tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515933130197950672024-03-18T21:21:32.616-07:00A Woman in JeopardySusanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-56514413737817026022018-11-09T18:53:00.000-08:002018-11-09T23:54:49.976-08:00Why the Golden Heart Awards MatterI should have written this post months ago.<br />
<br />
I meant to. Back in Denver in the summer when we gathered for our annual national Romance Writers of America conference, I was already planning this post in my mind, having watched the finalists of this year's Golden Heart Contest working so hard to put a brave face on what, for all of them, must have been a truly difficult experience.<br />
<br />
Since RWA's board first announced it was doing away with the Golden Hearts, I've felt, very strongly, that our organization is making a mistake.<br />
<br />
When I came home from Nationals, I started drafting open letters to the board, to try to tell them how I felt. To try to tell them why. I couldn't get the words right, and so here I am, on the same weekend the new board is holding its first meeting and I'm writing my long overdue open letter to all the board members, and anyone else who will listen.<br />
<br />
Dear Board Members:<br />
<br />
You've asked us to suggest what you should do that could replace the Golden Heart Contest.<br />
<br />
And my answer is: Nothing.<br />
<br />
I've read the data that was posted when this process all began--the fancy numbers used to justify the killing of the contest. Yes, the Golden Hearts cost more than they return, on paper. But so do the Ritas.<br />
<br />
And for all the internal prestige we may place on the Ritas--and I'm saying this as someone who values that golden lady very highly, having had books final three times and win once--when it comes to fulfilling our actual mission "to advance the professional and common business interests of career-focused romance writers", the Golden Heart Contest wins hands-down.<br />
<br />
The Ritas are for us individually. They don't help us sell more books (they really don't--ask your editor). They don't help us make friends within the organization. They are peer recognition, which is valuable and wonderful, but just for us.<br />
<br />
The Golden Hearts help writers finish books, because only a completed manuscript can be entered. They help writers, especially shy new writers, connect with other writers. Look at the networking and camaraderie that happens among Golden Heart finalists. Nothing like that happens with Rita finalists. Through the contest, writers pursuing a traditional publishing path have found agents and editors.<br />
<br />
That all sounds like a pretty good use of my dues, to be honest.<br />
<br />
I never entered the Golden Hearts. I had been published long before I joined RWA. But my first real success--the book that opened all the doors for me in 1993--was a book called Mariana, that won a contest for unpublished manuscripts. Maybe that's why this feel personal, to me. I know that feeling of having your world truly change overnight.<br />
<br />
And the thought of us taking not only that feeling but that opportunity away from so many of our members, especially when the Golden Hearts are--of the contests that we run--the one that serves our mission best--seems wrong.<br />
<br />
You can't replace it with anything because nothing could adequately replace it. If you want to do something positive, you could restore it to its former place of honor on awards night, alongside the Ritas, so all our finalists are on equal footing and we're not paying unnecessarily for two awards ceremonies with two emcees.<br />
<br />
The Ruby Slippered Sisterhood has more suggestions--I hope you'll take the time to read them: http://tinyurl.com/y8qwzm72<br />
<br />
Thanks for your service, and thanks for your time, and for listening.<br />
<br />
I might be sending this too late to have any real effect, but I just couldn't stay silent.<br />
<br />
If anyone reading this wants to add your own experience with the Golden Hearts in the comments, please do.<br />
<br />
Best,<br />
<br />
Susanna<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-65930825888713176942018-04-15T20:26:00.000-07:002018-04-15T21:10:18.372-07:00But Why Is It "Bellewether"?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Some
of you have written to me asking what the title of the new book means, and why
it’s spelled wrong.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">“Bellewether”
is, in fact, the original Middle English spelling of the word bellwether.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Apart
from its literal meaning—a sheep that wears a bell to lead the flock—the term
can also apply to a predictor or harbinger of something.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Without
spoiling the story, I can tell you there’s a character who serves the first
purpose, and events that serve the second, so that’s why the title—when it
first rose up and attached itself to the text—seemed like a good one to keep.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">As
for the spelling, I chose it because the original version appealed to me, and
because I hoped to reduce confusion with <a href="http://www.sftv.org/cw/" target="_blank">Connie Willis</a>’s science fiction
classic <i>Bellwether</i> (although if you’re searching for my book and buy hers by
mistake, I will totally forgive you—it’s a great story), but also because
that’s how one of the characters spelled it when he named his ship in the book,
and I liked how it looked on the page.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Here’s
the scene where that happened: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"></span>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">* * * * *</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Lydia
wasn’t entirely sure herself why the mare favored her, but they had shared this
rapport from the very first day that her father had brought the mare home as a
yearling. Just as a horse could sense a nervous rider or a cruel one, it
appeared that the mare could sense Lydia already carried a full share of
troubles and did not need more. Whatever the reason, the mare bent her head to
the halter and made no complaint and submitted herself to be led.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Not
that Lydia was in a rush to be leading her anywhere just at the moment. The
day, being only begun, was still peaceful; the chill of the air making mist of
her breath as the sun ventured up from its bed into view, sending pink and gold
streaks spreading over the eastern sky.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Here
on the upland where the land had been well cleared, she had a view not only of
the bay but of the wider Sound, and of the ships that came and went continually
between New York’s harbor and the sea.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Benjamin
had come here often as a boy to chase his dreams of grand adventure, studying
the passing ships so that he could, like Joseph, know the types of vessels by
their varied shapes and rigging, be they brigs or sloops or bilanders or snows.
He’d watched them for so long that he could name most of the New York ships on
sight, amazing Lydia, who only recognized her brother William’s four: the
<i>Bellewether</i>, the <i>Honest John</i>, the <i>Katharine</i>, and the <i>Fox</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Of
these, her favorite was the <i>Bellewether</i>, because although the smallest of them
all it was the prettiest and swiftest. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">“She
will run before all others,” had been William’s explanation of the sloop’s
name. “Like the sheep we bell to lead the flock.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">“You’ve
spelled it wrong,” their mother had said mildly as she’d read the brave name
painted on the hull. “It is spelled ‘bellwether,’ without the second e.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">“But
‘belle’ is French for ‘beautiful,’ and she is surely that,” had been his
answer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">And
she was. Built to outrun the privateers that prowled the trade routes, she had
turned the tables on them many times and carried her fair share of captured
ships as prizes into New York’s harbor, but the true prizes for Lydia had been
the letters carried from Jamaica from her brother Daniel, and the gifts and
parcels that he regularly sent, which, since their mother’s death, had been one
of the few bright things their family could look forward to. The sight of the
<i>Bellewether</i>’s sails sweeping past in the Sound was a sight that, on most days,
brought Lydia joy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">But
this morning, the sight of sails sliding below her and into the bay brought a
darker confusion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Those
sails were the <i>Bellewether</i>’s, but they’d been set strangely. In this uncertain
light, moving through shadows and mist on the dark water close to the shore,
she appeared to have no more than half a mast, less of her rigging, and
dangerous, jagged holes scarring her deck. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Lydia,
who had been stroking the mare’s warm neck, stilled her hand. And then she moved
it and took a firm hold of the mare’s tangled mane, and in one scrambling
motion she hauled herself up, clinging to the mare’s withers and urging her
into a quick walk at first, then a run, down the slope of the field, racing
home with a warning. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Because
on the heels of the <i>Bellewether</i>, gliding now into the bay, sailed a second
ship—larger and darker and trailing the wounded sloop’s wake like a predator.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">* * * * *</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">The book comes out April 24 in Canada, and August 7 in the USA. You can order/pre-order it <a href="http://www.susannakearsley.com/buy_the_books.html" target="_blank">here, from my website</a>.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-634227716873032017-05-02T19:09:00.000-07:002017-05-02T19:09:05.364-07:00A Change In My Travel Plans...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDdIPeOZKc0CEmzcHtlqm9m1yBFWNk0Yp9uifc-BcMUW0AHtpsDSG8rMSYL9ISEAkCpeAHqJ12bP5WL4PgOWMRJDwjC-4rmzYifJBOqAYOWaeYKayhR8zfBPKszrP5j85Im_o__8hxt30/s1600/Close+up+of+North+America+on+globe+uid+1427189.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDdIPeOZKc0CEmzcHtlqm9m1yBFWNk0Yp9uifc-BcMUW0AHtpsDSG8rMSYL9ISEAkCpeAHqJ12bP5WL4PgOWMRJDwjC-4rmzYifJBOqAYOWaeYKayhR8zfBPKszrP5j85Im_o__8hxt30/s400/Close+up+of+North+America+on+globe+uid+1427189.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Dear Friends,<br /><br />George Washington, in his <i>Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior</i>, counsels us to: “Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.”<br /><br />And my conscience has been urging me for some time now to listen to it.<br /><br />As many of you know, I have deep roots in the United States. I had five ancestors on the Mayflower, I’ve lived in south Texas, and I have immediate family, many friends, and valued readers scattered from coast to coast, so this has been a very difficult decision for me to make.<br /><br />But I have become increasingly heartsick while reading the growing accounts of people’s experiences trying to enter a country that, to me, has always been so welcoming. It’s not an easy thing for me to feel that welcome when I know that many others will be turned away through no fault of their own.<br /><br />I had already booked three conferences this year in the United States, and was as always looking forward to them. I’ve decided, however, to withdraw from two of them—the RT Booklovers’ Convention in Atlanta in May, and RWA’s National Conference in July—which are both primarily professional development and more for my benefit than anyone else’s.<br /><br />My involvement with the third—the Historical Novel Society conference in Portland in June—is different in that I’ve promised to teach a workshop there and I won’t go back on that promise. I will be there.<br /><br />Because I’ve been so fortunate in my career, I decided that instead of focusing on my personal disappointment I’d turn it into an opportunity to do something positive for someone else. In March I invited unpublished romance writers to enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win a full registration and paid room in the conference hotel at one of the two conferences that I won’t be attending. Winners were chosen at random.<br /><br />I’d like to congratulate Carrie Bastyr, who’ll be taking “my” place at the RT Booklovers’ Convention, and Naomi Nelson, who’ll be attending the RWA’s National Conference. I know my publishers, readers, and writing friends will make them welcome.<br /><br />Again, this was not easy for me, but I’m grateful for your understanding. <br /><br />I agree with Nelson Mandela, who wrote, “I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart.”<br />
<br />
With love,<br />
<br />
Susanna<br />
<br />Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-72095750193003935012016-10-20T09:37:00.000-07:002016-10-20T09:37:15.680-07:00Near Vancouver? Come Say Hi!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDHi3gsar0uEoenbH42RTAp5MWa_GajNeGGk3tiWc-baoV3D6ifEWNCQmo-wKK0JzsngNWzKHwkLiVN1uNEg7Had4Ncw3BtQSbUMpiXveC6lbpOtwV2QUv3zh3eSym9VJSG44_Q2MkHHc/s1600/photo%2528168%2529.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDHi3gsar0uEoenbH42RTAp5MWa_GajNeGGk3tiWc-baoV3D6ifEWNCQmo-wKK0JzsngNWzKHwkLiVN1uNEg7Had4Ncw3BtQSbUMpiXveC6lbpOtwV2QUv3zh3eSym9VJSG44_Q2MkHHc/s400/photo%2528168%2529.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Today I’m packing to head west for what’s always the highlight of my writing
year: The Surrey International Writers’ Conference.<br />
<br />
I love this conference best of all for its true community vibe, with authors
of all genres and media leaving their collective egos at the door and mingling to
teach, learn, and socialize—published and not-yet-published alike.<br />
<br />
Although this year’s conference is sold out, there IS an author signing
event, open to the public, this coming Saturday (22 October) from 5:30 to 7:00
p.m., at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel, 15269 104th Avenue, Surrey,
British Columbia, Canada (Telephone: 604-582-9288)<br />
<br />
The signing event is FREE, and there's a great list of authors <span class="textexposedshow">who'll be there, including Diana Gabaldon, Lauren Dane,
Sonali Dev, Jasper Fforde, Daniel Jose Older, and many many more. You can find the full list on the Conference website, here: http://www.siwc.ca/author-signing</span><br />
<br />
The Conference's onsite bookseller, Chapters, will have books available for
purchase, or you can bring your own books from home to have them signed.<br />
<br />
So if you have the chance, drop by and say hello! I'd love to see you there.<br />
<br />
(The photo above is from last year's signing event, where I got to play with Sarah Wendell from <a href="http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/" target="_blank">Smart Bitches, Trashy Books</a>, and the supremely talented <a href="http://www.beverlyjenkins.net/web/" target="_blank">Beverly Jenkins</a>) <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-19096884304642253232016-04-25T11:35:00.002-07:002016-04-25T13:24:10.583-07:00Romance With Other Elements<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3qDkryGrLsbZcnFRGmZQXlIpC_0nGHc_EB5HkVSfO4zM6-8-BiI-UCbvvRZR9y7YrsAtvKtSafIrugP-muNxf9sBEFVRfem3lwYAuCjKIBhu-lsjnAe4PgvlPX1tNpf_jeGdhl_pJ-y4/s1600/writerwork.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3qDkryGrLsbZcnFRGmZQXlIpC_0nGHc_EB5HkVSfO4zM6-8-BiI-UCbvvRZR9y7YrsAtvKtSafIrugP-muNxf9sBEFVRfem3lwYAuCjKIBhu-lsjnAe4PgvlPX1tNpf_jeGdhl_pJ-y4/s400/writerwork.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Below is the letter I'll be sending in a couple of months to the Board of the Romance Writers of America.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Please note: I'm a proud member of the RWA, and this letter should not be read as a criticism of their decision in 2012 to eliminate the NSRE category. They stated then that "It is not within RWA's mission to grant awards to books outside the romance genre", and the organization is entitled to its decisions.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But many of us write books that are WITHIN the romance genre, and I just think there's a better solution.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">If you're an RWA member</span></b><b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">—</span>or a member who left the RWA because of the elimination of the NSRE</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">—</span></span><b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">and you'd like to add your name to mine on this proposal, please feel free to "sign" in the comments below, with "Member" or "Past Member" written after your name, and I'll be sure to include your "signature" when I send this letter. (If you write under a pen name, just "sign" with that. I'm keeping this informal and friendly).</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Thanks.</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">* * * * *</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Dear RWA
Board Members:</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">RE:</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> <b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>RITA</u></span><u>®<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Awards Category Changes – A Proposal</span></u></b></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Four years
ago in Anaheim, when it was announced <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that
the Novel with Strong Romantic Elements category was being eliminated from the
RITA® and Golden Heart® Awards, I felt sad and disappointed—not only for myself
but for the younger authors starting out whose stories, like my own, were never
going to fit neatly into any other category.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The
following year, I wrote to the Board proposing a possible compromise position, which
they discussed and declined.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But because
I’m stubborn, and because I still feel it’s important for our organization to
include and embrace a diversity of voices, I’d like to present the same proposal
to you now:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">That the lost
Novel with Strong Romantic Elements category be replaced by the category of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Romance with Other Elements</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">By our
organization's own definition, every romance novel contains two basic elements:
a central love story and an emotionally-satisfying and optimistic ending. We
further divide our genre into subgenres: currently Contemporary Long,
Contemporary Mid-Length, Contemporary Short, Erotic, Historical Long,
Historical Short, Inspirational, Paranormal, Novella, Romantic Suspense, and Young
Adult, with a RITA® Award category for each subgenre.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This
arrangement works well for stories that keep within one single subgenre, but it
leaves no easy place for books that cross subgenres or multiple subgenres, like
Lauren Willig’s (contemporary/historical), Lynn Kurland’s
(contemporary/historical/paranormal) and my own (contemporary/historical/paranormal/
romantic suspense). </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Those of us
who write cross-subgenre romance are currently told to choose one of the subgenres
we’ve crossed and enter our books in that category. And fair enough, in 2014,
when I let my readers select which of the four possible subgenres my novel The
Firebird should be entered in, it did win the RITA® for Paranormal Romance. But
