Vampires, Canadians, and Scandals...Oh my!

Greeting faithful readers! I heart you for taking the time to read my ramblings and mutterings. Hope you all had a fun-filled St Patrick's day. My hubby and I went to our pub. He had a beer and I had a hot toddy made with locally brewed herbal whiskey (AMAZING!!!!). We even had a bagpiper serenade us.

Good times!

In this post I would like to inform you of a fabulous book I read last month and thoroughly enjoyed.

Prelude to a Scandal by Delilah Marvelle is a historical romance based in the 1800's London. The heroine, Justine, is the kind of girl that I hope to have been if I had lived in that time period. She is witty, funny, elegant, and though she plays her role in society well she is not someone to reckon with. Lord Bradford the sexy suave Englishman that girls just swoon over. Despite the wealth, good looks, and personality to match, he has a serious problem- sex addiction. However in that time period, that is not considered a problem and there is not clinical diagnosis or treatment or therapy for such an issue. They marry and it begins. One can imagine the complications that such a situation could bring into a new relationship. Delilah did a spectacular job of walking the reader through the emotions and experiences of characters. She touches all sorts of social issues that we find as common ways of life nowadays, but back then these were serious concerns of society.
I found the book compelling, interesting, and very eye-opening. This is the first traditional romance I've read and first historical as well. This is typically not my choice in reading material, but I picked it up because Delilah is part of my Romance Writer's of America chapter and I wanted to show support. What I didn't expect is to completely be blown away and fall in love with both the time period of the story and the character themselves. Click on the title above to purchase a copy. You'll love it!

Okay, on to Canadians. (Notice I'm working backwards. It's just to keep you on your toes. Wouldn't want you to get bored or find me predictable now, would I?) Last weekend I spent an amazing weekend up in Vancouver, BC. Now I have to tell you that besides Portland, Vancouver could easily be my favorite city. It's like Portland only bigger and it has more European influence, something that I find comforting since I'm European born. Canadians have got to be the friendliest people! The reason for my trip was the I Can Do It! Conference put on by Hay House Publishing. I got to see and hear people like Dr Wayne Dyer (my all time favorite modern day spiritual author), Carolyn Myss, Dr Brian Weiss, Cheryl Richardson, Louise Hay (the founder of Hay House), and many many more. Two days of wonderful self-empowerment workshops was exactly what my creative spirit needed. The last month was kind of poopie when it came to my writing.

I wrote a contemporary Romance in January and I was hoping to revise and edit it in February, but the second part didn't happen so well. Every time I tried to work on it, I found so many other things I could do and would not hesitate on doing them. The guilt I was feeling was impossible to bare. Last month and up till a week ago was probably the lowest point in my writing experience I have every gone through. If it weren't for the fact I joined a professional writing organization and I had a whole chapter of people who are now expecting something from me not to mention of my family and friends, I might have given up on the whole writing thing right then and there. But through my darkest hour, I learned something very valuable about myself and my writing style, which almost made the agony worthwhile. Almost.

The reason I was struggling with my contemporary romance was that it really wasn't me. Yes, it had been a breeze to write, but that really wasn't what I wanted to put out there as my debut novel. No, I needed to go back to what started me down this journey. Freaking VAMPIRES!!! Soul-sucking, blood thirsty, and volatile as they may be when I'm writing, they are what gets my juices flowing and my fingers tapping away. Paranormal/fantasy writing is what I do and I need to be true to myself. It is what brings the joy in my writing. This weekend I listened to Robert Holden talk about happiness. Follow your joy rather the search for it. So this is me following my joy and guess what???? I'm out of my slump and blazing again. Damn it feels good.

The second valuable thing I've learned while in my slump is that I needed to take break from my normal writing and write something different. By writing my contemporary romance I was able to figure out what was wrong with The Vampire Novelist. I finally was able to decipher the plot that needed to go with the story. Technically I'm revising what I've written so far (50%) and know exactly where it will go from there.
So that's where I'm at. Thanks again for reading. Next time I'll be blogging about Kristina McMorris's debut novel "Letters from Home."

Cheers,
Melania