Romance at Heart Magazine Author Interview: Melanie Jackson

Interview With Melanie Jackson:

Hi Melanie. It is good to have you here. Thank you for doing this interview. I would like to welcome you to the Romance at Heart Interview and Author Grilling session. *bg* We are interested to find out as much about you as we possibly can, so lets get started...

- Please tell us about your latest book.

The latest to hit the shelves is The Selkie. It is a story set in Scotland in the 1920's and looks at several of the Celtic mythological peoples. I think that Night Visitor's readers will enjoy this one.

Particulars of the Selkie legend vary from culture to culture but there are a few facts that all Celtic and Norse mythologies agree upon. The selkie, as the old song goes, is a man upon the land, and a silkie (seal) in the sea. At certain times of the year, during certain phases of the moon, a selkie may put aside its skin and walk on the land as a human being. All selkies, whether male or female, are extraordinarily beautiful, but they are valued by humans for other reasons. If one steals a selkie's skin and hides it away, the selkie will be compelled to remain on land and do the thief's bidding. Selkie wives were prized among fishermen because they could call fish into the nets and keep storms away from the boats. If you want a selkie lover, all you need do is go to the sea at sunset and cry seven tears into the waves...

But there is a down side to taking a selkie as wife or lover. In many legends, the selkie will die one year from the day that they come onto land. In others, they hunt relentlessly for their skins and when they find them, the selkie wife will abandon her husband and children to return to the sea because they can never love anything as much as the ocean. For human women, the tale is even sadder. If she has a child by a selkie (and this does not always happen as most unions are infertile), he will return to her one year from the day that the child is born and take the babe away with him. This occurs in legend with male children especially. The babies turn selkie at one year and will die if they are left on land. The same story usually has the woman's human husband going out hunting and slaying the selkie lover and the wife's selkie son...

However, nothing so tragic happens in this story. Though the hero is a selkie, the heroine still manages a love affair with him. She is not, after all, just some simple village lass. Her grandmother was a MacDuffie (mac dubh sidhe, or-- more properly, nic dubh sidhe. In Gaelic this means daughter of the black faerie'). To the selkies, she is the nicnanron, a human woman who can become a selkie and give birth to healthy silkies.

- What can we expect from you in the future?

August brings the first book in the Wildside Romance series. The books are set in a present day alternative reality where goblin warlords in charge of mafia families (hives) manage their empires as sorts of city-states. No longer content with ruling their own small kingdoms, the goblins have become bent on world dominations. Humans are largely unaware of the danger facing them, but fortunately the few remaining feys in the world have an effective spy network and are able to send agent provocateurs to live undercover in the goblin lands and foil the lutins' evil plots. The first book, Traveler, is set in the goblin stronghold of Detroit. Book two, Outsider, is set in Las Vegas, Book Three, Courier, takes place in New Orleans. If you would like to see what the goblins are up to visit www.lutinempire.com. Play with the links. You may make it inside the hive and be able to read up on the real goblin plans.

- How may readers contact you?

Readers can reach me through my website www.melaniejackson.com or at melaniejaxn@hotmail.com They can read excerpts and talk to other readers on the messageboards. It's a good way to get a feel for whether you will enjoy the sort of things I write before selecting a book.

- Why did you decide to write romance novels?

The short answer is Elizabeth Lowell's Tell Me No Lies. What an awesome book! A romance that blended intrigue, history and a red hot love affair-- it opened my eyes to what a romance could be. The other answer is that I chose romance because its life-affirming message appealed to the optimist in me.

- How much of your personality and life experience is in your writing?

Way more than I am comfortable admitting to J. I think is inevitable that some aspects of a writer's personality will show up in her work. And thank heavens for it! After all, it is this individual experience and personality that makes each writer's voice unique. I have argued before that is you handed a dozen writers an outline and said: write this book! You would still get twelve entirely different stories.

- What about your family, do they know not to bother you when you are writing - or are there constant interruptions?

The family is well-trained. The neighbors slightly less so. And the telemarketers are the instruments of Satan trying to interrupt me at the worst possible times

- What do you do to relax and recharge your batteries?

I take long walks and have started forcing myself to stop working long enough to eat regular meals with the dh. And every now and then, my sister and I will take a holiday together. The guilt used to bother me-- that darned muse wringing her hands as I walked out the door without the portable pc-- but I've learned to do these things in spite of this. It is quite true that all work and no play makes Melanie a very dull girl. Then the story suffers too. Better a short vacation than a long burn out.

- Which comes first, the story, the characters or the setting?

Usually Setting, the story, then characters. But not always. Some characters have been strong enough that they have invaded my dreams and demanded an introduction from the psyche.

- What are our thoughts on love scenes in romance novels, do you find them difficult to write?

Yes. It is too easy to feel like voyeur once the characters have become real in my mind. It feels rude peeking under the covers. But generally they forgive me, because I don't use their sex lives strictly for titillation.

- What kind of research do you do?

Extensive and painstaking. I think the local library has lustful impulses toward my collection of reference books.

- Would you like to write a different genre than you do now, or sub-genre?

Mysteries-- maybe fantasy. Mostly, I just want to keep pushing out the borders of what romance can be. There is a lot of territory yet to be covered.

- What does your husband think of your writing? Do you ever ask him for advice?

He is hugely supportive, a fan but also a bit critical at times when he feels I've ducked some issue. I sometimes ask for advice about business issues, or about the websites, but not about creative matters. My editor and agent will tell you that I don't ask for advice from anyone about that

- Fill in the blank favorites - Dessert. City. Season. Type of hero. Type of heroine.

Can I have two desserts and two cities? Bananas Foster in summer. Pecan pie in winter… actually, can I have four cities? From childhood, San Francisco. From my teens, London. My new love is New York. But my deepest fascination is probably for New Orleans. Let's see - heroes and heroines are much the same. I like them smart, comfortable with who they are, and kind. Sexy is good too.

- What are the elements of a great romance for you?

This will sound odd. But I think what makes a timeless romance is one that is able to reach out and touch people regardless of age, culture-- or even gender. I wouldn't have thought of the last item except that I have so many letters from male readers. It has made me believe that romance can be so much broader than we ever previously expected. After all, the human condition-- at its core-- is not subject to fashionable whim. There are many wonderful writers who can reach across all these borders and draw in readers from all over the world and all walks of life. I think of them as being earth-based romance writers (as opposed to the whole women are from Venus and men are from Mars thing that narrows a book's focus). I think it is these books-- stories that are able to touch a wide variety of people-- that make for something that is lasting.

- Are you in control of your characters or do they control you?

Sigh… Every year I ask Santa Claus to please bring me a spine, but so far the characters have it all their own way.

Thank you Melanie, we appreciate your candor, input, and the time you took for us! We shall be watching for more of the marvelous tales that pour from your pen, not only the historical novels, but the Wild Side Romances as well.

Yours in good reading,
Rose!

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