Author Spotlight - Margaret James

In the Minxy spotlight today is historical author Margaret James, who is chatting to us today about her latest release, The Silver Locket, and its sequel, The Golden Chain, which releases in May.

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1. Where were you in your writing career 5 years ago?

I was teaching creative writing for the London School of Journalism, writing regular columns and doing author profiles for Writing Magazine, working as an editorial consultant for a script doctoring service (www.storytracks.net), and somehow finding the time to finish a novel called The Penny Bangle for UK hardback publisher Robert Hale, which became my thirteenth published title.

2. Where did you get the idea from for this particular book?

The Silver Locket and its sequel The Golden Chain started life a long time ago on a family holiday in Dorset, which is where Thomas Hardy set many of his novels. We were driving past a beautiful honey-coloured mansion which was obviously empty and needed sympathetic restoration, and I wondered who had lived there a hundred years ago. Rose Courtenay, who became the heroine of The Silver Locket, walked into my head and said – I did! So write about me!

3. Where do you hope to be in 5 years time?

I once wrote a paranormal novel called Elegy for a Queen which was ahead of its time genre-wise and got some lovely rave rejections from mainstream publishers before it was finally published by Solidus, a small imprint in the UK. Paranormal is hugely popular nowadays, so I hope to have written and had published another paranormal romance, as well as another historical romance.

4. Which was the last book you read that you wish you'd written?

Oh, that’s easy – it’s One Day by David Nicholls, a romantic novel about two people who meet on their last day at university and agree to see each other on the same day every year until – well, I won’t give the story away! The hero and heroine of this novel, Dexter and Emma, became so real for me that as I read their story I could see them, I could hear them, and if they’d walked into the room where I was sitting reading I wouldn’t have been at all surprised.

5. Was there any particular author or book that made you want to be a writer?

When I was a teenager I was profoundly moved by Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and I thought how wonderful it must be to take your reader to a completely different world. I wanted to see if I could do it, too.

6. Do you find writing love scenes giggle-worthy or cringe-worthy – or neither?

I’m very happy to write love scenes, as long as I can do this in a way I feel is appropriate. I don’t like writing in graphic detail about sexual acts, but neither do I think it is fair to slam the bedroom door in my reader’s face. I always try to engage my reader’s emotional sympathy for my characters, rather than turn my reader on. I try not to make my love scenes read like lists of who did what – who undid whose buttons, who stroked whose hair back from whose forehead, and so on! I don’t like reading love scenes which sound more like instruction manuals for Martians, so I do my best not to write them.

7. What's the most romantic moment of your life so far?

When my first baby was born and my husband couldn’t stop smiling and hugging me, because he was so proud of me and delighted with the baby!

8. What do you wish you'd known about being an author before you were pubbed?

What a long, hard struggle it was going to be to get published! Or maybe not – perhaps, if I’d known, I’d have given up and become a librarian instead. Maybe it’s best not to know about all the hard work that lies ahead after you’ve signed your first contract.

9. What's the best writing advice you've ever been given?

Choose your rut carefully, because you’ll be in it for a long time. My first novel was a historical romance, so I obviously chose the perfect rut for me.

10. Tell us about your latest release.

My novel The Silver Locket is a historical romance set during the First World War. My heroine Rose Courtenay is the spoiled, bored only child of wealthy parents, and Rose is expected to marry well. This means marrying the man her parents have chosen, but Rose falls in love with Alex Denham, the local bad boy, who is also a married man. When war breaks out, Rose goes to London to become a nurse, and later she is sent to France, where she meets Alex again and they begin an affair which has huge repercussions – enough for two more novels, in fact.

11. What’s next for you?

The sequel to The Silver Locket is The Golden Chain, which is published in May. I’m also working on several other projects, including a romantic comedy set in the present day, and a paranormal romance set in the 1950s. I’ve done a little ghost writing, which was great fun, and I’d like to do more. So I’d love to hear from someone who has a great story to tell and would like me to help them tell it.

