Je reçois beaucoup de courriels de lecteurs demandant comment je choisis histoires et des personnages. Je reçois aussi un peu demandé assez d'histoires pour certains caractères ou des parcelles ou des partenaires suggérant. Toutes ces lettres m'a fait penser à quelque chose que je viens de prendre pour acquis. Ils ont fait ce “aller avec le courant” écrivain analyser comment elle fait sa chose. Je ne pouvais pas répondre à ces lecteurs’ e-mails sans fouillant dans le processus un peu.

Je souhaite que le résultat de cette analyse a été une réponse claire et simple. Il aurait été agréable de se retrouver avec un tableau que je pourrais utiliser quand je suis bloqué. Au lieu de cela, j'ai dû reconnaître qu'il n'y a pas procédé à tous.

La vérité est que je suis un écrivain très intuitive. Depuis que j'ai toujours pensé de moi-même comme une personne très analytique, ce qui me surprend. Evidemment je mets de côté que Madeline quand je m'assieds pour écrire, et à la place j'ai confiance en mon intestin plus de ma tête.

Sur d'autres pages de ce site que j'ai décrit comment parfois je sais juste que le personnage sera en vedette dans un livre plus tard. J'aime quand cela se produit. Je défonce sur que limpide moment où un personnage secondaire promenades sur la scène et prend forme si vivement que je suis totalement conquis. C'est tout ce que je peux faire de ne pas arrêter d'écrire les travaux en cours et commencer un autre livre tout de suite.

Ce qui s'est passé avec David Par arrangement. C'est arrivé avec Julian Hampton dont le livre est Le romantique. Dans ma série actuelle, il est arrivé avec plusieurs personnages, qui est une raison pour laquelle je suis en appréciant cette série tellement. Le frère aîné Rothwell, Christian-oh, oui, il a besoin d'un livre et obtenir un. Ce que je trouve intéressant, c'est que j'ai écrit Les règles de la séduction, deux femmes arrivé qui a également eu cet effet sur moi. Normalement, dans le passé, il a toujours eu des hommes.

On était Phèdre Blair, l'ami non conventionnelle de Alexia. J'ai commencé à écrire une scène et “pression”-Là, elle était-Insolite. Un peu bavard, sur, Je veux dire ouvertement. Totalement à l'aise avec qui et ce qu'elle était. Complètement indifférent à l'opinion de tous ceux de son. Elle était à bien des égards l'opposé de tant de femme de sa période historique, qui ont passé leurs heures de veille se soucier de l'acceptation sociale et conforme au comportement, apparence et aspirations.

Bien sûr, je devais apprendre plus à son sujet. La seule façon de le faire à fond était d'écrire son livre. Leçons du désir est ce livre. (Date de sortie: Septembre 25, 2007)

Elle a approfondi pour moi que le livre a pris forme. Les couches et les nuances, les insécurités et les questions, les tristesses et les blesse, ils est devenu clair qu'elle parlait dans ma tête. Pas si indifférent après tout. Conscient, très conscients, de ce qu'elle a donné en choisissant d'être qui elle est.

Comme elle correspond esprit et veut avec Elliot Rothwell, plus jeune des frères de cette série, elle doit interroger la personne, elle a choisi de devenir. Cela engendre des questions. Qu'est-ce que l'amour vaut la peine? Est compromis détruire une croyance? Peut-on aimer sans avoir besoin aussi posséder? Que devons-nous nos amants, en termes de l'abandon de notre liberté pure et de leur donner des parties de nous?

Elliot s'interroge sur ces questions trop. Elliot, avec ses vues plus traditionnelles, sait que tomber en amour change tout. Un homme charmant et historien célèbre en ville, Elliot est pas renfermé, savant moine. Il est aussi confiant que Phèdre est, et comme indépendant, aussi intelligent et aussi conscient de soi.

Désir crépite entre les deux à partir du moment qu'ils répondent, alimentée en partie par leur franche reconnaissance de combien ils veulent l'autre. Leçons attendent dans ce désir, sur eux-mêmes en tant qu'individus et en tant que couple, et sur les moyens que la passion profonde contient les graines de l'amour profond.

Leçons du désir est très bien l'histoire de ces deux personnages’ voyage vers l'amour. Il dispose également d'une intrigue et un mystère, que les leçons des désirs de leurs parents affectent leur compréhension de leur propre. Il est action et d'humour trop. J'espère que vous allez lui donner un look.

Madeline

I am a new writer again. I became one about a year ago. That was when I made the decision to start the Rothwell series. It would be totally new, with no connections to any characters or events I had written about before.

As I sat down to build that world in Les règles de la séduction, something peculiar happened. Starting the book reawoke in me the feelings that I had when I began my first novel ever. The excitement, the fear, the sense of flying into the mist—it was all there again, creating a little internal buzz. I literally held my breath while I typed the first words of the first chapter.

The book found its rhythm after a few chapters. The characters emerged and found their voices. The flutters in my heart calmed and I forged ahead. I finished the book and turned to the next story in the series, Leçons du désir.

Now the new world was not so new. I had mapped out its shape and main roads. The characters were familiar. Cependant, while I mentally sought the place to begin my story, the same thing happened.

