• About
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Contact
  • Reviews & News
  • Welcome
  • Winds of Time Media Kit

Lilly Gayle Romance

Lilly Gayle Romance

Category Archives: Paris

I Have Vonnie and She’s Talking About Paris!

16 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by lillygayle in contemporary romance, Ernest Hemigway, Jame Joyse, Midnight in Paris, Mona Lisa's Room, Paris, romance, romance author, Shakespeare and Company, The Wild Rose Press, Vonnie Davis

≈ 14 Comments

That’s right, y’all. I have none other than Vonnie Davis on my blog today. Vonnie is a sister rose and a wonderful story teller. I fell in love with her novel, Storm’s Interlude. And now, she has a new release that is definitely going on my TBR list. So, I’m just going to turn my blog over to her today…Vonnie?

 There’s a delightful bookstore in Paris called Shakespeare and Company. It sits on the Left Bank, within steps of the Seine and in view of the Notre Dame Cathedral. When we were in Paris, Calvin insisted I had to see it. He claimed it was the most unusual bookstore in the City of Light. I wasn’t prepared for the maze of narrow hallways leading to more alcoves of dust-covered books.

This Paris institution has an interesting background. Shakespeare and Co. was first opened at another location by Sylvia Beach, an American expatriate, in 1918. During the 1920’s, it was the gathering place for writers of the “Lost Generation” — Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Man Ray and Ezra Pound. During this period, the store was the epicenter of Anglo-American literary culture and modernism in Paris. It is featured in Woody Allen’s movie “Midnight in Paris.”

When the Nazis occupied the city, the store was closed down and never re-opened until another American, George Whitman, opened a bookstore in 1951 in a building that was once a monastery.  Later he renamed his English-language bookstore Shakespeare and Company in tribute to Sylvia Beach. This store became a focal point for literary culture in bohemian Paris.

Now here’s where it gets really interesting to me. Whitman, in his youth, had hiked his way through Central and South America and was touched by the generosity of citizens who opened their humble homes to him and shared all they had. This universal-family-ideology stuck with him and, as a result, he opened his bookstore to starving artists and writers. The bookstore includes sleeping facilities, with 13 beds, and Whitman claimed as many as 40,000 people have slept in the shop over the years. His only requirements were that his guests, whom he called “tumbleweeds”, read, work at their art/writing and help out in the bookstore for two hours a day.

A delightful book, Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare and Co. by Jeremy Mercer, tells of a writer’s month living in the famed bookstore. Imagine! Free room and board in Paris. Granted one had little privacy. Bathroom privileges were on a scheduled basis. You had to be up and moving about when the store opened. But this is Paris, y’all!

Here’s the book’s description that reinforces what I’m sharing about the place. “Wandering through Paris’s Left Bank one day, poor and unemployed, Canadian reporter Jeremy Mercer ducked into a little bookstore called Shakespeare & Co. Mercer bought a book, and the staff invited him up for tea. Within weeks, he was living above the store, working for the proprietor, George Whitman, patron saint of the city’s down-and-out writers, and immersing himself in the love affairs and low-down watering holes of the shop’s makeshift staff. Time Was Soft There is the story of a journey down a literary rabbit hole in the shadow of Notre Dame, to a place where a hidden bohemia still thrives.”

Regular activities that occur in the bookshop are Sunday tea, poetry readings and writers’ meetings. George Whitman died there at the age of 98, nearly a year ago. His daughter, Sylvia Beach Whitman, now runs the shop and continues to allow young writers to live and work in the store.

So, of course, I had to include a scene at Shakespeare and Company in my romantic suspense, MONA LISA’S ROOM. Because my heroine Alyson Moore has unwittingly foiled a terrorist’s bombing attempt, she’s been placed under the protective custody of French agent, Niko Reynard. They’ve argued outside Shakespeare and Company and are now inside the store. Niko’s looking for a little gift as a making-up gesture to his charge, who is pretty upset with him…

“Where are you from?” Niko detected an Aussie accent.

“Australia. Brisbane. I’m here to experience Paris, study art and do a bit of poetry writin’.” Eddie’s eyes were scanning the shelves. “Ah, here we go, mate.” He climbed a stepstool to reach what he was after. Turning, he leaned down to hand the two books to Niko.

