Ashley March Guest Post & Giveaway

Today, I'd like to welcome Ashley March to In the Hammock for a guest post! 

Ashley is the author of the new historical romance "Romancing the Countess," and I'd like to thank her for taking the time out today to visit as part of her blog tour! 

 

Turning a Spark into an Idea…and the Truth about Random Hearts

By Ashley March

Thanks so much to Carrie for hosting me here at In the Hammock today! I have to admit that one of my dreams has always been to have a hammock slung up outside where I could while away the day doing nothing but reading. Now that I’m a mother with two young daughters, I know that will have to wait until they go to school. 

    My newest Victorian romance, ROMANCING THE COUNTESS, which releases on September 6th, is about an earl and his best friend’s wife who are drawn together after their spouses—who were having an affair—die in a carriage accident. I first had the idea (or, as I like to call it, a spark of the idea) for this book back in 2006. I was working late one evening at a part-time job—one of those jobs where you try to think of anything to amuse yourself to keep from getting bored—when I came up with the idea of a man and a woman whose spouses had an affair and then died. I must confess that at the time this spark of an idea was meant to be a dark comedy. Perhaps neither the hero nor the heroine would have loved their spouses, and they would have a competition to pretend to Society who could be the best at acting the proper widow or widower.
    Thank goodness I left the idea alone for four years. When it came back in 2010, I decided I really wanted to write the story because I was still intrigued by the concept of the cheating spouses who died, but also about how the surviving widow and widower would move on with their lives. I wanted to see how I would be able to write the challenge of such a widow and widower falling in love. But it quickly became apparent that it couldn’t be a dark comedy. Instead, it had to be something much, much more. It had to become a story of healing, redemption, and of forgiveness. It had to feature a relationship that goes beyond a surface attraction or romance to a deep and lasting emotional bond that can only be described as a love story.
    If you have the opportunity to read ROMANCING THE COUNTESS when it comes out next week, I hope you’ll let me know what you think and if I achieved these goals.
    Before I go, I have to tell you that when I first pitched this concept to my editor, her initial response was that, although she loved the idea, it sounded very much like Random Hearts, a movie made in 1999 starring Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas. Yes, that movie.  If you were like me, you probably turned if off within the first half hour. It was terrible. So terrible, in fact, that I thought I had completely blocked it from memory. But I suppose the idea was still lurking in the back of my mind, waiting to come out someday in the form of a romance novel. Please allow me to assure you, though, that the similarity to Random Hearts is nothing more than a…random coincidence. And although Random Hearts was a terrible movie, ROMANCING THE COUNTESS is much, much better. ;)

Did you ever see the movie Random Hearts? Did you think it was as terrible as I did? Because Harrison Ford is truly a much better actor than the character he played in that movie, I’d love to hear what your favorite Harrison Ford movie is!

One random commenter will be chosen to win a copy of my newest book, ROMANCING THE COUNTESS, and will get a chance to send a copy of my debut, SEDUCING THE DUCHESS, to a friend (open internationally)! Also, find out how to win the ROMANCING THE COUNTESS Book Tour Grand Prize of 50+ romance novels by visiting www.ashleymarch.com!  

 
GIVEAWAY RULES:

All you have to do is follow my blog publicly and answer Ashley's questions in the comments section along with your email address! Please follow publicly or I can't tell that you are following :) Also, if you aren't comfortable leaving your email here, go ahead and leave a comment and then send me an email with your email addy

Extra Entries:
+1 Tweet this contest (leave link in comment)
+1 Post link in sidebar of your blog (leave link in comment)

Rules:

• INTERNATIONAL
• Must be a follower to enter
• Extra entries are optional and can all be left in the same comment
• Leave a comment with your email address
• Books will be mailed out by the publisher
• Must be 18 or over 

• Ends Mon Sep 12

Thanks to everyone for entering! Good luck!