An Interview with
DeborahAnne MacGillivray
|
This month we will be talking with DeborahAnne MacGillivray about her brand new book released in July 2006 and what is to come in the future. Thanks DeborahAnne for taking to time to talk with us! 1. Congratulations on your Zebra debut, A Restless Knight, out this month. Having read this book, I found it full of lyrical prose and vivid emotions set to the backdrop of the beautiful Scottish Highlands. Can you tell us a little bit about the story? It originated with a story told for centuries in our family about an English knight who came to claim a Scots lass—my great-great (oodles of greats) grandmother. The story intrigued me, so I spent some time trying to verify the facts. I kept running into the same brick wall: parts were real, parts I couldn’t prove. I started to dream about the woman in the tale, my ancestor. Several times a week I dreamt vividly, saw parts of her life. Then one day, I knew I wanted to write her story as a Historical Romance. It had all the ingredients. As I started out, I saw the hero through her eyes. I reached about halfway into the book and knew something was off. It troubled me for a few weeks. Then Julian Challon came to me one night and demanded I hear his side. Suddenly, I knew what was missing—balance. I had her version of him, not the flesh and blood man. Once I shifted focus away from her, the full story was there before my eyes. Julian’s side brought a strength, a power, a poignancy to the tale that I had to portray. Julian is a powerful man, nearly a king’s equal, but is worn down by the horrors of war. He needs peace. He’s not a brash young knight-errant, but a battle-hardened warrior who can no longer stomach the ugliness, the brutalities warfare brings to men. He hopes by claiming the daughter of a Scottish lord he will discover some measure of healing in the Highlands of Scotland. Little did Challon know he would find more than he ever hoped for in the small glen in the mist-shrouded hills with a lass named Tamlyn. 2. This is the first of a series as I understand. Can you tell us anything about which secondary characters we will get to visit in future books? The second book – Ravenhawke, A Knight to Remember —comes out August 2007 for Kensington. You met the hero and heroine in A Restless Knight—Damian St. Giles, Lord Ravenhawke, and Aithinne Ogilvie. Damian came to claim his grandfather’s holding in Scotland. His mother was Scottish, but she married a Norman knight of the Challon line. Her father so hated the English that he turned his back on her, disinherited her, thus Damian never met his grandfather. The English king sends him to claim the stronghold of Lyonglen, which puts him at odds with Lady Aithinne Ogilvie. Aithinne closely resembles her cousin Tamlyn. She has no idea how that resemblance will affect her life or that of Damian’s. She is determined to keep the holding of Lyonglen and her own fief of Coinnleir Wood out of the hands of either the Campbells or Comyns. She’s had to battle the amorous intentions of Phelan Comyn and Dinsmore Campbell, but now realizes that in this time of war she needs a stronger ‘shield’ to keep them at bay. The Lord of Lyonglen is dying, leaving her vulnerable. Each holdings set in key positions, important to both the Scots and the English. It drives Aithinne to desperate measures—kidnapping Ravenhawke and holding him prisoner. You also met Guillaume Challon and Simon Challon, Julian’s older, illegitimate half-brothers. They will marry the twin sisters of Tamlyn—Raven and Rowena. Their stories will take place as the war between England and Scotland amplifies. There will be more appearances of Andrew de Moray, William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and Edward Longshanks. After those four novels, I have plans to do books for Paganne and Christian, the children of Tamlyn and Julian. 3. What was it that made you one day decide you were going to be a writer? Did you always know or was it a surprise to choose this career path? As a child, I had these marvelous faerytales in my head. Faraway places of castles, knights and damsels in distress—of love. Only when I was small there were no Historical Romances, so I never knew what I was meant to do! Everyone talked about being an actress, a nurse or a teacher, about recognizing their destiny. I so envied these people who KNEW what they wanted to be when they grew up. Then at twelve, I started writing. I penned a sexy romance that horrified my mother. She promptly burned it! Later, she pushed me toward writing mysteries. I did, but there was more romance than mystery so I wasn’t getting anywhere. Finally, I picked up my first romance—a Gothic—and I realized I always knew what I wanted to be, I just had to wait for the romance market to be born before I understood I was a romance writer. 4. You have written stories or novels in the historical and contemporary romance genres with a touch of the paranormal. Do you have a specific genre you like better to write? Why? I bore easily when doing the same thing over and over. I often write different periods at the same time. My mind needs change, so when I work too long on a Historical, I’m chaffing to write a Contemporary Romance. When I’m in the middle of a Contemp, then I am eager to jump back into a Historical. Why I wanted to come out from the start with two different publishers with the genre different for each. I didn’t want to get ‘branded’ as a certain type of writer. 5. You did such an incredible job bringing medieval Scotland to life in A Restless Knight, really helping readers like me to visualize all of the happenings in the story. How much research has to go in to the writing process to be able to do that? Do you have any special reference materials that help you out? A Restless Knight took an incredible amount of research in some aspects, and yet, I ended up not using most of it. It’s loosely based upon real history of my family in Scotland, a story written by one of my ancestors about a Norman knight coming to claim my Scottish great-great (way great) grandmother. For my own edification, I set out to see how much of the several page story could be proven. I kept running into the wall of some thing things were there, others not. So many records, etc., were destroyed from this period, which left me running in circles. I finally decided even if it was nothing more than an ancestor’s attempt at fiction, it was very old fiction, so that was special, too. I have a very extensive background in Medieval Scottish History, thus when I sat down to write the story I did very little actual research for the every day aspects of the novel. 6. This question goes hand in hand with the previous one. You have strong ties to Scotland through your family tree and you live part of the year overseas. How much of yourself and your family history finds its way into your writing? My family were storytellers, lovers of history. Selkies, the Fae, Cait Sidhe (Cat Faeries) and other pieces of lore were part of our heritage. They were believers in oral history, of keeping it alive, of the paganism that’s woven into the fabric of Scotland’s background, so the love of the period drives my writing. Pieces of my life, my history, are used to conjure the story. The females share similar starting points—a strong woman, willing to fight for her land, her family. The males are patterned after men in my life. So a lot of what is the foundation for my stories have the origins in who I am, where I come from. 7. If someone were to ask what you felt to be your trademark in your writing style, what would you tell them?
