The Carousel by Cynthia Owens

Please welcome Cynthia Owens author of The Carousel

Cynthia Owens will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC or a Sterling silver Claddagh necklace (International) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

The Carousel

by Cynthia Owens

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GENRE:   Historical Romance

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INTERVIEW:

How did you come up with ideas for your books?

When I sat down to write The Carousel, I had a hero ready-made, since the book is the seventh in the Wild Geese Series. I knew he was an artist who was so tortured by his battle experiences that he gave up the one thing that brought him joy—his art.

So I asked myself, who would be the perfect heroine for an artist who refused to paint?

Enter Emily Lawrence. Blind from the age of four, she yearned to experience everything life has to offer. She wanted to see beauty in her own way, and when she meets Kieran, she’s determined to open his eyes as well.

What expertise did you bring to your writing?

I studied journalism at university, and it’s a great grounding for a writer, especially a historical writer. I learned research methods and how to find exactly the details I wanted. I sometimes get sidetracked, of course, but I think my background in journalism has helped me focus. It’s also helped me develop my characters. I use the interview techniques I learned to find out everything about them. They’re not always cooperative, but eventually they come to trust me…and to reveal their innermost secrets!

As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

Well, I don’t want to say too much yet, because it’s still very much in the planning stages, but I’ve begun the first story of a completely new series, tentatively called Children of the Swan. It will be a little bit “darker” than my other stories, and it’s set in the enchanted kingdom of Ceiluradh, which is based loosely on the Irish legend of Tir na nOg. The series will be based on the four princesses of the kingdom.

When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?

I have a stuffed leprechaun named Seamus O’Reagan, who sits on my writing table. I found Seamus at a local discount store in March of 2006. Being in love with all things Irish, naturally I couldn’t resist him. Now 2006 was a special year for me. I’d finished the final revisions to my book, In Sunshine or in Shadow, just before Christmas, and I’d resolved to submit the manuscript, either to an editor or a contest, each month. I’d had a couple of rejections already, and there were no interesting contests in March, so I submitted a partial to Highland Press a few days after adopting Seamus. A week later, I got a request for the full manuscript, and shortly afterward, my editor offered me a contract!

It may sound silly, but I’m convinced that little stuffed leprechaun brought me a wee bit of Irish luck!

What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)

The worst writing advice I received was the old standard “write what you know.” I grew up in the 70’s, and I write historical romance set in the 19^thCentury! Obviously I knew nothing about that time. But I learned, and I had a wonderful time doing it!

Be yourself. It sounds so very simple, yet it was this profound bit of advice that allowed me to let go and hear my own voice.

When I first sat down to write seriously, I wanted my stories to be as good as those of my favorite authors, and I thought the way to accomplish that was to write the way they did. So I tried to imitate their way of writing, from the way they wrote dialogue to their descriptive passages.

Bad idea! Instead of listening to my own voice, I was trying to listen to theirs. I had my own story ideas, but I wanted to tell them the way my favorite authors would have.

I don’t remember exactly who gave me this little gem of advice—I think I heard it at a workshop at an RWA (Romance Writers of America) conference.  But they were the most profound, freeing words I’d ever heard! I had a vague idea of a story I wanted to write at that time, and when I heard these words, spoken so simply, I went home and immediately began to write.

That story became my first published novel, In Sunshine or in Shadow.

I think Shakespeare said it best: “To thine own self be true.”

Do you outline your books or just start writing?

I’m a pantser—for the most part! When a story idea comes to me, I just sit down, open up a blank document, and start writing! It doesn’t matter that I don’t know my characters as well as I should, or that I have only a vague idea of where they’re going and how they’ll reach their happy ending. I can fill that in later! In the moment, it’s enough that my characters are telling me their story.

Have you started your next project? If so, can you share a little bit about your book?

I’ve begun several new stories! One is the abovementioned first in the Children of the Swan Series. Another story will continue my Claddagh Series with the youngest O’Brien daughter, Deirdre, and a mysterious American writer. Then there’s a spin-off of The Carousel, in which Kieran’s god-daughter runs away to Ireland to free the country from the English yoke.

So many stories. So little time!

Can you tell us a little about the black moment in your book?

Kieran is a gifted artist, but the things he did during the war have scarred him so deeply he can no longer see the beauty around him. As a result, he refuses to paint anything but shop signs and theatre posters. Emily is determined to heal him and, thinking it’s the best way to do so, asks him to paint—anything. She’s devastated when he refuses, believing they can never have a future unless he confronts his ghosts.

Can you tell us a little bit about what it was like to write a series.
Writing a series is fun! It’s also a lot of work!

On the one hand, writing a series gives you a readymade cast of characters. All of them have backstories that have been alluded to in the other books of the series. In the case of the Wild Geese Series, I just had to pick a hero, any hero, and write his story.

