Unrequited Love

I was over at The Naked Hero this week talking about unrequited love. There are so many great examples out there - A Tale of Two Cities; The Last of the Mohicans; Andrew Lincoln's character Mark from "Love Actually" who was in love with Kiera Knightly's character. And of course, one of my favorites, Severus Snape.

I, of course, love the unrequited love stories that end with the love finally being reciprocated, but some of the most beautiful stories do not have such a happy ending (the original Little Mermaid anyone?)

What is your favorite unrequited love tale?

Friday Funnies

Jennifer Armentrout's cover reveal for OPAL is up on Operation Awesome today!! Go check it out!!

In other news, the new blogger set up has me all flustered, and not in a good way LOL I know I'll get used to it but.....argh....I don't deal well with technological change ;)

And now, for some funnies! :D

Over at OA Today!

doing an interview with the lovely and talented Lisa Amowitz! Come visit!!

Happy Book Birthday to TRANSCEND and Christine Fonseca!!

I am thrilled to celebrate the release of Transcend by my dear friend Christine Fonseca. This book is different than any other I've read for a while. It's dark and poetic and just masterfully done. Here's the blurb and the gorgeous cover:

All seventeen-year-old composer Ien Montgomery desires is an escape from his family's rigid expectations for his life; someone to inspire his music. When he meets a beautiful violin-prodigy, Kiera McDougal, his life music takes on new life. With her, he imagines a future outside of his parents’ control. That is, until a horrible accident tears them apart. 

Sent to die in a sanatorium, Ien’s obsession for Kiera grows unbearable. Tortured by thoughts he can’t escape and the truth of his monstrous disfigurement, he flees, desperate to exact revenge on the people that ruined his life – his parents. But, vengeance is empty. Betrayed by those closest to him, Ien discovers that the price for his happiness may be his sanity. 

Set amidst the landscape of New York's Gilded Age, and inspired by Phantom of the Opera, TRANSCEND exposes the fine line between love and madness.

The early reviews on this book are AMAZING (and I whole-heartedly agree with them!) Christine's tour kicks off next week, but you can get Transcend on Amazon and B&N (the print versions aren't showing up yet but should be there any minute now) :)

Congrats Christine!!!!

Victorian Eye Portraits....Creepy or Cool?

In my upcoming novel, Treasured Lies, two very important clues are found along with a pair of eye portraits. These portraits have an interesting history - the story of their rise in popularity generally stems from the illicit love affair (and secret marriage) of King George IV (when he was Prince of Wales) and Maria Fitzherbert. As he couldn't flaunt a portrait of his secret wife before the court and his politically recognized wife, Princess Caroline, Maria had a miniature portrait painted showing only her eye. This way, George could keep her portrait with him and no one could really say who it was depicting.

I find the concept of the eye portrait very intriguing and romantic. And some of them are quite beautiful. But some are....well, just a little creepy :)

I think it's the ones showing only the eye that creep me out a little. As long as the brow at least is included, they aren't too bad :)

What do you think? Romantic? Cool? Or creepy?

Manuscript Soundtracks

I've been thinking a lot about a WIP that is next up (after the one I'm currently working on) and as a result I've been pretty much listening to the Hunger Games soundtrack and Rob Dougan non-stop. And oooo does that music make me want to work on this book! :D It just fits my book so well - I can see the scenes playing out in my head with those songs as background music. I just want to close my eyes and watch :)

I don't always have particular songs for my books. And I very rarely listen to the music while actually writing (it's usually more of a mood setter). But I do have a couple books that have surprised me with my need to listen to something while writing them.

I have a feeling this next WIP (which I did cave and started a bit :D ) will be one of them. Another is a novella I finished recently. Rob Dougan was on repeat while I was writing - totally out of my usual comfort zone for writing. But with this book, I actually had a hard time writing if the awesome Mr.Dougan wasn't playing in the background.

With my soon-to-be released novel Treasured Lies, I couldn't listen to music at all while writing. Noise of any kind made it very hard to concentrate. And with yet another WIP, I sometimes listen to the soundtracks channel on Pandora (no lyrics, just instrumental tunes).

Do you create "soundtracks" for your manuscripts? Do you listen while writing or just to set the mood? And what do you listen to?