Romy Gemmell's Blog, page 54

For Horse Lovers of all Ages

Today, I'm interviewing lovely tween author, C.K. Volnek over on my Flights of Imagination blog, where she is talking about her great new book, A Horse Called Trouble . For horse lovers of all ages, C.K.'s novel explores what happens when troubled teenager, Tara, is sent for horse therapy and meets an equally troubled horse. And both are in danger from the nasty Alissa.

C.K. is kindly offering a FREE download of A Horse Called Trouble to one lucky reader who leaves a comment below her interview on Flights of Imagination.

Rosemary

Wish I Was Here...

Today is the launch party of Janice Horton's great new book, Reaching for the Stars, and I'm taking part in her 'Wish I was here' blog tour. So in the spirit of the theme: Wish I was in Venice. One of my all time favourite destinations, I love the romance, the mystery and history of this unique place. From the water taxi along the length of the grand canal, and the 16th century buildings, to getting lost in the meandering narrow lanes, I'd happily be there right now!

Meantime, while I'm dreaming of Venice, here's the blurb for Janice's book.

Reaching for the Stars
Scottish celebrity chef Finn McDuff is media stalked and disillusioned after winning his third star and losing his third wife. He decides he's had enough of all the food campaigns, the TV cookery shows, the constant frenzy surrounding his private life and, after giving up all his accolades and closing down his restaurant, he disappears.

With the enfant terrible of the kitchen missing, two rival newspapers, having lost their media meal ticket, compete against each other to whip up further public curiosity in the missing chef. Love him or hate him, everyone is out looking for Chef McDuff. Who will find him first and whose side will you be on...?

Sounds great! You can buy Janice's book at Amazon (UK) or Amazon (US)

Enjoy the launch, Janice
Rosemary

City Scape

I'm away behind with lots of writing jobs and various other items of busyness, but today I enjoyed a little escape up to Glasgow. Not for Christmas shopping (didn't do a single bit), but to meet up with my lovely daughter-in-law for lunch and a blether. She and our son are making us first-time grandparents next year and, after a difficult beginning to the pregnancy, it was great to see d-in-l and her little 'bump' manage into the city.


On my way back to the station, I couldn't help noticing all the busy shoppers with bulging carrier bags from various stores, as to be expected just a couple of weeks before Christmas. But mainly, I was looking at all the beautiful lights and almost wishing it was much darker to see them in their proper glory. And forgive me for feeling smug, but I took pleasure in carrying nothing more than a handbag. I could enjoy the atmosphere without worrying about what to buy for whom and then having to carry it. But, fear ye not, I've still to do some of my shopping yet!

I hope the photo gives some idea of the glorious canopy of star-like lights stretched across some of our city's most gracious architecture - had to keep looking down to avoid tripping over anything. Lovely day out, and I even wrote on the train both ways. Must do it again soon!

Rosemary

Featured Author: Linda Rettstatt

I'm delighted to welcome fellow Champagne author, Linda Rettstatt, as my featured author today. Linda is an award winning writer of meaningful contemporary fiction and her latest novel, Reinventing Christmas, is an ideal read to put us in the mood for the festive season.

Welcome to reading and writing, Linda. Please introduce yourself.

Born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, I worked for my hometown newspaper following graduation from high school. My writing career began with reviewing community theater productions (a task no one else on the news staff wanted.) I penned my first novel in 2004 and now have ten published. Four of my books have finaled for EPIC eBook Awards.
I write women's fiction and contemporary romance, and my background as a psychotherapist serves me in digging deeply into the emotional and psychological depths of characters. I am the owner and moderator of Women Fiction Writers, an online critique group of women writers from the USA and Canada. My work is published with Champagne Books, Class Act Books, and Wings ePress, and will soon be coming to Turquoise Morning Press. You can find me on my website and blog.
I currently reside in Southaven, Mississippi where I'm allowed to share an apartment with my cat, Binky (as long as I continue to bring home the Fancy Feast).

