Author Spotlight - Excerpt from "A Discreet Gentleman of Discovery"

Thanks so much for supporting Kris during her spotlight week. Leave a comment on today's post today, Saturday, or Sunday and you'll be entered for Kris's giveaway. Kris is giving away a "Norway is the New Scotland" mug and a keychain from the cathedral ruins in Hamar, Norway. Remember to leave your email with your comment so we can get a hold of you. Enjoy this excerpt from Kris's release, "A Discreet Gentleman of Discovery."

Smiles
Moderator Steph

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He had nothing at stake. He and Niels were merely escorting a woman and one or two of her servants around the southern tip of Norway. And earning three hundred dalers in recompense. In addition, he would soon make a profit on the money he spent paying off Skogen's debts.

If he was to be nervous about anything it should be facing his family again after stomping out of their lives eight years ago. He wasn't certain he would even be welcomed. He might be forced to let Niels complete the woman's delivery if his own reception proved hostile.

But he couldn't think about that now.

And he certainly couldn't think about romancing the beautiful widow.

Niels reined the pair of horses to a halt in front of Lady Regin's manor. No -- he must think of her as the Baroness. Or Lady Kildahl. Or Jarl's wife.

Not Regin. Not the woman whose unbowed determination in her desperate situation had touched his heart and gained his respect. Not the glossy-haired blue-eyed noblewoman who stooped to selling eggs in the village market. Not the intelligent beauty who figured out a way to give up her family's estate and regain it through the same action.

Thoughts like those could only lead him down undesirable alleys with no way out.

"Ready?" Niels asked.

In answer, Brander jumped down from the carriage seat. The cousins climbed the steps and Niels knocked on the massive wood door.

The door was opened by a maid dressed in traveling clothes who ushered them into the entry hall. Lady Kildahl stood at the bottom of the staircase. She wore a lavender bodice and sleeves over a long-sleeved linen blouse and a matching woolen skirt. A brown fur-lined hooded cloak waited, draped over the stair railing. Her back was straight, chin high, and hands clasped under her bosom. She appeared controlled and calm.

Until she saw Brander.

The words, "It's you!" rounded her pink lips. Her brow lowered.

Niels made the introduction, and his hand swung around to Brander. Brander gave the lady a deep bow.

"You are Lord Olsen?" The incredulous look on her face hovered on furious. Even so, her hand floated upward toward his. "Why didn't you - when I saw you--"

Brander took her hand and pressed it to his lips. The blisters on her palm surprised him; the reassuring scent of lemon soap did not. He straightened and his eyes never moved from hers.

"Why do you stare at me so rudely?" she demanded. "Will you not at least speak to me?"

Her startled gaze jumped to Niels and rested there a moment. Her cheeks paled, then flushed with disturbing radiance. Brander didn't turn away; he assumed what Niels was saying.

She looked at Brander again with eyes huge and dark.

Her hand covered her throat. "Oh!"

He didn't know how to react so he stood still, rooted stupidly by her surprised consideration.

"You can't hear me?"

He shook his head.

She frowned again. "But you know what I'm saying..."

He touched the edge of his eye, his lips, and pointed to her.

Her features relaxed a little. "You--" She pointed at him. "Watch--" She touched the edge of her own eye and slid her finger down her cheek to her lower lip. "My mouth."

He nodded, pleasantly surprised. No one had ever mimicked him with such respect.

Her head tilted. "And how will I know what you are saying?"

He blinked, momentarily unable to think coherently. She was talking to him. Not to Niels about him. That never happened. When people found out he was deaf, they spoke to his valet and cut him out of their conversation.

They never asked how he would communicate with them!

Brander lifted his hands, palms up and fingers splayed.

"You talk with your hands?" Her expression lightened. "That makes sense."

He clamped his hands together to signal 'and.' Then he mimed writing on his left palm with his right hand.

"Well of course! You write!" Lady Kildahl blushed again. The way the heightened color complemented her eyes made Brander's pulse jump. Steady, man.

*****


Buy link for eBook:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-272/Discreet-Gentleman-Book-One/Detail.bok

Buy link for print book:
http://www.amazon.com/Discreet-Gentleman-Discovery-Volume/dp/1469955679/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332738462&sr=1-3

Find me on the web links:

http://www.KrisTualla.com
http://www.facebook.com/KrisTualla

Author Spotlight - Writing a Deaf Character

Needless to say, writing a deaf character as a hearing person does present some challenges. The first was ignoring what American Sign Language I do know; those gestures didn't exist in the 1700s so I had to make up new signals. Signals that a seven-year-old boy might invent.

