It’s Wednesday so say hello to today’s guest author, J. Arelene Culiner
This Writer’s Life-(TWL)-Welcome to This Writer’s Life, happy to have you
join us today. Introduce yourself and tell us about yourself, your writing
and your books.
Thank you, Susan, for having me here as your guest. I write non-fiction as well as mysteries as Jill Culiner, and my books are a mixture of history, humor and investigation. As J. Arlene Culiner, I write romances, and although they are light-hearted, easy to read and ineluctably romantic, I try making them as interesting as my non-fiction, as humorous, and as beautifully written. One of my greatest pleasures is refining my sentences and paragraphs until they sing.
TWL-Why and when did you decide to become an author?
I don’t think I ever made the decision. I’ve always written. I can’t think of a time when I didn’t note down conversations or describe people and situations.
TWL-What’s a typical writing session like for you?
I don’t have a set time or method. I don’t necessarily write every day. Sometimes I have to force myself to sit down and work on something, but when I get started, I’m totally absorbed.
TWL-What have you learned most from being a writer?
The pleasure of research, the joy of reaching others.
TWL-What’s been the biggest struggle and how did you overcome it?
My biggest struggle is the first draft. First drafts kill me. I hate them. Second drafts are fun. Third, fourth and fifth drafts are sheer ecstasy.
TWL-What’s been your biggest victory?
In October, I was flown from France where I live, to Toronto, to accept a literary award (The Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Memoir) for Those Absent on the Great Hungarian Plain, a book that took me twelve years to research, write, and refine. This was the second literary award I received. My first was a 2005 Tanenbaum award in history for Finding Home in the Footsteps of the Jewish Fusgeyers.
TWL-If you could give advice to your pre-author self, what would it be?
Do it better!
TWL-What writing tip would you offer to a new author?
Write, refine, write, refine. Read many things – history, literary fiction, memoir, classics, mysteries. Just read! And get rid of your television.
The Unpredictable Colors of Love is my most recent romance. It is set in a rather romantic castle deep in the French countryside.
Excerpt
Callie dropped her backpack and, uninvited, sat down on the soggy ground not far from where he was digging. She didn’t even own a houseplant, but a banal conversation about twigs and saplings, was what she craved at the moment. “Okay, tell me why isn’t there a hedge here now.”
“Because, years ago, the farmer ripped out all the hedges to have larger fields for his agricultural machinery. Now we’re bringing back a balanced environment.”
“You’re not planning to replace every single hedge on your own, are you?”
“Of course not,” he scoffed. Picking up a small spade, he loosened another patch of earth. “There are thousands of trees and shrubs to replant, and that would be an impossible task for only one person.”
With gentle fingers, he spread the delicate roots of a tiny shrub, tucked it into place in the little hole, then tamped down the moist soil with his palm. Reached for another, and then another.
She watched silently as he planted, and strangely enough, it was almost a sensual sight. His hands were broad, strong, and deeply tanned from working outdoors; his long fingers were beautifully shaped. And under that denim shirt of his, there was the alluring suggestion of tight sinew and warm, fragrant skin. Bear like? No, not exactly. Something more, something…
“A penny for your thoughts.” Michel was watching her with those disconcerting eyes of his, very dark, with heavy lids and thick lashes.
She felt the blush as it flooded her neck, her face. He hadn’t caught what she had been thinking, had he? Perhaps he had. Surely, he’d seen how her gaze had traveled over his hands, his arms, his chest, and shoulders. How incredibly humiliating! What vaguely plausible answer could she give? “Oh… just remembering something.”
“Ah.” Eyebrows raised in overt amusement, he smirked—rather cockily—then went back to working on the next hole, the next shrub.
The Unpredictable Colors of Love
Contemporary Romance set in the French countryside
The Unpredictable Colors of Love
Callie Patterson, an unsuccessful artist, hopes that a relationship with the irresistible and magnetic Nicholas Trier will pave the way to success. She follows him to France where, in a magnificent château, he holds his artists’ retreats. But famous men surround themselves with hangers-on and demand complete loyalty.
Callie soon finds herself far more attracted to Michel Alexandre, the estate gardener, who loves and protects trees and every living creature. But if she wants to make a name for herself, she’ll have to choose Nicholas and his world.
Except nothing is quite the way it seems, and perhaps success isn’t the most important thing, after all.
https://books2read.com/TheUnpredictableColorsOfLove
About the Author
Writer, social critical artist, and impenitent teller of tall tales, J. Arlene Culiner, was born in New York and raised in Toronto. She has crossed much of Europe on foot, has lived in a mud house on the Great Hungarian Plain, in a Bavarian castle, a Turkish cave dwelling, a haunted house on the English moors, and on a Dutch canal. She now resides in a 400-year-old former inn in a French village of no interest where, much to local dismay, she protects spiders, snakes, and weeds. Observing people in cafes, in their homes, on trains, or in the streets, she eavesdrops on all private conversations, and delights in hearing any nasty, funny, ridiculous, sad, romantic, or boastful story. And when she can’t uncover really salacious gossip, she makes it up.
Author Website : http://www.j-arleneculiner.com