Guest Post: Author of Her Loving Husband`s Curse, Meredith Allard

Meredith Allard

Guest Post Celestial Reviews

My favorite writing spot is in my recliner in my bedroom. This way I have my laptop on my lap, my CD player handy, the television close by if I want it, and perhaps a cat or two. I used to sit at a desk, but once I switched to a laptop I prefer the flexibility it gives me, and with my bad back it’s easier to sit for hours in a recliner than an office chair! I also have a view out of my bedroom window, which is perfect for daydreaming. I’ve thought of going to coffee shops with my laptop to write, but I think all the buzzing and bustle would distract me. At home, I have perfectly controlled chaos, and that’s the way I like it. 

The fact that I have easy access to music and the television isn't a distraction for me. I’m often inspired by the music I listen to. Since I write so much historical fiction, I tend to listen to music from the era I’m writing about. When I was writing Her Loving Husband’s Curse, I listened to a lot of Cherokee drum music and spiritual chants since the historical background for that story is the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears. Watching television is often also an inspiration. When I’m creating a character, I’ll often match the character to a favorite actor. It’s my way of imagining physical descriptions like hair and eye color, and it’s often where I get a sense of facial expressions, speech patterns, and movements. Sometimes readers will ask me if a certain character is based on an actor, and often they guess right! I love it when that happens because I feel like I did my job well.  Other times, a specific television show will spark an idea for an entire novel. That’s what happened for me with True Blood. I watched an episode early in season one and I began to wonder what would happen to a vampire still mourning for the humans he loved and lost. That was the inspiration behind Book One in the Loving Husband Trilogy, Her Dear & Loving Husband. So the music and television in front of the recliner aren’t time wasters—they’re imagination enhancers.

In fact, television itself plays an important role in Her Loving Husband’s Curse. In that story, James’s secret (that he’s a vampire) may be exposed, and I wondered…what would that look like in today’s society? With the Internet, cell phones, Facebook, blogs, and Twitter, what happens today when big news breaks? The discovery of living vampires would certainly be big news, and I tried to make the breaking news as realistic as possible. I even incorporated some well-known shows into the story. Of course, I don’t name names, but I’ve had readers guess which shows were which.

Having an active imagination is an imperative to writing fiction, and having a comfortable spot where you can allow your imagination to soar only helps the process of creating fictional characters in fictional worlds.

 

Her Loving Husband's Curse (Loving Husband #2)

by Meredith Allard (Goodreads Author)

How far will you go to protect the one you love?

Finally, after many long and lonely years, James Wentworth’s life is falling into place. Together with his wife, Sarah, the only woman he has ever loved, he has found the meaning behind her nightmares about the Salem Witch Trials, and now they are rebuilding the life they began together so long ago.

But the past is never far behind for the Wentworths. While Sarah is haunted by new visions, now about the baby she carried over three hundred years before, James is confronted with painful memories from his time with the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears. Through it all, the persistent reporter Kenneth Hempel reappears, still determined to prove that the undead walk the earth. If Hempel succeeds in his quest, James and Sarah will suffer. Will the curse of the vampire prevent James and Sarah from living their happily ever after?

Her Loving Husband’s Curse is Book Two of the Loving Husband Trilogy. Book One, Her Dear & Loving Husband, is now available from Copperfield Press.