Christina Hollis: This Writing Life...

On Sale Now

I've written here about the importance of getting someone else to read your creative writing, to give you a different perspective on your work. On 31st March I stepped up and took the challenge myself at a workshop arranged by the local chapter of the Romantic Novelists' Association. You can read about that in more detail here. Seven of us met to discuss our current projects, and it was invaluable. If you get the chance to do something like this, grab it with both hands. I wasn't sure what to expect, as I submitted the first pages of a manuscript that's undergone a radical reworking, but it was fine.

Everyone liked the revised version, thank goodness! The Survivors' Club is a contemporary romantic novel whose heroine, Eden, is a victim who learns to stand up for herself. Adam is a burned out executive who forges a future by slamming the door on his tumultuous past. They need each other, but the past threatens to tear them apart. Why is Iolo the mysterious drifter so obsessed with Eden's home at Owl Farm? And why has the place always been known as The Ghost House?

I hadn't been sure whether or not to include the supernatural element in The Survivors' Club. The workshop convinced me to go ahead and do it. This is a complete departure from my normal style, so here's a short extract from The Survivors' Club to whet your appetite:

Iolo woke with a smile on his face. 

There’s change in the air, he thought. I can hear movement inside the house. Maybe today’s the day for Owl Farm. 

His optimism didn’t last. As he worked the life back into his feet, the weight of ages dropped onto his shoulders again. Without opening his eyes, he stretched his neck. There was no point in going out yet. It felt too early.

Down on the floor, Bran thumped his tail against the dusty floorboards. Iolo opened his eyes, blinked once or twice, and yawned. He stretched again. Then he listened, hoping to hear a Northwesterly rising from the direction of Horsgrave Wood. Strong winds used Owl Farm like a reed, softening their cries in the chimney throat. When that happened, Iolo could pretend they carried Julia’s voice. 

That wouldn’t happen today. The air was still as a sepulchre. He shook himself, then closed his eyes again.

At times like this, the woman he loved felt further away from him than ever.

If you'd like to keep up to date with the progress of The Survivors' Club, drop me a line at christinahollis@hotmail.co.uk and I'll sign you up for my occasional newsletter. 

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

Don't Worry—Be Happy

I'm doing my first commencement speech in a few weeks.  I'm a bit nervous.  Over the last fifteen

years, I've talked to a lot of writers and a lot of readers, but I've never had to talk to a group of people who're all opening a new chapter of their lives on the same day.

With four kids, I've sat through a lot of graduations and I know I have more in my future.  I tried to think of all the commencement speeches I’ve heard.  So many seem to center on the speaker telling the audience about their experience.  Well, I’m a wife, a mother and a writer.  There.  Nailed that.

The other speeches seem to center on, AS YOU GO OUT AND MEET YOUR FUTURE sort of tips.  I think it's a bit cheeky to offer insights on people's personal paths. So, I thought about it, and finally came up with my theme, something that speaks to everyone, regardless of their career path...HAPPINESS.

Yeah, some of you are rolling your eyes. I'm sure the graduates will as well.

But I’ve made a study of happiness for years.  My Facebook friends would tell you I’m a bit nuts with my Monday Glee topics.   Yes, I like Mondays.  They’re a rather overlooked day.  But for me, Mondays are the aftermath of a crazy, family filled weekend.  Everyone goes back to school, or work and I sit in the quiet house, in holey jeans and work…in silence.  What’s not to love?

But more than my Monday Glee, my inspiration came from a TED radio hour I listened to on NPR in February.  The subject was happiness.  I even joined a study on being happy.  3 times a day I’d get a text and it would ask me how I was feeling, then ask me what I was doing, did I have to be doing it and then some other random questions.   It would ask me to rate my happiness level. After the first few days, I made a discovery…I am very happy with my life.

The text message ding would sound… 

~How are you feeling?  Good.  Really good.

~What are you doing?  Writing.

~Do you have to be doing it? Yes.  I’m under contract and it needs done.  Although, my grandmother always said the only two things anyone has to do is die and pay taxes.  I’m not sure why she always put death before taxes—mom says that's just how the saying goes.  I guess I could choose not to work, but I kinda like eating and that’s my paycheck, so yes, I have to do it.

