It’s cold and snowy in Denver and the ice has devastated the spring blossoms and flowers, withering my lilacs and honeysuckle. The new day job demands intense concentration and my shoulders are stiff from working at the computer all day — so what do I do? I head for a “comfort read.” My all time favorite writer for the comfort read is Jayne Ann Krentz, and most especially when she writes as Jayne Castle (and again I thank her for the cover quote for Heart Thief). If I’m not in the mood for Jayne Ann, then I try Nora Roberts or Linda Howard — those books of theirs that amuse and entertain and will take me away to another place (yes, I read in the tub). The year it first came out, Mercedes Lackey’s The Fairy Godmother was my premier comfort read all year. I asked Misty what she thought of being called a Comfort Read and she said she loved being told that.

I think I would, too.

So, folks, who are your favorite comfort read authors, or do you have one book that you settle in with when Things Have Gone Wrong?

May your reading provide all you need today.
Robin

Last time I wrote about soundtracks for my books (and I have a couple up on my Worlds page on my website), but lately I’ve been thinking about how we write sounds. The culture in my Luna books is AURAL, they access information and think about sounds. For instance, some people may say “I see what you mean” (visual), or “I’m listening/I’m hearing you” (aural).

But what of sounds themselves? There are words for sounds: “they clapped, they applauded” and everyone knows the sound referenced, but it doesn’t actually describe the sound. Another example. Plink-plink-plink. Now that could be rain, or piano keys or dripping blood — but I think splot-splot-splot sounds like a creepier dripping blood… Or my keyboard sound click-click-click, or snick-snick-snick….but again, for me, “snick” means guns. “Snick. She snapped the safety off her weapon.” So there’s a problem with different meanings…BUT I think that “sounds” can add a lot to the texture of a book — if used in moderation. WHOOSH! ZING! TSK, TSK! EEWWWW!

And, for me, I keep trying to describe the ever-popular cat “speaking” — meow, mrrrowww, mrumph! One of my cats actually went MEOW this morning, that was a definite, but usually their language isn’t so simply described. I have one very vocal cat (obviously the model for Samba in Heart Thief). Lately I’ve been away and she has this loud, long, demanding hrrrhhh-OW-WOW-RAU! for WHERE ARE YOU? Kay Hooper, in her old romances, gave me some other sounds Prrrrp. Wah! Waurr.

So I have an aural society and I do things like “the notes of her personal Song intertwined with his”… and everyone can fill in the tunes, which is cool imagination-wise for the reader, but still…I’d like more sound words.

Any thoughts?

May your reading be multi-sensual.
Robin

Yes, I DO have soundtracks for my books. I started this about a year and a half ago with Heart Choice, my most recent “Heart” book. I got an action type hero’s theme Everglade Run

for Straif Blackthorn, and a more haunting theme for the voluptuous (but sterile) heroine, Mitchella Clover, Epona

For that book, I really only had 9 tunes I listened to while writing…I hope that queuing up music specifically chosen for my story will help trigger inspiration. And no, I didn’t just use those 9 tunes. I paid for downloads of Celtic music and bought CDs to augment that. On the book I just finished, Heart Quest, I had no less than 33 tunes, including a theme for the kitten (Kitty’s Rambles) as well as Scottish Wedding music. And since the young heroine, Trif Clover, turned out to be a musician, I included a lot of Irish Whistle and some pan pipes. There’s one melody that she crafts to lure her HeartMate, which I found to be Echo’s Calling by Joe McKenna .
My hero, Ilex Winterberry demanded more than one tune, some action, some brooding, and, of course the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack.

Since I just sent in 3 more proposals for the next three Heart books, and I’m really getting into the Soundtrack idea, I already have one tune for Heart Match, which I hope is the next book, and a couple for Heart Fate (very evocative for Tinne Holly’s story). All of these are in one music folder that I have set to shuffle, so as I write I visit with old friends, too. ;)

The strangest stuff I listen to is for my Summoning series…Lladrana is an aural world, and my Earth women are Summoned by Chants and Chimes and Gong. So I have a LOT of eastern music, Tibetan Singing Bowls, Tibetan monastic chants (and, yes, Gregorian chants), and quite a bit of meditation music or music to balance your chakras that feature chimes and gong…If it’s got chimes and gong, I probably have listened to it… I have some very dramatic music for the sweeping battles (Master and Commander, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter soundtracks), and some sly, clever tunes that mean “villain” to me. And since Calli, the heroine I’m working on now, is a horsewoman, I have some music that sounds like horses galloping.

And all the Summoning music is together so I can get in the groove for a long, long time of writing…so mixed in are themes of my previous heroines (Alexa, some wailing saxaphone music; Marian, Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in D minor). Well, they ARE recurring characters, but it can be a bit of a culture shock to be getting my 7th chakra balanced then have “Go Girl” by the Tri-Sax UAL Soul Champs come up after that, followed by Arkenstone’s Kayla’s Ride, then Gary Stadler’s and Wendy Rule’s “Deep Within A Faery Forest,” then be hit with Beethoven’s Ninth (as talked about in Sorceress of Faith) but like writing, that’s the real fun…waiting to see what comes next.

Robin:wink:

I do much better when writing a book when I know the setting — this includes maps of everything from the worlds (Amee and Celta) clear down to the arrangement of Trif Clover’s mainspace (living room) and bedroom. I’m pretty sure I know the furnishings and placement of such of every bedroom I’ve ever written.

Sometimes I only sketch a rough setting in my journal, but often I use some software to make rooms and worlds (on my Worlds page of my website). Several times I’ve been saved by my amateurish drawings — the art department at Luna Books did the Castle drawing after a wretched pencil sketch by myself. But I figure that if I want to get a place clear in my head, my readers might want to also.

I’d decided early in the “Heart” books (probably the first one, HeartMate), that I wanted Cliveden as the basic model Blackthorn estate. In that book, the hero T’Ash, had taken refuge in the estate as an orphaned boy. He, his Familiar cat, and the heroine visit the estate, and a couple of climactic events (oops, double entendre) take place there, too. Then time in the real world and on Celta passed and I knew I’d be writing Straif Blackthorn’s story, and it would be about restoring his home and ancestral estate.

So I made sure that during my last trip to England I got information on Cliveden (photos can be seen in the Scrapbook section here at Access Romance). I took pics of the building and the grounds from several angles so I knew what the manor looked like and I could describe it. I also could refer to the photographs at home when memory got hazy. I loved going to the place, walking through the gardens and getting the layout firmly in my mind, and I think since I had that opportunity, I was able to do a better job on the book.

Well, I have some new proposals going out for the next three Heart books, and one of them is going back to a place I worked with before — the secret garden in Heart Thief. This time, instead of only a couple of scenes, I envision much of the book taking place there. When I thought of that, I decided the best way to handle building a garden (with pools, summer house, outbuildings, and ruin of a house) would be to buy a landscape design program.

I’m itching to get my hands on it!

Love to all, and may you sink into other worlds today!
Robin