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Author: Hannah

Taking inspiration from the music of nature

When I am staying at my home in France, I love to take long walks by the sea and hear the rhythmic sound of the water lapping, or sometimes crashing, on the sand. I sit in my garden and listen to the chorus of the cicadas and the drone of the bees attracted to my lavender. In Ireland, I go for walks in the woodland near my home, to the sound of the leaves stirred by the breeze and the birds singing high up in the trees and the merry tinkling of a little stream.

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Taking inspiration from a muse

In Ancient Greek mythology, there were nine goddesses for the arts and sciences: Calliope for epic poetry, Clio for history, Erato for love poetry, Euterpe for music and songs and lyric poetry, Melpomene for tragedy, Polyhymnia for hymns, Terpsichore for dance, Thalia for comedy and Urania for astronomy. These muses, as they were known, inspired mortals in their creations.

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Favourite romantic artworks

One of my favourite ways to spend an afternoon is to visit an art gallery. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to visit some of the biggest art galleries and museums in the world, like the Louvre in Paris and the Tate galleries in London, but I love to visit small galleries too; one of my favourites is the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice, near my home in France, which has a beautiful Rodin sculpture.

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The magnificent villas of Lake Como

When I decided upon Italy as the setting for my new novel, Concerto, I knew at once where I would set the story: beautiful, timeless Lake Como. More specifically, I knew the story would unfold in a villa, since the area is famous for these grand, belle époque residences with magnificent gardens of rare trees, exotic flowers and broad lawns, and narrow pink or mellow yellow stone staircases leading down to the edge of the lake.

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Healing with music: The Mozart effect

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was, without doubt, one of the greatest composers to have ever lived. In his short life he composed more than 600 works, many of which continue to be performed by musicians today. His music is popular the world over, and in the most recent poll for Classic FM’s Hall of Fame (2019), three of his pieces featured in the top-twenty list. Here is his most popular work on the list, the Clarinet Concerto in A Major.

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The view from the water: setting the scene in my romance novels

My home in the south of France overlooks the Mediterranean Sea, and for a few days each summer, to quote William Wordsworth, ‘With ships the sea [is] sprinkled far and nigh’. The event is called Les Voiles de St Tropez, and it is a sailing regatta that takes place in the gulf of St Tropez (you can learn more about it in my article ‘The romance – and sensuality – of sailing’). I love to sit on my terrace and watch the white sails moving across the ocean, like a kaleidoscope of white butterflies in the bluest of skies.

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On writing ‘drunk’ and editing sober

There is a very simple reason I am a writer: I love writing. I love the experience of taking ideas in my imagination and realising them on the page; I love the sense of magic that unfolds as the muse guides the pen; I love to be immersed in a fictional world and to create.

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The innocent heroine in love

At the start of my latest novel Concerto, the heroine, Catriona, is balancing on the line between girl and woman. She is eighteen, and in some ways she has an adult perspective. For example, she has been career-minded for some time.

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On sudden inspiration, and ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’

‘Inspiration strikes’ is a common term, and as a writer, I understand why. Once you let writing into your life, your imagination is always active, always open, and sometimes out of nowhere an idea comes to you, like a bolt from the blue. Invariably, this happens when you are doing something completely unrelated to writing – cooking, bathing, walking.

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A man in the shadows: Light and darkness in Concerto

Umberto, hero of my new novel Concerto, is a man who is comfortable in the spotlight. He has grown up the son of a celebrated opera diva, and has honed his own musical talent to become a pianist composer, a rising star in the world of classical music. When my heroine, Catriona, goes to see Umberto perform in concert at the Nice opera house, she is absolutely mesmerised by his playing – and by the charismatic man himself:

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Making books accessible with ebook versions

When I wrote my first novel, Burning Embers, there was no such thing as an ebook. My dream was simply to see the book in print; to hold the novel in my hands. By the time I came to publish Burning Embers, however, the digital revolution was in full swing. My publisher informed me that the novel would be simultaneously published in print and ebook formats.

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Books as treasure: valuable first editions

‘I ransack public libraries, and find them full of sunk treasure.’ So wrote Virginia Woolf, and how right she was, in more ways than one. Of course, libraries are full of amazing books to inform and entertain and inspire – but they can also contain treasures of real monetary value.

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Originality in writing: an impossible ideal?

Back in Shakespeare’s day, a writer was expected to copy a classical work; ‘unnecessary invention’ was frowned upon. According to Jack Lynch, in his article ‘The Perfectly Acceptable Practice of Literary Theft: Plagiarism, Copyright, and the Eighteenth Century’, it was only in the 18th century that originality became an ideal. But is this an impossible ideal?

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On writing strong, independent heroines

Do you remember the first time you experienced Romeo and Juliet? For me, it was in my early teens, sitting in the audience of a playhouse and watching actors interpret Shakespeare’s classic lines. I found the romance between Romeo and Juliet so beautiful, especially the balcony scene.

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La Traviata, Madam Butterfly and Carmen: operatic inspirations for my writing

Opera is a key theme in my novel Concerto. The heroine, Catriona, is a young woman who dreams of becoming an opera singer. She has the passion, and the talent: she attends the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Nice, and has made the final in a competition to earn a place at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris, which would launch her career in the world of opera. Then she meets composer Umberto Rolando Monteverdi, and her life takes an entirely unexpected twist.

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