Caddy’s Comments (group member since Sep 08, 2011)

Caddy’s comments from the Q&A with Caddy Rowland group.

I might have to give it a try. THere are so many I want to read! Including some indie authors I have met...and my time is taken up editing, etc right now...once I get better at the self publishing I am going to read, read, read!

Yes. For example, there are people who think chlorine causes breast cancer. Maybe so. And maybe it is known...but there is no alternative other than using it right now, unless we want people to die from impure water. But in 100 years? People might be stunned that we drank chlorine.

I have not read that. Do you think I would also enjoy it? I don't like books that are too academic, I am more the novel type. Is this a novel? (My attention span sucks when it comes to dry facts, etc)

I thought that you were refuting that the drugs were legal. :) They were very much legal and the harmful effects of them unknown. So, many people used them either more frequnetly than they would have had theey been illegal, or even at all for some. Other than that, yes, I think we are in saying the same thing. It just blows me away that people could buy heroin cough drops and give children those and also opium or morphine! Yikes.

What is your favorite book with that theme of the common man over the elite?

I would have to argue that point. Hashish was very common and not seen as illegal. Opium was also legal. By the 1890's, there were over 1,500 opium dens operating openly in Paris and Montmartre. Additionally, you could order opium and morphine in catalogs, much like our old Sears Roebuck. Then, in the very late 1800's Bayer discovered aspirin. They decided, howver, that it had too many risks...so instead they marketed heroin! Heroin was touted as "completely safe" and (since by this time they were starting to be aware that opium was addictive) the doctors told people who liked to use opium to switch to herion, because it was safe and opium was not. You could buy heroin cough drops. People gave them to children, as they had also given morphine and opium to them when ill.

So, yes, some of it was medicinal...but it was not considered against the law to go to an opium den and get high. Hashish was as common as tobacco.

In fact, France had a huge problem with their Navy and opium. Their navy ruined a submarine...because everyone on it was high. After that, they cracked down on people using drugs in the military. But, still, in neighborhoods, ordinary citiznes could get high.

Some allfuents used it to experiment, sure. As did artists. But, still, if you were "caught" with it, it would be like being caught with an apple on you. No big deal. No one understood what these drugs would really do to people long term.

Gastien used drugs for physical and emotional pain/anguish and never knew what they could actually do to him long term. Doctors said they were fine, so people used them. Can you imagine giving your children heroin??? :)

LOL! You are correct. Harlequin Romances are not on my list, but I am fully appreciate that many do enjoy them. My mother liked books where nothing real bad happened and the ending was always happy and as expected.

My favorite genre? Wow. I understand you not being able to figure it out, because I can't.
I guess I would have to say that I like books that are different, quirky, have strong characters that are not always likable...do some things most find unacceptable, but you like the character anyway because you understand why they do what they do. Most of us are not always likable.

I like books where not everything turns out perfectly, because life seldom does. It can be romance, horror, mystery, crime, literary fiction, but give me something that stops me in my tracks and makes me cry or really think. I need to be moved.

Of course, I also like some books that are just plain steamy! Old books like Valley of the Dolls, The Love Machine, etc started me on this path. I read those much younger than I should have and that influenced me, I am sure.

So, I need a book to usually, but not always, have steamy sex in it. If it doesn't, it better have grittiness, without going for violent gross out just for the sake of violence, or emotions that hit you in the gut and leave you lying there, wondering how you will get back up.

What does a book need to have in order to keep your attention?

Hi Dayton. Thanks for the question and the compliment about my novel!

My decision to write Gastien stems from the fact that I am also an artist and the whole Impressionism era has always attracted me. This was definately the "Golden Era" for painting, because for the first time, paints came in tubes and people could paint outside.
Also, the camera had recently been invented, meaning that wealthy people no longer had to hire artists to record their family history. That meant that, in order to stay relevent, arists had to start doing something that made people see things in a new way.

Oddly enough, Gastien did do portraits, however, as you know. Of course, his favorite was doing bizzare stuff that people did not understand, but for money, he did portraits. In order to be hired for that, an artist had to be very, very good, or the reason to hire them made no sense, as a photo would be much cheaper.

The whole Montmartre scene, with all of the legal drugs and other vices is also interesting to me. This occurred when much of the world was experiencing the Victorian Period. That meant very prudish sexual habits and standards. So, France stood on it's own sexually during that time.

Once I decided to write, I sat down for an hour every weekday and wrote, no excuses. The story just came each day. I did not always know what would be coming. Perhaps Gastien wrote it through me? The character of Gastien was someone I "knew" inside very well. The challenge was to make people care about him, because he had some very unlikable characteristics.

My hope was that readers would end up loving Gastien as much as I do, in spite of his glaring flaws.

Please feel free to start discussions with me about the types of books I enjoy that helped me want to write one myself!

Anyone who would like to ask any type of questions about this book is welcome to do so here!

I would be happy to answer any questions anyone has about how I find time to write, writing styles, motivation, etc.