Guest Bloggers may include some of our featured authors!
Romantic Gifts?
Thanks to everyone who posted so far and expressed an interest in reading Dark Obsession! I appreciate it so much! And I hope all you moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day. I know I'm a few days late in expressing that sentiment, but that's because I've been busy "playing" with the fantastic Mother's Day present my husband gave me.
For some odd reason, our neighborhood has become a little noisy lately, and it's been hard at times to concentrate on my writing. There's nothing like being caught up in finding just the right words for something, only to have your thoughts totally scattered by a bunch of barking dogs or car horns or what have you. Ah, but no longer, since my hubby gave me an amazing pair of noise reduction headphones that let me completely enter my own private world. They work with my Ipod, but I don't even necessarily have to have music going because just turning on these puppies mutes all the sounds around me. Pretty neat. It might not sound like the most romantic gift -- not diamonds or lingerie or a candlelight dinner for two -- but to me, it WAS romantic because it showed that my husband has really been listening to me, understood exactly what I needed and took the time to find it! What a guy!
So here's another question: What's your idea of a romantic gift?
Guest Blogger: Kathy Shay
Good Morning, Romance Bookclub Readers.
How nice to be here with you today. Thanks for the opportunity to get to know me and my work better. I write for Harlequin Superromance and Berkley Press. I have thirty-two published novels, with a few more in the works. I love writing and feel grateful to have this wonderful career.
Actually, I’ve had two great careers. I was an English teacher for a long time and it was really a vocation for me. I loved being with adolescents (no, I’m not crazy) and I enjoyed imparting knowledge and helping them to gain self-esteem. My main academic goal was to instill a love of reading and writing in them.
It’s obviously a love I have myself. I’ve been a voracious reader since my own teen years. I had a beloved English teacher who introduced me to Shakespeare, Henry James and C.S. Lewis and served as a model for my own direction in education. To this day, I turn to books for entertainment, escape, and to learn about the world. I read best sellers like Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD, everything Nora Roberts, Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Linda Howard write, and must confess to reading over a few of my own books after they’re published from time to time.
My writing career began early in high school and college where I wrote short stories and poetry and kept a diary every single day until I was nineteen. I planned to be a professional author then, but my life took a different turn when I realized I was meant to teach. Still, I continued to write short stories, essays and poetry until I turned forty and said, “Okay, it’s time to write a book.” My second manuscript was bought by SuperRomance in 1994 (the first never sold) and I’ve continued to write ever since.
I’ve done books about teachers, lawyers, carpenters, lots of cops, doctors, architects, newspaper reporters, pilots, Secret Service agents, senators, judges, stay-at-home moms and counselors. And of course, one of my favorite professions, firefighting, which brings me to TAKING THE HEAT.
This is a story about widower Liam O’Neil who lost his wife three years ago to cancer and is ready to date again. He meets Sophie Tyler, rough and tumble female firefighter from the FDNY, and is attracted to her. But his sons are still suffering over the loss of their mother and Liam feels he can’t risk getting involved with someone in a dangerous profession. Too bad, though, because they can’t help themselves and sparks fly, emotionally, physically and on the line.
So, what do you think? Any questions about writing, me, my work, whatever? I look forward to hearing from you.
Kathy Shay
View Kathryn's latest book trailer!
Tara Green
One randomly chosen person who comments on Kathryn's blog may win a copy of TAKING THE HEAT! Good luck and start posting!
Hi From Allison Chase
Guest Blog from Sherry Thomas
Recently I was given an interesting interview question: You are a heroine in one of your novels. Would you rather play the young and innocent virgin, the worldly widow or the seductive, yet secretive courtesan?
Boy, those are some limited choices. Which is one of the reasons I chose to write in a period of more recent history—the turn-of-the-century—so that I could have a wider selection of heroines.
Gigi, the heroine of my debut book, Private Arrangements, is a businesswoman, a mogul, even. Her control over her own fortune is made possible by the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882. For my sophomore book, I turn around 180 degrees, and star a heroine who is a cook—a marvelous cook, but still a servant (it’s a Cinderella story, if you haven’t guessed). My third book, which so far exists only as a conversation between me and my editor, will feature a heroine who is a practicing physician, a character that is not historically possible in the United Kingdom until after 1865.
Other more vague ideas for possible future historical romance heroines include a mathematician, a WWI ambulance driver, and maybe a hack writer of penny dreadfuls (really lurid pulp fiction published in nineteenth century Britain which appeared in installments, each costing a penny).
I like my heroines to be independent. And by that, I mean having an independent source of income. For which they either need to have skills that get paid decent wages or an inheritance. And even when they do have an inheritance and don’t need to work, I still prefer them to have a vocation—must be the influence of all the industrious women in my family, impressing upon me from an early age that idleness is not a good thing.
So back to the question asked of me, whom would I choose to play?
The courtesan is definitely out. I’d make a reluctant and resentful courtesan—the thought of sleeping with men I find unattractive gives me the creeps. And it would be a rare courtesan who didn’t have to take a protector for reasons other than his personal hotness.
The young and innocent virgin is the next to go. All my best friends are non-virgins. I find them more interesting this way.
That leaves the worldly widow by default. Private Arrangements actually has a worldly widow—the heroine’s mother—as a secondary protagonist. She is virtuous, but she is also ambitious and wily. And I can live with that.
So, Dear Readers, if you were to answer the question, which character would you play? Or if you, like me, find the choices too restricting, what character would you invent to play?
--Sherry Thomas, www.SherryThomas.com
Tara Green
in April 2008 Featured Author
|
16 Comments
Last day of March...
It's the last day of March, so I thought I'd stop by and wave goodbye to my month as a featured author! It's been a lot of fun chatting with all of you. Don't forget, there's still a few hours to enter my contest at The Romance Book Club - the prize is an autographed copy of The Grail King and a beautiful blank journal to record your thoughts, dreams, and story ideas!
I can hardly believe tomorrow is April 1. Finally. Easter coming so early has really screwed up my perception of the seasons - I keep thinking that since Easter is over, it should be WARM OUTSIDE!!!! The signs of spring are coming...purple crocuses, yellow forsythia, early morning bird song, the bathroom scale creeping upward due to all that winter inactivity...
I am soooo looking forward to that first spring day warm enough to wear shorts outside!
Joy