that was a one-off—even my readers were hotly divided on which category it
belonged in, and in most cross-subgenre books, my own included, the balance
between the subgenres doesn’t allow it to tip into any one category.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Imagine you’ve
written a novel in which fifteen chapters out of thirty are set in the
historical period, while the remaining fifteen are in the present day. Both
threads of the story are equally weighted and equally strong, so you flip a
coin (or poll your readers) to decide whether to enter it in the Historical or
Contemporary Romance categories.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Historical
Romance is currently for “novels that are set prior to 1950”. Contemporary
Romance is for “novels that are set after 1950”. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Your coin
flip or reader poll comes up “Historical Romance”. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Your novel
begins in the present day, and stays there for a couple of chapters before
switching to the past, then back again, and so on. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Assuming
the RITA® judges don’t dismiss you out of the gate as being in the wrong
category because your book starts “after 1950”, entering your novel this way is
a lot like entering my cockapoo in the Best Poodle category of a dog show. He’s
fully half poodle, and has a lot of the same physical features as a poodle, but
no reasonable, rule-abiding judge could ever declare him the best example of a
poodle in that dog show. Nor should they. He’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> the Best Poodle. In dog shows, he’d only be judged against
others like him—other crossbreeds.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The original wording</span><a href="http://eweb.rwanational.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=rwa&WebKey=8100a5b9-dffb-48fd-95a4-ce5d365f3e17"><span style="color: blue; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"></span></a><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> of the
Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elements category description (see below) actually stated,
in fact, that it was for novels “not belonging in another category”, and I feel
this is an important catch-basin for us to preserve.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">By creating
the category of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Romance with Other
Elements</b>, we’d be keeping the place for these cross-subgenre books, as well
as for longer, epic books that might contain two or more romances, and books
that, although they contain the requisite central love story and the
emotionally-satisfying and optimistic ending, may not be shelved in the Romance
section of a bookstore or have “Romance” written on their spine (something we
all know is rarely within the author’s power to decide). </span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The
difference would be that, just as the word “Romance” would come first in the
name of this new category, all the books entered in it would have to comply
with our mission statement, and be judged first as romances. That means they
would be scored and rated just like all the other books within the RITA competition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And a book that did not contain the central
love story and an HEA or HFN would be marked just the same as any other entry
would, as “Not a Romance”, and disqualified.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I’m
optimistic that, if this difference were to be explained and made clear to our
authors and their publishers, we wouldn’t have the problem that I’m told we’ve
had in past years, with books that don’t have a real love story within them
being entered for the RITA®, wasting everybody’s resources and time.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Here, then,
is how I would propose re-working the former category description and judging guidelines
for Novel with Strong Romantic Elements into a new category of Romance with
Other Elements.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The former description
and guidelines were as follows:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 2.0cm; margin-right: 2.0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Novel with Strong Romantic Elements<br />
</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">A work of
fiction in which a romance plays a significant part in the story, but other
themes or elements take the plot beyond the traditional romance boundaries. <br />
<br />
<u>Judging guidelines:</u> Novels of any tone or style, set in any place or
time are eligible for this category. A romance must be an integral part of the
plot or subplot, and the resolution of the romance is emotionally satisfying
and optimistic.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This is how
I’d personally alter that wording, to create the new category. The text in red
shows altered/inserted words or phrases, with footnotes below to explain each
change:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Since the awards
categories now all share this common header: “</span>All entries must contain a
central love story and the resolution of the romance must be emotionally
satisfying and optimistic”, there’s no need to include that in the individual
guidelines anymore.<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 2.0cm; margin-right: 2.0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Romance with Other Elements<br />
</span></b><span style="color: red; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Novels</span><sup><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1</span></sup><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> <s>A work of</s> <s>fiction</s>
</span><span style="color: red; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">not belonging in another category</span><sup><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">2</span></sup><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> in which <s>a
romance plays a significant part in the story, but</s> other themes or elements
may <s>take the plot beyond the traditional romance boundaries.</s> <span style="color: red;">also be significantly developed.</span><sup> 3</sup><br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
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<sup><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">1 </span></sup><span style="color: red; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Novels</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">: Changed to
conform to the current wording of other category descriptions. </span></div>
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<sup><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">2
</span></sup><span style="color: red; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Not
belonging in another category</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">: This was in the original description of the former category, and I believe
it is also an important filter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 1.0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<sup><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">3</span></sup><span style="color: red; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> In which
other themes or stories may also be significantly developed</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">: Again, this is a
return to the original wording</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><a href="http://eweb.rwanational.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=rwa&WebKey=8100a5b9-dffb-48fd-95a4-ce5d365f3e17"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"></span></a><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> of the category
description. </span></div>
<br />
<br />
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">So then,
assuming all those changes are made, the new category description and judging
guidelines would read as follows:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 2.0cm; margin-right: 2.0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Romance with Other
Elements<br />
</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Novels not
belonging in another category in which other themes or elements may also be
significantly developed. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">By putting
the romance first, both in na<span id="goog_450625539"></span><span id="goog_450625540"></span>me and in eligibility requirements, I feel these
changes would allow us to restore an important and much-loved category by
bringing it firmly in line with our mission.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I’d like to
respectfully submit this for your consideration and, hopefully, discussion at
your upcoming Board of Directors meeting in San Diego.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Thank you
for your time, and for your work on behalf of myself and all RWA members.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Sincerely,</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Susanna Kearsley</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><i>(The original wording of the Novel with Strong Romantic Elements category introduced in 2004 was: "A work of fiction not belonging in another category that contains a strong romantic element, such that one or more romances contained in the story form an integral part of the story's structure, but in which other themes or stories may also be significantly developed.")</i></span></div>
Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com62tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-79700320194141551792016-03-14T13:12:00.000-07:002016-03-14T13:12:06.038-07:00Music in Motion<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgWCQIYIiXWHN4Tm2jQMkS4XEx1zjh_JPIuJs_7gfnhW5JnFoRHOMCQuHcnm0odeMGkhk31eNs26Zgwl8Ncu2OG_HK4CsXcXnaYTloicBHLnD1CMQ4JNO2xt7gnS4-eU1jKGJxO0-uXMI/s1600/playlist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgWCQIYIiXWHN4Tm2jQMkS4XEx1zjh_JPIuJs_7gfnhW5JnFoRHOMCQuHcnm0odeMGkhk31eNs26Zgwl8Ncu2OG_HK4CsXcXnaYTloicBHLnD1CMQ4JNO2xt7gnS4-eU1jKGJxO0-uXMI/s400/playlist.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Photo courtesy my eldest son)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In this past weekend’s Toronto Star, bestselling
author <a href="http://www.marissastapley.com/" target="_blank">Marissa Stapley</a> rounded up some of our fellow Canadian writers to ask
them about using music to write by. <a href="http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2016/03/12/music-to-write-by-authors-name-their-playlists.html" target="_blank">They each shared their thoughts</a> and some
songs from their playlists, which I thought was fun.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I don’t listen to music while I’m actually writing—for
that I need silence (and sometimes white noise on my headphones)—but playlists
have definitely become part of my process. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Writing, for me, is a visual thing. I “see” the story
play out like a movie, and sometimes songs set characters in motion
unexpectedly, creating little private music videos within my mind that show me
scenes developing. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Each character will have specific songs that make
them “move”. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Hugh, the historical hero of A Desperate Fortune, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really </i>liked <a href="http://www.thefray.com/" target="_blank">The Fray</a>, to the point
where even now, if I play that group’s song “I Can Barely Say”, Hugh will start
stirring. It’s become very much “his” song, and while I was writing it showed
me a whole sweeping arc of his backstory—a useful thing, since Hugh rarely
spoke and I came to rely on the lyrics to speak for him while I was coming to
grips with his character.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In Bellewether—the book I’m writing now—the historical
hero, Jean-Philippe, is more a <a href="http://www.onerepublic.com/" target="_blank">One Republic</a> kind of guy.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The playlist just develops while I’m working on a
novel. If a song comes on the radio that makes a scene begin to stir, I add it
to the iPod. On the Bellewether playlist right now I’ve got 26 songs, and I’m
sure I’ll add more. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Here are
ten of them, in no particular order:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Breathe -
Ryan Star</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I've Told
You Now - Sam Smith</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Mercy -
One Republic</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The Words
- Christina Perri</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Unbreak -
Ryan Star</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Say - One
Republic</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Hold My
Hand - The Fray</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Secrets -
One Republic</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Human -
Christina Perri</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Stop and
Stare - One Republic</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s the rare writing day when I don’t listen to a
few songs from that playlist. Just not while I’m actually writing. :-)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Here’s another of Hugh’s favourite songs by the Fray. Hope you enjoy it as much as he did.</span> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pugLq7WiIcI" width="560"></iframe>Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-57908198787301186112015-12-13T08:40:00.001-08:002015-12-13T08:40:56.393-08:00A Writing Set for Christmas<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ONcgDhGuQWQS6WqC_HSwo7Z529YuJns49POlaAJOQ4J7_-PQ4L9k1kEAuQ7-Vx_m7N7hDgyTnXBZiN4CvrWicPtNDKlw0I6IBwqP1cJxCyS72P8dBNPeBbI3E09KyBCoqYUPvhM1jJM/s1600/photo%2528192%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ONcgDhGuQWQS6WqC_HSwo7Z529YuJns49POlaAJOQ4J7_-PQ4L9k1kEAuQ7-Vx_m7N7hDgyTnXBZiN4CvrWicPtNDKlw0I6IBwqP1cJxCyS72P8dBNPeBbI3E09KyBCoqYUPvhM1jJM/s400/photo%2528192%2529.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last month a reader posted on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSusannaKearsley" target="_blank">my facebook page</a> that their
8-year-old daughter wanted a “writing set” for Christmas this year, and asked
me: “What does every budding author need in their ‘set’?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, “need” is a relative term. All you actually need
as a writer, at 8 years old or 80, is a story in your heart and mind and some
means of recording that in words, so you can share it with your listeners and
readers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I loved the idea of putting together a “writing set”,
especially one for a young “budding author” who’s already starting her life as
a writer with one of the most vital things in her toolbox: a parent’s support.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I thought back to what I was given, when I was around
that age, that made me feel like a real writer. And I thought of what I use in
my everyday “writing set” now. And I blended those together in this list of my
suggestions:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji3See19_RHNbcctI-DxjSZVxxgHc-LdMAVFclC-4hjGG0YOesxOedZy5nToZ3dNBZAJLaUtQGV0rFK94Cs2LhEz-tEZwYtUzmzFFLIckQxifG5hlXEEV8LG3YvjwlyvTTsEJz49_dOMk/s1600/photo%2528194%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji3See19_RHNbcctI-DxjSZVxxgHc-LdMAVFclC-4hjGG0YOesxOedZy5nToZ3dNBZAJLaUtQGV0rFK94Cs2LhEz-tEZwYtUzmzFFLIckQxifG5hlXEEV8LG3YvjwlyvTTsEJz49_dOMk/s320/photo%2528194%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1. A SPECIAL BOOK FOR
WRITING IN</b> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The brown one here was mine, when I was 12. I still remember
picking it out at our local Coles Bookstore. There’s something about that
old-fashioned-gilded-leather look and the lovely blank pages inside that makes
you feel like a true storyteller.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">2. A POCKET NOTEBOOK</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I always have one with me. In my case, they range from
little notepads scooped up from a hotel bedside table to those little
spiral-bound notebooks you can buy in packs of three from a drugstore to the
fancier little Moleskine versions, like the red one here that was my primary
notebook for my research travels for my book The Firebird.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">3. A BLANKET</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Indispensable. Sitting in one place for hours, especially
during late nights, early mornings, and winter, gets chilly. If you can’t find
a blanket, a cozy cardigan will do, like the beige one my notebooks are sitting
on in the above photo. It was a castoff of my father’s, and has kept me warm
through many a writing session.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">4. A SPECIAL PEN</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For one of my childhood birthdays, my parents gave me a silver-toned
pencil-and-pen set. It came in a box, and was beautiful. And best of all, they
had taken it to the engraving kiosk at the mall, so both the pen and pencil
were<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>engraved with my initials. If you
have a young (or even not-so-young) writer on your Christmas list, this is one
gift that’s sure to make them feel like an actual writer. I suggested to my
reader that, for her daughter, she might want to engrave not only her daughter’s
name, but the word “Writer” after it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">5. A SPECIAL CUP OR
MUG</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Eight years old is a little young for coffee, but hot
chocolate can fuel the writing muse equally as well! My own preferred writing
mugs tend to change to subtly match the subject of the book I’m writing—I ended
up using my tartan one a lot while I was working on A Desperate Fortune, and
back when I was writing The Rose Garden my favourite mug was floral—and I have
a special Motivating Mug (pictured here) that I use when I’m approaching deadlines.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJb5UeHfEPLCDTBhiNNqriWBqIJ1nnzQkDYheti4SKq17xBavLB4WwCDFYXpLJCwqhyphenhyphen_ZJll5h8mqQz1RTrTO0m4yq7m62o_eVw1cdp8LhNbV-u3ZRu6fPTov2cOInpwcfro8c0OdRqe8/s1600/deadlinemug.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJb5UeHfEPLCDTBhiNNqriWBqIJ1nnzQkDYheti4SKq17xBavLB4WwCDFYXpLJCwqhyphenhyphen_ZJll5h8mqQz1RTrTO0m4yq7m62o_eVw1cdp8LhNbV-u3ZRu6fPTov2cOInpwcfro8c0OdRqe8/s320/deadlinemug.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">6. WRITTEN
INSPIRATION</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC19S7Kdws4cVjPfHyO8en0iIfv1EX5KJ6FUVUeXc-gBKPTi0UBXambe_FEUTSwLKFSQYOV1mEybKeJLZyRtXrWpv2pgqXVrX6Xxi0AjPJyDFKaVvZYz6bMmrrJVKfQ4XMojyXYJSsnW8/s1600/WritersDigest-January-2016-Cover_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC19S7Kdws4cVjPfHyO8en0iIfv1EX5KJ6FUVUeXc-gBKPTi0UBXambe_FEUTSwLKFSQYOV1mEybKeJLZyRtXrWpv2pgqXVrX6Xxi0AjPJyDFKaVvZYz6bMmrrJVKfQ4XMojyXYJSsnW8/s200/WritersDigest-January-2016-Cover_1.jpg" width="146" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If there’s a single book that’s helped me more than any
other on my journey as a writer, it’s been <a href="http://www.phyllisawhitney.com/Guide%20to%20Fiction%20Writing.htm" target="_blank">Phyllis A. Whitney’s GUIDE TO FICTION WRITING</a>. As a practical guide for working your way through that first
novel (and keeping your focus through later ones), it’s invaluable. But for an
8-year-old, you might want to start with a few <a href="http://www.writersdigest.com/" target="_blank">Writer’s Digest</a> magazines.