[It isn’t quite that simple, of course. I did have to come up with stories for each hero]

On the other hand, it’s complicated! I have to keep track of what happened in each story. Timelines are important! And a heroine who appeared in Book 1 had darned well better look the same in Book 7!

Anything else you might want to add?

I love to hear from my readers! Whether it’s by e-mail, through my website, on Facebook or Twitter, I am always open to hearing from all of you!

Thank you, Christine, for hosting me on your blog and allowing to talk all things writing! Looking forward to reading all the comments!

BLURB:

..Like the Wild Geese of Old Ireland, five boys grew to manhood despite hunger, war, and the mean streets of New York…
The War had left him blind to beauty…
Kieran Donnelly is a gifted artist who has sworn never to paint again. He saw and did too many things during the war to extinguish the ugliness that lies in his heart. But a chance to work with some of the most magnificent paintings brings him close to the world he still loves…and an extraordinary woman who sees his true heart.

Darkness couldn’t extinguish the light in her heart.
Blind from the age of four, Emily Lawrence yearns to experience the outside world. When she hires Kieran Donnelly to catalogue her father’s paintings, he offers her a glimpse at life outside her exquisite home…and a chance for a future.

Can Kieran and Emily emerge from the darkness to find happiness and love?

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EXCERPT:

Queenstown Harbor, Cork, Ireland, 1847

“Take your fill of it, lad. Remember it all.”

Ten-year-old Kieran Donnelly clutched the icy metal of the ship’s railing, his gaze locked on the wild, rocky coast as the Sally Malone moved slowly out of the harbor.

The long voyage to America had begun.

He heard Gran’s keening wail, filled with grief as she lamented the loss of their homeland. Da’s hand rested on her shoulder, his silent grief palpable. His brother’s spirit, full of anger and despair, reached out to him.

None of it touched his heart.

His eager gaze sought the mist-shrouded green hills, distant, dotted with tiny white cottages. Empty cottages, no sign of the ever-present gray turf smoke rising from their rich, dark thatched roofs.  The fields were black with the stinking slime of the blight, but hawthorn and gorse and wild strawberries still dotted the landscape with bright splotches of white, yellow, and scarlet.

The water bucked and spat white-capped waves, gray-green with angry sorrow under the cloud-smudged sky. A single bright ray of sunlight broke through the clouds, as if to bid the desperate refugees a fond farewell. A patch of sky, so pure a blue it made his throat ache, brought a rush of tears to Kieran’s eyes.

Oh, to capture the image that would forever be in his mind on paper before the ship sailed! The colors, the hues, the light and shadow. The crowds of skeletal people scurrying about, weeping as they waved good-bye, the lone fiddler playing them away with a desolate lament of parting and grief.

One day. He struggled against the harsh sob that clawed at his throat. One day I’ll paint this scene and the whole world will know the sorrow that gripped Ireland in its cruel fist.

I’ll call it The Parting.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

I believe I was destined to be interested in history. One of my distant ancestors, Thomas Aubert, reportedly sailed up the St. Lawrence River to discover Canada some 26 years before Jacques Cartier’s 1534 voyage. Another relative was a 17thCentury “King’s Girl,” one of a group of young unmarried girls sent to New France (now the province of  Quebec) as brides for the habitants (settlers) there.

My passion for reading made me long to write books like the ones I enjoyed, and I tried penning sequels to my favorite Nancy Drew mysteries. Later, fancying myself a female version of Andrew Lloyd Weber, I drafted a musical set in Paris during WWII.

A former journalist and lifelong Celtophile, I enjoyed a previous career as a reporter/editor for a small chain of community newspapers before returning to my first love, romantic fiction. My stories usually include an Irish setting, hero or heroine, and sometimes all three.

I’m the author of The Claddagh Series, historical romances set in Ireland and beyond, and The Wild Geese Series, in which five Irish heroes return from the American Civil War to find love and adventure.

I’m a member of the Romance Writers of America and Hearts Through History Romance Writers. A lifelong resident of Montreal, Canada, I still live there with my own Celtic hero. I have two adult children.

Website: http://authorcynthiaowens.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCynthiaOwens

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cynwrites1

https://www.amazon.com/Carousel-Wild-Geese-Book-ebook/dp/B07TXGS4QM

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-carousel-cynthia-owens/1132308194?ean=2940161461914

Website:http://www.cynthiaowensromancewriter.com/

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCynthiaOwens

Twitter:https://twitter.com/Cynwrites1

Google +:  https://plus.google.com/u/0/+CynthiaOwens/posts

Amazon Author Page:  http://www.amazon.com/Cynthia-Owens/e/B003DQ1V2E

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:

Cynthia Owens will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC or a Sterling silver Claddagh necklace (International) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Please use this rafflecopter code:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f3141