First published in 1990 by Dell.
Re-issued by Open Road Media March, 2013
Set in treacherous sixteenth-century Scotland, the first volume of Amanda Scott’s Border Trilogy tells the unforgettable story of a woman sworn to defy the knight she is forced to wed—only to discover a love she’ll do anything to claim
As Mary, Queen of Scots, languishes in the Tower of London as a prisoner of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, war tears Scotland apart. To save her beloved homeland, a proud Highland beauty named Mary Kate MacPherson must wage her own battle when she’s forced into wedlock with a knight, Sir Adam Douglas, from the barbaric borderland of Tornary.
Even as she succumbs to her seductive husband’s sensual demands, Mary Kate vows never to give him her heart. She will belong to no man. But Adam burns with something deeper than desire. Sworn to carry out a long-awaited revenge, he won’t rest until he has vanquished his enemies. Accused of treason, the last thing he expects is to lose his heart to the woman he’s determined to tame but never to love: his own wife.
Kari & Autumn: What inspired you to become a writer?
Amanda: I was the oldest of four kids and second oldest of a host of grandchildren (the oldest being male), which made me everyone’s babysitter of choice. I made up hundreds of stories in those days to entertain the younger children. We spent a lot of time on my grandparents’ ranch in Northern California and at their cabin in the High Sierras. Neither place had TV, so we spent most of our time outside, playing games. I made up many of them on the fly, although the others always added their ideas and fought to play their favorite roles. The lawyers in my family are all courtroom lawyers. If you stop and think about that, you’ll realize that they are all creative types, too, creating images and likely scenarios for juries.
However, I never expected to
become a writer. So the real answer
to your question as to what inspired me is that I was flinging books across the
room because authors hadn’t done basic research, saying that I could do better.
My husband bought me a desk and a typewriter and challenged me to write a book.
So I did, and to my astonishment, Signet bought it (The Fugitive Heiress)!
Kari & Autumn: Where
do you come up with the ideas for your books?
Amanda: Mostly from the research,
but I collect characters from all sorts of places—people I’ve met, character
traits I encounter in books, poetry, or just people, places, comments I
overhear. It’s all grist for the mill. Actually, my favorite answer to that
question is Stephen King’s: “Cleveland.” The plain fact is that writers are
like sponges—they soak up everything that approaches them and eventually it all
gets wrung out in their work. For book one of my new Lairds of the Loch (Loch Lomond) trilogy, The Laird’s Choice, (Dec 2012, Forever), I got ideas from
members of Clan MacFarlane, from the history of that clan, and from a dear
friend who was born and raised in Scotland and is a historian. He came up with Tùr
Meiloach, the name of the estate where my heroines live with their parents. It
means “small tower guarded by giants.” The idea for the hero came from that
definition. The idea for the book’s opening and the heroine’s gifts came from
the Greek myth about Camilla, a huntress friend of the goddess Diana.
The next book in the new
trilogy, The Knight’s Temptress,
(August 2013) is based on stories about the seizure of Dumbarton Castle, a
royal fortress, in 1425, and its recapture by Sir Ian Colquhoun. That story is
the basis for Clan Colquhoun’s motto: Si
je puis (“If I can”) which was Colquhoun’s response when James I, King of
Scots, told him to win it back. The
third book, The Warrior’s Bride, will
be out in early 2014.
By the way, the first
chapter of The Laird’s Choice is on
my website, www.amandascottauthor.com,
as are the Amazon links to my books and ebooks.
Kari & Autumn: What exciting projects are waiting
in the wings?
Amanda: Nearly
all of my backlist will be available in electronic form by May 2, 2013. I’m
very excited about that, because many of my older books have been out of print
for years and fans frequently write me asking how they can get them. Now they
can, in all formats, and the Kindle links are on my website, as noted above.
I
just finished The Warrior’s Bride,
which is book three in my Lairds of the
Loch trilogy, so I’m now working on the outline for a new trilogy and a new
contract. Having just written two trilogies set in the Highlands (Scottish Knights and Lairds of the Loch) and one set in
Galloway (Tamed by a Laird, Seduced by a Rogue, Tempted by a Warrior), I’m ready to return to the Scottish Borders for a while and perhaps continue using Clans Scott and
Douglas history for the background. I tend to move forward chronologically with
the history, so I’ll set the three books around 1426–1430 in James I’s reign.
Clans
Scott and Douglas figure prominently in my own heritage, so they are naturals
for me. I also have ancestral connections to a number of other clans, including
Jamison, Logan, and Ferguson. Once again, I plan to use real people for my two
main characters, specifically the grandson of the first Sir Walter Scott in Border Wedding. The Scotts, like most
other families at the time, commonly named their firstborn sons after their
paternal grandfathers, so there was a Walter in nearly every other generation from
the late fourteenth century on (meaning, well before the poet Sir Walter Scott),
right down to my own grandfather, Russell Walter Scott, who was named for his
grandfather, Walter Ferguson Scott. I am not connected to the poet, but we are
likely connected to that same line, just a few hundred or so years further back.
Kari & Autumn: Who
is your favorite literary character and why?
Amanda: I never know how to answer questions
like this one. The plain fact is that I’ve been reading since I was three, so I
have hundreds of favorite characters: the Cat in the Hat, Mary Poppins,
Scarlett O’Hara, Jack Reacher, Elvis Cole, Joe Pike, Sophy in The Grand Sophy, Hermione Granger, and
that’s just for starters. Looking over this limited list, I suppose I like them
because they are intelligent and fearless, or, more accurately, they are characters
who recognize that fear exists, that they feel it, but that they can overcome
it. It’s probably not surprising that I try to create characters much like
them.
Kari & Autumn: Just
for fun, if you could be any animal, what would it be and why?
Amanda: No contest. I’d be a cat because,
knowing that it’s the center of the Universe, it sleeps whenever it wants to.
Thanks Amanda!
About the author:
A fourth-generation Californian of Scottish descent, Amanda Scott is the author of more than fifty romantic novels, many of which appeared on the USA Today bestseller list. Her Scottish heritage and love of history (she received undergraduate and graduate degrees in history at Mills College and California State University, San Jose, respectively) inspired her to write historical fiction. Credited by Library Journal with starting the Scottish romance subgenre, Scott has also won acclaim for her sparkling Regency romances. She is the recipient of the Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award (for Lord Abberley’s Nemesis, 1986) and the RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award. She lives in central California with her husband.
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