Around this time of year, WD also puts out a special edition Yearbook filed
with all sorts of tips and advice. Just remember, there’s no one “right” way to
write—don’t take anything as gospel. My favourite writing books are the ones
containing many different articles by a wide variety of well-published writers,
because I can almost always learn something useful from a few of them, and as
my skills and needs develop and change other articles within those books become
relevant.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">7. A LAP DESK</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For my 8-year-old self this would have been the icing on the
cake! I loved staying in bed all day and writing as it was, but to be able to
do it comfortably and without having to change position every five minutes
would have been wonderful. This is the kind of thing I mean—the ones with the
beanbag bottom and the hard top. Some, <a href="https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/paper/lapdesk-navy-floral/811770028701-item.html?ref=item_page%3arichrel%3arr-carousel-small%3ajson1" target="_blank">like this one from Chapters/Indigo</a>, even come complete with a cup holder so
you have a place to put your Special Mug.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCvf0sf9AekvITxqFXhiyOdbt0NA1mPKoR62wOcpCWmMtLSPW4xh5UV0GoMAiNNRCmB6RnIijO3r5_UzjONHhw6PZNi8vSfOO-eDi_JSn9yjnLsO9N359iUS4lKwZNicjen_AIo0EokE/s1600/lapdesk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCvf0sf9AekvITxqFXhiyOdbt0NA1mPKoR62wOcpCWmMtLSPW4xh5UV0GoMAiNNRCmB6RnIijO3r5_UzjONHhw6PZNi8vSfOO-eDi_JSn9yjnLsO9N359iUS4lKwZNicjen_AIo0EokE/s320/lapdesk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
What would YOU add to the list, if you were Santa?
Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-81600351463858119772015-02-13T08:42:00.000-08:002015-02-13T08:44:52.719-08:00February Sweepstakes!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbZTFVlu_C-7N5Kx19QiEEGXYGYUCcuapJmxvURG3OfdQekZpWyW47N4MP_neWR00yOBVg1hD4EGtwr5cPQv1-QDGaS1q24Ynld8t0xxH9UXqAeXfoTbF_XT6kUdkipF-HPRtT09ekezk/s1600/bookpage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbZTFVlu_C-7N5Kx19QiEEGXYGYUCcuapJmxvURG3OfdQekZpWyW47N4MP_neWR00yOBVg1hD4EGtwr5cPQv1-QDGaS1q24Ynld8t0xxH9UXqAeXfoTbF_XT6kUdkipF-HPRtT09ekezk/s1600/bookpage.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Thanks so much to all of you who took time to leave a comment on the NAMED OF THE DRAGON cover choices. I've compiled everything and forwarded it to the design department of my American publishers, Sourcebooks.<br />
<br />
And while they work to come up with the final cover, they've also been working hard to get the word out about my newest book, coming out in just a handful of weeks!<br />
<br />
To celebrate the almost-here-now publication date of A DESPERATE FORTUNE, Sourcebooks has partnered with BookPage to hold this amazingly wonderful sweepstakes.<br />
<br />
It's for Americans only, I'm afraid (and my apologies to those of you who don't live in the USA, this contest isn't being held by me directly, hence the geographical restrictions), but it's really such an awesome contest I just had to share it here.<br />
<br />
You can enter till the end of February, I believe, by clicking this link and following the instructions:<br />
<a href="http://bookpage.com/contests/17762-susanna-kearsley-sweepstakes#.VN4oRC63aPX" target="_blank">http://bookpage.com/contests/17762-susanna-kearsley-sweepstakes#.VN4oRC63aPX</a><br />
<br />
Best of luck!<br />
<br />
(And to those who aren't in the USA, I'll keep you posted when my other publishers hold THEIR contests and promotions).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdOMhSeBp2gZPLgabsuIVkpDtY1nC-r72OdMkNnBhsThuMY2ve7MfHgWijtMGOj2C8gu1r8iq2nQBZ63gnwxMVWyKEJR9n0TLtLj0jkCsltgn2FX0jYAYh8uCaSeR8QQi9k9aHtnfRAYU/s1600/bookpagead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdOMhSeBp2gZPLgabsuIVkpDtY1nC-r72OdMkNnBhsThuMY2ve7MfHgWijtMGOj2C8gu1r8iq2nQBZ63gnwxMVWyKEJR9n0TLtLj0jkCsltgn2FX0jYAYh8uCaSeR8QQi9k9aHtnfRAYU/s1600/bookpagead.jpg" height="217" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-65515238834321207192014-12-03T11:19:00.001-08:002014-12-03T11:19:51.483-08:00Help Choose a New Cover!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXNGrHUB2EFM_RBUFGC1GuBWoWHIlFL2R5TEZ9Wcw_MyAemsltegcYnjJJ8RMTRZVXU00eTKyJIbsbmILqiJA9pwkLTiiF2SIhcTFFUB_7sICNu7e_2waBH1Bm9VwLbFX9MHhTfOPg8sY/s1600/coversfive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXNGrHUB2EFM_RBUFGC1GuBWoWHIlFL2R5TEZ9Wcw_MyAemsltegcYnjJJ8RMTRZVXU00eTKyJIbsbmILqiJA9pwkLTiiF2SIhcTFFUB_7sICNu7e_2waBH1Bm9VwLbFX9MHhTfOPg8sY/s1600/coversfive.jpg" height="301" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
My American publishers, Sourcebooks, are getting set to re-issue the novel I wrote in the winter I lived in Wales <span class="st">–</span> NAMED OF THE DRAGON <span class="st">– and they'd like your vote on their shortlist of covers...</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">I make no secret of how deeply I adore my Sourcebooks covers, nor of how much I appreciate the hours of work and effort that go into them. If you want an inside look at the process, you can read <a href="http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2014/07/the-making-of-a-susanna-kearsley-cover-plus-giveaway/" target="_blank">this excellent Q&A post</a> that Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches did with Sarah Cardillo from Sourcebooks, all about the evolution of my covers.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">You can see what a great job they did of blending their "refresh" of the cover style for the new book, <a href="http://www.susannakearsley.com/fortune.html" target="_blank">A DESPERATE FORTUNE</a>, into the already established "look" of the collection.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">And now they want to do their best with NAMED OF THE DRAGON. Here's what the story's about:</span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The invitation to spend Christmas in Angle, on the Pembrokeshire coast,
is one that Lyn Ravenshaw is only too happy to accept. To escape London
and the pressures of her literary agency is temptation enough, but the
prospect of meeting Booker Prize nominee James Swift - conveniently in
search of an agent - is the deciding factor. Not that she expects it to be a restful holiday. Her travelling companion and bestselling client, Bridget Cooper <span class="st">– James's current girlfriend </span> <span class="st">– has a reputation for mischief. Already Bridget's eye is wandering, taking in James's charming antique-dealing brother, Christopher, and their neighbour, the difficult and mysterious Gareth Gwyn Morgan. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="st">More disturbing, though, is the sad figure of Elen</span> Vaughan, recently widowed and with an
eight-month-old son whose paternity is a subject for local gossip.
Elen's baby arouses painful memories of Lyn's own dead child and
strange, haunting dreams, in which a young woman in blue repeatedly
tries to hand over her child to Lyn for safekeeping.<br />
<br />
Who is the father of Elen's baby? What is the eerie, monstrous creature
of Elen's dreams that tries to ensnare her son, and what makes her so
sure that Lyn has been sent to protect him? As Lyn begins to untangle
the truth behind the stories, she finds an unexpected ally in Gareth Morgan, and the secret she discovers leads her to an
encounter with the past that will change her life forever.</blockquote>
<br />
<span class="st">The final cover they choose might end up being none of the ones here, but as part of their process they've asked me to ask for your feedback, so they'll have a sense what direction to take.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">So if you have a minute, please comment on which of the four cover options below is your favourite, and why. What works for you? What doesn't work? Your input and opinions will be useful and appreciated by the Sourcebooks team.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">And as soon as the cover is finally decided, I'll post it up here!</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">Thanks so much.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="st"> COVER #1</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="st"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim_8nc8Qqt2_EhxGfFIIQaaF11Ti45FW7il9w1qsL2hFRsk63O-tmdjQkIRZVxCcqvbmVrpO_KWENwoCVsr5kN0iedi2lXqRZ2Ch3eI2IHZ6_hiUvokaY87XehXaiFfzqgGDwekRviQyc/s1600/NamedDragon_Author1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim_8nc8Qqt2_EhxGfFIIQaaF11Ti45FW7il9w1qsL2hFRsk63O-tmdjQkIRZVxCcqvbmVrpO_KWENwoCVsr5kN0iedi2lXqRZ2Ch3eI2IHZ6_hiUvokaY87XehXaiFfzqgGDwekRviQyc/s1600/NamedDragon_Author1.jpg" height="640" width="419" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="st">COVER #2</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSrKMOILaoiLHB9Hi6Cjl-4mvmuQlwRBCwJ5PMKI2eN16tH9WagEV71USa5PoIn2dm88a5JAffySQtPuMKCLGNW9rW7CMU4HAR1vpUqrqCR22pufKGpuh_GMM3Nz0r18PTPGqDBrvI8yU/s1600/NamedDragon_Author2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSrKMOILaoiLHB9Hi6Cjl-4mvmuQlwRBCwJ5PMKI2eN16tH9WagEV71USa5PoIn2dm88a5JAffySQtPuMKCLGNW9rW7CMU4HAR1vpUqrqCR22pufKGpuh_GMM3Nz0r18PTPGqDBrvI8yU/s1600/NamedDragon_Author2.jpg" height="640" width="419" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="st"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="st">COVER #3</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgObEeP5gki84Hn9opahIC6UQTDHNPBzLN3-86fxs55Klod-cscR6UNYi1ps-Dlicz6F89nLxLmsDgsTQxrTehqR2jmo77Frr6Z4dKFxUgNydO9zoRhksIhEHi5noFrAxqJ4qRInTHuDbM/s1600/NamedDragon_Author2(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgObEeP5gki84Hn9opahIC6UQTDHNPBzLN3-86fxs55Klod-cscR6UNYi1ps-Dlicz6F89nLxLmsDgsTQxrTehqR2jmo77Frr6Z4dKFxUgNydO9zoRhksIhEHi5noFrAxqJ4qRInTHuDbM/s1600/NamedDragon_Author2(1).jpg" height="640" width="419" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="st">COVER #4</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="st"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia7kjaSIl76uBtSNcGThIB9vtBYDK9PtSXKdOZw_0uBSRSh6rVPiFH1RKaZB4LqRfHnlvZFcVCX6dsqP0dccFig__CT5S6IrIbVW7KQFQJh1daw2XLIvibzwU50vs7zAGtmDcwENxYp5k/s1600/NamedDragon_Author3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia7kjaSIl76uBtSNcGThIB9vtBYDK9PtSXKdOZw_0uBSRSh6rVPiFH1RKaZB4LqRfHnlvZFcVCX6dsqP0dccFig__CT5S6IrIbVW7KQFQJh1daw2XLIvibzwU50vs7zAGtmDcwENxYp5k/s1600/NamedDragon_Author3.jpg" height="640" width="419" /></a> </span></div>
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">Which one's YOUR favourite?</span>Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com69tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-75688526448645111062014-07-10T19:16:00.000-07:002014-07-10T19:16:38.751-07:00WINNERS!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH35pr21Mak6cC-Ur5Qmc4rXx8KZRZAbhyphenhyphenfIl9xNvUw5x_7T7IDrEDwNp6hE2fF6loYQhyphenhyphennG-Q_l47FpVT8-D2ISWaToFkUxtYWJgCu7qB3GrGT40uf5lhoeD8THijlkAj3s6kqeJ7luE/s1600/26739425.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH35pr21Mak6cC-Ur5Qmc4rXx8KZRZAbhyphenhyphenfIl9xNvUw5x_7T7IDrEDwNp6hE2fF6loYQhyphenhyphennG-Q_l47FpVT8-D2ISWaToFkUxtYWJgCu7qB3GrGT40uf5lhoeD8THijlkAj3s6kqeJ7luE/s1600/26739425.jpg" height="400" width="328" /></a></div>
Sorry about the delay, there, but the trusty Random Number Generator has at last been put into service and the winner of Lauren Willig's THAT SUMMER (signed by Lauren, even) is:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>mk, who was the very first commenter!</b><br />
Congratulations! Please drop me an email at susanna(underscore)kearsley(at)yahoo(dot)ca to let me know where we should send your book.</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
And for everyone else who might have entered one of the two OTHER giveaways I've held recently, just gentle reminder that time is ticking on. It's been some time now since I announced the winners, and the prizes are still sitting here in my writing room.<br />
<br />
To be perfectly fair, I'm going to announce the winners' names again right now:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The winner of the<a href="http://womaninjeopardy.blogspot.ca/2013/12/between-friends-giveaway.html" target="_blank"> "Between Friends" Giveaway</a> was <b>Kay, who commented on December 28, 2013 at 12:54 p.m., and whose best friend is Andrea. </b><br />
<br />
And the winner of the <a href="http://womaninjeopardy.blogspot.ca/2014/05/beatriz-williams-arc-giveaway.html" target="_blank">Beatriz Williams ARC Giveaway</a> was <b>Allina Flaat</b>.</blockquote>
</div>
<br />
If I don't hear from Kay or Allina by the end of July, I'm going to have to draw again for new winners, so if you're Kay or Allina, or know them, PLEASE drop me a line at the email I've given above.<br />
<br />
Thanks so much.<br />
Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-59577290913237846512014-06-04T11:30:00.004-07:002014-06-04T11:32:29.573-07:00Lauren Willig Giveaway<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNaf4KYnb3d8oe52Y-ALURFhQTC2jSUjAUXaeypAaJqw8acKADIeqj7SooZen4pxY-CVDxf6olef09emwUiQd13t_WEMbdsIezFee8ps2auyhFPR6I4k_TjHSolp5i1b4C4F1NQpmfsaY/s1600/thatsummer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNaf4KYnb3d8oe52Y-ALURFhQTC2jSUjAUXaeypAaJqw8acKADIeqj7SooZen4pxY-CVDxf6olef09emwUiQd13t_WEMbdsIezFee8ps2auyhFPR6I4k_TjHSolp5i1b4C4F1NQpmfsaY/s1600/thatsummer.jpg" height="400" width="262" /></a></div>
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Yep, I'm at it again :-)<br />
<br />
This time it's my friend Lauren Willig who has a new book out, and since I know many of you like her books, too (as I do), I'm going to give away one new signed copy.<br />
<br />
Here's a peek at what the novel is about:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>A page-turning new novel from New York Times bestselling
author Lauren Willig, about a woman who inherits a house in England…
and the mysterious past that comes with it.</i></b> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
2009: When Julia Conley hears that she has inherited a house
outside London from an unknown great-aunt, she assumes it’s a joke. She
hasn’t been back to England since the car crash that killed her mother
when she was six (and gave her nightmares that have lasted into
adulthood). But when she arrives at Herne Hill to sort through the
house—with the help of her cousin Natasha and sexy antiques dealer
Nicholas—bits of memory start coming back. And then she discovers a
pre-Raphaelite painting, hidden behind the false back of an old
wardrobe, and a window onto the house’s shrouded history begins to
open…<i><b><br />
<br />
</b></i>1849: Imogen Grantham has spent nearly a decade
trapped in a loveless marriage to a much older man, Arthur. The one
bright spot in her life is her step-daughter, Evie, a high-spirited
sixteen year old who is the closest thing to a child Imogen hopes to
have. But everything changes when three young painters come to see
Arthur’s collection of medieval artifacts, including Gavin Thorne, a
quiet man with the unsettling ability to read Imogen better than anyone
ever has. When Arthur hires Gavin to paint her portrait, none of them
can guess what the hands of fate have set in motion. </blockquote>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoPkUcg2Tn2aWbJTlUvVXqWP4BUqkqsiI1ukNvbpP0LvTKyPCwz3buEHrXQG449BR1YkAv46IkGSyKoHjG4aOKGrC2c5lFrWRjA_0bSCoODTnfgZzMw3WsfnBY2b4WBtKdDljpzGx5PsY/s1600/photo(2).JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoPkUcg2Tn2aWbJTlUvVXqWP4BUqkqsiI1ukNvbpP0LvTKyPCwz3buEHrXQG449BR1YkAv46IkGSyKoHjG4aOKGrC2c5lFrWRjA_0bSCoODTnfgZzMw3WsfnBY2b4WBtKdDljpzGx5PsY/s1600/photo(2).JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Christina Courtenay</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Again, you should know that I know Lauren, and while I've never trudged through a blizzard with her as I did with Beatriz Williams (Lauren wisely stayed at home for that one), I <i>have</i> shared the odd panel and coffee and chat with her. Here we are only last month in New Orleans at the RT Booklovers Convention, doing our "Call My Bluff" historical words and phrases game. (Left to right: Beatriz, Lauren, Molly O'Keefe, Deanna Raybourn, and Me).<br />
<br />
So I'm admittedly biased, but I can also honestly recommend her writing to you, because it's very, very, (very) good.<br />
<br />
If you want to sample it yourself, you can read an excerpt from THAT SUMMER <a href="http://www.laurenwillig.com/books/thatsummer.php#excerpt" target="_blank">here at Lauren's website.</a><br />
<br />
You have until midnight EST this Sunday, June 7, to enter the giveaway by leaving a comment below telling me:<br />
<br />
If YOU could inherit a house anywhere, where would it be located?<br />
<br />
I'll choose one name at random when the contest closes. Best of luck!<br />
<br />
(NOTE: If you have trouble leaving a comment because you don't have any of the ID's listed, just leave one as "Anonymous" and put your name in the comment itself, so I'll know how to get in touch with you if you win).<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoPkUcg2Tn2aWbJTlUvVXqWP4BUqkqsiI1ukNvbpP0LvTKyPCwz3buEHrXQG449BR1YkAv46IkGSyKoHjG4aOKGrC2c5lFrWRjA_0bSCoODTnfgZzMw3WsfnBY2b4WBtKdDljpzGx5PsY/s1600/photo(2).JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a>Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-85314455793734588382014-06-04T07:02:00.000-07:002014-06-04T11:31:50.515-07:00Beatriz Williams Giveaway: And the winner is...Allina Flaat!<br />
<br />
Congratulations, Allina! Drop me an email at susanna(underscore)kearsley(at)yahoo(dot)ca and let me know your mailing address, and I'll get your signed ARC of Beatriz Williams's new book mailed out to you.<br />
