Interview & Giveaway with Mary Wine

Books-n-Kisses is pleased to welcome Mary Wine to the blog for the first time.

Mary, can you please share with us a little about yourself

Hello. I spend the better part of my day listening to the voices in my head and taking orders from a parrot. Ummm…I meant to say. I’m a writer and work very hard to transform my imagination world into novels while my parrot keeps me company.

Have you always wanted to be an author?

I think I have. Of course I wanted to be a ballerina but I did make up stories to tell to my younger brother as we traveled in my father motorhome. I recall deciding to write a romance novel when I was about 14. Got out the type writer, lord, remember those things? And worked on it in spite of my brothers teasing. No, I never finished that one and it wasn’t until about ten years ago that I sat back down to write again. Thank Goodness computers had come along. Spell check is my BBF!

Are you a plotter or a punster or combo of both? And you explain the difference?

I think I’m a hybrid. A plotter is someone who outlines the novel. A punster is someone who gets an idea and then sees where the charters take them. I tend to write an outline and sit down to write the book. However, often, I need a new outline by the time I finish the book because the story went a different direction.

What is your most interesting writing quirk?

My parrot is my office manager? Really. She’s an umbrella cockatoo and watches me.

Can you please tell us about your latest book(s)?

How to Handle a Highlander is book three in the Sutherlands. Gahan is the bastard son of the earl, the child of the woman he loved. Moira is the half-sister of the Frazer laird and only has one purpose…to wed and form an alliance. Her brother wants to feud with the Sutherland, so Moira is set to wed a man old enough to be her grandfather to unite the clans against the earl. Gahan knows this and will do anything to prevent the wedding. Only he didn’t expect to be drawn to Moria.

How did you come with the idea for this story?

I think I began to get a feel for this one while I was writing the book before it, How to Handle a Highlander. I also love to look at history and weave in some of the harsher edges of reality that these people had to endure. The fact is that marriage was considered a business. Old men often wed young women because they wanted more children and needed young brides. Being the daughter of the laird might sound great, until you realize that you were expected to do your duty. It might sound easy for us to say…not on your life! But the people born in these eras had to face the very real fact that their action could and often did have deadly results when the groom you turned down went after yer clansmen in retribution.

Can you share with us your current work(s) in progress?

I’m working on book four in the Sutherlands. It will be the story of Saer MacLeod….and it’s almost done.

Who is the one author that you would love to meet someday and why?

Beatrice Small.

What is the best piece of advice you would give to someone that wants to get into writing?

Turn off the tv, Facebook and video games and write. You can’t sell what you haven’t written.

Can you share with us something off your bucket list.

I would love to go to Egypt.

What is in your To Read Pile that you are dying to start or upcoming release you can’t wait for?

The Hunger Games.

What is one book everyone should read before they die?

I think everyone should read the major books of the major religions because maybe we all might find things in common to talk about instead of picking at one another.

What is your favorite time of year & why?

I actually love all seasons but I do live in Southern California, so there are those who say we don’t really have a winter. We do, we do. I have to socks on and get out the space heater when it get’s below 60. My poor little parrot can’t take that sort of a cold spell.Who is your Celebrity crush?  And what would you do if you ever meet them?

Dame Judy Dench or George Takei. I would do a lot of listening if I met them. I think they both have a lot of life experience to share.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thanks so much to every reader who picks up one of my books. I can’t begin to tell you how much it means to me to have anyone reading my work.

Cheers!

You can find me on Facebook and my website.

MaryWine.com

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Moira Frazer is betrothed to a man who is old enough to be her father, but it’s her duty to her clan to marry him, and she’s determined to see this through…until she meets Gahan Sutherland.

Gahan knows this match is designed to start a feud between the clans, which is why he decides to stop the wedding. But when Moira awakens a passion within him that he never knew existed, he realizes that the outcome of this perilous situation will determine the future of his own happiness.

As trust and honor clash with forbidden attraction, manipulations, rivalries, and schemes will threaten to blow the Highlands sky high

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