Destination Life : The ghosts of Prague

In her latest Destination Life column, Michelle Styles recounts a visit to Prague.
When I first thought about writing this blog about Prague, I thought I would write about the many marionette shops, the cobbled streets and the fantastic atmosphere. Because it was never bombed during WW2 and then mouldered gently under the Communists, it boasts of many unique buildings with place names that seem straight out of fairy tale. Who can resist a place which boasts of  a Winter Queen and a Street of Gold where alchemists once toiled to turn base metal in the real thing. But Prague and my visit to it had a much more profound effect on me.
It is a city of ghosts and memories. The most obvious were in the old Jewish Quarter. In the 19th century, the Jewish ghetto of Prague was a byword for  over crowding. Many tales were told of the magical happenings, in part inspired by Rabbi Low's golem. Supposedly in the late 16th century, Rabbi Low created a clay creature and brought it to life by placing a magical tablet in its mouth. The creature went berserk and the Rabbi had to risk life and limb to remove the tablet and stop the golem. Later he secreted the creature in the rafters of the Old-New synagogue where legend has it remains to this day. However, in the late 19th and early 20th century, the city authorities started to raze the ghetto and move people out. This was exacerbated by WW2. Hitler had plans to make the Old Jewish Quarter a memorial to a dead race. The Jewish Quarter is now mainly silent except for tourists, but it is a different sort of memorial. The Pinkas Synagogue serves as a memorial to all those Jewish Czecholslovak citizens who were deported by the Nazis to concentration camps and did not return. The names of  77,297 people are inscribed on the walls but it was the exhibition of children's drawings from the Terezin concentration camp that had tears flooding down my face. There was one which said -- Dreaming of Palestine and freedom.
The ghosts of WW2 are not just confined to the Jewish Quarter, the Orthodox cathedral of SS Cyril and Methodius still bear the bullet holes and scars of when the Czech agents who had assassinated the hated Heydrich were captured. They had initially escaped and everyone thought it was going to plan but they were eventually betrayed by a member of the Czech Resistance. The Nazi fury at what happened led directly to the death of 10,000 Czechs, including those who were burnt alive in a barn near the village of  Lidlice. The memorial to the men and the rest of the victims of the brutal reign of Heydrich is covered in flowers. Their story was told in the 1977 movie Operation Daybreak. It is a profoundly moving place not the least for the sacrifices of the bishops and priests involved.
Finally because my husband wanted to get my eldest who was studying Russian a real communist souvenir rather than something from one of the many vendors, we ended up down a back street in a used military equipment place, hung with cigarette smoke and full of odd exhibits. Several guns, a black leather over coat, and a knife with rust stains. It reminded me of a cross between something from a John le Carre novel and the black magic shop in Harry Potter. The former KGB agent/army officer was on the phone and we backed out of the place, returning to the light and bustle of modern day Prague. My sons had to make due with fake Soviet Army hats...
Sometimes when you go to a city, it can be good to visit the hidden byways and it can be the least expected things that linger in your mind. Is there any place unexpected that has lingered far longer than you thought it would?

Michelle Styles writes for Harlequin Historical. Her next UK release is the Viking's Captive Princess in December and A Question of Impropriety will be her next US release also in December. You can learn more about Michelle's books on her website

Male on Monday David Morrissey

Kate Walker looks forward to a new drama starring one of her favourite actors (though by the time this post apears, it will have been broadcast and over and done with.)

Last week, my September TV viewing was looking a little empty. For three happy weeks the Babe Magnet and I have been happily glued to the new BBC comedy detective series Vexed which starred a previous Male on Monday Toby Stephens in a bravura performance as lazy, careless, disorganised DI Jack Armstrong. But that finished last weekend. Just what was going to replace it?

