I came across a mention of this book in the latest edition of Mslexia magazine, and was intrigued. Literary cocktails? Marrying the joy of literature with the pleasure of a colourful, fun tipple? Sounded like a recipe for success. What a fun book! Just take a look at some of
Picture the scene: You’re wandering through the Dorsoduro district of Venice on a spring evening, hand in hand with a loved one. You come to a bridge near Campo San Barnaba, and you step out on it together to the centre, where you lean on the balustrade and drink in
In the course of my research for my novel The Echoes of Love I researched Venetian history in detail. I was especially interested in the people of Venice – and given the city’s respected artistic and academic tradition, there are so many impressive figures to learn about. One that really
As the O’Jays eloquently put it in their 1970s disco song: ‘I love music.’ And though I’m not sure I can stretch so far as to agree that I love ‘any kind of music’, I certainly love many types! Which makes interweaving music into the books I write an essential
A must-read for anyone who loves The Phantom of the Opera… Having been a keen ballerina in my youth, and ever since a regular visitor to the ballet, I was at once attracted to a romance in which the heroine is a dancer. And as soon as I began reading,
Authors are often, by nature, solitary sorts. We have to be in order to carry out the work of writing – many hours alone in our own fantasy world. Recently, I blogged on ‘The lonely writer’, and I included the opinion of writer Isaac Asimov: Writing is a lonely job.
Music is a great source of inspiration to me, whether classical or modern, and in any language. I have a huge repertoire of songs from all over the world that I listen to while doing my research and it helps me create the initial atmosphere for my story. For Burning
Here are the answers to the coffee quiz. How did you do? 1. What is the origin of the word ‘mocha’? c) A seaport in Yemen from which coffee is shipped. 2. What is espresso? c) A way of preparing coffee. 3. What are the ingredients of an Americano? a)
Italians love coffee: fact. Most drink it as if it were water, and to be an Italian who does not partake is to be something of an outsider. I am a coffee lover – what writer isn’t! We need it to feed and energise the muse. So when researching and
Back when I published my first novel, Burning Embers, I wrote a post in which I analysed how the manuscript broke down in terms of word and phrase frequency. I was keen to do the same for my new novel, The Echoes of Love, to see how the two compare.
I’m delighted to share a clipping from today’s Sun newspaper, in which The Echoes of Love is featured alongside some great romantic reads as a top romance novel.
No doubt you’ve come across biscotti in your local coffee house – crunchy, dry almond Italian biscuits that are ideal for dunking into a cappuccino. Indeed, I so love the combination that I gave the heroine of my novel The Echoes of Love, Venetia, a daily habit: each morning she
The perfect film for me because it includes: a) Beautiful scenery – this is the kind of film you’ll watch over and over for the escapism factor. b) Writing – I love creative heroines, and I identify with Frances’s need to get away in order to find her muse again.
When I first visited Tuscany I fell in love. So much so that when I was writing The Echoes of Love, whose action opens in Venice, Italy, I knew there was only one place I could situate the hero’s country retreat: Tuscany, the perfect backdrop for romance. The Tuscan landscape
From the blurb: A wedding guest from her past… After a rocky year, Casey Caravetta pulls herself together and puts on a smile for her best friend’s Christmas Eve wedding. However, she hadn’t expected to see Turner Kennedy, the first man to break her heart. Special Forces commando Turner is
When I say ‘a writer writing’ to you, what image flits into your mind? You may see a person bashing away at a typewriter, or scrawling frenetically in a notebook, or staring vacantly into space surrounded by balled-up sheets of paper, or glaring at a blinking cursor on an empty
John Ruskin (1819–1900) was a man of many passions: an art critic, a patron, a draughtsman, a painter, a philanthropist and a reformer. And he was a man who loved, loved Venice. He channeled all his admiration into a three-volume collection of essays on Venetian art and architecture entitled The
Here’s a wonderful book for anyone who, like me, is fascinated by Venice’s rich literary history. I especially loved the walking tours outlined in the book – a wonderful way to explore the city. From the blurb: Venice has always attracted an extraordinary range of writers – pious and impious,
Coffee is wonderfully complementary to the pursuits of reading and writing for the energy and comfort and socialisation it affords. So it’s little surprise that one of the locations of most interest to lovers of literature that visit Venice is a coffee house. But not just any coffee house: the
This week I am dedicating my blog posts to the theme of ‘Literary Venice’. Recently I blogged about Lady Caroline Blanche Lindsay, ‘the epitome of the cultured and fashionable aesthetic woman’ in the nineteenth century, and the writer of a collection of poems on Venice: From a Venetian Balcony: And
Venice is a city composed of no less than 118 small islands, and most have their own unique history and feel. Such an abundance of locations within the city gave me a wealth of choice when it came to situating the action in my novel The Echoes of Love, and
Regular readers of my blog will have spotted a common theme in the sources of my inspiration: Colour! And that is, for me, a key reason that I love the vivid artworks of Venetian painter Paolo Veronese. As you can see from the painting I’ve included here, The Wedding at
From the blurb: The Whispering Wind is a moving story of two lovers, set on the beautiful island of Sardinia, where Elise goes on holiday to escape a loveless and violent marriage. Whilst there, she meets and falls in love with Beppe, a local Sard. Despite religious and cultural complications,
It’s here again, the best day of the year for any romantic like me: Valentine’s Day! A day for casting off all vestiges of the sensible and mundane, and embracing high romance. If I ask you to close your eyes and imagine the most perfect Valentine’s Day date, what do
Lest we modern writers forget, there was a time when female writers faced a good deal of prejudice when it came to being taken seriously as authors and poets. When Charlotte Brontë sent some of her poems to the then poet laureate Robert Southey, for example, he wrote back: ‘Literature cannot
My heroine in The Echoes of Love, Venetia, is by profession a professional restorer of mosaics, a job requiring a great deal of skill, care and knowledge. She is well placed to carry out her work, located as she is in Venice, which played a key part in the history
