Sunday 27 July 2014

Join Paige Toon on her blog tour


Delighted today to kick-off Paige Toon's blog tour.  There's 13 stops on the blog tour and you can follow them all here.  
 
 
Paige joins me today specifically to tell us about the pictures that inspired Thirteen Weddings.  Reading this really does make the book come alive!  Over to you Paige:
 
 
Pics That Inspired 13W

Just before I started working on Thirteen Weddings, about a wedding photographer who falls in love with a groom, I was asked to take part in a local charity auction. The organisers wanted me to offer the chance to win a named character in my next book, so I agreed, but never in a million years did I think that the winning bid would be from a wedding photographer (who had no idea what my next book was about).

The name of the photographer is LinaOrsino, and she ended up helping me massively with my research. In my book, Bronte gets some part-time work with wedding photographer Rachel, who learnt everything she knows from a wedding photographer called LinaOrsino. She’s not wrong… I don’t know what I would have done without all of Lina’s help.

In reality, Lina is one half of Lina& Tom, and many of their stunning weddingshoots inspired scenes in Thirteen Weddings. Here are just a handful, but if you’d like to see more of their work or talk to them about photographing your wedding, here is their website: www.linaandtom.com – but be quick, they book up early!

Groom in Ely Cathedral

Lina handles the front-of-church shots like this magnificent one of a groom with the vast expanse of Ely Cathedral behind him. This shot inspired the setting for Bronte’s eighth wedding. Lina’s partner Tom is at the back of the cathedral, capturing the bride’s arrival. Once the bride is past him, Tom’s primary focus is to capture the groom’s expression when he sees his bride for the first time. Lina, meanwhile, captures the corresponding shot of the bride. When Lina told me this, I decided to put Bronte at the back of the church – and this impacts on her heavily when she has to shoot the love of her life, Alex, on his wedding day.It’s just one example of how much Lina helped me.

The ‘Crazy Hat’ Wedding

Lina told me about this wedding, and even though I only mention it in passing in the book, I thought you might like to see it. The bride and groom and all of the congregation wore traditional wedding outfits from the neck down, but on their heads, they wore crazy headgear. Here the groom is wearing a Roman Centurion helmet, and the bride has a magpie’s nest on her head which is full of sparkling jewels. Lina and Tom think it’s great when people choose to do something a little bit different – I think they look amazing.

 
 
 
 
Kiss In The Rain

I talk about this shot in hindsight in the book, but originally I wrote about this scene in full. My editor thought it slowed the pace down (she was right) so it’s now one of my deleted scenes on this blog tour. (Visit fabulousbookfiend.blogspot.co.uk on 1 August to read it!) Most brides and grooms would be disappointed if it was raining on their wedding day, but Linaand Tom prove that shots in the rain like this one can be beautifully romantic.

 
 
 
 
 
 
‘YES!’

Lina and Tom excel at capturing candid snapshots of a couple’s big day, and when she told me about this moment, I just had to include it in Bronte’s first wedding. In the book, Bronte rushes outside the church, just in time for the bride and groom to burst out of the door, the groom shouting, ‘YES!’ How cute do they look? I love this shot.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
A note from Paige: Sign up to my book club, ‘The Hidden Paige’, at www.paigetoon.com for free short stories, competitions and the chance to find out more about me and my characters and what we’re all up to.

Follow me on Twitter @PaigeToonAuthor or visit me at www.Facebook.com/PaigeToonAuthor.
 

Buy links
 
Apple
 
Kindle
 
Kobo
 
Google
 
Blinkbox