Today, Kate Allan tells us about her novella, Snowbound on the Island
which is available now
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Romancing the Snow
by Kate Allan
I wrote my very first snow scene in my first novel. In my historical romance Fateful Deception, which was nominated for the RNA New Writers Award in 2005, the heroine trips in the snow at a very emotional part of her own journey of self-discovery. It's not nice falling over in snow as a general rule, but immediately afterwards she spots, nestled in a sheltered corner, a snowdrop. That tiny flower is a sign that a corner has been turned and that there are better things to come.
It also snowed briefly in Krakow Waltz, my historical romance set in Poland. A cold evening, and a soft snowflake lands on the heroine's nose. A moment later, she is kissed.
So snow doesn't have to be cold and inconvenient, and in my new contemporary romance novella, the heroine Lisa finds it magical, just as she did when she was a child. Not only that, it is the snow that has brought her into close proximity with the rather attractive Dominic and prevented their friends from joining them on the remote Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall. While the snow keeps the airports closed, she and Dominic have only each other for company.
And of course the coldness of the outside contrasts all the more with the warmth of indoors. Senses are stimulated by the changes in temperature. In Snowbound on the Island one moment they are outside with the snow dusting their faces and then they are inside. But they are inside a supermarket picking up frozen peas. Then out again. The air is biting. And then back to their holiday cottage. “Nice and warm in here,” remarks Lisa. “The first thing I did was figure out how the central heating worked,” says Dominic. But he's about to start bringing some heat to Lisa in other ways.
Some people have the view that romances are low brow fiction “churned out” by hack writers. I certainly fail to “churn out” anything. Every word written is there for a reason. Everything a character does shows something about their character or what they are thinking or what's happening with the plot. Different people can read the same book and get different things out of it. Some readers will read Dominic's comment about he central heating and think it's a signal about the heat in the relationship: correct. Others will see it as more evidence of his practical side: correct. Still more might view it as part of his habit of being in control: correct again.
A good story should be enjoyable at different levels. Our job as writers is simply to put plenty in there. And the motto of Snowbound on the Island is that sometimes adversity can bring us together. Or is it that every cloud has a silver lining? Or just that there can sometimes be something special about snow?
You're the reader, you decide.
If you'd like to win a copy of Snowbound on the Island - and some chocs - Kate is running a winter photography competition on Facebook. Just upload a winter picture you've taken and you're in with a chance to win. See: https://www.facebook.com/events/266904253374873/
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