Today on The Australian Bookshelf we have author Mila Ramos on tour with Bewitching Book Tours. She is promoting her short story anthology, Echoes and Illusions. Welcome Mila!
Hello my beautiful cyber beauties! Hopefully everyone had a great weekend! I sure did touring an amazing winery here in Texas. I would highly recommend a trip to a winery to everyone! And if you have already gone, do go again!Before getting started here, I’d like to thank The Australian Bookshelf for hosting me today. I am greatly thankful my tour is stopping here to enjoy some magnificent Aussie goodness.And so with a little bit of berry love still singing through my system, we start the deep and mysterious *cue jungle music* exploration of Smoke and Mirrors; a story apart of the Echoes and Illusions anthology. Ah yes! Music, music, music, tunes, tunes, tunes. Part of the essence of my books and should any of you wonderful readers wish to know a particular play list to a book, by all means let me know!Smoke and Mirrors was a tough, little cookie to crack at first. It was a case of the ‘on-the-tip-of-my-tongue’ writer’s block. By this I mean all of the scenes were vivid and fluid in my mind yet writing the words were harder to come out. After a few weeks it was my husband who asked me how things were going and upset as I was about the progress responded “I don’t want to think about it.”If you have never had writer’s block, I must say I envy you. But my muses aren’t the typical group of inspiring beings. They are mischievous imps who take great pleasure in giving me ideas at the oddest times. It was at this very moment one of my sweet little muses fluttered down and took a colossal bag of pixie dust and smacked me between the eyes crushing my writer’s block.I went home and wrote the book based on that one line and found the fitting song as well! A more indie label tune by the Wild Strawberries “I don’t want to think about it”. It took a several hours of being hunched over with my headphones on to find the voice of Smoke and Mirrors. Subsequently after I stumbled upon a remake of amazing song from the ‘80’s . Eva Cassidy “Time after Time” remake of Cyndi Lauper’s tune. Her soft and yet slightly pained voice sealed an underlying theme and title of the book; the deceptiveness of doubts and their reflections upon our own internal mirrors.Smoke and Mirrors deals with the lives of two doctors, Ana Fiore and Cody Hastings, who are candidates for a top position. Even though both doctors do work with each other, Ana Fiore tries to avoid interaction as much as possible. “Time after Time” catches Ana’s thoughts as she tries to shake off her feelings for Cody and forget the details of his importance in her life. Matched perfectly with the music, when Ana and Cody are at the conference, this song brings to life the pain Ana suffered.With such charged emotions, the mood is slightly pushed when Cody responds to Ana and is caught with another tune Blue October “Come in Closer” .Now at this point, the story seems like a typical contemporary romance but it is not I assure you. The paranormal aspect of the story comes about in quite an unsuspecting way which that in itself was brought upon by yet another great tune. The climax of the book and the tie-in to the book comes from a song by Kate Bush “A Woman’s Work”. The first time I heard this song was in a Kevin Bacon movie (anyone playing six degrees hehe) She’s Having A Baby.Now through this part of the movie, the male character is remembering various poignant memories of his wife. Each memory though beautiful is agonizing for him at that particular time. It was that scene that helped end and wrap up Smoke and Mirrors. The lyrics to the song are touching and yet speak volumes. It was those lyrics I based my development of the final scene. It was also that song that pushed Ana and Cody to see each other as they hadn’t been able to during that time.In the end, even looking back and reading the story myself, I can vividly hear the song by Kate Bush playing as Ana and Cody finally reveal their inner secrets to each other. In light of the context of the tune, the slight adjustment to fit it into such a unique story was perfect. I personally have thought about the ending many times and have wondered and asked my husband if it was just right for the tale. His answer will always help me in my future writing of happily-ever-after. “Sometimes, something just tells you that it was the direction you had to take.”I hope you have enjoyed this trip down the Smoke and Mirrors lane. I have completely enjoyed speaking to the Australian Bookshelf about my book and I will see you on the next stop as Ana and Cody tell you about Smoke and Mirrors from their own point of view!More about Mila: Mila was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. At an early age she learned the valuable secrets books contained. It all started with the Lois Duncan book, “A Gift of Magic.” Mysterious worlds, far away places helped nourish different ideas and concepts of the real world. It was through this that she discovered a whole new realm of depth.The books ranged, and as they did so did her love for different types. Starting with William Shakespeare, Mila went through all the literary bests; William Blake, Joseph Conrad, Anais Nin, Leo Tolstoy, Ayn Rand, Maya Angelou, Victor Hugo. Until one day she read a book that changed her life, her first true romance book where characters were real, came to life, and could be the person next door. From there the world expanded from Nora Roberts, Karen Marie Moning, JR Ward, and beyond. With these authors, her writing took a new turn to role group playing and writing in the paranormal scene. Through this, the stories had more vivid ideas and better yet were actually getting heard.She currently working on her doctorate in Organic Chemistry and resides in Texas, with her husband, family, friends. Her favorite genres are: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Erotica and anything her mind concocts. Crazy and silly as the ideas she sometimes has, her heart is as true as gold and hopes her readers enjoy the stories she writes as much as she loves to write them. http://www.milaramos.net Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001721290305 Blog - http://jademystique.blogspot.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/mila_ramosThank you Mila for being a guest on The Australian Bookshelf. If you have any questions for Mila, please leave a comment below. Click on the link to read my review of Mila's anthology Echoes and Illusions.
