Eye of the Beholder: POV Choices from a #MFRW Author

When it comes to telling a story, POV (Point of View) plays a major part in order to “Tell the story right” as John Travolta says in the movie, Basic.

There are three POVs:

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First Person: Basically is I. I saw the cow jump over the moon.

Second person: This is You. This POV isn’t used much. You are dancing between beams of moonlight.

Third Person: Is She/He

In Third Person, you have Third person Omniscient and Third Person Limited. In Omniscient, the narrator sees all like God and Third Person Limited only sees himself but both POVs use He/ She.

Lachlan lingered in the courtyard. He refused to step inside. No doubt, he could find a widow to warm the night with. He just had to stay away from the Great Hall and Rowen. Damn, she was so beautiful sitting upon her horse. She was so near to him. He could have snatched her up and run away. He couldn’t go near her. He kicked at a rock. Why did MacLean have to permit the marriage here? –From Highland Scandal 

But this post isn’t about this. This is about my POV preference and it isn’t what you think.

As a Romance Author, I write in third person limited. But my favorite POV is first person POV. Some people say that it is a hard POV to tackle. For me though, I love it. You must have heard about Method acting where the actor transforms into his character. When I’m writing, I do Method Writing. I take on my character. Ever action my character takes is one that I have weighed based on backstory, character development, goals, and conflicts.

When I’m writing, I am escaping just as much as I hope my readers are too. Another reason I prefer firstperson is I don’t feel separate from my characters. Readers (even I) can feel that in the writing. I suppose the reason I like it some much is because I have a lot of practice writing in that POV. Since I first started writing back when I was a little girl, I always wrote in first-person.

So, do you have a preference in both reading and writing?

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How long does happily ever after take?https://www.amazon.com/Highland-Scandal-Mageela-Troche-ebook/dp/B07KQLLPQY/

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A Conqueror and His Queen: A Medieval Romance

History remembers him as William the Conqueror, the first Norman King of England and the creator of the Doomsday Book. But before he defeated King Harold of England, he was known as William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy. 

William the Conqueror

In 1051 or 1052, William married Matilda of Flanders. Matilda was the niece and granddaughter of Kings of France. Viewing their status through that lens, Matilda certainly married down.

Matilda was considered beautiful and wealthy.  And not as short as we learn. She stood 5 feet tall, the average height for her time and William was 5’10 not the giant proclaimed.

Now the story of their courting. William sent his representative to ask for her hand in marriage and she turned him down. William not satisfied with that. William rode from Normandy to Bruges and found her riding to church. He tackled her in the street, pulling her off her horse by her long braids. He threw her in the street, beat her and then rode off. After that, she agreed to marry him. 

Matilda of Flanders

Some people say the story is true others say that it is not. I guess it depends on who you read.  In 1053, William and Matilda married even though Pope Leo IX banned it on the grounds of consanguinity (being closely related). Luckily for their children, in 1059, the royal couple received a Papal dispensation by Pope Nicholas II.

And William and Matilda would have children–10 to be exact who all would live into adulthood. A great feat at a time when children died. 

In 1066, William would transform from the bastard to the conqueror when Edward the Confessor (King of England) died without issue. So, William prepared to invade the isle nation since he was a cousin to Edward and stated that Edward promised his throne. Matilda outfitted a ship named Mora with her own funds. While William went off to England, Matilda was regent of Normandy for her young son, Robert II.

In 1066, William won the Battle of Hastings but not all in England was peaceful. The Danes were fighting in the North for control and there were rebellions from the local nobility and people. Historians put the number of dead at 100,000. That is a large number when one thinks about how much smaller the population was. 

Now the King of England, Matilda had to be crowned. On May 11, 1068, she became the Queen of England. But she was still in Normandy. It would take more than a year for her to visit her new nation.  Only one child was born in their new realm–Henry I who would become one of the two English kings this union produced.

In the summer of 1083, Matilda became ill and died on the 2 of November 1083. Four years later, William followed on September 9, 1087. Both are buried in France. 

England now a great amount of Williams. But history never recorded William having bastards. This couple changed Europe and the world and this is just some of their historical romance. 

