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My latest blog posts
Authors and social media: Striking the balance
Ten years ago, being an author was, in a sense, fairly straightforward. You wrote a book. You attempted to sell that book to agents/publishers. If successful, you took part in some limited marketing activities (a radio interview, say, and writing an article for the press), but for the most part
The best hot chocolate in Venice
My new book, The Echoes of Love, opens with a rescue: enigmatic stranger Paolo saves the heroine, Venetia, from a near-mugging. In the aftermath of the incident, with the attacker having fled and Venetia decidedly shaken, there is only one way forward as far as the commanding and kind Paolo
The masks of the Venice Carnival
What is more romantic, more mysterious, more alluring, more dangerous than a masquerade? Last week I wrote about the Commedia dell’arte, a 16th-century Italian dramatic form that originated in Venice in which masked actors improvise in stock roles to entertain the audience. The masks are a vital and universally recognisable
Lady Caroline Blanche Elizabeth Lindsay, and her take on Venice
Researching a novel is a real treat for a book lover like me. For my new book, The Echoes of Love, I plunged myself into all manner of reading material on Italy and the specific places in which I situate the narrative: Tuscany, Sardinia and, of course, Venice. Poetry, in
Book review: Christmas at Angel Lake by Edie Ramer
From the blurb: A kitten saved her… Broke, pregnant and deserted by her boyfriend, Maddie Barrymore swerves to avoid a kitten while driving in a Wisconsin blizzard—and her life takes another turn. Like Puss in Boots, she stays in an empty house. She has the baby, the kitten, gets a
Sardinian Recipe: Pane Carasau
In my book The Echoes of Love, the hero, Paolo, and the heroine, Venetia, escape to the island of Sardinia for some much needed time together. There, they sample a range of the local cuisine, including pane carasau. Pane carasau is a traditional Sardinian flatbread whose recipe dates back a
Commedia dell’arte
Have you heard of the classic theatre form called Commedia dell’arte . It began back in the 16th century, and it has two key characteristics: the use of improvisation in pieces (its full name is commedia dell’arte all’improvviso, comedy through the art of improvisation), and the incorporation of masked characters playing
PUBLICATION DAY FOR MY NEW BOOK, THE ECHOES OF LOVE!
I simply couldn’t let the day go by without doing my version of ‘shouting it from the rooftops’: My second novel, The Echoes of Love, officially publishes today! A new setting – romantic and mysterious. A new story – passionate and twisting. A new heroine – strong and conflicted. A
My house in Kent on a sunny autumn day
My home, nestled in the foliage, but beautifully light.
Favourite writer: Gaston Leroux
My university degree was in French Literature, so it was inevitable that I would read the works of French journalist Gaston Leroux. Leroux (1868–1927) was a born and bred Parisian with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of his home city, gleaned through years working as a court reporter and theatre critic for L’Écho de Paris. He
A signature tune for my new novel
Whenever I’m writing a book, I create a playlist of music that transports me to the time and place and feeling of the novel. For The Echoes of Love, my next novel that will publish on 6 December, I very much enjoyed immersing myself in Italian music, especially the romantic
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo): Author’s friend or foe?
November has come to an end, and with it National Novel Writing Month, known in the industry as NaNoWriMo. The concept is simple: writers across the world alike sit down during the month of November and write 50,000 words of a novel. The project is immensely popular, with 307,000 authors
Italian cuisine: A recipe for good health
Cooking is one of my passions in life – particularly making dishes using fresh, home-grown or locally sourced ingredients. When I am in France one of my favourite pastimes is wandering around local markets and stacking my basket high with breads, meats, cheeses, fish and fruits and vegetables, and in
My latest blog posts
Win my Andalucian Nights trilogy in paperback
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
My heroines: reflections of myself?
‘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
The rich literary heritage of Andalucía
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
Making time to read the books you want to read
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
Authors who handwrite manuscripts
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
Reading: an escape into your own past
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
Win a reading journal in the Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop
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
Categorising romance novels
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