What
would you risk for the love of a stranger?Ilyse Charpentier, a beautiful young chanteuse, is the diva of the 1894 Parisian cabaret scene by night and the unwilling obsession of her patron, Count Sergei Rakmanovich, at every other waking moment.
Though it has always been her secret desire, Ilyse’s life as “La Petite Coquette” of the Paris stage has turned out to be anything but the glamorous existence she had dreamt of as a girl. As a young woman, Ilyse has already suffered tragedy and become estranged from her beloved brother, Maurice, who blames her for allowing the Count to drive them apart.
Unhappy and alone,
Ilyse forces herself to banish all thoughts of independence until the night Ian
McCarthy waltzes into her life. Immediately taken with the bold, young, British
expatriate, Ilyse knows it is time to choose: will she break free and
follow her heart or will she remain a slave to her patron’s jealous wrath for
the rest of her life?
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It
all started with a song…and Gandalf…
I
had never considered turning writing into a career until I read Crime and
Punishment when I was a senior in high school. There was just
something about that book and the way Dostoevsky “painted with words” that
inspired me and made me seriously think about becoming a storyteller. But the
real impetus behind my decision came from an elderly wizard with a tall, pointy
hat and a long grey beard.
Gandalf
and I go way back. It was as I was sitting in a darkened theater in the winter
of 2001, my mind totally enthralled by the genius of The Fellowship of the
Ring, that I decided what to do with the time that was given to me.
But
before I dive into that, how about a little backstory? My love for writing grew
out of an early love for reading. I think what led me to this point was
that my mother started reading to me when I was in the womb, and my father told
me wild, not-exactly-verifiable tall tales while I was still in the
cradle. I remember writing little stories and vignettes when I was a very
young child and also staging my first play (an adaptation of King of Kings)
when I was eight years old. The budget was nonexistent, so my family was
conscripted into the production, with my dad and mom playing six parts
each. I think that was when the writing bug first reared its head and bit
me squarely on the heart. I felt a little like Cecil B. DeMille after
that. There is a VHS of the play floating around somewhere. It is
one of my first memories of writing.
One
turning point I can recall was when I was about eleven or twelve. I wrote
a very short story along the lines of Jurassic Park. It was about
a brother and sister being chased to the edge of a cliff by a T-Rex. The
kids gave the Rex the old “one-two-jump!” fake out and the dinosaur tumbled
over the cliff. End of story—happily ever after for everyone except the
Rex. But the point was that it was fun! I had actually finished something I’d
set out to write! It was great, even though it was only six pages long! You
have to start somewhere, right?
Two years later, I decided to write my first novel. I began with a lot of
enthusiasm, but soon abandoned the book for school, life, and other projects.
In case you were wondering, I finally broke that manuscript out of the attic
last July and have since been totally transforming it into a dystopian epic set
in a brutal and lawless world. Look for it to be released in the next couple of
years. But back to when I was fourteen…though I had set my first novel aside,
that gnawing urge to write refused to be ignored. The thing that began to stand
out more and more to me as the years wore on, and what I think was the real
reason why I truly loved writing so much, was the freedom it gave me to be able
to get lost in a different world. I loved creating characters and their
individual stories. Everything that a person experiences in his or her
life affects the person they become and how they react to situations, so being
able to explore this with my characters was something I couldn’t wait to
do—uncovering what motivates them, what drives their worldview, why they would
make a decision in a particular situation, what makes them tick, etc. And how thrilling
would it be when characters developed so fully that they essentially started to
write the stories themselves? I wanted to find out!
All
these emotions and dreams coalesced into a burning ball of clarity as I sat
there watching Gandalf speak that iconic line to Frodo. I was on fire after
that, wanting to get started immediately, but college and life intervened, once
again, and my idea for a novel about a young singer who took the Paris stage by
storm in the late 1800s lay dormant for about a year. One night in December
2002, however, I was puttering around in my room when I suddenly started
singing verses of a song I had made up in that moment.
“Tonight’s the last
time that I’ll see your face, my love. This dreadful moment has finally come to
be. Tonight the passion ends for you and me, my love. I’m traveling to a place
where life will be hell for me…good-bye.”
My
mind exploded with questions. Who was this girl? Why was she being forced to
give up her love? Why would her life be so awful?
From
that song, City of Lights: The Trials and Triumphs of Ilyse Charpentier
was born. The song became Tonight, the lyrics directly inspiring the
novel and making their way into a pivotal scene toward the end of the book.
Now, the only thing remaining was a setting. I’m a singer, a Francophile, and a
devotee of fin de siècle culture and literature, so the idea of Paris, a
cabaret, forbidden love, and the added tension arising from my heroine being
estranged from her brother (her only living relative) was too exciting not to
pursue.
My
grand plan all along was (and still is) for City of Lights to be a
musical. In addition to Tonight, I wrote eight other songs that
inspired further chapters and the overall story arc, the lyrics of those songs
also being adapted into dialogue and scenes. Even though the musical is still
on the distant horizon, the spirit of the songs thread through the entire
novel. And in case you were wondering, the recordings are securely stored in an
undisclosed location, waiting for the day when they will see the light once
again. ;)
In
May 2003, at the age of eighteen, I began writing Ilyse’s story. Eight months
later, City of Lights was complete, and another four years later, it was
published. Now, it has been given a totally new look and is making its second
edition debut.
Come
along and lose yourself in the story. Like Ilyse, I hope you, too, will always
believe in the magic of the City of Lights.
I
have been an author since the age of fourteen and write Young/New Adult
historical romance, suspense, supernatural/paranormal thrillers, fantasy,
sci-fi, short stories, novellas—you name it, I write it! I am also a
classically trained soprano/violinist/pianist and have been performing since
the age of three. Additionally, I hold a BA in Management and an MBA in
Marketing.
If
I had not decided to become a writer, I would have become a marine biologist,
but after countless years spent watching Shark Week, I realized I am
very attached to my arms and legs and would rather write sharks into my stories
than get up close and personal with those toothy wonders.
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