Today it's my pleasure to present an interview of romance author Mageela Troche.
Latest Book:
The Laird’s Right
Buy Link: The Laird’s Right not yet available.
The Marriage Alliance
BIO:
An Air Force brat, Mageela Troche landed in the Big Apple still writing away. When time came for college, she decided to be practical after all college loans have to be repaid. Mageela threw that aside and followed her passion and pens sensual romance to twist the heart.
Q: How did you celebrate publishing your first book?
A: For my first book, I got a manicure and pedicure then got back to work. After promoting it, I got a boyfriend.
Q: Your novel is being made into a TV series/movie. Who’s in your dream cast?
A: For The Laird’s Right—I based my hero, Laird Alec Cameron, on Ryan Gosling. So can I get him? Perhaps a little casting couch action. My heroine, Lady Portia de Mowbray, was based on Kate Upton with a full figure. I’m having a hard time thinking of an actress but I want the acting skill of Kate Winslet, a mixture of Jennifer Lawrence and Helen Mirren.
Q: What’s your writing schedule like? Do you strive for a certain amount of words each day?
A: I’m an insomniac so night is when I write. All is quiet in New York City—no one calls or stops by and I can lose myself in medieval Scotland. I don’t do a word count but I focus more on scenes.
Q: What is the most important thing you do for your career now, as compared to when you first started writing?
A: I produce more of my own social media content and have expanded my reach. I have a better organizing and understanding of what works for readers and myself. But I’m still learning and taking risks.
Q: How much of yourself is hidden in the characters in the book?
A: You can find pieces of me in all my characters. I’m clumsy, open, snarky and love to do wicked things and say wicked things.
Q: Of all your characters, who’s your favorite, and why?
A: My favorite character is Lachlan. A secondary character from my debut novel, The Marriage Alliance. Of course, he will get his own story. I love him because he has so much hidden behind a flirty smile and wit. He’s great fun to write.
Q: Do you eat comfort food/listen to music when writing?
A: I do both and more. Sometimes, I channel Ernest Hemmingway (Without the alcoholism) I go to my favorite bar and sit in my corner and write. It’s nothing that white noise and they know me. I use to try Starbucks but it put me to sleep and the blends of coffee and teas made me nauseous.
Q: How do you choose names for your characters?
A: My characters names pop into my head and changing them never seems right. Name is such an instant understanding of character.
Q: Covers. Ever get one you wish you could change?
A: Not at all. I have been blessed with my cover artist, Dawne Dominique is a talent. Let’s see in the future what happens. Fingers crossed that I’m always so blessed.
Q: Give one advice tip to an aspiring author.
A: Write, write, write and revise and revise and revise.
Q: What genre would you like to try writing that you haven’t yet tried?
A: I would love to try horror. I just love horror movies and the genre. I fell in love with Edgar Allen Poe when I was a very young girl and have never lost it.
Q: Any part of a book that drives you crazy as you write: beginning, middle, or end?
A: The ending always drives me crazy because I’m so close to the end.
Q: How many stories are swirling around in your head? Do you keep a mental list, a computer file, or a spiral notebook filled with the ideas?
A: Let me count…I have about ten as of now. I have a spiral notebook filled with the ideas. There were other stories I had put to paper then realized that I couldn’t go further than a novella if I was lucky. Writing them down really helped me clear my head and focus on those that had possibility.
Fun Stuff:
Q: What is your favorite holiday and why?
A: Christmas. I love see my nieces and nephews opening their gifts.
Q: What are two things people might be surprised to know about you?
A: First, I’m forty years old but look very much younger and my just-ended relationship was with a twenty-five year old. The second, I’m afraid of clowns and cats.
Q: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I wanted to do it all—a writer, singer, actress, librarian and Dallas Cheerleader and Quarterback.
Q: Favorite food.
A: Bacon!!
Q: Favorite happy memory.
A: Being kissed by the man I loved. It still makes me dizzy, weak, and invisible at the same time.
Q: Favorite drink.
A: Water.
Q: Hot summer days or chilly winter nights?
A: Hot summer days.
Q: What is the top thing on your bucket list? I don’t have a bucket list.
A: I’ve had a blessed life and have simple needs. But check next week, I might have something I want to do then.
Q: If you could have a super power, what would it be?
A: I wish I could read minds. I would love that and hate it. But I would have to learn how to deal.
Tell us where to find you: website(s), publisher’s page(s), blog(s), Facebook page(s), etc. List them all!
