all his fingers...

Josh Ambrose soon finds out that in a world where public faces hide private sins, he can’t count on loyalty from anyone. And the woman he wants has a lot of history, and it's catching up with her fast.

How do you think Bright Danger is shaping up so far?

Christina Hollis writes both contemporary and historical fiction - when she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping. You can catch up with her at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com, on Twitter and Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at http://www.christinahollis.com

Christina Hollis - Revisiting Romance

The original cover, courtesy Harlequin Books  S.A

I used to write historical fiction for the Harlequin Mills and Boon Masquerade line, under the name  Polly Forrester. That was in the days before everyone was online, so the books were only distributed in the UK and Europe. Since then, life's changed a lot.  Practically everyone's online, so I'm going though my backlist and gradually releasing my original historical romances as ebooks. The first to come out in this form was Lady Rascal, which is set in 1789, during the French Revolution.

I've learned a lot about the process of turning print into ebooks since that first experiment. This spring sees the release of my medieval romance, Jewel Under Siege. Bringing the prose up to date and creating a fresh new look for the cover have kept me busy during the long winter evenings. Like my heroine Elena, I'm really looking forward to seeing the sunshine again!  At the moment, Jewel under Siege is at the exciting stage of artwork and distribution co-ordination. I'll be issuing a newsletter soon to give my subscribers a sneak, pre-production peek at the new cover. It's been designed especially for the ebook by artist Samantha Groom, who also works with writers like Jean Bull. If you'd like to be one of the first to be in on the secret, you can subscribe by clicking on the envelope symbol here: http://bit.ly/1eKihHg

In the meantime, you can find out more about my first historical ebook, Lady Rascal here (if you're in the US) or here (if you're in the UK).

What do you like best about historical fiction? Is it the idea of familiar passions experienced in different cultures? Or is it the tight breeches and galloping horses? Leave your comment for the chance to win a signed book from my backlist, in a draw to be made on 17th January.

Christina Hollis writes both contemporary and historical fiction - when she isn't cooking, gardening or beekeeping. You can catch up with her at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.co.uk, on Twitter and Facebook, and see a full list of her published books at http://www.christinahollis.com

Christina Hollis - 3 Lifelines For Writers

There are three things every writer needs - a story to tell, a way to tell it and the opportunity.

Everyone has their own ideas about the first two items on this list. Put three writers together and you’ll come up with a dozen different plots.  Each of them will have their preferred way of working, too. That can be dictation and voice-recognition software, typing straight onto the computer screen, good old pencil and paper or a combination of all three.

It’s getting the opportunity to write that causes all the trouble. Here are three tips I found useful when working on Lady Rascal, and my current WIP, Jewel Under Siege.

1. TIMETABLING: When do you do your best writing? If it’s first thing in the morning, set your alarm an hour earlier and use that time just for writing. If it’s after work or the children’s bedtime, lay in plenty of coffee and get writing once it's quiet. DO NOTHING ELSE! Don’t let yourself get distracted by anything at all. Set a kitchen timer, or call on the team at #1k1hr on Twitter to get yourself motivated. 

2. A SPACE OF YOUR OWN: Make sure you've got your own dedicated writing area. No matter how small, it'll be your private territory and that will give you a boost. It also means you don't have to hunt all around the house for your dictionary, thesaurus and other reference books, once they're all concentrated in one place. If your writing space doesn't include access to the Internet, that's better still-unless you're single-minded enough not to go online while you're working. The net is a great help with research, but it can turn into a terrible time-waster.

Mother's Little Helpers

Try to get your family to share the domestic chores so you can write. Make it fun for them, use bribery-anything to make sure you can get your “me time”. You might discover somebody has a hidden talent. When our children were small, we worked our way through The River Cottage Family Cookbook among others. As they've grown in age and experience, they can now take their turn in cooking dinner.

That's a real luxury, as long as you can shut your ears to the racket coming from the kitchen (or the eerie silence, which can be worse...). This spaghetti carbonara and chilled fruit pudding was produced by Son No.1. It was delicious!

That's a real luxury, as long as you can shut your ears to the racket coming from the kitchen (or the eerie silence, which can be worse...). This spaghetti carbonara and chilled fruit pudding was produced by Son No.1. It was delicious!

3. SHORT CUTS: Online shopping is a Godsend for the time-poor. Try your local supermarket delivery services. They're convenient and reduce the amount of impulse-buying, too. The discipline of making out a list to shop just once a week is another time-saver if you usually hit the aisles every day. We use Abel and Cole and Laverstoke Park Farm, too, for those times when there's nothing in the garden.

Of course, all these tips can easily be adapted to other areas of your life, such as reading or hobbies. How do you organise your own "me time"? 

If you'd like to keep up with the latest news about Jewel Under Siege, you can subscribe to Christina’s newsletter by sending her an email at christinahollis@hotmail.co.uk with the word “subscribe” in the subject line. You can also read her blog athttp://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com, and see a complete list of her published books athttp://www.christinahollis.com.

Christina Hollis: Research and Romance...

Istanbul by Bertil Videt

I wrote my first romance almost by accident, but found I loved the process. 

My writing career began in journalism. A  piece I did on Robert Curthose, the eldest son of William the Conqueror, attracted a lot of interest. Writers love to see how many ways they can use the research they've done, so I decided to try expanding my work into a new biography of Robert. It felt like a good idea, but at the time publishers weren't interested in anyone who hadn’t been immortalized by Holbein - like the much more famous Henry VIII. 

Young Robert led a wild and exciting life, but he ended up as a pretty obscure footnote to English history. Without much in the way of written records or illustrations, I was told his natural habitat was between the pages of an academic thesis. That didn't appeal to me, so I put the idea aside. 

Then one day, BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour did a feature on historical romance. When I was at school, I'd loved the books of Georgette Heyer so I decided to try turning some of the general research I’d already done into a novel. The result was Knight's Pawn, which was published by Harlequin Mills and Boon under their Masquerade imprint. This was followed by five more historical novels for Harlequin, written under my pen name of Polly Forrester. At the time they were only available in the UK. I'm now in the process of bringing them out as ebooks, to introduce them to a wider audience. 

Lady Rascal is already on sale and my next title, Jewel Under Siege, is due for release later this summer. Jewel under Siege is set in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), at the time of the Crusades. Elena is a young widow who finds herself in an impossible situation when tough warrior Emil literally falls into her life. He is the enemy, but the lure of the forbidden means Elena and Emil are attracted to each other despite the dangers. Robert Curthose manages to become a footnote to their story, too!

One thing I've noticed when revisiting my earlier work is that my fiction tended to be sweet, rather than steamy. As my career in fiction-writing has expanded, I've lost some of my inhibitions so I’m busy warming up the scenes between Elena and Emil at the moment . 

How do you like your historical romances - tender, or torrid? 

If you'd like to keep up with the latest news about Jewel Under Siege, you can subscribe to Christina’s newsletter by sending her an email at christinahollis@hotmail.co.uk with the word “subscribe” in the subject line. You can also read her blog at http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com, and see a complete list of her published books at http://www.christinahollis.com.