Jenny Kane: Coffee, cupcakes, chocolate and contemporary fiction / Jennifer Ash: Medieval crime with hints of Ellis Peters and Robin Hood

Tag: Lisa Tenzin-Dolma

Guest Post from Lisa Ryan: The Swan Lake

I’m delighted to be welcoming Lisa Tenzin-Dolma, aka Lisa Ryan, back to my site today, to tell us about her wonderful book, The Swan Lake.

Over to you Lisa…

A long time ago I lived in the depths of County Clare, Ireland, in a beautiful old house that had been extended and remodelled according to Steiner principles by the previous owner. The house was surrounded by farmland, with a lake right in front of our land. Along one side of our garden was a dilapidated 300 year old cottage that had a tragic history; a woman living there over a hundred years previously had filled her pockets with stones and walked into the lake to end her life, and there were stories of her ghost appearing often in the cottage.

Previously the cottage had been used as a shed and storehouse. My then husband used it as a studio for a while until it was taken over by my sons, who made it their laboratory for various very smelly scientific experiments devised with the aid of a junior chemistry kit. Health and safety people would have had a field day, but no injuries occurred! The cottage fascinated me. I used to wonder about the many generations of people who had taken their first and last breaths there. The huge inglenook fireplace still had the original hook where countless cooking pots had hung over the fire. Despite its sorry state I loved the cottage even more than the main house. I missed Ireland when we left to return to England. The beauty of the landscape, the musical Irish accents, and the magic that infuses the land through folklore, fairy tales and superstition has stayed with me.

A few years later, when I was living in Bath, an old friend who was an Intensive Care nurse came to stay. She was very much a city person, and while we sank rather a lot of wine we joked about how she would adjust to living in such an isolated rural environment. The next morning I woke, slightly hung over and with the story of The Swan Lake firmly fixed in my mind.

The Swan Lake cover Lisa Ryan

The only similarities between Astarte, the central character, and my friend are that Astarte has been an Intensive Care nurse and is very feisty. I drew on my love for the landscape, our cottage and the lake while writing the book, but the story and characters are pure fiction. Rural areas, especially, facilitate small, tight-knit communities that are rife with old grudges, unexpected liaisons, issues over land rights, and tragedies. Everyone has a story to tell, and rarely do these stories match those of their neighbours.

Once I started writing the book I just couldn’t stop. It took over my consciousness to the extent that I dreamed about the characters. They became like old friends; they felt as real to me as people I knew in everyday life. Meals were prepared and forgotten about, irregular mealtimes and charred offerings were common, the last thing on my mind when I fell asleep was the next chapter, and my children were incredibly patient about having a mother whose mind was frequently in another realm altogether. My mother was dying of cancer at this time, and The Swan Lake kept both of us going. Every evening I’d phone her and read the latest newly completed chapter. Her favourite characters were the warring old people, Mairie and Seamus, and it was wonderful to hear her laughing at their exploits.

For me, a story begins with the question “What if?” and I asked this constantly while writing The Swan Lake. Fiction is a way in which we can enter into another world that’s populated by characters who encourage us to look at their individual stories from their perspective. It’s an invitation to explore other lives and to wonder whether our responses and reactions would be the same as theirs. As writers and readers we have the opportunity to become other people for a while; to wonder about their lives, and to enter into a state of emotional resonance with them. I fell in love with the characters in The Swan Lake while writing about them, just as I fell in love with the beautiful Irish countryside when I lived there.

Amazon link to The Swan Lake:

Paperback version: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Swan-Lake-Lisa-Ryan/dp/1783757051/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426190618&sr=1-1

Kindle version: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Swan-Lake-Lisa-Ryan-ebook/dp/B00SLD5BMU/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422638320&sr=1-1&keywords=lisa+ryan

Facebook page for The Swan Lake: https://www.facebook.com/TheSwanLakeBook

Lisa’s website: http://www.tenzindolma.co.uk

Lisa Charlie Skye by Kerry

Author bio: Lisa Tenzin-Dolma has had 22 books published, fiction and non-fiction, about a variety of subjects. She’s also a qualified canine psychologist and is principal of The International School for Canine Psychology & Behaviour.

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Many thanks for visiting the site again today Lisa.

Happy Reading everyone,

Jenny x

 

Guest Post from Lisa Tenzin-Dolma – Lainey’s Lot

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

I have another fantastic guest visiting today. I am delighted to welcome Lisa Tenzin-Dolma (a.k.a Lisa Ryan), to talk about her YA book, Lainey’s Lot.