But then the new drama U Be Dead was announced and when I saw who was starring in the role of Dr Jan Falkowski, a London psychiatrist who in 2003 was subjected to three years of what the police describe as the worst case of stalking they had ever encountered, I knew the space left by Mr Stephens would be filled by one of my favourite and most watchable actors, David Morrissey.
David Morrissey is one of the not exactly tall dark and handsome actors who fascinate me. Like other favourites, John Simm, even at time Kenneth Branagh, he sometimes, particularly in still photographs looks - well, yes, tall, admittedly (he’s 6’ 3” ) but slightly pasty faced, and ugly-goodlooking in a hard man, tough cop sort of way. But given a meaty dramatic role and a tense plot and he is infinitely watchable.

David Mark Morrissey was born 21 June 1964. He grew up in the Kensington and Knotty Ash areas of Liverpool. He learned to act at the Everyman Youth Theatre, alongside Ian Hart, Mark and Stephen McGann, and Cathy Tyson. At the age of 18, he and Hart were cast in the television series One Summer (1983), which won them recognition throughout the country. After making One Summer, Morrissey attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.

In the early stage in his career, he tried to avoid being typecast as policemen and soldiers on television, though still ended up playing the former in Black and Blue, Framed, Between the Lines and Out of the Blue, and the latter playing Andy McNab in The One That Got Away (Paul Greengrass, 1996)]
Throughout the rest of the 1990s, Morrissey began to assert himself as a leading actor; in 1996, he made his first appearance in a Tony Marchant drama, playing Michael Ride in Into the Fire. The following year he played the lead role of Shaun Southerns in Marchant's BBC series Holding On. Southerns, a crooked tax inspector, was the first of many "men in turmoil" roles for Morrissey, and it earned him a nomination for the Royal Television Society Programme Award for Best Male Actor the next year. In 1998, he appeared in Our Mutual Friend where he played schoolmaster Bradley Headstone, a part Morrissey was reluctant to take until reading the script. He studied the role and decided that the character was "an unloved person who keeps on getting it wrong. He could see what a big issue class was for [Headstone], which eventually tips him over into madness." His performance was described by a Guardian writer as bringing "unprecedented depth to a character [...] who is more commonly portrayed as just another horrible Dickens git." In the same year, he played Christopher "Kiffer" Finzi in Hilary and Jackie.

For his next film role as Nazi Captain Weber in Captain Corelli's Mandolin Morrissey researched the Hitler Youth and read Gitta Sereney's biography of Albert Speer, Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth. As with all of his roles, Morrissey created an extensive backstory for Weber to build up the character.

Morrissey returned to television in 2002, playing Franny Rothwell, a factory canteen worker who wants to adopt his dead sister's son, in an episode of Paul Abbott's Clocking Off. His performance was described as "fine, characteristically powerful" in The Independent. He also played tabloid journalist Dave Dewston in the four-part BBC serial Murder, and prison officer Mike in the part-improvised single drama Out of Control. He researched the latter part by shadowing prison officers in a young offenders' institution for a week.

Morrissey was cast in the leading role of Member of Parliament (MP) Stephen Collins for Paul Abbott's BBC serial State of Play (2003). Morrissey's role as Gordon Brown in The Deal (Stephen Frears, 2003), a single drama about a pact made between the two politicians in 1994, for which he put on 2 stone and had his hair permed and dyed, won him acclaim.
His acting in State of Play and The Deal won him considerable acclaim; he was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his role as Collins but lost to his co-star Bill Nighy. The following year, Morrissey won the RTS Programme Award for Best Male Actor, in his role in The Deal this time beating Nighy.

In 2004, eager to play a comic role, he reunited with Peter Bowker for the BBC One musical serial Blackpool, in which he plays Blackpool arcade owner Ripley Holde. His performance was described as "a powerful mixture of barely suppressed danger and vulnerable, boyish charm." A public poll on bbc.co.uk ranked him the second best actor of 2004. Morrissey reprised the role in 2006 in Viva Blackpool!, a one-off sequel. The following years saw him cast in two high-profile feature films; while filming the Brian Jones biopic Stoned, he got an audition for Dr Michael Glass, the male lead in Basic Instinct 2.Then later he starred in The Reaping with Hilary Swank. None of these films were major box office or critical success.

