Blah Blah Blah . . . you don't really care do you ?

New Layout

My layout was so dull that I decided to change it to something more sleek.  I can't guarantee this is permanent but it will do for  now.

The Mile High City

A while ago Team Cobalt made a trip out to Denver where Shawna came up with the idea of a Starbucks Panel. I don't know if any of you were there but if so thanks so much for coming. And while a majority of the focus was on Shawna and JB  I remembered someone called me out on making fun of Harlquinn. They also  asked if I would "comment" on any specific novel and seeing as I have a lot more spare time I figured why not ?

No, I won't be purchasing a whole novel but maybe there is something interesting in the Online Reads sections, I'd love to hear suggestions


Pictures

Here is a link that the hotel the  St. Mark Hotel is based on.


Chapter 9/10

Well I think I covered it all in the comments so let's just move along.

Chapter 11

Playlist

+1+ - Chairman's Waltz (Memoirs of A Geshia) - John Williams

+2+ - Time - Bill Porter  ( I know, I know it is live )

+3+  Closer - Joshua Radin 

+4+ Honestly - Carey Brothers  

Chapter Eleven

Double Chapter Post !

Chapter 8

Yeah, chapter 8 was a short one. I didn't even notice both of the songs had "heart" in the title ! When I looked up names for the Abbey and the town I just found Irish names I liked. However I "google mapped" Wicklow and looked at the street view and it looks just as I imagined.

Double Chapter post!

I will just go ahead and warn you that once again one of these chapters is a short one. 

Chapter 9 is taking us back to Clara in Italy and . . . her dead grandparents.

Music

I think I may start reusing songs from Spririst& Angels. I find this is because 95% of the time I choose music becuaes of the lyrics and sometimes for the flow. Which is why chapter 6 had a lot of "exotic" music. I doubt anyone actually knows what Enya is saying half the time. Speaking of which I used the song Kissing by the Danish band Bliss without even really listening to the lyrics. I kept wondering why the song was called  Kissing.

These following chapters also take a lot from Shawna's playlist !


Playlist

Chapter 9

+1+ -  Down - Jason Walker

+2 + - Brave - Indina Menzel

+3+ - Gravity - Sara Bareilles

+4+ -  Miss Invisible - Marie Digby ( love this song, reminds me of middle school )

+5+ - My Road - Quinn Walker

Chapter 10

+1+ Tears and Rain - James Blunt (I know this song again but the lyrics are spot on for so many reasons ...)

+2+ Somewhere Out There - Our Lady Peace

Chapter 9
Chapter 10

100th Post !

I am a few weeks behind Shawna on the 100 post mark but I guess she started blogging before me.

Presents

In honor of my 100th post I decided to have some freelancers from Cobalt redesign the Linda  Leigh website. It also feature new graphics for August and Desert Sand Iris. 

A while back I mentioned that I went through and did minor retouches on Lost Angels (I'll use that blanket term for the whole series) and I realized how intense the series was. I was constantly questioning why I had the characters do something and then I would remember why and I would feel bad that I didn't give them better options. I say this because if I do have any one tiny regret it would probably be that Sofia slept with Adam. It was one of the few instances where I couldn't figure out the reasoning. Other than that I do enjoy re-reading and re-confirming all the choices the character's made.

Spam me ? I Don't Think So

It is no surprise that when readers start making a commotion that it gets back to me. I was actually working on this 100th post when someone let me know about the petition for an SA update. It was while writing this post that I decided to let you know that Lost Angels was officially over. . . however I won't lie. A part of the story that always bothered me was that Sofia never came to terms with her rape.  As you can imagine I have been planning my "farewell" post but I decided to delete it and we will see what happens. I have some idea of the tone this "unnamed project" might take and one obstacle. I know this may make me look like a pushover but maybe this was the confirmation I needed to give more thought to the idea. Parts of the story are slowly forming but I would not have done this  if the original idea wasn't floating around somewhere. I can't guarantee that it will be very long perhaps 20k but we will see.

Chapter 7

Yes, there was a mini-cliffhanger and I had to be extra careful when editing this because Clara's grandparents were never really there. For example when she is on a date with Peter he asks


“No, I was talking about the music. Rachmaninov been dead for almost 5 decades and his music is still alive. What is it like to write something so—“

“Amazing ?”, he tried

“No. immortal. Something that gets to live over and over again.”

“Is this about your grandparents?”

Clara assumes he was talking about Lucie and Roger as opposed to her Maternal Grandparents. When Clara says she is going to visit them her mother assumes she is going to their Graves.

Also in Chapter 6 I used the song Iris from Goo-Goo dolls and this was the original ending song for Litany Lane I've been holding on to if forever.

Single Chapter Post !

Chapter 8 is a short one the flow was just there and when it was said and done it came out rather short.

Playlist

+1+ - Heartbeats - Jose Gonzales (I just like this song)

+2+ - Jar of Hearts - Christina Perri (I've had this song for soooo long)

Chapter 8

Lucky Seven

Okay, a Little More Harlequin Fun 

I felt bad about making fun of those books so I tried to find some that I thought might be good and I came across this

The Lawman

It's sort of a double entedree, you know what they say. . . save a horse ride a-- never mind. 

No, but seriously I thought I would find some books for my coworkers.

