Lynn Kurland
Lynn Kurland is the author of numerous romance novels including historicals, time travels and ghosts. In between plotting out the lives of such a varied bunch she has taken the time to do this interview for us so please welcome Lynn Kurland to the Magical Romance Website.
LB
First of all could you please tell us a bit about yourself as an introduction to
the visitors to the Magical Romance website?
LK I'm just your average over 35 housewife with two kids,
a workaholic husband and two high-maintenance cats. I started writing 14 years
ago in college after reading a few romances where I wanted the ending to be
different. Facing my own blank page was very intimidating at first, but after I
stopped blushing at the complete ridiculousness of me taking pen to paper and
thinking I could put a book together, I plowed through a handful of little
stories that have long since been round-filed. I am actually a classically
trained musician (my mother had great hopes for me to sing at the Met), so
writing has definitely taken my life in a direction I hadn't planned on, but I
love it. I think all those years of trying to put characters together in my head
for operas and the like has really helped me learn to do it on paper. Now, if I
could just put some soundtracks together to go along with the printed word, I'd
be in great shape!
LB
Your latest novel A Garden in the Rain hit the shelves last month. Could you
tell us about this novel please? (BTW I love the cover of this book. I think it
is probably my favourite of all your novels' covers)
LK A Garden in the Rain began with that fabulous title my
editor came up with. We were looking for a title for another book, but when she
said the words, I immediately had a scene with Patrick and Madelyn in a garden
come to me and knew those were the characters for that title. The story is about
Patrick MacLeod, the first of the time-travelling MacLeods, and how he comes to
terms with his past and find loves again. The heroine is Madelyn Phillips, who
is having a very bad trip to Scotland, made all the more horrible by her ex-fiancé
who tags along. Though she'd entertained fantasies as a teenager of finding a
handsome Highland lord to fall in love with, she is completely unprepared for
the reality of it.
LB On your site, and in your later novels, there is a detailed
Genealogy Chart showing the MacLeod and de Piaget families through the
centuries. How do you keep track of them, particularly in light of the
additional complications of time travellers and ghosts?
LK I'd like to say that I'm completely organized and have
a list of all characters in its entirety running in my head at all times, but
I'm so sleep deprived that sometimes I feel lucky to remember the titles of my
books, not to mention all the particulars! I do have a timeline and I have
character lists of all the books written down--someday I'm going to have to
publish that even if I only do it myself for those who might be interested. What
I've considered doing is covering a bare wall with some great big sheets of
paper where I could make a detailed character map...
When I start a new book, I try to make sure that I remember all the
characters who might be involved and refresh my memory by rereading whatever
other books they might have been in. It has definitely gotten more complicated
as time has passed, though, and it's always a little unnerving to find I've
written myself into a corner by means of some throw-away phrase or character in
a previous book!
LB Your first two novels were unconnected in the Chart until
much later when future novels combined the two families history. Was it always
your intention to entwine the families together or was it something that just
happened?
LK Linking the two families together was something I'd
always thought about doing at some future point, and it sort of just happened
when it seemed like the right time, but as you pointed out earlier, it certainly
complicates things!
LB
Who else on the Chart is lined up to feature in a future novel on their own?
Quite a few people are waiting for Zach's story. Is this in the pipeline?
LK I got an email from someone the other day who finally
convinced me that Zach needs a book instead of a novella, but I think it's going
to take some serious thinking to figure out what to do with him for 450 pages! I
imagine I will get to most everyone else there at some point, and probably add a
few characters, but I'm still mulling over the possibilities. My next book is
due in March, so I'm mulling furiously at the moment!
LB Having written novels that are simply historicals, those
with ghosts and those with time travellers which do you find to be the most
challenging to write and which setting is your favourite?
LK I think the straight historicals are the hardest for
me, simply because I like to laugh and finding humor is more difficult without
some time-travelling or a few ghosts to liven things up. I think I like the ghost
stories the best, simply because I really like the thought of our ancestors
keeping an eye (and a matchmaking finger or two) on us.