<br />
Thanks so much to all of you for sharing your amazing comments. As one reader mentioned, each one of your comments could be its own novel. I really enjoyed reading all of them.<br />
<br />
Thank you. <br />
<br />
<br />Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-43211324737532622472014-05-27T07:49:00.000-07:002014-05-27T07:49:35.349-07:00Beatriz Williams ARC Giveaway!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBBHoCQ-3QV-JGWD9smuhrrufFPw9DX1BYUukQvJ6ZAkKW_Id8geX3lLXhVgqevOEariO4jJ_hlqWcf2ibNgDuS7Ha160HEaF5FSg1b0XfC3svHB4Gl6UTn43Hfc_8vquYqG2Hk95o0ks/s1600/violet+grant2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBBHoCQ-3QV-JGWD9smuhrrufFPw9DX1BYUukQvJ6ZAkKW_Id8geX3lLXhVgqevOEariO4jJ_hlqWcf2ibNgDuS7Ha160HEaF5FSg1b0XfC3svHB4Gl6UTn43Hfc_8vquYqG2Hk95o0ks/s1600/violet+grant2.jpg" height="320" width="211" /></a></div>
You'll be thinking all I do here is give stuff away, but I can't help this one. Sorry.<br />
<br />
My friend Beatriz Williams, whose previous books Overseas and A Hundred Summers are both beautiful, has a brand new book coming out TODAY, and I have in my hot little hands something even better than a regular copy such as you'd find in a store: I have a more-rare-and-much-harder-to-come-by ARC (Advance Reading Copy), SIGNED by Beatriz herself!<br />
<br />
(Full Disclosure: She actually sent it to me a couple of months ago so I could give it away, and being Me I set it here on my desk with Good Intentions, and promptly buried it in pages of the novel I'm now working on...)<br />
<br />
Here's the official story synopsis for THE SECRET LIFE OF VIOLET GRANT:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Passion, redemption, and a battered suitcase full of secrets: the <i>New York Times</i>-bestselling author of <i>A Hundred Summers</i> returns with another engrossing tale.</b><br />
<br />
<i>Manhattan, 1964</i>. Vivian Schuyler, newly graduated from Bryn Mawr
College, has recently defied the privilege of her storied old Fifth
Avenue family to do the unthinkable for a budding Kennedy-era socialite:
break into the Mad Men world of razor-stylish Metropolitan magazine.
But when she receives a bulky overseas parcel in the mail, the
unexpected contents draw her inexorably back into her family’s past, and
the hushed-over crime passionnel of an aunt she never knew, whose
existence has been wiped from the record of history.<br />
<br />
<i>
Berlin, 1914</i>. Violet Schuyler Grant endures her marriage to the
philandering and decades-older scientist Dr. Walter Grant for one
reason: for all his faults, he provides the necessary support to her
liminal position as a young American female physicist in prewar Germany.
The arrival of Dr. Grant’s magnetic former student at the beginning of
Europe’s fateful summer interrupts this delicate détente. Lionel
Richardson, a captain in the British Army, challenges Violet to escape
her husband’s perverse hold, and as the world edges into war and
Lionel’s shocking true motives become evident, Violet is tempted to take
the ultimate step to set herself free and seek a life of her own
conviction with a man whose cause is as audacious as her own.<br />
<br />
As the iridescent and fractured Vivian digs deeper into her aunt’s past
and the mystery of her ultimate fate, Violet’s story of determination
and desire unfolds, shedding light on the darkness of her years abroad .
. . and teaching Vivian to reach forward with grace for the ambitious
future––and the love––she wants most.</blockquote>
<br />
More Full Disclosure: As I said above, Beatriz is my friend. We have trudged through a New York City blizzard together to sign books (though she, being Beatriz, looks Elegant even in blizzards, whilst I, being Me, look Bedraggled...)<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_RIUzwpqoa-WlOFTeZGRIdRzPNeoi5dsTVXmBKhuqYTeWgzeBKzzz_VDv50ya_EkIKXsNCNWgND1Q8M2z__Q3OPHyoVKIUwNFvt2hxu5UQzSpA8praOJNtziTVy2tQod9UupPfXz8weM/s1600/beatriz+and+me2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_RIUzwpqoa-WlOFTeZGRIdRzPNeoi5dsTVXmBKhuqYTeWgzeBKzzz_VDv50ya_EkIKXsNCNWgND1Q8M2z__Q3OPHyoVKIUwNFvt2hxu5UQzSpA8praOJNtziTVy2tQod9UupPfXz8weM/s1600/beatriz+and+me2.jpg" height="320" width="228" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj0PfnlVOykOb_fuKiHsy9d6V2-8QzLLrjF3sIPp4AtusPYuw1hUsT8rHDg4d8WbUyoP6ovR9JC1Ceyc_I8KPycXAoYYfX55I3tLfBCYwLhEFLiwb02k0NThBW7U2szKnVZMgFXAdap4c/s1600/beatriz+and+me1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
We have been known to hang out in hotel lobby bars together at conferences.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj0PfnlVOykOb_fuKiHsy9d6V2-8QzLLrjF3sIPp4AtusPYuw1hUsT8rHDg4d8WbUyoP6ovR9JC1Ceyc_I8KPycXAoYYfX55I3tLfBCYwLhEFLiwb02k0NThBW7U2szKnVZMgFXAdap4c/s1600/beatriz+and+me1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj0PfnlVOykOb_fuKiHsy9d6V2-8QzLLrjF3sIPp4AtusPYuw1hUsT8rHDg4d8WbUyoP6ovR9JC1Ceyc_I8KPycXAoYYfX55I3tLfBCYwLhEFLiwb02k0NThBW7U2szKnVZMgFXAdap4c/s1600/beatriz+and+me1.jpg" height="313" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixNAkaTHUrsR0Ap7ZHw4zJQ4cVZyNDUr9aBILxrXNS3lYrKfStus5CTgOg0EE1Eh1EYkxZQ52BZT0jdevHOtNMAHQLj-o6vuCkb0mHbd97EYvAu348xatT8FJWUbS4jx4TFI-iZDBxtKE/s1600/beatriz.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixNAkaTHUrsR0Ap7ZHw4zJQ4cVZyNDUr9aBILxrXNS3lYrKfStus5CTgOg0EE1Eh1EYkxZQ52BZT0jdevHOtNMAHQLj-o6vuCkb0mHbd97EYvAu348xatT8FJWUbS4jx4TFI-iZDBxtKE/s1600/beatriz.jpg" height="400" width="261" /></a>She has even allowed me to talk her into entering Historical Costume
Competitions whilst wearing my reproduction 18th century gown when I
forgot to pack my stays so couldn't wear it myself (Beatriz, as you can
plainly see, does NOT need stays).<br />
<br />
<br />
But besides being my friend, she is also one amazing storyteller, and I think anyone who enjoys my books would enjoy Beatriz's also. <br />
<br />
<br />
To enter for a chance to win this single advance reading copy I have on my desk here, just leave a comment answering this question:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What member of YOUR family would you like to know more about?</b></div>
<br />
I'll choose the winner at random from all the comments left here before midnight, May 31st. Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com62tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-31940369664993929672014-03-03T16:16:00.000-08:002014-03-03T16:16:12.856-08:00Between Friends: The Winner!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfDr_cP07bOhnyfd_NSHNGC8ARhXdmti5IaPMwtraXtgb81LIp3rl_sA9emhTKLSpa8PY75L8FABApOBUS7UKoA01aX3lXmp7PRcw0kSB9HIATU20y4oLOib2eg8FDtNWLL0KAAekPx0Y/s1600/Me+and+Kathryn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfDr_cP07bOhnyfd_NSHNGC8ARhXdmti5IaPMwtraXtgb81LIp3rl_sA9emhTKLSpa8PY75L8FABApOBUS7UKoA01aX3lXmp7PRcw0kSB9HIATU20y4oLOib2eg8FDtNWLL0KAAekPx0Y/s1600/Me+and+Kathryn.jpg" height="403" width="600" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Me with my late sister Kathryn, forever & always my BFF.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Thanks so much to all of you who entered the Giveaway. Reading your comments and learning why your best friends were the BEST friends was a wonderful thing, and I'm grateful you took time to share all that with me.<br />
<br />
I fed all the comments into the Great Random Number Generator and I'm pleased to announce that the winner is:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Kay, who commented on December 28, 2013 at 12:54 p.m., and whose best friend is Andrea. </b></blockquote>
<br />
Kay, if you can email me when you have a chance at susanna (underscore) kearsley (at) yahoo (dot) ca, we can work out where you'd like your eReader and Big Bag of Books & Stuff sent.<br />
<br />
Again, thank you to everyone. Really, you all warmed my heart for the holidays.Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-87602830502399865282013-12-13T21:02:00.001-08:002013-12-13T21:02:41.466-08:00Between Friends: A Giveaway<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQZ9-2MtMaxswFg9VYrAv-yCPSYdk786SEM-BLb8kjuzNNTzgHr86qGokQ8AOZyF5kX0gaqFkiWdCWV3FknDE6tqBmmJ8jAmHGpKdQu32iWI7UpVFGQVPzuxjCgzN-C1eh-pXusa1wVJU/s1600/susanna+tour+banner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Last summer, when The Firebird was published, <a href="http://www.sourcebooks.com/" target="_blank">Sourcebooks</a> held a contest called "Send Susanna to My Hometown", whereby readers nominated their local bookshops and libraries to play host to a stop on my first American tour.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, thanks to all of you we had so much fun with<i> that</i> tour that next month Sourcebooks is putting a twist on the concept by sending me out to the hometowns of some of my actual writer friends, letting us <s><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">party
and play</span></s> do events with each other. You can <a href="http://www.susannakearsley.com/susannaandfriendstour.html" target="_blank">read all the details here</a>, and learn where I'll be and with whom I'll be </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><s><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">playing</span></s></span> appearing.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">To my friends and readers on the west coast, I'm really sorry </span><span class="st">— we tried but weren't able to get an event pulled together out there in the very short window of time that I had for this tour (I'm still working to keep to my deadline for the new book, so I can't be on the road very long), and I'm sad about that, but if it helps at all I will be doing another joint event with my friend <a href="http://www.deannaraybourn.com/" target="_blank">Deanna Raybourn</a> at <a href="http://www.murderbooks.com/event/susanna-kearsley" target="_blank">Murder by the Book</a> in Houston, Texas, on Saturday, March 1st, to celebrate the publication of her next book City of Jasmine</span>, and with my next book I'll do my best to get over those Rockies for you.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, I thought it would be kind of fun to expand the whole "Susanna & Friends" theme by inviting you to enter one of YOUR friends in a Giveaway.<br />
<br />
I've got two prizes <span class="st">— one for you to give your friend, and one for you to keep.</span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWIAFzcpycfcXeUPLEH3WdPP4urJJc-3089AQfq5R3tkzo1nTwbU8EZrxvIWlE-6Z5NYNfJVB63r5XtEip3fTSD9fnabp9V_PYgK3Rbs5LPk7iQPpZESUw7uB7zRoUgrdnFqLTJcMw1t0/s1600/koboarc7hd.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWIAFzcpycfcXeUPLEH3WdPP4urJJc-3089AQfq5R3tkzo1nTwbU8EZrxvIWlE-6Z5NYNfJVB63r5XtEip3fTSD9fnabp9V_PYgK3Rbs5LPk7iQPpZESUw7uB7zRoUgrdnFqLTJcMw1t0/s1600/koboarc7hd.png" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="st">The one to give your friend is this:</span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">A brand new, <a href="http://www.kobo.com/koboarc7hd#overview" target="_blank">Kobo Arc 7HD eReader</a>, the 32 GB version like the one in the photo at the right, that will come with the sleep cover pictured above at the top of this post. The cover, as you can see, has already been signed by several of my writer friends (clockwise from top left: <a href="http://janetgurtler.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">Janet Gurtler</a>, <a href="http://www.janeporter.com/" target="_blank">Jane Porter</a>, <a href="http://www.jackwhyte.com/" target="_blank">Jack Whyte</a>, <a href="http://www.jimchines.com/" target="_blank">Jim C. Hines</a>, <a href="http://cchumphreys.com/" target="_blank">C.C. Humphreys</a>, <a href="http://www.dianagabaldon.com/" target="_blank">Diana Gabaldon</a>, <a href="http://hallieephron.com/" target="_blank">Hallie Ephron</a>, and <a href="http://www.eileencook.com/" target="_blank">Eileen Cook</a>) who were at the Surrey International Writers' Conference this year, and I'll be taking that cover with me on my January tour so all the friends that will be joining me can sign it, too.</span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">And for being such an awesome friend, if you're selected by the Random Number Generator as the winning entry, you'll get this:</span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvGcgOHWTeNQj8j0tV1Hn9vuKmTgXo1aDXwvUtklmhQe-AL9KHj5_caY0zNDSqsmCCM7BiCi2kn7EBwbEY6TFh0zUihPiSX6s-zswGa2V_-LGVbZRgCO33FK0R0daTgvXf6VRZQcOAbh0/s1600/DSCN0453.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvGcgOHWTeNQj8j0tV1Hn9vuKmTgXo1aDXwvUtklmhQe-AL9KHj5_caY0zNDSqsmCCM7BiCi2kn7EBwbEY6TFh0zUihPiSX6s-zswGa2V_-LGVbZRgCO33FK0R0daTgvXf6VRZQcOAbh0/s1600/DSCN0453.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<span class="st">Ta-da!</span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">A BAG!</span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">But hang on</span> <span class="st">—not just any bag. It too is coming with me on my January tour, and I'm inviting all MY writer friends at every stop to help me fill it for you. I don't know what they'll be adding to it, but I'm starting off the loot with a signed copy of The Splendour Falls, and after the tour's ended who can tell what you'll end up with? Lots of Mystery Present Goodness, that's what!</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">This is my contest, so it's open to everyone internationally and I'll ship worldwide. All you have to do to enter for your chance to win is leave a comment here, and tell me why you think your friend's the best of all.</span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">I'll keep the contest running till my tour has ended on the 21st of January, midnight Eastern Standard Time, and I'll announce the winner once I get back home. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">Good luck! And Happy Holidays to you and all your family and friends!</span><br />
<br />
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<a href="http://www.susannakearsley.com/susannaandfriendstour.html" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.susannakearsley.com/susannaandfriendstour.html" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDs6ks1-4dGw2HPy_VWspfEX3BtWum1YiyiCGyNorKo6t_Ha1ERZzGk_d_xhpWGAIut5Ak84KPlmTjJcdZalXYn3iqwgCQu93T9tmlIiavN-N8AWgtCl361g1PiQ_RK9YqcFjoBcj9xH8/s1600/susanna+tour+banner.jpg" height="233" width="600" /></a></div>
Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com72tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-39319098497617233082013-11-11T00:00:00.000-08:002013-11-11T00:00:07.617-08:00Remembering<div class="row" style="margin-top: 0;">
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<div class="info">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo © <a href="http://www.dreamstime.com/kayglobal_info">David Kay</a> | <a href="http://www.dreamstime.com/">Dreamstime.com Used by Permission</a></span> </div>
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<b>Sometimes a scene that I witness and write leaves a mark on me. </b><br />
<br />
<b>This scene, from late in my book <i>Every Secret Thing</i>, left a mark deeper than most, and each year at this time I remember and honour the women and men who inspired it:</b><br />
<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">There was very little left
to mark the site.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, as I took the
turning south towards the lake and found myself surrounded on all sides by low
stretching industrial buildings, I nearly thought I’d got it wrong...and then,
beyond the buildings to my right, I saw the flags—four flags, unfurled against
a sky that had been growing greyer as I’d travelled eastward.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This was it, I thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I slowed the car.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The road curved, and the buildings on my right gave way
to open space—a small green rise of hill, and on its top a low-walled concrete
monument, not large, that held the four tall flagpoles with their emblems of
the Province of Ontario, and Canada, and Britain, and
the States, all set at half-mast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was
very near the water now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could tell
from the strength of the wind as it slapped the flags around and rippled up the
grassy hill to where a sign, in plain black letters, read ‘Intrepid Park’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It didn’t look like much of a park—only the unassuming
monument, and a few young maple trees with trunks so slender they seemed
scarcely able to withstand the bursts of wind that shook the leaves like
something wild.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But I wasn’t the only pilgrim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Canadian Forces bus had blocked the
driveway of one of the industrial buildings, and mine was the last in a long
line of cars that had parked at the edge of the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, the little assembly of people beneath
the four flags looked quite small, I thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>More like a gathering of family than a formal Remembrance Day ceremony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt conspicuous as, head bent to the
driving wind, I climbed the gently rising hill towards the monument.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>No one paid me any real attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the people were busy talking amongst
themselves, some obviously politicians, working the crowd with their handshakes
