Interview of Author Willa Blair

Today it's my pleasure to present an interview of romance author Will Blair.

Latest Book: Highland Healer
Buy Link: http://ning.it/PbhhUB

BIO:
Willa Blair is the best-selling and award-winning author of Scottish Historical and Contemporary Romance, both with a touch of the paranormal.

She grew up reading science fiction, but her best-loved books often featured psychic talents. When she discovered Romance, she was thrilled to find that some of the books not only portrayed the journey of the hero and heroine, but included those fascinating psi talents.

With her Scottish heritage, it was natural for her to write a Scottish historical, but she couldn’t resist adding a few special talents. The result is her bestselling and award-winning debut book,Highland Healer, the first in her Highland Talents series.

Married to her own military hero golf fanatic, she lives in the Texas Hill Country north of San Antonio where she writes, feeds hummingbirds year-round and has too many hobbies to count.

Q: What’s the first thing you did when you received word you’d sold a book?
A: I told my husband. Then we cracked open a bottle of champagne. What’s a celebration without a little bubbly?

Q: Who is your favorite character in your book and why?
A: Aileana Shaw, the heroine, is my favorite character. I see her story as metaphor for many of us. We may not actually be captured by a villain and then again by a hero, but many of us do feel captive to jobs, family situations, or a host of other things life throws at us. Like Aileana, we learn as we go to trust in our own abilities and to extend that trust to others who earn it. It’s never easy, but it can be rewarding.

Q: If one of your books became a movie, which celebrity would you like to star as one of your heroines? Tell us about your heroine.
A: I have no idea which celebrity would be a good analog for Aileana. But I’d love to hear your readers’ opinions.

At the beginning of Highland Healer, Aileana is lonely, proud, trapped, and making the best of an impossible situation. As the story progresses, she learns to trust the hero, Toran Lathan, and to reveal more of her strengths and weaknesses.

Q: If one of your books became a movie, which celebrity would you like to star as one of your heroes? Tell us about your hero.
A: Again, no idea - I’d love to hear some opinions from your readers.

Toran Lathan never expected to become laird of the Lathan clan, but now that he is, he’s determined to be a good one. He also wants to take advantage of the thaw in relations between clans after the deaths of the feuding old lairds at Flodden Field. Then Aileana comes into his life and changes everything. He wants her, he needs her, but is she more than she seems?

Q: Do all your heroes and all heroines look the same in your mind as you “head write”?
A: Not at all. True, I don’t usually peg them to an existing movie or TV famous face, but in my head, they have their own unique look as well as their own personality. The one exception to that, so far, is Donal MacNabb, Toran’s advisor in Highland Healer, and the hero of my second book. The inspiration for Donal is Phillip Winchester in his “Crusoe” TV show days. I kept a picture of him with a very intense look on his face - very Donal - pinned in the top corner of my screen while writing the second book.

Q: Facebook, MySpace, Blogs, Chats, or Twitter. Which do you like best and why?
A: Despite how Facebook is limiting the visibility of posts from Fan pages, it’s still the best game in town to reach readers and prospective readers. Twitter comes in a close second. Blogging is third and is dependent on the blog’s reach. I just joined the new MySpace - the jury is still out on that. I’ve never run a chat session, but have participated in two - they move fast!

Tell us where to find you: website(s), publisher’s page(s), blog(s), Facebook page(s), etc. List them all!
http://www.willablair.com
http://www.facebook.com/willablair
http://www.twitter.com/willablair
http://www.thewildrosepress.com
Highland Healer on Amazon Kindle: http://ning.it/PbhhUB

BLURB:
HE NEEDS HER FOR HIS CLAN.
HE WANTS HER FOR HIMSELF.
CAN HE HAVE BOTH?

Toran Lathan never expected to become Laird, and never expected to meet a woman like Aileana Shaw. Her healing ability is just what his people need, but Toran cannot resist her beauty. Yet will loving him destroy her ability to heal?

Aileana Shaw has a healing touch – and a special talent she must keep secret. Stolen from her home by a marauding army, she’s kidnapped again by the Highland Laird she heals. Is she a prize of war, or the prize of his heart?

While Toran battles the invading lowland army, he also battles his desire for Aileana. And Aileana must decide if she can trust her secrets to this fierce warrior who needs her talent, but wants her love.

EXCERPT:
Despite his threats a few moments before, she had sensed no real animosity in him. She’d been treated well since arriving at the Aerie. Her dream of a home, with people who cared about her, perhaps a family of her own, rose unbidden to her mind, and with it came a familiar lump in her throat. She was tired, she thought, to let that longing overwhelm her now. She folded her arms under her breasts and kept her eyes on the flames. She heard Toran move from the door to stand behind her. She tensed as his hands came to rest on her shoulders. He turned her gently, but irresistibly, to face him.

“What should I do with so beautiful, so valuable, a prize?” he murmured, almost to himself.

His deep blue gaze ensnared Aileana as completely as his hands. She knew she should be outraged at being called a prize. He’d done it before, on the way here. Did he truly see her that way? She refused to be chattel any longer, she told herself, and would not allow him to treat her so. But she found she could not summon her ire. One of his hands left her shoulder and he lightly touched her cheek, then slowly slid his fingers down her throat to her collarbone. There, he hesitated, and Aileana held her breath until he moved the hand back to her shoulder.

His simple touch sent shivers dancing and nearly undid her.


Anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks for inviting me to be here today!