In 2007 he played the part of Colonel Brandon in Andrew Davies' Sense and Sensibility. He also appeared as Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk in The Other Boleyn Girl .
In December 2008 he appeared alongside his Blackpool co-star David Tennant in "The Next Doctor", the 2008 Christmas special of Doctor Who, playing Jackson Lake—a man who believes he is the Doctor after his mind is affected by alien technology .This prompted media speculation that Morrissey would be taking over the lead role after Tennant quit, and in October 2008 he was the bookmakers' favourite to take on the role.

In March 2009, he appeared as corrupt police detective Maurice Jobson in Red Riding, the Channel 4 adaptation of David Peace's Red Riding Quartet. 2009 also saw Morrissey play Dr Jan Falkowski in U Be Dead, a fact-based drama for ITV about a doctor who becomes the victim of stalking via text messaging. The drama was first broadcast in New Zealand. At the end of the year, Morrissey played Bobby Dykins in the John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy . As a self-confessed "Beatles geek", Morrissey relished the opportunity to star in the film about Lennon's childhood.

In 2010, Morrissey starred in the BBC single drama Mrs Mandela as Theunis Swanepoel, the interrogator of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (played by Sophie Okonedo). His performance was praised by Guardian and Independent critics] In March, he starred in the second series of BBC One's Five Days, playing British Transport Police officer Mal Craig. The following month saw the release of Neil Marshall's Centurion, in which Morrissey plays Roman soldier Bothos, and in July he featured as Colonel John Arbuthnot in the Agatha Christie's Poirot adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, which was first broadcast in the United States.

Morrisey also works as a director on productions like Sweet Revenge which won him a BAFTA nomination for Best New Director (Fiction) , Bring Me Flowers and Don’t Worry About Me. He is married to novelist Esther Freud and they have three children; Albie, Anna and Gene.

So that's my 'research' sorted for now. Sadly, U Be Dead is only a one off - but then I do have a performance of another of my favourite actors to look forward to in a couple of weeks time when I get to see John Simm live on stage in Hamlet at the Sheffiled Crucible. It's a tough j0b but someone has to do it.

Kate Walker's latest release for Harlequin Mills and Boon is a little unusual. The Good Greek Wife? is part of a four book mini-series that retells classic Greek Myths, updating and 'Modernising' them in romance form. The mini-series is labelled The Greek Tycoons - Legends are Made of Men Like These.

The Good Greek Wife? is available as an ebook and a print edition now on eHarlequin and will be released in America in October when it is out in Presents Extra but Kate's most recent Presents title The Konstantos Marriage Demand with another sexy Greek hero is still available on eHarlequin and Amazon.

You can read how Kate approached writing The Good Greek Wife? on her website and all her most up to date news can be found on her blog.

Wild Card Weekend - The Call with Jeannie Lin

For Wild Card weekend, we're thrilled to share a bit of a Wild Card Call Story!  Just over a year ago, Jeannie Lin got The Call. Some of us were witness to her amazing week at RWA Nationals in Washington DC...and today you get the whole story!

It was Thursday before RWA 2009. I was working the day job in my home office when a number I didn’t recognize came through. When I hit redial on the number hours later, an answering machine picked up, and a very British sounding voice told me I’d reached the offices of Harlequin Mills & Boon.


Mills & Boon!!!

But it was long after business hours in the UK. I had to wait all night, fretting. Why hadn’t they left a message? The next morning I missed another call. This time Linda Fildew left a message regarding Butterfly Swords.

My agent Gail Fortune called Linda back, while I paced all around my house. By the end of the morning, we had an offer from Harlequin, but the manuscript had already been submitted to other houses. The other publishers wanted the weekend to look things over, send the manuscript up the chain, etc. etc. Thus began the longest wait of my life.

“Tuesday might get interesting,” Gail said.

“Tuesday I leave for conference,” I replied, feeling ill.

Saturday happened. Sunday happened. Somewhere, several states away, people who could determine my future were reading my manuscript. Monday, nothing. On Tuesday I flew to D.C., and received a call while in the taxicab.