You can find out morfe about Margaret and her books at her blog and her website.

Her books are available at:
The Silver Locket: Amazon and Amazon UK
The Golden Chain: Amazon UK

Fantastic, Fantastic, Fantastic

Look who won our Hot Scotsman Poll - and look how pretty....

Anyone who knows me will understand how delighted I am with this outcome. And the win has inspired me to relive my night with John Barrowman (unfortunately, there were about 2,000 other people also there, but we'll gloss over that).

My party sat happily in our third row seats and could almost have reached out to touch him. A lovely friend had suggested that we might be close enough to smell him - alas, not quite. But we were close enough to see that he looked as though he would smell nice.

He sang his little heart out. And his energetic dancing resulted in a pair of split trousers that revealed a pert behind, clad in only the softest, whitest cotton. Even though I'm not entirely sure it wasn't deliberate, the audience screamed in delight at the sight of his - very clean - underpants.

Audience participation seemed the order of the day. A woman sitting behind us shouted that she loved JB - then lamented that it was a wasted dream. Another woman, sitting next to me, danced in her seat all night and stopped only to shout her opinion that JB should take his torn trousers off.

The show was being filmed for a DVD. I immediately decided to panic in case I was in the finished product. I don't look good in videos - as opposed to in my own head where I look like Cindy Crawford.

Having now watched said DVD, I can confirm that the only part of me visible is my arm. And my arm could be the identical twin of Cindy Crawford's arm.

Anything Goes Friday

Are you unpublished?  You could win £1,000 or a runner-up prize of £100 by entering a synopsis and the first chapter of your novel in the 2012 Harry Bowling Prize for New Writing Contest.  The judges are looking for urban settings, great characters, romance and drama.  The deadline for entries is 30th September 2011.  For more information, rules, entry forms and comments from past winners visit http://www.harrybowlingprize.co.uk/.

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A year of mentorship with bestselling Australian romance author Valerie Parv is up for grabs again.  Just send an 800 word synopsis and the first 12,500 words of your category or single title manuscript by 8th April 2011 to be in the running.

For more information click here.

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Have you heard of Operation: Auction?  In just days it will be launched on eBay to help raise money for one of the romance community’s own.  There’s some fantastic items up on the block including editorial critiques, author critiques, the opportunity to have a character named after you in an author’s next book, meet and greets with editors, gift baskets, book trailer designs, advertising, autographed books, complete book series and gift certificates.

There’s something for everyone and it’s for a great cause!  The auction will start March 27 and close April 1.  You can book mark the auction site here.

Donations are also welcome and can be made via PayPal on the Operation: Auction website.

For more information on the prizes and cause click here.



Have a great weekend!



Author Spotlight - Phillipa Ashley

Today we are very happy to welcome the extremely busy Phillipa Ashley to the Minxes blog to answer some of our devilish minxy questions. Take it away, Phillipa!

Where were you in your writing career 5 years ago?

I’d just started creative writing. In late 2005, I watched a TV adaptation of North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell which inspired me to write a romantic ‘modern’ fan fiction tribute to it. After that I wrote Decent Exposure and I haven’t looked back since.

Where do you hope to be in 5 years time?

Publishing is changing so rapidly that I don’t think any writer (or publisher, for that matter) can afford to make predictions five years ahead. I’ve realised I love variety so I’d like to be exploring new ideas within the romance and women’s fiction genre and hopefully, selling even more copies!

Which was the last book you read that you wish you'd written?

Apart from Pride & Prejudice? Only joking. I was a judge for the 2011 RNA’s Love Story of the Year and there were some lovely romances on there, including the winner, The Piratical Miss Ravenhurst by Louise Allen. I wish I’d written that – but I’m not a historical writer so I wouldn’t know where to begin. Other than that, almost anything by Ian Rankin. I’d love to have a wee dram with Inspector Rebus.