Over to you Lisa…

Lisa-Lainey cover

Thanks very much for inviting me as a guest on your blog, Jenny!

Last autumn Accent Press published my Young Adult book, Lainey’s Lot, on Kindle and in paperback. The Swan Lake, under my contemporary women’s fiction name, Lisa Ryan, has just been published by Accent on Kindle and is about to come out in paperback. Both books were a lot of fun to write, though the styles are very different.

In Lainey’s Lot the central character, Lainey Morgan, is a fourteen year old girl whose life is turned upside down at the worst possible time. She’s just met Kieran, the Boy of her Dreams, and is diving deep into the exhilarating waters of first love in Bath, Somerset, when her eccentric mother decides to up sticks and take Lainey to live in an isolated commune in deepest Nottinghamshire. Lainey has a truly horrible time there, and her trials and tribulations are intensified when Kieran’s band wins a TV talent show and he suddenly becomes famous. The story follows the ups and downs of their relationship under the spotlight of the paparazzi, further undermined by the vindictive Dorm Demons, the young people in the commune. Lainey’s lot is not an easy one, but I really enjoyed shifting into her sparky character while I was writing the book.

My daughter, Amber, was a teenager when I first started writing Lainey’s Lot, and although I have to say, hand on heart, that Lainey is not modelled on her (and I’m definitely not like Lainey’s mother, thank goodness!), Amber reminded me of how it felt to be a teenager – the sheer emotional intensity, the agonising insecurity and uncertainty that comes with groping blindly through the uncharted territory of burgeoning hormones, first love, friendships and betrayal, and that feeling of powerlessness when subjected to the unwise decisions of adults. It was very easy to revisit how I felt at that age and see how Lainey’s character would negotiate the challenges in her life.

The Swan Lake cover Lisa Ryan

The Swan Lake begins in England but is set in County Clare, Ireland. The landscape and the lake in the story are loosely based on the area in East Clare where I lived for 18 months; a magical place that was steeped in myths, legends and superstition. Astarte Weaver, the central character, has spent all her life seeking security after growing up reluctantly roaming the world with her hippy parents, Rainbow and Leaf. As the story opens she thinks she has the life she always dreamed of, but the abrupt ending to her long-term relationship prompts her to take a vow to never have another relationship and to start afresh in a new place. She moves to Ireland, buys a pile of stones, formerly a cottage, and rebuilds this with the help of Flynn, the attractive local builder. To his chagrin, Astarte views Flynn solely as a working partner, and tongues start wagging when Eden, a rock star in the throes of a nervous breakdown, returns home to the Swan Lake and Astarte helps him through the recovery period.

As Astarte settles into her new home she becomes deeply involved in the small, close-knit community. Flynn and Eden; John and Siobhan, the estate agent and his wife; Seamus and Mairie, pensioners who are determined to carry on the neighbourly war that has carried on between their families for five generations; Ned, her closest neighbour, who hates incomers and tries to drive Astarte away; and Jamie and Sinead, teenagers in the throes of first love. When tragedy strikes the community and drives a wedge between old friends, Astarte is forced to confront the demons of her past and find a new way to live her life.

Although none of the characters are based on real people, the story emerged from a boozy evening with a friend who was an Intensive Care nurse. We were playing a “What if?” game in which she, a city person, moved to the depths of the country. I woke the next morning with a slight hangover and the entire story in my mind, and couldn’t stop writing until it was all on paper. Ireland holds a special place in my heart, and it was a joy to set the story there.

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Amazon link to Lainey’s Lot: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Laineys-Lot-Lisa-Tenzin-Dolma/dp/1783753528/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422638241&sr=1-11&keywords=lisa+tenzin-dolma

Amazon link to The Swan Lake: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Swan-Lake-Lisa-Ryan-ebook/dp/B00SLD5BMU/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422638320&sr=1-1&keywords=lisa+ryan

Lisa Charlie Skye by Kerry

Facebook page for The Swan Lake: https://www.facebook.com/TheSwanLakeBook

Lisa’s website: http://www.tenzindolma.co.uk

Author bio: Lisa Tenzin-Dolma has had 22 books published, fiction and non-fiction, about a variety of subjects. She’s also a qualified canine psychologist and is principal of The International School for Canine Practitioners.

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Many thanks for a lovely blog Lisa,

Happy reading everyone,

Jenny x

 

 

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