Welcome Friday Friend Rachael Brimble

Hi, everyone. Welcome to my Friday Friend's blog. Today I welcome an author who can and does write everything, Rachael Brimble. Rachael lives across the pond and today is her and her DH's anniversary. Happy Anniversary you two!

I had a great time visiting Rachael's blog several weeks ago and now it's her turn to be my guest. She will be answering questions all weekend, so please leave a comment and be patient, there is a jet lag.


From 19th century Bath, England to Upstate New York, today…

Hellooo!!

I am thrilled to be appearing on your blog today, Autumn. As a fan of your writing and an admirer of your ongoing support to your fellow authors, I really appreciate you having me here!

I wanted to talk about the topic of writing across the genres as I had someone asked me not so long ago, ‘why do you do that?’

The quick answer is… I don’t know! The longer answer takes a bit of digging. So I dug! And the answer I came up with is this – my characters tell me where and when they want to live, I haven’t a choice in the matter, LOL!

So far I have written two romantic suspense novels, one romantic comedy, one historical, two contemporary novels and one contemporary novella. Yep, straight across the genres. But the same thing happened with each these stories, the heroine popped into my head, completely uninvited and started talking.

I am definitely a character first, plot later type of writer. I can be in the bath, walking the dog, doing the ironing, even socializing with friends when bam! I hear a voice and I know my next novel has started. The exact same thing happened with the two releases I’m here to talk about today – one historical and one contemporary.

The Arrival of Lily Curtis is set in Victorian Bath, England and a small town on the outskirts of the city, called Colerne. I am lucky enough to live a short thirty-minute drive from the city so spend lots and lots of time there. For any of you who have Bath on your ‘wish list’ of cities to visit, I can promise you will not be disappointed. If you want to be taken back in time and immerse yourself in Georgian/Regency/Victorian history, you will not be disappointed. It is a beautiful, beautiful place with more places of interest than I can mention here today (http://visitbath.co.uk/).

Anyway, the heroine of the book, Elizabeth Caughley (AKA Lily Curtis) came to me in the bath (irony not intended!), but as with all my previous characters I assumed she was talking in 2010. It wasn’t until I visited an old stately home in Colerne (which became the hero’s home - http://www.lucknampark.co.uk) that I realized she was Victorian. Although one of the hardest of my books to write, I love ‘Lily’ and I am happy to say, the reviewers do to! Here’s the blurb and what people are saying about Lily and Andrew…

At the mention of an arranged marriage, Elizabeth Caughley feels her life is over at the age of three and twenty….so she hatches an escape plan. She will reinvent herself as a housemaid. Overnight, Elizabeth becomes Lily…

Viscount Westrop wants nothing more than his legacy to be passed to his own son one day. Even though he feels insurmountable pity for the unborn child already, he knows how much pain a broken promise can cause and will do what is right. But with the arrival of his new housemaid, his plans are thrown into disarray. Lily is funny, feisty and the most beautiful creature on earth – Andrew is thunderstruck. But if anyone suspects how much he wants to ravish her and endlessly love her, Andrew’s lineage will be in peril. And he cannot let that happen…

http://seriouslyreviewed.blogspot.com/2010/07/arrival-of-lily-curtis-by-rachel.html?zx=c7b84b8310b383bd

http://longandshortreviews.blogspot.com/2010/08/arrival-of-lily-curtis-by-rachel.html

Thrilled, thrilled, thrilled!!!!

The only thing slightly different about my next release, and I think probably why it became my first novella rather than a full-length novel, is the premise was given to me and I didn’t create it myself. The wonderful, exciting Class of ’85 series, is the creation of senior editor, Kathy Cottrell of The Last Rose of Summer line at The Wild Rose Press.

As soon as I heard about this series, I desperately wanted to be a part of it! The rules? A pre-written invitation had to be part of the story and one or both protagonists must have been in the class of ’85. Love it! My mind filled with music, news and celebrities of the ‘80s and I was off on a mission. Knowing the characters had to be in their early forties gave me an excellent starting point…they would have had a few knocks and bumps as well as one or two sexual experiences, excellent!

This is by far the quickest I have written a story and I absolutely love it – I have brought the UK (heroine) and US (hero) together and I hope it makes for a good (and fun!) read. Transatlantic Loving is released September 29th, here’s an excerpt…

***
Silently, he eased her in front of him and encircled his arms around her waist. The view in front of them stole the last breath of caution from Lisa’s body, and she leaned back against his chest and held on to the muscular forearms folded across her abdomen. He moved his face to the side of hers and when he spoke his words warmed the curve of her ear.

“What do you think?”

She inhaled a shaky breath. “It’s beautiful.”

“The moon looks like that, as far as I can tell anyway, for just two nights of the year and tonight is the second of them.”

“It feels as though I could touch it.”

The moon was close enough and bright enough that the gray patches of its craters were clearly etched across its shimmering surface. Its light, completely unhampered by clouds, bounced in a perfect dart across the surface of the lake. Picture postcard perfect, Lisa took a snapshot in her mind, saving it permanently in her memory forever.

They stood in silence for another few seconds before she turned in the circle of his arms and slid her hands up over his biceps and onto his shoulders. Tracing the wonderfully sculpted lines of his clean-shaven jaw with her finger, Lisa felt every last whisper of self-consciousness slip from her body.

“Kiss me, Aaron. Everywhere.”