Note the lowercase “c”.

Gail told me the rest of the houses passed and she’d respond to Harlequin, but the business day was over in the UK once again. There would be another wait during which I was certain Mills and Boon would change their minds.

Within the hour I was at RWA conference, among my writing buddies: the Romance Divas, my chaptermates from MORWA, and the Ruby-Slippered Sisters. They were all there for me to talk me down from the ledge, hold my hand, and buy me a drink.

The next morning, a group of Romance Divas gathered in my room for a Pilates session led by Eden Bradley. I needed something to keep my mind occupied. In the middle of about a hundred crunches, my phone rang and I jumped up and grabbed it. Everyone knew what I was waiting for.

I answered it and heard the loveliest English accent in the world. It was Linda Fildew, calling to welcome me to Mills and Boon. She told me how everyone in the office was so excited about Butterfly Swords, which they had requested after judging the Golden Heart contest.

After I hung up the phone, I looked over at all my friends who were, of course, all looking at me.

“I’m going to be a Harlequin author,” I announced. I was immediately swarmed.

I couldn’t imagine it happening in a better place. I was surrounded by friends, some who had known me from nearly the beginning of my writing journey. The Romance Divas in the room had witnessed my query wars, rejection after rejection. They’d cheered with me for every request. There’s no better online support group in the world.

Gail called shortly after. She insisted that I go and get my First Sale ribbon. We all headed down in a posse, still in our workout clothes. Everywhere we went, my friends told people, “She just sold!”

I broke down in tears in the elevator down to the lobby. After hearing all the many reasons why my story wouldn’t work, it was such a ray of light to finally hear that someone loved it. That they believed in my writing and were excited about publishing it.

On the way to RWA registration, I ran up and hugged everyone I knew in the lobby. I never realized how many people I had met in the four years of writing romance. It was amazing to be able to share this moment with all of them, whether they wanted to or not!

Carol Ritter was at registration and I must have hugged her too. When I started to explain about the First Sale, even offering to put my agent on the phone, Carol laughed. She told me she had an idea it might happen because Harlequin called her to ask for my contact information. Then she handed me that silly little lovely pink ribbon. I still have it.

After I won the Golden Heart that Saturday, Jade Lee found me. We’d met a few days earlier at the Literacy signing when I’d confessed that she inspired me to write historical romances set in China. Jade thanked me for carrying on the torch. My idol. Thanking me.

That whole conference is wrapped into my memory of The Call. After the Golden Heart win, I called my sister to reflect on the nomination, the conference, the sale:

“This was the only way I was going to sell,” I said. “It happened the way it had to happen.”

“It happened exactly the way you wanted it to happen,” she replied.

And she was right. Which is why I tell people to aim high and go for it, no holds barred. I knew from the beginning that Butterfly Swords was a long shot. I know it took a lot of luck, and a lot of things falling into place, but it can happen exactly as you dream.

Butterfly Swords will be on shelves in October.  Jeannie's Undone story, The Taming of Mei Lin is out now!

The Taming of Mei Lin is available September 1, 2010.

I'll be giving away a download from eHarlequin for the HH Undone. To be entered, click on the contact http://www.jeannielin.com/index.php/contact/ form on my website and send me a message with subject "PHS giveaway."


I'll draw the winner tonight at 8pm CST. Good luck and hope to hear from you.

Must Watch Friday: Pillars of the Earth

This Friday PHS editor Donna Alward chats about a series she's just finished...even if she broke one of her "rules" in doing so...



I give up.  I have this "rule" that I don't watch a movie or series until I've read the book. The problem is, my reading time seems to get shorter every day and my tbr bigger and sometimes it just doesn't happen.  So I've pretty much discarded that rule. Twilight and Harry Potter excepted - we DID read all of those before watching the movies (and those to come).

