This morning I’m pleased to welcome R.L. Syme as she talks about one of those moments that could turn a reader off a book … and maybe even an author.
We’re also going to get a look at her new book, The Outcast Highlander. It looks like a promising start to a great new series.
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Watch Out for Thin Ice
That could never happen.
You know that moment, right? When your suspension of disbelief has been retracted and you just can’t continue the charade. It might be far-fetched events, things that are too coincidental, or just plain melodrama, but everyone has that suspension when reading fiction.
I call this “falling through the ice”. Supposedly, 90% of a story is below the surface, like an iceberg, where you can’t see the entire structure, and you walk only on the surface. When the world-building falls apart or something impossible happens, we find a patch of thin ice with no iceberg underneath it, and slide right in to the water.
If you’re an author, you know, this is a devastating thing to have said about your own book, but we all know it happens. That moment where an author forgets (or doesn’t know) the rules of their own fantasy world, or where an editor misses a change in character names, or something of the sort. It’s heartbreaking.
As a reader, it can be frustrating. I completely get that. Not all patches of thin ice are preventable, and not all are equally as difficult.
So what about you? If an author lets you fall through the ice, do you read them again? How much cold water are you willing to tolerate?
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The Outcast Highlander
(The Highland Renegades)
by R.L. Syme
Scottish Historical Medieval
Sweet Romance
254 pages, self-published
He’s lost his family, his title, and his honor, but he can’t lose her…
Kensey MacLeod returns home after a failed marriage alliance in France to find her world in turmoil: her best friend married to an English sympathizer, her mother at death’s door, and her father imprisoned and thought dead. As an English lord descends to claim her father’s lands, Kensey escapes north with her mother and brother, and runs straight into the arms of the outcast Highlander.
Driven from home and family by a crazed father, Broccin Sinclair refuses to stand aside while the English invade his beloved Scotland. But who should he champion? The freedom fighter who saved his life, the family who has forgotten him, or the woman who captured his childhood heart?
Buy Links:
B&N – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-outcast-highlander-rl-syme/1117892291?ean=9780615935836
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Excerpt:
“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, may I ask why your horse grazes yonder when there are men who chase you?”
“Oh, stop, you impertinent fool.” Kensey shook his hand away and searched the area around her for something. “I was knocked off my horse.”
“What are you looking for?”
She sighed. “I would like to get up and resume my travels.”
So she looked for something to pull herself up with, yet ignored his help. How like her. He must be beneath her notice. Or her care.
“Let me help you.” He stood and offered both hands. She considered him for a moment and finally touched him again. He couldn’t deny a tiny thrill at having won the fight, or at having her hands in his. But her frustration continued.
She furrowed her brow and released his hands. First one step, then another. But on the third step, she began to sway and Broc had to follow quickly to catch her.
“You’re in no state to be walking.” He swept her into his arms, despite her protest, and stilled her grasping hands by hooking both of her wrists together in one grip. “Nor riding.”
He deposited her atop his horse and jumped up before she could make any more fuss. The Ross men obviously hadn’t followed them, but they would have to proceed carefully from here, knowing they may come back upon them at any time.
Broc urged his horse forward into a slow cantor, searching for the least dense path forward. In his lap, Kensey pulled on the dirty folds of her dress, dislodging bits of the forest floor that still clung to the delicate fabric.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded.
“Let’s get you out of here first, lass.” He glanced back into the thick canopy of stillness for a moment. “Ross’s men may be quick on our heels.”
Sitting against him as she was now, she felt tiny and vulnerable. His cloak had opened as he’d climbed onto Gaidel’s back and she was now sitting in the midst of it, against his nearly bare chest. She seemed to suck up all the warmth in his body as she curled against him. Her eyelashes blinked furiously, as though she tried to keep herself awake when sleep called. He reached down and wrapped the warmth of the cloak around her.
“You can sleep. It appears we’ve lost our pursuers and it will be slow progress back to the trail, if we even dare to follow it.”
“I’m not tired.” She yawned and her weight pressed even more against him. She would no doubt be asleep soon. His body tensed against the desire that tried to consume him. This was his brother’s intended.
He was merely delivering her back to him.
Not enjoying having her in his arms. Not at all.
*****
Author Info:
R.L. Syme works at a youth theatre, teaching kids performing arts and musical performance classes/camps when she’s not writing. Otherwise, she’s putting her Seminary degree to good use writing romance novels. Let not all those systematic theology classes go to waste…
Links:
http://facebook.com/bighopesbigheroes
http://twitter.com/beck_a_tron
http://theoutcasthighlander.com
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Giveaway:
2 great prizes !!
Grand Prize: R.L. is giving away a Kindle Paperwhite.
As a secondary prize, she would like to give away a set of Scottish Historical romances from some of her favorite authors.
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/Yzc0NThmNDMxY2FlNDZkZGQ0NGVlNDgzNzBkZjkyOjEy/
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Romantic Reads and Such 