April 11, 2019 by M A Clarke Scott

Travel Inspiration for A Forged Affair

A Forged Affair by author M. A. Clarke Scott My upcoming release, titled A Forged Affair, will be the third written, though only the second published, in my Life is a Journey series about young women travelling or studying abroad who fall in love while discovering their true selves and getting embroiled in someone else’s problems. Check out Book 1, The Art of Enchantment, set in beautiful Tuscany!

This particular story was born on a family holiday in the south of France – in the province of Aquitaine – exactly ten years ago.

A Dream Come True Vacation

This was a dream-come-true trip for me. I’d just finished training for and cycling the 260 km Ride to Conquer Cancer, and I was eager to cycle the country roads of France, though at that point I could ride circles around my husband and nine year old son.

I absorbed enough memories in that one month to write a dozen books!

Adventure and Culture To Spare

Kayaking down the Dordogne River in France, cycling the country roads in Aquitaine, and enjoying costumed musicians at the annual Medieval festival.

We rented a charming 500-year-old farm house just outside the 600-year-old Plus Beaux Villages (“most beautiful villages”) of Montflaquin. There for over a month, we took a little side trip to Provence and a jaunt north to Chartres and Vimy. The same ancient limestone geography is responsible for the deep caves, the delicious wine and the gorgeous stone architecture in this region of France. (I can seriously geek out over limestone!)

Highlights of the trip included seeing a bit of the Tour de France (south of Lyon), exploring prehistoric cave art near Lascaux, zip-lining in a tall pine forest, and kayaking down the Dordogne river. See if you can recognize some of these adventures in the upcoming book.

We also enjoyed wine-tastings in the Bergerac and Vignobles du Sud-Ouest, farmers’ and artisans’ weekly markets, ancient castles, visits to Carcassonne, Avignon, Bordeaux, Chartres, spending plenty of time sipping cafe-au-lait and eating croissants in outdoor cafés, eating gorgeous French food like Cassoulet, Paella and grilled Merguez sausages (If these sound like Spanish dishes – you’re correct! there’s a lot of cultural cross-fertilization across the Pyrenees mountains) , and stumbling into the most amazing midsummer Medieval Festival – which was really the kickoff for this book. Read a wee excerpt below.

A Perk of Being a Writer ~ More Travel to Inspire More Stories!

There will be several research trips in my future as I plan more books in this exciting series! I see Ireland, Spain and Belgium on the horizon.

What kind of traveller are you? Where have you been that set your imagination soaring?

Reply to this email with your favourite or funniest travel-inspired experience or the best far-flung story you’ve ever read and I’ll share it with the group. I’m always looking for exciting travel books to fill in those gaps when I’m stuck at home in my chair.

July 10, 2017 by M A Clarke Scott

Abandoning My Babies

Heading off on summer vacation feels strangely akin to abandoning my babies

woman embracing book

I’m referring to my books, of course.

Strange as that might seem, they’ve been with me so long, they do feel like my children. And since I’ve so recently launched them into the world, I feel a pretty constant anxiety about their welfare. Even though, like our young adults gone off to college or world travel, there’s little we can do for them.

University Tours

Ironically, the other activity that’s characterized my early summer is touring a number of universities, both close to home and across the country, with my teenage son. My real empty nest looms on the horizon.

Though a full year away, the fact that he’ll be leaving home so soon is quite daunting. And like my books, I want to do as much to smooth his path and make sure he’s safe as humanly possible. I want him to succeed!

A Well Deserved Break

Of course after a very busy winter of editing, publishing, promoting and moving house, a few weeks of travelling, visiting friends and R & R is well-deserved. I don’t really feel guilty about it.

In fact, planning the trip, designing the perfect capsule wardrobe so I can go three weeks with one small carry on bag (Incredible. I know, right? But I’m doing it) and anticipating all the museums, galleries, sidewalk cafes, gardens and monuments we’ll see is rather exciting. I’m really looking forward to spending time with friends we haven’t seen for years.

