Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing? Yes. My “artistic temperament.” I get obsessed with a WIP and write nonstop for days, even weeks on end, then burn out for a while. I envy those methodical, steady writers with shiny organized plots. (Incurable pantser here.) Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work? Charlotte Brontë was a mad genius. Exquisite imagery and characterization, emotional drama and shocking controversy that scandalized our Victorian grandmamas – romantic Gothic horror at its best. Do you have a song or playlist (book soundtrack) that you think represents this book? Music for water skiing? Navy SEAL operations? Hand-to hand combat with an enraged valkyrie? Easy. Queue your favorite metal or techno tracks. Recall Jack MacGunn is a “true blue kilt-wearing, pipe-playing Scot.” Traditional Celtic music appeals to me; I even bought uilleann pipes and learned to play them as part of the research. Jack’s music plays a big role in the story and has a symbolic meaning to Cassie, the heroine. This is a flashback, Cassie’s first memory of Jack: She remembered sitting up and taking in the rustic sight of a log fire burning in the hearth, of homespun rugs covering the rough-hewn wooden floor. A sound wafted from another room, and she had to concentrate to identify it. Music—strange tones, rising and falling in patterns foreign to her ears. Cassie followed the silvery vibrations as though beckoned. The source proved to be a woodsy, reedy voice that filled the air with tangible resonance. How could an instrument make a sound like a human voice, a mythical place, and a painful memory all at once? Jack’s hair was lighter and longer then, it hung in unruly waves over his face as he leaned into the music. He wore torn and dirty camo fatigue pants, and she still recalled the pungent smoke smell from the burned spots in the fabric and his singed hair. The largest arms she’d ever seen cradled a bizarre instrument. She watched his right elbow lift and press against his side in a ponderous rhythm, and she recognized the apparatus as a sort of bellows. Long filigreed tubes lay across his lap. His fingers slid and shook over a sort of flute held diagonally across his chest. She watched, mesmerized as the contraption produced delicious music. The same hands which had wrought violence in combat also worked with gentle skill over the delicate instrument. She blinked, confused by the tears swimming in her eyes. The mournful ghostly music filling the room called to her. She felt utterly safe. Cassie remembered it clearly, because it had changed her. Just as his scent brought her home, his music meant safety.
Here are few of my favorite Celtic tracks that inspired the scene: “May Morning Dew” Moving Hearts with Davy Spillane http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=7CDYkiViwt0&feature=autoplay&list=PL66930C426EA6EC6D&index=1&playnext=1 Live uilleann performance by Tiarnan Ó Duinnchinn http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=8blbyNHgpO8&feature=BFa&list=PL66930C426EA6EC6D “The Child Dierdre” Mychael and Jeff Danna http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=nzOjqoQSyz0&list=PL66930C426EA6EC6D&index=8&feature=plpp_video And for Jack and Cassie, this sounds like falling in love. Subtle, sentimental, and folksy – Edgar Meyer’s “Sliding Down” http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=14Vbr93AGMw&feature=mr_meh&list=PL66930C426EA6EC6D&playnext=0