Vanessa Grant's Blog, page 22
October 2, 2011
Stray Lady
One minute George was sailing single-handed down Canada's west coast, willing the salt breezes to show her how to go on living without her husband. The next she was being pulled from the waves by lighthouse keeper Lyle Stevens and drawn into a magic existence with him and his daughter. Lyle offered George love and [...]
October 1, 2011
Taking a hit – a writer's toolkit for rejection
Laura Tobias' Mars, Venus, and the Rejection at the PenWarriors.com blog is a humorous reflection on the impact rejections make on a writer. Of course writers aren't alone – everyone experiences rejection at one time or another. Those of us who put our personal creations out to the world – whether they be stories, songs, [...]
September 25, 2011
Lawrence Block: lies, spiders, and more lies (book reviews)
Telling Lies for Fun & Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block My rating: 5 of 5 stars I read Telling Lies for Fun and Profit in the early 1980s, a couple of years after I'd decided to put aside my attempts to write a publishable fiction novel for a while.I knew I [...]
September 21, 2011
Yippee! … If You Loved Me
Yesterday I received the almost-ready-to-publish-as-an-ebook file of If You Loved Me, a novel of mine originally published by Zebra Bouquet (Kensington Books). I love this story and I'm so pumped to know it will soon be available once again! Originally I wrote it for Mills and Boon Harlequin, but my editor there wanted me to [...]
September 19, 2011
Giving thanks for breakdowns…
Ah, breakdowns … The word breakdown instantly flashes associations of misfortune and unpleasantness to my mind – images ranging from boring (not to mention worried) hours spent hanging around the inhospitable quarters of a mechanic's repair shop in a strange city, to the bizarre experiences of a woman incarcerated in a mental institution for finally losing [...]
September 5, 2011
A Hero by Any Other Name
(Also posted at PenWarriors.com) If fictional characters had to pay real dollars for therapy, a few of mine would be bankrupt and suffering from multiple identity disorder. Even I'm confused about the identity of the hero of my seventh published book. Andrew, Takeover Man's hero, stormed into town to reorganize his aging father's life and [...]
August 8, 2011
The Broken Gate and the Muse Calliope
Last week I spent eight days at a wilderness star party in a comfortable motorhome on top of Mt. Kobau. Star parties are designed for people like my husband who love to stay up late viewing and photographing stars, and then sleep all morning, followed by an afternoon talking with other enthusiasts about stars, nebulae, [...]
May 19, 2011
Writing and publishing in 2011, Penwarriors, and the power of pull
EC Sheedy's blog postings always make me think, and her latest Penwarriors.com posting is no exception EC's "THE SIDE EFFECTS OF WRITING" got me thinking once again about the universe of publishing, writing, and the tangle of "empowerment + uncertainty" that the explosion of indie publishing has brought to modern writers. I replied to EC's post [...]
May 17, 2011
A Discovery of Witches – Deborah Harkness' fascinating world
Last week, sitting in Oxford University's atmospheric Bodleian Library, Dr. Diana Bishop and I brushed fingers over an ancient manuscript … and slipped into the compelling enchantment of Deborah Harkness's "A Discovery of Witches." Harkness drew me more deeply under her spell as she threw each new challenge at her compelling heroine, Diana, a witch [...]
April 3, 2011
When Love Returns – a sample
… a sample from When Love Returns, by Vanessa Grant Chapter One Three steps toward the summer house, Julie realized she had forgotten to roll up the windows and lock her car. Nothing new in that, she admitted wryly. Years ago, David had once lectured her about carelessness until she cried. The heels of her [...]
