Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of the Romance Novel
Today we are welcoming Caddy Rowland to the blog! She is here to talk about her work. She has written two books that are part of a series. This series is called the Gastien Series. These books sound pretty interesting, but I’ll let her tell you about them!
Grab a coffee and a comfy chair, relax and enjoy what Caddy is here to share with us!
The Gastien Series (How I Allowed Gastien To Write His Story)
Do you believe fictional characters have voices? When I sat down a little over a year ago, I simply had an idea about the main character (Gastien) and a few ideas about who I wanted him to be. Although I am female, Gastien is male. However, we have some similarities. The biggest one is that we are both artists.
I committed to writing Gastien one hour per day, Monday through Friday as soon as I was done with work. Since I sold recruitment advertising at home, I did not have commute time. I decided I could use the hour many people spend on the road to write my novel. I did not let anything take that hour away from me. If I had a doctor appointment or something like that, I simply wrote for an hour as soon as I got home. Dinner, laundry, fun, and everything else would have to wait. My husband had the patience of a saint.
I began the first day by sitting down and simply thinking about Gastien and how I “saw” him. Becoming very quiet, I simply waited. Soon, the words started coming and I began to type. It was the strangest thing. Most days I had no idea what would be written. I fully believe that the character told the story. Gastien even gave me the descriptions of the other characters. When I needed names, I went to French name lists online and my gut would tell me which name to use.
The hour flew by each day that I wrote. By the time the story was complete, I had over 1,000 pages. It took me four months. Knowing this was too long for a book, it got divided into two books. The result was that I had the start of a series. I put part two aside and began polishing and editing part 1. The polishing and editing took the work of 6 beta readers and me. It also took 5 months. I read that baby a good dozen times, once out loud. Each time, I worked to make the soft “hum” louder, until I finally had a story that was “singing” at full voice. Gastien Part 1: The Cost of the Dream was born.
Much of the time spent on my books was research after writing what I had been “told”. I researched online to make sure the things that had been typed could have happened in nineteenth century France. I wanted to make sure I used places that had existed (and some still do, although for some I took literary “leniency” in describing their size, etc) and that items were referred to be the correct terms for the times. For instance, men did not wear “pants”, they wore “trousers”. Taxicabs did not exist, but cabriolets did.
I am an indie author, so I released Gastien Part 1: The Cost of the Dream on August 1, 2011 to Kindle (Amazon) and Nook ( Barnes&Noble). The paperback was released in mid September and is also on Amazon and Createspace.com.
This is a series that is in the historical fiction/saga genres. Gastien Part 1: The Cost of the Dream is about Gastien leaving the farm and an abusive father to pursue dreams of becoming a great artist and even greater lover in late nineteenth century Paris/Montmartre. This was during the time that bohemianism was at its peak, Impressionism was happening, more abstract styles were mostly being thought about; and drugs, drinking and sex were the norm in these circles. It was one of the most wild, free and creative times in the history of the world. There is graphic sex in the book for sure. A story of a bohemian lifestyle without it would not be a believable story. His struggles to get to bohemia are dark and troubling. Many reviewers say this book made them feel more emotions in one story than any they can think of being written recently. You will find reviews, synopsis and ratings on the links below.
Gastien Part 2: From Dream to Destiny just came out in mid-December. This story is about Gastien’s life as an artist and features the “big” romance of his life…but don’t expect it to be predictable in any sense of the word! Nor is it categorized as a romance. It is still historical fiction and a saga. It is also a very powerful love story. You will have to read it to find out if he turned his back on love, or loved the best that he could, after all of the abuse he went through. If he did love, was it enough to keep that love alive?
There will be at least four books in the Gastien series. I do advise you to read them in order, from the beginning, so that you get the full impact of what this man went through and how strong his drive was to see his dreams become reality. I hope you enjoy the Gastien series. I would love to hear from you about your thoughts. You will find buy links and contact information below. I want to thank Barb for allowing me to tell you a little bit about my historical fiction/saga series about Gastien Beauchamp.
Thank you and happy reading!
Caddy Rowland
My email: caddyauthor@yahoo.com
Gastien Part 1: The Cost of the Dream:
For Kindle * For NOOK * For Paperback
Gastien Part 2: From Dream to Destiny
Paperback coming to Createspace.com and Amazon.com! Search by my name/title.
I’d like to thank Caddy for dropping by and sharing today! If this book sound like something that you would like, click on one of the links above and pick up a copy!
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