Now, here comes the big question…

Do you like doing it?  And I realized I did.  I like what I do.  Oh, there are bad days.  There are times I think about finding a real job.  You know, the kind you do out in the real world, with real people, wearing something other than holey jeans.  But after the annoyance passes, I realize I’m doing exactly what I want to do.

So, that’s the first part of being happy talk.  As my upcoming audience is finishing school and I plan to remind them to take a few moments every day and stop. Stop and ask themselves if they're happy doing what they're doing.  If they're answer is yes more than no, then I think they're doing pretty good.  If it’s not, then maybe they haven’t found the place they really belong yet.

Here’s a second Happiness tip I think I'll share…be willing to work hard.  I meet a lot of would-be-writers when I do workshops and speeches.  They all want to know the secret to making a career of writing.  I think they expect some secret handshake, or program that helps me write book.   I tell them that the secret is two part, they wait anxiously for me to share.  Here you go…I’m ready to share it with the graduates and with you. 

Work hard at whatever you’re doing.  Maybe you’re starting at the bottom rung of your profession and hoping to advance.  Having an eye on a goal is always a good idea, but don’t forget to concentrate on where you are.  Work hard at the job at hand.  Enjoy it.  Be happy.

I read an interview with a CEO who climbed the proverbial ladder.  She spoke about always trying to have an impact and enjoying whatever job she was doing.  Maybe there’s something to that.  That's what I plan to tell the graduates.  Work hard at whatever you’re doing.  Have an eye on the future, have goals, but not at the expense of wherever you are and whatever you’re doing at the moment.

When I’m writing a book, I might know what my next book will be, or I might have an idea.  But what I try to do is concentrate on the job in front of me…the story I’m working on.

As a writer, I have to convey my character’s world view to the reader.  I have to cue the reader into   Satisfied, annoyed, content, aggravated, competitive…happy.  As a romance writer, I know that the HAPPY part is important.  It’s so important romance writers end every one of their stories with an HEA…a happily-ever-after.  So as I give my first commencement speech to people who've chosen they're degree, I'll wish them that…a happily-ever-after.  And I hope as they start this next chapter, they stop on occasion and ask themselves, How am I feeling?  What am I doing?  Do I have to be doing it?  Do I want to be doing it?  Do I like doing it?

how that character’s feeling.

AM I HAPPY?

And that's what I'm doing with this blog today.  Asking you to ask yourselves those same questions.  I

I hope your answers  give you some insight on your life.  I hope they help you find your own personal, Happily Ever After.

And I hope that this first commencement speech offers some insights to the graduates!  Wish me luck!

Holly

Achieving a dream? with Kate Walker

When you were young,  you have a dream of what you wanted most  from life? Was there a job you wanted

to do?  A special type of  man you wanted to marry? A certain number of children you wanted?  

Well, when  I was small – almost from the moment that I could write anything  down, I wanted to be a writer –a novelist, with my name on the jackets of books you could find in the shops.  I used to make up stories all the time, sometimes when we were on car journeys – to help to pass the time, sometimes when trying to get to sleep, sometimes (and I admit I sometimes got into  trouble for this) at school in classes  when I wasn’t interested.   I told anyone who would listen that I wanted to be a writer, but  no one was ever encouraging. In fact, some people were really  the opposite – telling me to stop dreaming and to  plan on having a ‘sensible’ career.  Perhaps, like my mother, I could be a teacher?

Well, I took their advice – to start with.  I worked hard at school, studied at university, gained  degrees and a professional qualification – as a  children’s librarian. Not a teacher. I hated the idea of being a teacher. It was  not what I wanted to do!   

And then – well, as  you all know, I became a writer. I have 61 books with my name on them.  And this year I’m celebrating  the 30^th anniversary of being  first published.  I achieved that dream.

So I did both –the dream and the sensible option -  and I  escaped being a teacher – didn’t I?  Er – no.

