A little bit of me in every book I write

by Killarney Sheffield

There is a little bit of me in every book I write. You’ve heard authors say that many times I’m sure and it is true. For me that is especially true because well, my road to becoming an author was probably pretty different than most. Why? I was a foster child for starters. Back in the 90’s there wasn’t a lot of resources for a foster kid and there was no money for furthering education outside of high school. I wanted to be a horse vet but struggled in school. I was told over and over I needed to apply myself more, the trouble was math, science and spelling were like learning a foreign language. It’s pretty hard to be a vet without good science and math skills, never mind the spelling. To make matters worse I hated school not only because I found the studies difficult but because I was bullied. I spent most of my time hiding in the library or bolting for the exit when the bell rang before the bullies could spot me. After school was my haven, what I waited for every moment of the day, the stables. Horses understood me and I understood them. They were my family, my friends and my comfort. They became even more meaningful to me when I found out I was Dyslexic only a few shorts months before graduation. I suppose years of reading with a flashlight under the covers helped me and disguised many of the symptoms. My dream of being a horse vet was dashed, but I still pursed a career teaching riding lessons, training, showing and shoeing horses. During all that time I wrote little stories and novels for my own enjoyment. One day many years later after my kids were all born and off to school I saw an article in a newspaper. The article on horse slaughter spoke to me and I wrote the editor a rebuttal. The editor phoned me, said he loved the article, he was going to publish it and could I write him a few more? He thought it was well written and we chatted for a bit and he said I should consider writing a book someday. I laughed and told him I had more than a few novels written on my computer, with the aid of spell checker, but didn’t dare send them anywhere. His comment got me thinking though and I got up the courage to send off those novels to a publisher. Well, long story short they started me on the road to being a published author and I have since had 15 titles published. In fact years after they were first released BooksWeLove has offered to re-released them again. The Cracksman’s Kiss, Stand & Deliver Your Heart, To Love A Horseguard and The Courtesan are and will be available right here! And yes there is a little bit of me in each one. In the Cracksman’s Kiss there is a scene where the heroine has a little… shall we say mammary problem. Yes, as embarrassing as it is to admit, I had the same problem with my first child. In Stand & Deliver Your Heart the heroine has a special bond with her horse named Shadow, and I have had the special bond many times over with my equine friends. To Love A Horseguard is really about my love affair with Russia, a place I very much would like to see one day and finally The Courtesan, is about a young Hutterite girl struggling to find her place in the world and her faith. Trust me I’ve been there as I’m sure many of you have. So the next time you hear there is a little bit of every author in each book they write you’ll know by my examples that it is true. Happy Reading and Merry Christmas!

Killarney Sheffield.

You can find me at: http://www.killarneysheffieldromanceauthor.com
My blogs: http://killarneysheffield.blogspot.ca
                 http://meldermanstables.blogspot.ca
Twitter: @authorkillarney
FB: Killarney Sheffield

ROSES IN WRITING

A TRIBUTE TO ROSES FROM MARGARET TANNER

Housekeeping and tidying up. Not my favourite topic or occupation, unless we are taking about tidying up my garden. In particular my rose garden, which I tend with loving care, because roses truly deserve special treatment. No chore to tidy up here. I banish any weed the moment it rears its ugly head near my “lovelies.”

Roses are my favourite flower. My husband thinks I am obsessed with them.  I always wear rose perfume, Bush Rose, Musk Rose. The Yardley (English company) Rose has a lovely perfume, as sweet and fragrant as its namesake. How many wonderful people have you met who are called Rose, Rosy, Rosemarie, Rosemary?

I have to confess that my garden is full of roses. Hubby hates them with a passion because he thinks they deliberately jump out and stick their prickles into him.

I love the old fashioned roses the best. They may not be quite as colourful as the modern day varieties, but they always have a gorgeous perfume.  Just Joey, a beautiful large bloomed orange rose with a delightful perfume is one of my favourites.  Another favourite is a blood red rose named Oklahoma, the perfume is as heady as wine. My garden has recently acquired a rose called. The Chocolate Rose. I have to say that although the bloom is pretty, it isn’t stunning, but it certainly has a chocolate perfume, and you can take that observation from a chocoholic. If there is one thing I know, it is the smell of chocolate.

It amazes me how often I seem to put a flower in the title of my romance novels, give my characters a floral name or mention flowers, mostly roses, in my stories. It must have been an instinctive thing because I don’t recall actively trying to do this.

One of my published novels was titled The English Rose. It had rather a tragic publishing history, but I did a re-write, and it has now been released by Books We Love as Frontier Belle, but the hero thinks the heroine looks like a fragile English rose and he often calls her a delicate hothouse flower. In my novel, Haunted Hearts, the heroine’s daughter is called Rosie. Daphne is the name of my heroine in A Mortal Sin. I have also written a short story with the title Call Of The Apple Blossom.  

In my historical novel, Lauren’s Dilemma, there is a poignant scene set in a garden and the heroine’s husband, (not the man she loves, but the man who married her to save her from the disgrace of having a baby out of wedlock), hands her a cream coloured rose.

In Savage Possession, the white rose worn by the Highlanders in the Jacobite rebellion is mentioned. Daring Masquerade has scenes set in gardens with lavender and rose bushes mentioned. In Fiery Possession, the hero takes the heroine out into the beautiful rose garden created by his mother.

Can you see a pattern here?

                              
So, there you have it. I wonder if there is such a thing as a roseaholic?

http://www.margarettanner.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ghost Writing

As someone who sits down daily and tries to plunk out a least a few paragraphs of a work-in-progress, I'm highly annoyed at the publicity and fame many have enjoyed because of the talents of their ghost writer. I'm not sure I understand how there can be any feeling of accomplishment on the part of the so-called author, when the closest they came to creating the novel was verbally relaying information to someone else. But let's face it, you can't live on pride alone.


From the monetary perspective, I think I chose the wrong profession. I should have tried my hand at ghost-writing. According to Wikipedia, although some ghost writers are hired to polish a completed manuscript, most are hired to write the entire novel. Information garnered as I read made me nauseous. It's reported that ghost writers for 'big name authors' contracted by NY publishers receive anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 from the 'author's' advance. At the time the information was compiled, Hilary Clinton's memoirs had not yet been completed, but it was estimated that her ghost writer would receive $500,000 from Hilary's eight million dollar advance. Cough, gasp, vomit! What about her life is memorable enough to warrant eight million dollars when people are starving to death in America???


Barak Obama used a ghost writer to pen his novel, too. It makes me wonder if he is able to sign necessary documents in the oval office, or dose someone do it for him. *lol*