and smiles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There seemed to be a
scarcity of old men, and old women—that struck me, straight away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I counted only a scattered handful of them, most
wearing uniforms and ribboned bands of medals, sitting quietly on metal folding
chairs that had been set in rows for those who found it difficult to
stand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people around them were
younger, respectful in dark coats with red plastic poppies pinned through their
lapels, or dressed in military uniform, without a coat, and shivering against
the cold.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was no shelter on the hill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The modest monument’s low wall had been
shaped as a long open crescent, like arms spread to embrace the slate-blue
water of Lake Ontario that stretched away unbroken to
the stormy grey horizon.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Just a half-hour’s drive to the west lay Toronto.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There, the lake was more civilized, reflecting back the bright lights of
the cultured city skyline, with the small bit of well-controlled green that was
Toronto Island lying just off shore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
here, at the southernmost boundary of Whitby,
the lake had no such pretensions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
looked icy and forbidding, chopped up by the wind into frothy white waves over
which seagulls dipped and hung, shrieking.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The landscape looked forbidding, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where the little park ended at the bottom of
the hill, the rough ground began—dead brown grass tipped with gold and the odd
tenacious patch of green, split by a narrow bicycle path that came from the
fields ringed by woods to the right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Beyond the bicycle path there was nothing but scrub brush that fell off
abruptly as though there were bluffs or a cliff at the lake’s edge.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was a lonely place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And yet today, Remembrance Day, these people round me had all made the
journey, as I had, to stand here in this spot above a long-abandoned site, now
turned to blowing field.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was movement from the monument.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The soldiers of the vigil were about to take
up their position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soberly, they stepped
forward from the ranks, two of them, each moving to one end of the curved
monument.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few sharp, barked commands,
and measured motions made in unison, and both were soon like statues, heads
bent, rifle barrels resting on their polished boots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’d stay like that, I knew, the whole
length of the ceremony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Motionless.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Between them, I could see a plaque set in the centre of
the wall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t read the words from
where I stood, but then I didn’t need to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’d already done my research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
knew what was written there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It read:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">CAMP</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> X</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">1941-1946</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><span lang="EN-US">ON THIS SITE
BRITISH SECURITY<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>CO-ORDINATION OPERATED SPECIAL<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">TRAINING SCHOOL No. 103 AND HYDRA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">S.T.S. 103 TRAINED ALLIED AGENTS<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">IN THE TECHNIQUES OF SECRET<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">WARFARE FOR THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">EXECUTIVE (S.O.E.) BRANCH OF THE<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">BRITISH INTELLIGENCE SERVICE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">HYDRA
NETWORK COMMUNICATED<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">VITAL MESSAGES BETWEEN CANADA, THE<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">UNITED STATES, AND GREAT BRITAIN.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">THIS COMMEMORATION IS DEDICATED<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">TO THE SERVICE OF THE MEN AND<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">WOMEN WHO TOOK PART IN THESE<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">OPERATIONS.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I turned again, letting my gaze travel out across the
windy, unkempt field to where the line of dark trees rose to block the view
across the lake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somewhere down there,
in a building long gone, in this place full of silence and secrets, my
grandmother had first met Andrew Deacon.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now there was nothing, just the shadows of dark snow
clouds chasing over empty space, and overhead a single gull with black-tipped
wings that rose and wheeled and headed out across the lake like an escaping
spirit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The flags above my head flapped noisily, their cords and
metallic rings striking the tall flagpoles with the hollow clinking sound of
cold aluminum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sound wrenched me
back to the present.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The
service began.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was simple, short on speeches, just the solitary bugle
and a reading from the military pastor, who had chosen as his text a passage I
had never heard, from the Apocrypha, beginning ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Let us now praise famous men</i>.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The words were fitting, bittersweet:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And some there are who left a
name behind, to be commemorated in story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And there are others who are unremembered; they are dead, and it is as
though they never did exist...</i>’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I thought of Deacon, in his grave without a headstone; of
his grey and faceless presence that had haunted me so long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not faceless now, I thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deliberately, I closed my eyes to conjure up
his image from the photograph, his smile, his eyes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And then, as if in answer to my effort and my mood, the
reading changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another voice, the
younger voice of one of the cadets, read out the words of Binyon’s proud ‘Prayer
for the Fallen’:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">They shall not grow old, as we that are left
grow old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Age shall not weary them, nor
the years condemn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the going down of
the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.</i>’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I opened my eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
sun, on cue, broke through the clouds at just that moment, falling warm upon my
frozen back like a comforting hand, and casting long shadows across the dead
grass at the feet of the uniformed young men and women standing still, in ranks,
before the monument.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And for one brief
minute, to my eyes, those shadows made a second army—ghosts who stood at fixed
attention in between the living bodies, silent and aware.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I hadn’t been to a Remembrance Day service since I was a
child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t know that Binyon’s poem
called for a response; so it surprised me when it came, from those few older
men and women in the crowd, from those old soldiers, standing straighter now
than anyone around them, their scattered voices finding strength:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We
will remember them</i>.’</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_tU975YrXDcVrsjvsvDgT4oQD5GG973-p5xv6goY0BEuLQJsWccZ4Y0eAZrtKFiVfxFILQS9bQ_o5MA3c3f8bB21j3ZSll5THLrueAuhkP-EBVV-pg3AWOhfMcx8NIrMUJV4GWy9wsIw/s1600/poppy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_tU975YrXDcVrsjvsvDgT4oQD5GG973-p5xv6goY0BEuLQJsWccZ4Y0eAZrtKFiVfxFILQS9bQ_o5MA3c3f8bB21j3ZSll5THLrueAuhkP-EBVV-pg3AWOhfMcx8NIrMUJV4GWy9wsIw/s320/poppy.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>(NOTE: This Service of Remembrance at Intrepid Park, where <a href="http://www.campx.ca/campx.html" target="_blank">Camp X</a> used to stand, is held each year on the 11th of November, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Anybody can attend).</b></div>
Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-29622408221311930262013-10-20T07:21:00.000-07:002013-10-20T07:41:23.035-07:00The Splendour (Finally) Falls in the United States<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaliDbESh6tXXgu3G1ZQQWBfewpqvlc1trWIbhtnGYG_Ed5dwCIdgycpmRXHdPftzMbz36lZqRDC_XBo7FPs_KERH58tz7a6QeaDDKe4pkNHooEg6Bi3GNcJYW4_ERE4_PJEaNfGdwyKI/s1600/PHOTO+SPLENDOUR+09A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaliDbESh6tXXgu3G1ZQQWBfewpqvlc1trWIbhtnGYG_Ed5dwCIdgycpmRXHdPftzMbz36lZqRDC_XBo7FPs_KERH58tz7a6QeaDDKe4pkNHooEg6Bi3GNcJYW4_ERE4_PJEaNfGdwyKI/s640/PHOTO+SPLENDOUR+09A.jpg" width="600" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>The Moulin Tower, Chateau Chinon, photo taken by me in 1993</i></span></td></tr>
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> </span></i><br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">When I first wrote The Splendour Falls in 1994, it was picked up for publication by my British, Canadian and German publishers, but my agents couldn't find an American home for it, so for almost 20 years now any of my American readers who wanted a copy had to scrounge online for one. Which is why I'm so happy to announce that Sourcebooks will at last be publishing The Splendour Falls this January, for the first time ever in the U.S.A. Come January 14th, 2014, if you live in the States, you'll be able to buy the book in trade paperback or as an ebook, and Audible is currently recording an audiobook version that should be available at the same time. </span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">You can read the first chapter of the book at my <a href="http://www.susannakearsley.com/splendour.html" target="_blank">needs-to-be-updated website</a>, or if you're a blogger you can ask for the whole thing <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/show/id/34287" target="_blank">from NetGalley</a>.</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><b>In the meantime, here's a favourite scene between the heroine, Emily, and one of the young Canadian brothers she makes friends with on her trip to France:</b> </span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">'You've done it now,' said Paul, as we watched Simon bounding off away from us.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> 'Whatever do you mean?'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> 'That story you just told us, about Queen Isabelle. You mentioned treasure. <i>Big</i> mistake.' With Simon safely out of sight, he rummaged in his pocket for his cigarettes, shifting clear of the shadow cast by the tower at his shoulder. It was in ruins now, the Moulin Tower </span><span class="st">– </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span class="st">an empty hull of stone with dark weeds sprouting in the roofless chambers. And no-one walked those chambers any more. A sign beside the bolted door said sternly: <i>Danger!</i> so we leaned instead against the low, lichen-crusted wall that formed the western boundary of the chateau grounds. Behind our backs the slumbering Vienne flowed seaward, unconcerned.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span class="st"> Paul cupped the match against the breeze. 'Telling a story like that to Simon,' he advised me, 'is kind of like waving a red flag in front of a bull. He's all fired up, now.'</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span class="st"> 'He's only gone to find the toilet, Paul.'</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span class="st"> 'Don't you believe it. Not my brother.' He grinned. 'He has the bladder of a camel. No, you wait and see</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span class="st"><span class="st"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">– </span>he's sneaked off down to the entrance booth to see what he can learn about the tunnels.'</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span class="st"><span class="st"> I looked along the empty path, intrigued. 'But he doesn't speak French.'</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span class="st"><span class="st"> 'That wouldn't stop him.' Stretching his legs out in front of him, Paul dug his feet into the gravel and braced his hands beside him on the sun-warmed stone. 'So,' he said, 'what happened?'</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span class="st"><span class="st"> 'When?'</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span class="st"><span class="st"> 'To King John and Queen Isabelle. You never finished the story.'</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><span class="st"><span class="st"> 'Oh, that.' The breeze blew my hair in my eyes and I pushed it back absently. 'It's not the happiest of endings, I'm afraid. John did kill Arthur, or at least he had him killed, depending on which chronicler one reads. The King of France </span></span></span><span class="st">– Philippe </span><span class="st">– you remember the statue? Well, Philippe went rather wild. He'd raised the boy, you see. He'd been great friends with John's big brother Geoffrey, Arthur's father, and when Geoffrey died Philippe took Arthur back to Paris, brought him up. John might as well have killed Philippe's own son.'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> 'So he started a war.'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> I nodded. 'A terrible war. It cost John nearly everything. Chinon was one of the first castles to be captured, actually </span><span class="st">– it fell to Philippe not long after Arthur died.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> 'And Isabelle?'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> I looked up at the Moulin Tower, lonely and abandoned, the green weeds grasping at the crumbled window ledge. 'He lost her, too, in the end. John had foul moods and jealous rages, like his father. He even followed in his father's footsteps in another way </span><span class="st">– kept Isabelle locked up and under guard, just as his mother had been kept.'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> Paul frowned. 'How sad.'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> 'Yes, well.' I shrugged. 'It's not a fairy tale, I'll grant you. But then real life never is.'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> He turned his head to look at me, squinting a little against the sun. 'You don't believe, then, in a love that lasts a lifetime?'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> 'I don't believe,' I told him drily, 'in a love that lasts till teatime.'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> 'Cynic,' he accused me, but he smiled.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> We sat on several minutes longer in companionable silence while Paul smoked his cigarette, his eyes half narrowed, deep in thought. I couldn't help but think again how different he was from his brother Simon. One had room to breathe, with Paul.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> 'Tragic,' he said, quite out of the blue.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> 'I'm sorry?'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> He shrugged. 'It's just a kind of game I play, finding the right adjective to suit a place. I try to distil all the feeling, the atmosphere, down to a single word. Chateau Chinon's been a tough one, but I've got it now </span><span class="st">– it's tragic.'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> He'd hit the nail precisely on the head, I had to admit. In spite of all the sunshine and the blue sky and the brilliant golden walls, the place did seem to be pervaded by an aura of tragedy, of splintered hopes and unfulfilled desires.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> The swift breeze stole the sunlight's warmth and, shivering, I glanced up. 'Simon's coming.'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> 'Damn.' Paul stubbed his cigarette against the wall, setting off a shower of red sparks that died before they reached the ground. By the time Simon reached us, the telltale evidence lay crushed deep in the gravel underneath Paul's shoe.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> 'I've got a map,' said Simon cheerfully.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> Paul's eyes were knowing, but he held the innocent expression. 'Map of what?'</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"> 'The tunnels, stupid. Now, according to the woman at the gate, there should be something we can <i>see</i>, just over here...' And off he went again, with purpose, heading for a spreading box tree several yards away. 'Come on, you two,' he called back.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> With a sigh, Paul straightened from the wall and stretched. 'I told you so.'</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIj1QO168KBI5F1x8aw7nC2etME1_hBqWE3xkAk9Xhaxr_UsjGPFvth7gyQjwU3drUxibKMtonmN5NEgU4XlMDXEg2PnZA5Op7UVNDumIjoHWCiqaqKlySI85XLjRL6MYjdwPw8TpFoIE/s1600/080813cc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIj1QO168KBI5F1x8aw7nC2etME1_hBqWE3xkAk9Xhaxr_UsjGPFvth7gyQjwU3drUxibKMtonmN5NEgU4XlMDXEg2PnZA5Op7UVNDumIjoHWCiqaqKlySI85XLjRL6MYjdwPw8TpFoIE/s320/080813cc.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> </span></span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> </span></i>Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-3822930961526487352013-10-15T00:30:00.000-07:002013-10-15T00:30:01.660-07:00And the Category Is...<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjneCUa3hJ6JmjoTylMIs_A0R80xzUJHexcM5RkDY6z7R8JvrueFQbpH8KAzI5dm_j8Rw7fq8SZlZB1jCWQBj_-lzH7w6sMFyqY7LYp70fG3dCEwnQBe5l7Qq3_-3H83BWMkCMAWaz2E0s/s1600/iStock_000001045101MediumbyVasconi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjneCUa3hJ6JmjoTylMIs_A0R80xzUJHexcM5RkDY6z7R8JvrueFQbpH8KAzI5dm_j8Rw7fq8SZlZB1jCWQBj_-lzH7w6sMFyqY7LYp70fG3dCEwnQBe5l7Qq3_-3H83BWMkCMAWaz2E0s/s640/iStock_000001045101MediumbyVasconi.jpg" width="600" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image © vaskoni from iStockphoto. Used by permission.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