“Thanks. Sketches of Parisian Rooftops and Sketches of Gardens of Paris.” He quickly scanned through the pages. Aly would love these.

Eddie hailed a greeting at two men, dressed in suits, when they entered and ambled through the narrow store, quietly talking as they climbed the few wooden steps to the next section.

Niko briefly glanced at them before flipping the books over to check the prices. “I’ll take all three.” He waited for the total and paid his bill. “Wrap them please so my lady friend can’t see them. They’re a surprise.”

“Oh, lucky her. I just love…”

Suddenly, screams followed by loud thumping and books falling filled the bookstore. Niko sprinted in the direction of the high-pitched shrieking, gun in hand. He bounded up the steps and rounded the corner. “Aly! Aly! What the hell.”

He skidded to a halt. One of the well-dressed men he saw entering the store earlier was on the floor, books covering most of his body. His companion was staggering, holding his hands over his eye and screaming like a banshee as blood ran down his face.

In the corner stood a pale and trembling Aly, her frightened blue eyes dominated her face. “They…they grabbed me! Said they’d kill me if I resisted. I…I karate kicked them.” She swallowed, obviously trying to gain control. “Kung…kung-fooed the hell out of them, too. And…and…”—she pointed to the screaming man still on his feet—“I think I poked his eye out with one of my stilettos.”

Niko ran a hand down his face, keeping it over his mouth to hide the smile. What a piece of work. He wanted to laugh. He wanted to hug her. And damned if he didn’t want to shake the daylights out of her for stepping out of his sight. Hadn’t he told her to stay with him?

“You okay?” Niko’s gaze swept over her, looking for injuries. He fought the urge to pull her to him and embrace her until her trembling stopped. Frankly, if he were honest, his nerves weren’t the greatest right this moment, either. When he heard her scream earlier, cold fear did a free-fall straight through his system.
Some professional he was. While buying books, Aly had to defend herself. His gaze took in the shambles. By the looks of things, hell if she hadn’t done a damn fine job. “Answer me! Did one of these bastards hurt you? Are you okay?”

“I…I gotta pee.” She was shaking violently. No doubt going into shock. Today’s events finally took their toll.

“I’ll show her to the dunny,” came the Aussie accent behind him. “Ain’t no wonder she’s gotta use the loo. The woman beat the bullocks out of the blokes, she did. Gobsmacked ’em, I’ll wager. Shall I call the police or will you?”

“I am the police. Counterterrorism unit.”

View the Book Trailer: http://bit.ly/MonaTrailer
BUY LINKS:
THE WILD ROSE PRESS (digital) — http://bit.ly/MonaLisaDigital
THE WILD ROSE PRESS (paperback) — http://bit.ly/MonaLisasRoom
AMAZON (paperback) — http://amzn.to/QQZGyD
AMAZON (eBook) — http://bit.ly/MonaLisasRoomeBook
FIND VONNIE ONLINE AT http://www.vonniedavis.com
BLOGGING AT http://www.vintagevonnie.blogspot.com

It’s Still Summer and the Romances are HOT

10 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by lillygayle in Barcelona, Caribbean, contemporary, floatplane, Glasgow, intrigue, island, light-hearted, London, mystery, Nancy Jardine, New York, Oman, Paris, romance, Scottish castle, Tallinn, threat, travel

≈ 23 Comments

Speaking of hot romances and summertime, let me welcome sister TWRP romance novelist, Nancy Jardine. Are you having a hot summer, Nancy?

Summer time?  We Scots are likely to say – please explain that term; I don’t know what you mean.

It’s the 10th of August, and it’s supposed to be our summer time here in Scotland. Have you heard of that phenomenon when there’s lots of lovely sunshine? Warmer temperatures when we can remove the heavy fleeces, and don the shorts and T-shirts? The occasional squirt of sun screen needed-maybe factor 10 will do because it isn’t very hot? Oh, I know, you’ll think that has to be a joke. Wait till you visit my country, because lovely as it undoubtedly is, sun screen isn’t bought in bulk hereabouts. And we can easily experience all four seasons in one day.