Reinventing Christmas


M.J. Rich is about to breakup with her boyfriend and seeks the comfort of her family's familiar traditions for Christmas in Pittsburgh. Brady Cameron plans to spend the holiday alone at a Pennsylvania ski resort, drowning his sorrows. They meet while stranded by a winter storm in the Philadelphia Airport and agree to share the last rental car available, since they are both heading west. But a blizzard forces them off the highway and into an abandoned hunting cabin. Upon rescue, M.J. invites Brady to join her for a traditional family Christmas. It doesn't take long for her to realize that nothing and no one is the same as when she last visited. Christmas turns out to be nothing either M.J. or Brady expects. It's even better.
Reinventing Christmas is available at Champagne Books  and at Amazon (US) and Amazon (UK) for Kindle.
Thanks for joining us today, Linda, and all the best with your novels!
Rosemary

From Floods to Snow

Last week, we had crazy flooding in our village and the nearby towns. We're used to rain in the west coast of Scotland, in fact we're famous for it, but this was exceptional. The highest rainfall happened overnight so we weren't even aware of the extent of the problem at first. Our village main street was completely under water (we live at the top of the hill!), cars and buses couldn't get into the nearest main town because of floods, and the trains stopped around lunch time. We've never seen anything as bad as this. Husband was away for two days and couldn't get a train all the way home when he returned. But apart from the village street, which wasn't quite cleared until the end of the week, life soon returned to normal.

Last year, it was excessive snow falls which interfered with transport and travel, and I'd heard we were not meant to have any before Christmas. But it snowed last night. There's only a light dusting of it on the streets and grass this morning but it makes everything look so pretty. And in the midst of everything, our central heating boiler broke down. I was certainly grateful for the little electric heater! Fortunately, a new pump has finally got everything working again, after a few airlocks.

On Friday, I had the pleasure of going through to Edinburgh to meet up with lots of online writer friends for our Christmas lunch. You can imagine the volume of chatting, as we only get together in person a few times a year. I didn't even manage to speak to everyone properly as we ran out of time and many of us had trains to catch. When I eventually got back to Glasgow, the gorgeous Christmas lights around George Square and Buchanan Street ensured I retained that warm glow of a lovely day out in good company.

I love this time of year, with cold days and cosy dark nights, the brightly lit towns, advent and carol singing, the run up to Christmas. But I'm also grateful for warmth, home, friends and family and am very aware that many people don't have those necessities of life. Sometimes we need a little discomfort to remind us of the blessings we have!

Rosemary

Featured Author: Pauline Barclay

I'm beginning a new venture on this blog over the next few months, where I hope to feature different authors and display one of their book covers on the side bar for the month in which they appear.

So to start us off, I'm delighted to welcome independent author, Pauline Barclay, who as well as being a prolific writer is lucky enough to live on one of the lovely Canary Islands. Pauline is a brilliant blogger who takes part in many online forums and blogs, and she is always helpful to other writers. Her three published books have already gathered a huge number of five-star reviews on Amazon Kindle.

Hello Pauline, please introduce yourself!

Years ago I gained a BA (Hons) degree from the Open University, today I spend my time writing fiction.These days, I live on the beautiful island of Lanzarote with my husband and two rescue doggies and it is a wonderful place for inspiration to write. Though born in Yorkshire, UK, we have lived in Suffolk and Surrey and before moving to Lanzarote, we lived in Holland in the beautiful town of Leiden.

I have three published novels, Magnolia House , Satchfield Hall and Sometimes It Happens … In between marketing and all my other commitments, I am busy with my fourth novel!

You can find out what I get up to at my blog and website

Pauline's Latest Book

Satchfield Hall

When the news reached Henry Bryant-Smythe about his daughter's indiscretion, he not only dealt with it, but stamped on it with such a resounding thud, that the consequences ricocheted through the years and well into the future. Henry Bryant-Smythe cared nothing for the consequences of his actions and even less for the feelings of those involved, with the exception of his own, and these he cosseted.

Celia Bryant-Smythe's disgrace set in motion events that would affect the lives of many people, taking decades to unravel. Lives would be lost and destroyed and it would take until the death of the one man who had callously started it all, Henry Bryant-Smythe, until it was finally over.

Satchfield Hall is not about gentleness, tranquillity and privilege; it is about power, love, lies and, in the end, revenge.

A sweeping saga set in 1942 through to1986

Available now from Amazon Kindle

Thanks for visiting today, Pauline, and all the best with your novels.

Rosemary

Trains, Writing and Blog Awards

I had a lovely evening speaking about historical fiction and research at a writing group on Wednesday evening, a little further south from where I live. Since the train was the most sensible way to travel in a late November evening, I made the most of the forty minute journey down and took out pen and paper. I've mentioned before how much I enjoy writing on trains, or in my favourite cafe. And this was no exception. By the time the train drew in, I'd written around 600 words of my WIP (I checked the word count when transferring it to the computer yesterday). So as well as enjoying time with old friends and new, while talking about a favourite subject, it was very productive evening all round. I read on the way home!
 


