I have a
confession: my new release A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S FLING is a straight contemporary romance and not a fantasy, BUT the play from
which it borrows its title (Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream) is all
about supernatural creatures. Namely: fairies.
I played a fairy
once in A Midsummer Night's Dream; it
was one of the great pleasures of my life. And one of my favorite parts of
writing this book was deciding how I was going to have my fictional people
portray Shakespeare's fairies. The wonderful website Pinterest was great for
this, and I happened to have a pretty great costume designer character in my
book so I could let my imagination go wild.
And I did. :)
Here's how the
fairy looks are described in the book:
All four of the actresses playing Titania's
handmaidens now had soft, pastel colored hair of various shades -- a soft lilac
for Cobweb; an icy, silvery blue for Moth; a peachy orange for Mustardseed; and
a soft blend of pale green, blue and violet for Peaseblossom. Elaborate
headdresses of flowers and feathers, twigs and seashells crowned their heads.
Their costumes were also a tactile delight
of texture, some with scaled black leather, some with shredded silk pieces; one
had an amazing corset that looked like wood. The most incredible, though, was
Moth's. Somehow, with clear sea glass beads knit with wire, the designer had
fashioned a dress that actually seemed made of water droplets for the Moth
character.
If you want to
check out my Midsummer fairy looks
and other fun pictures that provided inspiration, check out the book's
Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/AuthorElizaW/a-midsummer-nights-fling/
Two quotes from the Shakespeare play:
“Love's stories written in love's richest books.
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes.”
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes.”
And this description a fairy gives, about cowslips as gentlemen waiting for the Fairy Queen:
The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dewdrops here
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dewdrops here
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
There's more info below about my tale of behind-the scenes and on-the-stage romance if you're curious. (Even though it's not a fantasy novel.
;)
Blurb:
The show must go on, but the price of
admission could be her heart.
Sick of a touring
actor’s vagabond life, Nicola returns to California to put the past firmly
behind her. It would help if the six-foot-three-inch beautiful man who is her
past didn’t come knocking. Max. The mistake Nicola can’t seem to stop making.
Though she has no
desire to re-re-rekindle their old flame, Nicola jumps at his offer to play
Titania to his Oberon. But when their first rehearsal kiss disintegrates into a
passionate liplock, she’s tempted to jump ship before Max can break her heart
again.
Unless he can
convince her that the torch he’s been carrying is an eternal flame.
Buy Links:
Author Bio:
Eliza Walker, a
native of Los Angeles, is the author of the Much Ado About Love Series that
begins with A Midsummer Night's Fling. Her experiences as an actress helped
inspire the series about actors finding love amidst the bedlam backstage at a
world-class repertory theater. Once upon a time, Eliza met her own wonderful
husband when they did a play together.
By day Eliza
helps corral engineers for NASA (without doing any of the tech stuff herself,
of course). By night she loves to write her sarcastic heroes and heroines
bantering their way to true love. Eliza is a total geek, a movie buff and a
mediocre swing dancer. Eliza and her husband live in sunny Southern California
with two of the neediest housecats on the planet.
Congrats on the new release, Beth!
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