We do get a lot of rain, but the opposite side of that particular coin is I’m thankful not to have a problem with water supplies. Apologies, here, because some of you might live in Tornado country, or are close to horrendous out-of-control fires, or your landscape is parched dry. During 2012, we’ve already seen weather patterns-across the globe-which have been variations to the norm. In places where extreme conditions are not expected something devastating has occurred-drought parched land becomes a flooded quagmire bringing havoc and despair to the people who inhabit the areas. Controlling worldwide weather isn’t within man’s capabilities, yet.

Talking about weather may seem too mundane, but it can furnish a good scenario for action scenes in a novel. In my recent release, TAKE ME NOW, Aela and Nairn find themselves at the mercy of the weather a few times. Why is that a problem for them, and how do they overcome it? Since the story is largely based in a castle, on an island off the west coast of Scotland, weather conditions are pretty important for them. They have to get to the mainland, and there are only two ways to do that. Number one is to sail, and number two is to fly.

Either method presents problems when the weather is rough. You might well question why they set off in rough weather? It’s a very good question, but if you hung around in Scotland for a very good day you might have a long wait…though, the weather forecasters can give much better predictions nowadays, which sometimes gives you a ‘weather window’ to work in. But then, again, you might set off when the going is favourable and find that something unexpected delays your progress. This happens to Nairn and Aela as they fly above Loch Long.

I’ve gone through a couple of pretty bad storms over the European Alps in a British Airways Boeing Airbus (something like the 321-200 type) which can seat around 180 people. The high turbulence was, at first exciting, even thrilling in a roller coaster sort of way, but when the cabin lights started to flash off and on, and the jouncing around opened overhead lockers, setting debris to fly around inside the cabin…that’s when it got a little bit scarier. Not to mention the smell of fear that seemed to permeate the plane, though the passengers were eerily quite. No-one was in any way loudly vocal about the buffeting conditions, but the indrawn breaths were not as quiet as people intended them to be. The fierce lightening storm-jagged forks of bluish white in a lowering purplish darkened sky-outside the tiny window wasn’t so welcome either, as we flew over mountain tops, the pilot having dropped altitude to prepare for landing. Yet, in that larger plane, there was a much greater element of cocooning in the cabin. I’m very glad, though, that I wasn’t sitting next to the pilot in the cockpit while the controls were being adjusted constantly, viewing what was ahead, and all around the plane in a more panoramic view.

I’m not sure I’d want to be flying around in similar really rough weather in a tiny floatplane-as Aela and Nairn do in take me now. When I wrote the scene, in my mind, I revisited my own experience of flying in cloudy weather during my seaplane trip, though it wasn’t raining then, and was only marginally, and intermittently, windy. . Even in reasonable weather it feels as though all you need to do is reach down to touch the trees tops, or the top of the hillsides you’re flying over. Every noise, inside and out, is heard more acutely. The ground dipping up to meet you in severe turbulence would make memorable moments. To my own seaplane experience I added incidents of being in a small boat in rough conditions, in the same area they were travelling over, and merged the two in my imagination.

It’s early July in Scotland. Nairn’s already injured, and in some degree of pain, before he sets off on what becomes a hazardous flight, but his competent assistant, Aela, transports him with superb skill. Here’s how she saves the day:

 With incredible skill Aela landed on the far side of the island in heaving waters so high at times the waves sloshed over the wings, breakers he wasn’t convinced he’d tackle himself. Although only late afternoon the summer sky was so slate-dark it was like night; the angry grey-caps surging up and around them, their height dangerously close to submerging them. The rain battered the glass windshield, a momentary blocking of the way ahead till the wipers did their job.

“Brace again, Nairn!” she yelled over the horrendous noise. “This isn’t going to be smooth.” Her words were no sooner uttered than the floatplane lurched, a dangerous list in the high winds. “No worries, Nairn! I’ve got it under control!”

How Aela managed to keep it steady he hadn’t a clue, but it would have been beyond his own experience. The craft vibrated, a violent and relentless buffeting, as she taxied around the headland to Mariskay harbor. The storm lamented, the rain bombarding them with even more force from that direction. Having radioed ahead the automatic roller doors of the boatyard opened for them as Aela made the harbor entrance where she bumpily-bounced the little plane up the slip and inside out of the weather.

