The writings and ramblings of Colette Saucier

In my previous blog – “What Can I Say?” – I requested ideas for future blogs. Today I have written based on one such suggestion. (Thanks, SuzeJA!) Whilst reading my novels, which I am certain you either have or will in the very near future, one thing you will not find is physical descriptions of the main characters. Unless something about their appearance is essential either to the development of the plot or the character, I don’t do it. I won’t do it. Other authors go into details about height, hair color, eyes and often even their clothes. Generally when I am reading, that’s when I skim-skim-skim. Especially in a romance novel. How am I supposed to relate to a twenty-two year old statuesque blond? I am sure I am in the minority here. Indeed, after my daughter read The Proud and the Prejudiced , my modern twist on Pride and Prejudice , we had the following exchange: Her: You have to describe what the characters look like. Me: Not gonna do it Her: Mother, if you are going...

Jane Austen's Writing Environment  When I began researching and writing Pulse and Prejudice , I stopped cooking and cleaning. You see, I have what in the world of the arts is known as a “day job” (as in “Don’t quit your..."). Until I am able to live my dream of being a writer by profession, I work forty to fifty hours a week at said “day job,” the stresses of which often force me to indulge my love of wine and cheese and, on occasion, the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice . (Yes, I will watch all five hours in one sitting.) Once I jumped into the Pulse and Prejudice project, it literally (pun only slightly intended) was another full-time job. With only a finite number of hours in the day – and despite the benefits of chronic insomnia – if I were going to pursue this novel and keep our house out of foreclosure, something had to give: cooking and cleaning. We attempted to hire maid service companies to take care of the cleaning, but two different c...

I want to wish a warm and wonderful Mothers' Day to all the amazing moms out there. I hope you all have a great day.  I will be spending the day with my youngest daughter in the lovely house she just bought on a lake, and we are expecting perfect weather. Today is special for another reason as well. Many of you know my daughter Gabrielle (on the left in this photo) has been my muse, helping me every step of the way since I began this writing venture, and today is her birthday as well! Were if not for her inspiration, I never would have written All My Tomorrows (now expanded and republished as The Proud and the Prejudiced) , which not only helped me acquire a New York literary agent but also was selected a 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Semi-finalist ! Because she lives in Manhattan, I cannot be with her today (although my youngest daughter and I will be visiting next month), but in her honour, I am re-posting a blog I wrote for Austen Authors last year. Happy birthda...

Welcome to the Thursday 13 for January 10th, 2013 ! I love figures of speech! In writing fiction, I enjoy using puns, metaphors, alliterations, etc., to add richness to the prose - as well as to have a little fun.  For example, in Pulse and Prejudice , the vampire Mr. Darcy is so disgusted by his affliction, he refuses to utter the word. Hence, when he is forced into the company of Mrs. Bennet early in the novel, I punctuate the paragraph with other "V" words: The vagaries of fate never ceased in their vexation of Fitzwilliam Darcy. I—a gentleman of rank and good breeding—face impalement or incineration for an affliction not of my own choosing, yet Mrs. Bennet exhibits her vulgarity and vainglory without censure. Another favourite figure of speech is the oxymoron , so today I offer my top thirteen: 13. Passive aggressive 12. Act naturally 11. Boneless ribs 10. Virtual reality  9. Deafening silence  8. Alone together  7. Random order  6. Aw...

  Welcome to the Thursday 13 for 1-3-13!   Here are 13 things I am looking forward to in 2013: 1 - No more talk about those stupid Mayans and the end of the world . And can we drop the Zombie Apocalypse while we're at it? 2 - Arrested Development ! 3 - The 200th Anniversary of Pride and Prejudice on January 28th. 4 - We are finally going to figure out what Fringe is all about . 5 - Fleetwood Mac is coming back! 6 - The end of the presidential debates, ads, predictions, and pundits. 7 - I will finish writing Dearest Bloodiest Elizabeth , the sequel to Pulse and Prejudice . 8 - My husband learning to cook and preparing all our meals. 9 - I'm going to lose 25 pounds. (Any relation with #8 above is completely coincidental.) 10 - Seeing Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock . 11 - The Rolling Stones either will or will not go on tour for their 50th anniversary.  I'm OK either way. 12 - The return of Sean Payton - Could that mean a Saints Superbowl in...

Tomorrow is December 21st, 2012, and marks the end of the current Mayan calendar. Many have speculated that on this date, it will be the end of the world as we know it. Hence, I present 13 things I would want to do before the end of the world. Please leave comments - I would love to hear some of yours! 1. Go to Australia and Antarctica. One of my goals is to visit all of the continents, and these are the only two I have left. 2. Have a romantic dinner with my husband at Victoria and Albert's Restaurant. 3. See the Grand Canyon from a hot air balloon. 4. Go to India and get a hug from Mātā Amṛtānandamayī Devī , the "hugging Saint." 5. Say confession at the Vatican and be absolved by a Cardinal (end of the world - better cover all my bases!) 6. As long as I am in Italy, drive as fast as I can on the Autostrada in a convertible. 7. Have birthday cake. Since I won't be having any more birthdays... 8. See the Saints win the Superbowl. Oh wait! That...

