Jennie Marsland's Blog, page 9

Revisions, revisions

At the May meeting of Romance writers of Atlantic Canada, Julianne MacLean, author of many beautiful historicals, gave a presentation on revision. Her session gave me several lightbulb moments and took a sizable weight off my shoulders.

I know that many experienced authors have critique partners, and I find feedback from other writers and readers invaluable. That said, I've always had this idea in the back of my mind that really talented authors can see most of the weaknesses in their writing ...

Happy Mother's Day!

Just popping in to wish a happy Mother's Day to all who act as mothers in any capacity.

The older I get, the more appreciation I gain for my own mother. I'm truly blessed in that my relationship with her and my father has always been a positive one.

I've heard it said that the best thing parents can do for their children is to love each other. My parents have done that for 52 years. I can honestly say that I have never heard them fight. My father is sensitive, quick-tempered and rather intense...

Book Review: Highland Rebel by Judith James

Highland Rebel is the first book I've read by Judith James, who is a fellow member of Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada. For the past few months I've been reading very little as I focused on finishing Heart, but I dove into Judith's story on the weekend and returned feeling as if I'd been time-traveling.

Set in turbulent 17th-century England and Scotland, Highland Rebel tells the story of Jamie Sinclair, the unwanted bastard son of an English nobleman, and Catherine (Cat) Drummond, daughter o...

What's In A Name?

What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Every author of fiction knows that Shakespeare was dead wrong about this, at least when it comes to naming characters. We may agonize over our hero or heroine's name, or it may come to us in a flash of inspiration, but it just has to be right. Changing a name once chosen is no trifling matter. Sometimes a character clings to a name a stubbornly as we do to our own.

Every author has their own way of choosing names. Baby name books,...

Crazy English

As some of you know, I work at a small private school which just opened in January. I teach science and math to four girls in grades 7 and 9, and English as a second language to a group of Muslim women. I've been teaching math and science for years, but I'm new at teaching English. It's really made me think about the vagaries of this weird and wonderful language of ours.

The head of our ESL department has a standard answer when the students are befuddled: "Crazy English." What else can you say...

My Take on Description 2: Setting

"Greetings." The whisper came straight back at me in an echo so quick that I knew I was very near the wall of the cave, then it lost itself, hissing, in the roof.

There was movement there – at first, I thought, only an intensifying of the echo's whisper, then the rustling grew and grew like the rustling of a woman's dress, or a curtain stirring in the draught.

Something went past my cheek, with a shrill, bloodless cry just on the edge of sound. Another followed, and after them flake after...

My Take on Character Description

Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were. In her face were too sharply blended the delicate features of her mother, a Coast aristocrat of French descent, and the heavy ones of her florid Irish father. But it was an arresting face, pointed of chin, square of jaw. Her eyes were pale green without a touch of hazel, starred with bristly black lashes and slightly tilted at the ends. Above them, her thick black brows slanted u...

Contest Time!

Nothing looked solid or permanent compared to the stone construction Beth was used to seeing in Denver. Nothing held the eye in town, but a far-off view of rolling foothills in the late afternoon light caught her attention. If all went as she expected, she'd be headed out there.

Cadmium yellow and orange, some French ultramarine. A touch of Hooker's Green. The light's beautiful. I'll have to tell Graham to put some paper in my trunk. She'd brought her watercolor kit along, but she didn't...

A Family Divided

"In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you…"

Rochelle McShannon closed her eyes, but she couldn't shut out the minister's words or the scent of the freshly turned earth waiting to fill her mother's grave. She couldn't connect the thought of death with a beautiful March morning like this, cloudless and bright, with new green everywhere and the wind carrying the fragrance of Morgan County's rich soil, ploughed and waiting for seed.

But not our fields. Not th...

Second Book Syndrome

Less than a week ago, I completed my second historical romance, McShannon's Heart. It's the prequel to my debut novel, McShannon's Chance, which came out from Bluewood Publishing in October.

Which brings me to the topic of this, my first post on this blog: Second Book Syndrome. That oh-so-paralyzing feeling that your first book was a fluke, that you don't have another one in you or at least, not one worth reading.

In her autobiography, Agatha Christie talks about what she calls 'the burden of t...