Hi, there!
I’m blogging today over at Brava Authors about KISSES LIKE A DEVIL and how William and Viola’s sons got their names.
Please stop by and chat if you get a chance!
Diane
KISSES LIKE A DEVIL, the latest episode in my Devil books, just arrived in your bookstores this week. (Whoopeee!) It’s about Brian Donovan, the second son of William and Viola Donovan, who you may remember from THE IRISH DEVIL. Teddy Roosevelt sends him off to the Grand Duchy of Eisengau in 1900 where he meets with many adventures, including meeting Meredith Duncan, the young student radical who steals his heart. (She has no use for marriage and the Russians want her at least as much as he does.) But I digress.
When I first started working on this book, Meredith announced very firmly that she had a black Standard Schnauzer. Nobody was more surprised than yours truly to hear this. She had a dog when she spent her days in school and her nights promoting revolution in turn of the century Europe? Huh? Could he handle keeping bullies away from one of the first young ladies to attend a university? Was he intelligent and strong enough to cope with the varied surroundings – and dangers – of beer halls, back alleys, firing ranges, and her mother’s drawing room?
Not to mention, just why did he have to be jet-black? Meredith was very, very clear her dog had to be completely black, as opposed to the more typical salt-and-pepper.
At the same time I was fumbling through this bit of characterization, a friend at Virginia German Shepherd Rescue announced there was a German Shepherd Dog in urgent need of a foster parent. She was petite, shy, and jet-black and had been rescued from a pound hundreds of miles away. Could we look after her for a few weeks until something more permanent could be found? One look into those deep brown eyes ringed by all that black fur and I was a goner.
Honey is now a permanent part of the household. In fact, I have to be very careful when I get up in the middle of the night. She patrols her new home – and there’s no way an intruder can spot that pure black dog moving through the shadows.
Research soon told me that Standard Schnauzers are great watchdogs and were well known before World War I. Some have always been pure black, including one of the earliest favorites. I named Meredith’s dog “Morro” after him.
I began writing and Honey watched me do it, just the way Morro guarded Meredith’s adventures. Heck, he even discreetly protected her from her abominable parents if he could. And whenever I needed a little extra inspiration for a scene with Morro, Honey was right there with an example. She was his guardian spirit.
I hope I did her proud. She’s certainly been a blessing for me and everyone in the family.
How about listening to a scene from BOND OF DARKNESS?
One hot summer night along San Antonio’s Riverwalk, Steve practices going undercover with Ethan and his men as backup. But matters don’t proceed quite the way she expected…
Many thanks to COS Productions!
Diane, who adores the music
Whoohooo! Circle of Seven Productions is creating a new way to enjoy a bit of BOND OF DARKNESS, called a sound scene. It’s a single scene, complete with narration, sound effects (!), and music.
We chose a scene where Steve goes undercover with Ethan to catch the serial killer, with lots of Texas flavor. Boy, did we have fun tossing around ideas to ratchet up the tension!
Even better, COS can write special music for a sound scene. So I asked for something reminiscent of a Sergio Leone western, like THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY’s theme. There’s just something about that guitar which sings to me of danger approaching from Texas’s loneliest countryside.
Tonight COS is adding the narration and I’m pacing the floor, waiting to hear the final result. I really need to go to bed because I have to go to work tomorrow. But there’s a guitar singing to me and it won’t let me sleep…
I just finished the copyedits for BOND OF DARKNESS. Yes! Loud shouts of joy! Huge sighs of relief! (Okay, one of my friends says I look younger now but I think that’s an overstatement. LOL)
At the same time, COS and I are working on a “Sound Scene” for BOND OF DARKNESS. A short scene will be read by an actor, complete with sound effects (!), then distributed as a podcast. I can hardly wait to hear the result. Members of my family used to act on radio, way back when, and this is beyond fun for all of us.
The question now is what scene should we choose for the one-and-only Sound Scene? I get to offer two scenes for COS to choose from. Hmm…
BOND OF DARKNESS is very much romantic suspense, even a thriller. (Bless its heart, there’s no historical dialogue to confuse the actor. LOL) The scene has to be short and focused, which sounds like one with very few characters – hero, heroine, maybe villain. Sounds good.
How about one really action-packed, dramatic scene? Lots of conflict, tension, shoot ‘em up, bang bang and the villain being villainous, as my mother would say? Hey, I’ve got a short scene which just fits this bill!
I need another one, something different. Maybe a romantic scene between Ethan and Steve (well, Stephanie Amanda – not that she uses the long form of her name very often). That sounds good.
But they’ve been friends for fifteen years. (Read THE HUNTER’S PREY, if you want to find out how they met.) They’re both cops, patrolling different beats, and they sleep together from time to time. Steve does so to blow off steam but Ethan’s feelings are much, much stronger. If Ethan tried to seduce her or be romantic, she’d ask him what was wrong.
Still, something that showed the depth of their emotional need for each other seems like the right scene to send.
But do I have one short enough? Which scene will COS pick for the Sound Scene?
I send them two scenes but I don’t know know yet which one will be produced.
Stay tuned.
Hey, check this out!
CAPTIVE DREAMS finally comes to life – on film! Circle of Seven (aka COS) Productions did another fabulous job of capturing my book.
Okay, fellow authors: If you saw the hero you’ve been writing about – and tormenting – for years coming at you, what are you going to do? Run away from him – or toward him?
Diane
Hey, lookee here! BOND OF FIRE made it into a fabulous book trailer from Circle of Seven!
I’m always fascinated by what parts of a book wind up getting emphasized in a book trailer. This one puts the focus squarely on Jean-Marie and Hélène, the hero and heroine, plus their long agonized fight against the demands of duty and honor which keep them apart. Not to mention Celeste, Hélène’s little sister and the story’s villainess.
Film also has a nifty way of summarizing things in a few, rich images, too, that I deeply envy as a writer. I wish I could portray Paris in an instant – or a Texas ranch at sunset! But that’s what I keep working to learn how to do better. And, of course, I get to spend many long hours with my characters writing their stories. Yeehaw!
Hope you enjoy this book trailer as much as I do -
Diane
