It's a Woman's Prerogative to Change Her Mind by Jamie Hill

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Back in August, BWL's Art Director Michelle Lee asked our author group to "cast our characters" for movies or TV. To choose an actor who we thought portrayed the looks and personality of one of our characters. The first book I had published was Family Secrets. Protagonist Jack Dunlevy has always held a special place in my heart. At the time I selected Adrian Pasdar (who I remembered from the series Judging Amy) as my choice to play Jack.

Recently I cut the cable cord and went strictly to Netflix. I've been looking for new series to watch (new to me, anyway) rather than watch Parenthood and Gilmore Girls over and over. The creator of Parenthood also did a series called Friday Night Lights, about a high school football team set in a small town in Texas. I decided to give it a try. 

I don't like every series that's been recommended to me on Netflix. I just can't get into some of them, and some I don't have patience for. Friday Night Lights? I binge watched all five seasons in January--three times, over again. So I guess you could say I kinda liked that one. 

The star of the show is Kyle Chandler who plays Coach Eric Taylor. As a dad and coach he's inspiring and amazing. But the relationship he has with his onscreen wife Connie Britton is truly a thing of beauty. When he tells her, "I love you, I respect you, I am proud of you, I am in love with you completely," my heart, and the hearts of women everywhere, surely melt into little puddles on the floor.

 

After three airings of that series, I found Kyle did another series for Netflix called Bloodline. In this 2015 series he plays a cop (begin swoon) and his character is very similar to that of the coach, except he's more mature (full fledged swoon) and he's able to swear on Netflix (which may not sound like a good thing but it's realistic for the character, and damn it, I like it.)

Friday Night Lights is a series which I equate to my enjoyment of reading young adult books. Bloodline is a more mature, romantic suspense/thriller type of a show. And the more I watch it, the more I think that Kyle Chandler would make the perfect Jack Dunlevy from Family Secrets. 

So if anyone at Netflix is reading this, shoot me an email. It'd be a struggle to take time off work to go give character insights to Mr. Chandler as he's preparing to film my book, but I'd do it to be a good team player. That's just how I roll.

Oh, and if anyone from Netflix is still reading? Judging Amy would be a nice addition to your collection. I'm just sayin'.

Character Name: Jack Dunlevy

Book(s) Featuring: Family Secrets, Family Ties and Family Honor

Author: Jamie Hill

About Jack: Jack Dunlevy is a handsome, burnt out cop who smokes too much and drinks too much. He has a penchant for pretty women and little kids, and rescuing them makes him feel worthwhile again.

One of Jack's Shining Moments: 

Inside Jack’s room, Crystal looked through his closet for another sweatshirt. “I need to do some laundry. Things are getting desperate here.” She found a shirt and pulled it over her head, and then watched him grab the hamper and shove his wet clothes in it.

“Let’s gather it all up and we’ll do it now.”

She gave him a small smile. “Yeah?” She had never met a man willing to help with the laundry. Sure, Jack had done it once, but that was before. Crystal generally found relationships changed after ‘the deed’ was done.

He looked at her and shrugged. “What? It’s just laundry.”

She shrugged back and tossed her towel into the hamper. She glanced out to where the boys were and then back at him quickly. “So you really think I have what they need?”

He smiled slowly at her and replied, “I know you have what they need. You just have to convince yourself of that fact.” He carried the hamper out the door in front of her and added in an offhand tone, “I also know you have what I need. I guess it’s up to me to convince you of that.”

Crystal followed him, not really aware she was smiling until she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror in the boys’ room as she picked up their laundry. “Hell’s bells,” she muttered to herself, and wondered why she felt so happy.

Family Secrets A Cop in the Family, Book 1

As if stumbling over a dead body isn’t enough, Crystal Cartwright finds herself playing surrogate mother to two small boys when their father–her neighbor–doesn’t come home. The kids aren’t much trouble, but the thieves, drug dealers and kidnappers they’re about to encounter are.

Detective Jack Dunlevy, a cop down on his luck, draws the cases no one else wants. A simple investigation involving a dead homeless man quickly changes as Crystal enlists Jack’s help with the children. Drawn into a mystery that none of them could have anticipated, they’re faced with a situation that will change their lives forever.