A Historical Romance Author’s Big Fear

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Most people are scared of dogs, spiders, rats and clowns. To be honest, I don’t like clowns. They are creepy. But those common fears are not the biggest one I deal with. 

It’s embarrassing to even confess it—let alone write a post about it. But here is it is. My biggest fear is succeeding. 

What? That’s crazy. 

That’s what you’re probably saying right now. But it is the truth. It’s not because I don’t want to be a bestseller romance author whose books take up residence on reader’s keeper shelf and who can make a living writing. Oh, I do so what that more than anything. I want my books made into movies or Netflix originals or some other show. I want to spend my life writing stories that entertain both my readers and me. 

But what if that happens and I’m not really good enough. They call it imposter syndrome. Do I think I’m not worth having it. Maybe. That’s why I writing this revealing post instead of talking about clowns. This is me owning my fear and destroying its control over me. 

I read a New York Times article about Jennifer Lopez and she said in the article, “I want what I deserve.” I too want that. I want what I deserve and I’m not going to allow anyone even myself to stop that from happening. When I decided to write this, I thought I would be shaking while I type this but I’m not. I feel strong and bigger. I’m claiming my space. I’m claiming my dreams and proclaiming to the world that I will not stop. Can I do it? 

Yeah. 

It won’t be easy. I will have to fight. I will get beat. I will cry. I will get angry. I will feel defeated. I will get tired. I may lose hope some days. 

I can’t stop. I deserve this. I want this. 

Hell yeah! It’s mine. 

Now, it’s time for you to get what you deserve. Go get it. If you are ready to proclaim it then please share with me what is rightfully yours. 

And please help me and share this post with your friends. I want the world to know. I’m not hiding it anymore.  

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Type The End Time To Celebrate

Typing The End is a great feeling. I have written—most likely a novel that has taken me months and hours of being on my computer and more hours of scrolling through Pinterest. But the end has arrived.

I am no longer writing. I have written. So comes the celebration, right.

A bottle of champagne?   A trip to a sandy beach?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly, I don’t do either one.

For my two medieval Scottish Highlander Novels,  The Marriage Alliance and Claiming the Highlander, I have celebrated their completion by doing two things.

First, I take a couple of days off. I watch TV, lay in bed, anything to rest my brain so I can recharge because I have other projects I am working on and cannot waste time. But creativity is important so I can work on my next project.

The second thing I do to celebrate is a manicure.

While I am writing, I don’t bother doing my nails. So by the time I finish a manuscript my nails look like some monster’s and not the hands of a lady (as my mother and grandmother would say). When I step out of the nail salon with my nails perfectly painted, and my hands wonderfully massage, my need to is fully recharged. Then it is back to my computer to do this all over again, which will be happening soon with

Then it is back to my computer to do this all over again, which will be happening soon with The Laird’s Right and Highland Scandal. Yeah, my hands look scary and that manicure image has me drooling.

Yeah, my hands look scary. I can’t wait for my manicure.  *stares at image with longing*

Now tell me what do you plan to celebrate and how you plan to do it.

 

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Yeah, I heard it before (Worse writing advice this #MFRW author heard)

If you are anything like me then you have received a great deal advice in your life—Some of it good, some of it bad, some unwanted and others much desired. One piece of writing advice that was the worst for me was “write what you know.”

NO! I do not want to write what I know.

Writing for me is about escape into another life, world, person. I read that way too. I want to experience so many lives—the hopes, the loves, the aches and the dreams.

What I know is my everyday life and while some people love to explore everyday reality,  that is not my thing. I want to fall in love with the handsome duke, dance at the ball, and be a lady-in-waiting to a Tudor queen.

What is the worst advice you received? Do share so we can complain about it then stick out our tongue at it.

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The Outrageous Wishes of This #MFRW Historical Romance Author

In case you do not know, I am a fan of Outlander both the novel series and the TV series. As a fan, I follow both Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan (on social media not in some stalker way). Well, Sam is an outdoorsy kind of man who climbs Munros (Munros are mountains in Scotland that are over 3,000 feet). The view from them is spectacular. One of my wishes is to climb or as they say, bag a Munro with Sam Heughan and raise money for charity. 