Website:
http://mageelatroche.com
Publisher’s Page:
http://www.store.sweetcravingspublishing.com
Blog:
http://mageelatrochewrites.wordpress.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMageelaTroche?ref=hl
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/MageelaTroche
Pinterest:
http://www.pinterest.com/mageelatroche/
Google+:
https://plus.google.com/u/1/+MageelaTrocheAuthor
Goodreads:
http://goodreads.com/Mageela
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Mageela-Troche/
BLURB:
To save his clan…
Laird Alec Cameron wars against Clan MacKintosh and its sept, Clan Chattan over a swathe of land. When he learns MacKintosh schemes to wed his English sister-in-law to chieftain of the Chattan, he knows the risk threatening the clan. Her riches and blood ties could overpower the Camerons. For the upper hand, he kidnaps her.
To save her life…
Widow Lady Portia de Mowbray hides in the rugged Highlands far from the clutches of a deadly baron desiring her riches but not her hand. She has lost the man she loved and nearly her life at his hands and she must save herself. Snagged in a deadly power play between two feuding clans, she is caught in the clutches of Laird Cameron. He may be the man who can save her.
Danger stalks them even as love grows and only together do they have a chance at surviving. They must survive the threats for their own happily ever after.
EXCERPT:
Edinburgh, Scotland, 1259
Alec hated Edinburgh. He hated the castle and the machinations occurring in the walls. He’d rather pick up his sword than play courtier. He hated the long road along the crag. He hated that King Alexander III ordered the Clan Chattan from the land. He hated that Laird MacKintosh planned to feud for it. Clan Cameron would not crumble under them. His father would have machinated to get that charter. Alec had other plans to get what he wanted and increase the power of Clan Cameron.
The journey from Lochaber to Edinburgh wasted his time. Time he could have used to war against Clan Chattan, steal their cattle, burn some cottars, and have a good fight. The land belonged to him—Laird Alec Cameron. The clan needed the land claim more now since the MacMartins, MacSovlies, and MacGillonies have joined the clan. That land would be plenty for the new clan members to sow a boll of oats and keep a cow maybe even two. Time had come to strengthen the clan.
“Coming here was a mistake. We should have let Mackintosh come then attack him on his way home. ” Alec knew Quinlan spoke of another reason for his desire to remain back with the clan and especially his wife.
“Edinburgh stinks.” Quinlan scraped bloody muck from his soles and kicked aside a fish bone.
“Nothing like animal blood, tanning leather and stale ale to clear the nostrils,” Hurley said, his tone relaxed, as he waved away a bread seller.
“Don’t forget the crap.” Ronan clapped Quinlan on his back. Quinlan turned his hard gaze to him and earned an easy grin from Ronan.
“I agree with Quinlan. I rather be home as well.” Alec wished to feel the soft spray of Loch Lochy blow across his face.
“Laird Cameron,” A high-pitched male voice stammered behind him.
Cameron turned away from the offender clamped in the jougs and the crowd shouting abuse at him. A bare-faced boy stood behind him, a Ranald. The boy gulped as Cameron and his warriors circled him. The whites of his eyes drowned his brown eyes. His lips trembled before he said, “Laird Randal sends word that Mackintosh and his sept are plotting against your clan.” The boy spit out the rest of the message.
Cameron nodded and thanked the boy. The boy vanished into the crowd. Alec shoved his way through the people. His attention was set on the castle dominating Edinburgh. “His numbers match our own.” Ronan drew closer to Alec.
“I have no misgivings about cutting the bastard down. We will war soon.” There was a chance of losing the land he needed. As the new laird, Alec had to mend the bonds his father had destroyed.
“Let’s learn more about this plan,” Hurley, his first in command, advised.
“The voice of reason,” Quinlan sneered. “I say we kill him now.”
“The king will not like that. Alec, listen to me—let’s use our heads. Besides, he’d demand something the Chattan chieftain might not be willing to give.”
“That bastard wants the land and us dead,” his second in command, Quinlan, retorted through a snarl. “Kill him, weaken the Mackintosh.”
“Quinlan, we shall but without the king ire. Alexander can ignore an attack in the highlands but here.”
“He means to test Alec as the new laird.” Ronan voiced Alec’s same thought, not a surprising one since they shared blood as cousins.
This belief was held by many in the highlands as they tested Alec’s rule. His father was one who believed it more than most and proclaimed it to any who listened. As chieftain to the Camerons of Dessary, Ronan was his last family tie, the one person in Alec’s life who understood Alec in a way that his two commanders could never comprehend.
When his father was alive, Alec spent many a night attacking the Chattan. That was where Alec’s talent lie—wielding a sword. Through the passing of years, the Chattan lost their hold and most importantly, their numbers. Now the chieftain sought the protection of the Clan MacKintosh. This was Alec’s chance to deliver the deadly final strike to rid himself of the pests.
MacKintosh swore Alec was weak, an advantage for Alec. After his brother Connor's death, his father fretted the fate of the clan in Alec’s hand. Alec planned to use that preposterous notion to get the land. All he waited for was the right opportunity to strike.
“A test I will not fail.”
