Chastity Sinclair's Blog

Dear Readers…

Tomorrow will mark two weeks since I came down with the H1N1 flu. Without sounding preachy or parental, I urge all of you to get the shot. It’s available at most of the free clinics and/or at low cost at the major drug chains. This is a nasty bug with the potential to be really scary. I think I’m on the mend now and hope to be back to work on the next book in the Christmas Valley series. You KNOW this thing is serious if I’m too sick even to write. Love to you all and sincere thanks for your readership!

CS

Authors I admire

There is so much talent out there. I am often awestruck at the quality and consistently well-crafted stories coming from the pens (ok, keyboards) of my favorite romance writers. Names that come immediately to my mind, and maybe yours too, include fellow Sonoma resident Bella Andre, along with Nora Roberts, Nicholas Sparks, Danielle Steele and Jackie Collins. And there are more, lots more—some already familiar names, and others just starting out on the romance road. Their creative plots, characters, locations and dialogue sometimes leave me breathless…and always yearning for more. The more I read, the better I come to understand and appreciate their ability and dedication to sharing a good story.

A change of seasons

As fall settles on Sonoma, and the vineyards morph into hues of red and gold, I’m wanting to burrow in by the fire to write. It seems romance is everywhere this time of year. Couples stroll the plaza hand in hand, and I pass others in café windows, their adoring faces aglow in the candlelight. The days are noticeably shorter now, and the cool evening air leaves a crisp, tingling feeling on my face. Maybe I love this time of year most just because there’s less daylight—and more time to write. I’ll spend the next few hours stacking firewood in anticipation of the season’s first roaring fire…tonight. An event Buster the cat has been looking forward to as well. How do I know? Just one look at the bliss and contentment on his face tells the whole story! And later this evening, with a glass of good Cabernet and the pets settled in, I’ll return to Christmas Valley and work on the next book until my eyelids revolt and insist on no more.

The next book in the series

It’s been a week since my last entry, and that’s longer than I intended. Isn’t it funny how life has a way of just taking over?

But I’ve cleared the decks, packed the dog off to the groomer (overdue!) and Buster the cat is hunting mice in the barn. He’s old now, and slow and tho’ I’m certain he’s nailing them in his dreams, in real life–they’re laughing.

I wanted to give you a sense of the next book in CV series, and what’s happening with my characters and plot.

The working title is, Raggedy Ann, MD. The story opens with Ann Lamb, a young pediatrician just completing her residency in San Francisco. She’s excited about launching her career, but the reality is that she’s saddled with student loan debt–until best friend and newly minted psychiatrist Lola Tabucci explains a new Federal program called Rural Doctors.

“It’s pretty simple,” the shrink says. “You practice for five years in a small town where they need docs—and 85% of your loans are forgiven. What’s not to like?”

So, after some library research, Ann hits the road in her ancient V-dub, headed for Christmas Valley. And she nearly made it, but twenty miles out of town, the battered car limps to the side of the highway, giving up the ghost for good. As she sits alone in the darkness, a rumbling pickup stops on the gravel shoulder. The truck’s door squeaks open and slow, deliberate footsteps approach from behind.  Palpable panic and fear overwhelm her as the stranger moves closer. Against the backdrop of moonlight, she sees the outline of his tall silhouette under a Stetson.

Enter Hubble Diamond, the returning son of a shattered family, and a man labeled by townsfolk as a killer. She knew better and good judgment normally ruled, but not this time and sure as hell not with Hub. The love they both crave is there for the taking, like ripe fruit on the vine, and their explosive chemistry is impossible to ignore. But the circumstances of his past makes a relationship impossible.

Many of the characters from the first book will populate this one too, so no worries. Jess, Will, Zack Harper and many of others will still be around.

It’s a big story with lots of moving parts and I’m loving telling it.

Sam is back from the groomer and looking so handsome!

