Hi, there friends! I have a super special blog post for you today. We’ve got a guest post from Jane Yolen, Nebula Award Winning Author, about her latest novel: The Scarlet Circus. Let’s jump into notes on writing love stories!
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The Scarlet Circus by Jane Yolen
The Scarlet Circus Synopsis: The Scarlet Circus, the fourth volume in Yolen’s award-winning short fiction series brings you passionate treasures and unexpected transformations. This bewitching assemblage, with an original introduction from Brandon Sanderson, is an ideal read for anyone who appreciates witty, compelling, and classic romantic fantasy.
{Purchase The Scarlet Circus here}
Notes on writing love stories – Jane Yolen
So there I was, putting together several collections of my short fantasy and SF stories with a large backdated section that included poems that seemed to fit each story. I had already done a bunch, but I thought I had one more in me. If I had written enough romantic tales.
Not my usual reading matter and not my usual writing matter either…or so I thought. I sat down with a variety of magazines and story collections and anthologies I had done or contributed to over the years. I first began publishing in the early 1960s, but like most prolific writers, I do not often go back and reread my own stuff. I am too busy writing something new.
Writing love stories
However, I have been feeling very romantic and playful recently because, after fifteen years a widow following a wonderful marriage, I re-met a man I had dated back in college for two months- because we were both considered our college poets. He was at Williams, I was at Smith College. Both now widowed, he for seven years. And suddenly there was magic. Bells ringing, music playing (he’s a violist), and…Covid. We ended up housebound at his house in Connecticut for three months. Trial by Mask.
Reader, I married him.
We are writing books and stories and poetry together. And he cooks. It made the making of this book- SCARLET CIRCUS- a coda for our romance.
I guess it also made me remember that ideas are everywhere, and sometimes what is closest to us is the hardest to see. But I am writing like crazy these days with renewed enthusiasm, my 417th book just came out. My eye is on the big 500. And Peter has a fabulous dinner waiting.
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Hester’s love for her Pearl is such a powerful force. I’ve never forgotten my high school reading of it, and it’s especially near right now because three nieces have new babies, and I’m reading HESTER.
Felicitations on finding love again <3