Places that Inspire – Isle of Skye

Today, I’m holding my latest anthology, Secrets Volume 29 Indulge Your Fantasies (which contains my novella Beast in a Kilt,) in my hands for the first time. Definitely a thrill! So I wanted to talk about the place that inspired one of the settings.

One of the most important parts of writing most fiction is bringing your setting to life for the reader. Even if you’ve never been to a place and you’re writing about it, you must find a way to bring in specific detail to transport the reader. You can do this through research, reading detailed travelogues of people who have visited the place and looking at photos. But the best way remains to visit the place.

In my historical paranormal erotic romance novella, Beast in a Kilt, the heroine lives on the west coast of the Scottish mainland, one of the most breathtaking places in Scotland (there are many, of course, but this is one of my favorites.)

My visit to Isle of Skye, especially the northwestern portion of the Trotternish Peninsula, is actually the inspiration for the heroine’s home. To show what it's like, I want to share photos and an excerpt from my novella. In this scene, the heroine is searching for her shape-shifting selkie older brother. (A selkie is a seal shape-shifter.)

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She threw on her fur-trimmed, black woolen cloak, slipped down the back servants’ stair and headed toward the rocky shore of the North Atlantic. She glanced back at the five-story tower house perched on a cliff above the sea, hoping no one saw her. The harsh sea wind yanked at her cloak and ankle-length, belted plaid arisaid. She tucked them tighter about her as she descended. Shivering, she inhaled the familiar scent of brine and fish. A touch of rain hissed through the air, wetting her face.

Gazing first north, then south along the jagged shoreline, she saw naught but gray boulders and seawater reflecting gray sky. Mist wreathed the mountains and islands in the distance. Nothing moved but the white-capping waves, thundering against the crags, and the screeching birds, darting this way and that. No seals to be found lounging on rocks.

“Brodie!” She picked her way among the large stones and called out again. Nothing. “Blast!” He was no doubt having a grand old time. And she was being bartered off to a barbaric beast. She stumbled along the narrow trail to the cave her brother sometimes used and stepped inside.

“Brodie?” Her voice echoed, but no response. Empty, dark and dank. Less appealing than the unfriendly weather. She returned outside. “Brodie, get your arse back here, damn you! And take responsibility for the clan. I need your help!” Wind tore at her clothing and chilled her to the bone. The rain fell harder, stinging her eyes. It was turning into a gale.
Nicole North - Beast in a Kilt, Secrets Volume 29 Indulge Your Fantasies

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What I tried to do here is put the reader into the setting (the landscape and weather) via the heroine. As the heroine experiences the setting, so does the reader. One of my favorite things about this setting is the islands in the distance, the Outer Hebrides, including Isle of Lewis, and the way the mist lurks about them. It is very enchanting and mystical.

What is one of your favorite settings that you've written about and how did you research it?

Beast in a Kilt: Scottish lady Catriona MacCain has loved Torr Blackburn, a fierce Highland warrior, since she was a young lass, but Torr only sees Catriona as his best friend’s little sister. When Catriona’s family promises her in marriage to a detestable chieftain, she desperately needs Torr to save her from a fate worse than death. But Torr is under the spell of a witch of the dark arts and is cursed to spend his nights as a kelpie water demon. He doesn’t believe himself worthy of the virginal Lady Catriona. However, she is determined to seduce Torr and claim him… body, heart and soul, if only they can banish the curse and defeat the enemies who have vowed to possess and enslave them both. (Release date July 25, 2010)

Nicole

http://www.nicolenorth.com/

Old Town ~ Where San Diego really began!

The book I'm currently working on takes place in 1888. Although much of it takes place in New San Diego, there are still parts that take place in Old Town.

Here, the San Diego River coursed by on its way to empty into the harbor where tall sails from sailing ships pierced the sky. Here, one main plaza and street bisected the small town of low red-tiled roofs and adobe buildings. A few stunted trees fought to survive in the dusty yards. A newspaper office, cantina, school house, Wells Fargo & Company, a Catholic church—built with wood transported down from the mountains or brought by boat from northern California.