A Writer’s Research Never Ends

I’m also excited about researching new locations for future books since travel abroad has always fueled my writerly imagination. I won’t be going to Spain or Greece this year. But I’m sure London, Paris, Amsterdam and Rotterdam will supply plenty of inspiration. I have a notion I might want to set one of my future “Life is a Journey” novels in Utrecht or Amsterdam. My mind is already playing with the idea of a student of Art Restoration, and Holland seems a perfect place for such an endeavor. All those Vermeers, Rembrandts and van Gogh’s! So I’ll be on the lookout for locations, and the seed of a story. All I need now is a nice tall Dutch romantic hero to set things in motion.

It’s Hard to Let Go

Nevertheless, after birthing and nurturing my books over many years, I guess the constant worry and vigilance gets a bit addictive. I think, probably this is the source of empty nest syndrome. We’ve been preoccupied for so long we just don’t know what to do with ourselves. We don’t know who we are anymore without the child, or the project, we’ve been dedicated to for so long.

Frankly, it’ll be nice to stop worrying for a while. I have the sense that I’m already doing everything I can. Like an anxious parent, I read books and study (i.e. blogs and webinars) about how to best care for my fledgling offspring. I swear, I’m doing it all. I’ve checked the list. And, like parenting, we very often hear conflicting advice. Each new strategy or tactic is something we’re trying for the first time. We have no expertise, and no real idea if what we’re doing will work. Maybe we’re doing our babies more harm than good.

But there’s only so much you can do. Sometimes the true test of survival comes only with the passage of time.

Of course, as a modern author in the digital publishing world, that’s only partly true. Our books, our community and our careers truly do need our constant cultivation. There are just too many books out there to leave our books on there own. They’re likely to get lost forever.

In truth, the analogy to growth and maturation probably applies more to “me” the authorpreneur than to my books, per se. I need time and tons of support to “grow up.” I need to learn new tricks and practice and stretch continuously in order to take my career as a published author to the next level.

I need to continue to hone my craft, write and publish more books, continue to nurture my author platform, study, apply and even innovate book marketing strategies. And over time, just like adults, we get a little more polished, a bit more confident, and closer to achieving our goals and dreams.

And toward that end (because it’s a lifelong road) I guess it won’t hurt to take a few weeks off.

Bon Voyage!

So have a great summer. I’ll be back in August with more stories to tell. Make sure to sign up for my email list (form in top right sidebar) to get your free copies of bonus summer reading, including short stories, deleted scenes and a sneak preview of Coming About. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter if you want to see photos and videos of my travels, because that’s where I’ll be (buttons also in sidebar.)

I’m also running a big promotion of The Art of Enchantment over the Labour Day weekend, so keep an eye out if you want to grab a copy for FREE. I’m still hopeful book two in the Having it All series will be ready to release by then.

And if you have any great ideas about my handsome Dutch hero, or some fun ideas about a story set in the Netherlands, please leave a comment or suggestion below!

March 23, 2017 by M A Clarke Scott

I Promised Italian Food! Here’s the First Course!

Cherry Almond Biscotti

I promised you food as part of my All-Italian blog week to celebrate the launch of The Art of Enchantment. And I woke up this morning with a serious craving for biscotti.

When I want biscotti, my go-to recipe is always by Christine Cushing. No need to re-invent the wheel here. If you are a biscotti fan, this is the BEST!

Lately I’ve seen a trend in coffee shops to monster-sized biscotti of strangely ubiquitous consistency and no discernible flavor. Be careful not to break your teeth.

This is not that.

The recipe is quick and easy. I laid out my ingredients first, since I just moved this week and I wanted to know that I could find everything. There are other versions, with hazelnuts, chocolate or whatever you like best, but today I wanted dried cherries and almonds. In my opinion, the secret ingredient that makes these cookies so good is the grape seed oil. Don’t substitute anything else for that. And don’t leave out the lemon zest or anise because the flavor is so Italy.

Basically I mix up the dry ingredients in one bowl, blend up the wet ingredients in the mixer, stir them together and presto!

Then I pour/drop/shape the sticky dough into two long, rather narrow logs on buttered parchment. Bake for about 20 minutes. It gets quite golden brown, but it’s still a bit soft inside.

After the first-baked slabs cool for fifteen minutes, slice on the diagonal into 3/4″ slices, lay them on their sides and bake again until crispy and dry. Yum. You can dip them in your caffe latte if you like them soft, but they are just as delicious eaten straight off the pan all by themselves. Buon appetito!