...PARANORMAL!<br />
<br />
Thanks so much to everyone who commented on my last post and helped me choose a RITA category for The Firebird. I was glad to see I'm not the only one who finds it difficult to figure out just where that book belongs!<br />
<br />
But it was great to read your comments and your reasoning. I've left the comments open, but the entries for the contest start today, so in keeping with the two-to-one majority of your votes, I'll be entering The Firebird in the Paranormal Romance category, where the guidelines are as follows:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Novels in which the future, a fantasy
world or paranormal elements are an integral part of the plot. In this
category, the love story is the main focus of the novel, a futuristic, fantasy
or paranormal element is blended with the love story, and the resolution of the
romance is emotionally satisfying and optimistic.</b> </blockquote>
<br />
<br />
Thanks again for giving time and thought to this. We'll see how my mutt of a book mixes in with the Purebreds :-). Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-28605779206404633112013-09-17T07:40:00.001-07:002013-10-09T14:38:11.609-07:00Categories, Cockapoos, and a Little Help from You<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">YOU</span> CHOOSE WHERE I ENTER <a href="http://www.susannakearsley.com/TheFirebird.html" target="_blank">THE FIREBIRD</a> IN THE <span class="default fss"><span class="small">RITA<sup>®</sup></span></span> AWARD CONTEST! </div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggzgvqiJ1x5Bk_I3N_OLSbuyEp5tN4ybOUP9dgM9wn1nj1KZQNb5GJVvU6MAuGdytgfR63YlBNgBiygnyd8eIInMQq5-jpLuUnj-sL1htnyHUIAASTQdNKMUC2Sff7zYtbaL1zOMzcNaA/s1600/ritachoice2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggzgvqiJ1x5Bk_I3N_OLSbuyEp5tN4ybOUP9dgM9wn1nj1KZQNb5GJVvU6MAuGdytgfR63YlBNgBiygnyd8eIInMQq5-jpLuUnj-sL1htnyHUIAASTQdNKMUC2Sff7zYtbaL1zOMzcNaA/s640/ritachoice2.jpg" width="600" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Left: My dog Sam, Photo </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">©</span></span> Me Right: Purebred Poodle <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">© <a href="http://www.dreamstime.com/appleping_info">Appleping</a> | <a href="http://www.dreamstime.com/">Dreamstime.com</a></span></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Why the dogs? More on that in a minute...<br />
<br />
The RITA Awards, for those of you who aren't familiar with them, are the equivalent of Oscars for the romance-writing community, judged by peers and awarded at a gala evening ceremony where the gowns could rival anything that Hollywood could throw at them.<br />
<br />
As a proud member of the Romance Writers of America it's been my privilege to help judge the RITAs (and find great new authors to add to my reading list), and it's been my honor to have two of my own books final for RITAs themselves: <a href="http://www.susannakearsley.com/wintersea.html" target="_blank">The Winter Sea</a> in 2009, and <a href="http://www.susannakearsley.com/TheRoseGarden.html" target="_blank">The Rose Garden</a> in 2012.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvG7CoF04otIhgT0CrnDQE_9VAmNdd2TRIp4lX99yEVmgOpWTyTsF8bhpSg6FQDNDcXMKYDHl3APLUAdgc2AHAmmxvOjQhMreK49cih7ZTQ5XrL0zFxV1i4lzs1-Wogi-6Sst4nPi557M/s1600/DSCN0269.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvG7CoF04otIhgT0CrnDQE_9VAmNdd2TRIp4lX99yEVmgOpWTyTsF8bhpSg6FQDNDcXMKYDHl3APLUAdgc2AHAmmxvOjQhMreK49cih7ZTQ5XrL0zFxV1i4lzs1-Wogi-6Sst4nPi557M/s320/DSCN0269.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
Although neither book won, I did get to actually <i>touch</i> a RITA statuette this past summer at RWA Nationals in Atlanta while celebrating with fellow author Simone St. James, who deservedly won two awards<span class="st">—Best First Novel and Best Novel With Strong Romantic Elements</span><span class="st">—</span>for her debut romantic historical ghost-hunting mystery <a href="http://www.simonestjames.com/books/the-haunting-of-maddy-clare/" target="_blank">The Haunting of Maddy Clare</a><span class="st">.</span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">Watching Simone win (that's her on the left, by the way...if she looks a bit blurry, it's only because we were all a bit blurry that evening) was wonderful but bittersweet, because the category that she won in, and that my books finaled in, is being retired by the RWA and, beginning next year, there will no longer be any RITA awarded for Best Novel With Strong Romantic Elements.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st"><span class="st">A quick read through the <a href="http://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=535" target="_blank">lists of past winners</a> will show you that categories change all the time in the RITAs: new ones emerge, old ones vanish, and others are blended together, all of which is a natural consequence of the RWA continuing to try its best to serve the ever-evolving needs of its broad and varied membership while keeping to its mission.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="st"><span class="st">But it does leave a writer like me with a bit of a problem. And here's where we get to the dogs...</span></span><br />
<br />
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<span class="st">In the photo at the top of this post, the dog on the right is a Poodle</span><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">—a purebred</span></span>. The one on the left is my former dog Samson, a Cockapoo. Samson had elements of Poodle in him, as you can see, but they were jumbled up with elements of Cocker Spaniel, meaning in a dog show he could only have competed against other dogs like him</span><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">—the crossbreeds</span></span></span><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">—because he would never have been judged "Best Poodle" or "Best Cocker Spaniel".</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">My books are like Cockapoos. Actually, they're more like what you'd get if you crossed Cockapoos with Puggles (which themselves are a cross between Beagles and Pugs), because my novels tend to be "Contemporary-Historical-Romantic-Suspense-with-Paranormal-elements", crossing several sub-genres without fitting neatly into any of them. </span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>
<span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">The Novel with Strong Romantic Elements category, given that part of <a href="http://eweb.rwanational.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=rwa&WebKey=8100a5b9-dffb-48fd-95a4-ce5d365f3e17" target="_blank">its original purpose</a> was to provide a place for works of romantic fiction "not belonging in anothe</span></span></span></span></span><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">r category", used to be a catch-basin for those of us whose novels crossed sub-genres, but I've been reassured by both veteran RWA colleagues and National head office that any book that meets the criteria for romance, by having</span></span></span></span></span><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"> a central love story with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending, should fit well into one of the remaining RITA categories.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>
<span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">I find that heartening, because The Firebird is definitely a romance. Two romances, in fact</span></span></span></span></span><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">—</span></span></span></span></span>one in the present and one in the past</span></span></span></span></span><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">—</span></span></span></span></span>both of which end happily. It also happens to be my favourite of the books I've written so far, and I really want to enter it. I just don't know exactly where it fits.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>
<span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">So here's where YOU come in.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">I'm letting you choose. There are four categories, by my count, the book could be entered in. Here they are, as set out in the RWA's official Category Descriptions:</span></span></span></span></span><b><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"> </span></span></span></span></span></b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">Contemporary Romance: Novels that focus primarily on the romantic relationship and which are greater than 65,000 words. In this category, the love story is the main focus of the novel, and the resolution of the romance is emotionally satisfying and optimistic.</span></span></span></span></span></b></blockquote>
<span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">The word count of The Firebird is, not including the epigraph and afterward, 152,466 words, of which 64,889 words are used to tell the contemporary love story between Rob and Nicola. Which has a happy ending.</span></span></span></span></span><b><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"> </span></span></span></span></span></b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">Historical Romance: Novels set in any historical time period. In this category, the love story is the main focus of the novel, and the resolution of the romance is emotionally satisfying and optimistic.</span></span></span></span></span></b></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">The remaining 87,577 words of the novel are used to tell the historical story that follows Anna Moray from her childhood to her coming of age in early 18th century St. Petersburg, Russia, including her romance with Edmund O'Connor. Which also ends happily.</span></span></span></span></span><b> </b></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Paranormal Romance: Novels in which the future, a fantasy
world or paranormal elements are an integral part of the plot. In this
category, the love story is the main focus of the novel, a futuristic, fantasy
or paranormal element is blended with the love story, and the resolution of the
romance is emotionally satisfying and optimistic.</b> </div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rob and Nicola are both psychics. They communicate telepathically a lot. The book begins, in fact, with an accidental meeting of their minds, and it's Nicola's undeveloped ability to "see" an object's past while holding it that starts them on their quest to trace the history of the Firebird carving, with Rob using his more advanced remote viewing abilities to bridge the past and present while he tries to tutor Nicola in how to fully use her own gifts. So there's that. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Romantic Suspense: Novels in which suspense, mystery, or
thriller elements constitute an integral part of the plot. In this category,
the love story is the main focus of the novel, a suspense/mystery/thriller plot
is blended with the love story, and the resolution of the romance is
emotionally satisfying and optimistic.</b></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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The origins of the Firebird carving do present a mystery, Anna has a woman-in-jeopardy sort of childhood, there's a spy plot in St. Petersburg, and overall the sort of older-style suspense one might associate with books by Mary Stewart.<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"> </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st">So, you tell ME: Which of these four categories does The Firebird best fit into?</span></span></span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span class="st"><span style="font-size: large;">Leave a comment with your vote. I'll tally them before the contest opens in October, and wherever most of you believe the book should go, that's where I'll enter it. And thank you for helping me figure out just where my crossbreed belongs.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG-nyOmY4Ghn4gJuE1JIYyXNc3w4X9lZzw4rgsLmRkq_QtMKIW39T8o8usrvXqqYU1xjFMi4VdT6LZS7e_jm_Rn7iiB5chNG4ftvSeeSETcg9M-fgPhp76sU1P3CfxnlTGD7eF_QILd_Q/s1600/samandme2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG-nyOmY4Ghn4gJuE1JIYyXNc3w4X9lZzw4rgsLmRkq_QtMKIW39T8o8usrvXqqYU1xjFMi4VdT6LZS7e_jm_Rn7iiB5chNG4ftvSeeSETcg9M-fgPhp76sU1P3CfxnlTGD7eF_QILd_Q/s320/samandme2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me in a Very Pink Shirt, holding Samson as a puppy. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-15957303591494645762013-09-08T08:58:00.002-07:002013-09-08T08:58:38.243-07:00And the Winners Are...<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F94841472&color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true" width="100%"></iframe>
Thanks so much to all of you for entering the giveaway, and leaving such great comments.<br />
<br />
The Random Number Generator has spoken, and the three winners who will each receive a copy of Audible's edition of The Firebird, narrated by Katherine Kellgren, are:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
LIANNE</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
TIFFANY DRAPER</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
JUDY C.</div>
<br />
Congratulations! Please email me at susanna(underscore)kearsley(at)yahoo(dot)ca and I'll send you the redemption codes so you can collect your prizes!Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-24770347039196950192013-08-28T17:57:00.000-07:002013-08-28T18:13:14.245-07:00Doing the Voices (and Giveaway)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnJo0OIgw-Z8vk4UsUEQDSEPM6LlaNkzHsiZc6h3cPr9_wmEDkGvsosoLyvB9lmCkQJHK8kKXlR2ugKc08W5fWdNFCCajhQwzJIkRQKNgS6pQnVFpsA3bI83uiOjkYERQrFGdQ9AxUVeM/s1600/KK+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnJo0OIgw-Z8vk4UsUEQDSEPM6LlaNkzHsiZc6h3cPr9_wmEDkGvsosoLyvB9lmCkQJHK8kKXlR2ugKc08W5fWdNFCCajhQwzJIkRQKNgS6pQnVFpsA3bI83uiOjkYERQrFGdQ9AxUVeM/s640/KK+6.jpg" width="600" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Katherine Kellgren, Narrator of The Firebird, in the Studio at Audible</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
When my children were very young, reading them stories at bedtime brought certain demands. "Do the voices," they'd tell me, since Toad in The Wind in the Willows could not sound like Mole, any more than the Tin Man could sound like the Scarecrow, or Kanga like Winnie the Pooh. Every book was a challenge, remembering whose voice was whose.<br />
<br />
So I have great respect for the narrators who bring my own books to life in their audio versions.<br />
<br />
Whenever a narrator takes on one of my books, I'm always reminded of Neil Gaiman's reaction when he visited Pinewood Studios during the filming of his novel Stardust and saw the crew working to create the flying pirate ship: “I felt so guilty," he recalled in <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1566862/neil-gaiman-makes-his-stardust.jhtml" target="_blank">this MTV Interview</a>. "I wasn't saying how great it was; I was going, 'I am so sorry I made it up!' Because it didn't cost me anything, just the price of whatever tea I was drinking and some ink. And now 70 people have spent two months working to build this thing and you can dance on the deck.”<br />
<br />
