May 26, 2009
As far as I know, I am not Scottish or Irish—I am completely un-Celtic except if you go back about 1,000 years. Like our president, I’m a mutt. My mother was from Austria. Her father’s parents were Italian but he was born in Hungary. Cue the gypsy violins. My maternal grandmother was a Viennese girl. We’re waltzing now. My father’s family was almost entirely from England—and traced themselves back to the Mayflower, of course—except for his maternal grandfather Anthony Miller whose family came from Germany. It was considered such a blot on the family escutcheon (perhaps because of two world wars)that this Germanic connection was always hushed up. No oom-pah music, please.
However, I get to be an honoray Scotswoman. Bring on the bagpipes! My husband’s family emigrated to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia from somewhere in Scotland in the 1800s. Eventually they wandered down to Maine, changing their name from Robertson to Robinson to ditch their Canadian roots. When we visited Scotland we came home with a bolt of the Robertson plaid which serves as our Christmas tree skirt. It was originally intended for pants, but John decided the wool was too itchy. 🙂 Even though he’s got great legs, a kilt was never considered.
When I go back to work on Andrew and Gemma’s Scotland-set book, I will listen to Celtic music and look at gorgeous pictures. The location of the book plays more of a role in the plot than anything I’ve ever written, although the proposal for Any Wicked Thing comes close. I’m having a ton of fun researching castles and medieval life. Sometimes I find it hard to get back to the 21st century.
Have you ever visited a castle/Scotland? Do your characters sometimes seem more real to you than the people you work with? Do you wish you could ditch your Real Life roots and stick to fiction? Where is your family from?
May 23, 2009
Lauren Dane came up with a cool way to network, promote and share excerpts from authors’ works. She invited a bunch of writers in different genres to participate in a round-robin every Saturday. They all will follow a single topic—and we know that even if they’re writing about the same thing, everyone’s voice is completely different. This Saturday’s theme is “Defining Moment.” The authors below have all posted a writing sample on their blog. Next week is “First Kiss,” and I’m hoping to join the crowd and lipsmack away. In the meantime, please visit as many of the sites below and enjoy the snippets!
May 13, 2009
My husband teases me that I’m got a family of squirrels in my head, chattering and pelting each other with acorns. It’s perfectly true I feel very distracted. For someone who’s a pantser in real life as well as writing, all of a sudden I’ve got to think of the future and organize the squirrels into formation. A cadre of them have taken revision notes from my
Berkley editor Kate Seaver and are attempting to arrive at the same place in the manuscript by a significantly different route. Several artistic squirrels are contemplating favorite colors for a website design (Yay
Frauke! Coming eventually:
https://www.maggierobinson.net/). A few distinctly grumpy rodents are still doing laundry and cleaning the toilet and going to work every day, counting the days until summer vacation on their tiny paws. Some are working on proposal ideas for another Heat book. There is one mangy, desolate little furball who is curled up in a corner, forbidden to even think about Gemma and Andrew until Hart and Eden get squared away and sent again. And to top it off, they’re all on nut rations, because the squirrels were getting awfully fuzzy. They’ve been drinking Slim-Fast instead of pina coladas and they are not in a celebratory mood. They’re not rabid yet, but it’s getting close, although collectively they’ve lost 5 pounds—a mere drop in the bucket of fuzz.
So writing a blog post becomes a challenge. There is not much to say except the squirrels are leaping from tree limb to tree limb, hoping they don’t crash to earth. Squirrels don’t bounce.
What are your squirrels up to?
May 10, 2009
Here are two very special people I’m going to spend my Mother’s Day with. Whether you’re a mom or someone’s precious baby, have a lovely day!
A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart. ~Author Unknown
However, I get to be an honoray Scotswoman. Bring on the bagpipes! My husband’s family emigrated to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia from somewhere in Scotland in the 1800s. Eventually they wandered down to Maine, changing their name from Robertson to Robinson to ditch their Canadian roots. When we visited Scotland we came home with a bolt of the Robertson plaid which serves as our Christmas tree skirt. It was originally intended for pants, but John decided the wool was too itchy. 🙂 Even though he’s got great legs, a kilt was never considered.
