Gracie Macgregor's Blog: Goss with Gracie, page 4

And another literary legend leaves us

Heaven’s readers must be dancing with delight today. Vale, Umberto Eco, and thank you.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: courage, Gracie Macgregor, Hero, romance, Umberto Eco, world's greatest authors

RIP, Harper Lee

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Atticus Finch, courage, Gracie Macgregor, Harper Lee, love, RIP, romance

Friday in Five

Here are five things I loved this week. Feel free to share the love!

Book of the week

Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life.

I didn’t even think I liked it… but I can’t stop thinking and talking about it!

“What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right?”

It’s a fascinating premise, and Atkinson’s development of characters and circumstances is masterful.

 

Song of the week

My French fascination continues unabated. With Ne Me Quitte Pas, Jacques Brel makes me weep in places I didn’t know held tears.

 

 

 

Picture of the week

Gravitational waves. It turns out Einstein was right. Again.

I rarely can comprehend the magnitude or importance of the discoveries coming out of NASA, but regardless, I find the space discovery absurdly romantic.

And thank heavens we have IFLScience to make the wonders of the universe real and relevant and understandable, even for romance writers.

 

Flick of the week

The Big Short should be compulsory viewing for every adult, every year, until we stop being so stupid. Michael Burry, whose role in exposing the fraud that destroyed the global economy and made millions homeless, jobless and hopeless is played so ably by Christian Bale, has abandoned his corporate work and is now investing privately. And what calamity is he betting on now? Water shortages. If that doesn’t frighten you, I don’t know what will.

And finally, person of the week?

The irrepressible Tim Minchin, who says in song what so many people have been thinking: it’s time for Cardinal George Pell to front Australia’s child sex abuse royal commission in person. But since the mountain won’t come to Muhammad (or Melbourne, at least), Minchin is putting the proceeds from his new recording towards the expenses of Ballarat survivors travelling to Rome to hear the Cardinal’s testimony there.

 

Hope you’ve found lots to love in your own life this week. Happy weekend!

Gracie x
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Australian author, Cardinal Pell, Escape Publishing, Friday, Gracie Macgregor, Jacques Brel, Kate Atkinson, Life After Life, NASA, romance, The Big Short, tim minchin

Is it bad…

… that I’m a romance writer and I entirely forgot about Valentine’s Day?

Sorry! But I’ve been busy today preparing for the launch of my new book, A Case for Trust, which is out in just a few weeks.

Belated, I know, but please accept my best wishes for a beautiful day, and a fragrant French bouquet in a bucket.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: A Case for Trust, Australian author, City of Light, Escape Publishing, Gracie Macgregor, Hearts on Hold, love, Paris, romance, roses, Valentines Day

Enemies to Lovers – Shakespeare edition

I’m over at Escape Publishing’s Escapades blog today, talking about my all-time-favourite romance story line: enemies to lovers.

For me, there’s nothing more energizing than the vocal thrust-and-parry that’s so vital a part of the great enemies-to-lovers romances. Imagine Pride and Prejudice without Elizabeth’s drawing-room sparring with Mr Darcy. Imagine Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind without Scarlett’s fiddle-de-dee contempt for Rhett.

Enemies-to-lovers stories have long been favourites of mine because enemies have to work a lot harder for their Happily Ever After endings. They have to work hard on themselves to build the trust, respect and empathy so fundamental to love.

That’s why I read them; that’s why I write them. I’d love to hear your favourite examples, here or at the Escapades!

 

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Australian author, enemies to lovers, Escape Publishing, Gracie Macgregor, Hearts on Hold, love, romance

City of flowers

One of my favourite things in Paris? The flowers. Oh, the flowers…

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Australian author, City of Light, Escape Publishing, Gracie Macgregor, Paris, romance

City of Light, City of Art, City of Amitié

Ten years ago I was sitting beside a pool in Valencia, explaining to a woman I’d never before met that I’d laid in my hotel bed the evening before, dressed in every garment I had with me, shaking and shivering through Spain’s sweltering summer night.

“You were in shock,” she said.

Yes, I was. But right at that moment, the bigger shock was that I’d confided my vulnerability to a complete stranger. I’m not that kind of person. I don’t conduct personal poolside conversations exposing my fears and misfortunes to people I don’t know at least very, very well. And yet, there I was.

Because Amanda is that kind of person. We had a few more days in Valencia, me travelling back and forth to Madrid to try and replace the travel documents I’d lost during a mugging, her sharing her son and her kindness with my own young son who’d been equally traumatised by the fairly brutal experience and his mother’s resulting stress.

And then we never saw each other again. A rich, deep connection – it seemed too brief to call it a friendship, though that’s what it felt like and that’s what it meant to me – evaporated with time and distance. We wrote occasional messages on Facebook, and mirrored each others’ experiences as single mothers, and the years passed.