 

People in the plot

A little about the inhabitants of Where Love Grows Wild. I tried to give my characters some depth and development in this story, so you’d have a sense of who they really are as people. In my perfect world, they’ll come alive for you, as they have for me–and I’d love your feedback and insights on that.

Jess

Jessica Daniels is a composite of women I know, women I wish I knew…and a dose of myself. I worked in the best qualities of my girlfriends, (because they are incredible ladies) and yes, OK, I took a bit (or maybe more) of poetic license when it came to my own life. But a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta’ do, right?

Jess is tender, sensitive and smart, and knows her mind, but she’s still a woman, needing to love and be loved. I’ve portrayed her as steady and strong, head screwed on straight and eyes forward, but she’s torn, caught in a balancing act between being “a good daughter” and being over-the-moon in love with an arrogant, drifter cowboy her daddy has no use for.

Will

Jimmy Thomas as Will Bronco

And Will Bronco…well, he’s a sort of combination too. Rough around the edges maybe, ragged and flawed in many ways, but there’s a decency inside, and a powerful desire to outgrow his dark past. He had a rough start in life, one bad break after another, until the winds of fate and fortune left him at Jessica’s doorstep. I’ve known men like this—I think we all have. The pair’s combustible love and white-hot chemistry is exactly what I want for my life, that much is certain. You may recognize Will’s likeness on the cover as the real-life model, Jimmy Thomas.

Angelica

Now as to Angelica Shepard, the Malibu actress—She struggles mightily to contain her celebrity  and manage a private life. Every little thing she says or does is scrutinized and twisted in the tabloids, making normal relationships impossible. And maddeningly, most men, even the successful ones are intimidated by her money and stardom. Professionally, she’s at the very top of her game and the guys can’t handle it.  She’s envied and imitated and rich, and mobbed by fans everywhere. Somehow though, she holds on to the solid morals learned at her mama’s knee growing up poor on the badlands of Texas. But at the end of the day, Angie is lonely.

My heartfelt thanks…

To those who have written to me directly with your thoughts and ideas. I value them tremendously.

And—a very special thank you to Marina Adair, best-selling author of the Saint Helena Vineyard Series for her generosity and good advice. Take a peek at her work here. Books | Marina Adair

In my next entry, I’ll talk about the second book in-progress in the Christmas Valley Romance series, entitled, Raggedy Ann, MD.

Readers ask why…

Why do I write? It’s a fair question with a couple of answers, depending on the layers peeled back. Maybe first is the escape factor. When I’m working, I literally leave the everyday world, with its frustrations, toxic people, errands, and distractions, and travel to Christmas Valley, the idyllic hamlet of romance in my stories.

And, it is tremendously liberating and therapeutic, at least for me, slipping out of reality to interact with, and better know my characters. As I help each explore their strengths, weaknesses, triumphs and disappointments, they come alive. After a while, they feel like friends, even family—people with foibles and shortcomings and quirky personalities that endear them to me…and in a perfect world, to you too, my readers.

On another level, writing this series is hugely empowering. I’ve created a world, populated it and get to tell everyone what to say and do. Does it get any better than that? Yes, I love it!

I am sometimes asked if I use any “special tools” to write and/or edit a book and I never quite know how to answer. It seems that writing is a very individual process, unique and different for each author. Some are wonderfully disciplined, (I wish I were) and others, like me, work feverishly when inspiration rains from the heavens. I seldom outline or plan much in advance, but instead, close my eyes, and envision the people and places and bones of the story, and then describe it to my audience.

My first romance, “Where Love Grows Wild,” was probably the most difficult because everything and everyone was new, characters, locations and plot, all written and created for the first time. Uncharted territory, so to speak. But once the setting and people were sketched out, the book took on a life of its own. Now well into the next tale of passion in the series, the story is unfolding beautifully. So I guess if there is a “special tool,” it is the one we all share, reader and writer alike—imagination gone wild.

Oh, and I like cowboys too. I like ‘em a lot.

Quotes from a favorite author.

Natalie Goldberg Quotes – BrainyQuote