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.

The magic begins...

For every book there is a moment when the magic begins.

I'm working on a duet with the uber-talented Kate Hardy and much fun has been had putting our heads together, discussing ideas, locations, who our two heroines will be.

We've given them histories. They have an 18th century French smuggler, Henri Prideaux, as an  ancestor, which accounts for their French names - Agnés and Fleur Prideaux - and a castle with a leaking roof to live in. Priddy Csstle is in the south west corner of the UK - Dorset, Devon, Cornwall - and that's how the locals (way back in the 18th century) said Prideaux.

We've drawn up timelines, given them back stories, found them heroes, men with an agenda, men who will infuriate them, raise memories that will bring tears to their eyes, make them weak at the knees. Check them out on my Pinterest board.

We've given them dogs to love.  This is Dora, who belongs to Agnés. A grandmother they adore. A ton of responsibilities. And looming disaster.

That's all the stuff in notebooks, printouts pinned to my cork board, ideas swirling around in my head.

Now I have to stop playing with ideas, having fun on Pinterest, asking the questions that start the journey.

The fun is over. It's time to open up my document, type Chapter One and spin gold out of straw.


* * *

Liz's latest book, Her Pregnancy Bombshell is available in paper and digital from

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon Australia
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Mills and Boon UK
Harlequin US

 

Eve Gaddy: Pinterest Fun

Since it’s the day after Christmas I thought I’d talk about fun things. Pinterest is ridiculously addicting. I use it for my books and I use it because I like to pin all kinds of things. I try not to go there unless I’m looking for something specific for a book. Even then, I start looking and the next thing I know, it’s three hours later and I haven’t yet looked at whatever I went to Pinterest for in the first place.

Case in point, I went to Pinterest to see what kind of boards I have so I could write this blog. And there was a picture of Karl Urban on my home page. Of course, I had to pin it because, well, Karl Urban. I’m following a Karl Urban board that has 1.5K pictures of Karl Urban. No, I haven’t looked at all of them. Yet.

I have a board for each book. I usually keep it secret until the book is close to being finished. Besides hero and heroine inspiration, I pin their clothes, houses, and usually something to do with their work. Anything I might find useful for that book. Horses, dogs, ranches, barns, offices all have a place on my book boards. For one of my Whiskey River boards I pinned a pool table that is in the Kelly Brothers ranch house. This one gets re-pinned a lot. It really helps me to describe something if I have a picture to look at. Before Pinterest I cut them out of magazines, but Pinterest is easier and there’s so much to look at. 

I have boards named Cool Things, Cool Places, Funny stuff, Lions and Tigers and Dogs and . . . , Space, and Skies. And an Inspiration board--Did I mention Karl Urban? Aka Nick from Last Shot. And Joe Manganiello, who is definitely hero material. He’s inspiration for a future book with a hero named Gabe.

Karl Urban (Nick)

Joe Manganiello (Gabe)

Here’s, Dylan, the hero for my current book. 

And here’s his horse named Trouble.

Some pictures I pick because they’re so pretty. Like these

However, the pin of mine that’s been re-pinned the most often is this one. It’s from Katherine Garbera’s and my Whiskey River Texas Heirs board-- https://www.pinterest.com/evegaddy/whiskey-river-texas-heirs/

How about you? Do you use Pinterest? If you do, what kinds of things do you like to pin?

If you’d like to read more about my books you can go to my website evegaddy.net or sign up for my newsletter and receive a free book! http://www.eepurl.com/boxz6f

Happy Holidays!

Image Versus Imagination

At the start of my current work in progress, Spirit, I had a bright idea. Instead of just gathering together photographs and objects on my desk to inspire me, I’d create a Pinterest board. Then everyone could see what was in my mind while I was developing the story, and I wouldn’t amass a load of what my OH calls "rubbish". It’s a big ask to expect a virtual collection to reduce the amount of clutter on my desk, but I live in hope!

Setting up an account with Pinterest was the easy part, although there are so many Pinners sharing my name, I’ve had to register as HollisRomance. Then I began browsing, and my problems started. Be warned - looking through other people’s collections is highly addictive. It’s a wonderful way to lose track of hours of working time. It’s easy enough to get distracted by other entries when looking up a word in a dictionary, or researching in the library. Pinterest has the added snares of beautiful images, which makes it ten times harder to resist. It could well be another example of technology making life easier in some ways, but more challenging in others. It will take all the legwork out of things like house makeovers, for one thing. Instead of traipsing around town gathering swatches and paint charts, images of everything can be collected together, compared and contrasted at the click of a mouse. If you are looking for inspiration for that next holiday, there are pictures and mementoes on display from just about everywhere. You can check them all out from the comfort of your chair. Want to see how the other half lives? Clicking through the thousands of pages on offer is a wonderful way to see the Harlequin Presents way of life in living colour. 

There’s no doubt Pinterest is an amazing visual tool, although when it came to making up my own board I hit a big snag. I had very definite ideas in mind for Spirit. The major plot revolves around a beautiful necklace. As this exists only in my mind, not surprisingly it’s been impossible to find a suitable image to post. And another thing - everyone who sees the “Brackenridge Wonder”, as the necklace is called, is completely blown away by it. That’s easy to write, but one person’s Wonder is someone else’s Tacky Bling.

Then there is The Cake, which is a feature of Spirit’s first chapter. My downtrodden heroine Ruth takes refuge in comfort-eating her way through the most intricate, irresistible cake my chocolate-loving mind could devise - so once again there are no on-line pictures available. I face bringing it to life in my own kitchen for the sake of taking a photograph. At least the result will be edible, so it won’t be wasted. If the finished cake isn’t photogenic, we’ll simply have to eat the evidence and try again until I produce a confection that does the job. It’ll be tough, but someone has to do it (!) If I want to show you the image in my head, that’s the only way it’s going to get on Pinterest.

They say “The pictures are better on radio” because they come from your imagination and aren’t fed to you ready made, as they are with TV. Do you think the same goes for reading and images on the web? Would being able to see The Brackenridge Wonder or Ruth’s cake add to your enjoyment, or do you prefer to escape with your own ideas of Paradise when you read? 

There’s a signed copy of my latest Harlequin Mills and Boon Modern Romance The Count’s Prize on offer for a comment picked at random.

Christina Hollis writes both Contemporary and Historical fiction - when she isn’t cooking, gardening or beekeeping.