“Ms. Hill is a genius! The plot line was AMAZING. It was action packed and kept me on the edge of my seat almost the entire time. Ms. Hill has become a favorite author of mine and I consider her to be an automatic add to my “to be read list”. If you are a serious suspense loving reader who loves to form bonds with the characters, this is definitely the book for you! I loved it and can’t wait to read more of Ms. Hill’s books, she has the gift of knowing what the reader wants and then hitting you with an ending you certainly don’t expect. Two thumbs up!” ~ Val, You Gotta Read Reviews, 5 Stars

You can find Jamie's books on her page at Books We Love here: http://bookswelove.net/authors/hill-jamie/  and you can find Jamie sitting in front of her TV with the Netflix clicker in hand.

How to time-travel without a star ship... by Sheila Claydon

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What do you see? Is this just a derelict building gradually falling apart in a piece of forgotten woodland, or is it history?

Visiting Anglesey in north Wales recently, I came upon this tiny stone building while I was walking my dog.  It was at the bottom of a steep hillside, its roof long gone and its doors and windows shored up by wooden struts. My companion walked on without really noticing it but the dog and I stayed behind and did some exploring. Eventually we found a small notice hidden by an overhanging branch. It said The Old Mill 1325.

1325! That really is history.

I immediately went into a typical writer's research mode and discovered that the mill is situated in what, in the fourteenth century, was the village of Llanmaes. Located on the shore of the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, it was an important medieval port that was briefly the capital of the kingdom of Gwynedd. 

By the end of the 13th century the village had become such an important trading center that it was renowned for its ale, wine, wool and hides. It also held two annual fairs and maintained a busy herring fishery. I could go on and tell you how it was eventually conquered by the English King Edward I, who moved the villagers to the opposite coast of the island, built a castle and a new town, and took over the port, but this post is not about the history written in books, it's about imagining what life was like in the days when the mill was busy grinding the corn into flour for the local population.

Nowadays the derelict mill is the only relic of the original village and the river is long gone, although I suspect the shallow, leaf-clogged ditch beside it will still have a trickle of water in a long, wet winter. There is absolutely nothing else left to show how it might have looked, however. The surrounding land has been turned into a golf course and the local buildings are mainly holiday apartments. Even the carefully managed woodland is more recent.

It has atmosphere though, and because of this the writer in me can see a young girl of about thirteen years old carefully carrying her father's lunch to the mill. She's barefoot and her long, brown hair is blowing around her face. The miller is hot and sweaty and covered in white dust and she can hear him shouting to her brother to hurry up and finish loading the flour. He grins at his sister as he hoists a heavy sack onto the cart while a stout welsh pony waits patiently between the shafts?

That's the beauty of being a writer. I can travel back nearly seven hundred years and populate the village of Llanmaes with villagers, reshape the countryside to fit my imaginings, and create a history that might have a vestige of truth...and if it doesn't, well who will know. 

One day I will write that story. Until then, those long ago villagers will live as characters in my imagination, long forgotten and yet somehow still alive.

A writer can time-travel whenever they want to; backwards or forwards. I did this in my book Reluctant Date. It is set in a place where I once had such a magical holiday that I never forgot it, and when I eventually wrote about it I populated it with my own cast of characters, reliving a wonderful memory.  To do this I had to time-travel forwards a few years in order to imagine what it might be like now and yet also time-travel backwards so I could remember. That's the magic of writing.

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Sheila's books can be found at:

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She also has a website and can be found on facebook

Casting Your Characters - Gemini with Janet Lane Walters #Astrology #BooksWeLove

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This cover is for The Gemini Sagittarius Connection due to be released soon. She is a single mother Gemini with twin sons who has no desire for another husband. Her nursing career brings her face to face with a Sagittarius doctor who believes he had the perfect marriage. His wife's death has left him as one of the hospital's most eligible bachelors.

I am currently working on a second book this time with a Gemini hero and doctor who has given up the practice of medicine to become a writer. His love interest returns to town after eleven years. She is a Cancer Pediatric Nurse Practitioner who he hurt in the past/


We've all heard that Gemini is the sign of the twins and that these people have trouble making up their minds. Not really true. Here are some tips if you want to give your character a Gemini Sun, Rising Sign or Moon.

Gemini sun and this is the inner nature of the character. Geminis are ruled by Mercury, This means communication. Geminis are sympathetic, affectionate. Home and children mean a lot to them. One of the problems they have is being easily influenced by people who are kind to them. Geminis are intuitive and are good investigators. They can act quickly in an emergency. Another problem is that they can be changeable. They are also inquisitive and love diversity.