Recipe

1 1/2 cups and 2 tbsp. all purpose flour (405ml)

2 tsp baking powder (10 ml)

1 tsp ground anise seed (5 ml)

pinch salt

grated zest of 2 lemons

1 cup sugar (250 ml)

1/3 cup grape seed oil (75 ml)

3 eggs

1 cup toasted whole almonds, skin on (250 ml)

1/2 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped (125 ml)

butter, for brushing baking tray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
Line a large baking sheet with parchment. Brush with butter.
Sift flour, baking powder, ground anise and salt into a medium bowl. Add almonds and cherries.
In another bowl, add lemon zest, sugar, oil and eggs. Whisk or mix until smooth. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon and blend well.
Divide dough in half and shape each into a cylinder (roughly 12 x 2 inches). Dough will be sticky so use a little oil on hands or spatula to shape dough. Arrange the cylinders on baking sheet, leaving at least 3 inches – they will spread out as they bake.
Bake for 30 to 35 mutes or until golden and firm. Remove from oven and let stand for 15 minutes before cutting to keep shape. With a large spatula carefully scrape cylinders off tray and transfer to a cutting board. Carefully slice crosswise on the diagonal with a serrated edge knife (in one full cut) into 1/2-inch slices. Put slices back onto the baking sheet, laying flat and not overlapping. Bake a second time (again at 325 degrees F.) for 20 more minutes or until golden brown and crisp. Makes about 40 cookies.

Note: I used my new convection oven for the first time, so I adjusted the times down about 5 minutes per stage.

Let me know if you try the recipe and if you agree they are the best biscotti ever.

I hope you make yourself a nice coffee, sit down with a biscotti or two turn on your soundtrack and settle in to a good read, once you pick up your copy of my new release, The Art of Enchantment, on special this week for only .99. Ciao!

March 14, 2017 by M A Clarke Scott

Be Swept Away… A Journey of Love

Life is a Journey

Do you love to travel to foreign locales? I do. I haven’t been everywhere, not even close. But over the years, I’ve been on a journey or three. And the places I haven’t been, I love reading about in novels.

Fiction brings facts alive for me. I always enjoy learning about new places, different cultures or customs, art and architecture and history. This is much better through the lens of a story than from a dry encyclopedia or text book. But that’s me.

So when I set out to write fiction, I couldn’t help but write stories about young women traveling or living abroad, perhaps studying, vacationing or on a personal quest of some kind. I’ve written three books like this.

The Art of Enchantment, though it wasn’t the first written, will be the first to be published on March 20th. I’m so excited to share it with readers at last.

Coming up with a series tagline that represented both the “journey” aspect, and the “personal growth” aspect of these stories was hard. I thought of and discarded two dozen options before finally settling on “Life is a Journey“. It may not be witty, but it captures everything that’s in my mind and in my heart when I write these books.

Travel as Inspiration

Because I love to travel, very often it’s those exotic, stimulating experiences and environments that inspire my story ideas. (That’s as good an excuse as any to plan another trip, if you ask me!) Writing the stories brings back memories, and enriches my original travel experiences. As do these photos from my journey.

A Dissimulation of Doves was inspired by a trip to York, England, back in 2006, and specifically by a charming old inn where we stayed. I still remember lying awake one night, restless with jet lag, imagining the people who owned and worked at the hotel.

What kinds of adventures might they have had, both in the past and present? And what would happen if a young Canadian woman came here to find out?

Another work in progress, currently titled Tempered by Love, was inspired by a summer stay in the south of France in 2009. Not Provence, which is perhaps more familiar to North American travelers. Rather Aquitaine, a very special province full of fascinating geology, pre-history, history and rich culture. In particular, an annual Medieval Festival in the village where we stayed conjured an almost magical atmosphere. Jugglers, acrobats and even giants might appear, and inspire life changing events for an unsuspecting traveller passing through.

Finally, a month long stay in Tuscany in 2012 was the inspiration for The Art of Enchantment. Tuscany is already so rich in art and history. It’s such a beautiful, living landscape, it can’t help but inspire storytelling. Strangely though, the seed for this idea came from an imaginary place – a crumbling Renaissance villa.

