Today I'm honored to welcome fellow Wild Rose Press author Nancy Jardine to The Divas of Desire. Besides writing romances, Nancy also writes historical novels and stories for younger readers. She's a great sport who's kindly agreed to answer five nosy questions from me. Before we start, Nancy has very generously offered a giveaway of her contemporary romance Take Me Now, so once you read the interview, please make sure to scroll all the way down and leave a comment!
Okay, great. NOW let's get started!
Hi, Nancy! Thanks so much for being here today.
You live in Aberdeenshire,
Scotland. Many
of us in the States have a very romantic view of your country. Whenever I think
of Scotland,
I think of Robert Burns and highlanders. I also think of books and films that
are set in Scotland. Do you have a favorite book that takes place
in your home country?
That’s a tough question. There have been many books, of
different fictional sub-genres that I’ve really enjoyed that have been set in Scotland.
My answer would very much depend on my mood. If I’m in a deep historical mood I
love the Scottish novels of Nigel Tranter, his characters steeped in Scottish
settings and historical situations. If I feel in what I’d call a ‘Scottish
classics’ mood I might answer A Scot’s Quair by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. This is
actually a trilogy of novels about a woman called Chris Guthrie who lives in
Aberdeenshire, and begins around the turn of the twentieth century. Life for
Chris is very difficult in the countryside at this time, hard toil tilling the
earth. Her family is dysfunctional and
the era repressive in terms of relationships and marriage -the area permeated
with a very Calvinistic, austere Church of Scotland lifestyle. It’s not a happy
trilogy but I read it when I was a teenager living in the city of Glasgow which is around
150 miles from Aberdeenshire. When I moved to Aberdeenshire in 1988 the whole
setting of A Scots Quair became much more real to me. Though, back to answering your question I
might also be in the mood for a Diana Gabaldon romance set in Scotland, or if I wanted something
of the more bizarre, and almost scary, I would probably say something like Ian
Banks. His novel ‘the Wasp Factory’ is not one I liked, but yet was fascinated
by as a reader. For my ‘crime’ moods I would go for Inspector Rebus by Ian
Rankin- these are set in Edinburgh.
I've read Diana Gabaldon and Ian Rankin, but I must admit those other authors are unfamiliar to me. They sound fascinating! Your contemporary sensual romance, Monogamy Twist, is set on an English Estate. Take Me Now, another contemporary, takes place at a Scottish
castle. Are these settings based on
places you've seen or visited in real life?
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| Kintore Townhouse, built in 1747 |
Mostly the answer to that is yes. When I tour anywhere in
the world I gravitate to visiting the large tourist attractions of ancestral
homes, palaces and houses of note. I’ve been to many estates in the UK
though the house which appears in my ‘ancestral
mystery’ romance, Monogamy Twist,
is fictitious – a compilation perhaps of many places toured. The front of my
house in Monogamy Twist is a larger,
much grander version of the historic Townhouse (A Civic Building) in my home village of Kintore in Aberdeenshire. Built in 1747,
Kintore Townhouse has curved ‘forestairs’ leading from both the left and from
the right to a central doorway on the upper level. My heroine, Rhia Ashton, is
conveniently placed to help Luke Salieri uncover his links to Amelia Greywood –
his mysterious benefactress- and loves cataloguing all the fantastic antiques
she comes across in Greywood Hall.
 |
| Hallforest Castle-Kintore |
The Castle in Take Me
Now is definitely fictitious, but that ‘corporate
sabotage’ novel was conceived after I experienced a seaplane trip with 9 of
my family. We chartered a seaplane and flew up the west coast of Scotland.
During that fantastic trip we flew over many castles, some ruined, some
inhabited which I could see had been recently restored to former grandeur. The heroine in Take Me Now is from Vancouver, of
Scottish descent, and is perfect since flying a floatplane is much more
frequent occupation in Canada
than in Scotland.
The whole concept of the fun light-hearted romance came from that one trip.
Though, as well as it being based in a fictitious castle, on a fictitious island
opposite the real town of Oban on the west coast of Scotland, I have Aela
Cameron flying Nairn Malcolm to many other places as they conduct his business
and uncover the saboteur who put him in crutches, and who is out to ruin his
adventure sports businesses. They have some exciting times in London
(his business headquarters) and Paris, and Barcelona and Tallinn (Estonia).
They also make a quick trip to Oman
in the Gulf States, and to the Caribbean where Aela discovers the culprit!
 |
| Ruined castle |
These photographs are amazing! The Beltane Choice
is set in 71 AD. Quite a switch from your contemporary romances. What made you
decide to tackle a historical novel?
It wasn’t a switch to historical after writing contemporary
work. It was quite the other way, in fact.
