Closed - Giveaway and Interview with Margaret Mallory & Amanda Scott - The Great Scots and Highland Heat Tour

Two Great Authors and Two Great Books

The Sinner (Return of the Highlanders #2)
RETURN OF THE HIGHLANDERS BOOK II
Four fearless warriors return to the Highlands to claim their lands and legacies. But all their trials on the battlefield can't prepare them for their greatest challenge yet: winning the hearts of four willful Scottish beauties.
IRRESISTIBLE DESIRE
Alex MacDonald is known for his skill as a warrior, his prowess with women, and his vow to never take a wife. But now his chieftain has asked him to make the ultimate sacrifice: wed Glynis MacNeil, a lass famed throughout the Highlands for her exquisite beauty-and defiant ways.
Familiar with heartbreak, Glynis refuses to fall for another handsome scoundrel. Yet when Alex's past sins force an unlikely union, Glynis gives in to temptation and becomes his wife. Will their newfound passion be strong enough to fight the enemy that threatens their home, their clan, and their very lives?

Highland Hero (Scottish Knights #2)

LADY IN DISGUISE
Lady Marsi Cargill refuses to marry a man who wants her land rather than her love. To escape her arranged betrothal, she disguises her noble lineage and accompanies her young cousin--the future King of Scots--on a secret journey across the Highlands. Their guide is a mysterious knight known only as Hawk. Heat flares between the beautiful maid and the brooding warrior, but when Marsi's true identity is revealed, Hawk's desire gives way to fury...
KNIGHT AT THE READY 
Summoned by the King to guard his son, Sir Ivor "Hawk" Mackintosh now has two royals to protect. This daring, willful woman has invaded Hawk's every thought, and laid siege to his heart. Soon the solitary soldier is yearning for a life with Marsi at his side and in his bed. But as their passion grows, so too does the danger surrounding them. Powerful enemies watch their every move, and to survive, Hawk and Marsi must fight for Scotland's future-as well as their own new-found love.

 

Website: http://www.margaretmallory.com/
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/search/margaret%20mallory

Q&A with Margaret Mallory

Lisarenee:

Besides having a good chemistry what do you feel makes a good romance hero and heroine and how do you try to incorporate that into your stories?

Margaret:  I think both the hero and the heroine need to be heroic so I put them into situations in which they can show their willingness to sacrifice themselves or what they want for a higher cause or to protect someone else.  When a child or a friend is at risk of harm, my hero and heroine will step up, no matter what it costs them. They will face their worst enemy or greatest fear, if need be, to save their clan and those they love.

Lisarenee:  What is the funnest and/or the most rewarding thing about being a romance author?

Margaret:  Hands down, it’s hearing from readers who love my books.  This can be a tough business in many ways, but the messages from readers make up for all the hard parts. 

Lisarenee: Inspiration can come from many places and things. What sparked the idea for Return of the Highlanders series and, more specifically, 'The Sinner'?

Margaret:  History inspires me. Because I write adventurous romances, I look for a period with a lot of conflict. I found exactly what I wanted in the year 1513, in the wake of the Scots’ disastrous loss to Henry VIII’s forces at the Battle of Flodden.  The chaos that followed gave me the opportunity to have my four Highland heroes return from France to find their king and chieftain dead, a rebellion brewing, factions fighting for control of the crown, and their clan in grave danger. What fun! 
       I still had to find a clan for my Highland heroes. When I discovered that the first chieftain of the MacDonalds of Sleat had six sons by six different women and that the animosity among the six sons led to two generations of murder, I knew I had found my clan.
       Alex is the bad boy of this series. Because this charming rogue is so set against being married, I had to pair him up with a serious-minded heroine who is adamantly opposed to marriage, particularly to a known philanderer like him.

Lisarenee:  What do you feel it is about historical romances that draws so many people to them and (this may very well be the same answer) what inspires you to write them?

Margaret: I’ve always loved history, and historical romance gives me the opportunity to write dramatic, adventurous tales. I think historical romance readers enjoy the escape of getting lost in another time. And if the men wear kilts and swing swords, all the better.  ;) 

Lisarenee: Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer my questions and for sharing your wonderful stories.

    

Website: http://www.amandascottauthor.com/


Q&A with Amanda Scott

Lisarenee: Besides having a good chemistry what do you feel makes a good romance hero and heroine and how do you try to incorporate that into your stories?

Amanda: To answer this question properly would take a book, because “good chemistry” includes many factors besides sex. A shared sense of humor plus any number of complementary, shared, and wholly conflicting character traits are necessary in one way or another. As for “incorporating,” it’s always part of the initial planning. I write detailed outlines.

Lisarenee: What is the most romantic thing you've ever had done for you or that you've heard someone doing for someone else?

Amanda: My brother-in-law “kidnapped” my sister and whisked her off to Disneyland for her birthday. She has always loved that magical place and hadn’t been there for years. He planned everything, even packed her clothes for her (and didn’t forget a thing!) Then he called me and asked if my husband and I would look after their dogs. I’d already invited the two of them for dinner the evening before her birthday, so we readjusted the time to accommodate their flight. Then, instead of taking her home after dinner, and without saying a word about where they were going, he drove to the airport. They stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, enjoyed 3 romantic days and nights there, and had a fabulous time.

Lisarenee: What is the funnest and/or the most rewarding thing about being a romance author?

