Ciji Ware's Blog, page 3

Creating Characters: Their Actions Drive the Plot!

Pin ItNext time you look at a row of books on a shelf, think of how the authors of these novels had to figure out what was going to happen in these stories to keep you turning the pages—in other words:  the plot. When I was in the process of planning out my next novel, That Summer in Cornwall, which is a stand-alone sequel to A Cottage by the Sea (a book I’d written a decade before), I remembered the words of... Read More...

Creating Characters: What Do They Want?

Pin ItWhen I originally had the notion for That Summer in Cornwall, my plan was to have my heroine, arriving in late May at shabby chic Barton Hall from Wyoming, get involved in the nursery business that had saved her cousin’s family mansion from bankruptcy a decade earlier in the prequel, A Cottage by the Sea.               However, Meredith Champlin, an emergency room nurse at a children’s hospital, is no gardener like her cousin,... Read More...

Tea Addiction in Fiction

Pin ItThere must be a “tea gene” running through the Ware and McCullough clans, because I’m pretty sure there’s a scene where someone is making, delivery, pouring, or drinking tea in every single one of my seven works of fiction…         In That Summer in Cornwall there must be about a half dozen such scenes, and in each one, I try to recall some wonderful repast that included tea, scones, cucumber sandwiches, smoked salmon, and—gasp—even little cream... Read More...

Book Bargain Bulletin from Ciji!

Pin ItI woke up to the news this morning that–in the mysterious ways of Amazon–my ‘time-slip’ novel A Light on the Veranda is today’s (April 16th) “Kindle Daily Deal”–which means you can secure an 88% (!) saving if you click over there asap!  These deals usually only last a day or two, so I wrote this “emergency blog” to let any reader who wanted to get a copy could quickly grab one!           The story, set in both... Read More...

Scotland on my Mind: Then & Now

Pin ItNow that I have launched That Summer in Cornwall, I was astounded to realize about two months ago that I began the research for my first novel, Island of the Swans, exactly thirty years ago this summer!  It was also my first historical novel—a fictionalized retelling of the life of the amazing eighteenth century figure, Jane Maxwell (1749-1812), 4th Duchess of Gordon, about whom—I soon discovered–no full-length biography existed. I was such a novice, it never occurred to me... Read More...

If These Castle Walls Could Talk…

Pin ItThere are travelers who will tell you, “You’ve seen one castle, you’ve seen ‘em all,” but when I’m in the throes of constructing a novel set in Great Britain, castles  seem to me as important as “characters”  as any of the humans that populate my stories. Each of these fortresses has its own, specific story to tell: who built them and why? What were they trying to protect?  Who was born here; who died here?  And most importantly…who loved—or... Read More...

Dogs as Characters in Fiction

Pin ItI often am asked, “Do you base some of your characters on real people?”  Well, fictional characters are just that:  made up in the author’s mind.  However, there’s no denying that there are often ‘real life’ figures who sometimes serve as inspiration.   And, as I learned this year writing That Summer in Cornwall, the same goes for dog characters. However, just to show how tricky a subject this is, you should know that this Border Collie actually is known... Read More...

Spring Comes to Cornwall

Pin It  Where I live in a waterside village on the San Francisco Bay, gardening enthusiasts exalt when we get a dose of nice, steady rain as we did this week. “Oh, it’ll be so good for the garden!’ they say with broad smiles–and sure enough, everything around here is starting to burst forth. However, secretly I’m saying to myself, “But you should see what’s probably happening in Cornwall, England right about now!”  On my multiple trips to the West... Read More...

To Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day: Bake a Scone!

Pin It    These past months working on the now-published That Summer in Cornwall and starting the research for That Autumn in Edinburgh–which will be published next fall—has stirred up so many memories of my own family history. This week, as St. Patrick’s Day approaches, I thought a lot about my own Scots-Irish-Cornish heritage and it got me longing to make a fresh batch of “Elfie McCullough” scones. (That’s her in the b&W photo)SO!  Here, below, is my Great Grandmother,... Read More...

Researching a Novel The Old Fashioned Way

Pin It I spent more than twenty years as a working reporter (mostly at the ABC television and radio affiliate in Los Angeles) and as a magazine journalist—and my first instinct when I get an idea for an historical or contemporary novel is to go where the book is set.             With That Summer in Cornwall—a stand-alone contemporary sequel to my “time-slip” novel A Cottage by the Sea–the action takes place a good decade after the... Read More...