Christina here. Tomorrow (on 6th February) the second book in my Kinross trilogy, HIGHLAND STORMS, will be republished with a lovely new cover – what do you think? I really like the colours and the beautiful castle on the other side of the loch. It captures the setting for my story perfectly!
When I wrote the first book in the series, TRADE WINDS, I hadn’t originally intended it to have any sequels. However, as we might have mentioned before, it’s sometimes very difficult for an author to let go of the characters once you’ve finished a story. The temptation to continue with a secondary character, another family member or the next generation is really hard to resist, and that proved to be the case for me.
I love books set in Scotland and anything to do with the Jacobite rebellion, so when I realised that Killian and Jess’s (the hero/heroine of TRADE WINDS) older son would become an adult only eight years after the battle of Culloden, I knew I just had to write about him going back to his Scottish father’s home country. Highlanders were very badly treated after their defeat and this created the perfect scenario for a hero to come to the rescue – enter Brice Kinross. He comes to take over his father’s estate and help the inhabitants, but to begin with he’s greeted with mistrust and as an outsider and potential enemy, even though he’s actually a good guy. He has to work hard to gain everyone’s trust and prove himself worthy of being their laird.
Nicola here, reflecting on traveling and the unexpected dramas that can sometimes follow. Throughout the ages, travel has always involved some degree of jeopardy. In the modern era the most common stressful travel drama is likely to be a flat tire or a cancelled airline ticket. In the past, a wheel might come off your carriage, your horse might go lame or you might be held up on the road by a highwayman or even involved in a shipwreck. There’s a reason that travel is such a popular theme for books set in the past and the present; the dangers are real and the situations people can find themselves in can be romantic, suspenseful, or threatening.
on this theme and some of my favourite winter short stories revolve around the inclement effects of the weather although in real life its usually more inconvenient than romantic. Having been stuck in a snowdrift myself at about the age of eight, however, I know how easily this can happen. It was my first experience of travel drama and I’d gone away with my family for a day out in the English Lake District on Boxing Day. The weather was beautiful for December, so lovely in fact, that some of the adults in the group went off to climb a mountain. By the time we were heading home in the evening, though, the snow had arrived, snow such as you seldom see in England any more, great piles of it that blocked the road and marooned us in the middle of nowhere. Eventually we were towed out and the hotel where we had had lunch very kindly opened up to let us stay overnight until the roads were cleared the next day. As you might imagine, it was a terrific adventure for a child!
