Snow Play has a top pick from Night Owl Romance. Yippee.
http://www.nightowlromance.com/nor/Reviews/Maria-reviews-Snow-Play-by-Barbara-Elsborg.aspx
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Ooh - someone likes Snow Play!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
LOVE STORIES - Number one
There are all sorts of themes in love stories and I thought I'd look at a few of them in my posts.
First - Stories about someone who pursues a partner that society would frown on or maybe someone who falls for a person who's totally out of their reach. Master and servant scenarios, rich and poor, rival clans like Romeo and Juliet. This theme would fit with Pretty Woman or Jane Eyre. It's a common topic in Regency romances but I think less so in contemporary books, maybe because class differences have been eroded. No barrier now between royalty and commoner. The heir to the Swedish throne has married her gym trainer. Good for her.
Apparently - this has a psychological origin in the idea of women being treated dismissively by their fathers which makes them feel unworthy of love. But also it's a way of showing that even those who seem out of reach and out of touch can have tender sides. Not sure about those ideas but it seems to me that the idea of falling in love with someone you know you can't have is a common fantasy.
Hands up those who loved pop stars, movie stars, TV stars!! Much easier to love someone you can make perfect in your mind, someone you can pine over without fear of rejection because you'll never meet them. I had a plan to go to Hollywood, go on one of those tours, find out where X lived and then throw myself under the wheels of his car. Not to be badly injured but he'd take me into his house and well - fall in love with me. I never managed to save up enough money for the flight. Probably just as well or I might not be here today.
Two - Stories abourt sacrifice - where one person gives up life for love of another.
First - Stories about someone who pursues a partner that society would frown on or maybe someone who falls for a person who's totally out of their reach. Master and servant scenarios, rich and poor, rival clans like Romeo and Juliet. This theme would fit with Pretty Woman or Jane Eyre. It's a common topic in Regency romances but I think less so in contemporary books, maybe because class differences have been eroded. No barrier now between royalty and commoner. The heir to the Swedish throne has married her gym trainer. Good for her.
Apparently - this has a psychological origin in the idea of women being treated dismissively by their fathers which makes them feel unworthy of love. But also it's a way of showing that even those who seem out of reach and out of touch can have tender sides. Not sure about those ideas but it seems to me that the idea of falling in love with someone you know you can't have is a common fantasy.
Hands up those who loved pop stars, movie stars, TV stars!! Much easier to love someone you can make perfect in your mind, someone you can pine over without fear of rejection because you'll never meet them. I had a plan to go to Hollywood, go on one of those tours, find out where X lived and then throw myself under the wheels of his car. Not to be badly injured but he'd take me into his house and well - fall in love with me. I never managed to save up enough money for the flight. Probably just as well or I might not be here today.
Two - Stories abourt sacrifice - where one person gives up life for love of another.
Did I write this?
I was looking through an old box of my scribbles last night and came across a couple of pieces of paper with a - sort of poem - written on them. Very very rare for me to write a poem. Hard to decipher my writing but I just about managed most of it. I wrote it as my father lay dying. What I'm wondering is - did I make it all up or did I remember any of these lines from somewhere else. Anyone read this before?
Strange how the young watch the old leave this world
So unlike their entrance many years before.
No straining, screaming, struggling to life
Just lying still, breathing shallow, awaiting death.
At times I am removed from the horror of it
As though this frail figure isn't my dad at all
But some stranger over whom I keep the death watch.
For that is what it has become
A wait for death to break my father's grasp on life.
Sightless eyes, cold hand lying on top of the sheet
A face already skeletal.
Will the end come soon?
Will it be silent?
Will there be a final fight, a rage against the withdrawal of light.
No sound but a curl of the lips is our reward for sharing this moment
A smile for those he leaves behind along with his last breath.
Strange how the young watch the old leave this world
So unlike their entrance many years before.
No straining, screaming, struggling to life
Just lying still, breathing shallow, awaiting death.
At times I am removed from the horror of it
As though this frail figure isn't my dad at all
But some stranger over whom I keep the death watch.
For that is what it has become
A wait for death to break my father's grasp on life.
Sightless eyes, cold hand lying on top of the sheet
A face already skeletal.
Will the end come soon?
Will it be silent?
Will there be a final fight, a rage against the withdrawal of light.
No sound but a curl of the lips is our reward for sharing this moment
A smile for those he leaves behind along with his last breath.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Snow Play - out today
http://www.jasminejade.com/p-8422-snow-play.aspx
My Quickie for Ellora's Cave - Snow Play - (yes I know it's summer) - is out today. Yippeee. The story is based on my skiing holiday in Austria when I almost freaked out in an ice cave under a glacier. I know now that I don't like small enclosed spaces. I think I might have it tattooed on my hand to remind me.
SNOW PLAY
Single on a couples’ getaway? Not the way to spend a vacation skiing the Alps.
Allie, the odd woman out, leaves the couples behind as she takes a tour under a glacier and ends up trapped in the dark. Cold and alone, she resigns herself to a night of misery. But when Zach finds unclaimed skis after the mountain has closed, he follows his instincts and charges to the rescue, bringing more than a helping hand.
He brings enough heat to melt the polar icecaps and change her life forever.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
5 - cup review for Digging Deeper!
Coffee Time Romance and More just awarded Digging Deeper 5 cups.
http://www.coffeetimeromance.
I haven't bothered putting links to reviews in here before but maybe I should!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Update
Well I've given in already. I can't plan a book. I'm obviously incapable of thinking more than a page ahead. So instead, I'm just writing it. I already love Caspar, my hero, he's such a pain in the neck. No, not a vampire just a sullen, sulky, damaged guy. He has a lot in common with my other heroes which has me a bit worried. I came across a comment made by someone about one of my books in which she criticised my characters as being stupid. That hurt. I'm not trying to write war and peace here, just tell stories that are entertaining with interesting characters . I'm aiming for amusing and sexy, hope I don't get that confused with stupid.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Starting a new book
It's both exciting and worrying when I start writing a new book. I so wish I could plan the things out. In fact, I'm going to try and do that with this one just to see if I can. At least I've chosen the names for the main protagonists - Ally and Caspar. Quite often I can't get into the story until I've settled on the right name. Choosing the title would help too but that often eludes me until the final few chapters. Lucy in the Sky went through a number of variations before I settled on the one I'd first chosen. This new one is going under - Catch a Falling Star - at least for the time being. I'm not sure it's relevant enough yet and it struck me that it would have a been a great title for Strangers - probably better!! But in fixing the title, I also fix a theme and this new story is about the disgrace of the hero and how the heroine saves him. I think. Well, I'd better stop procrastinating and write the plan.
Where to start?
Where to start?
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