Hi everybody! I'm Sandy and, not surprisingly, I write historical romances with a twist. During my first RWA National conference (2004 in Dallas) I went to a workshop held by a well-known agent, who gave us this big list of No-Nos in romance. Like, "settings that don't work: France and Germany." Well, I had just finished what was to become my debut novel, THE LILY BRAND, which starts in France, and had just started writing what was to become CASTLE OF THE WOLF, which is set almost entirely in Germany. The Black Forest to be exact. As you can imagine I left that RWA workshop feeling pretty depressed. But luckily, I've found both an agent and an editor who believe in me and my stories, however twisted the latter might be. :)
After one of my author friends had read THE LILY BRAND, she e-mailed me, "You do know, don't you, that now you have to continue writing dark and kinky." Ah well, I thought, I'm sure I can do kinky, so dark shouldn't be a big problem either. So I planned CASTLE OF THE WOLF as a gothic romance. With lots of references to gothic novels. And what better setting for a gothic romance than a tumble-down castle in the midst of deep, dark woods in the Black Forest? Incidentally, this is also where I spent part of my childhood, so the writing of that novel would be doubly charming. Or so I thought. I simply hadn't counted on my female characters who refused to behave like proper female players in a gothic novel and instead stomped all the gothicness to dust. Literally! (Which just shows that sturdy boots are a dangerous thing to give to your characters.) So, in the end, CASTLE OF THE WOLF didn't turn out to be quite as a dark as I had originally planned. But the tumble-down castle in the midst of deep, dark woods in the Black Forest remained. As well as the joy of basing my fictitious little town Kirchwalden on the place where I spent the most wonderful years of my childhood...
I now live in Frankfurt on the Main, Germany, with three spoilt cats and alltogether too many books. And I happily write historical romances with a twist. So, lots of thanks to Carrie for letting me join this group of fine authors!
Cheers,
Sandy :)
After one of my author friends had read THE LILY BRAND, she e-mailed me, "You do know, don't you, that now you have to continue writing dark and kinky." Ah well, I thought, I'm sure I can do kinky, so dark shouldn't be a big problem either. So I planned CASTLE OF THE WOLF as a gothic romance. With lots of references to gothic novels. And what better setting for a gothic romance than a tumble-down castle in the midst of deep, dark woods in the Black Forest? Incidentally, this is also where I spent part of my childhood, so the writing of that novel would be doubly charming. Or so I thought. I simply hadn't counted on my female characters who refused to behave like proper female players in a gothic novel and instead stomped all the gothicness to dust. Literally! (Which just shows that sturdy boots are a dangerous thing to give to your characters.) So, in the end, CASTLE OF THE WOLF didn't turn out to be quite as a dark as I had originally planned. But the tumble-down castle in the midst of deep, dark woods in the Black Forest remained. As well as the joy of basing my fictitious little town Kirchwalden on the place where I spent the most wonderful years of my childhood...
I now live in Frankfurt on the Main, Germany, with three spoilt cats and alltogether too many books. And I happily write historical romances with a twist. So, lots of thanks to Carrie for letting me join this group of fine authors!
Cheers,
Sandy :)