I saw the previews to Pillars of the Earth and both the dh and I thought it looked great. We have On Demand (which is the best thing ever, in addition to my dvr) so we've been settling in and watching each episode, wondering how it's going to end.  I suppose if I'd read the book, I'd already know, so there is that. I suspected some parts and was completely wrong on others. And while I felt the last few episodes wound things up too quickly, it was quite entertaining.

 And a friend did lend me the book which is ginormous. She is frustrated with the series as she says they changed a lot from the book - although some of the things she mentioned I would consider small details...it depends on how invested you are in the book, I think. The more invested the more faithful you would want an adaptation to be. On the other hand, someone else told me that they thought it followed the book pretty well.  It's all in the perspective.

There are several plots running together, but the focal point is the building of the Knightsbridge Cathedral and the jostling for political power between Maude and Stephen for the crown. Actually - not just Maude and Stephen but also, and perhaps even more strongly, the power of the Church. All this back and forth of power means the cathedral is on again and off again, and at the crux of it is a secret that started the whole thing - the death of the heir on a ship years earlier. There's love and violence and good and evil...it's been great to watch. In the end the secret of that death is revealed...and justice is served.

The cast is large and distinguished: Rufus Sewell, Donald Sutherland, Eddie Redmayne, Ian McShane, Matthew McFadyen, Sarah Parish, Gordon Pinsent to name a few (and I love how there are a few Canadians on that list).

For the most part I'm enjoying the casting.  I didn't expect to like Eddie Redmayne as Jack but I do.  I hated him as Angel Clare in Tess.  I really did.  I never quite believed in that pairing - Redmayne and Gemma Atherton.  But I like him as Jack.  It's in the eyes.  He can speak with his eyes and I dig that.  I got over the boyisih looks and was actually quite struck by him in the last few scenes when he is older - the facial hair worked wonders, lol! Ian McShane is Waleran, the Bishop You Love To Hate - evil and slippery.  David Oakes' William Hamleigh is horrid (in a good way).  I believe a few episodes ago I said to the husband, "That %$(#%%$* has to die." Hayley Atwell is terrific as Aliena - spirited and likeable.

The only casting I didn't like was Rufus Sewell as Tom Builder, the Master Builder of the Cathedral.  Tom is not nobility.  He is a labourer, albeit a talented one. But he is a scene stealer. I never quite buy into it because he carries himself like nobility.  He has such presence that he is larger than life - which is great for many roles but I don't think this one. He exudes more power than he should and tends to overshadow some of the other roles. Don't get me wrong - I really like Sewell - but as Tom, I think he was miscast.

As the final credits rolled, I remarked to my husband how much research had to be involved with writing a book like that. And any time I watch/read something that makes me proud and inspired as a writer is a good thing!

Warm and fuzzy?  Not so much.  But an enjoyable 8 of 10 hearts anyway.

Donna's newest release is available online now!  PROUD RANCHER, PRECIOUS BUNDLE is available from Mills and Boon both in e-book and in print and will be available in UK stores in October. Look for it in North America in February.

What Are You Reading Thursday with Lyn Cote

Lyn Cote chats about her latest read  from Harlequin's KIMANI imprint!

An Inconvenient Friend by RhondaMcKnight

My rating: 5of 5 stars

Have you read any African-American romance lately? Kimani is theAfrican-American romance line with Harlequin. The book I just finishedand reviewed on GoodReads is not a romance. It's definitely Women'sFiction. And one that packs a PUNCH-An Inconvenient Friend by RhondaMcKnight.

Review: I thoroughly enjoyed An Inconvenient Friend. Though perhaps "enjoyed" isn't the right verb. AIF kept me flipping pages as quickly as I could BECAUSE I knew that Samaria Jacobs was headed for a fall. The story of a mistress who decides to get close to her lover's wife just cannot end well. In addition to the tension of waiting for the moment of exposure and explosion, the dialogue and the characters were layered and realistic, never hitting a false note. I will not forget Samaria, her mother or the wronged wife who unwittingly becomes Samaria's Inconvenient Friend. This is a must-read book if you want something that will challenge you.

