Very pleased to welcome award-winning author Moriah Densley to my blog this week. Not only is she announcing a new release, but she’s also giving away two pieces of jewelry — a pearl bracelet and a magnetic clip bookmark! [See details below for how to enter].
I'm particularly impressed by Moriah’s column here because I recently read another blog in which she explains how she took a summer of art lessons in order to prepare herself for the character, Alysia. [I’ll try to convince her to post a link to that other blog.] http://moriahdensley.com/2014/01/05/i-took-art-lessons-to-write-my-book-2/
“Faking It”
By Moriah Densley
Turns out I’m a soccer mom. Yet somehow I’m everything I dreamed of becoming, because I’m also a writer. When a new character starts talking to me (yes, I hear voices in my head), I absorb all the books, documentaries and interviews I can on the character’s background and profession, until I start to think like him. Once I know how the character talks, what he wants, and how he reacts to people and events, it’s time to write.
I can explain what it feels like to produce a world with characters, because it’s the mirror side of the reader’s experience… magnified by ten, with blood-sweat-and-tears thrown into the mix. (Anyone nodding in agreement?)
If a reader feels pulled in, feels a part of the story, then the author did something right. And that’s why books are magical. We all get to try on being a fireman, or stunt driver, showgirl, ninja, or maybe a Hollywood star.
The joy really is in the journey, although I do hope the Department of Homeland Security doesn’t take my internet search history too seriously. I’m honest-to-goodness NOT going to do anything with semtex explosives, hydrochloric acid, anti-tank missiles, and zombies. I’m just writing a book.
Alysia made a slight correction with her brush then squinted to blur her vision, heightening the contrast between color and shadow. It revealed a contour beneath the eye socket that needed a dash of safflower to reflect the grey.
She hadn’t imagined Andrew’s wedding yet. It would be grand, of course, and the beau monde would be all agog. Heaven help her, she didn’t want to see it. She turned the cap of a smoke-colored oil paint jar in her fingers, giving Geordy a half-nod and careless shrug.
…So naturally I made my painter fall in love with a financial prodigy. I know diddly-squat about economics and investing. Even after diving into research like the shameless little geek that I am, the result wasn’t very inspiring. Neither was C-SPAN or the NYSE reports in The Wall Street Journal. My artsy brain simply doesn’t tango with numbers.
The solution? Faking it.
To write Andrew Tilmore the stock market genius, I observed then imitated people like him, even though I didn’t really “get it.” I relied heavily on my husband, who works in banking and has a marketing degree. If Andrew sounds like a money-man to you, then I’ll pass on the thanks to Mr. Densley:
Andrew cursed under his breath. Heaven forbid saving the day should come easily. Anxious, he drummed his fingers on the pile of newspapers printed in German, French, and English strewn across his desk. He’d arranged them in order of cause and effect, a connection of seemingly unrelated events, which would soon give birth to the next.
His scrawls in the margins would have looked like gibberish to anyone else. Articles and reports, which supported his conjectures, stuck out at odd angles between the sheets. It was a brilliant mess, but to Andrew it was a crystal ball, a heavenly messenger; because what it proclaimed, no one else in the world likely knew.
A cold shiver traveled down his spine and raised the hair on the back of his neck. It was one thing to spy a profitable investment opportunity, to preempt a movement and make a killing on speculation; it was another to translate the language of world economics and discover an impending disaster.
Thanks for visiting today. Tell me, when you were a kid, what did you say you wanted to be when you grew up? Did you do it? Or tell us who’s the most interesting character you’ve read about lately. Entertain, dazzle, or shock Jeff Salter with your ideas, and you could win this pearl bracelet or magnetic clip bookmark! Comment below to enter. Two winners will be announced on Friday, Jan. 10.
He owns three shipping companies, a diamond mine, and his own castle.
He knows Portuguese, Hindi, Mandarin and Morse code.
His assets net thirteen million.
Everyone thinks Andrew Tilmore, Lord Preston (the financial prodigy dubbed “The King of Threadneedle Street”) has it all, but he wants the one prize money can’t buy: his childhood sweetheart.
Alysia Villier can’t say if it’s worse having Andrew’s father in control of her inheritance or Andrew in control of her heart. He’s ruined her for any other man, but she simply can’t give in to him. She knows he’s destined for great things — marrying a courtesan’s daughter would jeopardize everything he stands for.
Keeping Alysia out of trouble and away from eager suitors becomes a cross-continental quest for Andrew, and he won’t be stopped by his old-fashioned family or the disapproval of the ton. After all, he’s a man with the power to play newspapers and investors like pawns, tumble world markets and incite riots… but can he win the biggest gamble of his life?
Bestselling author Moriah Densley sees nothing odd at all about keeping both a violin case and a range bag stuffed with pistols in the back seat of her car. They hold up the stack of books in the middle, of course. She enjoys writing about Victorians, assassins, and geeks. Her muses are summoned by the smell of chocolate, usually at odd hours of the night. By day her alter ego is your friendly neighborhood music teacher. She lives in Las Vegas with her husband, four children, and two possibly brain-damaged cats.
Moriah has a Master’s degree in music, is a 2012 RWA Golden Heart finalist, 2012 National Reader’s Choice Award winner, and 2012 NRCA“Best First Book” finalist. She’s the author of the bestselling “Rougemont” Historical Romance series from Eskape Press, and the “Network-One” Paranormal Romance series coming 2014 from Entangled Publishing. Moriah is represented by Courtney Miller-Callihan of Greenburger Associates.
She’d love to hear from you! Please visit her website & blog: http://moriahdensley.com, Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MoriahDensley, or Twitter: http://twitter.com/moriahdensley pages.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GYOUK38?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1&linkCode=plm&ref_=aw_bottom_links&tag=aw-iphone-pc-us-20
Barnes & Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-king-of-threadneedle-street-moriah-densley/1115125506?ean=2940148922414
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/382546
Kobo:
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-king-of-threadneedle-street-1
All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-thekingofthreadneedlestreet-1360683-162.html
Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/King-Threadneedle-Street-Rougemont-Novel-ebook/dp/B00GYOUK38/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385795437&sr=8-1&keywords=king+of+threadneedle+street