...by Heidi
Catherine
When Mary
Queen of Scots wore white to her wedding in 1559, she caused quite a stir in
the French Court. At that time, white
was a colour used by royalty for mourning. But white was her favourite colour and that was what she insisted
on (and given she didn’t seem to have had too much say in who she married, I
can’t say I blame her).
But this
trend didn’t really catch on until Queen Victoria wore white to her wedding
more than 300 years later. Strangely,
I’d never really thought of Queen Victoria as a trendsetter, but there you go. And here I was thinking that white was chosen
by brides as a symbol of purity.
I really
enjoyed researching bridal dresses when writing my novel, The Soulweaver. The book has a multicultural feel to it, with
part of it set in Hong Kong. When my
main character, Lin, gets married, she most certainly doesn’t wear white, instead
opting for red – a more traditional choice for a girl of her cultural
background. Here’s a short excerpt from
the story:
Lin would wear the red gown her mother
had worn on her own wedding day. It was
a gown Lin had often tried on as a girl, parading around their small apartment
as if she were Queen of China. She
loved the feel of the silk against her skin and would run her small hands over
the smooth lines of the dress, as she admired the way the delicate gold leaf
pattern wound its way from her shoulders to the folds of fabric bunched at her
feet. She’d longed to be tall enough,
with curves in the right places, to do the dress justice.
Now here she stood at eighteen years of
age, certainly tall enough. And the way
colour rose to Reinier’s cheeks when he saw her at the registry office, she
knew she had the curves as well.
Have
you ever been to a wedding where the bride wore a colour other than white? If you’re married, did you wear white to your
wedding? I did, but I never really
stopped to wonder why. I had no idea I
was following in royal footsteps. Who
knows, perhaps in another 300 years brides will all be wearing black!
about the book... She’s loved and lost him a hundred
times across a thousand years. She can’t bear to lose him again.
Lin’s dreams are haunted by faces of people she’s
never met. Unable to shake the feeling she’s lived before, she’s drawn to
Reinier—a stranger whose soul is heartbreakingly familiar from a time gone by.
Reinier helps Lin unravel the mystery of her past
life as Hannah, a girl who sacrificed herself for her true love, Matthew. As
Lin falls hopelessly in love with Reinier, her memories of her life as Hannah
sharpen and she finds herself unable to let go of Matthew.
With her heart torn in two, Lin must decide whether
she should stand by Reinier’s side or track down Matthew and fight for his
love. What she doesn’t know is that her decision will ripple across our
troubled planet, affecting far more lives than just her own.
Winner of Romance Writers of Australia’s Emerald
Pro award, The Soulweaver is a story that will change the way you see
the world.
The Soulweaver is available for order now. A free prequel novellette called The Moonchild, which introduces you to two of the main characters from The Soulweaver in the lifetime they
lived before the book takes place is available for download.
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