Josh Groban and his band put on an amazing Livestream Valentine’s concert tonight for the world. I cooked a nice dinner for my family and all three of us watched Groban’s concert while we ate. Groban sang songs from his new album, Harmony, but he also sang a cover by Billy Joel, and played the piano, too! I don’t want to give it all away if you haven’t had a chance to see the concert, yet and you have tickets. But it was totally worth the ticket! I am glad musicians like Groban and his band are able to still perform, but I still miss live music. Music in stadiums, too!
Cheyenne is lucky to have Mary Gillgannon who works by day as a librarian at the Laramie County Library, but is also a talented author.
“Lord of Secrets” is Gillgannon’s newest release in her Lords of the Borders series. This is book two. Her fans have been eagerly awaiting its release. Here is a Q and A that Gillgannon recently did over email.
Q and A is below : Please tell readers what your new book is about: Lord of Secrets is about a Welsh healer, Rhosyn, and an English knight, William Fitzhugh. William has just been named lord of Higham Castle, which is connected to the village where Rhosyn has recently come to escape her traumatic past in Wales. It takes place in the 13th century, a time when the Welsh and English were fighting bitterly over the lands on the border between Wales and England.
Where did you come up with the idea? I’ve always wanted to write a story about a healer in the medieval era. There is a tradition of using healing herbs that goes back to even before that time, and many of the herbal remedies they used were actually effective. In fact, some of them, or at least their active ingredients, are still used today. But the Church was very much against women having any power and so a lot of the knowledge of these women was suppressed and they were sometimes accused of witchcraft. And of course, my heroine needed a hero, so I came up with a young knight who is kind of over his head as far as running a castle. He needs a wife, but the only appropriate wife is an English noblewoman. But he falls in love with the healer and that causes problems for everyone.
How did you research it? I have several books on herbs and traditional remedies as well as lots on medieval history.. It helps that I’ve written several books in this time period previously, so I have notes from that research. But I do fact check a lot of things on the internet these days, which is much faster than when you had to find everything in books.
What do you like the most about your book? I like that both my characters are trying to find their way in a new life and so they have a lot of room to develop and grow over the course of the book. I’ve also made the hero a man who is able to appreciate women and see them as equals. That may be sort of unrealistic for the time period, but I have to believe some men were like that even then. I think it makes him a very appealing hero.
Where can they find it? Right now it is only available through Amazon, in both e-book and trade paperback format.
How long have you been writing romance? Thirty years. I started soon after I began working at the library in 1990.
Why romance? And why historical romance? Or is this a new sub genre for you? I originally wanted to write historical fiction and the romance part of it came about because romance has a clear story arc and that made it a lot easier to plot my first book. I also love to focus on what is happening in my characters’ hearts and minds, as much as historical events, and that’s what romances are about. The history becomes the background and the characters’ lives, the story. I have written one time travel romance and a historical fantasy, but otherwise all my books are historical romance.
Tell readers about some of your other titles that you think they’d like if they read this one? Maybe one that goes with it if it is a series? Or? Just one that is similar? This book is the second book in the Lords of the Borders series. The first one, Lord of Hearts, came out last fall. It has a much different hero and heroine, with a fiery Welsh princess who despises the English who ends up married to an English lord, who is sort of forced into wedding her. It’s more of an enemies to lovers story.
Anything else you’d like to add? I haven’t been on Facebook much lately, since I’ve been trying to meet my publisher’s deadlines. But I hope to get back on more this spring and start connecting with readers.
Information from press release THE LATE NIGHTS & LONGNECKS TOUR JUSTIN MOORE & TRACY LAWRENCE with special guest LAINEY WILSON Thursday, April 8 at 7 pm at the Ford Wyoming Center CASPER, WY- Justin Moore and Tracy Lawrence with special guest Laney Wilson are coming to Casper on the Late Nights & Longnecks Tour at the Ford Wyoming Center on Thursday, April 8, 2021. Tickets start at $39.50 plus applicable fees and go on-sale Friday, February 12th at 10:00 A.M. and available at the SinclairTix Box Office at the Ford Wyoming Center, all SinclairTix outlets locations, online at SinclairTix.com, or by phone at 800-442-2256.