Well, that number of books should be 63 books with my name on them. Because only this last week, I realised that, in spite of everything. In spite of never ever wanting to do it,  I’ve  become a teacher – and I’ve gained quite a reputation for it.   I started out giving talks about my writing. Then I did  short talks about How to Write Romance. Those turned out to be very popular  so I ran a few How To Write Courses . . .  The next thing I knew, I was being asked to do more. . . and more.  And when people wrote from USA or Australia and asked questions about what I taught in those courses ,  and said   how much they wished they could come on them, I wrote a book  called  The 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance.  That was published in 2004.  And  that first edition sold out. So I wrote a second edition . . .and a third.

It’s not 10 years since that book first appeared. In that time I’ve been asked to run more and ore courses. I have to be careful not to do too many or they’ll   interfere with writing the novels! I started with running a 

course at the week-long Writers’Holiday. Then they added the weekend course in February – both take me back to Wales, which I love. (After all I went to university in Wales and I met my husband there – so obviously it’s one of my favourite places!)  These are my ‘regular’ courses, I would teach others during the year but nothing else so regularly. But now I’ve been asked to run some course for  Relax andWrite  which aims to – well, to do exactly what it says on the tin.  Again, I started with plans for one weekend course. Then two – now there are two courses, a writing retreat, and plans for more . . .

Hmm – it seems I’ve ended up being a teacher after all. And  the courses are almost always sold out.  When I asked some students to comment on how a course had gone, one student told me that: “coming on your courses is like a blood transfusion, minus the blood!”

So this year, I’ve decided to admit that perhaps I  do want to be  teacher– at least when I’m teaching the thing that I love doing – and that’s writing romance.  Because of this, I wanted to take that 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance and make it available to more people. There wasn’t an ebook – and the book was difficult to get if you were in America or Australia or Canada . . . And it was expensive!

So I got my rights to the book back and I decided that I would  self-publish an ebook  edition – and that I would make sure that this time the book was easily and cheaply available to everyone who wanted a copy.  I didn’t know what I was doing  but I needn’t have worried – I had fantastic help from  the lovely Lee Hyat here at   at Author Sound Relations – who also designed me a fabulous cover. And so this last week, I finally published the Kindle edition of the 12 Point Guide. At the moment it’s on a special introductory price of  

$0.99 . And the new cover looks like this:

The book has been flying out of Amazon, so it turns out    that perhaps I have become well known as a teacher too after all! Oh well, my mother  and the teachers at my school who said I should do that will be delighted! I’m happy to have achieved both my dream of becoming a published novelist  - and this ‘sensible’   achievement of being a teacher as well.

Special thanks must go to Lee Hyat for helping me with this. And to everyone who bought a copy of the 12 Point Guide this week – or at any time in the past.

The special introductory price comes to an end this weekend – so if you want to grab a copy while it’s on sale, you want to move fast. Bit afterwards it’s still only going up to $3.99  which is a tiny price compared with the   $16  I’ve seen quoted for  the past paperback  (or even  - eeek  ! -  $93  used!)

And, I know it’s a long shot but – if you should ever want to come on one of my courses, then you can find the details on my Events page. on my web site.

That's where you'll also find all the news and updates about my books - including the new title out in June - A Question of Honor - 

And all the latest news and interest is on my blog page there.

My Life's Soundtrack

by Anna Campbell

Recently on Facebook there was one of those things going around where people tagged their friends to list ten things. I find these endlessly interesting - and almost invariably surprising. So I thought I'd break out of the Facebook ghetto and ask my Tote Bag chums the same question.

This particular meme doing the rounds was naming ten albums that have stayed with you. That doesn't particularly mean your favorite albums, but the ones that had some influence over you - or at least that's how I took it.

Inevitably, a lot of the records I picked (and I'm old enough that most of them actually WERE vinyl) went back to my childhood/teens and include some records my parents played a lot when I was a wee gel.

Here's my top 10 as of today (it's slightly different to the one I posted on Facebook but that's the nature of these things, isn't it?).