Rising Sign- the face shown to the world. Ambition often rules. They are curious and given to investigations and experiments. With this sign rising they are capable of two pursuits at the same time, even to having two careers and the drive to succeed in both. They can be idealistic, perceptive and imaginative. A love of pleasure can set them on a tangent. They can be restless and high strung. They are great talkers.

Moon -- The emotional nature. This side of a Gemini shows an agreeable, warm-hearted persom except they are reserved about personal and domestic matters. They gain pleasure from books. With a Gemini Moon, the character would dislike quarreling and warefare. They are also changeable. A real problem can be caused by being drawn into embarrassing or difficult situations.

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Casting Your Characters with Janet Lane Walters - Taurus

1. 

Her mother was a hired nanny and her father the Mellwood Bank. This is the way Taurus Laurel Richmond describes her family. After burning out as a nurse with an international health agency, she returns to Eastlake, the one place she where she felt connected. She studied nursing here and made a number of friends. Her one problem is her wealth. Soon she will receive a fortune. But money hasn’t given her the things she wants, a home, a family and love. Since a chance visit after summer camp with a friend made there, her idea of a man to love has been Alex Carter.

Alex Carter is a Scorpio, a single dad with a five year old son. He’s a general practitioner at Eastlake Community Hospital. While attracted to Laurel, he has one problem. His ex and now dead wife had a lot of money and little sense. Drugs and her fast friends were her life. She abandoned their son who cried for hours until his father returned. Alex has no love for women with money. Attraction or not he refuses to admit he’s falling for Laurel.

With the help of Alex’s son, Laurel sets out to prove to Alex she’s in town for the long haul and she will make the perfect wife and mother.

Review:
Janet Lane Walters has written a charming tale.
As a child, Laurel Richmond was trapped in a car with her dead parents for hours. After losing them, Laurel's next of kin was a bank. Laurel hides her immense wealth, traveling internationally as a nurse, helping the sick. She decides to settle in Eastlake, a small community.

She once summered with her friend Megan, developing a huge crush on Megan's brother, Alex, who is now a divorced doctor raising his young son Johnny. Alex is leary of wealth because his rich ex-wife had no time for him or Johnny, but Johnny takes to Laurel right away.

The glimpses of a family life that Laurel experiences with Johnny and Alex leave her longing for her dreams to become reality. Can she get Alex to realize that money may bring power, but love offers peace? 

The Taurus Sun character - This is the inner self they may or may not show people. These are self-reliant people who are determined, persistent and cautions. They have a low tolerance for physical pain. Of a patient nature, they are willing to wait a long time for their plans to mature. Think of the hero or heroine who has loved someone forever and is plotting on how to get the object of his or her affections. While this person can seem gentle, do not make them angry. They become furious to the point of being headstrong and unyielding. They are also practical. They are lovers of art, music and literature. They can become healers.

Taurus Ascendant -- This is the face shown to the world. They come across as self-reliant, persistent and willing to work hard and long to see a project finished. When provoked they're like the bull when something is flapped in the face. Run, don't walk. This person possesses a magnetic quality that draws people to them and often has a calming effect on others. If they undertake a project they will finish it no matter what stands in their way. When angry they aim for the gut.

Moon in Taurus -- The emotional nature -- Cautious but affable. They are drawn to friendship and marriage. They are ambitions and want to excel. They can be acquisitive of friends and possessions. They are sympathetic and intuitive. The inclination for pleasure and luxury can be taken to the extreme.

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The Emperor Napoleon Invades England (almost) by Diane Scott Lewis

This year is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. I wrote a book about Napoleon years ago, and found that after he was "captured" and taken to England, the reception there was quite the surprise.
In the summer of 1815, Plymouth, England received startling news. A ship had entered the sound with the notorious Corsican Ogre on board. England had fought different coalition wars with General Bonaparte (the government refused to accept him as in emperor) on and off since 1796, and defeated him at Waterloo on June 18, 1815.




HMS Bellerophon

In the aftermath of Waterloo, the 74-gun, third rate ship, HMS Bellerophon, was assigned to blockade the French Atlantic port of Rochefort. The ship had served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. In July, finding escape to America barred by the blockading Bellerophon, Napoleon came aboard "the ship that had dogged his steps for twenty years" to finally surrender to the British.

Napoleon had thought he would be granted asylum in England, but the British government knew it would never work. He’d still be too close to France, and many in the French military were still loyal to their defeated emperor. Rebellion in France was feared. Britain had to protect the fledgling government of the unpopular Louis XVIII.

