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This is a fantastic romp that grabbed me from the first page. Unexpected devilment filled the pages and my imagination. The author paints indelible images with words that are nothing less than stunning. There are twists and turns to keep even the most jaded reader guessing.
Fast-paced, unpredictable, and funny, the dark subject matter is treated with irreverence and indisputable style. With its unparalleled originality, this novel is sure to amaze and amuse. Keenan Swanson is your typical, everyday graphic designer. Well, except for the hundreds of pesky, prank-loving poltergeists that make his life interesting in a Chinese curse sort of way. He finds his situation precarious yet manageable—until witty, smoking-hot coworker Isabella enters the scene and Keenan decides he wants her all for himself.
Prince Thane is the last surviving royalty of the Trinovantes Tribe in Roman Britannia, having surrendered to the Romans to save his two young daughters, whose identities he sacrifices his freedom to protect. He is condemned by Nero himself to become a gladiator, to fight until he dies in the arena. When his two daughters are taken in a slaver's raid, Thane escapes to find them. Phaedra holds a terrible secret that would mean the death of her younger brother. Her only hope is to force the gladiator to protect them as they flee to Rome. Little does he know that the beautiful Syrian woman holds not only the key to his passion, but a secret that triggers a disaster that ignites the world.
Will this spoiled willful girl betray him in the end or sacrifice herself to save them all? Marius is disciplined, precise, as cold as his armor. A twenty-five year veteran, the Centurion is dedicated to the principles of Rome.
No one had ever dared to challenge his command… until now. Queen Delia struggles to save her dying Celtic people, fighting to lead in a world dominated by savage men. The last thing she expects is to feel her body craving the touch of an enemy. The revolution that sparks their desire rips her from his arms. They find themselves on opposing sides, in love, and unable to stop the future. The Boudicca revolt has been squelched; the tribes of the Iceni and the Trinovantes have been exterminated by the Roman Governor of Britannia, Suetonius.
He has sworn his revenge on the remaining tribes for the Celtic insolence. In the end, it may be more than their love or their lives they lose. Fans of The Centurion and the Queen will not be disappointed. Trenara never thought she would have to guide a student she loved to become a messiah, but it is the only way this second trial Starguider can salvage her world. It's the first of a series, and it should do well Trenara no longer trusts the power that has turned the boy she once loved into a man she no longer understands.
Second volume in the Starsight Series. Prequel — The God Wars. Thursday, June 22, Create Romantic Friction between the Sheets As a matter of fact, I try to portray the life of my lead characters as dramatic as possible. In the beginning of my first historical the hero has just killed a Celtic warrior.
In the second historical he is running from Roman soldiers trying to hide his identity. Both normal everyday things Marius does. In Ghost of a Chance the story starts out with Keenan ogling the woman of his dreams just to be interrupted by a screaming apparition, which, for him, is also his normal life. I try to blend in the barriers right from the beginning to create mystery. It makes that fateful step through the Looking Glass or crossing that first threshold an even harder step.
The character has already been through a lot when I open my stories. I try to stay away from backstory as much as possible in the beginning pages. I want to portray that the normal life for this exceptional character will only become more intriguing. In a romance ARC, this could be anything out of the ordinary for my characters. In The Belle Stalker, the path opens when Belle finds her lover murdered in her apartment and her homicide detective ex-husband back in her life. In A Ghost of a Chance the road changes when Keenan is seduced by a powerful spirit that changes his life forever.
Every story has this dramatic change of life circumstances and I try to make them powerful enough to turn the characters onto different paths way beyond their comfort zones. Human beings are flawed, awkward, crazy, argumentative, docile, and have many imperfections that make them ultimately fascinating.
Even a hero has bouts of nerves, kind people sometime hiss with the best of them, smart people go suddenly stupid in the most dire of situations, and evil people can even show compassion. The lower they go the more glorious the black moment and the resolution. That piece of advice has always helped me. I torture my poor characters mercilessly.
It makes for good reading every time. This works for the romance ARC as it does for any genre. When I first started to write I fell into a lot of the same traps that lots of us do; trying to come up with new and exciting ways to talk about physical love. For me, the more straightforward the better in love scenes and to write about them baring their emotions to each other, their fears, their passions.
I have written just about every level of sexual heat in my books. The difference is language; innuendo vs. My suggestion would be that if you want to write sex scenes you read what others have written and learn from them.
Here is an excellent article on the subject as well: When someone is interested we send off a plethora of signals to the other person. Pupils can dilate up to four times their original size. Dilation also associated with problem-solving, mental activities — dilating to maximum when a decision is reached. This is why dark eyes are considered mysterious. Key signal in courtship — purpose of eye makeup is to emphasize eye display.
Centuries ago, prostitutes put drops of belladonna, a tincture containing atropine into their eyes to dilate their pupils and make themselves look more desirable.
Regular furtive glances with intervals of three to five seconds, decreasing as interest develops to two to three seconds. Staring and full of intensity. Hide and seek game of sneaking looks and flashing glances. They give you countless ways to show male and female interest without using words and are wonderful resources.
Here are just a couple, but there are many more: This was compiled from several resources and has helped me immensely. I hope it can help you too. This is an amazing book about building substance into your heroes, heroines, and bad guys to make them more three dimensional.
I also do an extensive character survey sheet for each one to tell me all about them. The ideal scene — What does the character want more than anything else? It is NOT to fall in love. Romance is usually the LAST thing a character wants and it messes up everything every time. What is his motivation?
Why does he want this goal? Because… The motivation is what drives characters and sets up the foundation for the novel. It also what keeps it moving forward. Think of a motivation your character has. Who or what stands in our way? Conflict is a struggle against someone or something in which the outcome is in doubt. Conflict is bad things happening to good people.