LB What are you working on at the moment and what can we
expect to see on the shelves in the future?
LK I don't ever talk about what I'm working on in detail
(I think this used to drive my husband crazy, but he's gotten used to it), but I
can safely say that it will be a romance and feature either the MacLeods or the
de Piagets--and maybe both! I have a tentative date of January 2005, but I'm
never really sure about that until I see it on the shelves!
LB You have recently returned from a visit to the UK. How did
you enjoy visiting the countryside you have brought to life in your novels? I
hear that you like visiting castles (me too), did you get chance to visit
any in the UK? (I visited the most haunted castle in Northumberland this
summer but still have not seen a ghost - I do wonder myself if any of them are
actually haunted.)
LK We spent almost a week in the Highlands at the
beginning of our trip in a little village called Lochinver. On the way there (we
were late, as usual) I stopped in the middle of literally nowhere at a phone box
to call and let the proprietoress know were were going to be late, and the thing
that impressed me most was the silence that greeted me when I got out of the
car. It was almost frightening how still the countryside was. It made me feel
very small and quite unimportant. I can see why Highlanders love it though.
There is a lot of room for thinking there in that kind of silence.
I usually go over with a long list of castles to tramp through, but this
last time my husband and I were so wiped out before we even got on the plane
that we just went with no agenda. I also ditched the list mainly because I
wasn't sure I wanted my 20-month-old wandering around any 800 year old castles
and finding herself tumbling off walls. (She's a serious climber). We did visit
a 16th c manor house, Little Moreton Hall. It was absolutely fascinating and
made me give serious contemplation to possibly setting something during that
era.
I can tell you one place that's definitely haunted and that's Hermitage on
the border between England and Scotland. The last time I went, my older daughter
had fallen asleep in the car and my husband stayed with her while I went to go
have a look. It was pouring rain so maybe that added to the otherworldly
atmosphere, but I can say with absolute certainty and a straight face that the
feeling of walking through and near things not of our world was a definite
reality. If fact, I was so spooked, I only poked my head inside the castle, then
ran for the little visitor's center. I still have the chills thinking about it!
LB You have a very active message board on your website that
you regularly post on yourself. A recent thread indicates that you were looking
at setting up a Quotes page on your site. Is this still a possibility and do you
have any memorable quotes and/or scenes that stick in your own mind from your
novels?
LK Yes, the quotes page is something I'm trying to get
going, but I have a very busy webmistress! I'm hoping to nag enough to have it
up and running before Christmas.
I tend to think in scenes more than lines, so I can say that one of my favorite
scenes is from Veils of Time where Ian is standing in the bridal salon wearing a
wedding dress several sizes too small--having put it on because he thinks he's
gone to heaven and that's the only angel get-up available. And I also really
liked when Thomas first saw Iolanthe in My Heart Stood Still, where she's
standing in the ruined great hall in her simple clothes and the sun is streaming
down on her.
LB Finally, do you have a message for all your readers out
there?
LK I would just like to thank everyone who has been so
supportive of my work. I've gotten so many wonderful emails and posts. It's
really amazing to me to think that these simple characters I created without
really any expectations of how they'd be received, have found such fabulous
homes in so many wonderful bookcases. Thank you for those great homes! I hope
I'll be able to provide companions for those books far into the future!
And we thank you not only for your books but also for taking the time to do this interview. I for one look forward to seeing Zach's story at some point in the future and will have to make it a point to get to Hermitage at some point too. Thank you again Lynn.
Also by Lynn Kurland:
Another Chance to Dream (Historical)
If I Had You (Historical)
This is All I Ask (Mostly Historical)
From this Moment On (Mostly Historical)
To Kiss in the Shadows (Mostly Historical) - Available separately or as part of the Tapestry Anthology
The Icing on the Cake (Contemporary) - part of the Opposites Attract Anthology and the Love Came Just in Time Anthology
The Nine Kingdom's series (Fantasy)
Visit Ms Kurland's website and take a look at the family tree to see how many of her books tie in together.
Read an interview with Lynn Kurland
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