Tag Archives: Paris

A Cruise around the British Isles by Mona Risk

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In the summer of 2016, my husband and I took a fifteen-day cruise around the British Isles. Our first stop was in St. Peter Port, the capital of Guernsey Island, the largest of the Channels islands, located west of Normandy, France.

 

 

In the south, Guernsey rises in a plateau with ragged coastal cliffs. It descends in steps and is drained mainly by streams flowing northward in deeply incised valleys. Northern Guernsey is low-lying, with the soil on lower ground made of blown sand, raised beach deposits, and the fills of old lagoons.

The guide explained that the residents of Guernsey speak English and French, don’t pay taxes (or pay very low taxes) and enjoy free medical care for children under seven and seniors over seventy. The island originally belonged to the Duke of Normandy and then alternatively to England and France. Now it is part of the British Commonwealth. The ruler is a governor and the constitution states that in case of problems the island would revert to England.

St. Andrew Chapel built with ceramic pieces donnated by Wedgewood.

I loved the setting.

My muse immediately replaced the governor with a prince, just like the rulers of Monaco or Luxemburg, both in Europe, and my imagination changed their constitution–the heir to the throne must be married.

Gernsey Island became the Rensy Island of my new story.

 

 

The ruling prince is old and dying, and he worries about the future of his country. His fondest wish is to see his grandson married. But… 

The young prince, a handsome businessman and playboy, enjoys his freedom too much to be trapped into an arranged marriage.

 

All of this played in my head while I was in the bus touring the island and visiting the landmarks.

Imagine if Kate Middleton (Dr. Amy in my story) were an American doctor, dedicated to her career and her patients.

What if Prince William (Prince Paul in my story) wanted to make sure his future wife will love him for himself and not for his crown?

What if he decided to act as her driver and guide in Paris to get to know her better?

What if their attraction turns into passionate love?

What about her medical career and her patients?

And now what if Meghan Markle decides to work after marrying her prince?

What if the paparazzi haunt them at every turn? What if the tabloid magazines spoil everything? What if…what if…what if…

I wrote the first draft of A BRIDE FOR PRINCE PAUL during my cruise.

A Bride for Prince Paul (Modern Princes Series Book 1)

She can’t abandon her patients for his crown!   To please his dying grandfather and protect his country’s autonomy, Prince Paul of Rensy Island must marry an American doctor, descendant of a Rensian princess. Paul, a confirmed bachelor, agrees to meet Amy incognito during her vacation in Paris. Although her career and ex-boyfriend are major interferences, attraction sizzles between Amy and her ‘driver’, but the rumor of her engagement to ‘Prince’ Paul outrages her. Can he convince her that he loves her, in spite of his lies by omission?

Have you been inspired to write a book during a particular vacation?

 

Joys of Life by Mona Risk

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When you have been hit by a drama, you can’t continue looking at life in the same indifferent way. The death of a person close to you, the discovery of a health problem, the loss of a job, and other things can gnaw at your heart, make you suffer and somehow restructure your way of thinking, your perspective on life.

A French author, Alfred de Musset said that to write beautiful poetry one must have tasted real sadness. To write a book that touches readers, an author must dig deep in his/her own emotions and write from the heart.

Having experience problems, pain and frustration, in the past months, I felt disconcerted for a while, unable to resume my old routine, because whether I like it or not my routine has changed. In an effort to regain my self-control, I started looking around me.

And what I saw amazed me.

So many friends smiling, extending a helping hand, offering words of comfort, encouragement and support. So many of you, here on this loop and others, without whom I would have taken a longer time to smile again. Thank you.

I also saw people suffering because of difficult economical circumstances, and needing financial help.

I saw lonely senior citizens looking at me with sad eyes and telling me ‘your mother was lucky to have you visiting, we don’t have anyone here’.

I saw children begging me to play and laugh with them. Little did they know how their company helped me.

I saw handicaps teenagers who needed a drive–or someone to need them.

Again I looked around and saw a beautiful scenery: a palette of amazing colors in the trees. When I lived in the North, I never missed walking through parks and taking pictures of the foliage. In Florida, a stroll on the sand while watching the waves restores my good mood and fills me with inspiration for my stories. Nature offers a whole array of joys to taste.

Socializing is something I avoided, as I never had enough time to just sit with friends and chat, share a meal at home or in a restaurant, play a game or watch a movie. To think of it, I stopped watching movies or TV shows eons ago. Now I make it a point to follow the news and enjoy a few shows while knitting. Yes, knitting. To be honest, I hadn’t touched knitting needles since my son was four years old. Now I am knitting a long scarf for his daughter.

Another precedent for me. I volunteered to help baking at our church. Cooking I handle well, but baking! Good Lord, baking is something I avoided like a virus. Baking contributes to add pounds to one’s hips. But I decided it was time to show some goodwill by cooperating in the church’s kitchen. I was very proud when my cookies turned out to be nice-looking and delicious.

Now, I look around for little joys.