Amanda: Getting to meet new readers and longtime fans regularly at Scottish games and other book signings. Nothing can beat that, although I’ve also been privileged, as a writer, to meet some astonishing and fascinating people that I might not otherwise have met at all. The first such meeting that comes to mind was years ago, when I visited the Brighton Theater (south coast of England) with my husband. I wanted to get a look inside a theater that had existed during England’s Regency period. It wasn’t open, but a woman was doing something in the ticket booth, so I told her that I was an author writing about the Regency, and she introduced us to an elderly man who had worked at the theater since he was a teenager. He took us to the royal box’s “sitting room,” which has the theater’s royal charter framed on the wall. I don’t recall the King who signed it, although it was long before the Regency. I think it was Charles I. On another trip, a guard at the Brighton Pavilion answered a couple of questions (one of which led him to open a game table to show me how it worked) and then said he was going off duty and would be glad to walk the rest of the way with me. Since I met him in the long gallery just beyond the entryway, he essentially guided my “tour” of the place. He was very knowledgeable, so it was a wonderful and educational experience for me!

Lisarenee: Inspiration can come from many places and things. What sparked the idea for Scottish Knights Trilogy and, more specifically, 'Highland Hero'?

Amanda: Most inspiration comes from the historical research or from intriguing characteristics of people I know or meet. For Scottish Knights, I was looking for an unusual way to connect the heroes of the three books. I did not want brothers or cousins and had introduced Bishop Traill of St. Andrews as a character in previous books. He was an educator and taught Jamie Stewart (later James I of Scotland), among others. After Traill’s death, his successor Bishop Henry Wardlaw extended the tutoring that Traill had begun to the founding of St. Andrews University. I also wanted to continue using the ambitious and ruthless first Duke of Albany as my primary villain. Since Traill and Albany had numerous run-ins, most of which the bishop won handily, I decided to have Bishop Traill cultivate some of his most promising students into a brotherhood from which he could summon aid when a task required it. So my heroes for Scottish Knights became three close friends, all knights who had studied together under Bishop Traill but who had never, as students, known each other’s real names. Each also has a particular skill at which they are one of the best in Scotland. Their goal in the trilogy is to do all that they can to help the rightful heirs of Robert III, King of Scots, counter the murderous efforts of their wicked uncle to seize Scotland’s throne. In Highland Hero, Sir Ivor Mackintosh, known at St. Andrews only as “Hawk,” is summoned by the King and asked to transport his grace’s younger son, seven year old Jamie Stewart, in secrecy, across Scotland to the safety of Bishop Traill’s guardianship at St. Andrews Castle. The inspiration for the plot came from a Scottish bard’s tale that I’d read, which also resulted in Ivor’s being named Ivor (meaning archer) and his having become the finest archer in Scotland. Chapter 1 of Highland Hero is posted on my website: www.amandascottauthor.com If readers have questions or comments, there is also a link there to my email, which is amandascott@att.net .

Lisarenee: In your biography on your website, it says you started writing romances on a dare from your husband. So we have your husband to thank (besides you) for all your wonderful books?  Can you tell us a little more about that?

Amanda: My husband was in the Air Force, a targets officer for the Strategic Air Command on America’s airborne command post, known as the “Looking Glass” or “Doomsday Plane.” One of them was in the air 24/7 at that time, so his job meant that he was ‘on alert’ for 2 or 3 days at a time. To entertain themselves during their off-time, the guys played poker, and he is very good at poker. Meantime, I’d be home alone in our one-streetlight town near Omaha, reading my way through the town’s tiny library and throwing books across the room because the authors had done so little research. He saw me do that one day and asked me why. I said, “I could do better than that myself.” He asked me if I’d like to write, and I realized then that I would, very much. I had already researched and written the text for the photo-essay book Omaha City Architecture, and I’d played with an idea for a historical novel since college and even written a few scenes. That weekend, he asked me if I REALLY wanted to write. When I said yes, he took me to the famous Nebraska Furniture Mart, chose a spectacularly beautiful leather-topped desk despite my insistence that it was far too expensive, had me ‘try on’ chairs and try out lamps until I found ones I liked, and then bought me the whole setup with his poker winnings and told me to get to it. NOT to have at least tried to write a book after that would have been a betrayal of the highest order. So I wrote The Fugitive Heiress and sent it to an agent, who sent it to an editor at Signet, who bought it. That was 58 books ago.

Lisarenee: Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer my questions and for sharing your wonderful stories.

    

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED
Winners are:
Diana
June M.
mbreakfield
Congratulations!
Thank you everyone who entered.

The wonderful folks at Forever Romance are allowing me to give away 3 sets of 2 books. The books included in each set are:
1.  The Sinner (Return of the Highlanders #2) by Margaret Mallory
2.  Highland Hero (Scottish Knights #2) by Amanda Scott

Rules to be eligible for giveaway:

1. Only residents of the US or Canada are eligible. 

2. Please leave either your email address or a link to your Goodreads profile so I may get in contact with you to get your mailing address. No P.O. Boxes, please. If uncomfortable about giving out such information on my blog, please feel free to email me your information at seducedbyabook@gmail.com.

3. Become a follower of my blog, if you aren't already.
4. Must be 18 years old or older.

5. Leave a comment or question or comment for Margaret Mallory and/or Amanda Scott.

Winners will be randomly chosen. Books will be sent directly from publisher. Giveaway ends November 21st, midnight eastern time. Winners will be posted on my blog and notified by email or message posted to them via Goodreads. Winners will have 48 hours to respond before another winner will be selected.