Not Just About Me #MFRWAuthor Blog Challenge

This week’s prompt in the #MFRWAuthor 52-Week Blog Challenge is: How much of myself is in my writing?

2018 blog challenge button

Good question, but I’m not sure I have a good answer, certainly not an easy one. It varies by book.

For the first book I finished, Worth The Risk, by Lyn O’Farrell, a pseudonym for me and my friend Anne Farrell, we really stuck with what we knew. We set the book in Southern California where we live. Since we were both part-time librarians, we gave our heroine the same occupation. And I used what I knew from years of watching car races with my husband and suggested our hero be an ex-race car driver. I even drew on my experience of flying to Catalina Island in a small plane for one scene. We had fun with that book.

Worth the Risk graphic

My second book, Rogue’s Hostage, was a lot more serious. For one thing, it’s a war story, set during the French and Indian War. It opens in Western Pennsylvania where I grew up outside Pittsburgh. I did a lot of research and spent three years writing the book. My mother died during the process, and when I’d finished it, I realized that my heroine, Mara, was, in so many ways, my mother. I dedicated the book to her memory, as well as that of my grandmother, who inspired my love of storytelling and history.

#bookqw deep Rogue

The books that followed were a little less personal, but reflect my interests in various historical periods. Lily and the Gambler is set in an area my husband and I explored together, the Gold Country of California.

Lily graphic

I’ve always loved fairy tales, and that’s reflected in my Kingdoms and Legends series: Ilona’s Wolf and Tova’s Dragon. And Marooned, my steamy pirate romance, answers the question: Who do you want to be stranded with on a deserted island?

All writers put something of themselves into their books, but sometimes it’s so subtle, we’re not even aware of it. At least I’m not.

Use the linky list below to hop to other posts in the #MFRWAuthor 52-Week Blog Challenge.

Linda / Lyndi

Tova’s Dragon Prologue by @LyndiLamont #MFRWHooks

MFRW Book Hooks logo

I’m returning to Marketing for Romance Writer’s weekly Book Hooks meme after quite a long absence with an excerpt from my latest release, Tova’s Dragon, steamy paranormal romance, written under my Lyndi Lamont pseudonym. Book Hooks provides ” a chance each week to hook readers on your current WIP or any previously published book.”
Tova's Dragon cover

Prologue

Once upon a time, in the Kingdom of Velosia, lived a young earth mage. Tova, for that was her name, dwelt in harmony with the plants of the fields and the animals of the earth. She sensed vibrations in the earth and heard whispers on the wind, basked in the sun and gloried in the rain.

But whenever storm clouds gathered and thunder rumbled in the distance, she trembled in dread. And when light flashed in the sky, she hid, for the lightning followed her every movement. The air crackled around and through her, and in her heart, she feared one day it would strike her dead, as it had her father.

In this time also appeared the Outlaw Kane, last of the dragonlords of Velosia, a man-beast who changed shape at will. Back from exile, he bided his time in his aerie high in the mountains, to wait for the chance to clear his name. Until the day Tova came seeking his help.

And thus begins the tale of the Lightning Maiden and the Outlawed Dragon.

Tova’s Dragon
by Lyndi Lamont
Kingdoms & Legends Part 2
(Sequel to Ilona’s Wolf)

Currently available at Amazon:

US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07635W1SR
AU: https://www.amazon.au/dp/B07635W1SR/
CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07635W1SR/
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07635W1SR/

Click on the names in the linky list below for more great Book Hooks!

Linda / Lyndi