You see that wish isn’t crazy because of the company I want to have on the climb but the fact that I have fibromyalgia and arthritis. For me, walking from my bed to the kitchen in my NYC apartment is like a trek. I have to nap after I take a shower. I feel as if I have the flu every day of my life. So, climbing over 3, 000 feet is a test and a wish that seems an impossibility.  But oh, to see Scotland from that view…Heaven, Paradise…

Do you watch late-night tv? I do. My favorite host is Conan O’Brien. I have loved that lanky, red-head since he hosted the Late Late Show. Conan has whole episodes where he travels to a country or region. A recent one was his trip to Israel and Palestine.  In one segment, he went to the Dead Sea and just floated in the milky blue waters. And I was so jealous. The water is so dense with salt that you cannot sink. People say the waters and salts are great for aching joints (that’s me) and for the skin (also me since I have skin). So, the next wish is to swim in the Dead Sea. 

Another love of mine is fashion. I love —haute couture—the skill, ultra lux fabric, and the designs…I think I need to fan myself. Naturally, that moment to don a creation has to be a high-fashion, Vogue-esqe fashion shoot.  I can see it, me posing with my hair perfectly styled, make-up flawless and diamonds and precious jewels shining under the lights and complimenting the most fabulous haute couture gown with a swooping train that cascades down the Grand staircase in the MET Museum.   Fashion Heaven.

After those three wishes come true, I’m flying to France and to Versailles. My mother had this porcelain doll dressed in 18th-century fashion, she had blonde hair and I just knew she was Marie Antoinette. I fell in love with Versailles (much like other people have) But I do not just wish to visit. I wish to stroll through Versailles by myself. As a child, I love to lay on the floor as an adult I still do. Imagine laying down on the floor in the Hall of Mirrors…or strolling through the rooms with the sounds of your footsteps and creaks and groans of the royal palace and no other noise. No one to distract you as you wander from room to room, up and down staircases or through the gardens with the sweet scents and soft air carrying the buzz of insects.

My last wish is a simple one and one of two that will come true one day. I wish to sit outside a home that overlooks the  North Sea on one of the Shetland Isles and look out to the horizon and become hypnotized by the surroundings.   Nothing more than that. 

Simple wishes I hope are fulfilled in my life. What about you? Do you have anything you wish to do? ♥

Don’t forget to visit other blogs. Maybe you’ll be inspired.

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November Romance Releases

November is upon us. Thanksgiving and preparing for Christmas is nearing as we draw out sweaters and mittens and boots. During the holiday season, we all need a moment to ourselves—an escape. And what better way than with a romance novel. Here are two that are heading your way.

BETWEEN YOU AND ME

Book blurb:

As the only daughter of the wealthy Harrison clan, Tess Harrison has everything—except the baby she longs for. With no husband in sight, she escapes to her family’s retreat in Aspen, Colorado, visions of sperm donors dancing in her head. Instead, she finds Logan Carter. When the ruggedly handsome manager of the Harrison ski house offers to be her baby daddy in exchange for her playing his girlfriend, Tess is breathless to begin the charade. After all, the brokenhearted heiress knows better than to fall in love . . .

She would be Logan’s dream girl, if his dark past had left him with any dreams. Now the brooding bachelor’s only hope is to satisfy his mother’s dying wish to see him happily paired off—and give lovely Tess the baby she longs for.  But when he and Tess opt to make a baby the old-fashioned way, he’s fighting hard against the longing to hold on to the elusive Harrison beauty forever . . .

Available on November 28, 2017

Amazon link: Between You and Me by Jennifer Gracen

 

SECRET DESIRES

Margo Simmons is ecstatic when she inherits her uncle’s Manhattan apartment and a handsome sum of money. To her chagrin, there are strings attached. She must be gainfully employed in a job for a year. Everything in Margo’s life has complications. When she meets the man of her dreams, she anguishes over how to fulfill her secret desires for a loving relationship because he is still emotionally tied to his deceased wife and afraid to open his heart again. To replace her fractured childhood growing up with a distant stepfather, Margo becomes the guardian of an elementary student who longs for connection and closeness. As the story evolves, readers will see how these individuals unite. Secret Desires is written from the heart and speaks to anyone who has suffered a loss and had to start over.