As we were driving along a scenic country road, I got to thinking about the fact that the artist Sting apparently owns an old villa somewhere, in Umbria, if I recall correctly. And I got to wondering about the fate of all those old buildings – who owns them now – what are they used for – and how do people, especially old families, afford the costs of upkeep and repairs (it’s the architect in me, I guess.) How would one go about rescuing it? That’s what got me thinking about old money and new money, a clash of worlds, and a way to give an old villa a new life by making it into a passion project for two creative dreamers. Thus Clio and Guillermo were born!

Memories from Tuscany

To celebrate the connection between travel, romance and storytelling, and get you in the mood for reading The Art of Enchantment, I’ve included a few photographs taken on my 2012 trip to Italy. Enjoy!

Tell me about your own travels in the comments section below! What exotic places have you visited that got you dreaming about what might have been, and what could be!

Who knows, maybe you’ll inspire my next book.

And don’t forget to pick up a copy of The Art of Enchantment, available for pre-sale right now. Be swept away on a journey of love…

November 13, 2016 by M A Clarke Scott

A Busy Month of Author Appearances, Conferences & Networking

It’s been such a hectic month I haven’t managed to post any news. Here’s an overview of what I’ve been up to.

Vancouver Public Library Indie Author Day

The first annual Indie Author Day at the Vancouver Public Library was also my first public appearance as a published author. I met with several other authors that I knew, including Joel Mark Harris, Christine Dodd and fellow RWA member Cheri Champaigne, with whom I shared a table. I also did a short reading from my book Reconcilable Differences.

Surrey International Writer’s Conference

For the first time in several years, I attended the Surrey Writer’s Conference as a full delegate and indulged in inspiring keynote speakers such as Daniel Jose Older, workshops and panel discussions with new authors and perennial favorites such as Diana Gabaldon, did a blue pencil session on an unpublished manuscript with favorite author Susanna Kearsley and pitched the same to a few agents and editors, garnering several requests for submissions. Fingers crossed and good luck to book two in the Having It All series: Coming About.

Author Signing at Indigo Park Royal in West Vancouver

My first author signing event involved a bit of nerves and fretting, but ended up being a ton of fun as friends and family stopped by to buy books, get them signed and wish me well. And a few strangers too! Far better than the dreaded picture of me sitting alone in the book store at the mall having people walk by while avoiding eye contact and listening to the proverbial crickets.

Vancouver Women’s Conference

Finally yesterday I attended the full day inaugural Vancouver Women’s Conference organized and hosted by TV and radio personality and sex expert Maureen McGrath who brought together a room full of speakers and presenters to focus on issues of interest and concern, including the new POTUS, women in the workplace, balancing life and work, sexual health, assault and healing, empowerment, business modeling, mothering, fertility and menopause, and even fashion.

And that’s all, except for the fact that it’s National Novel Writing Month now, and I’m supposed to be hunkering down to revise and complete Coming About, book two in the Having It All series. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could get it published by later winter or early spring 2017. That’s what I’m aiming for.

In the meantime, one last promotional effort for Reconcilable Differences, which is free on Amazon Kindle today and tomorrow. So if you’re still looking for a digital copy, now’s your chance. Click here to start reading today.

A final request: if you’ve read it or plan to, don’t forget to leave a rating and review on Amazon or Goodreads. That way I can get put away my promoters hat and back to writing more stories. Thanks!

September 28, 2016 by M A Clarke Scott

Enter My Goodreads Giveaway & Follow Me

I’ve set up my first Goodreads Giveaway starting September 28th. Click on the link and enter the giveaway for a chance to win a signed copy of Reconcilable Differences. While you’re over there, add my book to your “To-read” list and “Follow the Author”. If you’ve already read the book, enter the contest anyway. This is a great fall and winter read and would make a great Christmas present for a reader in your life. Also take a moment to post a review while you’re there. The giveaway ends October 28th. Good luck!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Reconcilable Differences

by M.A. Clarke Scott

Giveaway ends October 27, 2016.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Not a Goodreads member? Why not? If you’re a reader, it’s a great way to keep track of your books, both read and want to read, keep tabs on your favorite authors and connect with other readers.

M. A. CLARKE SCOTT, Author

Romantic Women's Fiction ~ Healing, Wholeness, Hope ~ Stories for Life

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