My apologies for the late posting. We hit a small glitch.
Amanda Forester is my guest today and she writes about hunky highlanders set in the sweeping history of 14th century Scotland.
How people meet and fall in love is always fascinating. Amanda shares how her two main characters meet and shares with us how she and her husband met. A case of opposites attract.
Romance.
I love it. Since I'm a romance
author, this pronouncement is perhaps not surprising. I especially enjoy hearing the story if the two people involved
are an unlikely pair or come from different backgrounds.
Thus in THE HIGHLANDER'S HEART, my muse gave me
a hero who is a Highland laird and wanted criminal in England, and a heroine
who is an English Countess trying to escape an abusive marriage. Here is how they first meet:
Isabelle
stared at the barbarian before her. These would surely be her final moments on
Earth. She tried to think of something worthy of her last thoughts.
I can see his knees. Isabelle
groaned and squeezed her eyes shut. This would never do. Thoughts like that
would send her straight to purgatory. She put her hands over her eyes and tried
to think of something pious. Nothing but a mental vision of his thighs came to
mind.
“No, no,
no.” She looked up pleading. “Do not kill me yet, I am not ready.”
“Sassenach,”
said the shadowy figure with disgust. “Get up English, I will no’ be killing
ye.”
Not the most promising of starts, I grant
you. Lady Isabelle tries to use Laird
Campbell to save her from her husband's guards, while he decides to hold her
for ransom. Neither of these plans is
destined to succeed, and both are forced to work together to save themselves
and their people from the threat of war.
I do enjoy watching unlikely couples fall in
love. Perhaps my own love story played
a hand in that interest. I always
thought I would marry a person like myself, someone I met in graduate school or
at church. I am embarrassed to admit
it, but I met my husband in a bar, actually it was in the parking lot outside
the bar (oh, the shame). Now obviously
he was not a Highland warrior nor I an English Countess, but at the time we met
he was an infantry officer and I was a PhD student in psychology. He was cute, very cute I must say, but I
couldn't see much of a future in it.
Fast forward to the present and we've been married for 14 years now, so
I was (happily) quite wrong.
- So tell me how you met the love of your life. Were you best friends since the 2nd grade or were you so different you might as well have been from separate planets? Do tell - I'd love to hear your story!
Comment on this blog for a chance to win a copy
of Amanda Forester's latest release, THE HIGHLANDER'S HEART. A chance for two winners!
HIGHLANDER'S HEART Available now ebook and print formats
Lady Isabelle escapes her murderous English husband only to be abducted by a Highland warrior and held for ransom. Her determination to break free from captivity is exceeded only by the passion growing between her and the Highland Laird. David Campbell plans to hold Isabelle for ransom as an easy way to line his pockets and return her back where she belongs, but he is unprepared for a feisty English lass with a penchant for finding trouble. Caught between rival clans bent on claiming the throne of Scotland, Campbell must choose a side, and a bride. Standing on the brink of war, Isabelle may be his only hope to save his clan, and his heart. Excerpt
"[T]he plot never falters, and fans of Highland romance will appreciate Forester’s devotion to historical accuracy and effortless storytelling." ~Publisher's Weekly
Amanda Forester holds a PhD in clinical psychology and a Masters degree in theology. As a psychologist, she has worked as a clinical researcher and a university instructor (what they call you when they don’t want to give you tenure). None of which has anything to do with writing romance novels. After trying for many years to stop the internal storylines floating around her head, she finally gave up and wrote one down. Now when she is caught daydreaming and talking to herself she can just say, “I’m plotting a scene for my next novel,” which sounds so much better than, “I’m hallucinating and responding to internal stimuli.”
Amanda lives in the Pacific Northwest with her officer and a gentleman husband and their two remarkably active, naturally brilliant children. They share their home with two fiendishly destructive cats and one lazy dog.