My heroes. I grew up around wonderfully alpha males. Strong men,
determined men, yet they were intelligent, caring men. They endlessly
fascinated me. Too often, I see romance writers portraying their heroes how
they would like men to be, not how men really are. I wanted my
heroes to reflect these sexy males I admire. 8. If you had to think back and pinpoint who it was that inspired you to be a writer, who would you list? Would you say these same people have been most influential on your writing style? If not, then who? My grandfather and mum both seemed to understand I was meant to be a writer. He thought it would be in nonfiction Scottish lore and history; she saw me as the next Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favourite books, only I couldn’t write just one book and then never write again. Their confidence in me was the foundation of my believing I could one day make it.
Other people who influenced me along the way. Lynsay Sands came along at
the point I was about to give up writing. She convinced me I was good
enough to make it, and encouraged me to see what I needed to do to reach
that goal. She also pushed me to try the lighter touch, bring in the sense
of humour. I might not have tried that style without her faith that I could
do it. More recently, Leanne Burroughs. She’s my critique partner—one of those partnerships made in heaven. She is also the owner/publisher of Highland Press. Together we have pushed each other to grow in our craft more than we could ever have done alone. Also, she provides the sister-support to survive this rough business. Anytime I got down and ready to cry uncle, she was there saying I could do it. 9. This is one of my favorite “signature” questions to ask in an interview. If you had to write a short paragraph about your writing to convince readers to give your books a shot, what would you tell them? There are a lot of Scottish Historical romances written and sold, some by very popular authors. Many do super jobs at creating a Scotland of old— a la Braveheart. I wanted to go past that. Show ancient beliefs, bring in just not the history, but the lore, some of it likely not written about in any Historical Romance today, touch on women’s role in Scotland’s fabric, which is very different from England and Ireland. I wanted to take your hand and have you following me, to step back into the heart of Auld Scotland, the real Scotland, not Hollywood’s version. 10. Julian and Tamlyn in A Restless Knight are such perfect complements to each other, even in spite of all the reasons they don’t think they should feel so much for one another. Watching them dance around their mutual attraction and growing love made for very entertaining reading. Was it difficult to find just the right blend of emotions in the telling of their story? Did they come to you easily for their story, or did you have to struggle to get them to “speak?” Get them to ‘speak’? Actually, it was more like getting them to shut up!! The first draft of the book was nearly 200,000 words and played like a Scottish Gone With the Wind. It covered more of their lives. Not many of those published by first timers. Julian and Tamlyn were so interesting, so much of Scotland, that I wanted to share their complete lives. It was hard not to write about all aspects of it. Julian and Tamlyn are very alive in my mind. I wanted strong conflict, but not to where they were battling each other so hard that you wonder how they ever fell in love. Tamlyn wanted to resist him because of their situation, but she had to grow past her own emotions and needs to see what was best for the people she ruled. Tamlyn is of warrior blood. It went against her heritage, her will, so she wanted to defy having a husband imposed upon her well-ordered world. She comes to see life at Glenrogha is just not her wishes and was smart enough to put her rebel spirit second to the need of others. The passion flowed easily. They were two beautiful animals, so the heat of the love flared brightly. It had to always be there just under the surface, ready to break free, that itchy tension keeping them very aware of the other’s presence. Their physical bond is so strong because of all the emotions that bind them. The only time I had problems with them was the scene in the barn loft. I wanted to writer it hotter, but then I listened to what Tamlyn was telling Julian—at that point it was more about emotions and healing, so I dropped my plotting and let my characters live their lives. 11. The idea of releasing a two-volume anthology series back to back, (Blue Moon Magic in June 2006 and Blue Moon Enchantment in July 2006) centered on the blue moon is a different one, as unique as the natural but rare occurrence it’s named after. What was it like being involved in a project like this? Are your two featured stories related or do they stand-alone? My two stories are stand alone, though you will get the trademark bizarre kitty in them. All my Contemps and some Historicals have very strange pussycats as part of the tale.
