Friday's Guest Tricia McGill - Talking about Writing #MFRWAuthor #BWLPublishing #Writing #Genres

1. What's your genre or do you write in more than one?

First up, I would like to thank you, Janet, for having me again as guest on your blog. I write in several sub-genres: Time-Travel, Historical, and Contemporary, but all are romances. I wrote one Sci-Fi, but that was just a side step from my favoured genres. Nevertheless Amid the Stars was strictly a Romance, albeit between a woman from Earth and an alien.

 
2. Did you choose your genre or did it choose you?

All chose me. I’ve always written whatever took my fancy at any given time.

3.  Is there any genre you'd like to try?  Or is there one you wouldn't?

Well, so far I haven’t come across one I would like to try, but that doesn’t mean that along the line I might get an idea and take off on a tangent. I like all my stories to have romance in them, and a touch of humour. For this reason, I could never tackle horror or even mystery. I steer clear of erotica, I guess because I do not like to read it. To each his own, and I have no argument with people who like to read or write it, but it is not for me. On thinking more about this question, I often think I would like to write Young Adult, but have never tried it, for having no idea what goes on in the minds of the young these days, I fear I would be severely out of my depth.

4.  What fiction do you read for pleasure?

I’ve always loved reading Time-Travels, and Historicals, and these are my preferred genres, but I read contemporaries by my favourite authors. I do love any story featuring animals, especially dogs, cats or horses, as they often play a big part in my own books.

5.  Tell me a bit about yourself and how long you've been writing.

I suppose you could say I have been writing forever, but my first published book came out in 2000. This book began life with another title, but is now Mystic Mountains, and remains one of my best sellers at Books We Love.

I still have a school report dated from way back, and the best comment came from my English teacher, Miss Steggall, who gave me high marks for Composition and Literature. She said, “Highly satisfactory progress, and very good promise for the future.” The only higher mark I received that year was for Art, my second favourite subject. I can recall my siblings telling me how good my stories were while I was still in primary school, so I obviously always loved telling tales.

6.  Which of your characters is your favorite?

Oh dear, I find it hard to pick a favourite. I fall in love with most of my heroes while creating them. Perhaps my number one would be Tiger, from Mystic Mountains. I always pictured him as a young Matthew Mcconaughey. But, I do rather like Jack from When Fate Decides, mainly because he falls for an older woman and couldn’t care less what the world thinks about this situation. As for the females, Leah from Leah in Love is my all-time favourite as she took me on a roller coaster ride of fun and mayhem as she told me her story.

7.  Are there villains in your books and how were they created?

There just has to be a villain. Perhaps not always an absolutely nasty character intent on death and destruction, but perhaps someone who wishes to upset the romance happening between the main characters. My Settlers Series contains more than one villain, the main one in both books being the military who were in charge of the poor unfortunate souls transported across the seas to serve out their sentences, and often their lives, in what was in the 1800s a mostly unchartered and hostile land. Being a romantic at heart, my villains must always lose.

 
8.  What are you working on now?

My work in progress is probably the hardest task I have ever tackled. Crying is for Babies traces a woman’s life through the trials of a childhood in the 1930s ruined by callous surgeons, to her lifetime of struggles coping with a disability brought about by this treatment. Part of her story takes us through WW11, and shows how an ordinary family coped with the devastation suffered in London. Having a loving family to support her, she overcame all obstacles in her path to become a marvellous, talented adult, loved by everyone. This story comes from my heart and relates the life of one of my dear sisters. This is why it has been so difficult to write, as there have been many hiccups along the way while I pause to take a few deep breaths.

9.  What's your latest release and how did the idea arrive?

Powerful Destiny is a historical with a twist for it is also a story of reincarnation. The idea first came to me actually from a friend who shares my interest in Vikings. It started life as a short story then grew like Pinocchio’s nose into a novella and finally into a novel. I loved writing this one because it covers two of my keen interests, Vikings and reincarnation. I touched on reincarnation in my Time-Travel, A Call Through Time also as the lovers were reunited in the present. I believe that we meet up with those who have the most impact on us and firmly believe I have lived before, so it comes easily for me to weave the premise into my stories.