Welcome to the Thursday Thirteen for December 6, 2012! Here are 13 useless items (out of hundreds) I own. I did not include small kitchen appliances as that could be a future Thursday 13 on its own. 1. Manual Coffee Grinder - I don't even use my electric coffee grinder. 2. Cassette Tapes - We literally have well over a hundred of these, but no player. 3. Absinthe Spoons - I purchased a set of 6 of these when I got a bottle of absinthe when it first came out. I had no idea it tasted like liquorice.  I hate liquorice. And I hate absinthe. 4. Tortilla Keeper - This is meant to keep tortillas warm at the table while assembling Mexican fare. This purchase assured that I would never make fajitas or soft tacos again. 5. Bagel slicer - Likewise, once purchased, we never had unsliced bagels again. 6. Random Unidentifiable Keys 7. Salt Cellar - Hey - Did you know they have salt shakers now?? 8. Magic Wand from Ollivanders - This would not have been usel...

Thanks to the lovely and talented Paloma Beck , I have been turned on to the Thursday Thirteen meme. Here is my inaugural post. 13 Reasons I Should Not be Working Today I've already worked 2 days this week. My dogs want me to come back to bed. I need more time to spend on Twitter. The commute across the hall is too far. I am still freaked out about last night's episode of American Horror Story. I didn't drink enough wine last night to numb me for the job. 7. Why work when I know my novel will be turned into a multi-million dollar motion picture and/or I will win the Mega-Millions lottery?   8. All my pajamas are dirty, so I have nothing to wear in my home office. 9. I don't have enough wine for tonight to numb me from the job.   10. I'm still not using Pinterest; I need to get on that. 11. Why waste time working when the world is coming to an end in 5 weeks? 12. Isn't today Thanksgiving?   And the #13 reason why I should not be working:  I sho...

Today is my beautiful baby boy's 3rd birthday! He is the inspiration for the dog Amadeus in my novel Pulse and Prejudice - the only character created from someone in my real life. "The Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen (pronounced peh-TEE bah-SAY grih-FON von-day-ON, and nicknamed the PBGV) has a rough, scruffy outline and distinctive long eyebrows, beard, and moustache. They are generally 13 to 15 inches tall, and their bodies are longer than they are tall. PBGVs were bred to hunt small game, such as rabbits, in rough terrain."  More About Amadeus In honour of his birthday, I have a special excerpt from the novel below.  Pulse and Prejudice is the paranormal adaptation of Jane Austen's classic romance, which tells the story of Mr. Darcy - vampire. Excerpt: To say Darcy did not care for animals would not have been wholly correct. He simply did not think much of them at all beyond their utilitarian purpose. He despised the recent fad of bear-baiting. His pr...

(A portion of this has been condensed as Mr. Darcy and the Utmost Force of Passion for Darcyholic Diversions) Much ado has been made over the recent threats that our beloved Pride and Prejudice , as well as other classics, would soon be receiving a “50 Shades of Grey” make-over by Total-E-Bound Publishing as part of their “Clandestine Classics” series. My first reaction was to wonder if they planned to rewrite it in first person present tense with terrible prose, ridiculous metaphors, and nonsensical dialog. (Full disclosure:  I have not read 50 Shades of Grey and doubt I ever shall. I have been unable even to finish the Kindle sample, so I take my opinion from the short portion I did read as well as from the plentiful excerpts available in book reviews.  This seems to be the type of novel one either loves or hates, and I am certain to fall into the latter category.) Hence, my curiosity led me once again to the “Look Inside” feature on Amazon to take a peek at P...

My daughters are adults now – thank heavens. I don’t mean they have turned eighteen; I mean adult -adults. They are of an age that I discourage them from calling me “Mom” in public. My youngest is a school teacher, for crying out loud. I cannot express the relief I feel in no longer having to portray some sort of idealized, Cleaverized version of motherhood, and we can just relate to one another as people. They actually seek out the wisdom of my experience rather than being offended if I offer it, and I even find myself asking their opinion on different topics to learn what is currently hip. (I am now being told that using the word “hip” is not hip.) Occasionally, we even have a bit of role reversal, such as when we went to Universal Orlando and I wanted to buy these magic tricks. My daughters tried to talk me out of it. “You know, you will only play with them a few times and get bored and never touch them again.” I whined until they gave in and let me buy them, but of course they we...

Originally written and posted for Austen Authors. I confess: I was a Fan Fiction snob. When my daughters were teenagers, they wrote stories based on Forever Knight or Buffy or Star Trek (TOS) or anime (whatever that is). Then they would post them on websites where other people had done the same – and they would read each other’s work! One daughter wrote vampire versions of Phantom of the Opera and Gone with the Wind (clearly a genetic anomaly). I found the other in the gameroom staring at the computer screen late at night “just reading some fan fiction.” I didn’t get it! I encouraged them to use their imaginations, to write something “original.” Unless I was on the beach or in a plane, I read literature – Faulkner, Shakespeare, Austen, Twain. Why would they waste their time and energy with these distortions? So how did my conversion come about? Nothing as cathartic as Paul on the road to Damascus. The change came along so gradually, I was in the middle before I knew I had be...