The project started out as a single book for Highland Press, but we had so
many stories it was decided to split them. They will be less cumbersome to
handle, and it will keep the costs down. In Blue Moon Enchantment – I have a Regency period story, Devil in Spurs. Desdein Deshaunt plays a dangerous game with high stakes—the life of his younger brother. By day, he's a fop of the ton, by night he is the highwayman they called the Devil in Spurs. Whispers said he was a modern day Robin Hood, causing Desdein to laugh. The only wrong he was out to right was that of the murder of his father. Oh, they all swore John Deshaunt died in a duel with the Viscount Kildorne. Desdein knew differently. The Viscount used the duel to murder Desdein's father. Ever since that day, he'd used the masquerade of the Devil in Spurs to steal from Kildorne. Only this night he steals the biggest prize of all—Ashlyn, Kildorne's daughter. He plans to use Ashlyn, ransom her for his brother. Only he didn't count on wanting to keep Ashlyn for himself. Each book has fifteen stories from all periods and different categories, and especially nice in this set, Dawn Thompson has two short stories that are connected. She is a really hot Regency Paranormal writer for Dorchester, and just signed to write for Kensington. 12. How much advance plotting goes into your writing process? Do you plan everything out ahead of time or do you just start writing and see where your characters lead you? I often write key scenes in the novel out of order. It’s like the Muse strikes and I write what is there before me. Then I start asking why. In A Restless Knight, the first thing I wrote was a scene nearly halfway into the book (didn’t even make it into the novel due to length). I saw the scene over and over in my dreams. So I wrote that. Then I backtracked. Who is she? Why is she there? My father swears my first word was not mama or papa, but why.
In my Contemp The Invasion of Falgannon Isle, I saw the opening scene
where the heroine was inside a small general store and a man came into it,
causing all sorts of confusion. Lynsay Sands loved the premise and told me
to write it. I did three chapters that night. But then I turned around and
wrote the ending! 13. You have such a busy life with your various interests and activities. How hard is it to find the balance between everything and give yourself plenty of time to write? In my case, ill health forced me to stay semi-confined to the bed. I wasn’t sleeping much and was about to go stir crazy. My husband bought me my first laptop and suddenly there was the WORLD. I could do reams of research in hours that used to take me weeks, months. I had a lot of time to write. I’m better now, but my family still gives me a lot of support. Once I decided to make the big push to get published, a lot of chores were taken from me, freeing up time I need. Writing is very time consuming, even more so after you are published. You do have to set priorities, make sure family and friends never feel shorted. 14. What would you say is the average length of time from beginning to final published product of any writing project you are working on? Is the process you follow different for full length and shorter stories? Sometimes it’s hard to say. I spend too much time going over things. My pace and now my commercial pace are different. I can do 10-20 pages a day, though often I have done 50. So it’s very easily to do a rough draft for novel in 1-2 months. A Restless Knight was about half done when I sold it. The last half was written in three weeks. The Invasion of Falgannon Isle took five months, but that was due to horrid conditions. They were building around us, dynamiting twelve hours per day, six days a week, bulldozers running constantly. Add to that several storms, loss of power and a new roof—men with hammers can be so irritating!! Bad Cat, short story for No Law Against Love took one night. Most short stories 10,000-word range take me a week. 15. Do you have any personal rituals or celebrations you perform when you start and finish a book? Yeah, sleep….heehehe 16. Can you tell us about your other books coming out this year? What do you have in the works? Can you give us any teasers?
The Invasion of Falgannon Isle comes out in mid-November from
Dorchester’s
Love Spell. It’s the first of seven books about seven sisters who find love
better the second time around. In this one, B.A. Montgomerie is the owner
of a tiny Brigadoon style island in the Hebrides of Scotland. The small
isle is under a curse that decrees unless the Lady of the Isle marries a
black-haired man with green eyes and who is part Irish, the women of
Falgannon will only have boy babies and the males are doomed to have failed
marriages. Over time, this presents problems. 213 males live on Falgannon
and they are eager for Brides, only the males have to get B.A. married off
to the proper man before they can Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat with me about your latest works, Deborah! Do you have anything you’d like to say in closing? Thank you for letting me share some of my thoughts with the wonderful readers and reviewers here at CK2S Kwips and Kritiques. Visit DeborahAnne's website! Read reviews of DeborahAnne's books: Interviewed by
Kelley |