FROM SCOTLAND WITH LOVE TOUR - Giveaway & Interview

I am thrilled to be apart of the FROM SCOTLAND WITH LOVE TOUR, with authors Kira Morgan and Amanda Scott! Both fabulous authors are celebrating brand new sexy Historicals, not lonly that but both are super sexy Highlander Romances. Seduced by Destiny by Kira Morgan and Highland Master by Amanda Scott are the books to look for if you are in the mood for seductively heartpounding Highlander Romances! Look no further.

If someone were writing a story about Amanda Scott what would your blurb say?
Probably some version of the one I always use…How a child model and would-be rodeo trick-rider of Scottish ancestry grew up to be Amanda Scott , Romance author of 56 books!


Can you tell us a little about your newest release HIGHLAND MASTER that isn't in the blurb? HIGHLAND MASTER is Book One in my new Scottish Knights trilogy. It is a Romeo and Juliet story in which Romeo is Sir Finlagh “Fin of the Battles” Cameron, a warrior facing a life-changing dilemma, who meets and falls in love with the daughter of a man he has sworn to kill. Catriona Mackintosh is the Juliet heroine, albeit a feisty type who has earned her nickname as the Mackintosh Wildcat. Fin manages to tame Catriona without changing her, and Catriona teaches Fin a lesson or two in the process. The story takes place in an area in north central Scotland, along the river Spey, known as Rothiemurchus. The primary setting is Rothiemurchus Castle, the ancient seat of the Mackintoshes on an island in Loch-en-Eilein, and the astonishing climax is based on an event in late fourteenth-century Mackintosh history.

What was your favorite scene to write in A HIGHLAND MASTER?
Probably the one where Catriona spies Fin swimming nude in the icy loch at dawn and runs down to saunter on the shore with her wolf hound. But the truth is that this pair was just fun to write about. She is accustomed to fiery, domineering men who issue orders, expect obedience, and react instantly and unhappily to opposition. Fin is thoughtful, insightful, strongly attracted to her physically from their initial meeting, but his methods of dealing with her are very different from those of her brothers, cousins, and father.

Do you usually cast your characters (a mental picture) before or after you have started writing? Does it help inspire you and take the story in a different direction?
I use anything and everything in casting my characters, and I do create the main and secondary characters before I begin writing, but generally I develop them first as brief sketches that include general descriptions (name, hair & eye color, body types, personality traits I want to emphasize, etc). I also create detailed outlines, so my stories rarely take off in different directions, but the characters do suggest the plot twists as I’m developing the outline. In this instance, the name “Fin of the Battles” rose from my own crazy gray cells, but Sir Finlagh Cameron came from Highland History and the most likely clan to have fought the Mackintoshes in the Great Clan Battle of Perth. Sir Ivor Mackintosh, Catriona’s brother, is the finest archer in Scotland (just as Fin is the finest swordsman). Ivor means “archer,” so that was my first and only choice for his name. And Ivor will be the hero of Highland Hero, Book Two in the Scottish Knights trilogy. Catriona’s name came from my decision to make her something of a wildcat. Other names in the story come from Highland lore, Gaelic name forms, and so forth. I used historical events primarily to structure the plotline for HIGHLAND MASTER, then created scenes and events to fill in gaps and develop my characters.

If you could trade places with one of your characters, would you want to and who?
I am my characters when I’m writing them, and they become so real that I miss them when I finish any book, but when it comes to trading places with anyone living in the fourteenth or early fifteenth century, I draw the line at spending my summers in a rustic mountain cabin without electricity, sewer, telephone (some wireless access, but barely), or a road. That’s as primitive as I want to be.

Do you ever run into someone who says, YOU WRITE WHAT !!” ?
No one who has used those actual words, but I have often felt as if I were defending Romance. I do that whenever someone tells me that my books aren’t really Romance, because they are “complex” or whatever qualifier the person adds at that point. My primary goal is to write a good story that readers will enjoy and to create characters they will love and want to know more about. The history is also a huge thing for me. I do tons of research and try to get the facts right. I was a historian before I began writing, so that is important. But I do write romance. So did Shakespeare— Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, and lots of others—so I’m in good company.

The house is on fire and you only have time to grab one book …… which do you take with you? Right now, whatever book I’m working on. I have entertained myself since childhood by taking long walks and telling stories in my head. I can’t think of a single book that would replace that. I’ve answered this question before by saying that I’d take the Oxford English Dictionary in its one-volume edition and the thick magnifying glass that goes with it, but I had a friend who escaped from the Pebble Beach fire many years ago. Her sister was angry that Sue hadn’t taken the family silver when she left her house. Sue’s reply has stuck with me: “Ashes were falling on my porch, so getting out was the only thing. I took my trenchcoat, my purse, and my car keys. If I’d stopped to think about what else I should take with me, or what others might think, I’d be under the ashes now.” My own son is a fireman. He approves of Sue’s advice, and I would follow it. We have a small file of things that we’d take (old pictures, passports, etc), but any book that I might take, other than my own work in progress, I could probably replace at the nearest Borders or through Amazon.

What was the most challenging thing you’ve done in the name of research that might have been out of your comfort zone?
I haven’t really found anything that was out of my comfort zone. When it comes to research, I’m not even sure that I have a comfort zone. I just do what I need to do to get the images, facts, and historical or geophysical details that I need. If it means breathing the air, traveling the roads, or standing on a mountaintop or at a castle window to see what I can see, I go there. I’ve surveyed the surrounding hills and streams at Hermitage Castle, climbed the ruins at Doune Castle and Crichton, and wandered all over Stirling and Edinburgh castles, among many, many others, to look out what’s left of their windows or just to see what my characters might have seen. Much of the landscape in those areas is as it was then, which is great. Also, although I’m practically a recluse by nature, I’ve accepted invitations from strangers to stay with them in foreign countries, all in the name of research. And I’ve been delighted by the results every time. The people I’ve visited have taken me under their wings, gathered friends and experts to help me, and taken a direct interest in what I write. Nowadays, I can do a lot of the same thing online, through email, and so forth, but nothing beats being there.

Please share with us something that readers would be surprised to learn about you.
I may already have done that in the previous answer by labeling myself a near-recluse. I grew up in a political family, so I’m good at playing the confident, friendly role when it is necessary. But I begin to get very antsy and to yearn for solitude if I have to play that role for long. My husband was shocked to learn after we married that I am not gregarious by nature. Most authors aren’t. If you stop and think about it, anyone who can spend hours, days, months alone, just typing long stories, probably has a screw loose somewhere!

How can the readers stay in touch with you online?
amandascott@att.net or the link on my website http://www.amandascottauthor.com/

If you could ask readers any one question, what would it be?
Always the same thing, although I’ve phrased it in many ways…if you could describe your favorite kind of scene in your favorite kind of book, how would you describe it? Put another way, if you were to write the “log line,” the one-liner that a story developer gives a potential producer of a movie or TV show to describe your favorite book, what would you say? For example, “The Scarlet Pimpernel Tames the Shrew” was the “log line” that sold my book, Dangerous Angels, to the editor. I’m always looking for new seeds from which to grow books, so I’ll gladly give credit to anyone who suggests anything that I use for a book, right in that book’s author’s letter. I’ll also send that reader an autographed copy of that book.

DONT FORGET TO CHECK OUT WE LOVE SCOTLAND Bonus Content

***GIVEAWAY***

With many thanks to Anna @ Hachette I have 3 copies of each to giveaway. There will be 3 winners!

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Winner Chosen 03/16

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