#MusicMonday with Marcie Kremer – Entangled In Romance

Lots of authors write to music, but, I can’t seem to do it! Being in the moment with my characters is key to writing, and the music would distract me, leading me down other paths of memory. We all know music evokes strong emotions, right?

That’s not to say, however, that music has no influence on my writing! Many different kinds of music definitely inspire me to write. For TORCH IN THE FOREST, musical inspirations were Jeremiah Clarke’s trumpet voluntaries:

arias from the opera La Boheme:

and (gasp!) country music:

Trumpet voluntaries have a lovely, stately sound that evoke castles and royalty, don’t you think? Princess Diana was married to the tune, as was Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge. You can just picture it!

The aria, Che Gelida Manina (what a cold little hand!) is so romantic, because it is when Rodolfo first meets Mimi – they find each other’s hands in the dark for a first touch that is magical.

Country music is all about love and longing—and has plenty of funny and punny lyrics. “It tears me up when you go all to pieces,” for example. Country music singers and writers wear their hearts on their sleeves, as all lovers do, including Lady Eleanor and Lord Hugh, try as they might to repress and fight their longings for each other. Here’s the Possum, famous/infamous No-Show George Jones’s classic, “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (because they hung a wreath upon his door!)

Tune in to some music and see what romance it brings into your life!

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Eleanor of Strathcombe is stunned to realize she has a powerful attraction to Hugh of Wykeham, the arrogant, neighboring lord returned from the Crusade. But he wants to marry her sister, and when he learns that poachers are running rampant he blames her and feuds with her over the control of their forest boundaries. As she struggles to keep control of her forests and find the poachers, unsettling feelings confront her when she deals with Hugh, feelings she never felt in her brief, loveless marriage.

When she finds herself in the midst of a net of intrigue and lies, she needs to find the courage to capture the conspirators, save herself and her sister, and overcome her feelings for Hugh…even though that’s the last thing she wants to do.

Growing up in Europe and seeing castles on a daily basis made me sure I wanted to live back in the Middle Ages. Since that wasn’t likely to happen, being a child of the 20th century, the next best thing I could try to do was to write about this enthralling period in history. Having studied medieval history in college, I loved doing the research about how people really lived and spoke and dreamed and loved, and so TORCH IN THE FOREST came to be, thanks to my dear husband, who encouraged me to write about Eleanor and Hugh. When I’m not writing, I’m reading, or traveling. I love hearing from readers and am happy to do book club conference calls!