"I found myself smiling when I got to the end of “The Roaming Heart” by Charlie Cochrane because of the heroes. The two of them were so willing to put on a public face so they could be together in private." If my stories can make people smile then I'm happy...
If you live in the UK (or you have a similar scheme in your country) please consider volunteering a few hours to help if you have a checking depot near you. And, if you can, please put a shoebox together. It'll make a big difference to one child.
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semioticwarrior said "Oh, I would SO love a Jonty/Orlando. Prompt: Grapes, picked fresh from a vine."“I would never have believed that home-grown grapes could taste so good.” Orlando picked another from the vine, slipped it into his mouth and chewed, an expression of quiet pleasure gilding his handsome face, like a contended cow with some particularly tasty cud.
“I don’t remember them being so good since childhood.” Jonty picked a little bunch and began to work through it. “Clarence and I would come out to the garden almost at the crack of dawn. It was always a race between us and the birds – you had to almost predict the day they would be ripe and beat the feathered hordes to them. Umm.” He licked his lips. “All a matter of timing.”
Orlando picked another grape, popping it into his lover’s open mouth and drawing close enough for hips to touch. “A matter of timing. Aren’t all wonderful things just that?”
This Thanksgiving Season we’re giving something to you. From November 10-November 24 readers will be receiving a 25% eBook Bucks rebate on all Samhain titles. What are you waiting for? Hop on over to AllRomance.com or OmniLit.com and receive bucks back today…on us!
elisa_rolle here and at Literary Nymphs. "I found Lessons in Power to be a delightful read."Lessons in Love got 5 lips and a Reviewer's Choice at Talking Two Lips. "The sex scenes were natural and were not gratuitous. They fit the story and, since this is the first book in the series, begin to set up the relationship between Jonty, Orlando, and the reader. I want to watch their love grow."
And looking ahead, December sees the Speak Its Name Advent Calendar burst into life. Each day will feature surprises (and maybe prizes), although don't panic - this isn't like calendar girls and we're not expecting piccies of your fave historical authors with only two brussels sprouts and a sprig of holly to cover their modesty.
Prompt: a new recipe.
“Midges, midges and more bloody midges. If anyone asks me my opinion of Scotland that’s what I’ll tell them. The place is infested.” Orlando Coppersmith sat down on a rock, immediately jumping up as if stung by one of the little wretches and looked exceedingly put out.
“My old nanny used to say that if you smeared yourself with…”
“Your old nanny can go and boil her head.”
“Language, Orlando!” Richard Stewart came stomping up the small hill to join his son and what-might-be-termed-his-son-in-law among the bee-loud heather.
“I think I’ve been stung by something – feels worse than a midge this time.” Orlando’s backside felt very sore and he had the horrible feeling he’d sat on one of the bees.
“Better take you down to the lodge and get Mama to have a look at it.” Jonty had made the remark to provoke a reaction. He got it.
“I am not letting your mother, that sainted woman, take a look at my nether regions. If you’re so concerned you can sort it out yourself.”
“That’s the spirit,” Richard beamed. “Our boys were always getting stung – not Lavinia, mind you, she was too clever – and we’re all geared up for it in the medicine cabinet. A pair of tweezers to take out the sting if needed and some boracic solution to ease the pain.”
“There’s no other cure?” Orlando winced.
“There’s a new recipe I heard of, one of Dr. Panesar’s patent solutions.” The repressed smile on Jonty’s face should have warned them all. It didn’t.
“It can’t be worse than tweezers. Can you elaborate?” Orlando winced again.
“It’s like the hair of the dog that bit you. It’s the honey of the bee which stung. You smear it on - the best heather honey, mind you, nothing else works - and cover it with a poultice made of Irish linen. The linen has to be moistened with water from a silver bowl, drawn from a well at midnight. By the light of the full moon.” Jonty could barely keep a straight face.
"Does Dr. Panesar have a recipe for idiocy as well?" Orlando swiped at his lover. "I'll take a bloody bucketful."
Prompt: Bonfire Night.
The green behind St. Bride’s was swarming with people. Dunderheads, dons, porters and their families - right up to the Vice Chancellor himself, guest of Dr. Peters and his sister. No other college could celebrate Bonfire Night the way St. Bride’s did – an impressive array of fireworks was awaiting ignition and a huge bonfire was already alight.
The flames licked the feet of the effigy which sat atop the edifice. It was supposedly Guido Fawkes himself, although in recent times the ‘guy’ had borne a striking resemblance to Dr. Owens, from the college next door, arch-enemy of Bride’s and attempted besmircher of Miss Peters’ honour.
A chorus of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ broke out around Jonty and Orlando as the first of the rockets took to the air. Vivid reds and greens split the night sky, showers of stars and sparks bursting overhead. By the time the final little Catherine wheel had whizzed its last they were deafened, blinded and had lungs full of smoke, all of which were worth it.
“Remember, remember, the fifth of November,” a group of dunderheads started to chant as they wandered back to college.
