This is your chance to meet one of the authors featured on this blog: Jane Beckenham was kind enough to answer these (increasingly personal) questions about Valentine's Day and her book "Be My Valentine" (which I reviewed in my previous blog). Sit back, grab a cup of coffee (we did) and enjoy.
Jane, how does Be My Valentine Link to Valentines Day?
The theme I had in my mind for this book was love lasting for eternity, even through the ages of time. What better day to bring this about than Valentine’s Day, a day for lovers of any time. So the time travel faction takes place on February 14th and it not only brings love alive, but it returns a love too… but then, you’ll have to read it to find out. Be My Valentine is published by Treble Heart Books http://www.trebleheartbooks.com/
And you can find it at http://www.trebleheartbooks.com/BeckenhamSynops.html
What made you decide to write about Time Travel?
Well I’ve always been an avid history fan, and got hooked on time travel romances when I started reading Sandra Hill’s Viking series and her Cajun series, plus books by Lyn Kurland. I met Ellen Ben-Sefer on line in the Ozromance writer’s loop and she wanted someone to critique her Scottish time travel. Now you gotta remember this was when I didn’t really know what critiquing even meant. Ellen and I hit it off. She’s an American transplanted in Sydney Australia and I live in NZ. We’ve both traveled extensively and lived in Israel and said… wouldn’t it be great… well the next day, chapter one arrived in my inbox from Ellen and Woman of Valor was born – five weeks later we had a complete manuscript – and we’d never even met.
A couple of books later… I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. That I could actually write a book – all by myself. I love pirate stories but felt NZ didn’t really suit as a setting. I started writing … Dave Barnett was sacked… Well heck, who was Dave, where was he, and what was going to happen? I didn’t have a clue. I just wrote. The story unfolded like a video in my head. And there we have BE MY VALENTINE.
How did you write it? Did you plot?
Plot? Me? Well sort of. Actually it has sort of grown on me as the years have passed. I always have an idea of a character, an event, a phrase, then start from that. But I must admit I absolutely adore doing character interviews. For Be My Valentine I had to find out who Dave was? Where did he live? And most important – why was he sacked? So I started asking him questions – in my head – and no I’m not quite in a straight jacket yet – but you know what – the guy answered, and kept on talking. All about his family, his ex who took him for all he was worth, about his grandfather, about his work – and so Dave Barnet got a life, a backstory and a future.
What about research?
Research for anyone who loves history, probably isn’t a chore. Be My Valentine I decided wouldn’t suit a NZ setting, so I started searching the net for info on pirates and came up with an interesting fact about Port Royal, Jamaica where in the 1690s there had been a massive earthquake/tsunami wiping out most of the township. This town had a nickname of Sin City, full of pirates, prostitutes and rum.
Bingo. There was my setting, and my story …. But then you’ll have to read the book to find out – won’t you.
I’ve always found reading for facts and figures etc from children’s books in the library the most helpful. It puts the information at my fingertips in an easy and quick to read way. One scene I had to write was the description of a sunset in Jamaica. Now I’ve never been there, but my mother had and so had a friend, so I picked their brains. Friends and family are great places for research!
Now for the personal bit, Jane. Do you and your husband celebrate Valentine’s Day?
Eeek…. Do I really have to answer that? Well,….no. Not really. Sad isn’t it. And me a romance writer. But I must admit he is rather a romantic at heart, but of course, he man that he is, he’ll never admit it. We’ve been married 24 years this year, and our first Valentine’s Day. For days beforehand I kept reminding him, then on the BIG DAY, I woke up and there was a lovely red rose on my pillow (a silk one which I still have), and me – oh yeah – I had forgotten completely!
Another romantic moment. We adopted our girls from Russia in 1996. I spent about 5 weeks over there, doing the paperwork trail etc, then the morning after we get home and daddy gets to meet his daughters for the first time, I wake up (is there a wake up thing going on here?) to find a lovely sapphire ring on my pillow – four sapphires he says, one for each of us - awwwww. Ain’t that romantic?
Jane, thank you for that. And a reminder to our readers that you can view the trailer for Be My Valentine on http://flash-movies.toufee.com/mov/36371169692268.
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