I booked this trip to Paris, knowing what I really, really needed after a challenging year was three weeks entirely on my own. Out of the blue, Amanda invited herself along – just for a few days, she was just across the pond after all. I wasn’t sure, but I said yes anyway. And then she wasn’t sure, but she said yes anyway. And it turned out that the very last thing I really, really needed was three weeks entirely on my own.

Healer, artist, friend – Amanda is again working her magic on my soul. It can’t be coincidence – can it? – that for a second time, she’s arrived to take me in hand when I’ve been fragile and fearful. We’ll have only a short time together again, and I hope she gains as much as she gives from her time in my little Paris apartment.

Yesterday we took a long walk to the Tour Eiffel. Amanda wanted to sketch it. When we finally made it home, she wanted to paint it. And this morning, she’d almost finished it. Almost, but not quite. To see the final, quirky, clever result, drop in to her website.

But give us a few more days first, to talk…

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Amanda Hamilton, art, Eiffel Tower, Escape Publishing, Gracie Macgregor, Paris, romance, romance writers

First light, last light

First light appeared around 7, when I’d already been awake four hours. Twilight crept in around 7, too.

There was a full day in between.

There was an impromptu visit to Chantilly and its magnificent chateau, built for Marshal and Constable of France Anne de Montmorency in the fifteenth century and lovingly preserved ever since by generations of French warrior princes.

There was almond essence wafting up from the patisserie below my writing window in the chill at 4am. It smelled warm, comforting, companionable. And yet, I’m normally repelled by almond essence.

There was the forgotten statue of Gaspard de Coligny, still imprisoned as ever the Huguenots were, behind a tall iron cage with crumbling foundations, surprising me just as it surprised me the first time I saw it.

There were the cheery green crosses announcing pharmacies, every 100 metres or so. Years ago, when my feet were blistered and bruised and bleeding from walking the cobbled streets, I was very glad Paris is apparently a city of hypochondriacs. Today it made me smile again.

There was the most delicious, subtle salmon mousse on crusty bread at lunch. I was proud to be able to string together the French for “I want to lick my plate.” it made the waitress laugh, anyway.

There was that oh-so-seductive French whisper just behind my left ear, on the coach all the way home from Chantilly. Not speaking to me, not understood by me, but still…

There was the most absurd traffic jam. Truly. I thought Mumbai had the stubbornest, stupidest drivers but it turns out that prize goes to Paris.

There was goats cheese and more baguette and fresh raspberries for supper. A little under five euros for this epicurean splurge.

Je suis très fatigué.

Tonight, it feels wonderful.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Australian author, City of Light, Escape Publishing, Gracie Macgregor, Paris, romance, romance writers

First there’s the getting there…

Je suis très fatigué.

My Paris neighbourhood

The first (and last) time I travelled alone to Paris, I was more than a decade younger and a thousand years less tired. I’d plotted out my first days of pre-conference playtime in 15 minute intervals, determined to see every single thing in case I never returned.

As it transpired, I returned again and again over the following years. A Christmas lunch on a bateau on the Seine with my family; a romp down the Champs Elysees at midnight with some work friends, giggling like school girls; a glorious long springtime weekend with my son, just hanging out in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

But now I’m back here alone, having caught the same flight and arriving at the same ungodly hour as all those years ago. This time, though, I arrived footsore and heart-heavy, vulnerable and impatient. By the time I checked into my apartment (on the beautiful rue de Rivoli – thank you, AirBNB!), I’d been travelling more than 37 hours. In the same clothes. In the same shoes. In the same stressed-out headspace.

This time I didn’t throw my bags on the bed and rush back down onto the street to explore. This time, it was enough to sag into a chair in the streetside cafe below my apartment, order a vin rose and some lunch, and watch the traffic roar past; the impromptu friendships renewed in the middle of the intersection; the crow high on a balcony turning age-creamed walls into art deco cliche. It was enough, just to sit, just to be. Just to be in Paris.

And just like that, the magic was back. I need to rest now, but I can’t wait for tomorrow.

My Paris apartment/workshop

But I promised you pictures, so here are two. The one at the top is my neighbourhood for the next little while, taken from the salon where I’ll be working. And this one on the left is my little Paris apartment – light, bright, high enough for the street noise to be charming, and with a view to inspire all sorts of dreaming and wordsmithing.

Jusqu'à demain!
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Australian author, Escape Publishing, Gracie Macgregor, happy endings, love, Odyssey, Paris, romance, romance writers

A Parisienne Pastiche!

Ah, Paris… City of Light, City of Love, my favourite city in the world. And my home for the next three weeks!

I plan on plenty of exploring, musing and observing, and hopefully plenty of writing!

Paris is a wonderland for the senses, and I’ll be posting some highlights here each day. If you have favourite Parisian places and memories, please share – I’d love to hear them.

Hope you find my favourite city as inspiring, exhilarating and just plain romantic as I do!

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Australian writers, City of Light, Escape Publishing, Gracie Macgregor, happy endings, love, Paris, romance, Romance novel, romance writers