Liz Fielding on Inspiration and GIVEAWAYS!

I invited author Liz Fielding to share with us how she deals with her writing space and inspiration and she came with some GIVEAWAYS!

                                                   A WRITER’S TOOLS

I’m a writer and my office is crammed with the tools of my craft. Pens of course, paper, notebooks (I love notebooks!), my computer, printer, a basket filled with ink cartridges. But these are the nuts and bolts of the job. The hardware.

As with my computer, it’s the software that really matters.

How could I work without my Roget’s Thesaurus, for instance? I have a Rodale’s too, but I grew up with Roget – he’s a very old friend and I’m comfortable with him. I’m busy wearing out my fourth or possibly my fifth copy. (It’s okay, I have spare!)

Where would I be without my Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (the one I have to keep on the top of my stationery cupboard where I can open it, because I can’t lift it). Or my books of names - A Name for Your Baby and the Penguin books of Surnames?

There are a stack of research books, some bought for one particular book, some in constant use; Bradt’s Botswana; Chambers Office Oracle (it’s years out of date but it has all those tricky aristocratic forms of address, world time zones and public holidays); the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations; Love Quotations; Plants of the British Isles; a Dictionary of Differences; the History of Ice Cream; The Oxford Dictionaries of  Nursery Rhymes, and Proverbs and a load of other stuff (wherever would we be without Oxford!) and a Collins Westminster dictionary that has terrific sections on words “with a story”, abbreviations and foreign words and phrases.

There is a ton of writing books I’ve collected over the years (some of them even quote me). There’s Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life (for when I need a laugh – and great advice) and Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit (for when I need reminding that books don’t write themselves).

Then there are the inspirational books; Angela Carter’s Bloody Chamber in which fairy tales are retold – bloodily. Mondays Are Red by Nicola Morgan – reminds me that synaesthesia is a gift I’m blessed with, and which needs to be taken out and exercised on a regular basis. And a favourite book or two for when the muse goes walkabout and needs to be tempted back.

There’s a big fat folder stuffed with photographs to inspire me. Great women, good looking men, houses, scenery… Have you ever looked at a photograph and wondered what the person in the picture is looking at? What is going on just out of sight?

Oh, then there’s the notice board. It’s where I pin lists, and reminders, pictures of my characters, a calendar, cards from all over the world, photographs of great moments, photographs of my granddaughter and my Mum and Dad and photographs of my children and the Best Beloved, because they are my air.

Without them I couldn’t breath. Without them I wouldn’t be the person – the writer - that I am.

What inspires you? Tell me and I’ll draw a winner from the comments for an eBook download of  Eloping With Emmy , a signed copy of my new Harlequin Romance, The Last Woman He’d Ever Date and an eBook download of Liz Fielding’s Little Book of Writing Romance


THE LAST WOMAN HE'D EVER DATE

Back Blurb

Claire Thackeray: Hardworking single mom and gossip columnist. Hoping for the inside scoop on sexy billionaire Hal North, aka her teen crush!

Most wary of: Gorgeous men who set her heart racing. (Been there, got the T-shirt—and the baby!)

Hal North: Bad boy made good. Back in his hometown as new owner of the Cranbrook Park estate. Determined to put his troubled past behind him.

Most wary of: Journalists—especially pretty ones, like new neighbor and tenant Claire Thackeray.

Eloping With Emmy

Back Blurb


Hot shot legal eagle, Tom Brodie, has been landed with an assignment to test any man to his limits - do whatever it takes to prevent headstrong heiress Emerald Carlisle from marrying a fortune-hunter. He is not happy about it, and when Emmy stows away in his car, his day goes from bad to worse, but since she's the only one who knows where to find the man in question he has no choice but take her along for the ride.

It's a bumpy one!

Emmy is not a woman to sit back and let things fall as they will. She has a plan and she keeps Brodie on his toes in a rollercoaster chase across the UK and France. He's more than up to the challenge, but falling in love with Emmy along the way is always going to end with his heart in pieces.

Liz Fielding’sLittle Book of Writing Romance

This little book is a primer - an entry level aid for the writer who has a story to tell, but is struggling to get it out of her head and onto paper. To quote the theme song for the movie of Erich Segal’s bestselling book Love Story, “How do you begin. . . ”

I know how that feels, I’ve been there and I have written the book I wish I’d had when I was starting out.

My purpose is to explain, in the simplest terms — no jargon! — and using examples from my own work, how to make the transition from the story in your head to words on paper. How to write a compelling opening, deepen conflict, write honest emotion, hopefully with a touch of humour to leaven the mix. How to write crisp dialogue, develop the romance, add a little sizzle.

It will be useful to anyone who wants to write popular fiction but, before we get down to the nitty-gritty, I’d like to say a few words about romantic fiction in particular. Why readers love it and come back for more.

Liz Fielding around the web:

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