It always helps me to visit the place that I'm writing about--catching the scent of the ocean breeze and the sagebrush, the warmth of the February sun against the cool shade, and the cry of the gulls--helps to infuse my writing with authenticity.



Old Town is one of my favorite places to go in San Diego. The scent of spicy Mexican food hovers in the air at meal-times which makes it nearly impossible not to purchase a churro or burritos. I can just hear the stomp of a bored burro as it waits for its owner tied outside the Colorado House, or hear a busy mother taking a moment to yell down the street after her children "Cuidado!" (Be Careful!)

It's difficult to imagine such an inauspicious beginning to a city that now sparkles like a jewel with its skyscrapers, pristine beaches, and miles of highway.

Do you live near a historic district? One that sparks your imagination of what it must have been like hundreds of years ago? If you could, would you want to time travel back to that time?

Places that Inspire – Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle

When I started creating my story Beast in a Kilt (in Secrets Volume 29), the place I imagined the hero living was similar to where Urquhart Castle is on the shore of Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. The hero, Torr, is cursed. At night he shapeshifts into the form of a kelpie water demon, so he needed to live by a loch where he could swim. And though I named the loch in my story something different (not Loch Ness), this is still the place I envision. Spiral stone steps leading down. I love including these kinds of steps in my stories. It was neat actually being able to climb them. They are very narrow and tight. Basically it's almost impossible for two people to pass.

Torr lives in a castle ruin where only one tower is left standing. An old physician, who is secretly a wizard, lives there with him, constantly trying to concoct a formula which will break his curse.

The day I visited Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle, rain was falling and the mist hung low over the loch. It looked exactly like a place legendary creatures might inhabit.



Of course the Urquhart Castle ruin is not a habitable place like the one in my story. I visualize it looking similar but more ancient since my story takes place 400 years ago. For instance, the stone rubble from where the castle was knocked down still covers the ground (instead of lovely green grass).

Above, you can see how much ground the castle covered in it's day because the base of some of the walls still exist. The middle picture shows a view from a tower window, down toward the loch with its peaty brownish tinged water. Then we see the castle wall interior including windows and a fireplace, without the wooden floors that would've divided the space.

To learn more about Urquhart’s long and complicated history visit this page at Electric Scotland.


Beast in a Kilt will be in Secrets Volume 29 Indulge Your Fantasies, release date: July 1 2010.

Beast in a Kilt: Scottish lady Catriona MacCain has loved Torr Blackburn, a fierce Highland warrior, since she was a young lass, but Torr only sees Catriona as his best friend’s little sister. When Catriona’s family promises her in marriage to a detestable chieftain, she desperately needs Torr to save her from a fate worse than death. But Torr is under the spell of a witch of the dark arts and is cursed to spend his nights as a kelpie water demon. He doesn’t believe himself worthy of the virginal Lady Catriona. However, she is determined to seduce Torr and claim him… body, heart and soul, if only they can banish the curse and defeat the enemies who have vowed to possess and enslave them both.

Have you visited Urquhart or any other Scottish castles you enjoyed? What was your favorite thing about them and did they inspire you?

Thanks!

Nicole

www.nicolenorth.com

A Little Inspiration, Please…

Most of the posts here at Seduced by History are about…incorporating history into the stories we write. Today, I thought I’d change things up by talking more about my own personal history in the writing business.

For one thing—it took me a long time to see my first novel published (I’m now looking forward to my third book coming out in September.) Although my manuscript did very well making the final round in several contests, I was slow to send it out to agents and publishers. It took me awhile to develop a thick skin. When I tweaked the beginning, it suddenly became a finalist in the Golden Heart Competition. From there, it caught the eye of Jenny Hutton at Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.

I kept the hope to see my story in print alive by a few concepts I’ll share with you here.

1. I took heart in the rejection letters of famous authors. If they could keep sending out their “baby”, then I could.

THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT was turned down so many times, Beatrix Potter initially self-published it.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language." Editor of the San Francisco Examiner to Rudyard Kipling.

