Gearing up for release day
As I gear up for the release of Tarnished Gold, I can't help but remember the births of my human children, as the anticipation is much the same, save for the labor pains, which in the case of writing, come beforehand.
I've done much preparation for the blog tour, which grew from about twelve stops to thirty-two, but who's counting? I haven't been this excited about a book release since my first one, save for For Men Like Us, which is another of my all-time favorites.
Perhaps the fact that I have actually been to Hollywood helps my excitement along. I've stepped in the footprints of Mary Pickford and Clark Gable at Grauman's Chinese Theater, walked Hollywood Boulevard and saw the embedded stars of many of my favorites.
Jack Abadie and Wyatt Maitland, the stars of Tarnished Gold, have lived in my head for well over a year. They were birthed there, fully grown and anxious to see the world I created for them. They matured on page as I wrote their story. They disagreed with me when I added another character to the mix and helped me drum him out of the story.
Wyatt demanded a back story and guided me as he created his family and the circumstances under which he left the home he grew up in and took up residence in Hollywood. He found work at Sid Grauman's Million Dollar Theater and it is there that he met Jack Abadie, motion picture idol.
I created Jack from men I have known, and placed him in a setting I know well. Jack grew up in a house I lived in for twenty years, where my husband and I raised our children, where my husband was raised.
My husband's grandparents worked on a sugar plantation in Waggaman, Louisiana, a stop along the famous River Road, home to many of the Deep South's grand plantations. Willswood Plantation, not grand at all, was privately owned in the early 1900s and employed immigrants and locals alike. Clint's grandmother cooked for all the workers and his grandfather was a carpenter.
While I never met Wilfred, I knew Clint's grandmother, Uranie, well. She was an old Cajun woman when we met, with an accent so thick you could cut it with the proverbial knife. All you ever had to do was say, "How you doin' Gra'ma?" and she took care of the rest of the conversation. I only knew her for five years, but she endeared herself to me because she loved Clint so much. He was her eyes, she used to say.
I patterned Jack's mother after Gra'ma, his father after Wilfred. While they appear briefly on page, they live in Jack's head always. He never strays too far from his Southern roots and he remembers the lessons his family taught him. His endearment for Wyatt, cher, comes from his childhood, as it came from my husband's.
How does a born and bred Southern boy end up in sunny Hollywood? Like me, Jack has an overwhelming love of the movies. My father took me to movies from the time I could sit up and I am convinced it is either movies or die for me. In the thirty-seven years my husband and I have known each other, it has been a rare occasion when we haven't gone for Friday Date Night (now Day since we are retired.) It has always been a given and always includes a movie and dinner.
We spent a few of those nights at the Prytania Theater in New Orleans, now the only single screen theater in the state. In Tarnished Gold, Jack recalls the many Saturdays he spent in the balcony at the Prytania, watching silents, mostly with his favorite actor, Wallace Reid. Hollywood beckoned to Jack. The dream of stardom kept him going when life in the sultry South stifled him. Wanderlust drew him to California, where he found the life he was meant to live.
Tarnished Gold immersed me in a world I loved as I grew up. Aside from reading a couple dozen books and spending hours on website dedicated to the Golden Age of Hollywood, I spent many lovely hours watching old silent films, noting each nuance. I watched the early talkies with an entirely different eye, as I was watching them as Jack. The affected speech, so common in them, came from the elocution lessons every actor had to undergo for the transition into talkies. I always wondered why everyone sounded the same!
As a kid, I used to think that all actors were from England and of noble birth, but, ha ha, that was not the case. Most came from humble backgrounds and clawed their way up the food chain. Many got their start on the stage, and then, when those careers faded, they carried their name and cache to the new medium. Some were sought out for their fame, many for their good looks, and others, for their innate acting abilities.
My real life babies have all left the nest, thankfully, reside not too far from home. Now, on this last Date Day before Tarnished Gold trundles off into the world, I am excited and not a little hesitant about it making its debut. On Monday, Dreamspinner releases it, all grown up and ready to take on the world. I'll straighten Jack and Wyatt's ties one the last time, apply some spit to an errant curl or two, and then wave as the book finds its way into the hands of readers. I am extremely proud of this one. The labor was intense, but the baby is beautiful.
You can read an excerpt and preorder Tarnished Gold all weekend. And don't forget the blog tour that starts Monday, March 25. The Grand Prize is a Kindle, and all you have to do is stop by the blogs where I'm guesting and leave comments. The more comments, the more entries you have in the Kindle drawing.