I understand this guilt. I feel it in my gut each time I talk or correspond with those poor narrators who have to perform my books. Because I simply wrote the story as it came, and put the people in the mix with one another without ever once considering the headaches it would bring to any actor who would have to "do the voices". <br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiKP1Zs83NDhg2__8f9h70CL_K4weuuEJUF9c7Dq_rfHTOLNbJ_yTAkl-4sBQvtuC6keN_UESQsMS7ISvZerEw9ehFVTQo4jof1RlizHGd1ZvR4pv6tOrE-2sjVvwgHbOHElFge7BQs1c/s1600/nicola+barber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiKP1Zs83NDhg2__8f9h70CL_K4weuuEJUF9c7Dq_rfHTOLNbJ_yTAkl-4sBQvtuC6keN_UESQsMS7ISvZerEw9ehFVTQo4jof1RlizHGd1ZvR4pv6tOrE-2sjVvwgHbOHElFge7BQs1c/s1600/nicola+barber.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nicola Barber</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For instance, it seemed natural when creating the heroine of my novel The Rose Garden to give her a wandering background: born in Cornwall, England, emigrating to the west coast of Canada as a child, and then moving south to California as a young adult, where she lived several years before returning "home" to Cornwall. I never once stopped to think that her resulting hybrid accent would be difficult to render into audio.<br />
<br />
So I felt a bit guilty to dump it on narrator <a href="http://www.nicolabarber.com/" target="_blank">Nicola Barber</a>, along with the various Cornish and West Country people my heroine meets, and the Irishman from County Cork, and a handful of Londoners, some of whom live in a previous century.<br />
<br />
I felt guiltier still when I took the first phone call from <a href="https://twitter.com/audiolady51" target="_blank">Rosalyn Landor</a>, who narrated The Winter Sea (for which she very deservedly won the Audie Award for Best Female Narration). Because she had to take on a Canadian first-person narrator and a host of characters, some fictional and some lifted right out of real history, whose accents came from very different areas of Scotland.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rosalyn Landor (Photo by Arielle Rudman)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Accents are tricky. There's no one "Scottish accent" any more than there's one single "American accent", and just as a person from Tennessee doesn't sound anything like someone raised in Wisconsin, so too a Scot from Aberdeenshire sounds nothing like someone from Glasgow.<br />
<br />
Roz was determined to get all my characters' voices exactly, from the Glaswegian doctor to the Perthshire-born past hero to the Doric-speaking landlord of my heroine. I listened in amazement as she mimicked all the voices I could hear so very clearly in my own head. But I still felt guilt.<br />
<br />
And I'm surprised that <a href="https://twitter.com/katykellgren" target="_blank">Katherine Kellgren</a>, when she called to go over the voices for The Firebird, didn't hang up on me right then and there.<br />
<br />
Here's what she had to say, after the fact, about her experience with the novel:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"There were technical requirements in The Firebird in terms of the many
dialects spoken in contemporary and historical scenes which made the
book both a challenge and a joy to record. Luckily I was able to enlist
the help of a wonderful and very experienced dialect coach when
preparing to go into the studio - but we were both working overtime on
this one! I was practically dreaming in Scots dialect by the time we
were done!" </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
And here's why. When she first got in touch on the phone, we began with the Scottish voices. The Firebird, as a sort-of-sequel to The Winter Sea, contains a few of the same characters, so I was ready with the references I'd given Roz, sometimes matching the accent of a living actor to that of a character, to make things easier.<br />
<br />
For example, Colonel Graeme, who's in both books, is a Perthshire man. He looks and sounds in my own mind like Scottish actor Brian Cox, which proved to be a useful thing for Katy, as she actually knows Brian Cox, so she's familiar with his voice.<br />
<br />
Rob, the modern-day hero, is from Eyemouth, which becomes more problematic, since the accent is <i>sui generis</i>, unique to that one town, and even if you do it properly it can be somewhat difficult to follow. "But," I said to Katy in an effort to be helpful, "he'd modify the way he speaks when talking to the heroine, because she's English. So it would be sort of watered-down Eyemouth. Except when he's angry. Or drunk."<br />
<br />
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I could hear Katy jotting that down, at her end of the phone. <br />
<br />
We moved on, to the cast of historical characters. Irish nuns in Flanders. Siberian servants in St. Petersburg. In the house of General Lacy, who was also in St. Petersburg, we had the general's wife, who was Livonian; their children, who had been raised on the general's estate in Livonia; Edmund O'Connor, an Irishman from County Kerry; the family priest, who would most likely be Italian, and the general himself, who had come out of Ireland as a young teenager and lived abroad ever since. "So his accent," I said, "would have altered a bit, though it may become stronger when he's speaking to other Irishmen."<br />
<br />
"Right," Katy said. More notes jotted. "And Charles, the nephew of Vice-Admiral Gordon...?"<br />
<br />
"Well, Charles," I said, "is a second-generation expatriate Scot. His father was born and raised near Aberdeen and sent as a young man to serve under a Scottish general in Russia, where there was a fairly large community of British expatriates, so Charles would most probably have grown up speaking English with an Aberdonian inflection but also some influence from his mother, who may or may not have been Russian…"<br />
<br />
And that's where she should have hung up on me, really.<br />
<br />
I'm glad that she didn't, because her performance is beautiful, as were the others. (Below you'll find samples of all three American audio books, so you'll see what I mean when I say I've been much more than lucky with all of my Audible narrators). <br />
<br />
I still do feel guilty for making my narrators build the equivalent of a full-scale flying pirate ship out of the voices I've put on the page. But it is always an awesome experience seeing that ship built, and getting to dance on the deck.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Thanks to the generosity of Audible, I have three copies of the audiobook of The Firebird to give away to American listeners. Leave a comment below before midnight on Saturday, September 7th, and I'll choose three winners at random from all who have commented. Best of luck!</b></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com52tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-46727716915856075682013-08-13T06:12:00.000-07:002013-08-13T06:16:23.329-07:00Adventure Across Time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">Today's Adventure: <a href="http://www.susannakearsley.com/TheFirebird.html" target="_blank">The Firebird</a> (by Me)</span></span></span></b></span></span></span></b></span></div>
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">10
Great Authors, 10 Unforgettable Adventures.</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">With every
“Today’s Adventure” post between August 1 and August 13, you can register to
win the featured book and the grand prize of all 10 books. We’ll announce
winners on August 14.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may enter
today’s contest by leaving a comment right here on my blog.</span></span></span></b><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">Nicola’s<span style="color: #000099;"><i><b> </b></i></span>not looking for adventure. But when a client brings a family heirloom—called
“the Firebird”—to her gallery to be appraised for sale, she has to help,
despite the fact that helping means she’ll have to use the psychic “gifts”
she’d rather hide, and call a favor in from an old boyfriend, Rob, whose gifts
are even greater than her own. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">Using
Rob’s abilities to “see” the distant past, they start their search in Scotland
for the client’s long-dead ancestor, a little girl they know will one day own
that family heirloom. When they find her, she’s in danger.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">Anna sat up fully,
straightening her back as her own gaze slipped to the colonel and she asked
him, ‘Is the devil really on his way here?’</span></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">Colonel Graeme, as he
often did, delayed his answer with a question of his own. ‘And do ye fear the
devil, Anna?’</span></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">Anna heard again the
wicked wailing of the wind, and was not sure. She looked to where her mother
and her father stood, and then towards the door that was still blocked by
Captain Jamieson and guarded by the colonel, and it seemed to her that nothing
could so easily get past those two men and their swords, and suddenly she knew
that she was not afraid. Not really.</span></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">So she said as much. And
when she asked the colonel, ‘Can your ship outrun him?’ she felt something stir
within her, like the thrill at the beginning of a great adventure.</span></span></span></i></div>
</blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">Nicola
knows there are risks in following a firebird. In Russian folklore, when a
firebird drops a feather, any fool who picks it up and tries to chase the bird
itself is in for trouble. But…</span></span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">A single white feather had
snagged on a low clump of blowing grass and withered wildflowers, fighting the
wind that was trying to tear it away.</span></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">It was only a gull’s
feather, ragged and plain, not a feather of flame from a firebird, but I felt
Rob’s amusement before I looked up at him.</span></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<i><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">There were those eyes
again, daring me, waiting.</span></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<i><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">‘That’s how it begins,’ he
said, ‘isn’t it?’</span></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<i><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">Hands in his pockets, he
patiently watched while I looked down again at the feather. The wind caught its
end and it started to lift and on impulse I bent down and reached for it.</span></span></span></i></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">So
two women in two different times set out on separate quests, connected by a
simple carving that—just like the Firebird in the fairy tales—may lead them to
a treasure nothing like the one they each set out to find.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><b>Leave a comment below before 8 p.m. EST today and you'll be entered to win a copy of The Firebird. And don't forget to check out the other authors who took part in this Summer Adventure week:</b></span></span></span></span></span><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Body">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://alisonatlee.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Alison Atlee</span></a></span>, The
Typewriter Girl<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/alisonatlee" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.jabrockmole.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jessica Brockmole</span></span></a>, Letters
from Skye<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jessicabrockmoleauthor" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://teribrownbooks.com/tjblog/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">T.J. Brown</span></span></a>, Summerset
Abbey: Spring Awakening<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/teri.foremanbrown" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.sarahjio.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sarah Jio</span></span></a>, The Last
Camellia <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sarahjioauthor" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.katherinekeenum.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Katherine Keenum</span></span></a>, Where the Light Falls<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://stephanielehmann.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Stephanie Lehmann</span></a></span>, Astor Place Vintage <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://facebook.com/astorplacevintage" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://katenoble.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Kate Noble</span></span></a>, Let It Be
Me<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/katenoblewriter" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://deannaraybourn.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Deanna Raybourn</span></span></a>, A Spear of
Summer Grass <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/deannaraybournauthor" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://laurenwillig.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Lauren Willig</span></span></a>, The
Ashford Affair <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/LaurenWillig" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>The adventures<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"> are now officially concluded, but be sure to come back here tomorrow for a full list of winners for all of the contests! And thank you for travelling with us.</span></b></span></span></div>
Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com70tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-800518827953754422013-08-12T07:18:00.000-07:002013-08-12T07:18:16.084-07:00Adventure in New York City<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0NcZKkuTIxwLNxmk8iiXpRBP4Sod31wmW8TvrJvor-4sSXyv7NKzkZLN6w1JiFJJAeY9R8dsNJrXQNnuG9KPht8V6KTyF0RHeBR8b7M_SnTU_gloKMXyzqcnuutxGQGBVk2zwxC8KZ4w/s1600/August+12+Lehmann+Compressed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0NcZKkuTIxwLNxmk8iiXpRBP4Sod31wmW8TvrJvor-4sSXyv7NKzkZLN6w1JiFJJAeY9R8dsNJrXQNnuG9KPht8V6KTyF0RHeBR8b7M_SnTU_gloKMXyzqcnuutxGQGBVk2zwxC8KZ4w/s640/August+12+Lehmann+Compressed.jpg" width="600" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today’s Adventure: <a href="http://www.astorplacevintage.com/" target="_blank">Astor Place Vintage</a>, by Stephanie
Lehmann</span></span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10 Great Authors, 10 Unforgettable Adventures. With every
“Today’s Adventure” post between August 1 and August 13, you can register to
win the featured book and the grand prize of all 10 books. We’ll announce
winners on August 14. You may enter
today’s contest by going to the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/astorplacevintage"><span style="color: #000099;">Astor
Place Vintage Facebook page</span></a> and liking it. Find links to all the
authors below--follow any of them to keep up with the latest adventures.</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11 pt;">Here's Stephanie:</span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"> </span>
</span></span><br />
</b><br />
<div class="Body">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Adventure? What do I know about Adventure? I’m not an
adventurous person. I’d rather stay home than travel. And if I do go anywhere,
the natives will speak English, wifi will be available, and the restaurants
will ideally offer hamburgers and apple pie. If I’m feeling particularly
daring, I’ll get cheese on my pie.
Activities that will never appear on my to-do list are sky diving,
mountain climbing or African safaris. I like my routines. Give me the same streets
in my boring old neighborhood any day.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="Body">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I suppose Olive, the heroine in my novel ASTOR PLACE
VINTAGE, does something pretty adventurous, especially for a woman in 1907.
Soon after moving from a small town to New York City, she experiences a
catastrophe that will impact the rest of her life. Instead of moving back to
the protective circle of her childhood home, she decides to remain in the city,
where she’ll have to forge for herself with no emotional or financial support.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="Body">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s not a coincidence that I moved to New York City at
almost the same age as Olive. I came to attend NYU, and though I did have
emotional and financial support, the city scared me in a big way. I was timid,
quiet, and easily intimidated. Moving to Manhattan seemed like the last thing I
would do – even to me. And then, as it turned out, I never left. Coming to New
York wasn’t on the order of trekking to the North Pole, but it may have been
the most adventurous thing I’ve ever done.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="Body">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I suppose “adventure” is a relative concept. Some people
won’t fly in planes. Some people are afraid to go outside. Some people are even
afraid to write fiction. And writers must have the dullest, safest routines of
anyone as we sit at our keyboards all day, perhaps venturing out to the library
or a coffee shop.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="Body">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But I have been told by more than a few aspiring authors
that a novel is inside, clamoring to get out. They just can’t seem to sit down
and write it.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="Body">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Could it be that writing a novel counts as an adventure?
