Taming Her Highland Legend comes out tomorrow! It’s book two in USA Today bestselling author Maeve Greyson’s Time to Love a Highlander series. Maeve was kind enough to answer some questions for us.
You can get your copy of this exciting time travel highland romance HERE!
Did you always know you wanted to be an author?
Not really. It kind of snuck up on me! As a child, I was always the shy, introverted type who had way more imaginary friends than real ones. Due to a difficult childhood, I discovered early on that living in my make believe worlds was so much easier than dealing with the real life. Back then, it was a matter of survival. Now, writing about those make believe worlds is the best stress relief I’ve ever found.
What is the first story you remember writing?
A fairy tale to brighten my mother’s last days. It made her smile. Best review I’ve ever gotten.
How did you get from there to where you are today?
A hundred years ago, well, not really, but it seems like that now, we bought a home computer when they first came out. I discovered the ease of typing out my stories rather than using a manual typewriter with gallons of white out or a pen and paper. Yes. I am that old.
I would write my stories, print them out, and mail them off to the publishers and agents I had researched at the local library and bookstores. Many, many, MANY rejections later, I published with a small press, then won a writing contest and published with one of the big five, then pitched to another of the big five and was picked up for two series. But then the imprint I wrote for closed its doors. So, I self-published, then discovered Dragonblade Publishing and am SO glad I did. They are the best publishing team ever.
I’m not sure if it was the gnawing, insatiable need to write or sheer stubbornness that kept me going, but I never stopped no matter what roadblock popped up. If you want to write, no one can stop you but yourself.
What is the most inspiring place you’ve visited and has it shown up in one of your books?
Culloden Moor in Scotland. My husband and I walked the grounds and read the stones inscribed with the names of all the clans that fell on that terrible day, April 16, 1746, in the final confrontation of the Jacobite uprising. Culloden has not appeared in any of my books, because I don’t think I could do it justice. I wept the day we walked that battlefield. It’s as though the ground still cries out in mourning for all the bloodshed and suffering of that day. The air is thick with the pain from the place.
How much research do you do into the time period and places you write about?
I try to totally immerse myself into the time period and find out the smallest details. Things like were there glass windows yet? Candles in the lanterns or oil? What kind of locks on the doors? Little things can make a big difference when it comes to staying in the story. And I love the Google map feature where you can drop the little yellow guy on the map and virtually visit the area. Of course, I sometimes take a little poetic license with that because landscapes change over time.
Do you know where the story is going before you begin, or does it come to you as you write?
Both. I have a general concept of what I want to happen. I diligently outline and plan the scenes. Then the characters say, “Nope. We want to do it this way.” Sometimes, I can rein them in and turn them where I want them to go. But more often than not, their ideas are better than my original outline anyway!
Do scenes come to you fully formed or are you as surprised as the reader?
I have a general idea of what I want to happen but sometimes the characters surprise me. Or I’ll write out the scene and say, “Hmm…that’s not nearly as good as I thought it was going to be.” So, then it gets deleted.
Do you write better in the morning or evening?
Early morning hours BEFORE I’ve looked at emails or fallen down the rabbit hole of social media. Whatever story I’m working on opens as soon as I power up my laptop. It’s the first thing I see before I get distracted by life.
How do you handle the distractions of working from home, especially if you’re sharing the space with others?Earplugs and the kind of headset you wear on a rifle range. My husband, God bless him, is a disabled veteran. His hearing was damaged while working around aircraft. So, if he’s watching television or talking on the phone, it is LOUD. I tell him whenever I’m donning the earplugs and headset, and if he needs me for anything, he texts me. It pops up on my laptop and lets me know.
However, I have yet to find a way to convince two of my three cats, Amy and Charlie, to respect my writing time. As you can see, they do what they want when they want!
What do you like to read when you’re not reading in your genre?
Science fiction and fantasy. Some of my favorites are the John Carter of Mars stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Did you have a favorite book or series when you were growing up?
I read everything I could get my hands on but don’t recall a particular favorite. I just loved reading. Luckily, when I was a teenager, we lived next to a lady who had a subscription to the Barbara Cartland book of the month club. She shared her library with me. Those stories introduced me to the world of romance novels.
