Guest Post: Ros Clarke on the inspiration for ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

From Adri: When I first read ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS, which released December 7th from the Entangled Publishing Flirt line, I found it deeply touching and uplifting in a way that’s rather personal to me as someone with a parent who’s suffering the early stages of Alzheimer’s. So even before we started edits, I wondered what prompted Ros to write this story and infuse it with such depth and realism – and here she is to tell us why.

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Guest Post: Ros Clarke, Author of ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS (Entangled Publishing, December 2011)

When I started writing All I Want For Christmas, all I knew was that I wanted to write a Christmas-themed short story. Anna appeared on the page with the hangover from hell, the morning after the office Christmas party. She’d obviously drunk too much and embarrassed herself somehow.

Enter Hugh Munro, the sexy advertising director who works on the second floor and the focus of Anna’s embarrassment. Anna fancies Hugh. Hugh fancies Anna. They’re both adults. Why not just get together?

And that’s when the star of my story made herself known. Anna’s mother, Irene, has early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Anna lives with her mother and cares for her when she’s not at work because Irene isn’t safe to be left alone. She forgets the stupidest things and conversations tend to be repetitive in the extreme. But she is the sweetest woman, who loves her daughter so much and is so proud of her.

My grandfather suffered from Alzheimer’s in the last few years of his life. I know how heartbreaking it is to see someone you love forgetting who you are and that you love them. The best portrayal of Alzheimer’s I’ve ever seen was in the wonderful film of Iris Murdoch’s life with Judi Dench. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it – but make sure you have a box of tissues handy! There is no cure for Alzheimer’s and it is both degenerative and terminal.

All I Want For Christmas is a romance novella with a happy ending for all three characters, Anna, Hugh, and Irene. It’s the sort of happy ending you get in real life, where you know there are going to be some tough times ahead, but you know that you will be able to face them better together.

I don’t know what you want this Christmas, but I hope that you will all have the happiness of being together with the people whom you love.

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS can be purchased at Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble, or Books on Board. You can also read reviews and ratings on GoodReads, or find Ros on Twitter as @Ros_Clarke.

Guest Post From Ashley Christman

From Adri:

Plus, check out Wednesday Peters on the cover. Isn’t that thing (the cover, not Wednesday) freakin’ gorgeous?

Guest Post From Ashley: Where Did Originality Disappear To?

First of all, I want to thank Adrien for giving me this opportunity.

In researching The Witching Hour, I found myself not only choosing various pagan gods, but going back and reading stories about them. What I found in doing so was a rich tradition of story-telling not so different from what writers do today, that is, the ancients were taking themes and tales that already existed and putting their own spin on it.

We often hear people saying there is no such thing as an original idea anymore. In my research, I found that if you want to say there’s no such thing as an original idea anymore, you’d have to say there was never any such thing as an original idea. Since the beginning of time there have been several themes that resonates in each of us. Themes that have been a part of our lives since we were children.

For example, in The Witching Hour, the theme is a modern take on heroism and the conflict is man vs. god(s).

I took the idea of a hero like Perseus or Hercules, who were both sent on epic quests meant to test their fortitude by the gods, and made it something relevant to today. I also stripped the gods of their infinite powers and gave the power to the humans being tested. In doing so, I think I’ve managed to create a believable conflict of man vs. god(s).

But again, this is a theme that is ever present in books and movies, what I’ve done is just managed to give it my own spin.

The point is this–no, there are no original ideas, but there will always be original spins on old ideas.

Guest blogs!

Hey, guys, just a quick little bit of pimpage: I’m guest-blogging over at the Lyrical Press blog today, talking about author fatigue and how to write past it.

Good lord, I’m a wordy bugger.

Also: not too long ago one of my authors, Jason Beymer (author of the upcoming humorous fantasy ROGUE’S CURSE), did a great post on character development and how he finds inspiration for his characters. You should go check it out. (And be nice to him. He’s funny.)

Watch this space for some other guest blogs soon, as I cajole my authors and my fellow Lyrical editors into speaking up. (Cynthia, I’m lookin’ at you.)

I keep meaning to update with photos of my nifty new Sony Reader Touch Edition and faff on about how awesome it is, but every time I talk about the thing I sound like a product shill. Bleargh. Well, here, a couple of blurry photos snapped off on my G1 phone, with the thing on my messy, disorganized coffee table:

Man, do we need to vacuum.

That’s the Pixie skin from DecalGirl.com*, crap about my student loans underneath the reader, and Elizabeth Darvill’s BOUND BY BLOOD on the reader’s screen. Liz and Jason have been great sports about not killing me yet despite the volumes of edit notes I’ve dropped on them. Ashley has yet to find out what she’s in for, but she will. [insert innocent smile here]

What else, what else…OH! One other thing: The latest book in Diane Duane’s YOUNG WIZARDS series, A WIZARD OF MARS, released this week. It wasn’t due out until early April, so imagine my surprise when my preorder showed up on my doorstep on the 23rd.

