Hi Fiona and welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews. Happy Holidays! I know this is a busy time of year so I truly appreciate you taking the time to speak with us.


First off, let me say I just finished your book Holiday Heat. This was a fun Christmas story that definitely sets the mood for the holidays. For readers that have not had a chance to read this, can you tell us a little about the story?

Thanks for the compliment about Holiday Heat, and I'd love to tell everyone about it. Well, Kate Swanson, my heroine is a veterinarian with a specialty in small animal orthopedics. She is going home to the North Carolina Mountains for the holidays, but has a lot of anxiety about doing so. She dreads possibly meeting her former finance, Kyle Graham, whom she dumped without a word of explanation two years ago. But her grandmother is undergoing surgery, so she goes.

Kate literally runs into Kyle when her car skids on an ice patch during a sleet storm and hits his. Their encounter is very emotional because they are still in love, but of course, Kyle is very angry with her and still terribly hurt. He also can't understand why he left without a word. He has never been able to get any closure on the situation and is now determined to find out why she left. Kate is hurting, too, but had a very compelling reason for doing what she did, but she cannot tell him. Of course, they reconcile, since the holidays are a time of reconciliation and peace on earth.

Do you intend to develop a short story for Pat?

Well, now, that's a thought. I hadn't considered it until now. I did rather like her no-nonsense approach to life and her sense of humor. Maybe I'll do it in the future. I have about five ideas I would love to develop first, though.

You write a variety of romance genres, from Contemporary to Historical and Paranormal. Do you find your style differs between the genres?

I think my voice stays the same, but they style changes. A musician doesn't play a Mozart sonata the way he would a rock song. The technique is the same, but the style definitely changes.

In historical novels, I have to be careful about using appropriate language. The way people spoke and addressed each other was more formal. However, I work very hard on trying to make dialogue seem natural. When I watch some old historical movies on television, I find that the dialogue is stilted. It's like a balancing act.

I am also really careful to research the customs, too. In Seducing Brodie MacKay, which takes place in early Eighteenth Century Scotland, I had the villagers celebrating a penny wedding, so I did quite a bit or research on marriage in Scotland. In the Flame on the Moor, which I set in the same century, I had to research some of the inheritance laws.

Also, life back then was male dominated.

Contemporary novels need accurate research, too, but the characters speak the way we do. Today, things are not as formal.

Is there something specific that appeals to you within each of these genres?

Oh, yes. I love to write paranormal novels because you can really let your imagination go wild. I mean, you can suspend the laws of nature and have your character fly, breathe under water, go back in time, or go forward in time. The possibilities are limited to the borders of the writer's imagination.

I love history, so I enjoy reading and writing historical novels. I like spirited heroines who like to flout convention, such as Aiden in the Flame on the Moor, and Lorna in Seducing Brodie MacKay Feisty heroines in a man's world face some interesting challenges. Both these heroines took tremendous risks for the people they loved.

Contemporaries are fun, too. You can bring in all the frustrations of modern life, like fighting traffic, having fender benders, bosses that are jerks. You can create a world to which everyone can relate, and have your characters face the challenges of modern life.

I'd like to say that in each of these genres I try to depict characters that meet life's challenges and grow from their experiences. No matter how much we have progressed with modern technology, the need for basic things has remained with us.

Given the versatility of the styles, is there a particular hero or heroine that stands out as your favorite?

Oh, yes. There are two heroes that I positively fell in love with.(Don't tell my husband.) Brodie MacKay was my favorite historical character. I don't know from where in my fevered brain he sprang. Maybe he just evolved over time, but I love that character. He's a big, brawny, stubborn Scot, whose evil uncle has stolen his title and lands from him. His uncle, who is killed under mysterious circumstances, was married to Lady Lorna. Lorna and Brodie have lusted from afar, but have never committed adultery.

Both Brodie and Lorna are suspects. Both have strong motives because his uncle also was an abusive husband. At first, they suspect each other. They are also at odds because both want Kirkmoor Manor. It will go to Brodie's vile cousin, though. But Lorna hatches a plot to keep the manor out of the evil cousin's hands, but the plot involves seduction, deception, and Brodie is reluctant…until his passion for Lorna makes him forget everything.

