Hello lovelies! Apparently I’m part of a blog tour! Who knew?! đ Today we’ve got Mia Marlowe visiting with us. Obviously she wanted to end her tour on a high note. Cuz I’m so awesome. >.> *looks around gingerly for lightning strikes* … which would be especially freaky since it was almost a blizzard out there just 30 minutes ago and now it’s all sunshine and brightness. So you know, I might actually be incinerated by the time this post goes live… :X But enough about me. Let’s go ahead and see what Ms. Marlowe has to say!
Thanks for having me here today, Limecello. Youâre the last stop on my Sins of the Highlander tour. Though I love writing and I adore all my stories, thereâs nothing quite so tedious as writing about them. It makes me feel as if Iâm some sort of stage mother, bragging about my offspring ad nauseum. Iâd much rather hear what readers have to say about my work. (If you contact me through my website I will write you back, though it may take me a while if Iâm up against a deadline.)
If reading is a conversation between an author and her readers, it may seem a little one-sided. But actually, itâs not. You see, I believe we are a product of the people with whom we surround ourselves and the books we read. When we read, we take someone elseâs thoughts into our minds and try them on for size. Some of it, we decide to keep. Some of it, we toss out like last nightâs fish.
When I think back on the books that have really meant something to me, I realize most of them were read when I was a child. The characters were real to me. They became my friends. To this day, I still mist up when I think about Bethâs death in Little Women. I still pull for âWartâ to overcome his foes and become the shining soul that was Arthur in The Once and Future King. The obstacles my literary friends went through shaped how I saw the world. And myself.
No wonder the characters live beyond the pages of the books in my imagination.
And thatâs my goal for each of my charactersâthat youâll believe they are off having adventures without you even once you reach âthe end.â
In Sins of the Highlander, there are as many layers of conflict between âMad Robâ MacLaren and Elspeth Stewart as an onion, but one of the most difficult for Rob is the fact that he is fighting his growing attraction to her. Heâs a widower and still achingly in love with his wife when he first abducts Elspeth from the altar. His astonishment that his heart isnât as dead as he thought is only eclipsed by his guilt over it. As you can imagine, he has some things to work through and his vivid dreams of his dead wife Fiona help him do it.
Excerpt from Sins of the Highlander,
He hadnât seen her in so long, it took Rob a moment to realize who it was that appeared overhead in the thatch. Fiona wavered before his eyes and then sank slowly to the floor, her long gown fluttering in a nonexistent breeze. She halted her descent before the tips of her bare feet brushed the cold flagstone.
âWake, Rob.â Fiona hovered near the ceiling, then began to pass through the thatch as if it wasnât there. She faded completely from his sight, but her voice whispered into his ear as though she rested her head on the pillow beside him. âOpen your eyes, love, but this time, truly see.â
Mia enjoys connecting with readers. You can find her at her cyber-home. While youâre there checking out the excerpts, her lively blog and other fun stuff, be sure to enter her website contest. The Grand Prize on Miaâs website is a New Kindle!
Sourcebooks is offering two chances to win Sins of the Highlander today. Leave a comment or question for Mia to be entered into the random drawing. (USA/Canada only) Hereâs a question to get the conversation going:
What book or character lives large in your imagination?