Have a great weekend!
Hugs
I've done much preparation for the blog tour, which grew from about twelve stops to thirty-two, but who's counting? I haven't been this excited about a book release since my first one, save for For Men Like Us, which is another of my all-time favorites.
Perhaps the fact that I have actually been to Hollywood helps my excitement along. I've stepped in the footprints of Mary Pickford and Clark Gable at Grauman's Chinese Theater, walked Hollywood Boulevard and saw the embedded stars of many of my favorites.
Jack Abadie and Wyatt Maitland, the stars of Tarnished Gold, have lived in my head for well over a year. They were birthed there, fully grown and anxious to see the world I created for them. They matured on page as I wrote their story. They disagreed with me when I added another character to the mix and helped me drum him out of the story.
Wyatt demanded a back story and guided me as he created his family and the circumstances under which he left the home he grew up in and took up residence in Hollywood. He found work at Sid Grauman's Million Dollar Theater and it is there that he met Jack Abadie, motion picture idol.
I created Jack from men I have known, and placed him in a setting I know well. Jack grew up in a house I lived in for twenty years, where my husband and I raised our children, where my husband was raised.
My husband's grandparents worked on a sugar plantation in Waggaman, Louisiana, a stop along the famous River Road, home to many of the Deep South's grand plantations. Willswood Plantation, not grand at all, was privately owned in the early 1900s and employed immigrants and locals alike. Clint's grandmother cooked for all the workers and his grandfather was a carpenter.
While I never met Wilfred, I knew Clint's grandmother, Uranie, well. She was an old Cajun woman when we met, with an accent so thick you could cut it with the proverbial knife. All you ever had to do was say, "How you doin' Gra'ma?" and she took care of the rest of the conversation. I only knew her for five years, but she endeared herself to me because she loved Clint so much. He was her eyes, she used to say.
I patterned Jack's mother after Gra'ma, his father after Wilfred. While they appear briefly on page, they live in Jack's head always. He never strays too far from his Southern roots and he remembers the lessons his family taught him. His endearment for Wyatt, cher, comes from his childhood, as it came from my husband's.
How does a born and bred Southern boy end up in sunny Hollywood? Like me, Jack has an overwhelming love of the movies. My father took me to movies from the time I could sit up and I am convinced it is either movies or die for me. In the thirty-seven years my husband and I have known each other, it has been a rare occasion when we haven't gone for Friday Date Night (now Day since we are retired.) It has always been a given and always includes a movie and dinner.
We spent a few of those nights at the Prytania Theater in New Orleans, now the only single screen theater in the state. In Tarnished Gold, Jack recalls the many Saturdays he spent in the balcony at the Prytania, watching silents, mostly with his favorite actor, Wallace Reid. Hollywood beckoned to Jack. The dream of stardom kept him going when life in the sultry South stifled him. Wanderlust drew him to California, where he found the life he was meant to live.
Tarnished Gold immersed me in a world I loved as I grew up. Aside from reading a couple dozen books and spending hours on website dedicated to the Golden Age of Hollywood, I spent many lovely hours watching old silent films, noting each nuance. I watched the early talkies with an entirely different eye, as I was watching them as Jack. The affected speech, so common in them, came from the elocution lessons every actor had to undergo for the transition into talkies. I always wondered why everyone sounded the same!
As a kid, I used to think that all actors were from England and of noble birth, but, ha ha, that was not the case. Most came from humble backgrounds and clawed their way up the food chain. Many got their start on the stage, and then, when those careers faded, they carried their name and cache to the new medium. Some were sought out for their fame, many for their good looks, and others, for their innate acting abilities.
My real life babies have all left the nest, thankfully, reside not too far from home. Now, on this last Date Day before Tarnished Gold trundles off into the world, I am excited and not a little hesitant about it making its debut. On Monday, Dreamspinner releases it, all grown up and ready to take on the world. I'll straighten Jack and Wyatt's ties one the last time, apply some spit to an errant curl or two, and then wave as the book finds its way into the hands of readers. I am extremely proud of this one. The labor was intense, but the baby is beautiful.
You can read an excerpt and preorder Tarnished Gold all weekend. And don't forget the blog tour that starts Monday, March 25. The Grand Prize is a Kindle, and all you have to do is stop by the blogs where I'm guesting and leave comments. The more comments, the more entries you have in the Kindle drawing.
Have a great weekend!
Hugs
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