If you love Diane Duane as much as I do, get the damn book. Seriously. YOUNG WIZARDS has always held a firm position as my favorite YA series of all time, and A WIZARD OF MARS is a great addition to the collection.

……

…oi, that’s a lot of tags on this post.

 

 
*Random aside: DecalGirl has the best customer service. My original order was shipped incorrectly; they sent me a skin for the Pocket reader, rather than the Touch edition. I e-mailed asking how to do an exchange, and they apologized and shipped a priority mail replacement the same day. It’s sad that it’s rare to see good, polite customer service, but it’s always nice when you run across it.

Is this really what you want in a man?

Guilty not-so-secret confession: I love romance novels. I started reading them as a boy, when they were my only outlet to secretly explore certain things that confused the hell out of me. As an adult I have a little-indulged soft spot for romance, and adore a smart, engaging romance novel with a good mixture of conflict, wit, heart-warming moments, and of course the steamy pages that make romance novels what they are. In my later years I’ve grown a bit more discerning about what makes it onto my shelf of favorites, though; it’s not enough for the books to have lavish descriptions of period dress and a swarthy, broad-shouldered, swoon-worthy hero. I need characters I like, relationships I can understand, love scenes that don’t make me snortgiggle at the euphemisms (or if they do, it’s with that sort of charming self-awareness that many exhibit), and plots that won’t unravel with the simple question of, “Well, why didn’t you just tell him that like a normal person would, saving this entire intricate mess from happening?”

So lately I’ve been rereading some old favorites, as well as exploring a few new titles from the authors of said favorites. Some are modern, some are historical, some are the classic bodice-rippers, but in a large number of them I’m noticing a disturbing trend:

Controlling, domineering, irrational men with very few redeeming traits. They’re insensitive, bullheaded, temperamental, impossible to talk to with any level of honesty, misogynistic, arrogant to the point of self-delusion, sadistic, prone to using physical force to get their way, borderline (and often outright) cruel, difficult to reason with once they’ve made a conclusion, and generally in some position of authority over the heroine’s life and well-being – whether placed there by others, rank, an unfortunate and perilous situation, or themselves. These traits, while superficially infuriating to the heroine, in the end only serve to endear him to her as signs of what a man he is, a true man’s man, an uncompromising force of nature who will protect her and eventually give her many fat babies. And naturally his flaws are forgivable because he’s handsome as the devil and the most amazing lover on earth, and he knows it.

I get the lesson: love isn’t perfect, but it can pave the way for accepting a few character flaws in your mate. And I’m aware that all these traits can exist to some measure in real men, in a variety of concentrations and combinations. And I’m aware that many women (and men) have different tastes in what makes a man attractive. But seeing all these traits combined to such extremes that they make an unappealing caricature of a dominating man-child, I have to ask…

Is this really what women want in a fantasy man?

Things.

• Crackfic / WAKING MAGIC is now 11k and growing. If this turns into another book, I will be disgusted with myself but quite happy. I mean…seriously. Pissed-off warrior-fairy with shark teeth, gender-swapping, combining magic with bioengineering…what the hell was I drinking when I came up with this?
• Agent blogs are not conducive to finishing work. (Neither is this one, but I waited until I was caught up to post. So nyeh.)
• I’m currently dripping from countless orifices (well, okay, only my nose and eyes). It’s like being a baby again. All the little buggers do is sit there and drip all over everything.
• I’m at once amused and disappointed that so many people retweeted this post, but only one commented. Thank you to everyone who retweeted, though. I wasn’t expecting that kind of response.
• I’ve decided that I’m going to enter ABNA 2010. Probably with the crackfic, not SB – assuming I can finish and edit the crackfic in time. SB…I’m still up in the air about what to do with that, pending response from agents with fulls.
• Still haven’t started proofreading the rewrite. Been too busy reading friends’ manuscripts, plus I want a little more distance from it. Okay, I’m scared of it. Just because it’s rewritten doesn’t mean it’s better, and who knows, this version may end up on the scrap heap.
• Kerry is a bloody awesome writer. I’ll be finishing her manuscript today, after work. There are penguins. Quiver in fear.
• Going to Cirque du Soleil tonight. I’m not sure what to expect, but the show previews had a definite Vaudeville feel. Looking forward to a night out, especially when it appeals to both my cultured and baser pleasures: theatre, well-stocked with man-candy.
• Charles de Lint’s THE BLUE GIRL is a gorgeously written book, and I’m enjoying the hell out of it.
• Everyone’s so quiet. Sihaya, Lessa, Indikaze, etc…granted, it might help if I said something worth responding to.

That’s all.