Interview With Willa Blair, Author of Highland Healer

My fellow Wild Rose Press author, Willa Blair, has stopped by for an interview today and to share a look at her debut release from The Wild Rose Press. Hi, Willa, congratulations on your debut and thanks for being my guest! Tell us about Highland Healer.

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.

What are your writing goals for this year?

My debut book, Highland Healer, was just released on 4 January.  I’m hoping to have the second book in the series out later this year and to finish writing the third book in time to release early in 2014.  Besides the Highland Talents series, I’d also like to finish at least one of the two romantic suspense books I’ve started, and finish outlining the first book of a science fiction romance series I’ve been plotting.

How do you come up with ideas?

I have a very visual imagination, so I often picture a scene or a setting as a freeze-frame, or maybe just a glimpse of characters moving in a setting.

What do you enjoy most about writing?

I love that writing, much like reading, allows me to explore people, places and situations I wouldn’t necessarily meet in real life.   But writing gives me much more control over all of those things.

Where do you start when writing? Research, plotting, character, or…?

I’ve learned at the feet of the very talented and multi-published authors in my critique group to start with plotting.  Once I have that first glimmer of an idea, I start playing “what if” and jotting down notes.  Next comes “why, why, why” to get at goals and motivation and to find sources of internal and external conflict.  By the time I’m done, I should have a fairly detailed outline.  I don’t always stick to it one hundred percent, but it keeps me on track and keeps me moving when I might otherwise get stuck.

What did you learn from writing your first book or what do you wish you’d known before becoming published?

That you need to finish one book.  Having several under construction may make you feel like you’re accomplishing a lot, but in many cases, writers spend years spinning their wheels, working like mad, and getting nowhere.  I did that, too, until I realized I had to prove I could finish such a project.  After the first book, it gets easier because you know you can.

Do you have a favorite time of day for writing?

Afternoon and evening.  Anyone who knows me knows I am not a morning person.  Really.  Not. A. Morning. Person.

Where is your favorite place in the world?

I’ve been on every continent except South America (and Antarctica, if you want to count it), so I’ve seen a lot of the world.  There are lots of places I’d like to visit again.  But a favorite?  Besides being at home, it’s a tossup between Sydney, Australia and almost anywhere in Great Britain.

What do you like to read?

I’m one of those people who will read a cereal box if that’s the only thing available.  I like books of all kinds, grew up reading science fiction and some fantasy.  I read a lot of romance now in all genres.  But no matter what I’m reading, I’m happy when the characters are people you can care about, the story is well-constructed and the writing is good.

Do you have any good news you’d like to share?

Highland Healer released on January 4 and is now available in print as well as in e-book format from the publisher, The Wild Rose Press, and all the major e-book vendors and bookstores.

These are few of my favorite things:

1. My husband – not a thing, but a favorite!
2. Chocolate!  Dark chocolate.  With caramel. Or nuts.  Or buttercream  Or by itself.
3. Kittens, hummingbirds, and naps.

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.

Bio:

Willa Blair is the award-winning author of Highland Healer, her debut novel, the first in a series set in the 16th century Highlands, when the old ways, and old talents, still shaped events.   She always wished she had several psi talents, such as reading her husband’s mind, cleaning house by simply thinking about it, and flying.  But alas, no.  So she endows her characters with special talents and lives vicariously through them.  She loves reading and writing romance novels set in the past, present and future.

You can find Willa at:

www.willablair.com

www.twitter.com/willablair

www.facebook.com/willablair

You can find Highland Healer at:

The Wild Rose Press (Paperback & eBook): http://www.thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=177_139&products_id=5086

Amazon (Kindle): http://amzn.com/B009KBFSKW