As a teacher I taught my 5th- 7th graders
historical periods, and I loved covering the Celtic/ Roman Britain era of
around two thousand years ago. It made me desperate to write a time travel
novel for younger readers, taking a trio of kids back to Aberdeenshire during
the occupation of the Roman Emperor Severus in AD 210. Unfortunately that work
is still unpublished. However, I also wrote the first drafts of The Beltane
Choice but set that in the borders between Scotland
and England
at an earlier time of AD71 just pre- Agricolan times. During the time (usual
story of more than a year) I waited for a rejection letter to appear, having
submitted my historical romance to one of the big category publishers, I
decided to try my hand at writing a contemporary romance. My love of ‘all
things historical’ sneaked in, though, since Monogamy Twist is based around a weird ‘Dickensian’ style bequest
of that ancestral home you quoted above and around the family tree of Amelia
Greywood. I sent it to The Wild Rose
Press and to my utter delight it was accepted immediately. Take Me Now was written after submitting Monogamy Twist and was
also accepted immediately. During the submission/ edits stages for those two
Wild Rose Press novels I re-wrote my ‘Celtic/Roman
Britain adventure’, The Beltane Choice, sent it off to a new publisher I had heard of
which is based in Edinburgh,
and Crooked Cat Publishing accepted it! I was over the moon since this is the
novel I’d wanted to have published for years!
It's great that you were able to blend your love of history into your contemporary romance. Your mystery/adventure
novel Topaz Eyes involves a
worldwide search for missing jewels. Where
have you traveled in real life and does one place stand out as your favorite?
I can’t say that one particular place has stood out as my
favorite place to visit. I’ve been very lucky to travel a lot, and whenever
possible I add in details of places I’ve visited into my writing since I love
to share those experiences with my readers. My husband travelled a lot on
business and I joined him in far flung places during my vacation breaks from
school. So far I’ve only two places
added to my novels that I’ve not personally visited and they are Tallinn and New
York. I didn't
want to repeat any destinations in Topaz
Eyes that I’d used before in my novels so I have Keira Drummond and Teun
Zeger travel to Heidelberg, Vienna,
Amsterdam, Duluth
and Rochester Minnesota
and New York
on that quest to find the Tiru Salana emeralds. Topaz Eyes is also heavily based on a complex ancestral tree since
I wanted to develop further the ancestral tree creation I’d started with Monogamy Twist.
I will probably write in the European destinations of Prague, Venice, Florence and Verona
sometime – along with Vancouver, Banff, Calgary and the
places I've visited in California!
Nancy, can you tell us more about one of your
books or what you have planned for the future? We can't wait to hear more!
I’m currently writing a sequel to my historical novel The
Beltane Choice. This one takes on a character that appears in The Beltane
Choice into a story of his own. This spans a little more than a decade and culminates
in one of the most well known battles between the Celtic Tribes of what we now
call Scotland and the Roman Empire. The battle of Mons Graupius was devastating
for the Celts of the North.
A second working progress is a family saga – very loosely based
on some facts gleaned from my own family ancestry researches. My saga starts
around 1850 and will go through to approximately the 1930s.
Of course, I’m also going to have to find time to partially
re-write my novel for younger readers and market it as a novel for ages
12-14yrs and get it published!
Thank you for asking such interesting questions and for
featuring me!
Nancy, thanks so much for being here. It's been great fun and I've learned a lot!
Blurb for Take Me Now
Nairn Malcolm’s looking for the impossible. He needs a
highly skilled, enterprising aide who’ll be at his beck and call 24/7. No
ordinary Jane Doe will do. He doesn’t expect the only candidate who
drops in at his Scottish castle for an interview to be so competent…or so
stunning.
Aela Cameron’s got exactly the right mix of talents to satisfy all Nairn
Malcolm’s needs, and more. She loves the jobs he needs done, adores his
castle, and finds his frenetic lifestyle energising. But she’s only
looking for temporary: not to fall in love with the man.
Can Nairn convince Aela she’s tailor-made for him in every way…and
not a passing fancy?
EXCERPT:
Unadulterated
vigor oozed from every last bit of him—overall a
dangerous concoction. Something stirred way-down-low inside Aela again. He was
a real honey, and the bee in her wanted to be very sticky.
Her mind
whirred. The man bore a vague resemblance to the ruggedly handsome thirty-two
year old Nairn Malcolm of the internet photograph, but would the blonde limpet
in the recent celebrity snapshot want to curl herself around this forbidding
wreck of a man? Aela thought not. She wondered, though, if his blank expression
was caused by current circumstances, or if this was his normal demeanor, since
he hadn’t been smiling in the photograph either.
With the high granite wall as his backdrop she could easily
imagine this man lording over the castle, ruthlessly challenging any invaders
to his domain. Taking any woman he wanted? Now there was a thought she was
happy to entertain. A tiny smile broke free. Tamping down her crazed
imagination she re-assessed him.
What had the guy been doing to get himself
in such a state?
Who was he?
Take Me Now
B&N
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Take-Me-Now?keyword=Take+Me+Now&store=allproducts
Nancy is offering a giveaway of her romance Take Me Now to one lucky commenter! Please leave a comment with your email address or just say hi! The winner will be selected on Sunday.
Have a wonderful weekend, all!
