Eu recebo um monte de e-mails de leitores perguntando como eu escolher histórias e personagens. Também tenho muito poucos pedindo histórias para determinados personagens ou enredos ou parceiros, sugerindo. Todas essas cartas me fez pensar sobre algo que eu só tinha como certo. Eles fizeram isso “ir com o fluxo” escritor analisar como ela faz sua coisa. Eu não poderia responder a essas leitores’ e-mails sem escolher através do processo um pouco.

Gostaria que o resultado dessa análise foi uma resposta clara e simples. Teria sido bom para acabar com um gráfico que eu poderia usar quando eu ficar preso. Em vez disso, teve de reconhecer que não há nenhum processo em tudo.

A verdade é que eu sou um escritor muito intuitivo. Desde que eu sempre pensei em mim como pessoa muito analítica, isso me surpreende. Evidentemente eu deixar de lado que Madeline quando me sento para escrever, e em vez disso eu confio no meu intestino mais do que a minha cabeça.

Em algumas outras páginas deste site que eu descrevi como às vezes eu só sei que um personagem vai estrelar um livro mais tarde. Eu adoro quando isso acontece. Eu me levanto em que cristalina momento em que um personagem secundário anda na cena e toma forma tão vívida que eu estou totalmente conquistado. É tudo o que posso fazer para não parar de escrever a obra em andamento e iniciar outro livro imediatamente.

Isso aconteceu com David em By Arrangement. Foi o que aconteceu com Julian Hampton cujo livro é The Romantic. Na minha série atual, isso já aconteceu com vários personagens, que é uma razão que eu estou gostando desta série tanto. O irmão mais velho Rothwell, Christian-oh, sim, ele precisa de um livro e vai ter um. O que eu achei interessante foi que como eu escrevi As Regras da Sedução, duas mulheres chegaram que também teve esse efeito sobre mim. Normalmente, no passado, tem sido sempre homens.

Um era Phaedra Blair, o amigo não-convencional de Alexia. Comecei a escrever uma cena e “estalo”-Lá estava ela-Incomum. Um pouco tagarela, sobre, Quero dizer sem rodeios. Totalmente à vontade com quem eo que ela era. Completamente indiferente a opinião de ninguém de seu. Ela foi, em muitos aspectos, o oposto direto de tantos mulher de sua época histórica, que passaram suas horas de vigília se preocupar com a aceitação social e conformidade no comportamento, aparência e aspirações.

É claro que eu precisava aprender mais sobre ela. A única maneira de fazer isso bem era escrever seu livro. Lições de Desejo é que o livro. (Data de lançamento: Setembro 25, 2007)

Ela se aprofundou para mim, como o livro tomou forma. As camadas e as nuances, as inseguranças e perguntas, as tristezas e mágoas, eles tornou-se claro que ela falou na minha cabeça. Não tão indiferente depois de tudo. Consciente, muito consciente, do que ela desistiu na escolha de ser quem ela é.

Como ela combina inteligência e vontade com Elliot Rothwell, mais novo dos irmãos desta série, ela tem que questionar a pessoa que ela escolheu para se tornarem. Isso gera outras questões. O que vale a pena o amor? O compromisso destruir uma crença? Pode-se amar sem também a necessidade de possuir? O que devemos aos nossos amantes, em termos de se render a nossa liberdade pura e dando-lhes partes de nós mesmos?

Elliot pondera estas questões também. Elliot, com seus pontos de vista mais tradicionais, sabe que a queda no amor muda tudo. Um homem célebre historiador e encantadora sobre a cidade, Elliot há tulha, estudioso monacal. Ele é tão confiante como Phaedra é, e como independente, tão inteligente e tão auto-consciente.

Desejo crepita entre os dois desde o momento eles se encontram, alimentada em parte pelo seu franco reconhecimento do quanto eles querem um ao outro. Lições esperar dentro desse desejo, sobre si mesmos, como indivíduos e como um casal, e sobre os caminhos que a paixão profunda contém as sementes do amor profundo.

Lições de Desejo é muito a história desses dois personagens’ jornada para o amor. Ele também tem uma intriga e um mistério, como as lições dos desejos de seus pais também afetam a sua compreensão de sua própria. Há ação e humor também. Espero que você vai dar-lhe um olhar.

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 série. 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 As Regras da Sedução, 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, Lições de Desejo.

Now the new world was not so new. I had mapped out its shape and main roads. The characters were familiar. Contudo, 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.

Eventually, claro, 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. Mas, 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).

Lições de Desejo will be published in October 2007. Os leitores 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

Bem, 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 Regras de Sedução. I am starting a new series with this book. That was exciting enough to push the environmental disruptions out of mind.

O Regras de Sedução 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 Regras de Sedução 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 Regras de Sedução 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 Regras de Sedução, 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. Contudo, 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 Regras de Sedução a try and meet Hayden Rothwell and the estimable, indomitable Alexia Welbourne.