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- According to your bio, after retiring from your day job you finally realized your life-long dream of becoming a writer. When did the writing bug bite you and has historical romances always been your passion?
The writing bug bit very early. I used to sing along with the Beatle’s Paperback Writer and imagine doing that some day. I was my state’s winner to a national writing contest in 8th grade, and was always good at putting words and ideas together, so there’s really never been a time when I didn’t think of myself as a writer. What’s new is being a published author, and now a multi-published author.
I grew up reading mostly science fiction and a little fantasy. I didn’t start reading romance until my mid-20s, and then I read category romance and a few single-titles, some of which were historicals. Somewhere along the way, I found some Scottish historicals and thought they were a lot of fun.
- You have written two historical romances with paranormal elements: Highland Healerand Highland Seer. Both books are part of your Highland Talents series. Can you give us an overview of this series and how these books relate to one another?
The series starts in 1516, three years after the Scottish king, most of his nobles, lairds and their heirs were killed fighting the English. The new king was a toddler in 1513 and the regent, his mother and others remaining at Court fought for years for control of the crown. That much is fairly well documented. But conditions in the highlands didn’t make much of an impression on the historical record, other than a few notations that many clans were devastated by the losses and fell prey to incursions by the English and lowlanders from broken clans with even heavier losses. That’s the historical context for my books in a nutshell. My spin is to create a society of younger siblings who find themselves laird, and to give the heroine of each book a different psychic talent.
- Your current novels are set in early 16th century Scotland. What drew you to write about the Scottish Highlands and this era?
I was looking for a period of time that gave me a framework to build upon, but did not constrain my imagination. The dearth of knowledge about life in the highlands in the early 16th century works for my purposes.
- I love that you weave paranormal components into your stories by giving your heroines special abilities. Can you give a brief description of your current heroine from Highland Seer, and why she stands out from her clan?
Elspeth MacKyrie, Ellie to her friends, is the MacKyrie Seer. Some of her dreams foretell future events. But they’re never specific. Interpreting her dreams is a challenge for her. Ellie is also the MacKyrie laird and a widow. She’s not at all the blushing virginal heroine. She bears a heavy responsibility for her clan. Her marriage only lasted a few weeks before her husband rode off with the rest of her clan’s fighting men, only to die at Flodden, but that was enough for her to know what she’s been missing before Donal came into her life.
- I know Highland Seer was just released, but since this is a series, when can we expect the next book—and can you reveal the special power surrounding the new protagonist?
The next book is still under construction, but the hero will be a man who figured prominently in the first two books. The heroine is a soothsayer - she can sense when someone is lying, but she’s been taught since childhood to hide her ability. Before the third book comes out, I hope to release one, maybe two, novellas in the series. The heroine of the first novella, which I’m calling The Healer’s Gift, is an empath. The heroine of the second will have telekinetic powers.
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She always wished she had several psi talents, such as reading her husband’s mind, cleaning house by simply thinking about it, and flying. But alas, no. So she endows her historical romance characters with special talents and lives vicariously through them. She loves reading and writing romance novels set in the past, present and future.
She realized her life-long dream of becoming an author after retiring from her day job to write, travel, and enjoy life. Married to her own military hero golf fanatic, she lives in the Texas Hill Country north of San Antonio where she writes, feeds hummingbirds year-round and has too many hobbies to count.