Was there any particular author or book that made you want to be a writer?
Studying English Lit at Oxford put me off writing myself, because I knew I’d never measure up to greats like Jane Austen. It was actually North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell, or rather the TV adaptation, that kicked off my own writing career.

Do you find writing love scenes giggle-worthy or cringe-worthy?
I love writing them and most of mine contain humour, just like in real life! Though, I can’t bring myself to write ‘certain’ words or body parts...

What's the most romantic moment of your life so far?
All the thoughtful little things done by my husband, like framing my book covers and making me a montage of pictures from the movie version of Dating Mr. December – and bringing me cups of tea in bed at the weekend. We’re celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary next year so I hope there are many more romantic moments to come.

What do you wish you'd known about being an author before you were pubbed?
That it would be far harder and yet far more fun than I’d ever imagined. Not everything has gone to plan but I’ve also had some amazing unexpected highs – like the movie of Decent Exposure and this year, when I have four books coming out.

What's the best writing advice you've ever been given?
“Plot is not a series of events but of actions with consequences.”
In other words, be led by the characters, rather than a pre-set plan.

Tell us about your latest release.
Deep breath: I have four books out this year!
Brief Encounters
Later this spring, I have two ‘sweeter’ short stories in a fun romantic anthology called Brief Encounters published by E-scape with a Book. The other authors are RNA members, Nell Dixon and Elizabeth Hanbury. These are new ventures for me as one story is written in the first person and the other from a male POV entirely.
In June, Sourcebooks will release Wish You Were Here in the USA (originally published by Little Black Dress). My inspiration came from a holiday on the sultry Mediterranean island of Corsica. I wanted to explore what would happen to two people who meet again many years after an intense holiday romance.
In July, Samhain is publishing, Fever Cure, my new contemporary romance. It’s emotionally intense and very sexy – probably the hottest book I’ve written - and features an aristocratic doctor hero and a sparky teacher heroine. When I was a student, I once sat opposite a guy in a library who was a minor aristocrat and studying medicine. It must have left a deep impression on my mind because this my second book with a doctor hero.
In autumn, Sourcebooks are releasing It Should Have Been Me in the USA. This is another of my Little Black Dress novels and also features a gorgeous jungle doctor. In fact, the hero, Matt, is a friend of Tom from Fever Cure.

What’s next for you?
Another women’s fiction release for Sourcebooks in spring 2012 - and I’m working on a new romance at the moment.

Thank you having me, Sally – I love the idea of being a romance minx!

You can find out more about Phillipa at her blog here

Thank you so much for being minxy for the day, Phillipa! I love that writing advice, and look forward to reading an awful lot more from you in the very near future!

A sense of place – starting with location

There are lots of ways of starting a book and one way of starting a book is with location. I like being immersed in my surroundings in the first couple of paragraphs when in a book and find it very effective.

Here’s a few examples…

The first example is from Kimberley Lang’s What happens in Vegas…
That was an actual mirrored disco ball spinning over a lighted dance floor. Hundreds of sweaty bodies crowded the dance floor, moving to a techno dance mix, and the bass line thumped like a heartbeat. This club-The Zoo- had strobe lights, LED-lit jungle vines hanging from the ceiling and zebra-striped furniture. This place took tacky to a whole new level.


Next, from Kate Hardy’s Good Girl or Gold-Digger?

Someone really had broken into the fairground museum. Several people-and pretty drunk, too, judging by the number of smashed bottles around the gallopers and the vomit sprayed nearby. Yobs who’d thought it would be a laugh to cut off the horses’ tails and spray-paint obscene graffiti along their sides. And they’d used the café as a coconut shy and lobbed stones through the plate glass, wrecking it.

Finally, to show that I really like opening a story this way, here’s a location passage a couple of paragraphs in from the start of my current wip.

Grey clouds blackened, swelling with rain. A low rumble, then the heavens opened, dashing a fierce quiver of angry rain arrows towards the group huddled next to the open grave. In an instant, a flurry of umbrellas soared skywards, painting the monochrome scene with colour.

What's your favorite way of opening a story?