Contemporary Romance "In Love and War" by Suzanne Barrett

Scribal Love Welcomes Suzanne Barrett.  She is the author of the Contemporary Romance set in rural Ireland called, "In Love and War" from Turquoise Morning Press.

Editor's Note:  Scribal Love has found out that strangely enough that this story was at one point too controversial for New York Publishing Houses. 

In your mind's eye, picture a small country village in Ireland with the ruins of an abandoned castle in the distance. 

Tell us a bit about YOU that our readers might not know. 


Some years back, I left Corporate America and an engineering job to write full time and haven’t looked back. I live in the country, raise chickens, garden and make jewelry and sell at arts and crafts shows.

What made you want to become a writer?


Suzanne: I have always written: essays, short stories, correspondence with pen pals. I’ve been reading since I was three. My inspiration for wanting to create my own stories was LaVyrle Spencer’s HUMMINGBIRD.

Do you write under a pen name?

I use my own name.

As authors, we love all of our characters.  Is there a certain type of character that is easier to write than another?

I love the tortured hero, the shy and serious heroine (who is usually a reflection of me, or at least a facet of me). Both are easier for me to flesh out than the humorous or quirky.

Do you read in the same genre that you write in?

I love romance and romantic suspense, occasionally, the thriller. I write contemporary and historical and am currently working on my first romantic suspense.


Tell us about a typical day in your life as a writer.

I’m definitely a morning person, up before dawn and writing, checking email with my cup of coffee. If I’m teaching water aerobics, I’m out of the house by 6:45 and back again by 10:30. The rest of my day is divided between writing, editing, working on jewelry and general home/garden tasks. I read and review in the evenings and usually go to bed by nine. With this kind of schedule, that leaves no time for TV. I catch the occasional British mystery on DVD.

Most of us have pretty vivid imaginations when it comes to story lines. Where do your story ideas come from?

From an amazing number of places. 

For my May release, which is about a female structural engineer who’s sent to England to work on an antenna support platform, I got the idea while working on...wait for it...an antenna support platform in the Santa Cruz mountains.


Once, I took an unknown mountain road that dead-ended at a cattle guard with a dirt road winding down to a house, almost obscured from view. I did some what ifs: what if it was a dilapidated old Victorian lived in by three women and in need of a handyman? What if this handyman was an Irishman one step away from being found by ICE and deported­a man who needed to hide? 


For my upcoming release "IN LOVE AND WAR," January 24th from Turquoise Morning Press, I spent part of a winter in County Waterford researching a number of things for some articles I was writing for Irish publications. 


I had just interviewed a dairy farmer and cheesemaker, and then while there saw a program on RTE about a female farmer who single-handedly ran a sheep farm. Bingo,  I had my heroine’s occupation, plus the plausibility! Interestingly enough, nearby was a converted castle keep that was being rented out. It became my heroine’s and the place where her lodger, my embittered war correspondent, comes to heal. What if his hatred of bloody, centuries-long conflict was his Achilles’ heel, and the heroine came from an Irish Republican family with secrets? Wow! I had my story.

IN LOVE AND WAR is truly the book of my heart. It was twice a Golden Heart finalist manuscript, but because of the Irish conflict, unsalable to New York. Quinn Lawlor comes from a privileged family, his father a flag-waving pro-Republican Irishman who emigrated to the United States and who hasn’t forgotten the Cause. Quinn, on the other hand, has spent years trying to put it behind him and is estranged from his Irish political father. Because of this, Quinn is deeply apolitical and carries a boulder-sized chip on his shoulder for any group that espouses violence. Meaghann Power comes from a family with an IRA background, one with secrets to hide. She is exactly the kind of woman he should not love. Meaghann, older than Quinn, lives in a tight-knit village where gossip could ruin a life...hers. Dare she give in to the attraction that simmers between them? An attraction that could spell disaster for him as well as for her?


Writing about the conflict seemed natural. For four years I was the About.com Ireland for Visitors Guide, and I ’ve been a student of Irish history for years (I have a five-foot-wide, floor-to-ceiling bookcase with nothing but Irish history and culture books.) I made numerous visits to Ireland and managed to get interviews with people who wouldn’t open up to the average tourist.

"It was twice a Golden Heart finalist manuscript,
 but because of the Irish conflict, unsalable to New York."

Quinn is the perfect tortured hero who’s had his career jerked away from him.  Meaghann is the typical care giver, a woman afraid of growing old before her time but who has had to bear all the responsibility in her family with none of the rewards.

I would love for my readers to tell me how this setting and story resonates with them. Do they feel Meaghann’s struggle? Can they forgive Quinn his prejudice? Is the village of Timnagh real to them? What about the secondary characters? And most importantly, from the interview and following snippet, would they want to read this book?







IN LOVE AND WAR excerpt:

County Waterford - 1993



     Father Donovan returned and directed Meaghann into his study. "Now," he said, lowering his robust frame onto an overstuffed chair, indicating she should do the same. "Tell me about this boarder. I trust you're...having no difficulty?"