Shelter of Hope
1st in New Friends Street series, Steeple Hill
# ISBN-13: 978-0373876211


The House that Love Built: Struggling single mother Rosa Santos is deeply touched when volunteers band together to build her a home. With a waitressing job, community college and church, Rosa barely has time to help, let alone dream about a husband and father figure. But when handsome volunteer Marc Chambers hands her withdrawn young son a little hammer, her heart swells. Suddenly, her son is blossoming. But the closer she and Marc get, the more he pulls away. Why? He's built her a shelter of hope.One she—and her son—pray he'll take refuge within….

Writer's Wednesday: Lessons from a Harlequin Writer

This Writer's Wednesday, Molly O'Keefe shares the lessons she's learned while writing for the world's largest publisher of romantic fiction!

I’ve been writing for Harlequin for ten years. And I have wanted to write for Harlequin most of my life. And while the realities of a writer’s life - cold coffee, microwave popcorn and days upon days of questionable personal hygiene - are not particularly glamorous, they are highly fulfilling. Reading is easily one of my top five joys. It was one of my top three, but I’m a mom of young kids so sleep has been climbing the charts. And being able to provide another person with the same comforting thrill that I have always appreciated lying back in my bed and opening a new book is truly a humbling experience. But, not always an easy one. Writing is not easy and writing for the best selling genre is akin to walking a tight rope during an earthquake.

These are the four lessons I've learned writing for Harlequin:


1. You must have one eye on the news, a thumb near the pulse of what it means to be a woman in the 21st century, the ever bleeding soul of an optimistic poet and the skin of a Komodo Dragon.

While Harlequin provides an outlet for readers of any kind of romantic fantasy, the readers of the novels I write are looking not just for that pure Calgon Take Me Away experience, but they want a story and characters truly grounded in modern times, dealing with and finding joy and suffering from all the things that we experience. War, death, parenthood, addiction, education, crime, friendships, family, love, loss and sex.

Those critics that scoff at the genre don’t understand what reading these books provide - it’s a way to suffer and commiserate and ache along with a character, but as there all too often isn’t in real life, you’re guaranteed a happy ending.

Now, the skin of a dragon comes in handy in surviving those places where entertainment and commerce mix. Namely in dealing with print runs, editors, agents and critics. Getting published once is not a golden ticket, it’s an invitation to try harder, to work faster, deal with rejection better and think outside the box.

2. Friends and family particularly your husband must have a sense of humor because they will at some point be in a book. Change the names to protect yourself at family dinners, but when Aunt Gladys talks about when she got her breast caught in the mammogram machine and the fire department had to come and get her out - take notes.

Everyone always asks me where do I get my ideas. And frankly, here’s the truth. I steal them. I steal them from the people I overhear on the streetcar, from the news, from my friends, family, fans, from real life and from my imagination. The world is a really fertile place if you’re looking for seeds.

3. Sex may sell - but it's not easy to write on deadline. I've got two kids. I've had about six hours of sleep and 30 cups of coffee - so my stomach hurts. I'm not sure when I showered last much less actually touched my husband and today? I've got to write a sex scene. So - you may ask - how do I actually write the sex scene? I wait until my husband comes home and pour myself a big glass of wine and remember what life was like when I was nineteen.

4. The High’s are High, the Low’s are low and the Ruts are DEEP -

If they made a zoo of professions - this would be the writer’s natural habitat: hair a mess, sweat pants, four coffee cups and plates on top of stacks of books and papers on top of a desk that hasn’t seen daylight since it was set up. But getting out of that mindset is truly rewarding. Hemingway? Wrote in the morning and in the afternoon he went out to fill his well.

And perhaps drinking to excess and big game hunting isn’t your idea of well filling - but writer’s can’t work in a vacuum. If we’re writing about life - we’d better do a bit of living it.

Molly O'Keefe's new series THE NOTROIOUS O'NEILL'S starts this month with THE TEMPTATION OF SAVANNAH O'NEILL. She will give away three books - all you need to do is post in the comments!