1. Swan Lake Ballet - Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic

2. Station to Station - David Bowie

3. Rubber Soul - the Beatles

4. Standing on a Beach (the Singles) - the Cure

5. Beethoven's Greatest Hits - various CBS artists

6. Les Miserables - Original Stage Cast

7. The Sound of Music - Soundtrack

8. The Glenn Miller Story - Soundtrack

9. My Fair Lady - Original Stage Cast

10. Lawrence of Arabia Soundtrack

So clearly my tastes run to classical and musicals with a bit of classic pop thrown in. Yup, that pretty much describes it, with a few movie scores as runners up.

It's been great fun to revisit some of the music that's influenced me. And even more fun to look at those album covers. Talk about a trip down memory lane! 

Now it's your turn. And if you want to put in a line or two about why you made your selections, I'd be very interested!

Oh, and by the way, if you don't follow me on Facebook, you can find me at:

https://www.facebook.com/AnnaCampbellFans

I'm pretty active there and I regularly do giveaways! 

Looking forward to seeing your music lists!

Kitty companions – by Kandy Shepherd

 Some writers work in cafes or noisy parts of the house where they feel part of the world. Not me. I need to be by myself to write—away from noise and distraction so I can draw deep from my imagination and escape into the creative zone where the words start to flow. I like a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the closed door. And none of that music that other writers find so inspiring.

Alfie helps keep the printouts of my drafts from blowing away (actually he just likes the box!)

 That solitary, writerly existence could get lonely. Not so with cats for company.

Ivy supervises from a stack of books waiting to be filed

 There’s nothing three of my cats like better than to be with me—on my lap, on my desk, on a chair or floor nearby. As I write—often very late into the night—I’m never short of feline company.

Tabitha prefers to be on my lap as I type, but a nearby chair will do as second choice

 Of course my kitties can become a distraction. Like when the one who always wants to sit on my lap squeals in protest when my back starts aching and I lift her off. Or when two of them start to argue in escalatingly loud cat voices for possession of a prized cardboard box.

Ivy tucks herself neatly nearby behind my computer, sometimes I don't know she's there 

And my fourth cat? She’s primarily an outdoor cat who loves to go for walks with us around our farm and into the surrounding bushland. Sometimes during the day she appears at my window sill as if to urge me outside for some much-needed exercise. Being a natural-born procrastinator, that's often just the excuse I need to down tools!

Cindy makes sure I get off my chair and get some well-needed exercise

 What about you? Do you have a pet that keeps you company when you’re at home? When you're concentrating on a task do you need quiet or thrive on music or chatter?  Please make a comment, I’d love to hear about it!

I have one copy of my debut book for Harlequin Romance The Summer They Never Forgot to give away—either a mass market paperback or via an Amazon gift voucher for an e-book

Please include your email address in your comment if you want to be included in the draw (and let me know if you prefer print or e-book.)

Kandy Shepherd writes fun, feel-good fiction.  The Summer They Never Forgot is Kandy’s first release from Harlequin Romance in the US, the UK and Australia. Watch out for The Tycoon and the Wedding Planner in July 14.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

The Gardening Bug by Samantha Hunter

I love gardening. Sometimes, like now, when the yard is a mess, the grass is all matted and the garden needs to be seriously cleaned out from last year’s overgrowth, and one hour outside yesterday just turning and feeding the compost pile was exhausting, I wonder why. . .but I do. I don’t know if gardening can be in your DNA, but I think it’s in mine! Both of my grandparents, though I never knew them, were farmers. My father once told me I was like his father, Jack, because I’ve had the urge to garden since I was a kid. My father also had a wicked green thumb, as did my mom, so I guess it’s in my blood.

The craving usually starts sometime around the New Year, when I normally will put in a seed order for things I want to plant. Then I drag out the gardening magazines, and start taking notes, making changes based on the previous year’s successes or failures. Then when March and April roll around, the bug really bites and I pace in front of the windows, waiting for the snow to go so I can get outside and start in.

Then, when I get out there, I realize what hard work it is, and wonder why again. LOL But I know why – partly, it is because I like the hard work. There is no exercise on the planet like gardening – there is no workout like what you will get turning a compost pile or digging sod. Even planting and pulling weeds is a good bit of exercise as well, as well as being outside for hours. Many days in the summer, I need no other exercise.

