Category Archives: CentreStage

CentreStage with Darlene Jones: All Screwed Up By the Aliens?

Posted on September 19, 2012 | 13 comments

Welcome again to CentreStage!

Having had a little break last week, we’re back in full swing. CentreStage features fantastic authors from around the world. These authors might tell you about their lives, their writing, their books, books they like reading (or hate), their cats, dogs or ships… or indeed, their favourite Alien powers!

Today, I welcome fellow loveahappyending.com author Darlene Jones with an out-of-this world post.

Miss D came to me one day with this page of scribbles. She thought it was some kind of communication from aliens and she wanted me and my buddies to try to figure it out. I like Miss D and all. She’s not bad for a school teacher principal type. You can talk to her and she doesn’t make fun. But, sheesh, a secret code from aliens? Anyway, to keep her happy, I said I’d help.

Thing is, once I started studying the scribbles, I could see messages. I told Miss D that Coder Guy (that’s the name Miss D gave to whoever was sending the messages) wanted her to fix things. Of course she asked what things? I didn’t know so I made up some stuff. Miss D wrote letters to newspapers and the things she asked for started to come true. She even let our class write letters on this special paper she had and the stuff we asked for came true too.

Now Miss D is in the hospital. She’s all screwed up by the aliens, and their messages, and the letters. This guy named Sam messed with her too. Miss D said he’s a war correspondent. I think she really liked him, but he dumped her or something and that sent her over the edge. I’m going up to the hospital to see her now.

Intrigued? This little feature was penned by Curtis, who helps principal Abby Davies figure out what the weird scribbles are all about.

Embraced is the third book in the Em and Yves Trilogy. Yves, who fell in love with Em, has loved her through her life as Jasmine, still loves her in this life as Abby. He fumes as one of the rookie gods fumbles communication with her. Once again, Yves breaks the rules to help Abby, but with deadly results.

Embraced is available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, as well as Smashwords.

About Darlene Jones

A long time ago, I lived in Mali. Every single day, I wished I could wave a
magic wand to relieve the heart-wrenching poverty. The story line of my books
reflects my desire to wave that wand and make the world a better place. If only
wishes could come true. And of course, every novel needs its love story, so
along with the sci-fi magic, I’ve added the requisite romance. Initially, I
intended to write “a” novel. The story and characters took over and the ending
of the first demanded another. Two books became three and three became four.
I’ve always believed we can’t be the only beings existing in the vastness of the
universe. There must be others “out there somewhere” and I brought some of them along for the ride. The setting stays, for the most part, within the realities
of our world, but I’ve found that I love the magic the sci-fi element of other
beings can bring to the story.

You can find out more about Darlene on her website or at her loveahappyending.com author page. Darlene is on Twitter and Facebook.

So then–are you ready for your fix of Embraced? I know I am! Congrats, again, Darlene and best of luck with the launch!

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CentreStage with the Lazuli Portals: The Joys and Tribulations of Co-Authorship

Posted on September 4, 2012 | 22 comments

Welcome to CentreStage!!!

CentreStage showcases fantastic authors from around the world. The authors might write for you about their lives, their writing, their books or anything else that inspires them.

Today, I have an absolute premiere here on CentreStage! Today, I am featuring not one, but two authors all at once. I’m introducing you to the fantastic co-authorship that is Joanna Gawn and Ron Dickerson, jointly know as The Lazuli Portals. Intrigued? Well, so was I when I first encountered this amazing pair (in book terms only, not in real life!) on Twitter, and we have become firm blogging friends since.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to share your writing journey with someone else? Read on to get a first-hand account of how that works…

Introducing Joanna Gawn and Ron Dickerson: The Lazuli Portals.
Written by Joanna Gawn.

Unique Dynamic

When Nicky invited us to guest post on her blog, we were thrilled! But then we needed to make a decision: what on earth will we write about?

Undeniably, there are a great many authors out there, but the vast majority are not co-authors. We believe that writing, editing and publishing a series of novels together creates its own, unique dynamic. This also affects us personally, as you’ll discover as you read on.

Practicalities

For a start, we’re a formal business partnership. That means no business decision gets taken without us both having a say – and that can be tricky when I run one other business, and Ron runs two! Finding a decent block of time to ‘discuss things’ can be quite a challenge.

Luckily, technology is firmly on our side. In between occasional ‘real meetings’ (we live about 30 miles apart), we have very frequent instant message chats, in which we discuss anything and everything related to our works in progress, publishing and marketing. If you’re an author, then you know how much time that can take when there’s only one viewpoint (yours!) in play. Then there’s the next blog post and Newsletter to discuss, draft and edit, and writing and editing the Friday Fictioneers ‘flash fiction’ pieces we create each week.

Over the last year or so, we’ve also found a cloud document system to be invaluable for sharing files, because we can both work on them simultaneously. (This also provides opportunities for great silliness!)

Passion and Fun

Both Ron and I are passionate about energy and healing: recognising and directing natural energies, working with the potential that exists around us, and sharing these experiences and ideas as storytellers. We hope our passion comes across in our writing.

Because the Lazuli Portals stories reveal themselves to us through the writing process itself (we don’t write with much of a plan), we learn more about ourselves and our place in the universe, too. For us, writing really is alchemy – a journey of personal transformation.

What we write could be labelled as visionary fantasy. But we’ve chosen not to align ourselves too closely to any particular label, as we believe that our series has appeal beyond those interested in energy-healing, crystals and unseen realms. But we do hope that reading our series encourages an open mind, and perhaps an expansion of awareness of what is possible – of the very real potential which surrounds us in each and every moment, and how it can be used for the greater good. The only thing holding you back is you.

As we’ve had quite different life experiences, we both bring something new and fresh to every discussion – and of course we are both continuing to learn on a personal level. We intend that our writing, publishing and marketing choices bring us as much satisfaction (and as many readers!) as they can. This is fun! We’re not in the writing ‘business’ to get stressed over deadlines, or to write or edit when we really are too exhausted and our creative wells are parched. We’d like to keep our sanity and our health, thanks very much! For us both, balance is key.

Protection and Trust

Now, we were very good friends before we started ‘this writing lark’. How do we protect that friendship when creative egos can come into play, and financial decisions need to be made?

There’s a simple answer to that. Nothing that is business-related comes before our friendship. We set that intention back in November 2010 when we began writing The Cordello Quest. Ron wrote the first few sentences of Chapter One, just to see if I could make anything of it; I finished the chapter and tentatively emailed my work to Ron for his opinion. He asked if I minded if he made some suggestions . . . and please would I write more of the story, right this minute, because he was well and truly hooked. 🙂

I needed to decide whether I wanted to write alone, or whether this was a project we wanted to work on – in depth, and with complete honesty – as a duo. You can see which option won . . .

Working creatively with another person naturally requires a considerable amount of trust. We both do our best to be objective about our work, and all suggestions we make are offered and received with respect and complete openness. Anything less would simply not work.

Comfort Zone – Where Did It Go?!

This element of trust was also key in my agreeing to be interviewed, with Ron, live on air by Stafford FM, just a week after we launched The Cordello Quest. Me, speaking live on radio? No way, I thought. But I phoned Ron to tell him about the offer we’d received, and he ‘persuaded’ me that passing up this opportunity would lead to regret down the line.

Of course, he was absolutely right (he quite often is!) Even if I never do a live radio interview again, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I did it once, and I wasn’t terrible, even though my knees were knocking throughout the entire interview! Working together, we bring out the best in each other – and as good friends, that naturally translates into our personal lives, too.

