Okay, I admit it. I have a tendency to trip over stuff. Lots of stuff. Toys, furniture, my own two feet…nothing is too big or too small for me to get my feet unwittingly tangled up in it. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that in writing my debut novel, Call of the Highland Moon, I stumbled over the story idea just like I do everything else. This time, however, I wasn’t left with a bruise that looked like a purple sunrise. Which is good, because if writing left bruises, I would be in some serious trouble.
It all started with a name. Or rather, a big, sexy Scottish werewolf who needed a name. I’ve always loved the supernatural, so when I started out with this book the hero was the clearest thing in my head. Well over six feet tall, longish wavy brown hair, and a slashing scar across one golden eye. He tapped his foot impatiently and looked at his watch a lot while I hemmed and hawed over his future (alpha heroes can be like this). What part of the Highlands was he from? What was he doing in America? Who was his family? I pondered, and he tapped his foot. Finally, I had a first name for him: Gideon. Naming a werewolf after an angel made perfect sense to me. And no, I didn’t hit my head during all of that falling over stuff. Not much, anyway. Still, I knew the last name was the key. It would tell me where his home was, at the least. The very least, as it turned out!
I started digging around on the internet, hunting for pages about Scottish clans so I could get overviews and find one that might fit. Lucky for me, there’s a lot of Scottish pride out there, and people take a great deal of interest in preserving the history of their clans. I had plenty of information to stumble through, if I so chose. However, the very first site I hit was the only one I needed to make a decision. It was about a clan that had a history dating back to the very founding of Scotland, that had once resided in the remote Western Highlands, and that had kept, for a time, the legendary Stone of Destiny upon which all the kings of Scotland were crowned up until the 1400s, when it was (supposedly) taken by the British. My imagination caught fire. The remote location was ideal for the seat of the werewolf pack, and I just knew I was going to be able to work with anything called the Stone of Destiny. Turns out I was right…and Gideon MacInnes it was. It also turned out that he was the future Alpha of his pack, guardians of the mysterious Stone, and that his vacation to America was about to be rudely interrupted by a power hungry cousin and some lackeys who would stop at nothing to get their hands on his birthright. Then came Carly Silver, proprietor of Bodice Rippers and Baubles, with her biting wit and romantic heart, and the rest is history.
It’s funny how inspiration works. The smallest thing can set of a chain reaction in your head, and suddenly you have a story. Fortunately for me, inspiration is a thing often stumbled into, even by the non-clutzy! I hope everyone who reads what happened when I gave Gideon a magical, ancient relic and a secluded, ancient pack that guards it without truly understanding what it is enjoys reading the story as much as I enjoyed creating it. Call of the Highland Moon is a combination of my memories (the snowstorm in Northern New York that delivers a wounded Gideon into the arms of a shy and beautiful bookshop owner), my dreams (the Stone of Destiny, coveted by enemies both Earthly and otherworldly), and the fun facts and ideas I only ever seem to find when they get tangled up in my own two feet. Not that I mind…falling into a story is my favorite thing!
Kendra
www.kendraleighcastle.com, www.wickedlyromantic.blogspot.com
***Don’t forget to leave a comment! One reader will receive a copy of CALL OF THE HIGHLAND MOON.
Fun post, Kendra! As a fellow klutz, I admire how you managed to put your klutziness to good use in your writing. You are so right about the smallest thing mushrooming into a story idea. For me, with Line of Scrimmage, it was a pair of cowboy boots landing in a marble foyer. The rest, as they say, is history! Have a great day!
Marie
Wow a Scottish werewolf… that is something new for me!!! 😀 Isn’t research great… you find out so many interesting things that brings history to life!!!
Your story sounds interesting, I definitely will have to look into more of your books! Thanks for the link and blogging today!!! 😀
A Scottish hunk+ a werewolf… that sounds awsome!!!!!
The story soungs great, I really really want this book!! 😛
Werevolves and Scotland, my two favorites!!
I loved your website, wonderful howl. This is definitely a book for me, I want it too!!
Thanks, Colleen and Stefanie! Research is great…it made me really want a vacation to the Western Highlands, though, which is going to be a while in coming! And I don’t think there’s anything better than a hunk with a brogue who could potentially wear a kilt at his wedding:-) Thanks for stopping in!
Hi Kendra, I can’t believe the book is published and available to buy!!! How exciting!! I remember when you were still writing it many “moons” ago! Congrats, Katrina
Marie! I didn’t see your post before! Thanks for coming! I’m proud to share the trait of klutziness with you, as you are a kick-butt writer.