Then there is the reward of the flowers, vegetables and fruits. . .watching them grow is a sense of accomplishment, and I enjoy all of those goodies in the kitchen and long into the bare winter – we preserve jams, jellies, fruits and salsas, and I will freeze fresh and roasted tomatoes for sauce and other dishes.

Some of my favorite things to grow are sunflowers (the beauty of them for us, the seeds for the birds), and heirloom tomatoes. Other annual favorites are beets (I really love growing beets, it’s weird), Swiss Chard, and lettuce. We have a large rhubarb patch as well as berry patches and fruit trees, and love it all. Newcomers this year will be asparagus, given to me by a neighbor, and I’m going to try my hand at growing potatoes. It’s supposed to be easy – we’ll see.

What occurred to me today is that for all of my love of gardening, I’ve never written a book with a gardening character – clearly, that will have to change at some point. Maybe in the winter, when I am pining for my garden and hating the blank slate of the snow, I’ll write some gardens for my romances.

Do you get bitten by the gardening bug? Do you have favorite books, magazines or tips for gardening? Share, and I’ll give away a signed copy of my January Blaze, Unforgettable, and a print copy of my Samhain anthology, Strangers on a Train, with a story by me and four other great authors. 

*** Samantha's winner is Di! Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your mailing info.***

Treasure Box

I've been struggling with the wip. I mean really struggling. We all have days when the words just won't come, but I've been having weeks of those days.

I started out with this bright shiny idea, a heroine who didn't know she needed rescuing, a hero who rescues himself by helping her. I had a fabulous location - some great photographs to inspire me. And yet when I came to put it down on paper it all turned to dust.

I don't know why this happens. The story, the characters are still there, but maybe I'm tired, or suffering from SAD, or other family things are getting in the way, but I don't want to write.

Time to revisit Twyla Tharp's inspirational book, The Creative Habit. I need to start thinking outside of the box, but first I need a box. A pretty treasure box in which I can put all my inspirational stuff.

The photographs of Milan, pictures of clothes I've found on Pinterest for my heroine. Black things - because she's into black in a big way. Coloured things. Ribbon, lace, velvet. Little bits of clutter than gather in the bottom of my jewellery box for my heroine to use.

Lovely Italian things - food, fashion, style. Snatches of dialogue, glimpses of scenes, the smell of espresso, the taste of risotto Milanese, a view of snow-capped mountains and crystal blue lakes. A whole glorious sense of the story in my head that I can dive into.

What magic do you use to conjure up the inspiration muse when the writing brain has gone to sleep?

Liz's latest Harlequin KISS, For His Eyes Only, is on sale now at your favourite ebook retailer, or in large print paperback from Harlequin.com
  

Emma Mars: Hotelles

The first thing to know about me is, definitely, that I am… French! 

Maybe this is a dull detail for you, but I think that who I am as a writer (I’ve written something like 12 novels, under several names) comes from that specific origin. Even when I create a story that does not take place in France (I have, a few times), I guess that the way I feel and describe my characters is French to the core. For instance, I’m obsessed with smell and perfumes, which is a typical French (bad) habit.

Another great source of inspiration for me is to close my eyes and imagine a place I’d like to be. When I wrote the very first lines of Hotelles, I saw a beautiful hotel room, designed as a replica of a famous bedroom in a Napoleonic Castle, and just tried to guess what could happen to a young girl lying in such a gorgeous and mysterious place. Why is she here? Is she alone? What could make her presence here odd?

Then I only had to write her story as I’d like it to be told to me - full of thrill, emotion, and sensuality. Also, before each writing session, I did some breathing exercises; my eyes closed, and tried to slip into Annabelle's mind and body. To feel the same things as her, even what her belly or her sex could feel in such circumstances. To really BE her, before writing like her.

CJ Carmichael: BOOKS VERSUS MOVIES: Which Do You Prefer?

I love stories in all forms. Not just books, but movies and TV shows as well. I bet you do, as well. Most often, however, if a story started life as a book, only to be subsequently produced as a movie or TV show, I’ll end up preferring the book. Not always. But usually.