Tony Hillerman’s agent told him, ‘Get rid of the Indian stuff’

Mystery writer Mary Higgins Clark recently received a $60 plus million dollar advance on her next five books, but this is what happened when she was sending out her manuscript "Journey Back to Love" in the early 1960s: "We found the heroine as boring as her husband did."

To writer Samuel Johnson (though I don't know which book the editor was referring to): "Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."

2. I took heart in how they persevered. If they could, then I could. Here are the number of times they were rejected before selling...

Dr. Seuss – 27

Luis L'Amour – 349

JK Rowling –

Harry Potter 12

John Grisham – 26 J

Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen -- Chicken Soup for the Soul 140

Frank Herbert—Dune 23

Stephen King – Carrie 30

Meg Cabot— The Princess Diaries 17

Richard Adams – Watership Down 26

Margaret Mitchell— Gone with the Wind 38

3. I gathered inspirational quotes and read them daily to internalize them.

“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re probably right.” – Henry Ford

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your dreams. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you too, can become great.”- Mark Twain

“I dwell in possibility.”- Emily Dickenson

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”-Eleanor Roosevelt

"Don’t give up, don’t lose hope, don’t sell out." Christopher Reeve

“Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals.” Don Delillo

“To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice your gift.” Steve Prefountaine

“I believe the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.” –Maya Angelou

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During this time I continued to study the craft of writing, continued to write, and continued to hope. And then one morning, I received the call I’d been waiting for.

For those of you that are going through, or have gone through the same thing, what do you do to keep steady on your course toward your goals--whether they are writing or something else you hope for?

Western Historical, Seduction, and Inspiration from Songs ... Jeanmarie Hamilton

My book, Seduction began as an idea inspired from both a family story and Texas history. Further inspired by songs and singing, the story took shape with the heroine performing as a vocalist in a theater to support herself and build her future.

Here's the back cover summary of Seduction:

They challenged the town and each other with their forbidden affair.
Belinda Rose is two people. On stage, she's a confident vocalist who entertains her audiences. Alone, she longs for a secure home and her own opera house where she can entertain or book others to perform. She carries with her the painful memories of her past, but won't be denied her future. Can her love for a handsome businessman derail her plans? Cole MacPherson has become a wealthy entrepreneur in spite of his loveless childhood. What a shock when a beautiful singer knocks him for a loop. Could he learn to love? Does he dare?

The hero of Seduction, Cole, enjoys entertainers, including accomplished vocalists, and contracts them to perform in his theater out west in the small town of Sterling Springs.

Music has been a huge influence on my life through my mother's singing and my father's love of music. My daughter also loves music. So it was easy for me to write about a singer.

I've heard that many authors play music for inspiration and mood while writing. I'm so sensitive to music I find it very hard to think about what I want to write while music plays in the background. Even so, songs often inspire my story ideas.

The hint of a story comes to me sometimes with just one scene. It usually involves the strong feelings of only one or two characters. The emotion driving the characters in a scene often hits while I'm listening to a song.

Do you enjoy music? I like all forms of music. However, country music inspires my writing most often. Some of the slow songs by Tim McGraw have brought powerful story ideas to me. I've found inspiration for contemporary stories from Rascal Flatts' fast tempo songs. Trisha Yearwood's recordings evoke wonderful emotion for the various moods of my heroines.

A couple of my favorites other than country are Josh Groban and Bon Jovi. Some of the American Idol stars have inspired me with their powerful or sensitive renditions. For my shapeshifter historicals I find inspiration from many music sources including Robert Mirabal's dvd, Warrior Magician. The music of the movie King Arthur, with Clive Owen and Keira Knightley starring, is an amazing blend of powerful and poignant passages.

Does music help you? What music inspires you the most? I'd enjoy hearing your comments.

Jeanmarie Hamilton
http://www.JeanmarieHamilton.com
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SEDUCTION ~ out now/ Amazon.com
American Title II Contest finalist
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ARE YOU GOING TO THE DANCE? ~ July 2009/
The Wild Rose Press
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