Brodie is really an alpha male, but he has a soft side, especially when it comes to Lorna and their infant daughter, Aileen. He is willing to give up everything for them.

My favorite heroine is Lorna. She is willing to take really great risks for her family and bend society's rules. She truly loves Brodie, though he doesn't realize it for a while.

The other hero I love is Hart MacKenzie in Rx for Love. He is a wounded doctor, who finds brash, feisty pharmacist, Maura Egan, more than a match for him, after he rescues her from almost freezing to death in a terrific snowstorm, that is. She can't understand why he gave up practicing medicine. Like a lot of men, he isn't good expressing his feelings in words. Maura, who never gave up on anything in her life, thinks he is a quitter. Hart is patient, caring, but he's no pushover either.

We have all heard that becoming a published author takes time and dedication. What kept you motivated while waiting for your first story to be published?

Well, I entered my, The Rose In the Mist, in a contest. While it didn't win, one of the judges, who was a multi-published author, wrote on the manuscript that she thought it was a wonderful book and that she couldn't wait to see it published. She even put her phone number of the manuscript and told me to call her if I had any questions. Of course, I did. The same thing happened when I sent it to an editor. The editor wrote a letter, telling me she really enjoyed the story, but she couldn't buy it because she had an over-inventory of historical novels. So, I concluded that I must have something going if these two professionals thought the book was good, and I kept at it. I decided to send it to New Concepts Publishing, and they offered me a contract.

Does it get any easier once you have had your first book published?

In a word, no. At least, not for me, it doesn't.

How does a story develop for you? Do you imagine a particular scene and build from there or do you work sequentially until a work is complete?

Oh, a story develops in many different ways. One of my contemporaries, A Passion for Roses, was inspired by looking a picture of roses on the cover of a magazine and the caption was A Passion for Roses So, Bliss Moran, a former paramedic turned florist was born. I know those are two very different careers, but when she was called out to an accident and found her fiancé dead, she knew she could not continue doing that type of work.
Sometimes, the struggles I see people overcome inspire me. For example, I know several people who stutter and several others who are caring for elderly relatives. I took those two aspects and wrote a Scottish Contemporary call Highland Heat My hero, Ronan Fraser, was a famous author who shunned publicity and remained somewhat of a mystery man because he stuttered. My heroine was a journalist who was sent to Scotland to expose him. She didn't want to do it, but she'd been out of a job for a while and was helping to pay for expensive medical treatment for her grandfather that Medicare didn't cover.

I was working as a professional counselor in prison, I had a client who was a sleepwalker, so the heroine in The Rose In The Mist sprung to life.

Bad weather inspires me, so I thought, what if a woman saw a man who appeared as he was riding on the mist. That's how the Mist Rider was conceived. Rx for Love started with the heroine getting stranded in a snowstorm, and of course, Holiday Heat had a terrible ice storm. Mist played a part in the Rose In the Mist, and in Master of Mistmere , the hero and heroine fight a storm while breaking a curse.

Often stories evolve differently from the way I envisioned first envisioned them, even though I plot my stories through. After I do the first draft, I go back and revise and change the plot, especially if it's sagging in the middle. Usually, I work sequentially, but other times I start with a scene. I always have a critical situation as the nucleus of the story.

Seeing your current success, what else would you like to accomplish with your writing?

Okay, let me dream big. New York Times Best Seller List.

With the holidays quickly approaching, is there a certain holiday movie or story that you have to experience in order for the holidays to be complete?

It's a Wonderful Life, and a Christmas Carol.

What can your fans expect to see next?

As I said earlier, I have several projects I hope to finish in 2005. They'll see more paranormal novels and fantasies, just as Beauty and the Beast and Master of Mistmere. I also want to do a contemporary romantic suspense because I love mystery stories, and I think the element of danger really intensifies a romance. Some of my historical novels already have a mystery subplot. Brodie MacKay has one, so does The Flame on the Moor and The Mist Rider.

By the way, I love to hear from readers. They can reach me at fionaneal@msn.com

They can see all my books and read the reviews and excerpts at www.newconceptspublishing.com/fionaneal.htm

Thank you so much for stopping by Fiona. Happy Holidays! I look forward to seeing what you have coming soon.

Readers if you have not had an opportunity to read something by Fiona yet, stop by her page on New Concepts Publishing.


Interviewed by: Amanda