I'm delighted to accept the cute Liebster Award from a supportive and friendly online writing colleague, Angela Barton, for blogs with fewer than 200 followers. I also received one from another lovely online friend, Melanie Robertson-King for my Romancing History blog. Liebster is German for dearest and I love the way we encourage and support each other in this competitive world of writing. I do enjoy reading other writers' blogs as much as possible. So in the spirit of the award, this is what I and my recipients must do:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger

2. Choose your 5 bloggers to receive the award and tell them by leaving a comment on their blog

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog

4. Hope those five people send it to their chosen bloggers!

It's now my pleasure to pass the Liebster Award on to the following five bloggers:

Gwen Kirkwood: a genuinely lovely person and writer of great fiction with a farming background

Debbie White: a brave writer who is positively moving on after personal trauma

Jean Bull: a new blogger who has published a great sounding book with a lovely cover

Anita Chapman: another fairly new blogger whose posts are so interesting

Freda Lightfoot: prolific novelist of some great titles and more recent blogger

Happy writing and blogging,
Rosemary

Targets, Goals and Motivation

So that's us into week four of NaNoWriMo and it's been an interesting experiment. Since November has been a busy month in general, I never really thought I'd make the target 50,000 words. But I'm still following my own target of writing another bit of the novel every single morning before getting distracted with online activity, or going out, and I really feel the benefit of getting back into that kind of routine. Still not sure if I'm concentrating on the right novel but I might as well try and finish it - even if it's by the end of the year rather than the end of November!

My thoughts always turn to writing goals towards the end of a year as I love a new start in January. I don't always write them down, but usually have some big goal in mind, in addition to writing and redrafting the shorter pieces. Getting at least one novel published has come to fruition and another goal to see my first tween novel published is coming true in March. This coming year, I'd love to have my mainstream novel accepted by a UK publisher and I'm redrafting it to send out before this year ends.

But we all need motivation to keep going. All my blogging friends and writing colleagues help to keep me writing (thank you!) as we're encouraged by successes, sympathetic in rejections, and empathetic about the struggle it sometimes is to remain optimistic. So to motivate us all for the coming year, here are two blogs to sign up to for challenges in 2012, although some may already have found their way to them. Both are the brainchild of Sally Quilford and can be used as a double motivation if you're so inclined.

The first is the Pocketeers blog - for all writers interested in writing a pocket novel of the type published by My Weekly and People's Friend, which both require 50,000 words.

The second is Sally's '100,000 words in 100 days' challenge - completely feasible at a mere 1,000 words of writing a day, of any kind. So we could try a pocket novel AND part of a novel, or some short stories all in the time scale. It's all the motivation I need to keep on with the good writing habits, and it certainly helps knowing other writers are taking up the same challenge.

Onwards and upwards!
Rosemary

Friday Friend Post

I'm delighted to be featured as the Friday Friend on the lovely Heroines with Hearts blog today, courtesy of Paula Martin, where I'm talking about romancing history.

Would love you to pop by and say hello!

Rosemary

Change of Scene

I'd like to say I got time off for good writing behaviour on Saturday, but I'm just over 14,000 words into my NaNo novel. But that's fine, as it's moved my previously languishing book on to a total of 35,500 words and I'm writing a little every single day. I still want to finish redrafting my other book and get it away while continuing with this one.


Anyway, on Saturday morning, husband and I returned to one of my favourite historical buildings, Pollok House near Glasgow and I guess it could be classed as research. I mentioned it ages ago on my Romancing History blog, but on that day we'd only enjoyed the gardens and surrounding Park. This time we explored the house itself, as well as having coffee down in the original kitchens, now a cafe and restaurant. The original Georgian house was built in the 1750s, although other parts were added over the years. I'd been through the house with our writing group over a year ago but this time we wandered round ourselves so I could absorb the atmosphere.


For a gracious country house, it has an air of homeliness about it, although visitors are not allowed into all areas. It's also a popular venue for weddings and one of the guides kindly advised us to visit the long, open library first before the current wedding started there! I almost lost husband to the fantastic grand piano on the way through to another room, while I would happily have sat in the beautiful little Morning Room. The famous paintings adorning many of the walls added to the pleasure of wandering around.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the visit is the friendliness of the discreet guides who are always happy to answer any questions with their inimitable Glasgow humour. We were invited to come back at the end of November, beginning of December when the whole house is decorated in all its Christmas finery. Try and keep me away! And best of all, it's exactly the kind of research useful for my NaNo novel, so what more excuse do I need for another visit.

Rosemary