The endeavor does involve undergoing a huge challenge while facing the unknown
with totally uncertain results hanging in the balance. The threat of danger
just happens to be mental, not physical.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="Body">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of all my novels, ASTOR PLACE VINTAGE would certainly
have to be my most adventurous. I actually dared to travel back in time. When I
began, how did I have the audacity to think I’d be able to re-create the social
customs, food, clothes, and language particular to New York City in 1907? I
didn’t even know if people back then used toothpaste.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="Body">
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But, I suppose, like an adventurerer, my audacity also
involved some bravery – the kind that involves faith that you will rise to the
occasion… even as you stay seated at your desk. I have to say, I do feel proud
of having traveled to the past and returned unscathed. I’ve definitely become a
more well-rounded person, and not just because of the weight I gained from all
those hours in front of my computer. I have to say, Olive handled herself
pretty well, too. She’s just lucky I didn’t make her take a ship bound for
Malaysia to hunt wild boar.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="Body">
<b><span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Remember to like the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/astorplacevintage"><span style="color: #000099;">Astor
Place Vintage Facebook</span></a> page, and you’ll be entered to win it and the
other nine stories. Keep up with the latest adventures and get more chances to
win through any of the authors:</span></span></b></div>
<span style="font-size: 11 pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="Body">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://alisonatlee.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Alison Atlee</span></a></span>, The
Typewriter Girl<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/alisonatlee" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.jabrockmole.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jessica Brockmole</span></span></a>, Letters
from Skye<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jessicabrockmoleauthor" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://teribrownbooks.com/tjblog/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">T.J. Brown</span></span></a>, Summerset
Abbey: Spring Awakening<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/teri.foremanbrown" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.sarahjio.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sarah Jio</span></span></a>, The Last
Camellia <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sarahjioauthor" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://susannakearsley.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Susanna Kearsley</span></span></a>, The Firebird <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSusannaKearsley" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.katherinekeenum.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Katherine Keenum</span></span></a>, Where the Light Falls<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://stephanielehmann.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Stephanie Lehmann</span></a></span>, Astor Place Vintage <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://facebook.com/astorplacevintage" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://katenoble.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Kate Noble</span></span></a>, Let It Be
Me<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/katenoblewriter" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://deannaraybourn.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Deanna Raybourn</span></span></a>, A Spear of
Summer Grass <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/deannaraybournauthor" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://laurenwillig.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Lauren Willig</span></span></a>, The
Ashford Affair <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/LaurenWillig" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Facebook</span></a></span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh59X6c2cC4C5EdByI93pxo-S_BQr14il0HnAdRs2vuHMROsZeNlkIj0VQmpP6niVofZJ2jtgn_wssUQaZuhdNy84E604vDEehRKaOBJen1qHPmztmWDM5rq1wFsQgSrBRPkmYBRmcpqAA/s1600/firebird2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh59X6c2cC4C5EdByI93pxo-S_BQr14il0HnAdRs2vuHMROsZeNlkIj0VQmpP6niVofZJ2jtgn_wssUQaZuhdNy84E604vDEehRKaOBJen1qHPmztmWDM5rq1wFsQgSrBRPkmYBRmcpqAA/s320/firebird2.JPG" width="209" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">The adventures conclude tomorrow with my own book, <a href="http://www.susannakearsley.com/TheFirebird.html" target="_blank">The Firebird</a>, so be sure to come back here tomorrow to find out how to win a copy. In the meantime, you can find out more about the book at <a href="http://www.susannakearsley.com/index.html" target="_blank">my website</a>, or read the first three chapters by scrolling right to the <a href="http://books.sourcebooks.com/firebird/" target="_blank">bottom of this link</a> to find the built-in ebook viewer.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<b>
</b></div>
Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-86061516241899946572013-08-11T05:50:00.000-07:002013-08-11T06:02:31.628-07:00Adventure in Africa<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPHWHKlNGv4jv95xuXuXIYp7o1ZmL14WJJFXCKNJo7n_Zi2m_dib-zlcLEa03jzNr9lBeclh8OQVOHelurhGzLB2pMhyMjrRscAJIz2fJ7lnk24yJnQvo-g_SI8lguEdwIvuh7gB_XDa4/s1600/August+11+Raybourn+Compressed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPHWHKlNGv4jv95xuXuXIYp7o1ZmL14WJJFXCKNJo7n_Zi2m_dib-zlcLEa03jzNr9lBeclh8OQVOHelurhGzLB2pMhyMjrRscAJIz2fJ7lnk24yJnQvo-g_SI8lguEdwIvuh7gB_XDa4/s640/August+11+Raybourn+Compressed.jpg" width="600" /></a></div>
<div class="FreeForm" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="FreeForm" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Today’s Adventure: </span><a href="http://www.deannaraybourn.com/a_spear_of_summer_grass.html" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US">A Spear of Summer Grass</span></a><span lang="EN-US">, by
Deanna Raybourn</span></b><b> </b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>10
Great Authors, 10 Unforgettable Adventures. With every
“Today’s Adventure” post between August 1 and August 13, you can register to
win the featured book and the grand prize of all 10 books. We’ll announce
winners on August 14. You may enter
today’s contest by <a href="http://deannaraybourn.com/blog/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">leaving a comment at Deanna’s blog</span></a>. You’ll find the form on
the right-hand sidebar of her blog.</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>
</b></span><br />
<div class="Body">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Here’s
Deanna:</b><span lang="EN-US"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">The
very last thing Delilah Drummond expects when she goes to Africa is a proper
adventure. Most travelers journey there on safari, but Delilah is banished
abroad by a family that has weathered one too many of her scandals. She’s a
flapper with a sharp black bob and a slash of scarlet lipstick, a party girl
with a penchant for gin and men other women have left lying around unattended.
She is a woman who has seen it all and done most of it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">But
nothing prepares her for Africa. Exiled to her father’s savanna manor house,
Delilah finds to her dismay that Fairlight is the crumbling, sun-bleached
skeleton of a faded African dream, a world where dissolute expats are bolstered
by gin and jazz, cigarettes and safaris.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">And
against the frivolity of the expat community, Ryder White stands in sharp
contrast. He is her guide to Africa and all its dangers and thrills—and he is
more than a match for the complex beauty of this new land she comes to love.
For Delilah, letting down her guard just might be the greatest adventure of
them all…</span><b><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #000099;"> </span></span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://deannaraybourn.com/blog/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">Leaving a comment at Deanna’s blog</span></a> gets you entered to win </span><span lang="EN-US">A
Spear of Summer Grass </span><span lang="EN-US">and the
other nine stories. Keep up with the latest adventures and get more chances to
win through any of the authors:</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://alisonatlee.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">AlisonAtlee</span></a><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US">The Typewriter Girl </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/alisonatlee" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">Facebook</span></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://jabrockmole.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">JessicaBrockmole</span></a><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US">Letters from
Skye </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jessicabrockmoleauthor" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">Facebook</span></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://teribrownbooks.com/tjblog/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">T.J.Brown</span></a><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US">Summerset Abbey:
Spring Awakening </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/teri.foremanbrown" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">Facebook</span></a><span lang="EN-US"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://sarahjio.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">SarahJio</span></a><span lang="EN-US">,
</span><span lang="EN-US">The
Last Camellia </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sarahjioauthor" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">Facebook</span></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://susannakearsley.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">SusannaKearsley</span></a><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US">The Firebird </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSusannaKearsley" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">Facebook</span></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://katherinekeenum.com/"><span style="color: #000099;">Katherine
Keenum</span></a><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US">Where the Light Falls
</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://stephanielehmann.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">StephanieLehmann</span></a><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US">Astor Place Vintage </span><a href="http://facebook.com/astorPlaceVintage" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">Facebook</span></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://katenoble.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">KateNoble</span></a><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US">Let It Be Me </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/katenoblewriter" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">Facebook</span></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://deannaraybourn.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">DeannaRaybourn</span></a><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US">A Spear of Summer
Grass </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/deannaraybournauthor" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">Facebook</span></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://laurenwillig.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">LaurenWillig</span></a><span lang="EN-US">, </span><span lang="EN-US">The Ashford Affair </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/LaurenWillig" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099;">Facebook</span></a></span></div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPuCMklRJi5lWHjXX2v2Jp1G6D-r9fOMX_gHrI2-1nNHcdlpRPc8xnY6PMoXTavpykVsKDgwQ6RHdHdfDUxh7I2mjR-eWow8I-GrGLgiKyNlx2tSPOkYYvEj0WjRRXKUvchPptpUp3joE/s1600/Astor_Place_Vintage-Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPuCMklRJi5lWHjXX2v2Jp1G6D-r9fOMX_gHrI2-1nNHcdlpRPc8xnY6PMoXTavpykVsKDgwQ6RHdHdfDUxh7I2mjR-eWow8I-GrGLgiKyNlx2tSPOkYYvEj0WjRRXKUvchPptpUp3joE/s320/Astor_Place_Vintage-Cover.jpg" width="209" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The adventures continue tomorrow with Stephanie Lehmann's <a href="http://www.astorplacevintage.com/" target="_blank">Astor Place Vintage</a>, in which the proprietor of a Vintage Clothing store gets more than she bargained for when she finds an old journal sewn into the lining of a piece she's just purchased... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Stephanie received her BA at U.C. Berkeley and an MA in English
from New York University. She has taught novel writing at Mediabistro
and online at Salon.com, where her essays have been published. She
currently lives in New York City. Astor Place Vintage is her fifth
novel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Be sure to come back tomorrow to read Stephanie's guest post and find out how to win a copy of her book.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="en-CA" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: #0400; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: X-NONE; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: #0400;"></span></div>
Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2051593313019795067.post-55761747380366878542013-08-09T00:00:00.000-07:002013-08-09T11:22:52.154-07:00Adventure at the Manor House<div class="Body" style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMd1e73QOeLpakDtayNCVKPOmuayjNshqh2d9PHFd4eauwFuWWdpQtx-gDIvRymox4ewcrfA9tfsKmoiQgNTU5zcv86jkV07iIsg90KQS4aO1qjlAHndwSVjMvfAr9KEkRf792Dimeu8w/s1600/August+9+Jio+Compressed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMd1e73QOeLpakDtayNCVKPOmuayjNshqh2d9PHFd4eauwFuWWdpQtx-gDIvRymox4ewcrfA9tfsKmoiQgNTU5zcv86jkV07iIsg90KQS4aO1qjlAHndwSVjMvfAr9KEkRf792Dimeu8w/s600/August+9+Jio+Compressed.jpg" width="600" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today’s
Adventure: <a href="http://www.sarahjio.com/books/" target="_blank">The Last Camellia</a>,
by Sarah Jio</span></b></span></div>
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="Body">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="Body">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">10
Great Authors, 10 Unforgettable Adventures. With every
“Today’s Adventure” post between August 1 and August 13, you can register to
win the featured book and the grand prize of all 10 books. We’ll announce
winners on August 14.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may enter
today’s contest at Sarah’s Facebook page, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sarahjioauthor"><span style="color: #000099;">www.facebook.com/sarahjioauthor</span></a>. Find links to all
the authors below--follow any of them to keep up with the latest adventures.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s
Sarah:</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: inherit;">The year is 1940. The world is on the brink of war. Can you
imagine being barely twenty years old and leaving your home on the quiet, safe
Atlantic Coast and traveling to an unknown country to an unknown manor house,
where you will be required to go beyond your comfort zone in ways you’ve never
even imagined?</span></div>
<div class="FreeForm">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: inherit;">My character, Flora, in my fourth novel, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: inherit;">The
Last Camellia</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: inherit;">, does just that. She’s brave, she’s bold, and for those she
loves, she’s willing to do the unthinkable.</span><br />
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: inherit;">I thought a lot about adventure while writing Flora’s character,
namely because I still regret not spending a year in Europe during my college
years (I stayed home for the reason many of us do: a relationship that
ultimately didn’t end up working out).</span><br />
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: inherit;">But I got to be adventurous and travel alongside Flora in
writing this novel—at least, in spirit. I followed her on her voyage to
England, roam the great halls of the Livingston Manor, explore the gardens, and
ultimately make life-changing discoveries. It was the adventure of a
lifetime—for both of us.</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">To enter the giveaway, please like Sarah’s Facebook fan page: </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/sarahjioauthor"><span style="color: #000099;">www.facebook.com/sarahjioauthor</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>Keep up with the latest adventures and chances
to win through any of the authors:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://alisonatlee.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;">Alison Atlee</span></a></span>,
The Typewriter Girl <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/alisonatlee" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;">Facebook</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.jabrockmole.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #000099; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Jessica Brockmole</span></a>,
Letters from Skye <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jessicabrockmoleauthor" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;">Facebook</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://teribrownbooks.com/tjblog/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #000099; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">T.J. Brown</span></a>, Summerset
Abbey: Spring Awakening <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/teri.foremanbrown" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;">Facebook</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.sarahjio.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #000099; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Sarah Jio</span></a>, The Last
Camellia <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sarahjioauthor" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;">Facebook</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://susannakearsley.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #000099; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Susanna Kearsley</span></a>, The
Firebird <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSusannaKearsley" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;">Facebook</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.katherinekeenum.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #000099; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Katherine Keenum</span></a>,
Where the Light Falls<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #000099;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://stephanielehmann.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;">Stephanie Lehmann</span></a></span>, Astor Place Vintage <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://facebook.com/astorplacevintage" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;">Facebook</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://katenoble.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #000099; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Kate Noble</span></a>, Let It Be Me
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://deannaraybourn.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #000099; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Deanna Raybourn</span></a>, A
Spear of Summer Grass <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/deannaraybournauthor" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;">Facebook</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://laurenwillig.com/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #000099; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Lauren Willig</span></a>, The
Ashford Affair <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/LaurenWillig" target="_blank"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;">Facebook</span></a></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4CB-oeKgCLhHmB4ebDKUZfaRCdVgMJSIeqx-JjF-4gAXh8spyi4rESR_5dQZgSm3xWlEeHrxsW5miD3oMKge7L6LWI-EhOphIjMelAO5HiDly3zL7P-1BJpgg8a3Nv_v5M2dcGZHI34/s1600/deannasbook.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4CB-oeKgCLhHmB4ebDKUZfaRCdVgMJSIeqx-JjF-4gAXh8spyi4rESR_5dQZgSm3xWlEeHrxsW5miD3oMKge7L6LWI-EhOphIjMelAO5HiDly3zL7P-1BJpgg8a3Nv_v5M2dcGZHI34/s320/deannasbook.JPG" width="210" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">The adventures continue on Sunday with Deanna Raybourn's <a href="http://www.deannaraybourn.com/a_spear_of_summer_grass.html" target="_blank">Spear of Summer Grass</a>, in which a determinedly scandalous and independent woman journeys to the heart of Colonial Africa and finds a landscape that will change her and a man with strength to match her own.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">Deanna's the author of </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><b><i>The Dead Travel Fast</i></b>—a Gothic adventure in Victorian Transylvania</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">—and of the </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">bestselling Lady Julia Grey series featuring Victorian sleuth Lady
Julia and her enigmatic partner, private enquiry agent Nicholas
Brisbane, nominated for five RITA Awards,
an Agatha Award, and numerous Dilys Wynn, Last Laugh, Daphne du
Maurier, and <i>Romantic Times</i> Reviewers’ Choice Awards. The first book in the series, <b><i>Silent in the Grave</i></b>, won the 2008 RITA for Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elements, while the fifth adventure, <b><i>The Dark Enquiry</i></b>, was a <i>New York Times</i> bestseller. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: #000099; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">Be sure to come back on Sunday to read Deanna's </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span class="st">guest post and find out how to win a copy of her book.</span></div>
Susanna Kearsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12675951272027527098noreply@blogger.com0