     Meaghann sank into the opposite chair. "I've rented out the keep. Uncle Tom suggested it, and it seemed a good idea. It's working well. And Quinn-- "

     The priest took the tray from the elderly housekeeper and set it on a table. "Oh, thank you Mrs. Aherne." He poured two cups of tea and offered one to Meaghann.

     "Quinn, you say?" he asked after settling back in his chair. "Have I met the fellow?"

     Meaghann cast an uneasy glance at the priest's piercing eyes. Clear and questioning--definitely questioning. "Quinn Lawlor. His family left Timnagh in the sixties. You might remember his father, Patrick."

     "Hmmm. I'd just come down from Maynooth then," the priest mused. He took a bite from a square of cake on his plate. "Yes, of course I remember Paddy. A firebrand if ever I saw one." His brows formed a continuous line across intense blue eyes. "Not unlike his son, I'm told. A man in a dangerous occupation."

     "Then you know about Quinn."

     Father Donovan contemplated the cup of tea in his hand. "Just what I hear--that he's a war correspondent. I've seen a piece or two about him. Perceptive young man, so they say."

     "He's writing a book, now--since his accident."

     "Why haven't I seen him at Mass?"

     "He's...busy, I guess."

     The bushy brows rose. "Too busy to keep the sacraments?" The priest subjected her to a precise scrutiny. "My dear girl, you realize that having a man living on your property will cause tongues to wag."

     Meaghann twiddled the strap on her shoulder bag. "Tongues wag whether there's cause or not. I intend to pay it no mind, Father."

     "Just so long as you know what you're inviting. I'll not see God mocked in my parish. 'Tis easy for a woman alone to be beguiled by a man such as that one."

     A chilling silence settled over the room. "What do you mean 'such as that one'?"

     "Read the paper, my girl. Your lodger has a fair reputation with the ladies."

     Meaghann plunked her cup and saucer down on the tray. "His life is his own business, Father. Not mine."

      The priest tented pudgy fingers over the black worsted wool of one thigh. "The one that wears the shoe knows where it pinches, girl. See you remember it." His fleshy lips thinned. "We don't need another Sean Foley. One fool in a parish is enough."

     
Thank you Suzanne for Dropping By!

You can find Suzanne Barrett on the web at:

my website: www.suzannebarrett.com
My Irish website: www.irelandforvisitors.com
My jewelry website: www.bellerustique.com
My blog: http://bellerustique.blogspot.com


Her books: Late Harvest
In Love and War - 1/2011

British Author Linda Acaster and her Paranormal Historical Thriller, "Torc of Moonlight"

Scribal Love Welcomes Linda Acaster!


Linda Acaster is a British author of long and short fiction across an array of genres. Her newest ebook  ‘Torc of Moonlight : Special Edition’, is the first in a trilogy of thrillers linking the present to the Celtic past.

So where do you hail from?  


Yorkshire, England, UK. I grew up in Kingston upon Hull, a northern city port of 300,000, which looked more to the sea as a route of communication than to roads to join it to the rest of the country. That sense of the insular, of being apart, has always fed my writing. I live only 20 miles away now, in a small seaside town within walking distance of rural countryside.


What inspired you to write this book?


A walk in that countryside, or several walks. I love maps, and in the UK we have Ordnance Survey maps which mark things such as electricity pylons and whether a church has a steeple or a tower, alongside natural features like shale cliffs and forestry plantations. And named ancient springs. It was the frequency these named springs kept popping up that led me to the research that led me to the novel.


Do you have a specific writing style? 


I’m a ‘show’ writer. I get behind my viewpoint characters’ eyes and live in their thought patterns. I take readers through night terrors and good and bad decisions, always with the unspoken ‘so what would you have done in the circumstances?’ In Torc of Moonlight SE the language has been described as rich and powerful, but in some of my other work it can be minimalist and staccato. It depends on the genre I’m writing and the narrative voice of the viewpoint character/s. Overall, if readers expect pages of description of what my characters look like or wear, then they’ll be disappointed. I don’t do fashion catalogue.


How did you come up with the title?


From the research. A torc is a neck-ring of twisted gold worn, in this case, by Romano-British Celts. The British Museum in London has lots on display and they are truly beautiful. They were an emblem of authority and were often sacrificed to goddesses of water shrines, of which Britain still has many, some Christianised, some not. Seasonal religious festivals of the period were scheduled to phases of the moon and, despite Torc of Moonlight SE being a contemporary novel, the one fits with the other. There is a paperback available, but the ebook is the Special Edition because it carries bonus material: research articles, an interview, and an opening excerpt of Book 2 in the trilogy The Bull At The Gate.


What is Torc of Moonlight : Special Edition about?