SECRET DESIRES was released in February and is available now.

 

 

October Romance Releases

 I Knew You Were Trouble by Kay Blake

Release Date: September 22, 2017

 He seemed to be nothing but trouble.

Ally had something to prove. She wanted a new start. So, she took a job across the country to be the personal photographer to this up and coming rock band called Runnin on E. What she didn’t expect was to be captivated by the lead singer of the band Ethan Avery. Ethan’s blond hair, blue eyes and a voice that can melt the panties off of any woman spelled trouble. Big trouble. And after what she left behind she couldn’t afford any more.
But sometimes temptation is just too hard to resist.

Music was my only solace until I met her.

From the outside looking in, Ethan has everything. He’s the lead singer of the new rock band Runnin on E’. He has devastating good looks and women. Lots of women. But Ethan has his demons. He hides them behind the lyrics of his songs. New found fame is nice, but Ethan wants something more. He wants someone who knows there’s more to him than what meets the eye. And that someone is Ally. She’s beautiful. She’s different. She sees him. All of him. And now he wants her more than he’s ever wanted anything.
Can he leave his past demons behind and have the future he never thought he deserved?

Link:https://www.amazon.com/Knew-You-Were-Trouble-Novella-ebook/dp/B0755VTFNJ

 Breathe You by Kay Blake

Release Date: October 26, 2017

A marriage on the rocks and one weekend!
Bree met Mason when he saved her from what could have been an unfortunate situation. They became friends, lovers, and then husband and wife. After being separated for almost a year, they take up the suggestion of their marriage counselor to go away together for the weekend to try and reconnect.

Can these two work out their issues, and save their marriage?

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0765BYJH7  

Leather and Gold by Gemma Snow

At My Lady’s Pleasure series (Book 1) Historical Erotic Romance (BDSM)

Emmeline Westington Wright, widowed duchess of South Framley, sent Captain Alexandre Pierron Simonnet to the Americas eighteen months ago, presumably in search of her errant brother, the Marquis of Fulton. But when Captain Simonnet returns to South Framley and the duchess’s Roseburn estate, she must admit to herself that the errand was nothing more than a way to keep the devilishly handsome and tempting captain far enough away where she will not succumb to her desires. They are the kind of desires she has only ever indulged with her late husband, William, hidden away in a darkened room, below the prim and proper halls of Roseburn.

Her lust for Captain Simonnet has not diminished in the past months, instead growing stronger and more potent until she invites him to meet her in the rose garden at midnight. There, she shows the captain all of her secrets, that hidden room, her own desire to cede control, to be taken care of–by him. As she had hoped, Alexandre is familiar with her lifestyle and sets down the rules, before laying her over his lap and giving her all that she most desperately craves–or almost all.

Because despite herself and her raging need, Emmeline knows that her want goes deeper than a salacious affair. She has known Captain Simonnet, William’s best friend, some ten years now, craved him for three. Tonight, in the light of their pleasures and vulnerabilities and moments of profound trust, she might just admit to herself that she wants more than a single night or a week or a month–she might just want a life together.

Buy Links:

Loose Id: http://www.loose-id.com/leather-and-gold.html

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Leather-Gold-Gemma-Snow-ebook/dp/B076FSTYLB/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/leather-and-gold  

A Time of Fear & Loving – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Book 5 – By Alice Orr

A hot car and a hot guy can get a girl into trouble.

Maybe that’s what Amanda Miller needs. But how much trouble is too much trouble? Dead bodies on the riverbank? A possible kidnapping? Sexy detective Mike Schaeffer might save the day. But who will protect Amanda’s heart?

Alice Orr is known for Delicious Suspense Spiced with a Love Story.

She does it again in A Time of Fear & Loving.

Buy a Time of Fear & Loving HERE.

Alice’s Website – www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice’s Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/aliceorrwriter

Alice’s Twitter Page – https://twitter.com/aliceorrbooks