“You still with me, Nairn?” Aela grinned. He knew her adrenaline was pumping wild around her-for his was no different.

His smile was weak, his pain-wracked body having given in to the relief they were home. Not dry by any means…but home. And Aela was safe. “Jeeze! That beat the hell out of a boring ride, Aela.”

Thank you for allowing me to bring you some Scottish summer weather today, Lilly. I hope you’ve enjoyed it, but haven’t been put off learning about my part of the world.

**My-TAKE ME NOW-Tour Contest** 
To celebrate the launch of Take Me Now I’ll be giving away 2 e copies of Take Me Now, 2 e copies of Monogamy Twist, and 4 goodie bags of Scottish Castle Gift Cards and Tags to some lucky winners. At each tour stop I’ll be asking a different question. To be entered into the draw find the answer to the question set, at each tour stop, and send the answers to me at nan_jar@btinternet.com before Saturday the 11th August 2012. The more questions you answer, the better your chance will be! (ie send in four answers your name’s in the draw four times) The draw will take place at noon (GMT/ UK time) on Sunday 12th August.

For the URL details of the other tour stops (and special giveaways) please check the calendar on Nancy Jardine’s blog: http://nancyjardine.blogspot.com

Quiz question for Friday 12th August: Which Scottish Loch is featured in the blog today?

Nancy can be found at:
Website: http://nancyjardineauthor.weebly.com
Blog: http://nancyjardine.blogspot.com
FaceBook:  http://facebook.com/nancy.jardine.56
Twitter:  http://twitter.com@nansjar
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6166205-nancy

Books by Nancy Jardine:
TAKE ME NOW
The Wild Rose Press:
Print:  http://bit.ly/MrlI8x   E book formats: http://bit.ly/MQJXvw
Amazon: Print: http://amzn.to/LEUb1g
Take Me Now YouTube Trailer link – http://youtu.be/stDC4Yhm2r0

Also available:
MONOGAMY TWIST
Coming Soon:
THE BELTANE CHOICE will be available in ebook formats from Crooked{Cat}Publishing 31st August 2012. Print will follow.

Follow me on Facebook

Follow me on Facebook

Instagram

No Instagram images were found.

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Home Town Reads

Grab My Button

My Button

<a href="https://lillygayle.com/blog/" title="Blog Button"> <img src="https://lillygayle.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/25a0987b-884f-49cd-b095-21ae24e889f81.jpg" width="200" height="200" alt="My Button" style="border:none;" /></a>
  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Blogs I Follow

  • Rosie Amber
  • davidjrogersftw
  • Wild Heart Reviews
  • LITERARY TITAN
  • Captain's Log
  • Cari Barnhill
  • Romance Novels for the Beach
  • thebookbreeze.wordpress.com/
  • Lilly Gayle Romance
  • Jill James, romance writer
  • Emma Kaye
  • Charlotte Copper...
  • Barbara Edwards Comments
  • andrisbear.wordpress.com/

Blog at WordPress.com.

Rosie Amber

Book reviewer and garden enthusiast. Updates from my Hampshire garden. Usually talking about books and plants. People do not forget books or flowers that touch them or excite them—they recommend them.

davidjrogersftw

Starting life Fresh: Living to Win

Wild Heart Reviews

Love is the heartbeat of the soul

LITERARY TITAN

Connecting Authors and Readers

Captain's Log

Life On A Different Plane (The only way to get there is together.)

Cari Barnhill

Where words are magic

Romance Novels for the Beach

Find out which sexy books to bring with you, or leave behind, on your next beach vacation.

thebookbreeze.wordpress.com/

Where Writers and Readers Meet

Lilly Gayle Romance

Jill James, romance writer

Emma Kaye

Romance Author

Charlotte Copper...

Writer, reader and crafter. There are never enough hours in the day

Barbara Edwards Comments

Riveting Romance With An Edge

andrisbear.wordpress.com/

  • Follow Following
    • Lilly Gayle Romance
    • Join 3,325 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Lilly Gayle Romance
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar