Claire Hadleigh

It's been a busy, hot summer but I feel like it's finally winding down a bit. Hard to think about writing when the garden and beaches beckon you outdoors!  "English Rose: Feminine Beauty from Van Dyck to Sargent" - Exhibit at Bowes Museum As I start to put together my preliminary notes for the next book, "Snowbound Seductions," I don't have much trouble envisioning my hero. But the heroine is a bit more troublesome. Then I came across this article about a new exhibition: "The English Rose: Feminine Beauty from Van Dyck to Sargent" running at the Bowes Museum, County Durham, England.  Think of it -- 400 years worth of how English society depicted its ideals of beauty in portraiture. Now that is a resource that I can use as a writer!  Here are some images over time -- Such a wealth of information -- dress, hats, hair styling, jewelry and other adornments.  It certainly makes it easier to begin to craft not only the heroin

What does a writer do in between books? The summer is such a hard time to sit in front of a computer and attempt to create a story when the sunlight flickers on the blinds, the birds are chirping and the garden is beckoning you from beyond the window! So now that my studio/writing den is completed, I decided to give myself several weeks off to empty the tired brain, ease up on the eyestrain and enjoy the remaining weeks of summer. Here in New England it's just a matter of time before the weather may take a turn for the worse. This is my Cape Cod bowl of broken sea shells -- I call them my writing worry beads. Whenever I get in a jam for just the right word or phrase or a particular scene, I dip in and find a shell I can rub as I ponder. It also reminds me of my time on the beach at the Cape earlier this summer -- peaceful, relaxing, marvelous! Another way to turn off the writing brain is crafting. I've been a crafter for years -- knitting, quilting, crochet, col