In short, the resurrection of a Celtic water goddess which, if you live in the UK, isn’t as bizarre as it sounds. Have you tossed coins into a wishing well? So who do you think is listening? And if you don’t think anyone’s listening, why are you tossing coins into it? Making some sort of sacrifice to water is built into our DNA. We have a need to do it, be it in a steel and glass shopping mall, a verdant rural setting, or even in the crypt of York Minster where an excavated Roman culvert still runs damp.


Not far from where I live is an ancient spring referred to on maps as Old Wives Well. A Roman road, invariably straight, was dog-legged so as to pass by it. The road no longer exists, reclaimed by Nature, but the spring still bubbles up pure water, and in the shrubs surrounding it hang tiny offerings. It’s an eerie place, featured obliquely in the novel. History is all around us here, mere inches beneath our feet, and it has a way of insinuating into our present, for good or ill. 


Is it a single or multi-layered storyline?


Triples and triads were powerful elements in Celtic life, so I’ve followed this through with the storylines, which is why it is written in multiple third-person viewpoint. The main storyline concerns Nick and Alice’s relationship, which continues through the trilogy. He’s a normal beer-drinking, sport-playing, nineteen year old student, she determined to rediscover a forgotten Celtic water shrine she knows is in the area. Their parallel storyline focuses on a lascivious tutor with a past that comes to haunt him through an ex lover, and the binding storyline is of a Romano-British Celt trapped in the limbo of the present. How he came to be in this state, and what it means for the present day characters, unfolds backwards as the novel progresses forwards.

So is it a man’s or a woman’s novel?


LOL! Do you mean, is there a romance? Most definitely, and it follows through the trilogy to its HEA ending. But a Celtic water goddess was a fertility goddess, so the novel examines the differences between the uplifting qualities of ‘making love’ and the corrosive qualities of ‘having sex’. The paperback was well received by both female and male readers, but I wouldn’t suggest it’s a novel to be gifted to a fourteen year old.


What books are you reading now? 


Planks and Other Timber by Michael Deane-White. I don’t often read poetry but the juxtaposition of language and caustic judgement I’m finding incisive, and he’s doing it in so few words, always a wonder to a novelist. The Doll Makers by Penny Grubb. This British PI crime won the international Debut Dagger from the Crime Writers’ Association. It’s set in my area and I’m intrigued to see how another author tackles the landscape. On the story front, I can see why it won the Debut Dagger. 


What are your current projects?


I continue to bring my print backlist to ebook as an indie author – I received a Kindle from Father Christmas this year and it’s a wonderful invention – and I’m working on a fiction/non-fiction writers’ manual which explores techniques used in writing short fiction. And there’s Book 2 in the Torc trilogy to finish, The Bull At The Gate.


Do you find that international audiences are different from your native country's audience?  


I’m not sure yet. There seems a reluctance among US readers to try novels not set in the USA. If the storyline appeals, British readers are happy to pick up novels set in Alaska or New Mexico or Idaho. Perhaps it’s because US culture bombards us at every turn so we feel an affinity with it, but the same doesn’t happen so much in reverse. I was watching a programme about Scandinavian crime fiction not too long ago, and it brought it home to me that I’d only read one of the authors when these countries are just across the North Sea from me, whereas I’ve read a lot of American crime authors and we’re separated by an ocean.


Do you see writing as a career?


I’ve always seen writing as a career, even when it didn’t bring in any money. The need to be professional is an attitude of mind. All authors vie for readers’ attention, big names and unknowns. Why shoot yourself in the foot by not spending care and attention on your work? It’s liable to follow you around for the rest of your life.


If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?


In ebooks you can – LOL! But no, I’m happy with the end product.


Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?


At school, around 11 years old. We move from Primary to Secondary education at that age, and dabbling in creative writing turned to composition and comprehension. I was lucky enough to have inspiring English teachers three consecutive years.


Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?


Starting. I love research, and always feel that if I just keep going I’ll find a nugget that will make the w-i-p glow. But it is easy to do that forever and not actually write.  I also edit assiduously as I go, which makes for slow progress. 1,000 words in a full day is good for me, but by the time I get to the end, bar a final overall polish, it’s a done deal. It might be slow, but I’d not like to rush a draft and then start Draft 2 from scratch. I like to savour the emotional content of my writing so that readers can experience the nuances of the reality the characters inhabit.


Do you have any advice for other writers?


Learn your craft and gain constructive feedback. Even now I belong to a writers’ support group which offers stiff constructive criticism. When you think it’s ready for publication pay for either a professional critique on a partial – 50 pages gives a good indication of problems liable to appear throughout the novel and won’t cost an arm and a leg – or a professional edit, which will cost more but there’s nothing like seeing your pages littered with annotations to give a new perspective on your writing. Improvement is what you are after. It’s what all writers aim for all the time. Best of luck. 

Thanks Linda For Dropping By!


You can find Linda on the web at:

http://lindaacaster.blogspot.com

http://www.lindaacaster.com 

Amazon US Kindle page: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004FEFCKK  

Amazon UK Kindle page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004FEFCKK

I-Pad, Sony, Kobo, etc: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/29377