Karen Foley
Lynn Raye Harris
Ellen Hartman
Diana Holquist
Samantha Hunter
Shirley Jump
Dee Tenorio
Jeannie Watt
Welcome Guest Author Charlotte Featherstone!
Submitted by CharlotteFeathe... on Tue, 2009-02-17 13:28.
A Writer’s Obsessions
Hello, my name is Charlotte Featherstone and I have some obsessions…well, perhaps some addictions.
I woke up with a headache today. At first I thought it was because I was burning up too many brain cells by struggling to come up with a witty and amusing post for my guest blogging day. As I struggled through the mental fog, I suddenly realized the reason for my headache. I hadn’t had a coffee since the previous afternoon. As a caffeine junkie, I was seriously hurting. I don’t know whether to be relieved or saddened by the fact that after three cups of coffee, my headache is now gone. I’ve had my fix, and now I’m right as rain!!! Addiction number one. Caffeine.
Obsession Number Two is books. GAWD! I luuuv books. I love searching for just the right read on the internet, or in a bookstore. I love talking about books with my co-workers and friends. I love the anticipation of rushing to the post office and having that cardboard box from Amazon or Chapters handed to me by the post office lady. My hands tremble, I practically run from the post office to my car where I tear into the box and pull that much anticipated book from its cardboard prison. I stroke it, stare at it, flip through it, smell the pages. I imagine that I resemble Gollum from Lord of the Rings when he holds his ring and says ‘my precious’ in that eerie voice of his.
I swear, I cannot tell you how much I love to buy books. I horde them. My TBR pile is obscenely obese right now. I mean, it’s morbidly obese! I have so many books that I’m dying to read, but can’t do it yet because of deadlines. But thinking about those books sitting up in my study waiting for me to crack them open is a thrill that borders on a rush. I know that in a few months when my deadlines have come and gone, I’ll be sitting up there, OD-ing in sexy romances!
I know, you’re thinking, wow, this girl really has to get out more! Lol!
But seriously. I think its human nature to become addicted, or obsessed by something. It gives us pleasure, euphoria. It helps us to focus on things that are more pleasurable. It helps us to escape.
So, books and caffeine are my obsessions (oh, and glitzy costume jewelry~love to wear that stuff!) On the scale of dangers, they’re relatively minor. Well, I guess they could be hazardous to my wallet, and the caffeine might make my heart race, (but so does a good steamy love scene) so I kind of fluff off my obsessions as no biggies. But in the wake of my obsessions, I decided to explore an addiction that was dangerous and that was opium smoking. In my erotic historical Addicted from Harlequin Spice, the hero of my book, Lindsay Markam, is an aristocrat who has it all. He’s in love. He’s hot. He’s rich, yet he has this secret side that has suddenly taken up residence in his life and its slowly destroying him. I really, really enjoyed exploring the dark, oftentimes complex path of obsessions. Even though Addicted is an historical, I think its subject is pertinent to today. So many of us have our obsessions, our fetishes, so to speak.
Although Addicted deals with some addiction, it’s still a romance. That was a challenging balance, but I think I managed it. I love exploring themes and the human condition in both its lightness and darkness. I like characters who are just like the readers who pick up the books~complex, flawed, honorable, emotional. Human, I guess. And Lindsay is so very human, and beautifully flawed, as well as utterly redeemable.
So tell me, what are your obsessions? I’ll be picking someone to win a copy of Addicted. Most original obsessions will take it! You just have to be registered at Cigars to win.
If you want any more information about Addicted you can visit my website by clicking on my name in the left sidebar here on Cigars. Thanks to the ladies at Love is an Exploding Cigar for letting me blog!!!
Now, I’m off to get another coffee, and check my email. Don’t even get me started on the subject of emails. I would go into full blown withdrawal if I didn’t check my emails at least every two hours!
»
Welcome Charlotte!
So happy to have you here, and talking about one of my favorite topics. ;) That cover is absolutely gorgeous, btw.
I am so with you on the coffee addiction. I am here on my third cup this morning, and yes, I am not quite human before that. I'm attending Nationals for the first time this year, and my husband, who has stayed at that hotel, quickly assured me there is a Starbucks on premises, LOL. He knows. But it's nothing to be ashamed of -- caffeine is actually good for women, and frankly, I love it. It's one addiction I will never give up, ever.
Other addictions are not particularly original, but there is TV -- I have been a devotee of television since I was a kid. I am not much for movies, but I love many TV shows that I can't miss, and own several DVD sets.
Fabric. I cannot walk into a fabric store without buying something, even if I don't have immediate use for it, and even worse, sometimes to relax I love to go to the thrift store to find fabrics there, funky skirts and sweaters, etc that I can convert into other projects...but it does pile up. ;) I have to make myself not go at certain points to use what I have stacked up. And then there is just the sewing.. making different things. I started with quilts, but I find the more I do, the more different things I want to learn and create. It's definitely a bug.