Once more my heart fluttered. The feeling that I was about to embark on something daring and audacious simmered in me yet again. I had thought it happened with Rules because it was the beginning of a series, but here I was experiencing it with the second book too.

I am now writing the first chapters of the third book in the series and once again it is happening.

The sensation is seductive. So seductive that I can understand if writers who experience it hesitate pushing beyond the beginning of a story. There is something to be said for those deadlines! They keep us from dwelling too long in the heady creative stimulation that comes with starting a new work.

Finalement, bien sûr, it literally becomes work. My heart may be palpitating now, but eventually I will get frustrated and think the creative well is dry. I have never had a book write itself and all of them hit snags. Finishing the journey can be arduous. Mais, oh my, what a thrill it is at the beginning with all the choices still to be made. For a month I get to be a new writer, alive with that glorious buzz.

It is also during this period, after a book is finished and while the new one is just beginning that I come out of my cave and notice things, such as the need to update my website. You will find some new entries here under my History Page and my Author page. I have finally uploaded some photographs of places I have been visiting, and they are accessible off the Author button (go to the Off Topic Stuff dropdown).

Leçons du désir will be published in October 2007. Les lecteurs de Rules have already met the main characters, Elliot Rothwell and the very unconventional Phaedra Blair. I expect the copyedits any day, and once they are done I will post an excerpt and an introductory page for it, so stop by again soon!

And for all the readers who have been writing to me and wondering—yes, Christian will get his own book!

Madeline

Bien, the house renovations and addition mentioned in my last posting are all done. My new office is a joy. It has big windows, French doors separating it from the family room, and a long counter desk where I can spread out research books and generally make a mess. I put lots of rolling low file cabinets underneath it, where I can stuff the mess if company comes. The walls are a deep sea blue. I felt very daring in choosing the color, but with the white trim it looks refreshing.

Am I more productive in this new space? More organized, the way I dreamed? See the reference to “mess” above. I am a stacker, not a filer. Those cool file cabinets are all but empty. I drooled over the television shows displaying decorating tips with a place for everything, but within a couple of months my natural inclinations ruined the plan. So I am facing those stacks again.

Despite the months of chaos in the house I finished last winter’s book (almost on time!). It comes out October 31 and is titled The Règles de la séduction. I am starting a new series with this book. That was exciting enough to push the environmental disruptions out of mind.

La Règles de la séduction is the story of Alexia Welbourne, an impoverished woman hanging onto her gentlewoman status by her fingertips. When Hayden Rothwell ruins the finances of the relatives on whom she depends, she has few options for her future. She reluctantly accepts Hayden’s offer that she become a companion to his aunt, which makes her now dependent on the very man who destroyed the fortunes of her dear cousins. Their continued proximity allows their unexpected but powerful attraction to grow despite the conflict that stands between them. An impulsive seduction, a marriage of obligation, an intrigue that weaves present with past and old promises with new ones— The Règles de la séduction offers mystery, desire, deep emotions and clever humor.

At the core of the plot is the concept of honor. From the second chapter honor causes the hero to do certain things and forbids him to do others. Debts of honor from the past also influence his actions and affect his emotions.

It can be hard to communicate in a novel what was meant by honor in the old days. The importance of a man’s honor was just a given, so braided into life that he would never question the rules about it. A man took his honor very seriously in the early nineteenth century, when The Règles de la séduction is set. It was worth a duel to protect his good name or that of his family. Calling a man a liar, a cheat, or a scoundrel all but invited being called out. A man’s word of honor was sacred too, and breaking an oath unacceptable. So honor was not something that one pulled out of a hat at one’s convenience but set aside if it got in the way.

In The Règles de la séduction, Hayden Rothwell gives his word of honor to a man but later that promise interferes in his life. At the time he gave his word he never expected it to be a problem. Actually, it was in his interest to give his word, since he was embarking on a plan that required silence on the matter he promised to keep a secret. That plan itself also turned on his beliefs about his honor. He could never envision that within months he would be gritting his teeth over having to remain silent.

Should he have given in and broken his word? Readers will wish he could. Some will think he should. Some may even be annoyed he does not. Cependant, unlike us, Hayden does not live in an age when words like “honor” have lost their meaning. Instead it is a core concept of his historical age.

This is what writing an historical novel is all about. The clothes and food and social customs are colorful, the detailing can create indelible images in our minds, but the core beliefs of a society need to be respected in a story (or the deviations explained). I think that using those beliefs and expectations as plot devices and as tools for character development tie a story to its time and place even more than the descriptions do.

If you have visited before, you may have noticed that my web site now has a new look. Thanks go to Cissy at Writerspace, who once again translated my vision into a better reality than I saw in my mind. Things have been reorganized too, and the links to the cut scenes and the series explanations made more prominent. There have been some updates in the History section, and various things like photographs and recipes are being added under the Off Topic link. That is where I plan to put material that is not directly related to my writing and my books. I hope the navigation is easier for my visitors and readers. We are still tweaking and adding pages, but we are getting there.

In the meantime, I hope you like the changes, and that you give The Règles de la séduction a try and meet Hayden Rothwell and the estimable, indomitable Alexia Welbourne.