Next was remembering that Brander Hansen can't hear. Seems obvious, but I lost count of how many times I started to have him react to something as common as a knock on the door! Of course, I'd also write the heroine Regin Kildahl doing something inappropriate as well. When I caught myself, I would write that into her action: "She lowered her voice until she remembered she didn't need to."

Third, Brander's multiple methods of communicating needed to be conveyed to the reader in an easy-to-follow manner so that I wasn't constantly having to use cumbersome tags and explanations. By Book Two, "A Discreet Gentleman of Matrimony," I'm trusting the reader to know and understand how Brander is communicating without them.

Fourth - and this was an easy one - was explaining my visual code to my publisher. I needed them to know these quirks weren't mistakes, they were intentional. I settled on the following formats:
"Spoken words are always in quotation marks."
Written words are always in italics, whether in dialog or letters.
Brander motioned: When the dialog is gestured, there are no quotation marks.

Fifth - and this was the hardest one - I had to be sensitive to the deaf community and walk the line between 18th-century attitudes toward the deaf, and Brander's own identity as a deaf man. I think I've done well based on early readers' responses.

Here is the silent ASL trailer for "A Discreet Gentleman of Discovery":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzBMPPVdZq8

And here is the traditional trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjj986aaTR8

Enjoy them both!

Buy link for eBook:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-272/Discreet-Gentleman-Book-One/Detail.bok

Buy link for print book:
http://www.amazon.com/Discreet-Gentleman-Discovery-Volume/dp/1469955679/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332738462&sr=1-3

Find me on the web links:

http://www.KrisTualla.com
http://www.facebook.com/KrisTualla

Author Spotlight - Kris Tualla is on location - part two.

Arendal, Norway is the ancestral home of my fictional Hansen family and is pivotal in the plot of "A Discreet Gentleman of Discovery" (Book One) and "A Discreet Gentleman of Consequence" (Book Three, coming in December). My Hansens have lived there since Viking days, but were very nearly wiped out during the Black Death (1348-1354) ~ until Rydar Martin Petter-Edvard Hansen returned from his family's exile in Greenland. Along with his Scottish wife, Grier MacInnes, he reclaimed the family estate and busily set about reestablishing the family dynasty.

The first thing I noticed was the church in the center of the town, built in the 1700's. Norway's early churches (ca 800ad-1100ad) were of wooden stave construction. When Christianity reached Norway (ca 1100ad) some of them were repurposed. But unfortunately, most of those ancient buildings were torn down and rebuilt. I chose to say that when Rydar arrived in Arendal in 1354, there was a wooden stave church in the center of town.

I placed the heir-disputed Hansen Hall on a rocky bluff west of town, about a one-mile walk from the church. Today that bluff is crowded with homes. The shipping docks of Arendal, a summer vacation destination for many Norwegians, are now used mostly for pleasure boats, upscale shops and housing. But Arendal holds onto its history, with many restored and inhabited 1800s houses!

My trip to Norway was so much fun ~ and I had no problem imagining my Hansen heroes living there so long ago. In fact, I think I saw one of them out of the corner of my eye… ☺

My photos of these places and additional commentary are posted here: http://www.kristualla.com/News___Links.html


Buy link for eBook:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-272/Discreet-Gentleman-Book-One/Detail.bok

Buy link for print book:
http://www.amazon.com/Discreet-Gentleman-Discovery-Volume/dp/1469955679/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332738462&sr=1-3

Find me on the web links:

http://www.KrisTualla.com
http://www.facebook.com/KrisTualla

Author Spotight - Kris Tualla is on location - part one...

I began writing my Norse heroes in 2006. Five years later, in the summer of 2011, I had the privilege of traveling to Norway for about 10 days. What a spectacular trip that was! And I visited places I wrote about, of course.

First, I had the privilege of exploring the fortress called Akershus Castle. Akershus is still a functional military installation ~ which explains why no floor plans were available either online nor in person.

This also explains why my imaginings and reality don't always line up. But, considering that this fortress is over 700 years old, and has been added to and remodeled countless times in the interim, there is every reason to believe that some of the areas might have looked as they do in my descriptions. And some of the descriptions do match!