Other than that... reading, yes. And writing -- writing is in some ways the one that feels the most like what we typically think of as an addiction, you know, like when it sucks or things are bad, I still can't keep myself from doing it. I try to quit now and then, but can't seem to, the stories keep coming. :)
Glad to have you here, and look forward to hearing other people's addictions...
Sam
glad the caffeine
cured the headache. I love the feeling of getting books in the mail. I buy some ebooks but the thought of getting a new book isn't as long lasting as with a print where you can hold it, caress it, stroke it, smell it.
well of course reading is an obsession and some sites(shelfari) are an addiction
An odd obsession
Count me among those with a book obsession! Or maybe it's a reading obsession because if I find myself without a book, I'll read whatever is available (I have read every word on a sweetener packet before).
But my oddest obsession is: checking for "treasures" on the ground. I like to make beaded jewellery but it, too, can be expensive.
As I walk, I'm always checking for detritus on the ground. A broken link of a chain, into my pocket, a mismatched earring, it's mine. I'll go to yard sales and buy that clump of twisted, broken necklaces for a nickel or a quarter. I love taking these old things and making them pretty again.
Just the other day, I found a bead right outside the door of my office. It's now become the centerpiece of a necklace I'm working on.
And, today, a woman I work with brought me an earring she broke. It can't be repaired but I can make her something new with it!
ani
I am obsessed with anything
I am obsessed with anything butterflies, angels and rainbows; they remind me of my now deceased parents. I saw a beautiful rainbow one afternoon after Mom passed away and I was so reminded of her; I saw a butterfly after Dad passed away and it hovered near me and it made me think of Dad.
Plain potato chips and Dill Pickle dip are an obsession with me. I so love this snack and can eat a whole bag of chips/dip at a couple of sittings. I drool for this.
I am obsessed with buttons. If only they could talk can you imagine the stories some would tell. They could tell you about the wearer of that particular article. Buttons represent characters to me; buttons tell of a time in history. Each style is individual.
I love soda crackers with Strawberry jam and cheese or Cheese Whiz; delectable!
My obsessions
Buddy, I loved your post. I feel the same way about my dad and cardinals.
Ive already bought Addicted(woohoo!) so I'm only here to share my obsessions/addictions: love of caffiene, General Tso Chicken, sunsets, road trips, the Great Lakes, the idea of having a beach house, the smell of movie popcorn, movies--my family, and the Fine Arts.
Oh and growing old gracefully and having people call me "eccentric!"
Congrats on the release, Charlotte!
Amanda McIntyre-Awaken Your Passion!
www.amandamcintyre.net
Obsessions
I have to agree about the books. I do buy them even when I have more than I could read in the next few years. I also love my tea and browsing the internet. Going to Home Depot is bad because then I come up with all kinds of projects for our home and garden.
My obsessions? Books
My obsessions? Books, counted cross stitch, jelly beans and my two small grandsons.
Obsessed with......
When I visit or see pictures of a house, the inside or whatever, I imagine myself living there. I get log home magazines with beautiful pictures in them and I can't help but imagine myself in them. If, I mean when I get to build a home it will be a log / stone hybrid, something like a log castle. LOL
I've always done that though. I remember as a little girl, when my parents and I were househunting, I would imagine myself living there, looking out a bay window, sitting on a porch swing.
So, is that strange?
Deidre
log homes
Not at all Deidre!
I have a notebook filled with similar pics from over the years.
Though we never wound up in a log home, we did wind up with the something much better!
I think you must be a very visual person and a creative writer , photographer or artists is scratching to get out!
Amanda McIntyre-Awaken Your Passion!
www.amandamcintyre.net
Books is one of my
Books is one of my obsessions. lol I also have an obsession with pens. lol Addicted sounds great!
Hi Charlotte! So been
Hi Charlotte! So been looking forward to this one. Gosh what an awesome cover!!!! Oh, of course we all have our book obsessions, LOL. I love card decks!!! I was really bad before in collecting so many different ones. I just loved the different coca-cola ones they had! Even the Christmas time ones they used to put out a new deck/cover each Christmas. I ended up I sent off to the soldiers and told that it was perfect sending all those cards because they loved to play card games when they had breaks for themselves. I still tho, have to check out those little stores and online to see what new ones they have! I did keep my UNO tho and have a variety of those with the different characters that came out. I wasn't sure if I should send SpongeBob SquarePants there :)
Hey folks...
Unfortunately Charlotte and her family have been completely down with a bad stomach virus, so she hasn't been able to come around, and so you will have to put up with me randomly choosing a winner for her book, rather than us trying to find the strangest obsession here, LOL.
So, the winner is.....
Buddy!!!
Buddy email me, samhunter@samanthahunter.com, with your address, etc and I will forward the info on to Charlotte, who I know regrets not being able to stop by...
Sam
Congrats
Woo hoo to Buddy!
Poor Charlotte!! :-(
ani