Well, it is a photo of flowers, and flowers are real. Actually, I just like to add photos to my blogs. And I l-o-v-e flowers. These dahlias were given me by a friend and promptly placed under my kitchen window. Together with some parsley, which if I don't keep on the sink I completely forget is growing in the back garden.
Now that's out of the way, I must quote from one of the reviews for Blueprint For Love, the one I find particularly complimentary. It was written by 'Vee' from Night Owl Romance (online review site), and in part says: "I give Ms. Clayton credit for taking on a real-world issue to which there is no easy answer. It gave the fights between Cathy and Paul a realistic feel and made their interpersonal problems understandable.
The story was more real to life than the usual romance and I, for one, liked it."
Now, isn't that nice? Of course, like everyone else, I read for escape from the everyday as well, but I find other people's fictional problems are often just as effective an escape hatch as the usual romance. It all comes down to personal taste. I just happen to be something of a commoner/plebeian/hopefully down-to-earth person, and like to know where I stand and how believable the hero/heroine/situation of a romance novel come across to me.
I can explain my 'commoner/plebeian/down-to-earth' person by giving you an example. Several years ago a girlfriend and myself attended a performance of the Bolshoi Ballet. No, I'm not a ballet buff and I've never attended an opera, but this was probably a once in a lifetime chance. The Bolshoi was in town, I actually had some money for the ticket, and I knew Christine would like to go as well. I even borrowed my husband's partner's (old!) Mercedes to drive to the venue.
And I spend the whole of 'Giselle', in fact most of the program, worrying about a huge dirty mark right in the front and centre of the stage! Honestly, while Christine cried because the ballet was so beautiful, I stared at the mark and wondered how on earth it got there and why it hadn't been cleaned off. After all, this was the Bolshoi! And it looked as if someone had pulled a motorbike to pieces just before the show and left all the oil, grease and dirt staining the boards.
Well, I did like a couple of other parts of the program. The passionate pas-de-deux (do I have that right?) from 'Spartacus', and the vignette by Nadezda Pavlova (no relation to Anna) and partner. Honestly, that Nadezda just flowed over and around the guy as if she had rubber for bones and water for flesh and blood.
But I've never forgotten the state of the stage. So you see, I'm a commoner.
Blueprint will be available in print during February, and is always available as an e-book from www.thewildrosepress.com And they're having specials this month on their Champagne Rose line - that means contemporary sexy.
The Pirate And The Puritan is still out there, still selling and still getting reviews. At the moment I have another historical nearly complete, another contemporary under consideration and more in the works. Ah, the life of a writer. As Kurt Vonnegut Jr. said, "Writing a book is like making wallpaper by hand for the Sistine Chapel." !
Drawing by granddaughter Kathy when she was younger! Nothing to do with the post, of course.