Conflict is bad things happening to bad people.
Editorial Reviews. Review. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY - "I was engrossed by The Centurion and The Centurion and the Queen (Historical Romance) by Minnette Meador - Kindle edition by Minnette Meador. Romance Kindle eBooks. The Centurion And The Queen [Minnette Meador] on www.farmersmarketmusic.com "Historical novels especially historical Romance tend to fall within fairly set parameters.
Conflict is friction, tension, opposition… and danger. Conflict is two dogs and one bone. Here is what I do with three of these elements: I try to build it into dialogue first and then in reflections. It pulls them out of the story and usually causes page skipping. The backstory needs to come out naturally, a bit at a time, leaving a mystery after each bite to move the reader forward in the story. I try very hard never to give them all the story until the very end.
Dialogue — This should be a natural result of relationship building. Sometimes just throwing two people together where they have to stay that way will generate dialogue. I try to make my dialogue short, sweet, and pithy wherever I can, however, I also have my characters tell their own stories as well.
Romance dialogue is used to learn about each other; think of a time when you went on a date. What was your conversation like? You can weave this all into your story to bulk it up. The quiet moments - If you have no quiet times you are going to exhaust your reader — everyone needs a breather, including your characters. It is during these quiet moments that we learn all the good, bad, and ugly things about our characters, heroes and villains. As a musician I learned a lot about silence and its importance to music. It is the pauses as much as the crescendos that define the emotion of music. Just as life breathes in and out, so does a story.
Even the most thrilling of suspense novels have their quiet times. The trick is learning to balance the two. If you want to write well, read well. Study and practice your craft. No one lives in a vacuum. Learn from as many other writers as you can. Romance can be as subtle as a stolen kiss and as grand as an elaborate marriage. Let your characters be frightened, unsure, clumsy, and doubtful. The only other occupation we know less about is being a parent. That is true for your characters as well.
Even the most macho man in the world can be brought down by the flash of a lovely eye. Even the most steadfast liberated woman can melt into the arms of a lover who truly cherishes her. Romance can add warmth and passion to any story, even the dourest ones. We often cling to love when all else fails. And it is usually love that sees us through the worst life can throw at us. Please email me at mmeador minnettemeador. The Call to Adventure The call to adventure is the point in a person's life when they are first given notice that everything is going to change, whether they know it or not.
Refusal of the Call Often when the call is given, the future hero refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances. Supernatural Aid Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his or her guide and magical helper appears, or becomes known. The Crossing of the First Threshold This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are not known.
The Belly of the Whale The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. It is sometimes described as the person's lowest point, but it is actually the point when the person is between or transitioning between worlds and selves. The experiences that will shape the new world and self will begin shortly, or may be beginning with this experience which is often symbolized by something dark, unknown and frightening.
By entering this stage, the person shows their willingness to undergo a metamorphosis, to die to him or herself. The Road of Trials The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes. The Meeting with the Goddess The meeting with the goddess represents the point in the adventure when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother.
It is also known as the "hieros gamos", or sacred marriage, the union of opposites, and may take place entirely within the person. In other words, the person begins to see him or herself in a non-dualistic way. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by the person finding the other person that he or she loves most completely. Woman as the Temptress At one level, this step is about those temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which as with the Meeting with the Goddess does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman.
Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey. Atonement with the Father In this step the person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life.
Very well written and intriguing. Starsight - Volume I 0. I enjoyed the secondary characters too and liked that they weren't just props for the main characters to parade around. Series by Minnette Meador. Paperback , pages.
In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving in to this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power.
For the transformation to take place, the person as he or she has been must be "killed" so that the new self can come into being. Sometime this killing is literal, and the earthly journey for that character is either over or moves into a different realm. Apotheosis To apotheosize is to deify. When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, he or she moves beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss.
This is a god-like state; the person is in heaven and beyond all strife. A more mundane way of looking at this step is that it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment before the hero begins the return. The Ultimate Boon The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the holy grail. Refusal of the Return So why, when all has been achieved, the ambrosia has been drunk, and we have conversed with the gods, why come back to normal life with all its cares and woes?
The Magic Flight Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it. It's available on Kindle. Apr 08, Minnette is starting Changes. Dec 21, Book Excerpts — members — last activity Oct 08, Magic the Gathering Novels — members — last activity Aug 11, Writers and Readers — members — last activity 8 hours, 47 min ago A group for writers and readers to meet and discuss books and the writing process. The group allows promotion of books, but please post in the designa A group for writers and readers to meet and discuss books and the writing process.
The group allows promotion of books, but please post in the designated folders. Join the 40k Book Club to discuss with us about our books, reading, writing and a lot more! Congratulations - you got here. If you've got a creative bone in you, you'll fit in fine. Whether it's story writing, poetry, book cover making, roleplaying, debating We do it all. Or read people's writing? There will be competitions, writers' workshops, and people here to help if you need advice in your area of creativity.
I can promise it will be fun. It must be fed; it cannot be ignored. Also great for classic film fans! Minnette Meador author of The Centu Shanon Grey author of The Shopp Young author of One Final Spider Robinson author of Callahan' Piers Anthony author of A Spell f Rex Stout author of Fer-de-Lance.
Search for a book to add a reference. Aug 22, Nice to meet you, Minnette! Jun 15, Hello Minnette, it is a pleasure to meet you. Dec 16, Hello Look forward to talking books http: Feb 09, I didn't mean Gather But you could go on Gather and add me as a friend there, too. Hi on Gather, Minnette.
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