The list of books that were much better than movies for me includes:

The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien), The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald), The Road (Cormac McCarthy), Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell), To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee), The Time-Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger), In Her Shoes (Jennifer Weiner), Emma (Jane Austen)

Movies that I enjoyed as much as the original books:

Life of Pi (Yann Martel), A Room With A View (E.M. Forster), The Hours (Michael Cunningham), Pride & Prejudice (Jane Austen)

Movies that I enjoyed MORE than the original books:

The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje), The Shipping News (Annie Proulx)

There are so many more titles in the first category, than the other two. And that’s because, if I loved a book, I almost never love the movie quite as much.

But What About Soundtracks?

For the most part I’m much happier writing books than I think I would be writing screenplays. Getting inside a character’s head is one of the best parts of my job. And that’s hard to do in the movies (unless you use a narrator). One tool at the disposal of the screenwriter, that I wish I could also have, however, is the ability to have a soundtrack. So often when I’m writing, a song will come to mind. Something that I feel captures the mood of the scene, exactly. If only I could give that experience to my reader!

The second best thing is to make up a playlist to share with readers. And that is something my publishers did for my recent release, Good Together. I’d like to share a link to that playlist today. It’s a list of the songs my main character, Mattie Carrigan, is listening to when her neighbor, Nat Diamond, drops by to see how she’s doing since her husband left her. The songs are tear-jerkers, and Nat asks her, “What is this? Music to slit your wrists by?”

I happen to think they’re lovely songs, and I hope that you do too!  

Good Together Playlist here: http://montanabornbooks.com/play-with-caution/ 

Kelly Hunter: How (Not) To Manage Matchmaking Parents

The world becomes a tricky place when parents start taking an interest in the love life off their offspring. Good intentions abound. Awkward introductions become a regular occurrence. Parents think they know best! I grew up tall and gangly, and my lovely and very practical aunt, bless her, never stopped introducing me to tall, rich men with good teeth. To this day I don’t know where she found them, but I’m an aunt now and I wish I had her skill.

When it came to writing my latest heroine, I happily called on past experience when it came to matchmaking relatives. I gave heroine Ella Grace a father who was a long-time widower and who wanted nothing more than to see his beloved daughter happily married to a wealthy, well-bred cowboy… and then happily settled somewhere close by. And while Ella Grace isn’t allergic to this idea, she’s certainly not in any hurry to comply. For starters, she has some thoughts on the kind of man she wants as well.

When Ella’s father advertises in the local paper for a docile house-husband for her, Ella Grace responds with an ad of her own, pinned to the wall of the local saloon.

‘PERFECT LOVER WANTED’

Ella underlined the heading and started in on the specific skill set required.

‘Experienced, attentive, innovative—

‘Male,’ Jo added. ‘You’d better put down male.’

‘Experienced, attentive, innovative male bed mate required for hardworking cattle dynasty heiress with no time to meet a man and no desire for a husband of any kind, docile or otherwise. Should I ask for references?’

‘Yes. And you need to ask for a photo and a phone number as well. I know how this works.’

That’s the setup for What A Bride Wants, the opening story in the Montana Born Brides series. The covers are all gloriously romantic and make my author heart swell with joy. And we’re all hoping that the words inside make our readers happy too!

Leave a comment below to go in the draw to win What A Bride Wants in e-book. Let us know what kind of man your family members would choose for you! ;)

Kelly Hunter

*** Kelly's winner is Anne! Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your mailing info.***

N. Isabelle Blanco: The Debate on Godly Personalities - Should they be modern? Or Classical, Holy Kings of Humanity?

I had no idea, when I decided to start writing my series, that this was such an issue in the paranormal community. Surprise! It truly is. There are people on both sides of the field, all just as adamant that their point of view is the correct one. (Although, when you think about it, isn’t it that way with any issue humanity is faced with?)

