It’s September, and while in England we’re enjoying a brief revival of summer’s warmth, the first yellowing leaves drifting on the breeze tell that autumn – fall – has tentatively arrived.I love the warmth of the spring and summer, but who can resist the kaleidoscope of colour that autumn
From the blurb: And then came war . . . Today. Sera James spends most of her time arranging auctions for the art world’s elite clientele. When her search to uncover an original portrait of an unknown Holocaust victim leads her to William Hanover III, they learn that this painting
Did you know that audio books are a fast-growing sector in publishing? Between 2008 and 2013, revenue grew by 12 per cent annually to a massive $1.6 billion (source: IBISWorld). No longer are people complaining they don’t have time to read: they’re listening to books on their phones, their media
Last week I wrote about using the male point of view in romance fiction.Deciding on whose point of view you’re writingin is just one aspect of the narrative mode on which an author must decide before writing his or her book. This week I’m looking at two other aspects: the
This month marks three years since I began the Hannah Fielding blog. How time has flown, and how this blog has grown! In the past three years, I’ve written some 725 blog posts. Averaging, say, 500 words per post, that’s 362,500 words! I’ve so enjoyed having the opportunity to write
It’s that time of year again: the Venice Film Festival, running from 27 August to 6 September. Did you know that the Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world? It was first held back in 1932 (the first film shown was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde),
When a reader picks up a traditional romantic novel, she/he has certain basic expectations: That the theme of love will permeate the story. That in the story woman/girl will meet man/boy and fall in love, but encounter obstacles to that love.
From the blurb: How to Become London’s Most Notorious Widow: 1. Vow to NEVER remarry 2. Own a ship and become fabulously wealthy 3. Wear the latest risqué fashions in your signature color 4. Do NOT have a liaison at the Prince Regent’s palace with a naval captain whose broad
Recently the Guardian reported on a study on retention of digital reads versus paper reads. Researchers gave participants an Elizabeth George short story. Twenty-five readers read the story in a paperback novel format. Twenty-five read it on a Kindle. Afterwards, the academics tested the readers’retention of objects, characters and settings.
We read in black and white: black text on a white page, be it a paper one or a virtual ‘e-page’ on a screen. But the stories themselves are not black and white, not metaphorically and not – please, never! – descriptively. Any student of literature knows that description is
My latest book, The Echoes of Love, is set in Italy: Venice, Tuscany and Sicily. I love Italy for its passion, its beauty, its long and fascinating history, its rich and inspiring cultural heritage… and that which symbolises all: Roman mythology. The Echoes of Love is a modern novel, set
I love book bloggers! I love book bloggers because of their passion, their hard work, their integrity, their sensibility and their support for authors; and I love book bloggers because I am part of that community as a book reviewer myself. But how did that community come about? Today, I’m
Astute, intelligent, gripping romance for the modern woman. From the first page I was entirely hooked. I love, love the world in which the story is situated. The author so expertly transports you to Beverly Hills and, for a period, Paris, and offers a glimpse of glamour while showing those
Were I to write now a scene for the characters of my latest novel, The Echoes of Love, set in Italy, it would include them relaxing and enjoying today’s public holiday, the Ferragosto. Celebrated each 15th August, the Ferragosto is a favourite holiday in Italy – so much so that
We’re all familiar with serial dramas on the television, but books? Once, reading a story one instalment at a time was wildly popular. Back in Victorian England, for example, books themselves were premium items – expensive and requiring risky investment from publishers. Thus it was easier to break down a
I grew up speaking French, predominantly – it was the language used at my school, for example. But because I lived in Egypt, it was essential I could speak Arabic. My parents insisted on my being fluent in English. And my half-French, half-Italian governess was careful to perfect my French
In my new novel, Aphrodite’s Tears, the heroine Oriel is struggling to maintain a professional distance from her new employer, Damian, with whom, years ago, she shared a single night of passion: ‘Rules were made to be broken.’ Damian smiled with his lips but his eyes, so astoundingly silver, had
In my new novel, Aphrodite’s Tears, the heroine Oriel has come to stay on the small Greek island of Helios in order to carry out archaeological work. The island is out of step with the modern era and steeped in ancient traditions, and the people are not used to newcomers.
One of the most fundamental choices a novelist faces before setting pen to paper is whether to narrate the book in the first or third person. Here is a paragraph from my latest novel, Aphrodite’s Tears: Could she really do this job? She wanted it so badly. Her own Roman
I love going to the theatre. When I sit in my seat, listening to the orchestra tune up, looking around at all the grandeur of the auditorium, my stomach flutters with anticipation of the spectacle to come. But while the seat is invariably upholstered in soft red velvet and is
A recent news headline in The Bookseller caught my eye: ‘Bookshops staffed with robots to open in Beijing’. With a heavy heart, I clicked the article and read about the 20 bookstores being opened by China’s largest bookselling franchise, Xinhua. Each will be open twenty-four hours, and accessible, via facial
In my new novel, Aphrodite’s Tears, set in the 1970s, the heroine Oriel is an archaeologist who has been hired to work on a subsea exploration around the small, private Ionian island of Helios. An ancient wreck has been found off the coast, calcified and half buried in the sand,
‘Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.’ So said author Emilie Buchwald. Recently, though, it was reported in the press that just half of preschool children in the UK are read to daily. A survey commissioned by Nielsen Book Research found that the number of parents reading
I find inspiration for my writing from all kinds of sources. For Burning Embers, I was inspired by the poetry of French poet Leconte de Lisle; for The Echoes of Love, an experience in the Piazza San Marco, Venice, sparked the idea of a city with two faces; for my
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