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My latest blog posts
My latest blog posts
Favourite film: Gone with the Wind
I defy any romantic to watch this film and not love it! In my list of favourite films, it’s right near the top. I love the colours (of course, released in 1939, it was one of the first films shot in colour), the music, the characters, the vivid settings –
Breaking Dawn
You’d have to be a hermit in a cave to have missed the excitement and passion generated among girls and women across the UK by the latest Twilight movie. Stephenie Meyer’s books have tapped into the deep river of romanticism that lies within the modern woman – though we’re strong
The English rose
In my novel, Burning Embers, the male protagonist, Rafe, uses a number of terms of endearment when speaking to his lover Coral – my darling, my sweet, my love. But the most prevalent, and the most fitting in terms of her character, is ‘rosebud’. To the non-British reader, this may
Kenya from the air
In Burning Embers, Rafe and Coral take to the skies in a hot air balloon from which they see have a commanding view over Kenya, laid out beneath them in all her glory. They see blue waters and verdant vegetation, and amid them the most wonderful array of animals: elephants,
Challenging romance with love rivals
As Lysander wisely points out in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ‘The course of true love never did run smooth.’ And what would a romance novel be without some obstacles along the path to test the lovers? Of course, one of the most common threats introduced by the author is
A rose by any other name…
Choosing names for the male and female protagonists in a novel is, I always think, an important element of the writing process. The right name conveys the character’s personality, wishes and dreams; the wrong name could hinder character development. When I write a novel, deciding names is one of the
A sweet aphrodisiac recipe
The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, so goes the popular saying. Well, I think there’s a little more to attraction and love than that, but I do believe that certain foods and drinks act as aphrodisiacs for both men and women. (The word aphrodisiac, in case
Writing: creator versus editor
I think all writers have two parts within: an editor and a creator. Often, the two work in synergy to produce writing you’re happy with. Sometimes, though, the two seem mutually incompatible. The creator, as I call it, is the part of me that’s inspired (by the muse, you could
African beliefs: The afterlife
In my Burning Embers, Coral’s father, ‘The White Pirate’, has died leaving her the legacy of his plantation, Mpingo. Coral’s old yaha (nanny), Aluna, is a native African lady who subscribes to the legends and traditional beliefs of her home, Kenya. And we see in the book that she is
The kindness of strangers
A stolen glance across a crowded train; a shy smile as you pass each other by on a windswept cliff path; a brush of hands as you reach for the same apple outside the grocer’s – you see a stranger, and you feel something. A connection forms as naturally as
Burning Embers, the song
‘Egosurfing’, they call it – Googling yourself. It’s not something I had ever done before this week, but with my upcoming book I decided, one particularly gloomy afternoon, to browse the internet for mentions of myself and the book. And it was whilst looking at results for ‘Burning Embers’ that
Favourite films: Legend of 1900 and August Rush
I love music, and I love films in which music plays an integral role. Have you seen Legend of 1900? If not, I wholeheartedly recommend you do so (I understand it’s available in DVD format for a very reasonable price online). This is a life-affirming, heart-warming, touching tale told
Le Jaguar
In earlier blog entries I have written of the poetry of Leconte De Lisle. De Lisle writes with such passion of exotic locations and the beasts that stalk them, and as I wrote of the setting and the animals in Burning Embers, set in Kenya, I found myself often drawn
My latest blog posts
The era of Indiscretion: 1950s Spain
Readers of my new novel Indiscretion will find themselves transported not only to a beautiful location – the ancient cities and wild landscapes of Andalusia, Spain – but also to another time. What do you expect of a novel set at the beginning of the 1950s? This was a decade
The secret language of the Spanish fan
A cultural symbol of Spain known around the world, the Spanish fan exudes romance and passion. So much so, it is an important symbol on the cover of my new novel, Indiscretion: While the fan may have begun its life in Spain back in the 14th century as a practical
The most spectacular libraries in the world
Regular followers of my blog will know I am an ardent bibliophile, and that extends to an adoration of those places dedicated to connecting us with books: libraries. I wholeheartedly agree with Jorge Luis Borges: “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” The dust motes floating dreamily in
JK Rowling’s Very Good Lives
Did you watch the video of JK Rowling’s 2008 speech at Harvard University? I found her words very poignant, especially such points on imagination and empathy as: “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to
The Clean Reader app
Have you heard about the Clean Reader app? Its release has caused quite a stir in the reading and writing communities. This free app, whose tagline is ‘Read books, not profanity’, allows you to blank out swear words in an ebook, so that they aren’t displayed on your ereader screen.
Indiscretion – the book trailer
I’m thrilled to be able to share with you today the trailer for my novel Indiscretion, which will publish next week!
Indiscretion Blog Tour: The Secret Writer and Bluestocking’s Place
It’s the final day of the tour, and today you can find me at The Secret Writer: http://thesecretwriterblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/indiscretion-blog-tour-stop-official.html And at Bluestocking’s Place http://ov099.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/feature-indiscretion-by-hannah-fielding/
Indiscretion Blog Tour: Review by Books with Bunny
“If you like your romances filled with smouldering Mediterranean men, secrets and lies, then Indiscretion could be the perfect read for you this Easter.” Today you can read a review of Indiscretion over at Books with Bunny: http://bookswithbunny.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/indiscretion-hannah-fielding-blog-tour.html