Gelato – soft, creamy ice-cream – is a popular dessert in Italy, and such a wonderfully wide array of flavours is available: pistachio, almond, hazelnut, egg custard, coffee, zuppa inglese, rum and raisin, even liquorice. Personally, I find the chocolate flavours calling to me, from the delicious cioccolato fondente (fondant)
For as long as I can remember, I have loved fairytales. I recall so vividly those told to me by my governess, Zula – the traditional tales of folklore and those she invented to suit my romantic sensibilities. One of my favourite aspects of any story was a ball: a
Welcome, and thank you for visiting my website as part of the Rain Rain Go Away hop, organised by The Kids Did It http://thekidsdidit.com and The Mommy Island http://themommyisland.blogspot.com. I’m offering readers a chance to escape to hot, sultry Spain with my full Andalucian Nights series: that’s three paperbacks. Entry
‘Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.’ So wrote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, prolific writer of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. After all, isn’t the point of writing to express oneself? Whatever you write, it is infused with
In my twenties, after graduating university, I travelled around Europe, keen to visit places I had read so much about. Andalucía was one such place; it had cropped up so many times in the literature I had read. There was Washington Irving’s captivating Tales of the Alhambra, in which he
If you’re reading this blog post, it’s a safe assumption that you’re a reader: you enjoy reading books (perhaps even my own novels; I do hope so). Consider these questions: How much time do you devote to reading? In your reading time, which books do you choose to read? Whatever
As a child, I wrote and wrote – stories inspired by fairy tales, when I was young, and then, in my teens, romantic tales. Of course, these stories were handwritten on paper. I can recall even now the rustle of the paper, the scratching of the pen nib, the scent
We all know that reading fiction is a means of escape: from wherever you are reading, you are transported to the fictional world, to another place and time, and that can be as inspiring, relaxing and enjoyable as travelling for real. Have you ever considered, though, that reading is not
Welcome, and thank you for visiting my website as part of this hop. I’m giving away a lovely reading journal made by the British Library and inspired by the Olga Hirsch collection of decorative papers. ‘The main section of the book is organized alphabetically with flexible writing space to note
Many years ago, when I set pen to paper and wrote the first draft of what would become my debut novel, Burning Embers, I thought a lot about the setting and the story and the characters and the mood – and I thought very little about specific categorisation for the
My home in the South of France – a French mas (Provençal farmhouse) in Ste Maxime – affords beautiful views over the Mediterranean. I often write in the garden, in the shade on the terrace, or in my writing room if the heat is too much; and as I write
For me, there are few pleasures that can compete with a half hour spent browsing in a bookstore. Canterbury and Dover, the main cities near my English home, offer a wealth of options, but for a special treat I venture to one of the quaint seaside towns on the Kentish
‘How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live,’ wrote Henry David Thoreau, the great American writer who famously retreated from life for two years to live in a house he’d built in a wood. In the work this retreat inspired, Walden, he
‘I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.’ So wrote Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. How many book lovers have since taken these words to heart? Here are just a few of the gifts on offer for those who find affinity with the quotation: (Sources: T-shirt; cushion; oak bookmark; metal
One of my favourite television programmes at the moment is First Dates, a programme in which French maître d’ Fred Sirieix oversees couples dining together on blind dates in a London restaurant (and, more recently, at a French hotel). The focus of the show, of course, is an exploration of
Emily Brontë – Wuthering Heights; Anna Sewell – Black Beauty; Margaret Mitchell – Gone with the Wind; Boris Pasternak – Doctor Zhivago; JD Salinger – The Catcher in the Rye; Ralph Ellison – Invisible Man; Sylvia Plath – The Bell Jar… What do these authors have in common? They published
‘The moon lives in the lining of your skin.’ So wrote the poet Pablo Neruda in his ‘Ode to a Beautiful Nude’. This line resonated with me as I wrote my latest novel, Legacy. The heroine, born under a full moon, is Luna, which is Spanish for moon. Ruy, the
There are so many different ways to express that you love someone; often, though, it can be hard to find the words to encapsulate all the emotion within. When it comes to declarations of love, however, the words you write in your Valentine’s card need not be entirely your own;
‘Two cafés with long and prominent histories, Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots in Paris: inspirational, fascinating and a chance to brush shoulders with the ghosts of the greats…’
‘Finding a book that speaks to you feels like finding treasure. There’s a magic to it – a spark of energy when you realise the book in your hand is one you’re going to read…’
‘As a child, I longed for the world to be only sunshine and rainbows and happy-ever-afters. As an adult, I understand that real romance is multi-faceted, and there is a danger in indulging in fantasy…’
‘Studies have shown that bibliotherapy is especially powerful for alleviating anxiety and depression, which makes reading so important for us all right now as we are trapped in a bubble of worry, fear and isolation. Reading is an act of self-love; it is a way to make yourself feel better…’
‘The best romances offer an opportunity for readers to learn about something new, such as an interesting occupation or a place. In my own romances, I take readers to fascinating locations around the world, like Lake Como and Venice and Cadiz, so that my books are like a passport to travel from the comfort of your own home…’
‘My romance novel Burning Embers: FREE for all readers…’
‘In these difficult times, the act of reading can transport us away from a world that feels dark and threatening and grant us a reprieve from our worries. When we read we connect to people. We are not alone…’
‘The Ancient Greeks practised ornithomancy: divination based on the flights and songs of birds. In my novel Aphrodite’s Tears, I was inspired to weave in some bird symbolism of my own…’
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