Songbird
by Cecilia London Series: Standalone though technically is #7 in The Bellator Saga Publisher: self-published Release Date (Print & Ebook): April 14th, 2020 Length (Print & Ebook): 80,000 words Subgenre: Women’s Fiction/Mainstream Fiction with Strong Romantic Elements Warnings: content warnings for death, violence, psychological trauma Christine Sullivan isn’t an easy person to love. She knows how the world sees her – aloof, standoffish, cold…perhaps even bitchy. After a lifetime in politics, including a stint with an expat government in exile, President Sullivan has taken her share of body blows, but now she’s back in Philadelphia…a widow, a recovering Republican, a former public servant seeking a quiet, private existence. On her to-do list - rebuild her relationship with her estranged daughter and invent the rest of her life. She has her best friend Caroline, her brand spanking new condo, and her ever frustrating Secret Service detail to keep her company. That should be enough for anyone, right? Until Alexander Guardiola comes along… liberal, emotionally unguarded, younger. A lot younger. Everything Christine isn't. And isn't ready for. But opposites attract, don't they? And hearts and minds can always be changed… Our Exclusive Q & A With Cecilia ~
1. What was your favorite part, and your least favorite part, of the publishing journey?
The writing, the plotting, the teasers and the covers and the overall progress of the story are all things I enjoy. However, I am terrible at marketing. Like, I’m not even sure how it’s possible for me to be as bad at marketing as I am, since I am theoretically able to function as a marginally competent person in most other areas of my life. I think it’s partly because I’ve had the assumption burned into me that a person’s performance should speak for itself, and so I never really learned how to toot my own horn, so to speak. I’ve also got a very peculiar set of personal ethical standards and so there are a lot of things that are quite normal for other people but make me feel uncomfortable (like, yanno, tooting my own horn). It’s something I’ve tried to get better at, but at the same time I also recognize that I need to appreciate the skills I have. I shouldn’t waste my time trying to fit myself into the mold of what I think I need to be in order to sell a book, because I do think that sincerity and being a genuine human being takes you further than pretending to be something you’re not. Which is (ahem) why I hire people to do the marketing for me. But I still suck at the bare minimum of marketing, which is why if you follow me on Twitter you’ll notice I hardly ever mention my own books. 2. How much ‘world building’ takes place before you start writing? I am a very deliberate writer. Songbird is my first new release in three years, and I’m not even sure how ‘new’ it is since it’s a spinoff from an earlier series. I’d had all the characters in The Bellator Saga/Songbird in my head for years before I finally got a vehicle for them and started writing. I take a lot of time to reflect on and develop my characters and hypothetical plotlines before I even start hard-core writing. Which is why my books are few and far between, but that’s what works for me. I’m not one of those writers who can churn stuff out on a regular basis, though there are many who do, and more power to them. We all have our own styles, our own journeys, our own reasons for going on this journey. Will I write more books down the road? Probably. But I tend only to write when the mood strikes, and I have the luxury of a steady full-time job I adore to keep me focused most of the time. But the writing is always there if I need it. 3. What are you reading now? Right now I’m reading Paradise by Toni Morrison. Before that, I read The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates and before that, the Bel Dame Apocrypha by Kameron Hurley. My tastes are sometimes a bit all over the place, but I’m a big fan of alternative history, feminist sci-fi, and anything historical. I like books that stick to your guts after you finish them. 4. How many bookshelves are in your house? I, um, have a lot of books. The books in the blue room (it’s easier to do this by room color, LOL) are those that are currently unread. I organize them by genre (kinda) and have a somewhat convoluted system of figuring out what to read next. I periodically have to go through and purge some books if I know I’m never going to get to them, but that just means I trade them in for more books! It’s a genius system, right? The books in the purple room are those I’ve already read. I also periodically purge them and trade them in for new when applicable, but there’s a reason I hold onto most of them. They’re near and dear to my heart and even though it’s probably easier to keep them in electronic form, I love having paper books at the ready to re-read at my convenience. I’m a sucker for old-school romance covers and have a pretty solid collection of vintage reads that I plan on keeping for their historical value. I find it fascinating to study how the genre has evolved and how it continues to break the mold when it comes to genre fiction. Romance authors and readers are the absolute best.
5. Do you have a scene or moment that you consider one of your best?
Yep! (And, spoiler alert, if you haven’t read The Bellator Saga or Songbird, this may give some bits away.) Christine, the heroine in Songbird, plays a major role in The Bellator Saga, even though the heroine in that series, Caroline, thinks she’s dead until the sixth book, Triumph. You see a lot of her in flashbacks doing typical snarky best friend stuff (because every woman needs a bitchy best friend…EVERYONE), and you also see what a profound influence she was on Caroline. The reunion scene between the two of them in Triumph is still one of my favorite scenes in the entire series, because we see Christine at her most vulnerable. In so many of the flashbacks she is somewhat aloof, reserved, even cold, and when we see her in Triumph we feel just how separation and grief have impacted her and changed her in some very profound ways. Plus it’s got some weird comic relief and I laugh every time I read it. Also (shameless plug) the progress she makes in Triumph sets her up pretty well for Songbird. About The Author ~
Cecilia London is the pen name of a native Illinoisan currently living in San Antonio, Texas. She's filled several roles over the course of her adult life - licensed attorney, wrangler of small children, and obsessed baseball and footy fan, among others. An extroverted introvert with a serious social media addiction, she is the author of The Bellator Saga, an epic, genre-crossing romance series, and its spinoff, Songbird. You can most often find her causing trouble on Twitter or, less frequently, on Facebook.
Visit With Cecilia ~
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