Today I am hosting, Claire Delacroix (also writing as Deborah Cooke), fellow member of the Romance Writers of America Online chapter. Hello, Claire! Thanks for joining us.I’m guest posting over on her blog. Here.
Back in Time by Claire Delacroix
This year, I’ve been re-issuing a lot of my Claire Delacroix backlist titles in digital editions. This is a fun exercise, mostly because I love cover art. It’s really exciting to have new covers created for these stories, particularly if I wasn’t that crazy about the one used by the original publisher.
But what I want to talk about today is going back in time. There are two ways that this republishing program has taken me back.
First of all, these are books that I wrote five, ten or fifteen years ago. The amazing thing about proofreading my own books is that I remember what was happening in my life at that time. It might be something small that I’ve forgotten over the years and a chance phrase in the book reminds me of that incident. It might be something more important, a crisis that we got through, which then somehow coloured the stories that I was writing at the time. It’s both strange and wonderful to stumble across these details, remember something past, and marvel over how long it has been (and how much has changed.)
The second way that these books take me back in time is with their settings. Many of them are medieval romances, so I get to visit that era all over again. I’ve been to the fourteenth century in Scotland, a time of intrigue and romance, with The Rogues of Ravensmuir and again with the linked trilogy, The Jewels of Kinfairlie . Right now, I’m travelling back to the twelfth century, again in Scotland, with Bride Quest II, my trilogy of romances which have more of a fairy tale sensibility.
I’ve also done some time travelling in a more dynamic style with the review and republication of three of my time travel romances. I really enjoy the humor of people from the past finding themselves in our time and vice versa. There’s something fundamentally romantic about two souls finding each other across time and re-reading these stories has bolstered my faith in the power of love. It never needs much reinforcement as that’s a pretty core belief for me, but still, time travel romance make me happy – I’d forgotten just how much.
All of these books are available for Kindle, and directly from Smashwords , as well as from third-party sites like Diesel, Apple and Sony. There are excerpts and review quotes on my website if you’d like to read more.
The third way that these books have tugged me back into the past is by reminding me of the other books I’ve read. I catch glimpses of old favorites in my own words, and that has prompted me to dig through my overloaded bookshelves and rediscover books I haven’t read in a while.
What about you? Do you like to re-read books you’ve enjoyed in the past? Do you have a groaning shelf of keepers like I do? How do you remember all those little incidents and treasures from the past?
Claire Delacroix sold her first romance in 1992 and since then has published over 40 romance novels under the names Claire Delacroix, Claire Cross and Deborah Cooke. Her books have been USA Today and New York Times bestsellers and have won numerous awards. For more information about Claire, visit one of her websites, her blog or her Facebook pages.
www.delacroix.net
www.deborahcooke.com
www.thedragondiaries.com
blogging most weekdays at Alive & Knitting www.delacroix.net/blog
www.facebook.com/AuthorClaireDelacroix
www.facebook.com/AuthorDeborahCookeFanPage
Note from Deanna:
I definitely have tons of books on my shelves that I love to revisit. Even if it means just picking them up and gazing at the cover. So much so, I have trouble loaning them out. For goodness sake, what if they don’t find their way home?
BTW, have y’all checked out that gorgeous specimen on the cover of The Rogue? Must go find out all about the Scottish rogue…
