Sunday Afternoon De-Stresser

Vintage Tea and Text (digitally embellished by C. Hadleigh)

What do I do when in between writing my stories, especially in the midst of the Christmas season madness? Easy -- I take out some lush yarns and brew a cup of tea; make sure to use a lovely vintage tea cup, put on the fire, the music and kick back. Works like a charm!

I'm not even sure what I'm knitting -- could be a hot pad for the table, a simple cowl, a pillow . . . ? It's just the simple, steady clicking of the needles, the feel of the soft yarn slipping through my fingers, the heady aroma of a good Darjeeling and a scrumptious candle burning on the mantel that eases the shoulders, the cramped neck, the frayed nerves (many of us writers have other jobs as well).

Before I know it, visions of words and scenes begin to drift through my mind. As I gaze into the fire or into the tea, words miraculously appear. I'm far, far away, in another place, another time. So despite wanting to put aside the writing and clear my mind, my mind decides to bypass my intent and dwell in the land of words.

Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places

where other people see nothing.

Camille Pissarro

Comments

More Secondary Characters

As promised, I'm back with some tidbits of info on another favorite secondary character who has appeared in several of my Regency romances -- the Dowager Lady Rutherford. I needed a character who would balance out Lady Caro (see last week's blog entry), someone who was smart as a whip, tough and yet hiding a soft side. The dowager seemed to fit the bill for when she first appears in Snowbound Seductions , she's ornery, feared by all (even the duke) and willing to use her ebony cane like a Scottish claymore. So, the first British actress who visually inspired me, mostly for the dowager's physical attributes is Phyllida Law. If you're an Acorn TV or Brit Box fan, many of you will recognize Ms. Law. Phyllida Law She's appeared in so many series and movies, and is also known as Emma Thompson's mother. She is a wonderful actress and, to me, captures how I visualize the dowager. And in my work-in-progress, Wicked Wagers , we'll see a b...

Top 25 Reads for 2018

2018 was a busy year for reading -- lots of great books, so little time, right? Although I must admit that this year I was immersed in Susan Mallery's Fools Gold series, as well as Jill Shalvis' Lucky Harbor and Heartbreaker Bay series -- and I do mean totally immersed. These two writers can world build like no other! But for the sake of the Top 25, I am putting Mallery and Shalvis in their own kingdom and let you decide. Also, please note that I am not driven by the NYT Bestseller List or any other "lists" -- I tend to like to find my writers in a more organic way, mainly by browsing in real brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries, so some are "newish" and some are older. If I'm starting a new series, I like to start at the beginning, which means I'm reading past bestsellers. So, here's my top 25 titles that I heartily recommend to readers (broken down by genre / subgenre): Regency Romance: Sherry Thomas, His at Night Tessa D...

Sources of Inspiration

I've been working on my first Regency romance novel and, although I've read most of Jane Austen and seen so many of the excellent BBC movie variations, one still needs a bit of inspiration when working through the writing. It's usually those small details, descriptive of the landscape or the manor house, that gives a work that added level of veracity, of impact for the reader. Why else would readers want historical romance? I have to think that it's the time period that intrigues, a bit like a time tunnel. Go ahead, pick your period -- there's probably a romance set in each one. That's why I love Pinterest. If you can control the time spent on the great "P" -- and that's a big "if" -- there's so much out there to help spark those imaginative ideas or get a writer over the hurdle of writer's block. Here's a few that I chose to help keep me churning out those words: Image captured from Pinterest Wouldn't thi...

Claire Hadleigh

Search This Blog