Today Cozy is host to another exciting Goddess Fish Promotion virtual book tour! Readers, please help me in welcoming author Isabel Roman whose latest romance, Sex and Subterfuge (of The Dark Desires of the Druids series) launched July 1st! Commenters today will be entered to win a Vice Versa beaded fashion purse, a summer shawl, and a box of Godiva chocolates! (For other tour hosts and dates and more chances to win, visit GFP) Inspiration. You are my Inspiration….. Anyone ever see the Rock Hudson movie Pillow Talk? The song came instantly to mind when I typed inspiration and then wondered where on earth I was going with this.
What’s my inspiration? I have a lot of inspirations; some days it’s a complete stranger being nice to me. Others it’s family or friends. In my writing, it’s pretty much whatever is around. But that’s boring, isn’t it?
Let’s talk history. Let’s talk sexy history! Sex in history is nothing new, but anyone who reads historical know that. So what inspires me to write something new? A song, something someone says, a really interesting news item, and always The History Channel.
Taking a small piece of history and twisting it is great fun. For instance, in my Druids books I took the Spanish Inquisition and twisted it so they hunted Druids or magickers instead. Now it was called the Purifications, and 200 years later it was still going on in Victorian England. Every story of burning at the stake, of the witch trials that spread through Europe, of even the hint of witchcraft now became part of my alternate universe. These people hunted magickers to near extinction and carry great weight in the Parliament of 1882.
Yeah, it’s fun to play goddess, to move things around and twist them to your liking. But really, it all comes down to the fact that without knowing about these fun facts to begin with, I’d never be able to play. There was something about the French Revolution and how they were warring (and losing) with Hungry before the full-blown Napoleonic Wars erupted. I wrote it down in a file and stored it in case I ever wanted to use it for a story.
Inspiration is a game of what if. What if Y happened instead of X. What if A happened to these characters instead of B, C, and D. You can find inspiration anywhere, from your family by playing the what if game, a movie or favorite TV show. It’s all about how twisted your own mind is and where you want to take it.
Read Dark Desires of the Druids: Sex & Subterfuge available now in bookstores! And be sure to check out Isabel’s free story!
Lucien, Earl of Granville, left England to seek out the Blackthorne Druid line and discover what they’ve been up to since contact was lost. Once he and Morgana meet, their mutual attraction distracts him from his purpose. Embroiled in her problems, he finds himself more concerned with her welfare than is practical for a passing affair.
What’s my inspiration? I have a lot of inspirations; some days it’s a complete stranger being nice to me. Others it’s family or friends. In my writing, it’s pretty much whatever is around. But that’s boring, isn’t it?
Let’s talk history. Let’s talk sexy history! Sex in history is nothing new, but anyone who reads historical know that. So what inspires me to write something new? A song, something someone says, a really interesting news item, and always The History Channel.
Taking a small piece of history and twisting it is great fun. For instance, in my Druids books I took the Spanish Inquisition and twisted it so they hunted Druids or magickers instead. Now it was called the Purifications, and 200 years later it was still going on in Victorian England. Every story of burning at the stake, of the witch trials that spread through Europe, of even the hint of witchcraft now became part of my alternate universe. These people hunted magickers to near extinction and carry great weight in the Parliament of 1882.
Yeah, it’s fun to play goddess, to move things around and twist them to your liking. But really, it all comes down to the fact that without knowing about these fun facts to begin with, I’d never be able to play. There was something about the French Revolution and how they were warring (and losing) with Hungry before the full-blown Napoleonic Wars erupted. I wrote it down in a file and stored it in case I ever wanted to use it for a story.
Inspiration is a game of what if. What if Y happened instead of X. What if A happened to these characters instead of B, C, and D. You can find inspiration anywhere, from your family by playing the what if game, a movie or favorite TV show. It’s all about how twisted your own mind is and where you want to take it.
Read Dark Desires of the Druids: Sex & Subterfuge available now in bookstores! And be sure to check out Isabel’s free story!
A master magicker, Morgana Blackthorne has a tenuous hold on her following. When a strange Englishman arrives on her doorstep with news of other druidic magickers, and magicker problems, she’s intrigued but suspicious. There hasn’t been contact between the American and European druids in over a hundred years. Plus she has her own worries and doesn’t need the handsome earl adding to them.
Lucien, Earl of Granville, left England to seek out the Blackthorne Druid line and discover what they’ve been up to since contact was lost. Once he and Morgana meet, their mutual attraction distracts him from his purpose. Embroiled in her problems, he finds himself more concerned with her welfare than is practical for a passing affair.
When I invited you into my bed, it never occurred to me I wouldn’t want you to leave.
Smiling, Morgana swept out of the circle, stepping into the foyer, and greeted her guest. His timing was off, but as the magicker she knew him to be, not suspect.
There are darker forces at work and the hunger of a weak magicker desperate for power. Will Lucien convince Morgana of his true feelings before things spiral out of control? Or will the surrounding subterfuge tear them apart?
Excerpt from Sex and Subterfuge....
“Lucien Harrington,” Jacobs, her butler, intoned, “the Earl of Granville.”
Smiling, Morgana swept out of the circle, stepping into the foyer, and greeted her guest. His timing was off, but as the magicker she knew him to be, not suspect.
“Welcome, Lord Granville,” she said, offering a slight curtsy.
He was tall, with dark blond hair, dark blue eyes, and a sharp nose over which he looked down at her. Her eyes traveled over his face, down his body, clothed in immaculately tailored Savile Row, back to his face. Arousal pooled hot in her belly.
She’d never wanted any man. Yet Morgana wanted Lord Granville. Her skin prickled at his nearness, her womb clenched with want.
Forcing her mind off his body, she studied his face. Briefly, want flashed in his eyes and she smiled a truly wicked smile at him. It was gone as fast as it’d shone and she returned to studying him. There was grief hidden deep in his eyes, along with suspicion and weariness. Tilting her head, she wondered what caused those emotions. Suspicion she could easily understand. It’d been more than a hundred and thirty years since their families had any contact. Though, since he’d sought her out, she should be more suspicious of him.
“Mistress Blackthorne,” he bowed over her offered hand. Flicking a glance behind her, he said, “I hope I’m not interrupting.”
“Not at all,” Morgana smiled. She could all but feel David’s displeasure. Suppressing a giddy smile, she took Lord Granville’s arm and led him into the parlor. “We’re about to begin the New Moon Ritual. Do you still practice it in England?”
Looking up at him with guileless eyes, she waited for his confusion, gratified when it sparked briefly in those bottomless depths. Damn them all. She could be as gracious as she liked, but in the end, resentment bubbled to the surface. They’d abandoned her ancestors to indentured servitude and hadn’t bothered to contact any of them since.
“I’m afraid we lost that custom when we lost the valuable Blackthorne line.”
Morgana raised her eyebrow at him as they entered the parlor. Wasn’t he the diplomat?
“Would you care to join the ritual, Lord Granville?”
He bowed again and smiled. “It would be my pleasure, Mrs. Blackthorne.”
3 comments:
Hi, Amber! And thanks for hosting me today.
As a matter of fact, I have Pillow Talk on VHS, haven't watched it in a while though. I always enjoy learning things about authors, and your book sounds very interesting. I liked the excerpt and can't wait to find out more about this book.
seriousreader at live dot com
Hi Isabel. Following your blog tour. I love hearing about a writer's inspiration! I think it is interesting how your ideas come about. Loved your book excerpt. It sounds really good.
Sue B
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