Can you, for those who don't know you already, tell
something about yourself and how you became an author?
I’ve been writing since I was
about six years old. When I was in first grade, my teacher asked us to write a
sentence about Dick, Jane and their dog, Spot. I wrote a paragraph, and she
scolded me for writing too much! But
I had the last laugh when my first novel, In
Sunshine or in Shadow, was released and she actually congratulated me!
I studied journalism at
university—which stood me in good stead when I began researching my stories—but
historical fiction was always my first love. I wrote several “practice”
stories) the books that will remain “under the bed”) until, in 2003 when,
during a Romance Writers of America conference, the germ of an idea came to me.
I went home fired with enthusiasm and began feverishly creating characters and
setting and plot. That story would eventually become Sunshine.
What are some of your
pet peeves?
Perhaps it stems from being a writer, but I absolutely cannot
abide poor grammar!
When my daughter was younger, I used to correct her
grammar—not that often, just when it was really necessary. Well, I guess she
thought it was too often, because she began calling me “grammarific,” a
nickname that stuck!
The most irritating grammar mistakes in speech are
“should/would of” instead of ““should/would have,” using “of” when it’s not
necessary (“It was too big OF a job,” and lay vs. lie. But it’s written grammar
errors that really irritate me, like using apostrophes for plurals, mixing up
its and it’s, there, their and they’re, and you and your. My kids always
pointed out that there’s grammar check on their computers, but grammar doesn’t
always catch these mistakes. I made sure they knew the proper spelling of absolutely
everything!
The Carousel
The Wild Geese Book 7
by Cynthia Owens
Genre: Historical Romance
Like the Wild Geese of Old Ireland, five boys grew to manhood despite hunger, war, and the mean
streets
of New York
The
War had left him blind to beauty…
Kieran
Donnelly is a gifted artist who has sworn never to paint again. He
saw and did too many things during the war to extinguish the ugliness
that lies in his heart. But a chance to work with some of the most
magnificent paintings brings him close to the world he still
loves…and an extraordinary woman who sees his true heart.
Darkness
couldn’t extinguish the light in her heart.
Blind
from the age of four, Emily Lawrence yearns to experience the outside
world. When she hires Kieran Donnelly to catalogue her father’s
paintings, he offers her a glimpse at life outside her exquisite
home…and a chance for a future.
Can
Kieran and Emily emerge from the darkness to find happiness and love?
**easily
read as a standalone!**
I
believe I was destined to be interested in history. One of my distant
ancestors, Thomas Aubert, reportedly sailed up the St. Lawrence River
to discover Canada some 26 years before Jacques Cartier's 1534
voyage. Another relative was a 17thCentury "King's Girl,"
one of a group of young unmarried girls sent to New France (now the
province of Quebec) as brides for the habitants (settlers) there. My
passion for reading made me long to write books like the ones I
enjoyed, and I tried penning sequels to my favorite Nancy Drew
mysteries. Later, fancying myself a female version of Andrew Lloyd
Weber, I drafted a musical set in Paris during WWII.
A
former journalist and lifelong Celtophile, I enjoyed a previous
career as a reporter/editor for a small chain of community newspapers
before returning to my first love, romantic fiction. My stories
usually include an Irish setting, hero or heroine, and sometimes all
three!
I
am a member of the Romance Writers of America, Hearts Through History
Romance Writers, and Celtic Hearts Romance Writers. A lifelong
resident of Montreal, Canada, I still live there with my own Celtic
hero and our two teenaged children.
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