On July 26th the Bellerophon entered Plymouth Sound. A multitude of small boats, full of curious people, quickly surrounded the ship.

The boats grew so thick that hardly any space of water could be seen between them. Women in bright hats, along with men and children, called out "Bonaparte." Napoleon accommodated them by showing himself at the ship’s rail and tipping his hat to the ladies. Here he was in the flesh, the man who had menaced the continent for nearly two decades. Napoleon was heard to remark about the English ladies, "what pretty women you have here."

The British officials dreaded the sympathy their relentless enemy was garnering among the common people, and ordered the boats pushed away from the vessel.

Skiffs from the ship, with armed sailors, rudely shoved back the spectators, causing some of the smaller boats to capsize, injuring the people inside, and at least one person drowned.
George Keith Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith, was at Plymouth when Napoleon arrived. The decisions of the British government were expressed through him to the fallen Emperor.


Lord Keith

Lord Keith refused to be led into disputes, and confined himself to declaring steadily that he had his orders to obey. He was not much impressed by the appearance of his illustrious charge and thought that the airs of Napoleon and his suite were ridiculous. He also grumbled that if the Prince Regent spent a half hour with Napoleon, they would be the best of friends.

The Duke of Sussex, the sixth son of George III—the king debilitated by madness since 1810—spoke in Napoleon’s favor. Allow him to remain. But the British government was adamant: Bonaparte, and everyone in his entourage, would not be allowed on England’s soil.

On July 31st, Lord Keith informed Napoleon that he would be exiled to the far, South Atlantic island of St. Helena. Under duress, Napoleon was transferred to the HMS Northumberland for the ten week voyage. He would die on the island six years later. Plymouth returned to the routine of a harbor town.
Sources: Wikipedia; In Napoleon’s Shadow, by Louis-Joseph Marchand, and my own research.

I have since written a book about a French maid who travels with Napoleon’s entourage to St. Helena, and discovers the island is haunted by vampires. Plus the enigmatic man she loves hides his own deadly secrets.

Both of them indulge in desire, but must scheme to rescue Napoleon from a sensuous vampire.

Click here to purchase A Savage Exile: vampires with Napoleon on St. Helena

Visit my website for more information about my books: http://www.dianescottlewis.org




　

Casting Characters with Janet Lane Walters -- Pisces.

The Pisces Character

The Sun is the character's inner nature. The hero or heroine with a Pisces Sun will have a kind and loving nature. This person is generally amiable and sympathetic to people or animals in distress. He or she will be neat with a love of order. The hero or heroine may be timid and lacking in self confidence. He or she may be imaginative, idealistic and psychic.

The Rising Sign is the face shown to the world. With Pisces as the rising sign, the hero or heroine is truthful, confiding, kind and sympathetic. He or she is generally courteous and hospitable. There is an idealistic and impressionable side to the nature. The hero or heroine is quick to observe deficiencies in others. He or she often has a lack of self-esteem and can be hesitant about putting him or herself forward. He or she is very intuitive and discrete.

The Moon is the emotional nature of a character. With a Pisces Moon the hero or heroine can be retiring,and sympathetic. There is a love of luxury, comfort, beauty and harmony. This hero or heroine may meet obstacles that cause a down-hearted nature. He or she has a taste for reading. They are fluent and earnest in speaking. He or she suffers if placed in uncongenial surroundings.

The closest character I have to a Pisces heroine is Zelda from Pursuing Dr. West. She is a dreamer but she also takes action. Her Moon and her Ascendant are not those of a Pisces. Her Moon is Cancer since she holds onto old things like her love for Michael.

Get it Free From Amazon 3/18 - 3/20

Casting Characters Part 2 - Aquarius

The Sun is the inner self. Here's what the Aquarian hero or heroine's inner self shows. A quiet, patient and determined person with a faithful nature. They are usually refined and humanitarian. They have a cautious intellect with strong likes and dislikes. They often have radical and advanced ideas. While they are easily influenced by kindness they are slow to anger and will not be driven.

The Ascendant is the face shown to the world. The Aquarian hero or heroine will be determined and try to be unnoticed. As a rule they are faithful. The mental world holds a great appeal to them. They can become an active reformer with progressive ideas. He or she is unusually sociable with many acquaintances. They may exhibit eccentric ways.

The moon shows the emotional nature. A hero or heroine with an Aquarian moon will be friendly and courteous. They are sociable but independent. There is an unconventional side to this hero or heroine. He or she likes strange and curious things and events. An interest in the occult and secret societies.

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