Hannah Fielding's Blog, page 158
April 26, 2012
The Golden Globe
As a young girl I attended a convent school run by French nuns (interestingly, all had once been Jewish but converted to Catholicism). The nuns were passionate about French literature, and so I was brought up on the likes of Balzac, Flaubert, Proust and Hugo. But it was 19th-century poet Leconte de Lisle who most captured my imagination with his descriptive verse.
The following poem is one of my favourites. It has a stillness, a soul that I find moving. The colours and power of the sunset depicted in the poem were inspirational in my forming the idea for my novel, Burning Embers. And when I travelled to Kenya and saw first-hand the breathtakingly beautiful sunrises and sunsets over the savannah, the story took shape in my mind.
Those who have read my novel will note how often the sun features in the book, which is why it’s a core element of the book’s cover. Day and night are not ordinary; their arrival is heralded by the majestic orb in the sky that brings warmth and beauty to the love story playing out beneath. The burning embers in the fiery passion between Coral and Rafe are reflected in the hues of the African sunrise and sunset.
The Golden Globe
The sun’s golden globe fallen from the limitless heavens
Slowly sinks into the still sea,
And, as a crowning farewell, bathes in a rosy flash
The hoar-frost sparkling on the tops of the island-bluffs.
With a mournful and languishing sigh,
The wind from the heights, along the shadow-filled gullies,
Lightly shakes the dark tamarind-trees
Where the whistling birds have just settled to roost.
Among the coffee-bushes and the ripened sugar-canes,
The outbreathings of the ground, like a censor,
Exhale, mingling in the breath of the evening
The fragrance of the woods with the scent of the sugar-mills.
A star springs from the blue-black of the night,
Most vivid, and throbs in its pearly whiteness;
Then the sea of suns and worlds unfurls
And blazes on the floods dazzled by its glory.
And the soul, observing, and losing its very self
In the resplendent peace of the sublime silence,
With neither regrets nor longings, knowing that all is vain,
In an everlasting dream, is swallowed up and shrouded from sight.
L’orbe d’or
L’orbe d’or du soleil tombé des cieux sans bornes
S’enfonce avec lenteur dans l’immobile mer,
Et pour suprême adieu baigne d’un rose éclair
Le givre qui pétille à la cime des normes.
En un mélancolique et languissant soupir,
Le vent des hauts, le long des ravins emplis d’ombres,
Agite doucement les tamariniers sombres
Où les oiseaux siffleurs viennent de s’assoupir.
Parmi les caféiers et les cannes mûries,
Les effluves du sol, comme d’un encensoir,
S’exhalent en mêlant dans le souffle du soir
A l’arôme des bois l’odeur des sucreries.
Une étoile jaillit du bleu noir de la nuit,
Toute vive, et palpite en sa blancheur de perle ;
Puis la mer des soleils et des mondes déferle
Et flambe sur les flots que sa gloire éblouit.
Et l’âme, qui contemple, et soi-même s’oublie
Dans la splendide paix du silence divin,
Sans regrets no désirs, sachant que tout est vain,
En un rêve éternel s’abîme ensevelie.
With thanks to John Harding for the translation.
April 24, 2012
A publisher author
There have been several moments in my life that have had such resonance that I’ve found myself pausing, smiling and looking back over my journey to that point. My first lone journey abroad as a young woman to live in London. My first kiss. The first dance at my wedding. The first home that was all mine. My first day as a mother.
As I get older, there are fewer firsts. But today I’m delighted to be celebrating one such occasion. Today, I hold my first book in my hands. I’ve become a published author.
To place the moment in context, it is necessary to skip back in time to visit a young girl with a big imagination and a yearning to fall in love.
She is a dreamer, of course. She drinks in romantic tales told by her governess. She practises her ballet and imagines herself to be Swan Lake’s Odette dancing with Prince Siegfried. She idolises Hollywood stars on the black and white television and the big screen at the cinema. She sits on the balcony for hours lost in a world of Elvis crooning on the transistor radio. She voraciously devours Intimité and Nous Deux novels – the French version of Mills and Boon in the 1960s. And she writes – she writes of love and romance and happy-ever-afters.
What becomes of the girl? Well, she becomes an adult – with all the reality and responsibility that brings. And she falls in love, for real, at last. But she never loses sight of the girl she once was. She holds fast to her dreams.
It was Walt Disney – that wonderful creator of fairytale realms to comfort and cheer us all – who said, ‘Too many people grow up. That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don’t remember what it’s like to be twelve years old.’
I do. I remember when the world seemed a fairytale. And I am, in my heart, still that girl with her head in the clouds.
A long time ago, I dreamt that one day I would write romance stories. And here I am. Because, from the world of Disney:
If your heart is in your dreams
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
I hope that my readers will enjoy Burning Embers as I have so enjoyed writing it, and will find it kindles that flame of passion and romance within.
April 23, 2012
Returning home from France
This is the ferry that brings be back to Kent from France.
And here is the view of the white cliffs of Dover I see from the ferry – such an awesome sight.