Jill - What better for her than to read about a smoking hot publicist in Hot Number

Erik -  How about a nice Amish Christmas

Shawna - A story about the San Fransisco earthquake for our favorite San Franciscan, Mission of Hope  (it's also one of the "Christian"ones to maintain your girl next door image, jk)

Joel - Because they are both doctors, The Doctor's Undoing

Greta - Um, they didn't have anything cats. .

I'm done. I promise.

What is Up with Chapter Six ?

Now that it is over I can't get over how hard chapter 6 was for me to write. I think it may have had something to do with the authenticity I was looking for.  The most important parts of that chapter were strictly in a few of the internal  dialogue and communications so it was hard to  build a story around it. Clearly I could have gone into more details with Ashram teachings but it wasn't completely relevant to the plot.

I kept hoping a mini-story would somehow come out of it but the real intention was to put the character "on a existential bus"so to speak. For him to find peace it was best for him to be a little out of touch with modernity.

I had toyed with the idea of writing the entire chapter in letters between Mr. Fierro and Emile but there was so much missing. At least that is where my mind was.

Kodakianal

This is a real lakeside town. It was settled by missionaries so it is a "westernized" town. I did not realize this until afterward.  The place is based on a place called Turyea they have a website here, where the visuals are based on.

Seven

This chapter as expected leads us back to  Clara and Rosalie in Italy. But more importantly what happens after Clara and Peter's kiss ?

Playlist

This is one of my favorite playlist.

+1+  Andare - Ludovico Einaudi
+2+ I Due Fiumi -Ludovico Einaudi
+3+ I Gornio - Ludovico Einaudi
+4+ - Falling Into You - Celine Dione

Rah rah ah ah ah roma roma ma

What does LiLe feel like making fun of today ?




** Romance Novels **

When I first finished Lost Angels the graphics department was asked  to use romance novels as inspiration to help tone down some of the more serious themes in the series, (Give Greta a break it was her first day). I think I posted about it again once and I while a majority of the novels aren't "LOLZ" worthy there are a few that keep getting to me.

PS. Auto save caused me to delete this post so I re wrote the entire thing ):

Titles

For me coming up with titles is one of the hardest parts but for some of these harlquinn novles all youn eed to to do is use a comma and then describe the characters plot relevance fore example.

Greek Tycoon, Wayward Wife

and the oh so creative

Wicked Captian, Wayward Wife (The guy on this cover is kind of hot, dark hair blue eyes. . . idk)

It probably also helps to sell books if the title pretty much sums up the tension in the plot just so we know what we are getting into.

Prince of Montez, Pregnant Mistress - Okay, see according to the description she is a curator or something why is that not relevant to the title ?

Sensible Housekeeper, Scandalously Pregnant - So, yeah.

Seriously though I think the titles are used for shock value, I'm almost convinced all of the authors have pen names.

Money Money Money

One last thing that always bothers me is that all of these men have money. But to help you  tell the difference most of them are from the Meditternain

The Multi-Millionaire's Virgin Mistress - Yeah he is probably also an italian prince

The Italian Billionaire's Secretary Mistress 
(He is like the guy above but richer)

The Greek Billionaire's Innocent Princess  (The description kind of makes the title irrelevant. He is like the guy above except from Greece)

Mistress: Pregnant by the Spanish Billionaire (Why is there a colon ? Also he is like a Spanish combination of the men above.)

Of course the Mediterranean vibe is killed in the American series, in those either you are from Texas or the Midwest.

Anyway I thought I would just blog about some of the lolz (:

DSI Updates

Apologies ?

I don't know where I have been, but I promise I will never go away like that again. I can however promise the the next updates will come very quickly. Just in time for the holidays !

Pictures

I took this week off (my other job) and was watching TV with my Sister in Law (she just got home !) I saw an actress who I think would be a great pic-spiration for an older Clara in this story. Her name is Chirshell Stause and while some of you may know her as the guy from Glee's ex-fiance. I saw her on All My Children as Amanda Dillion (you should read her character bio, whew). 

(With black hair though)

I also found another one for Mr. Fierro and Peter. They are Kevin Zegers from Transamerica, he is really good a pulling off vacant expressions, and for Peter I can't help but to picture Tom Welling. He has dark hair, green eyes and a tan that I think is probably fake.

                                                                                             (I think he has been shopped to look younger)

Chapter 5

Chapter five was one of the more interesting chapter its main purpose was to give background on Clara's time in Italy and to give some insight into the epilogue of House of Fierro.

Chapter 6

I have been holding on to this chapter for far to long. I attempted to post it on the 19th of November but it just needed more work, which I will talk about more in the next post. For some reason I found this chapter somewhat (super-vaguely) similar to chapter 8 of Hidden, and it helped me to finish this one off. This is probably one of the longer chapters almost over 5K.

Much with the structure of the story we are  heading back  in time and taking off from Chapter 4, in which Mr. Fierro is going in search of Robert Essex and whatever secrets he is hiding.

Playlist

The playlist  features the kind of "eclectic" music. In order this playlist Features a composer, a danish collective band, Award Winning Iris Singer, A German composer and a  New York musician.

-1- Beyond This Moment - Patrick O' Hearn
-2- Kissing - Bliss
-3- Only Time - Enya
-4- Moon Temple -  Karunesh
-5-  Iris - Goo Goo Dolls (the live version is awesome)
-6- - Drop In The Ocean - Ron Pope

Chapter  6