Rocking Around the Holidays
I’ve joined with some of my awesome blogging friends to offer a fantastic giveaway! From now, until December 23 we’re giving you the inside scoop and behind the scenes with Rock Star Authors.
AND…
To celebrate the holiday season there’s a HUGE contest to go along with it – which includes 2 ipad Minis, Signed books by all of the authors, gift cards galore and much, much more!
Today’s Author
About Author Luanne Rice
Luanne Rice is the author of thirty-one novels including many New York Times bestsellers. Five of her books have been made into movies and mini-series, and her work has been featured at Hartford Stage in Hartford, Connecticut, the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, California, and in several off-Broadway theatre productions. She divides her time between New York City and the Connecticut shoreline.
Want to know more about Luanne’s books? Have a look at The Complete Collection!
Website // Twitter // Facebook // Goodreads // Amazon Author Page
Behind the Scenes with Luanne Rice
My favorite place to write is the summer cottage my grandparents built in 1938. It’s on a rocky ledge overlooking Long Island Sound on the Connecticut Shoreline, and I have been lucky enough to go there year every year of my life. When I was a child my mother would have writing workshops for my sisters and me, have us sit at the old oak table and encourage us to write stories about the beach, fishing, crabbing, star-gazing, the things we’d done that day. That was great training to pay attention to what was around us, to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, to write it down, to write every day.
I’ve written many novels set in an imaginary beach town called “Hubbard’s Point,” but it is really that beautiful place where I grew up and still visit today. I write on the same table I did long ago, where my mother held her workshops, and I look out at the same view. Family ghosts swirl around, and I’m filled with memories.
One year I built a book loft in the attic; I like to climb up there to do research and revisions. There is a basket on my desk, and I feel most inspired when it is occupied by one or more of my three cats. They keep me company when I write.
I also love to write in hotel rooms. Writing on the road—far from home and all that is familiar—unlocks something inside, and room service doesn’t hurt either. There is one hotel I’ve returned to often; I’ve written a screenplay and most of two novels in its lobby.
Over the years I have trained myself to not be very particular about where I write. If I waited for the perfect place, I might miss the opportunity to write the story at hand. But I do have favorite places, and I return to them again and again. Mainly I live by writing every day, wherever I am. I’m just happiest when there are cats and salt air.
Holiday Cheer with Luanne Rice
Q. Favorite Holiday memory as an adult
A. Living in Paris, buying a Christmas tree in the 7th arrondissement, snow starting to fall as I dragged the tree home. (I did it myself; part of the happy memory was my self-sufficiency, my determination to get things done, chasing the homesickness I felt for my family. Snow falling as I carried that tree across the Seine made the rest of it magical.)
Q. Best gift you’ve ever received
A friend donated in my name to NRDC, an environmental group I support.
Q. Favorite holiday books
A. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas, and Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden.
Q. Favorite holiday movie
A. Is it wrong of me to say Silver Bells, the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie based on my novel? The tree sellers that inspired the novel still come to Chelsea every year. Tate Donovan played the father of the clan.
Q. Favorite holiday story
A. The Gift of the Magi by O Henry
Q. What’s your favorite holiday dessert
A. Bûche de Noel from La Bergamote Patisserie in NYC.
Q. Favorite Holiday Song
Peace at Last by Hem. Also Lucinda Williams’ new version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
Giveaway
Follow Along with Rocking the Holidays tomorrow, December 5th where author Avery Flynn will be featured on the sites listed below, plus there will be ways to enter the contest daily!
http://cruisingsusanreviews.com
http://www.PerusingPrincesses.com
https://www.facebook.com/submitanddevour
http://anaussiegirlswildbookaddiction.blogspot.com
http://krisandvikbooktherapycafe.com/
www.mommassecretbookobsession.blogspot.com