Now we’re attending book fairs and writers’ circles, and have even met with ‘interested parties’ on foreign shores! Believe me, as an ex-agoraphobic, I’d have done none of these things without Ron gently pushing me in the right direction. In that sense, becoming an author really has changed my life – often in ways I would never have expected.

That’s our story so far . We plan to be writing and publishing for many years to come . . . with our friendship remaining intact. 🙂

Thanks for the opportunity to share our thoughts with your readers, Nicky. Rock on!

Yay, rock on indeed! Thank you so much to Jo and Ron for sharing their experience of writing as a duo. I stand in awe and admiration at you two working together as one and how it’s enriching both your lives! It’s been wonderful to have you visit here today, and I hope you’ve enjoyed yourselves. But before I open the floor for questions, first things first…

The Cordello Quest is available from Amazon.co.uk. You can find out more about The Lazuli Portals on Jo and Ron’s website. The Lazuli Portals also tweet and Facebook!

So then, dear reader: could you write jointly with someone else? Share the burden, the pain, the inspiration, the joy? Take turns? Bounce ideas? I’ve got to be honest, I am intrigued but I’m not sure I would succeed. I’m a control freak. But I admire those who can. What about you??

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CentreStage with Sue Fortin: Photographic walk around Arundel

Posted on August 30, 2012 | 17 comments

And another double-whammy week here on CentreStage:
we are a-rockin’ and a-rollin over here. Welcome!

CentreStage showcases amazing authors from around the world. These authors might tell you about their writing, their books, their lives or anything else that takes their fancy. Today, my fellow loveahappyending.com author and writing buddy, Sue Fortin, takes the stage with a wonderful journey around the countryside… Take it away, Sue!

Hi Nicky, thanks so much for inviting me here on CentreStage to chat about why I chose to set my book, United State of Love, in Arundel, West Sussex.

You’re so welcome! And ever since reading United State of Love, I’ve wondered what it looks like over there. Your descriptions are beautiful and intriguing… but I interrupt, already! Sorry.

I live just a few miles from Arundel and have always loved the place. It’s a beautiful historic town and attracts many visitors throughout the year, especially in the summer. Anyone visiting Arundel by train is greeted by the fabulous view of the Arundel Castle shouldering one side of the town and the majestic cathedral standing proudly at the top of the hill on the other side.

I had the pleasure of working there for 18 months when I was younger and spent many a lunch hour with my boss trying out the various tea shops and restaurants. When it came to deciding on a setting for the restaurant in United State of Love, Arundel was the obvious choice. An old church building in Tarrant Street was perfect for my character, Tex, to convert for his business. This is where Anna experiences her infamous ‘eargasm’.

I remember the ‘eargasm.’ A fantastic moment, loved, loved, loved it. I’ve pictured the place many times… now let’s see the real thing. Here goes:

I can also credit my boss for helping me decide on the job of tour guide for my character Anna.  One day, when he was preparing for a big court case, he sent me off for the afternoon on a guided tour of Arundel. I really enjoyed the tour, even though the town is built on a steep hill and I wasn’t exactly wearing the right footwear.

The river Arun, well known for being one for the fastest flowing tidal rivers in the UK, cuts through the town and again I used this as a reference point in the book.  Tex’s apartment looks out over the river.

I can’t possibly talk about Arundel and not mention Swanbourne Lake, surrounded by chalk hills and trees, marking the beginning of the 1000 acre Arundel Park. A great place for a 45 minute stroll around the lake or longer hikes through the park.  I used this in a scene where Tex and Anna have a scare, which initially pushes them apart but then ultimately brings them back together again.

So this is the lake… I like it. It looks romantic, a really nice setting for Tex and Anna.

I like using real places that I am familiar with or have visited. Having said that, I must confess although I have several scenes set in Brenham, Texas, I have never actually been there.  Nor have I stayed at any working-holiday ranches like ‘Moonshadow Meadows’, the home of Tex. However, I did research these and will be forever grateful for Google Earth and Street View!

STOP PRESS!! To celebrate being here on CentreStage, United State of Love is available for download at a special offer price of £0.98/$1.50 – see links  below. Happy Reading!

Why, thanks, Sue: this is an amazing offer. You are a rock star!! Tell us a litte more about United State of Love…

Since splitting from her husband, single mum Anna Barnes is enjoying her new found freedom and independence. Now she can concentrate on looking after her teenage son and building up her career. However, she didn’t bank on working for Tex Garcia.

The gorgeous American chef is getting the locals hot under the collar and not just because of his culinary prowess! Beneath that handsome exterior, however, lies a man haunted by his past. Tex can’t commit and women pass through his life like dishes going out to service. So what is it about Anna that’s different?

Can Tex break her self-imposed rule of never mixing business with pleasure and add some spice into the mix? Or is Anna’s ex set to spoil the recipe altogether?

United State of Love is available in paperback from FeedARead. For the Celebration Offer on Kindle copies, visit amazon.co.uk  or amazon.com. It’s a great read, go grab it now!

Finally, you can visit Sue on her blog, love reading love books; on Facebook and on Twitter. Sue is a featured author at loveahappyending.com, and is also busy blogging in an authorly capacity with The Romaniacs and Famous Five Plus. She’s one busy lady!

So, are you inspired to visit Arundel? Have you got a photo diary of your favourite settings and book locations? Feel free to share, if you can, and pop by and say ‘hello’ at any rate…

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CentreStage with Miriam Wakerly: Writing with a difference since she was eight…

Posted on August 29, 2012 | 15 comments

Welcome to CentreStage!

CentreStage showcases amazing authors from around the world who may share with you stories about themselves, their writing or their lives. We have seen all manner of features on CentreStage so far but one thing is certain: there never is a dull moment here.

Today, it is my great pleasure to introduce fellow loveahappyending.com author Miriam Wakerly!

Miriam tells us something about her years as ‘wordsmith’ … Over to you, Miriam! First of all, do you think writers are born or made?

From listening to other writers and reflecting on my own experience I sit firmly quivering on the fence with this question. Surely it has to be a combination of both? The urge to write, or make things up, seems to come at an early age and the stronger this is the more effort that person may put into developing any inborn talent. But it doesn’t seem like an effort. It’s as if you can’t not write!

On the other hand neither parent nor teacher can force a child to like books, but rather encourage and provide opportunity, I guess. I think all children have a pretty lively imagination.

I get the ‘can’t not write’ thing, 100 per cent.  And the lively imagination!!! So how do you fit into that?

My parents told me that as a small child I was always happy with my own company. I was good at occupying myself. Now there may be many reasons for this – lack of other children to play with, a mother who was suffering from depression, just one sibling – my sister ten years older than me. Perhaps I sought out the other worlds that books could offer, but certainly I loved to read and write as soon as I could. Once I discovered it, the tiny local library was a haven of pleasure; I gobbled up books and was always good as essays, compositions and stories. When asked what I wanted to do when I was grown-up, I would say, when around 8 years old, that I wanted to be ‘an authoress’ – or a bus conductress. Perhaps my inspirational role models were limited!

I doubt they were limited! I love the way you describe your love for books and your library haven. It sounds like a magical escape world.  So, how did you move from the pleasure of reading to the pleasure of writing? Tell us a bit about your writing life.

My first published article was in the School Magazine. I was 13 and this was the first issue; it was a new venture and I was the youngest contributor. It opened like this:

‘I am in love. Yes – he is dark, handsome, has good looking features and dreamy, brown eyes – and a wet nose!’

Cringingly embarrassing, but yes, it was about our black Cocker Spaniel, an account of his funny antics and achievements. From this you might think I was born to write really bad romantic comedy.

No, no, no! I adore this opening line, nothing cringeworthy about it. But do tell… did you write rom-coms?

I reckon almost any fiction, including mine, needs to make the reader smile now and then, but not necessarily laugh out loud. I admire any writer who can keep the comedy bubbling along from cover to cover! Certainly I did write what may be described as romantic fiction. I had a go at Mills & Boons years ago, but I think it was with the idea of making a fortune, not because it was really my kind of book. I never quite managed that working-to-a-formula-but-giving-them-something-different-thing.

But I did get many stories, with titles like ‘The Eye of the Storm’ and ‘Love Turned Sour’, published in magazines such as My Story, Romance and True Story. I don’t think they exist now, but I became a ‘regular’ and was paid around £80 per story in the 1980s. Looking back, not a bad rate, really! I did this when my three children were growing up and I was working odd days as a supply teacher, doing the Mumsy juggling thing, spinning plates and so on. My first ever published story was in Christian Herald!

The magazine editors never notified me – it was always exciting to call at the newsagents and flick through the pages to see if a story was in that month. Then a while later I would get my cheque in the post.

That is amazing! What a revelation. I’ve tried to read the feature above but my eyes aren’t good enough… You’ll have to send me a hardcopy! But I hear you wrote more serious articles, too?

Writing articles was part of my training ground. I always knew I loved writing and tried my hand as a freelance, building up a portfolio to help get PR work for companies. So at first the articles were about things I knew a little bit about: Does your Garden have Acid Soil?  in Popular Gardening; Wasn’t My Face Red? About embarrassing moments with toddlers, in Under-5 magazine (Playgroups organisation). A humorous account of a sailing holiday that went into Woman’s Realm; that kind of thing.

Ooooh, I feel an anthology coming on. Can you have an anthology of your own articles? Anyway, some kind of collection: Miriam’s views on life, the universe and everything?

Later, topics became increasingly bizarre, including bees; designer radiators; puppy training pads; systems integration; pan-European bulk storage and transportation; and retail security in changing rooms!

How come?

Well, after various proper jobs in the real working world, I set up my own PR and Marketing company – just working solo, writing press releases, feature articles, product and company brochures, and later, words for company websites. One company marketed boilers and radiators; as well as the more technical stuff, I wrote some ‘fascinating’ case studies about the buildings where their products were installed, like The Royal Courts of Justice and the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Here’s some other titles: ‘Varroa Disaster Won’t Go Away’ – an article on bees in Farmers’ Weekly; Cat Allergy and Cat Owners in Pet Business World; Odour Busters – on pet smells in the house;   There were many others. See what I mean? But the subject matter got even more unlikely!

Later I just focused on projects for IT companies dealing in software, connectivity and other technological advances – with over 30 clients in total. This was the commercial sector most in need and the most lucrative. So, after much deliberation and digestion of boring technical matter, I put together articles like: Hidden Structure – article on cabling in Premises and Facilities Management; and Why Doesn’t the Lift Work? This was an article on the perils of Y2K! Remember that old ‘millennium bug’? No, it would be too, too terribly boring to tell more of this. There were more! You don’t want to know.

I do! This kind of stuff fascinates me. Really! And… it’ll go right in your collection of articles about just about anything! 🙂 But I interrupt again, I’m sorry. You were saying…?

Suffice to say that after a few years, not surprisingly, I had a really desperate urge to do something completely different, which I did. And, of course when would I get that novel written?

Aha! Had you written a novel by then?

Not sure when I started but for sure I wrote two or three – the usual rejection story. Skip a few years, then I launched my first novel, Gypsies Stop tHere the day after I retired in 2008; the sequel/prequel No Gypsies Served in 2010 and this year Shades of Appley Green – a modern village novel. How that all happened is another story …

So it took a few years, overall?

You could say that. But all those years I was writing, writing … maybe I was born that way, I don’t know! But certainly I’ve had a lot of practice at putting words together – sometimes even in the right order.

Wow, Miriam–you make me laugh. And I stand in awe! What a wealth of writing and being-published experience you have… This is a truly amazing feature, thank you so much for sharing!  (And I await your anthology with bated breath!) Now let’s find out more about your novels. First of all,  Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served:

Gypsies Stop tHere

“A fantastic, insightful first novel… Challenges prejudices and entertains thoroughly… perfect holiday read” Waterstone’s

Will uprooting herself from London to live in the country help Kay escape guilt-ridden memories of her husband’s death? Far from finding a quiet life, she is caught up in an age-old village conflict where passionate opinions on Romany Gypsy Travellers divide the local people.

A young woman, Lena, enters her life, unwittingly putting Kay’s plans on hold. Kay struggles to not only come to terms with her emotional past but also to resolve Lena’s problems, those of the village and the Gypsies. And another relationship blossoms that she would never have dreamed of…

No Gypsies Served, published 2010, sequel/prequel to Gypsies Stop tHere

Two years have passed since Kay successfully campaigned for the Appley Green Gypsy Site, and four years since her husband was murdered. Life in the village was going so well, until the phone call and letter. Then comes the disastrous site opening. Worst of all, Dunstan, whom she realises is her best friend and ally, is giving her the cold shoulder for some unknown reason.

Dunstan is taking an emotional trip down memory lane, into childhood as a Gypsy on the road, and his eventual break from his people. Why is he so angry with Kay that he keeps away from her? Chances of a longed for reconciliation look slim …

And then, changing gears slightly… Shades of Appley Green, a modern village novel, set in the same village but the first of a new series:

Shades of Appley Green – a modern village novel

Steph is a special, but troubled young woman. Chosen by the most venerated man in Appley Green to fulfil his mission, she feels publicly admired rather than privately loved. She certainly does not trust men!

In helping a once famous, elderly architect with Parkinson’s regain a social life, she finds herself taking personal risks, fending off objections, blind to danger. We wait for the moment when it dawns on Steph what is driving her deep-seated obsession, for only then can she find the happiness she deserves.

Appley Green is a charming English village. Everyone says so. But people are still people. With the emotional turmoil that comes with love, birth and death, a close-knit community can harbour betrayal and guilt, as well as joy and laughter.

You can find all of Miriam’s book on Amazon in paperback in Kindle editions.  You can also visit Miriam on her blog, or find her on Facebook and Twitter. Go on, don’t be shy! Miriam loves a good natter, and, as you saw, she can talk about almost anything……

So, my friends: here’s an author in Miriam who’s not afraid to tackle unusual, potentially controversial topics. What have you up your sleeve that is different and waiting to be written? Have you got a stack of wild-and-wacky articles to your name that are languishing on the shelf, or in a publication somewhere? (Tell us in strictest blogosphere confidence, of course!)

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CentreStage with Yasmin Selena Butt: Introducing Gunshot Glitter and Cornelia Friend

Posted on August 23, 2012 | 17 comments

Welcome again to CentreStage!

This week is absolutely jam-packed with excitement, so I’m bringing you two instalments. CentreStage showcases fantastic authors from around the world presenting stories about themselves, their writing, their books or anything that takes their fancy. Today, it is my enormous pleasure to introduce you to the one-and-only Yasmin Selena Butt, and her best friend and heroine, Cornelia Friend.  Yasmin and I connected over at The Romaniacs and we have been best blogging friends ever since. She is full of wit and sparkle, and I think you’ll greatly enjoy meeting her and Cornelia today.

It turns out that Cornelia has a very strong mind of her own, and she turned the tables on Yasmin when it came to an interview. I like that in a character, and I can’t wait to read her in full… So for now, I give you:

Gunshot Glitter: A  woman with a Band-Aid on her damaged soul

Writer, Yasmin Selena Butt, asked if she could interview me.  I pointed out that I’d spent the last eight years moving around, changing my name to keep myself safe, and inventing personas so I could slip through the net. An interview probably wasn’t such a good idea.

So I told Yasmin that I’d like to interview her instead.

I told her I’d like to know what she was thinking when she gave me this life, before setting the cat amongst the pigeons to see what I would do. I’ve been inside her head for years and I’ve watched her live, write, dream, fret about the day she lets me loose on the world and the world loose on me.  Gunshot Glitter isn’t just my story, it’s also the story of an incinerated boy who never quite goes away, the aftershock he leaves in his wake: A family confused and in pain. Lies. Old flames. Betrayal. Death. Life. Love. Sex. Good music. A jackal and a doe. Angels in unlikely places and guises. And your feelings dear reader as you watch it all unfurl.

All I ask is you keep an open mind, and that you don’t judge me until you know me. Today, you can call me Cornelia Friend. But you and I both know it’s not my real name.

Author photo by Keith Pitcher

CF: Hi Yasmin, I know this wasn’t the plan, are you nervous?

Yasmin: About what? Talking about you? Having people judge you once they’ve read Gunshot Glitter? A little bit, I feel very protective of you, even though I know you can look after yourself.  It’s really easy to paint victims and criminals in black and white terms, but I never saw you that way and I’ve never found that very interesting. Real people are way more complicated! I wanted to write a story which made the reader question their own sense of right and wrong, test their moral barometer and muddy the lines. Dreaming you up helped me do that.

CF:  How would you describe me, could you sum me up in a sentence?

YB: That would be hard, but I’d describe you as – a beautiful, educated, dangerous woman with a band-aid on her damaged soul; someone who took a wrong turn and never found her way home.

CF: You gave me this vivid life and bestowed me with secrets, love, rage, guilt as well as a gift for playing the cello, a soft spot for cats and a fear of heights. Why did you do that?

YB: Everyone who reads Gunshot Glitter and your story is going to have to decide what they make of you themselves, but I know fundamentally, we are a sum of parts, whatever we’ve done. However well or badly we’ve acted, we’re all human underneath it all, we all go shopping, listen to music, have fears, enjoy strengths. I wanted people to see you as a person as well as witness your actions. Once you identify with someone, it gets interesting gauging how you feel, the more you find out about them, despite your moral judgement of them.

CF:  You’re talking about what happened at Gunshot Glitter. Tell me about the club, why did you call it that?

YB: The club, Gunshot Glitter, was named after a Jeff Buckley song I really loved from an album called Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk. The song was released as a bonus track on the European edition of the album. I loved it, it’s raw and lo-fi.

The image evoked by a gunshot of glitter literally sparkled in my imagination and I had this vision of a glamorous venue in Soho with lap dancers and burlesque performers, where the patrons could buy guns filled with ampoules of glitter and they could choose their dancer by firing at them. So your story starts there the night you meet a Yorkshire boy called Liam Griffin on his 21st birthday.

CF: Liam and I, we share the same star sign. We’re Scorpios. You like astrology don’t you?

YB: I do, it was a good way of defining the characters in Gunshot Glitter, it helped me visualise them and their personalities. You all had to become very real to me before I could do you justice. Anis is Pisces, he’s an emotional soul who wishes he could conceal his feelings more because they often give him away. Sera Logan is a hot-headed, impetuous Aries who enjoys being centre of attention. Luke Becklow is a steady, enduring Capricorn, loyal and far more attractive than he realises. I loved you all.  When you and Liam meet you change each other’s lives forever.

CF: How did you see me? Who did you base me on?

YB: You, my love, where inspired by a mixture of souls – including a strawberry blonde, freckled boy I once fiercely loved, who was a black belt in judo, who once told me that if he hadn’t gone to university he’d have become a criminal like the kids he ran with. And also an elegant redhead called Miranda, who I met when I was 20, who gave me a dodgy perm, but was amazingly beautiful with a stunning rack. I found her positively hypnotic to look at. I loved the idea of making you complicated, extraordinary, but also utterly normal all at the same time.

CF: Tell me how you dreamed up Gunshot Glitter, how did I come into being?

YB: Many years ago, I copy-typed a tagline I found on a soya drink carton onto my computer and stared at it long and hard…

CF: What did it say?

YB: It said, you can try me for free…’ And I thought where in life would you ever hear someone say that?! And I immediately thought of a woman with a glistening seductive mouth whispering in a boy’s ear and my fingers took over and I started typing. You were born as a bewitching character and I watched you act out this scene like a movie in my head. You ended the story laughing softly at the moon.

CF It was a short story to begin with wasn’t it?

YB: It was. I called it The Birthday Present. And it was possibly the most perfect short story I’d ever written. I almost wrote it in a trance. It was so fluid and effortless, it was the first decent short story I’d written in years. I showed it to friends and everyone who read it, asked me what happened next. That had never happened before. But the person whose opinion really affected me was a man called Jeremy Smith.

CF: Who was he? You dedicated Gunshot Glitter to him didn’t you?

YB: I did, he was a man I became friends with in 2004 when I was having a rough time.  We kind of saved each other. He was a writer, book editor and music obsessive.  He was thrilled as I was as into music as he was. He’d really met his match with me.  He got me into Cat Power and Ed Harcourt. And I got him into Low.  I’d never met an industry professional before, so was in awe of him. The fact he told me I was a good writer meant so much to me. Sadly, Jez died in 2010. It was a huge shock to me, he was only 35.  It makes me sad, he never got to read Gunshot Glitter.

CF. I think he would have loved that you saw it through.  That that short story became a novel on your own terms.

YB: Thank you, I really hope people read it with an open mind and just focus on the story. I believe in originality taking precedence over genre pigeonholes. Cover control was massively important to me, I found the artist, Celene Petrulak , on MySpace years ago and immediately knew I wanted her to work on the cover with me. She’s amazingly talented. And I believe that self-published novels should be equal in quality to traditionally published books. I worked with Jill Blair, a Scottish proof-reader and had it Beta read by several people.  Plus Lisa Jewell, my favourite writer, read it and loved it and gave me a cover quote. That meant a great deal to me.

CF: So does Yasmin Selena Butt have any other stories up her sleeve?

YB: She does. I’m publishing an erotic novella called ‘Venus’ later this year, it’s extremely explicit, and an anthology of short stories called Ten Minute Tales, which should all take ten minutes tops to read. I love short fiction; it’s highly under-rated. I may publish the latter with BookBaby.

CF. Thank you for dreaming me up, good luck with the words, especially Venus.

YB.  Cornelia Friend, it was my pleasure.

Cover artwork by Celene Petrulak

Gunshot Glitter…

Your name is Celine Silver. But no one has called you that in eight years.
You’re a classically trained musician and an Honours graduate.
You come from a nice, middle-class family.
You kill people for money.
And no one knows you anymore.
Fate throws the man you abandoned right back into your path – the man who knew you before you got blood on your hands, before you changed your name.
And he’s demanding answers. 
But is there a way back to the path of normal?
What price do you have to pay when you realise you no longer want to be monster? 
And who are the real monsters and victims anyway?

‘Gunshot Glitter’  by Yasmin Selena Butt will be available on Amazon from Friday 24th August 2012. If you would like to buy a print copy please email: GunshotGlitter2012@yahoo.co.uk

To find out more about Gunshot Glitter and Yasmin Selena, visit Yasmin’s blog,  Hello, You…  You can follow Yasmin on Twitter as @YasminSelena and you can also follow Cornelia as @CorneliaFriend.

WOW! What an interview, and what a GORGEOUS cover!! I can’t wait for tomorrow when Gunshot Glitter launches, I’ll be off to Amazon in a shot… Thanks so much for visiting today, Yasmin and Cornelia, it was fabulous to meet you both.

What do you think of these unusual, intriguing ladies and the book they’ve written between them?

STOP PRESS! Gunshot Glitter has just gone live on Amazon.co.uk. You can buy it… NOW!

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CentreStage with Sheryl Browne: Ode to reviewers and supporters

Posted on August 22, 2012 | 11 comments

Welcome to the latest edition of CentreStage!

CentreStage showcases talented and exciting authors from around the world. These authors might tell you about their writing, or their lives, or any subject that is dear to them. Today, the wonderful Sheryl Browne is visiting CentreStage for the second time. I think she had such a great time on her previous visit, she simply had to come back. I am honoured!

But alas! Sheryl is having a weird time on CentreStage today. I seem to have gone… funny. I usher Sheryl in with undue haste, shutting the door firmly beside her, stealing a surreptitious backwards glance down the corridor. ‘You know the score… over to you, Sheryl! Here’s the mic… off you go…’ Sheryl gives me a worried look but springs into action.

**Sheryl enters**

Ooh, I’m in the spotlight, again.  ‘Ta-dah!’  *Takes centre-stage*

‘Ahem, I’d like to start by… Oops, hold on.’  *Attempts to adjust microphone, which is currently eyebrow level.  Grunts and fiddles.  Microphone plummets to kneecap level.  Smiles sweetly, dips surreptitiously, yanks it back up and smacks self in the head*

‘Ahem…’ *Starts again, now a bit cross-eyed* ‘My husband and I… Whoops, no, wrong speech. Bear with me. Um,’

*Thinks, finger poised on chin* ‘Ah, yes, I’d like to start by saying thank you to all the lovely people who have…  Pardon?  Yes, I know, I’m not receiving an Oscar, Nicky.  Yes, I know your next guest is due.  I am trying to get on with it.  Honestly, if your stage props were up to par, sweetie, we wouldn’t have been delayed in the first place.  Humph!

‘Now, where was I?  Um? Right, yes.  I’d like to start by thanking all the people who have been so uber-supportive during my book launches, first and foremost, my fellow authors and friends at Loveahappyending.com’ *pauses to cast Nicky a pointed glance* ‘without whose guidance and constant encouragement, I would have possibly been swept away by the tidal wave that is Twitter, like a little speck of dust in cyberspace.  Yes, it is quite eloquent, isn’t it?  Thank you, Nicky.  Wha’d’y’mean: if a bit long-winded??’

*Glances miffily over at Nicky side-stage, points nose in air and turns back to audience*

‘I would also like to thank all the lovely readers who have bought my book, in particular readers and reviewers, who have gone to the trouble of posting up some fabulous reviews.  Without people who are prepared to give of their time to do that, writers who are struggling to make a name for themselves might possibly sink without trace.  Yes, Nicky, I know I’ve gone all poetic now.  Thank you for that.  Shhhut up!  I’m trying to be serious.  Wha’d’y’mean, I don’t do serious?  This is me, being serious!

‘I’ve lost the plot now.   Ah, yes, reviewers.  Seriously, if you…’ *microphone plops to ankle-level* ‘Do not utter a word, Nicky.  Yes, you are.  You’re tittering.  Stoppit.  Ahem! If you haven’t thanked your reviewers, do it now, profusely.  They’re quite partial to chocolates, I gather, preferably Belgian or Hotel Chocolat.  And wine, a nice chilled Chablis, possibly, or…  OK, now I’m not being serious.  The thing is they do it for FREE, in their own time. They have tbr piles up to their armpits and probably impaired vision because of it, so if you’ve given a reviewer a hard time, chasing or moaning, feel ashamed. Very, very ashamed.

‘Likewise, if you invite someone to take centre-stage on your blog and then give them a hard time! Will you please stop giggling, Nicky!  It’s putting me off!  Thank you!  I’d just like to end by… No, I did NOT bring a coat.  I’d just like to end by thanking Lovehappyending.com again, and all my Twitter and Facebook friends for their tremendous support.  Having two book launches quite close together has been a bit demanding promo-wise and I simply couldn’t have done it without you.  Also, Safkhet Publishing – THANK YOU – for helping me to get my books where they should be: out there for people to enjoy.  Comments are always truly appreciated.  Good comments more so, obviously, but the not so-good…  Well, you write, you learn.  Every little comment and piece of advice is always taken on board if you are…  All right.  All right. I’m going. Anyone would think you have someone important on next.  Honestly.’ *Turns to strop side-stage, passing next guest en route*

‘Hi JK.’

**Sheryl exits**

At this point, the door opens and I bustle in, bearing a tray with biscuits and two steaming cups of tea. ‘Here we are, Sheryl,’ I breeze, somewhat breathless. ‘Sorry it took so long, someone seemed to have been messing about in my kitchen… Sheryl? Sheryl?’

I catch sight of myself already in the room and drop the tray in dismay.  ‘Who are you?’ I shriek, fearfully. ‘And what have you done with the lovely Sheryl…?’ The impostor turns and flees. Well, I never. What was that all about? 

Let me tell you more: About the lovely, talented and unflappable Sheryl Browne

Now residing in Worcestershire, Sheryl grew up in Birmingham, UK, where she studied Art & Design. She wears many hats: a partner in her own business, a mother, and a foster parent to disabled dogs. Creative in spirit, Sheryl has always had a passion for writing. A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, she has previously been published in the US and writes Romantic Comedy because, as she puts it, “life is just too short to be miserable.”

Sheryl’s debut novel, RECIPES FOR DISASTER – combining deliciously different and fun recipes with sexilicious romantic comedy, is garnering some fabulous reviews! Sheryl has also been offered a further three-book contract under the Safkhet Publishing Soul imprint. SOMEBODY TO LOVE, a romantic comedy centring around a single policeman father’s search for love, his autistic little boy and the boy’s Autism Assistance Dog, launched July 1 with an immediate 5* review.  WARRANT FOR LOVE, bringing together three couples in a twisting story that resolves perfectly, released August 1.

You can visit Sheryl on her website, on Facebook and on Twitter. Sheryl is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and a featured author with innovative reader/author project, loveahappyending.com.

Now for more about Sheryl’s recent double release…

Somebody to Love

How do you tell her?

After a turbulent marriage to a man who walked off hand-in-offshoot with something resembling a twig, divorced mum, Donna O’Conner, doubts happy endings exist. She’d quite like to find herself an Adonis with… pecs …and things. Alas, that’s not likely, when her only interest outside of work is hopping her three-legged dog in the park, carrying a poop-scoop. In any case, Donna isn’t sure she’d know what to do with an Adonis if she fell on one. When PC Mark Evans comes along, gloriously gift-wrapped in blue, however, she can’t help wishing she did.

Mark, a single father, is desperate for love. He doesn’t hold out much hope, though, that there is a woman out there with a heart big enough to love him and his autistic son. Enter big-hearted Donna, plus three-legged dog. And now Mark has a dilemma. Pretending not to mind her house-bunny chewing his bootlaces, he’s smitten with Donna on sight. Should he tell her his situation up-front? Announcing he has a child with autism spectrum disorder on a first date tends to ensure there isn’t a second. Or should he skirt around the subject, which amounts to a lie? When one lie leads to another, can he ever win Donna’s trust back? Admit that he didn’t trust Donna enough to let her into his life?

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Somebody to Love has been made with love… love of animals. Sheryl Browne has done excellent research on assistance dogs, specifically their use with autistic individuals. With a focus on romance with police officers, appealing to all readers who love our boys in blue, the author’s “teasing but not telling” style makes this read appropriate for anyone, including young adults and older teens.

Somebody to Love is endorsed by Danemere Animal Rescue Centre and Our Dog Publications. Watch the video… and you can get the book directly from the publisher if you wish. Somebody to Love is also available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

Warrant for Love

It can’t get any worse, can it?

Leanne Curtis has shared more than her heart and her home with her womanising man. She’s shared her pin number. The scales are peeled painfully from her eyes when she spots female footprints on the inside windscreen of his car. Devastated, Leanne storms off into the night. He wasn’t going to pay her back when he sold his flat, his bolthole, his shag-pad, probably, the absolute…! Shivering on a street corner, Leanne comes up with a survival plan. She’s no choice. If she’s to keep her son in PS3s, Leanne needs a lodger.

Brought up in care, Police Constable Paul Davis doesn’t communicate well. On duty, he’s gloomily contemplating his impending divorce. His wife sleeping with his sergeant is not helping his morose mood. His sergeant has a history, and Paul needs to find somewhere decent to live in order to gain custody of his son, fast. And to keep his job. Wrongfully arresting Leanne Curtis for soliciting, he muses, whilst avoiding five-star-freezer looks from her friends, might not be the best way to do it.

Could fate have brought them together, though? Leanne needs a respectable lodger. Paul needs a home. One thing leads to another, and Paul can’t quite believe his luck. When a blackmail plot ~ cooked up by Leanne’s friends ~ threatens their budding relationship, however, is Paul compelled to uphold the law? Or will he risk everything to make sure Leanne’s abusive ex gets his comeuppance?

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Warrant for Love is not your typical rom-com where only one gal gets the guy — Sheryl Browne brings together three couples in a twisting story that resolves perfectly. With a focus on romance with police officers, Warrant for Love appeals to all readers who love our boys in blue. Complex yet everyday relationship problems makes this read appropriate for young adults and older teens.

You can obtain Warrant for Love directly from the publisher, and from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

Wow! What a post.  Love Shery’s humour and style. And an impostor on my blog stirring up trouble… it’s all fun and games over here at CentreStage!

Thanks for visiting again, Sheryl, and I promise next time I’ll have the tea ready, the stage set up and the premises searched for impostors. Maybe PC Paul Davis can help me…

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CentreStage with Carol E Wyer: Candide-style witty observation, humour and insight

Posted on August 16, 2012 | 10 comments

The Summer Silence is over: I’m back! And I’m back with a bang: welcome to the latest edition of CentreStage.

CentreStage features fantastic authors from around the world. On CentreStage, these authors might write for you about their lives, or their writing journey, or anything else that matters to them.  Every feature will be different in format and flavour, so watch out for a variety of stories and tales.

Today, it is my great pleasure to bring you a fellow lovehappyending.com author, Carol E Wyer.

Welcome, Carol! It’s so lovely that you could visit here today. Let me ask you first of all… what’s your background? Did you always want to be a writer?

Although I only began writing full time two years ago, I have written for a long time. For many years I wrote short stories for children, none of which I took to press but which I read to my son or his friends when they were little.

For some time I ran a language company and at that time I progressed to writing stories that were educational. I wrote a series of books, highly illustrated by a good friend that were set in France and which, through the use of animal characters, taught basic French to children. I took the books into local schools where they were used as part of a curriculum to teach French to young children and were very much enjoyed.

That’s amazing, I’m going to have to look out for those: what a wonderful idea. But this love for writing… does it maybe echo a love for reading, too?

Writing has always been a pleasure for me. It is on a par with reading which I absolutely love. Being a speed reader I can race through books at a terrific speed (if only I could type that quickly) and I love all genres. Reading allows you to have ‘time out’ for you. It allows you escape from your world for a while. Sometimes I enjoy being transported to an earlier time, or abroad. Other times I’ll get to grips with a mystery and quite often I just want to read something light and cheerful that leaves me with a feel good factor.

Having been asked the question a few times now and having given different answers depending on my mood, I sat back and worked out just what is my favourite book of all time. That is such a difficult question when I consider the number and variety of books I have read over the years. Being bed-bound for some considerable time in my youth meant I had read the entire contents of the local library from Enid Blyton through to Dennis Wheatley and Charles Dickens by the time I was eighteen.

Oooooh, a fellow kindred spirit! I can totally relate to your love for anything Enid Blyton and I am with you all the way. On Dickens, too. Great choices! But I gather there is one book, one author in particular who struck a note with you… and an unusual one at that?

Yes, indeed! I have, always loved humorous novels and enjoy Ben Elton’s novels or anything that is dry and amusing. But I suppose I have been most influenced by a novel I read at University: Candide by Voltaire. It is not the sort of book you would pick up in a bookshop and think what a great book –I’ll get this for my trip to Ibiza but it is undoubtedly the book that has influenced my approach to life and my writing.

Go on, tell us more!

Published way back in 1759 it is a French satire about a naive young man who lives in a sort of paradise at Chateau Thunder-Ten-Tronckh. The illegitimate nephew of the Baron, he is allowed to live at the chateau under the tutelage of Pangloss, who attempts to teach him that “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds” or as we know it ‘optimism’.

It consists of thirty chapters which are divided into three sections. At the beginning of each chapter is a summary of what to expect.

Although written a long time ago it is actually a tremendous novel, fast moving, fantastical, erratic but above all I appreciated and enjoyed the sarcastic tone of the novel. The plot parodies many adventure and romance clichés and the tone is mordantly matter of fact.

Events that Candide witnesses were based on historical happenings for example the Seven Year War, and the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake, Tsunami and fires. The novel humorously and directly contends the problem of evil as did the philosophers of Voltaire’s day.

After many adventures, almost dying, finding love and losing it again, the resurrection of Pangloss and other characters, Candide meets a farmer who lives a simple life, works hard, and avoids vice and leisure. Inspired, Candide and his friends take to cultivating a garden in earnest. All their time and energy goes into the work, and none is left over for philosophical speculation. At last everyone is fulfilled and happy. Candide decides to turn his back on optimism and cultivate his garden.

The book applies to modern times as much as its own and is definitely my favourite read – just as it was Frederick the Great’s, King of Prussia, who said that it was the only book he knew that one could read and re-read and never become bored of it.

I checked it out on Amazon before I wrote this post and was surprised at how popular it still is. You can download it for free so why not check it out? I am not alone in enjoying it one review I found said it was:

“A must read for any fan of classical European literature it reads as an escalating, buccaneering romp through exotic lands with a firm tongue in cheek and a book long maxim of the thrill of the chase surpassing the kill.”

Well, I can’t beat that, can I?

Now, now, don’t put your light under that bushel. I’ll have to check out Candide first of all and then, when I’ve closed that glaring gap in my education, I shall get back to you… But tell me more, first of all, about your own novels.

My novels are humorous. They look at life and problems facing all of us who are getting older but feeling just as young as we did ten years ago. My first novel, Mini Skirts and Laughter Lines, written through the eyes of a woman who is facing the dreaded ‘five-oh’, smacks slightly of Candide. Amanda Wilson doesn’t go on any great journey and meet Jesuits, become mega wealthy or get cooked by cannibals but she blunders through mishaps and hugely entertaining episodes to eventually learn to appreciate what is around her. She finally recognises that the grass is not always greener on the other side and that if she wants to enjoy her life and her relationships then she has to work at them.

I suppose deep down the message I took from reading Candide stayed with me and I hope that in years to come people will say how much they enjoyed my acerbic witty observations and how it is as relevant in the future as it is today.

That sounds fantastic. Who wouldn’t be tempted to go and get a copy now? Speaking of, here’s where you can find Carol’s books:

Mini Skirts and Laughter Lines is available on FeedARead and amazon.co.uk as well as amazon.com.  Surfing in Stilettos is available on FeedARead and amazon.co.uk as well as amazon.com.

And you can find out more about Carol at her website. Carol is also on Facebook and Twitter.

PS: Owing to a small scheduling delay (from my end, mea culpa) this post now coincides with Carol’s official launch of Surfing in Stilettos. How cool is that? I am so honoured to feature Carol on her launch day. HUGE congratulations, Carol, and I hope it goes fantastically well. Rock on! 🙂 xx

As always, over to you, dear reader. Have you read Candide? Is it a hard act to follow? And do you have an author or book that’s inspired you in the way that Voltaire inspired Carol? We’d love to hear about it…

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CentreStage with Talli Roland: Kick-Ass Women Rule!

Posted on July 30, 2012 | 64 comments

Welcome again to CentreStage!  CentreStage showcases fantastic authors from around the world. On CentreStage, these authors might write for you about their lives, or their writing journey, or anything else that matters to them.  Every feature will be different in format and flavour, so watch out for a variety of stories and tales.

Today, I have a very special guest indeed, and I have to admit to being just a little in awe. Please give it up for the amazing Talli Roland and a fabulous piece on determination and independence. I’m taking notes here… 🙂 Over to you, Talli!

Kick-Ass Women Rule
Or . . . Why I Love Writing Strong Female Characters

I enjoy sweetness and light as much as the next gal, but sometimes  it can get a tiny bit irritating to watch female characters spin in hopeless circles as they eat their way through cupcakes and trot off to buy high heels. Where are the successful, professional women who stand up for themselves and don’t fall to bits when faced with hunky men? Where are the protagonists who aren’t afraid to speak their mind, who drink whisky not spritzers, and chow down on potato chips not chocolate?

Don’t get me wrong: I’m a big fan of romance and love. But I want to see a couple come together as equals, after the woman sorts out problems herself – not because the hero has swooped in, snapped his fingers and made everything fine. I want the woman to be a person in her own right; I’ve never understood the attraction of the sentiment ‘you complete me’. In our modern times, women do it all. Why shouldn’t our chick lit protagonists represent that?

In my debut novel The Hating Game, main character Mattie Johns strides through the pages with snark, attitude, and confidence. She’s far from perfect – in fact, she’s quite spiky in the beginning – but she certainly isn’t dithering or ditzy. She makes firm decisions, acts on them, and will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. Interestingly, some readers love her while others… not so much! But I have a soft spot for her, because despite her hard outer shell, underneath she still wants what we all do: to be loved by a man who respects her. She’s not willing to sacrifice who she is to get it, and I l really admire her for that.

In my latest novels, Build A Man and Construct A Couple, main character Serenity has no qualms about reaching for her dreams. Yes, she makes mistakes along the way and has questionable judgment, but she takes action – growing and developing as she does so, finding love at the end once she’s discovered how to make herself happy.

After all, isn’t that true romance? Two people who don’t need each other, but who choose to share their lives because they want to.

And that’s why I love writing kick-ass female characters!

Three cheers! Wow, Talli, what an amazing post. I am totally with you one hundred per cent; life’s for the taking. I love your style, as well as your leading ladies! Now let’s find out a bit more about you… not that you really need an introduction!

About Talli Roland…

Talli Roland writes fun, romantic fiction. Born and raised in Canada, Talli now lives in London, where she savours the great cultural life (coffee and wine). Despite training as a journalist, Talli soon found she preferred making up her own stories–complete with happy endings. Talli’s debut novel The Hating Game was short-listed for Best Romantic Read at the UK’s Festival of Romance, while her second, Watching Willow Watts, was selected as an Amazon Customer Favourite. Her novels have also been chosen as top books of the year by industry review websites and have been bestsellers in Britain and the United States. Construct A Couple is her latest release.

To discover more about Talli, go to Talli’s website or blog,   or follow Talli on Twitter: @talliroland. You can also find Talli on Facebook and Goodreads and on her Amazon Author Page.

And finally: to kick ass, or not to kick ass? How do YOU like your romantic heroine? Let’s hear it… go on, don’t be shy, speak your mind!

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CentreStage with Tricia Jones: On Sharing a Dream. No really, sharing. A Dream.

Posted on July 18, 2012 | 43 comments

Welcome again to CentreStage!  CentreStage showcases fantastic authors from around the world, often introducing fellow featured authors at loveahappyending.com as well as my fellow authors in the Sapphire Star Publishing family.  On CentreStage, these authors might write for you about their lives, or their writing journey, or anything else that matters to them.  Every feature will be different in format and flavour, so watch out for a variety of stories and tales.

Today, it is my great pleasure to welcome loveahappyending.com featured author Tricia Jones! Tricia has a truly amazing experience to share today, and I am reeling from the wonder and astonishment of it all: a truly magical moment. So, here goes Tricia with…

Perchance to Dream!

A few weeks ago, I took off for a girlie shopping weekend with a group of friends I meet up with once year. We all used to work together, but over the years have moved off in different directions/locations, yet have stayed in touch. I treasure the friendships. This trip I was room-sharing with one of my bestest bud girlfriends and we stayed up half the night chatting until sleep finally claimed us.

That night, I had a really lovely dream. I was sitting with my friend in the hotel’s conservatory which, in the way of dreams, actually wasn’t the hotel’s conservatory but yet it was. Still with me? Good. While we sat there relaxing, what looked like a really large wasp flew in through the open doors and landed on the floor a few feet away from us. As we watched, trying to decide if it actually was a wasp, it began to grow and soon morphed into a beautiful red creature that most definitely was not a wasp.

As we continued to discuss what it might be, the creature grew some more, stood up, and looked me straight in the eye. I had the most amazing feeling of wonder flow through me. My friend must have felt the same, because she didn’t say anything, and believe me when she’s quiet (even in dreams) you’ve got to believe there’s something seriously going on with her. The creature and I continued to stare at each other, then it flicked its beautiful tail and sauntered off through the open doors and into the hotel garden. It was then I realised it was a fox, a mummy fox to be exact now with a baby fox clinging to her. Again, she turned and looked at me. It was so beautiful, I felt my throat catch. Much too soon, she turned away again and disappeared into the bushes.

In the manner of dreams, I promptly forgot the experience on waking. All of us girls met up for a long, leisurely breakfast before hitting the shops. Then it was lunch, more shopping, a few tearful goodbyes and my friend and I began the drive home. We did the usual recap of the weekend as we drove; recounting laughs shared, items purchased, food eaten, alcohol consumed, etc. While I always enjoy our annual get-together, I mentioned to my friend how extra special the weekend had been, with some particularly lovely moments and memories we all shared. From nowhere came the memory of that dream, and I started to mention it to my friend when she began to recount her own dream – a dream about a fox complete with clinging baby!

We had to stop the car as we both felt quite shaky, having experienced a woo-woo moment. We traded further memories of the dream and, while the details were different, the gist was the same. Extraordinary. Mind boggling. We considered that perhaps one of us had mentioned the dream that morning and it had somehow got lodged in that part of the brain that scrambles reality, but seeing as neither of us had recalled the dream on waking, it hardly seemed plausible.