When I picked the little town of Hamar for Lady Regin Kildahl's home in "A Discreet Gentleman of Discovery" all I knew was that it was the right distance from Christiania (Oslo today) and it didn't have any non-English letters in its name.

I soon discovered there is a cathedral there, built in the 13th century and burned in the 16th century by warring Swedes. I was able to place my hero Brander Hansen at the ruins where a conversation with a priest proves pivotal to his one of his investigations.

Hamar Cathedral wasn't as polished as other great cathedrals, such as the ones in Italy where craftsmen excelled in creating fantastic buildings of marble…

Even so, Hamar remained an important religious and political center in Norway, organized around the cathedral until the Reformation.
Today the cathedral ruins are under a canopy of glass to prevent further deterioration. That also allows the ruins to be used for such momentous occasions as weddings. Can you imagine a more romantic setting?

To be continued…



Buy link for eBook:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-272/Discreet-Gentleman-Book-One/Detail.bok

Buy link for print book:
http://www.amazon.com/Discreet-Gentleman-Discovery-Volume/dp/1469955679/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332738462&sr=1-3

Find me on the web links:

http://www.KrisTualla.com
http://www.facebook.com/KrisTualla

Author Spolight - Q&A with Kris Tualla

STEPH: I don't know much about "A Discreet Gentleman of Discovery." What's it about?

KRIS: This is the story of Brander Hansen, a disinherited son passed over because he became DEAF at age 7 as the result of multiple ear infections. We find him in 1720 Christiania (now Oslo) practicing a trade as a 'discreet gentleman of discovery' - a private investigator. He's saving every penning until he can buy an estate of his own and prove his father's choice wrong. He's on the verge of doing so when the Baroness of that estate writes to him asking for his help in saving her ancestral home from creditors. In actuality, that means saving it from Brander.

STEPH: How long did it take you to write?

KRIS: Generally it takes me four months to write a novel, and a couple more to edit and proof.

STEPH: What was the inspiration for the story?

KRIS: An article in the Romance Writer Report (RWR) which talked about how women are attracted to men who stare at them like they are the only person in the room. I thought, "Who stares like that? Deaf men!"

STEPH: How does the cover reflect the story?

KRIS: A friend of mine offered to be on the cover and grew his hair for 6 months before the photo shoot. His curls and reddish-gold color are perfect for Brander. The background is a photo I took at the cathedral ruins in Hamar, Norway - a location where Brander has a crime-solving epiphany.

STEPH: Brander is the hero. What are his strengths? Weaknesses?

KRIS: Oh, he's brilliant. So strong and capable. And he uses his deafness to solve crimes, especially by reading lips. As he often states: When people find out I'm deaf, they forget I'm in the room.

STEPH: What does Regin find appealing about him?

KRIS: When she first sees him, she thinks he's a creditor come to claim her estate. Later, she is surprised to find out he's deaf; unperturbed, she speaks to him, not to his valet about him. She's fascinated as Brander tracks a serial killer. She feels safe around him - unlike the husband who bankrupted her estate before turning violent.



The glitch is that she doesn't know who Brander really is for the first 3/4 of the book!

STEPH: What do you hope readers take away from reading the novel?

KRIS: That a "disabled" hero can still be a memorable, sexy, and desirable hero! *fans self to keep from swooning*

STEPH: What attracted you to setting the story in Norway?

KRIS: Norway is the new Scotland. It's time for heroes who don't wear kilts! All of my heroes ("A Discreet Gentleman of Discovery" is my 6th novel) and one heroine are Norse. The stories take place in America, Scotland and Norway over 5 centuries. So far.

STEPH: Do you have an ebook reader? If so, which one?

KRIS: My name is Kris and I'm a Kindleholic. Don't cure me.

STEPH: Fun question: Spring is in the air. Are there any spring festivals in your area? How do you embrace spring?

KRIS: I just attended the Highland Games in Phoenix and checked in with my clan: Bell of the Borders. I do love men in kilts even if I don't write about them!


Buy link for eBook:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-272/Discreet-Gentleman-Book-One/Detail.bok

Buy link for print book:
http://www.amazon.com/Discreet-Gentleman-Discovery-Volume/dp/1469955679/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332738462&sr=1-3

Find me on the web links:

http://www.KrisTualla.com
http://www.facebook.com/KrisTualla