Showing posts with label Jeanne Barrack ~ Romance Authors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeanne Barrack ~ Romance Authors. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Guest Blogger ~ Jeanne Barrack

Today, we are in for a magical treat, everyone. Jeanne Barrack is an erotic romance author with Liquid Silver Books (plus other publishers) . I feel I've gotten to know Jeanne through the Liquid Silver forum, always a fun and verra risque party place to hang out. Hey! Just check out the Liquid Silver SEx blog today, where Jeanne (A Song of the Sidhe) and Roscoe James (The White Swan) are partying down in celebration of their new releases.
I am constantly amazed and enchanted whenever Jeanne's shares her knowledge about Irish history and Celtic/Irish music, especially the songs of the bards. And, let me tell you, can she pen a fantastic battle scene! Not to mention her writing style is passionate and lyrical, in perfect harmony with the tales she weaves, and the love stories she writes.

Welcome, Jeanne, to Title Magic ~

I love the name of this Blog! If your book has Title Magic, folks will at least check out the blurb or read an excerpt and then hopefully, buy the book.
Imagine if you will, if "War and Peace" had received the goofy title that popped up in an episode of the comedy show, "Seinfeld". The character, Elaine, is led to believe that Tolstoy's classic novel was originally called, "War: What is it Good For?" Now, I know that makes a fun song title, but it certainly doesn't fit the breadth and scope of Tolstoy's epic.

Often, titles go through a metamorphosis (another great title ) before seeing the light of day.
So it happened with "The Shimmering Flame", my stand alone novel in Liquid Silver Books' Terran Realm Universe.
Inspired by the legends of ancient Ireland and Brigid, the greatest of all pagan Celtic goddesses, its original working title was "Bright Arrow". Now, Bright Arrow is just one of many names and honorifics given to this amazing female. But the story was more than just about Brigid. When I developed the Terran Realm aspects of the story, I had other characters who were just awakening to their new abilities as Terrans. So, I submitted the manuscript with a new title: "Awakenings".
Great title, yes? Unfortunately, it was just a little too similar to "The Earth Awakened", an upcoming book in the Terran Realm series. Back to the drawing board.

So, I thought, "What aspect of this story is unique and captures the essence of Brigid and the other Terran heroes and heroines in the Realm? "Brigid can control the elements of Fire and Water. This makes her unique in the Realm. So, I decided to find a title that conveyed this.
I felt I couldn't use a title that had the word Water because one of the books by Tiffany Aaron is called "Troubled Waters", but I wanted to indicate Brigid's element duality. So I thought about the effects of water. Dazzling. Glistening. Frozen. (hey, I was desperate). And then it came to me. Both water and fire can shimmer....yes! Got the first part! "Shimmering"....hmm.
Okay, "Shimmering Blaze" - sounds like the name of a race horse. "Shimmering Inferno" - maybe a tad too hot! "Shimmering Fire", better but not quite there yet. So I cudgeled my brain some more and the word Flame burst out. A flame: steady, hot, giving warmth - to shine with a sudden light.
I liked it. So, the shimmering quality of water and fire and the steady, shining warmth of a flame:
"The Shimmering Flame" had a name! To find out more about the Terran Realm, please check out this link: http://www.terranrealm.com/
My next release for Liquid Silver Books also is set in Ireland, but this title was easy! "A Song of the Sidhe" is a repubbed, revised and expanded story set in Ireland of ages past.

Blurb:
The place: Ireland, a long, long time ago when the Sidhe walked among mortals
Donal Bawn was the most handsome man in all of Tipperary with a voice that could lure the birds from the trees. But that all changed when he angered Ogma, High King of the Tipperary Sidhe. Doomed to wander as a hunchback with a voice as thin as a reed, Donal keeps to the forests away from human companionship until one day he hears a melodious female voice singing a fragmented tune over and over.
Ceoleen, a beautiful female of the Galway Sidhe has also been cursed for her vanity and foolhardiness. Blinded and exiled to a fairy ring deep in the woods, she can only repeat a broken phrase of music until that fated day when Donal finishes the song for her.
But their curses are only partially broken. It will take a great deal more than music to decide their fate.
Will their love be strong enough to finally free them?