Paranormal Romantics: Guest Author Nina Mason & THE QUEEN OF SWORDS

Paranormal Romantics: Guest Author Nina Mason & THE QUEEN OF SWORDS: VS sez: Today it's my pleasure to introduce our guest Nina Mason, here to talk about her new book  THE QUEEN OF SWORDS. Q. Please ...

Romance Weekly

 

My, oh my, but the weeks do fly by. Here it is Tuesday again and that means it's time for Romance Weekly. This week's questions come from my dear friend Kate Robbins. I've just finished reading her soon-to-be-released book, PROMISED TO THE HIGHLANDER, and loved every word of it. I'll be featuring Kate and her new book on my blog on June 11, so be sure to come back for that.

Here are my answers to this week's jackpot questions:

How much of yourself do you write into your characters? Or do you write characters completely opposite to you?

This is a tough one. Obviously, there are components of myself in my characters. Otherwise, I couldn't give them depth, and some of them have experiences drawn from my life in their back stories, but mainly I wouldn't say they're reflections of me. I go through a pretty involved process to create my characters, including assigning them an astrological sign that fits the personality I'm considering to fit the storyline. I also use the Enneagram to get at motivation and try to give them a back story that reinforces these things. Right now, for example, I'm creating the characters and story for The Knight of Pentacles, book three in my Knights of Avalon series. Each of the books is named after one of the knights of the tarot and emulates the qualities the card represents. Unlike the other three knight cards, the Knight of Pentacles is stationary. His horse is standing still, in other words. So, my hero is stuck. Pentacles are associated with the element of earth, so he needs to be an earth sign. I decided he's Taurus, which fits the story and sets up his conflicts. The heroine, I'm thinking, might be Virgo. At the start of the book, she's been dumped by her fiance the night before their wedding after a very long engagement. Because it's too late to get a refund on the honeymoon cottage she's rented, she decides to take the time alone to heal her broken heart. While there, she meets the knight who guards the adjacent glen where the portal into Avalon can be found.  I was once dumped by someone I was engaged to. The circumstances and reasons were different, but the feelings of heartache and loss were the same, so I will draw on those feelings to make her sympathetic and believable.

Has your writing helped you see events in your own life clearer?

Not yet, but there's still time! It has helped rekindle my interest in paganism and the tarot cards, so that's something.

Have you written a character with more of your personal characteristics than any other? What are they?

Now, there's a loaded question if ever I saw one! I'd have to say all of my heroines suffer from feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt and many of my characters share my view of the world. But not one more than another.

Thanks for stopping by. Next stop, the lovely and talented Jo Richardson's blog: http://jrrichardsonfics.wordpress.com/

Romance Weekly

It's Tuesday again and that means it's time for Romance Weekly. Here are my answers to this week's questions:

If someone could observe you writing without you knowing they were there, what strange practices might they catch you doing?

Strange practices? Sorry to disappoint, but if somebody observed me writing, they'd be bored to death. I sit at my laptop and type away. Sometimes, I stop to research something on the internet or in a book, but that's about as thrilling as it gets, I'm afraid. All the fun is inside my head and pouring through my fingertips into the computer.

Other than a creative outlet, how does writing benefit you?

I wish I could say it benefits me monetarily, but after six years of working my arse off on my first book (writing, rewriting, pitching, submitting, editing, and now pimping like a madwoman), I've made a whopping $52. I still qualify for food stamps and, as my husband loves to remind me, I've spent more promoting the book than I've made. That said, I do feel writing gives me a sense of purpose and accomplishment. It also gives me the freedom I crave. Just hope it starts to pay off by and by.

How do you feed your muse?

Usually, it's with research. My ideas tend to grow from there. History and myth, mostly. My muse prefers to share things in snippets rather than great batches, so my stories are built tree by tree until there's a forest. Then, the forest gets pruned and raked until I'm satisfied I've done my best.

***

Thanks for dropping by this week! Time to head on over to hear what oddness Jeana E. Mann gets up to while writing. Rumor has it, she does a handstand over her computer and types with her tongue, but you can't believe everything you hear. Find out for yourself: http://jeanaemann.net

Blog Tour: Sandra Love's To Love Again

 

Today, we're hosting the blog tour for Sandra Love's TO LOVE AGAIN. 

Here's the blurb:

Elle has everything any one person could ask for; a home, a handsome husband, and a bouncing baby on the way. But that all changes one dark, tragic night. She doesn't know if she will be able to survive, but she has support coming from several directions. Can she survive this new life? Will she be able to love again?

Here are the buy links:

US:http://www.amazon.com/To-Love-Again-Repaired-Hearts-ebook/dp/B00JZ7HDH2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1399298356&sr=8-3&keywords=To+love+again

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/To-Love-Again-Repaired-Hearts-ebook/dp/B00JZ7HDH2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399298470&sr=8-1&keywords=to+love+again+sandra+love

Here's the author's bio:

Sandra Love is a new to the author world, publishing her first book in 2013. She currently lives in Michigan, with her son and partner. Sandra is very lucky to have a sister Amanda, who has been there with her through everything, including helping her with the editing of her books. Sandra has three cats, Stubby, Odin and Thor. She loves to spend hours reading her favourite authors and writing. Her favourite genres are paranormal, supernatural and romance. Sandra's first series of books (Broken Wings) is a supernatural romance.

Here are Sandra's stalker links: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorsandralove
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Sandra-Loves-Blog-Spot/825497764144167
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Indie-Author-Books/189929124520668

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7339622.Sandra_Love

Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/sandeelove1980/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lovesandee951

Blog: http://authorsandralove.blogspot.com/

Romance Weekly

 

And, just like that, it's Tuesday again. Wow. How time flies when you're writing and pimping. Here are this week's questions and my answers:

Do you prefer to write futuristic, contemporary, or historical romances and why?

I write a quirky blend of contemporary and historical. My romance books are set in the present day, but have lots of flashbacks and references to history. In The Queen of Swords, the hero and heroine have gotten involved in two of her former lives, which I show the reader through flashbacks to Regency and Edwardian times. In my forthcoming PNR series, The Knights of Avalon, each of the heroes fell in a different Scottish battle before being taken and enslaved by the queen of a colony of female faery vampires. The colony operates like a beehive and the knights are the queen's breeding drones. I weave together past and present, history and myth, and fantasy and paranormal to tell my stories. My books don't follow genre rules, in other words.

What is your favorite time in history and why does it inspire you?

I don't have a favorite time in history. All periods are full of fascinating details I delight in excavating during the research process. My discoveries often color the plot or change its direction completely. I also use descriptive writing to help my writers feel like they're there--or at least that's what many of my reviewers have said.

How has your life experience contributed to your writing?

In more ways than I'm probably aware or would care to admit if I knew. A good therapist would probably have a field day with my books! My characters tend to be loners like myself, my heroines struggle with feelings of inadequacy, my heroes are all sensitive men rather than controlling Alphas,  and my villains all have leanings toward sexual abuse. I'll let you deduce from that what you will and, as usual, I'm probably reading way more into the damned question than was intended. 

Time to head on over to Jo Richardson's blog to see what she had to say in response to these same questions.

Romance Weekly

Oh, my. Is it Tuesday already? How time flies when you pimping your book. Looks like it's time to respond to another set of probing questions on the art and craft of romance writing. Here are this week's slate:

What is the most unusual thing you’ve ever done in the name of research for a book?

Oh, dear. Blush. I hate to think what people would think if they ever saw the search history on my internet browser.  I've searched everything from torture methods to tips for giving the perfect blow job. I research everything. Myths, spells, history, clans, spells, tarot cards, ferry schedules, when the sun rises and sets in a particular place, you name it. I also spend hours driving around Scotland and England on Google maps and read reviews of places my characters visit to get a sense of how people react to the settings. You can find some of the images that inspired each of my books on Pinterest (link is at the top of the page under the masthead).

Name a nonfiction book you’ve read for research that you wouldn’t have read otherwise. Not including writing craft books.

Can I name several? One's sitting beside my laptop right now: Highland Martial Culture: The Fighting Heritage of Scotland by Christopher Scott Thompson. Great little book that includes not only the weaponry, but also the cultural aspects of martial training in days of yore, including the spells and sians they used for protection. I also bought Highland Broadsword Fighting and Lords of War to further my study of the subject. For a half-finished book I'm hoping to pick up again, I bought several books: Sea Room by Adam Nicolson (about the Shiant Islands), The Pirate Queen by Barbara Sjoholm (Orkney folk tales) , Nature and The Human Soul by Bill Plotkin, and The Fish Prince and Other Stories (Mermen folk tales). My languishing WIP, as yet untitled, is about one of the legendary Blue Man of the Minch who gets involved with an oil company spokeswoman during a mysterious spill in the Hebrides. Lots of research went into the world-building, as you can see.

If you could travel anywhere to do research for a book, including back in time, where would you go?

 

Scotland. No question. Time period? I'll have to think about that one. Not 1745 to 1780, I can tell you that much.  

Speaking of Scotland ... it's time to hop over to the blog of my good friend Kate Robbins, who writes fantastic Scottish historical romances. Take it away, Kate!

Romance Weekly

 

Welcome to my wee slice of the Romance Weekly pie.

Here are my responses to this week's jackpot questions:

 

What ages are your characters?

Well, it depends. My immortal characters can be hundreds of years old, but usually appear to be between 35 and 45. My heroine's tend to hover in the cusp around 30. For my paranormals, anyway. In my political thriller, The Tin Man (coming August 30 from CHBB), my hero is 45 and the heroine is 38.

What special things or places inspire you to write? 

History, mythology, and things paranormal and occult are my primary inspirations. All my stories are tied in a big way to Scotland and/or Celtic myth and culture. Even in my thriller, which is set in iconic locales within the United States, the hero is an ex-pat Scot from Edinburgh.

What is the one message you hope women will receive when they read your stories? 

This one is tougher to answer. Messages? Depends on the book. All of mine have different underlying themes. In The Queen of Swords, it's to trust fate and the magic of love. In The Knight of Wands, my next paranormal, it's not to let other people make you doubt your worth; in The Tin Man, it's not to let the media fall into the hands of those who would use it to manipulate public opinion and to be a critical thinker and not buy into propaganda without questioning the source and their motive.

Time to pop over to hear what the lovely and talented Sarah Hegger has to say in reply to these same three questions. Take it away, Sarah!