“Do you remember the fifteenth of November?” Jonty’s breath was hot on Orlando’s neck, the crowds giving them every excuse to be close.
“I do. It’s the day you stole my chair.” Orlando let a knot of undergraduates pass them, dropping back through the throng by stages until they were almost alone.
Jonty laid his hand briefly on is lover’s arm. “The day you stole my heart.”
Evidence:
I'm running an online workshop at HHRW’s Fall Into Writing Conference, on Friday November 6, 2009 at 12:00 pm (mountain time). Hearts through history.
In my other life, a deliver training a couple of times a month and I always get butterflies in the stomach, even though I know I usually do a pretty good job (all training sessions get rated by the participants - great practice for dealing with reviews). For this online workshop I haven't got butterflies in my tum, I've got pterodactyls...
Isn't life fun?
WWI. Many of them ridiculously young. Almost all New Zealanders with a few Indians, including a chap who came over to help care for the wounded at a local hospital. I was choked up enough about that, but the names finished me off, names the same as my characters or those (like William Marshall) from books I love.
Wearing my poppy with renewed pride...
Two reviews for Lessons in Power, one at Speak Its Name, "I think that it was at that point that I started to love Jonty. I cannot resist flawed but honorable characters who will do what is right even if it hurts. Given the popularity of antiheroes, such protagonists are not easy to find." And the other at Whipped Cream, "The crisp writing and great prose move the story along quickly and effortlessly."
But top news of the week is purchase of an autographed Stade Toulousain shirt at a charity auction.
Now I'm scanning it for residual DNA. Anyone got a home cloning kit?
I'm not sure about accessing this link outside the UK, so I apologise in advance. Here's an interview from last night (starts about 30 minutes into programme) with Nigel Owens, who's one of the world's top rugby refs. Great insight into his struggles about coming out and the fantastic reaction he's received within the sport.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0
And here's another guy who's just come out (it doesn't matter if you don't undertand what hurling is - it's a huge sport in Ireland).
http://www.examiner.ie/sport/cusack-t
"Set in 1907, it has a feel of Dorothy L. Sayers meets Arthur Conan Doyle." That's me grinning for the rest of the day.
Speak Its Name reviewed Past Shadows.
"the story settles into a delightful combination of Austenesque convention—the young ladies of the parish twittering over the handsome young curate and the local squire—and unexpected surprises."
And don't read this if drinking hot liquids. I've sold a story which is a) contemporary, b) contains your actual swear words and c) is about a cross dressing star of an all male production of Chicago. And it contains a rugby player called Tommy.
He thought he had everything. Until someone tried to steal it.
Bath, summer 1907
For Orlando Coppersmith and Jonty Stewart, a visit to the Georgian city of Bath is full of promise. Orlando has to assess the value of some old manuscripts, while his friend and lover Jonty needs to finish his book on the sonnets. When they’re asked to investigate the mysterious death of a prostitute, this just makes their visit more exciting.
But when Jonty finds a rehearsal for Macbeth in full swing, the Cambridge fellows are confronted by the greatest threat so far to their happiness. The theatrical producer is Jimmy Harding, a friend of Jonty’s from university days who clearly finds his old pal irresistible. Jimmy doesn’t just tell Jonty this—he lets Orlando know as well.
When Jonty volunteers his skills to the production, it means Orlando will have to do much of his sleuthing alone. It also throws Jonty into Jimmy’s company during rehearsals, and Jonty finds himself sorely tempted by Jimmy’s undeniable allure. Will Jimmy make good his threat to win Jonty away from his lover?
Lessons in Seduction (February 2010)
This time, one touch could destroy everything…
The suspected murder of the king’s ex-mistress is Cambridge dons Orlando Coppersmith and Jonty Stewart’s most prestigious case yet. And the most challenging, since clues are as hard to come by as the killer’s possible motive.
At the hotel where the body was found, Orlando goes undercover as a professional dancing partner while Jonty checks in as a guest. It helps the investigation, but it also means limiting their communication to glances across the dance floor. It’s sheer agony.
A series of anonymous letters warns the sleuths they’ll be sorry if they don’t drop the investigation. When another murder follows, Jonty is convinced their involvement might have caused the victim’s death. Yet they can’t stop, for this second killing brings to light a wealth of hidden secrets.
For Orlando, the letters pose a more personal threat. He worries that someone will blow his cover and discover their own deepest secret… The intimate relationship he enjoys with Jonty could not only get them thrown out of Cambridge, but arrested for indecency.
Lessons in Desire got 4 cherries at Whipped Cream whereas Lessons in Discovery got 4.5. *g*
BTW The icon is a picture she took when she saw Agamemnon's mask *grumble some more*
She quoted one of the ex-presidents as speculating that romantics - and people who read romance - are at heart optimists, looking for the expected happy ending. The same person had said it was as well that Britain had been led by a romantic - Winston Churchill - during WWII.
The best one of all was 'The Case of the Family Jewels', a book which demands to be written given the slashy synopsis.
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