April 20, 2012
Romance writing and the freedom to be feminine
I’m a romantic, I’m a woman and I’m a writer – and I’m privileged to be able to combine these three aspects of myself in my passion, authoring romance novels.
But as a recent article reminded me, not all female writers have had the opportunity to write as themselves; to be open and celebrate their femininity.
I’m thinking of classic writers like the Brontë sisters, who published under the pen names Ellis Bell, Currer Bell and Acton Bell; Mary Ann Evans, who wrote as George Eliot; Louisa May Alcott, who wrote as A. M. Barnard; and Nelle Harper Lee, who dropped her feminine first name in order to write about controversial racial issues.
Of course, these were writers trying to make their way in male-dominated publishing in a different century, and one could easily assume that today it’s a different story entirely. Why, then, was Joanne Rowling advised by her publisher to write under her initials, J.K.? Because there was a feeling that her books would have wider appeal if her gender was less transparent.
I’m grateful that the genre and the period in which I write enable me to be myself as a writer – and to create books that are by a woman, for a woman (though of course I’d be delighted to hear from male readers too!). Although I include passages in my book Burning Embers from the male protagonist’s perspective, I predominantly write from the female point of view, and I enjoy the feminine aspects of a love story – the longing, the dreaming, the agonising over each detail of his behaviour, the beautifying before a date, the attempt to be reserved and aloof despite raging rivers of passion running through the veins…
For me, the freedom to be feminine allows me to create female characters who explore all elements of modern womanhood: beauty, sisterhood, creativity, career, self-esteem and self-knowledge. But most of all, of course, love.
April 19, 2012
Choosing to love
In any book, the main characters go on a journey. It would be a dreary book indeed if the characters learnt nothing! Although fate plays a part, the characters have free will and they must choose the path of their journey.
Love is a gift, but the recipient must actively choose to accept that gift. Love is a verb – it requires action. William James said, ‘When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.’ By ignoring their feelings, two people in love are choosing not to love.
In Burning Embers, both Rafe and Coral are on a journey to allow themselves to love. The love exists – it is there, between them, from the first glance. But fear and doubt hold them back.
For Coral, the choice is about trust. She has been badly hurt by her philandering fiancé, and she sees that Rafe is involved with other women. She is naïve, inexperienced – a child in many ways when it comes to matters of the heart. She knows that she is drawn to Rafe, and yet struggles with this part of herself. For a long time, she listens to rumours, wonders about the worst of this man. Ultimately, Coral must choose: have faith, trust; or protect her heart at all costs?
Rafe is similarly conflicted. The choice that he must make comes down to letting go – of the past, of the mask he wears, of the man he decided he was but is not. He can argue with himself that Coral is no good for him and that he’s no good for her, but he can’t outrun his feelings. Ultimately, Rafe must choose: be loved, be loveable; or continue to feel that he’s not worthy of love and happiness.
With choice comes responsibility. And the power of a choice to change your life can be paralysing. As Pythagoras said, ‘Choices are the hinges of destiny.’ But until Rafe and Coral find the courage and conviction to really own their choice about love, there can be no peace within or between them. And yet, to paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, once they make a decision, the universe will conspire to make it happen. The lovers can, quite literally, choose their happy-ever-after.
April 17, 2012
Sunsets and sunrises in the south of France
April 16, 2012
Favourite recipes: Mombasa Curry
Spring is here, but the weather is wobbling between wintry and warm. So what to cook in such temperamental weather? Take a leaf from those who live in Kenya, the setting of my novel Burning Embers, and dish up a curry.
Curry is traditionally associated with India, but in fact Africans have also been using spices in their meat and vegetable dishes for centuries – and the results are delicious. I call the following recipe Mombasa Curry because it’s a simple African recipe that the native characters in Burning Embers would certainly have had no problems rustling up. It’s not a very hot curry, just pleasantly tangy – but simply reduce the quantities of spices if you prefer less kick.
Thinking about it, perhaps I should have had Cybil, one of the ‘other women’ in Burning Embers, cook this up for Rafe as vengeance for his desertion, ‘accidentally’ mis-measuring the spices along the way. Poor Rafe, I can just imagine him manly swallowing down mouthfuls while turning progressively redder…
Ingredients:
500 grams beef fillet steak, cut into bite-sized chunks
10 large garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
8 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon turmeric
1 cup cold water
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon dried coriander
1. The day before making the curry, rub the beef with the garlic, salt and pepper. Leave in the fridge to marinate.
2. Fry the onions in a little oil until transparent.
3. Add the tomatoes, red pepper and ginger and bring to a simmer.
4. Add the spices, meat and water and simmer on a low heat until the meat is cooked through.
Serve with rice or chapatti bread.
Variations: Try adding a splash of coconut milk in place of some of the water; and using fresh coriander, added right at the end. You can also make this curry in a slow cooker, for wonderfully tender meat – simply follow all four steps and then cook on a low heat for eight hours, until the meat is cooked through.
April 13, 2012
How do you select the books you read?
This week I have discovered a whole new world: Goodreads. What a wonderful website! Such a vast, welcoming community of like-minded book lovers, keen to share recommendations and talk about books they’ve read. My ‘to read’ list is completely out of control, now, thanks to all the marvellous books I’ve discovered.