It’s known that my gods straddle the fence between the classical idea of what gods should be, and my psychological “theory” of what they would evolve into as a species co-existing alongside humans. (And when I say straddle, I mean they’re hanging on for dear life as the wind threatens to blow them into the “fully modern” side of things :p)

While my gods do hold onto a lot of their pre-historic traits (namely: their godly egos), it is my strong belief that living alongside humans as evolved would change the gods as well. However, upon publishing book one (Blood Flows Deep in the Empire), I discovered that there is people out there that utterly despise the idea of modernistic-gods. They hate gods that have learned to not just speak like modern humans, but to dress as them, not simply to blend in because of personal tastes, as well. They’ll reject giving a story a chance just because of this one issue alone.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Should gods be kept as the holier-than-thou archetypes, or is it okay to modernize them to match the times? Drop me a comment and let me know ^_~

Blythe Gifford – Words & Music

I love words and music, though I can only create in one of those dimensions.  And even before I became an author, I loved books and music together.  Years ago, I remember deliberately reading GONE WITH THE WIND while listening to the movie soundtrack because I knew it would put me in the proper mood.

Now, I use music as a writing aid, not just for reading pleasure.  For every book, I develop a “soundtrack” that puts me in the proper frame of mind.  Because I write historical romance, I try to select music appropriate to the period, preferably without lyrics.  Since I write primarily medievals, however, lyrics are less of an issue, since they are usually in Latin or French and, therefore, easy to tune out.

But the first song on the playlist for my work in progress is not constrained by accuracy and it usually does include a lyric that tells a story.  The job of this track is to keep me company while I open my files and make my cup of tea, and while it needs to tie to the story, it can do so in a more tangential way than the rest of the selections.

When I began the Brunson Clan trilogy, I felt as if I needed every aid I could summon to put myself in the world.  The world of the Border Reivers in the early Tudor era was 150 years away from the medieval world I’d been writing and Scotland was still a relatively new setting for me.  I found the perfect entry point, a song called “Border Reiver.”  Never mind that Mark Knopfler’s song was about a truck.  Not only was the title perfect, the lyrics (“I'm just a thiever stealing time”) perfectly captured the world of a Reiver, who lived by his own code, not that of the law.  And the relentless, rolling rhythm reminded me of the galloping horses of the Scottish raiders who struck by night and then disappeared into the hills. 

The song list for THE WITCH FINDER was completely different.  The story, set on the Scottish Borders of the 17^th century, features a hero whose job it is to discover witches and a heroine who he suspects of being a witch.  Donovan’s “Season of the Witch” was a natural lead in.  The song, from the late 1960’s, has a dark, mysterious, baleful feeling which always left me ready to plunge into the dark world of my story.

In contrast, the kick off song for my Royal Wedding stories is bouncy and humorous, unlike the books.

SECRETS AT COURT, a March Harlequin Historical and the first of the Royal Wedding stories, is set behind the scenes of the wedding of the first Prince of Wales to a scandalous bride.  The heroine, Anne of Stamford, knows her lady’s secrets and is bound to keep them while the hero, Sir Nicholas Lovayne, is charged with uncovering the truth.  And the fate of the throne of England will depend on the results.

Still, “The Prince is Giving a Ball,” which sets up the Rogers and Hammerstein 1957 musical “Cinderella,” was a good choice for my first song slot.  It opens with an energetic trumpet fanfare, and, of course, the story of a prince searching for a bride is the perfect fit.  Its sly, 20^th century humor gives me a smile before I drop into a world in which a wedding could, literally, be a matter of life and death.

So, as a reader, do you like music or silence when you read?  Lyrics or no?  We’ll pick a random commenter to win a copy of SECRETS AT COURT.  

Here’s a bit more about the book:

Anne has long been the keeper of her mistress's secrets, but when Nicholas starts to uncover the truth about Lady Joan's past, Anne must do something—anything—to throw him off…. 

Longing to escape the intrigues at court, Nicholas hasn't counted on the way Anne attracts him—her refusal to accept pity for her clubfoot touches something deep inside him. Will he be able to follow his duty when every fiber of his being tells him to protect Anne? 

For more information, please visit www.blythegifford.com

***Blythe's winner is Fedora!  Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your mailing details!***