Unexpected good news can add tremendous joy. The success of our boxes, Unforgettable Romance, Unforgettable Heroes, Unforgettable Christmas, Sweet and Sassy, Sweet and Sassy Christmas and now Sweet and Sassy Valentine, definitely put a smile on my lips and kicked my muse back into work.

As always, writing is a joy, a passion and a soothing relaxation. My new story, A Bride for Prince Paul, is set in Paris and a fiction island in the Channels, Rensy Island, a twin of Guernsey Island. The story of Prince Paul and Dr. Amy Tyrone is a precursor to the romance of British Prince Harry and Megan Markle.

Tell me, please, where do you find your joys? How do you get over sadness, frustration or anxiety?

 

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author, Mona Risk published twenty-five  books and “knows how to pull a reader into the minds of her well-crafted characters. Her work takes us on a journey be it local or overseas.”~Night Owl Reviews.

Mona Risk can be found at:
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Royalty Wedding

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How many of you watched Prince William and Catherine Middleton’s wedding a few years ago? I bet you were all sitting in front of your TV screen, studying every detail of her wedding gown, the groom’s rigid but nervous stance, Prince Harry’s good-humor jokes at the expense of his brother, and let’s not forget the lovely bridesmaid Pippa whose dress and back garnered so many admiring posts in the gossip columns!

Will my Prince Paul and the woman he loves, Dr. Amy Tyrone ever reach their happy-ever-after in A BRIDE FOR PRINCE PAUL? Eventually they will, but after going through difficult conflicts and seemingly insurmountable complications, but count on Prince Paul to try to impose his view and Dr. Amy to ends up doing it her way.

My contemporary romance novel, A Bride For Prince Paul, has been approved for Kindle Scout. May I ask you for your nomination. Here is the URL:

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/37BZQ1K8SCMK7
No purchase necessary, and, if selected, you’ll receive the ebook FREE!

Sincere thanks in advance.

How often did we think our problem was too difficult to solve? How often did we end up finding a simple solution, when the various parties agree to bend a bit and compromise?!

Grandmother on Mother’s Day

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While browsing through my old blog posts I came across the following one that brought tears to my eyes. It was published on my own blog in May 2008:

Today I celebrated Mother’s Day as a daughter, mother and grandmother. My son-in-lay invited four generations of women to lunch: my mother and me, my daughter and her two little daughters, 4 and 2, and my son’s daughter, 3.

Lunch was lovely. We ignored the spilled glass of orange juice, the I-don’t-like-it whining and the crumbles forming a hidden mess under the table.

It took fifteen minutes to sit the ladies for the picture of the century. Moving my mother and her walker to a strategic place, and then having her hold on the rail of the restaurant’s entrance stairs wasn’t too difficult, but gathering three laughing, squealing and squirming little girls and having them stand still for two seconds was an enormous challenge. But the effort was worth the pain. The children are growing too fast and we don’t know how long we will be blessed with my mother’s presence.

Sometimes Mother’s Day is a difficult time. I know it is extremely difficult for my cousin who lost her mother a week ago. For her and her family, Mother’s Day consisted in a trip to the cemetery to deposit flowers on a new grave.

 Enjoy your mothers and enjoy your day as a mother.

My mother left us two years later.

To honor her I wrote a contemporary romance called MOTHER’S DAY BABIES, a novel full of emotion and humor. I dedicated the book to “the Mother we celebrate on Mother’s Day and those we remember with love.”

I had two great models for my middle-aged heroine, my mother and mother-in-law. Both spoke their minds and distributed good advice whether you were ready to listen or not.

My mother told us to always ‘look your best’. She professed that being nicely dressed, combed and jeweled helped her forget she was a very sick person and she practiced what she preached. The assisted living residents complimented her and tried to follow her example. The staff admired her positive attitude.

Most of my books include a grandmother among the characters. Depending on the setting of my stories, the children call her grandma, momom, abuelita, nonna, yaya, or baboushka, but the grandmothers in my various novels have a lot in common.

Like my mother and my mother-in-law, they adore their grandchildren, cook delicious meals, and often meddle in their children’s life —for the children’s good, of course. They are strong women who have encountered their shares of problems and learned life’s lessons from personal experience. They are also generous mothers who would go out of their ways for their families.

MOTHER’S DAY BABIES: http://tinyurl.com/cz3v5a8

This book is dedicated to the mothers we celebrate and those we remember with love.

MOTHER’S DAY BABIES

Widowed for seven years, Barbara Ramsay lives and breathes for her five grownup daughters and their babies. She’s also used to chatting over the phone with her good friend, Lou, and soothing his stress. But why has he invited her to come to Paris with his TV Network crew?

Powerful News Director, Lou Roland is certainly not marriage material, yet he has suddenly decided he wants Barbara in his arms. Not an easy task when his pretty confidante from Kentucky proves so difficult to date–unless he follows her rules. Can the over-fifty confirmed bachelor and the widow loyal to her husband’s memory find true love and share a future?