Thanks, Eva! I was adamant that my page had to howl…it freaks out some people’s pets, but I love it too, so thank you!
I try over stuff a lot too, I’ve tripped over my own feet a ridiculous number of times, lol.
Great post! 😀
I don’t have a problem with tripping, instead I wander into stationary objects and get bruises I cannot explain. I suppose if I didn’t notice the furniture enough to avoid walking into it it’s not surprising I wasn’t paying enough attention to remember walking into it.
Anyway, this book is now on my to be read list!
Wow, Kendra, what a very lovely cover!!
And thanks for sharing your story–I’ve got some klutzy tendencies myself, but they’ve never done anything as useful for me as kicking off such a hot story!
Hey, Katrina! It’s great to “see” you! Write me sometime and let me know how you guys are doing!
Wendy, Laura, and fedora, I now feel a LOT better about running into stuff and/or tripping over random objects…I am not alone! WOO! I get a lot of weird bruises too, Laura, some of which are large enough that I really ought to remember what the heck I slammed into. And yet, no. Thanks for all the awesome compliments:-)
Glad to see you here today, one of my favorites to read are werewolves.
Wow! Sounds like a great story! I love paranormal, especially shifter stories. Thanks for sharing how it came to be.
What a beautiful cover. Sounds like a great book. I love werewolfs and Scotland.
Thanks! I love my cover (yeah, biased maybe, but I really do love it). And stories about men who are at least half wild are some of my favorites too!
This book sounds wonderful I love stories set in Scotland and I am just getting into the paranormal side of romance and am loving it. I will be looking for this book and I love the cover.
Have Fun
Helen
Okay I’ve got to get this book for the cover alone. That is an absolute beautiful cover. This book sounds great.
I’m clumsy as well. I fall over air.
I am really interested in this book. I love books set in the Highlands of Scotland, so I have got to have it. I have never read a paranormal set in Scotland, very interesting.
I can’t tell you how nice it is to have so many people love the cover! I’m going to have to tell my editor…she’ll be thrilled:-) I fell in love with the couple at the bottom right when I saw it…sooo sexy! Thanks for coming by!
I love this cover. Another book to add to my ever growing list of books to buy. 🙂
I know I’m horribly late commenting (don’t ask, really :put upon, heavy :sigh:: but I have to say that your path to writing this one is extremely entertaining. And I for one will spend some time soon googling the Stone of Destiny! 😀
I hope the book is doing wonderfully, sales-wise!
Thanks! And as I have three small kids, I do a lot of put upon heavy sighing myself, so no worries. Just glad you could make it:-) The real Stone of Destiny makes for some very interesting research, and there’s plenty of mystery to play with too…one of the reasons I couldn’t resist!
Hi Kendra, fun ost and interesting about the Stone of Destiny. I’ve read Scottish vamps but not one with a sexy werewolf. Sounds great, on my wishlist.
Dear Kendra,
I loved the book. I read it in two days and I am looking forward to the next one. My Husband was deployed for 15 month in Afghanistan ( he just came back on mothers day) and we have three small children. It was hard but it was books like yours that got me through the chaos, worry and lonelyness. Thank you so much.
Your Fan,
Steph
Pam, thank you! And Steph, I can’t tell you how much that means to me. I’m a military wife too (with three little kids…I understand the insanity of occasional single parenting!), though I will not even pretend that Brian’s six-month deployments on the carrier are anywhere near as grueling as what you have been through. I’m honored to have been able to help you deal with it in any small way! Thanks to you and your husband both for what you do. A big virtual hug from me!!
This sounds like a really great book. I love books about werewolves. And Scotland too! I’m looking forward to reading it. I enjoyed the excerpt…kinda made me want to go crawl under my comforter too 🙂 Especially if I could wake up to what Carly did 🙂 Thanks for the post!!
Thanks, Nicole! I love that scene…I think it’s a great representation of the book as a whole, so I’m glad you thought it was fun. I grew up dealing with those frozen NNY winters…getting up on frigid, snowy mornings was never easy, and Gideon would be an EXCELLENT excuse to stay in bed!
Steph and Kendra, just wanted to say thank you for doing all you do and thank you to your husbands for their service to us. I’ve got three little ones, too, and it’s hard enough staying in one place with my husband around most of the time. A huge hats off to you both!!
Hi Kendra,
I saw this book just before it was released, added it to my books but have still not been able to find it in the bookstores!! It sounds wonderful…Scotland and Werewolves! Oh my!!
I just need to order it!