So, how do we explain it? Coincidence? Shared collective consciousness?  Astral travel? My husband has his own theory and thinks it the result of too much chocolate and wine consumed the night before. Me? Well, I looked up an online dream dictionary and apparently to dream about a fox represents insight and resourcefulness, prompting the dreamer to exhibit more of those qualities in everyday life. Hmm, well maybe. Another theory states that to dream of an animal with a baby/cub represents a need to nurture the dreamer’s maternal/feminine qualities. This might be a possibility, seeing as we’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of our next guide dog puppy to foster J and I’m desperately in need of some serious puppy love. But whatever else the dream might represent, for now I’m happy to put it down to an enchanting experience shared with a special friend, representing the close and precious nature of our friendship. That’ll do for me.

Tricia

Tricia, what an amazing experience. I am totally enthralled. How extraordinary that you could share this dream with your friend; that’s really special! Now, then, tell us more about you?
Tricia Jones, Author!

More about me… ok, here goes. I write contemporary romance with strong, sexy heroes who like their own way and heroines who enjoy making them sweat.

The settings for my stories are real places-although names have been changedto protect the innocent-and I love checking out those places first hand, especially if they happen to be in France or Italy. I have been known to check out potential hero material amongst those Mediterranean males…well, a girl’s only human.

Hear, hear! I am with you all the way. Tell us about your current novel: I bet it has a gorgeous, hunky male lead?

 Bull at the Gate

Alexander “Bull” McKinley’s reputation as a hard-nosed businessman is tested when an old Fairy Gate and local superstition stand in the way of a lucrative development contract. Alex has his hands full trying to convince the villagers to play ball, without the unexpected—and definitely unwanted—attraction to the feisty redhead leading the revolt.

Dee Ashman detests those who put profit before people, and she’s damned if an arrogant, insensitive and, okay, wildly attractive capitalist is going to destroy the symbolic heart of the village and break her beloved grandmother’s heart.

But they cannot deny the desire that burns between them nor the unleashed passion neither can resist.

Fabulous! You can buy Bull At The Gate on Amazon. Find out more about Tricia on her website or her blog. Tricia is also on Twitter and Facebook and welcomes your visit!

Thanks, Tricia, for introducing yourself, your book and… your dream. This is question time for the readers. Have you ever, ever had an experience like Tricia’s? And how do you explain it?

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CentreStage with Harriet Grace: How to Make Your Novel Fly

Posted on July 11, 2012 | 34 comments

Welcome again to CentreStage!  CentreStage showcases fantastic authors from around the world, often introducing fellow featured authors at loveahappyending.com as well as my fellow authors in the Sapphire Star Publishing family.  On CentreStage, these authors might write for you about their lives, or their writing journey, or anything else that matters to them.  Every feature will be different in format and flavour, so watch out for a variety of stories and tales.

Today, it is my great pleasure to welcome loveahappyending.com featured author Harriet Grace! Harriet brings us a very unique post with hand-crafted, powerful images, and I absolutely adore the drawings!  So over to you, Harriet…

How Make Your Novel Fly?

I’ve often wondered how successful novels started.  How did the author choose what to write about?  Was it the characters, the plot, or just the brilliant writing that made it successful?  Set out on the long journey of the novel and people will ask you ‘what are you writing about?’  Do you have a plan?  A synopsis?   But I don’t know these things until I’ve written book!

Over the years I have written 2 novels which found an agent but not a publisher;  completed an MA in Creative Writing and written another novel; found another agent, and nearly a publisher.  I was always at the writing end of the process, trying to create characters, a story, honing the craft of writing novels and wondering whether I was ever going to get to the end.  But I never let myself think about the end, let alone beyond it.  The idea that I might one day have to sell a book of mine, and therefore need to know at least one unique selling point about the book, if not several, was somewhere I wouldn’t go.  It felt like tempting fate.  Such hubris would invoke the wrath of the Gods and I would never see a book of mine in print.

My novel ‘Cells’ started off with an image I had of a woman of about forty sitting at her desk and looking across a busy open-plan office and seeing a young man she has never seen before and making a connection with him.  He looks a bit like Jesus and she feels weirdly attracted to him…  Fairly quickly, the woman at the desk becomes Martha,  Features Editor of a national newspaper, married to Grant.  They both have successful careers and live in a beautiful house in Putney on the river.  The young man becomes Jon, a bit of a loser.

And then – eureka! – I realised that Martha and Grant haven’t been able to have children.  They have tried IVF several times and it has failed, and they are trying to move on.  Suddenly, I had a MODERN DILEMMA (MD for short), although I didn’t realize it at the time, or how important that would be!

At my launch I said:

We live in an age of amazing medical advances where everything seems possible.  But what happens when the technology fails?  What does it do to people who have tried and tried to have a baby through IVF and failed?  How do they move on?  How does it affect their lives, their relationships?

Looking back, it felt like luck that I’d hit on this MD because it has made the novel so much easier to sell.  I had a hook, attractive enough to win me a reading at the Kingston-upon-Thames Readers Festival. The Head of the MA Publishing degree at Kingston University attended that reading and invited me to talk to her students about self-publishing, and then included me as a case study in her on book on self-publishing ‘The Naked Author’.  The MD helped me get reviews, was useful in press releases, on Twitter and Facebook, and as introductions to readings.  It appears that many women, like Martha, have gone through this experience.

So, here is me pretending to be Martha walking across the footbridge near her home at Putney.  We used this image for the cover of the first edition.

Here are the patterns in the river, which Martha gazes at and which to Martha look like cells.  Cells which refuse to fuse together to make a baby.

How do other writers choose what to write about in their novels?  Are they influenced by fashionable genres or subjects, or world events?  Do they write a plan?  A synopsis?  A strapline for the key idea the book is about?  Or do they just create characters they are interested in, get into their world, their story, and hope that the story picks up the Zeitgeist of the moment and makes the novel fly?

I would love to hear your comments…

~Harriet

Well–what can I say? Thank you for this amazing post. The ‘MD’ of your novel is something that I have seen a few of my friends go through–and it is tough. I love the swirling river imagery, that’s very powerful. I am eager to hear how readers find their inspiration for writing!

Let’s find out more about Cells, first of all!

CELLS – One woman, two men, a last chance for happiness

Peak time on the Features floor of a national newspaper and the computers crash.  Martha Morgan, Features Editor, has a migraine and is losing control of her job.  Head pounding she sits down, looks up and there is Jon, one of the messengers; and for a few seconds he seems like a saviour.

Martha is married to Grant, a successful analyst.  They have a beautiful home but no baby, in spite of IVF.  Jon, brought up by dysfunctional parents, can’t stick at a job or find a girlfriend.  When Martha decides to take him under her wing and invites him into their home, the lives of all three of them break open, bringing the past and present into an explosive future.

Format: Paperback and Kindle ISBN: 9781906236618 Language: English Publisher: SilverWood Books (2nd edition July 2011)

Cells is available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle; through bookshops; and directly from the publisher, SilverWood Books.

And now let’s find out more about Harriet Grace, Author:

Harriet Grace grew up in a small village called Inkpen (Inkpen features in the novel).   She has grown-up children and stepchildren and now lives in London.  She has an MA (Distinction) in Creative Writing and has had poems published.  Cells is her first novel.

Visit Harriet on her website , follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook or at loveahappyending.com.

Now, dear reader, remember to let us know how you go about finding inspiration for your novels… Just how do you make your novels fly? We’d love to hear from you!

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