I think one of the greatest pleasures in life is discovering a new book that you’re excited to read. When one of my favourite authors releases a new title, I’m like a child on Christmas morning, full of anticipation. It’s rather like having lunch with your best friend since childhood whom you don’t see often – thrilling, affirming, comforting and delightful in equal measure. Just knowing that the book is on the shelf, or on my bedside table, waiting for me to open it gives my mood a lift. And it feels as indulgent as eating chocolate to curl up in an armchair or sit beneath a tree in the garden and turn to that first page, knowing I’m about to escape into a world rich with romance and wonder. Heaven!
I come to new books via different avenues. Recommendations from friends. Reviews in the newspapers. Browsing in bookshops. And now discovering them online, of course. But what I love best is to just stumble across something special, a book with which I connect and which opens up a new experience or way of thinking.
This week the Huffington Post ran an interesting article on the ‘book-choosing code’. The author, Ella-mai Robey, writes of the importance of sometimes moving away from following the fold, and reading something a little different. She points out: ‘if we all read the exact same things all of the time – what of the longer lasting implications for the intellect, the imagination, and nuances of the individual psyche?’ I agree – both as a reader and as a writer I think reading across genres broadens the mind and helps one develop an appreciation and understanding of writing.
I read all sorts of novels, though of course romance books are my favourite. And I love the research phase when I’m writing a book, during which I read all manner of books on a place or culture – cookbooks, books of quotations and proverbs, travel books, history books, novels set in the area.
As the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges put it, ‘I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.’
April 12, 2012
Britain’s got passion
British people are traditionally seen as reserved, formal, bearers of stiff upper lips. But a survey this week revealed that in fact beneath the cool exterior run torrenting rivers of passion to equal those of our Mediterranean neighbours.
The survey, commissioned by erotic publisher Xcite Books, found that despite the recession, ‘it’s passion not wealth that the majority of us are lacking in our lives’. The researchers asked people what they’d like more of in their lives. Passion came top, followed by wealth and further down the list, romance.
Given that the respondents of the survey were no doubt readers of Xcite books, it’s little wonder that passion scored so high – in a larger survey of a broader range of people, I would expect romance to rate higher. Still, it’s good to see that money isn’t king.
I deliberately chose to make the protagonist of my novel Burning Embers English. I needed Coral to have unexplored the passion within before meeting Rafe – with his romantic African/French background. The book is set in 1970, and right after the swinging sixties, when something of a revolution took place in Britain thanks to independence afforded by the Mini car and the contraceptive pill, not to mention sexy new fashions like the mini skirt and knee-high boots. Coral is more reserved than some of her sisters of this era – she’s still a virgin, for example – but she’s quintessentially English in that within her burns a flame of passion. But this is one flame that’s not to be quenched, but instead ignited by the right man – Rafe.
April 11, 2012
Chemistry versus compatibility
Have you seen the musical Guys and Dolls? It’s a favourite of mine, because it’s upbeat and atmospheric and has toe-tapping tunes; plus there’s a wonderful cast of Hollywood greats in the 1955 film version: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine. And of course, hopeless romantic that I am, I love the musical because it’s all about love.
One of the most interesting elements in the story, I think, is the exploration of how a person falls in love. Is it a choice, carefully considered, or pure chemistry?
Gambler Sky Masterson is a risk taker who can’t avoid a bet – even when it’s a challenge to seduce a woman who’s the very antithesis of all he stands for: Sarah Brown, a sister at the religious Save the Soul Mission, and as straight as they come. On their date together, the pair discuss what love means in the song ‘I’ll know’.
Sarah is careful, measured – a planner. She sings of her dream man: ‘I’ve imagined every bit of him/From his strong moral fibre to the wisdom in his head/To the homey aroma of his pipe’ and ‘I’ll know by the calm steady voice/Those feet on the ground/I’ll know as I run to his arms/That at last I’ve come home safe and sound’.
Sky, meanwhile, lives his life as a gambler trusting to Lady Luck, and according believes in love at first sight – a connection beyond control. ‘Mine will come as a surprise to me/Mine I leave to chance and chemistry…/Suddenly I’ll know when my love comes along/I’ll know then and there… /I’ll know and I won’t ever ask/Am I right, am I wise, am I smart’.
The core of the difference of opinion between Sky and Sarah is that one believes successful relationships are based on chemistry, and the other on compatibility. In her article ‘How Much Does Chemistry Count?’, Kimberly Dawn Neumann explores the question: What’s more important to a successful relationship, chemistry or compatibility? She asks various people. A newlywed couple rate chemistry as more important; a single man rates compatibility as more important; an author of a book on passion believes both are equally essential.
In Guys and Dolls, the fact that the pair fall in love and marry, despite Sky being so different to Sarah’s dream man, says a lot about the power of chemistry. The same message comes through in my novel Burning Embers. Rafe and Coral are drawn together, often against their wills, by a powerful, burning passion. It’s the chemistry that makes the connection; then the two must find a way to be compatible so that they can make one life together.
