It’s such a thrill to have Mary Gillgannon visiting today!
She’s sharing about her upcoming release, Call Down The Moon.
I love history, so all the books I’ve written until recently have been set in the past, from ancient times up to the Regency era. But two years ago when I was revising the opening of a story set in ninth century Ireland, I suddenly saw my heroine in contemporary Denver. I was rather shocked. What was she doing in the present day?
In the opening chapters of the book, which was all I’d written, my heroine, Aisling, was living in a cave with a group of wise women, the Nine Sisters. She meets the hero, an Irish prince named Connar, when he seeks out the Sisters’ aid for his gravely wounded foster brother, Fergus. The Nine Sisters heal Fergus, but he is terrified of their powerful magic and comes to believe they have cursed him. When he discovers Connar has fallen in love with Aisling, Fergus is determined to break them up and to destroy the Sisters.
I never wrote the ending of the book, and as I was working on it, I began to realize that this romance didn’t end happily, at least in this time period. My heroine dies, leaving the hero devastated. But that isn’t the end of the story. With the aid of magic, he is able to travel to the future to be reunited with her. The catch is that Aisling, who is now Allison, a free-lance writer living in Denver, doesn’t remember anything of her past life. And even though she is intensely attracted to Connar from the moment she meets him, in order for them to reach their happily-ever-after in this time period, Connar has to get her to fall in love with him all over again.
And of course it isn’t as simple as it sounds. There are forces working against them, dangerous forces from the past. And when Allison does start to remember her past life, she recalls terrifying things… and all of them are connected to Connar.
I was pretty nervous writing a story set in the present. After years of attempting to transport readers to the past with carefully researched details and writing dialogue that I hoped had an archaic feel, I now had to seriously shift gears. I worried I wouldn’t enjoy it, that writing in the present would be boring and feel forced. But then I realized that, exactly like all my other books, I simply had to let the characters tell me their story and everything would fall into place.
Here’s an excerpt from Call Down The Moonwhen Aisling and Connar are on their first date in the present:
She looked uneasy, Connar thought as he went back into the living room. To her, he was a stranger. It was reasonable for her to be wary and cautious. If only it was not so difficult for him to restrain himself. He didn’t want to make polite small talk. He already knewher. Her essence, her deepest spiritual self. The rest of it didn’t matter.
But he had to be considerate, to put her at ease. “They said the pizza should be here in forty-five minutes. Would you like a drink while we wait?”
“Maybe some wine.”
He went into the kitchen and pulled a dusty bottle from the wine rack, then dug in the drawer for a corkscrew. His hands shook as he inserted the corkscrew and worked it down. He couldn’t believe this moment had come. Aisling was here. After all these centuries. It was…magic. He took a deep breath. She was the whole center of his world, his reason for existence. He had to make certain everything went perfectly.
Pulling out the cork, he poured each of them a glass of wine and took the glasses into the living room. She was sitting on the couch, looking so beautiful it made his chest hurt. He handed her a glass and sat down beside her. Not too close. He didn’t want to distress her. But if he didn’t touch her soon, he would lose his wits.
She took a sip of the wine. The tip of her tongue poked out in an unconscious gesture as she tasted the wine. Connar sucked in his breath. He couldn’t endure much more. He was overwhelmed with desire. It was torment to be so close to her. To watch the rise and fall of her breasts beneath the tight fabric of her dress. To observe the pulse of life in her slim neck. To feast his eyes on the silken perfection of her skin. Every nuance, every detail of her body aroused him.
“It’s good wine,” she said. “I mean, I’m hardly a connoisseur, but it’s very mellow.” She looked at him, a shy flash of blue eyes. His mind went blank as he focused on her lips. Full and ripe, and moist from the wine.
He put down his own glass and cleared his throat, struggling for control. “Yes, it’s good wine. I’ve been saving it.”
“Saving it? For me?” Her voice was breathless, soft and light. Her pupils were huge, the black centers consuming the blue irises.
“Yes, for you.” He took her glass of wine and carefully set it on the table to his right. Then, he reached out and put his hand on her neck. She didn’t move, merely stared at him, lips slightly parted. He leaned forward to kiss her.
Call Down the Moon will be released later this year. For more information on Mary and her books, visit her website http://marygillgannon.comor her blog: http://marygillgannon.blogspot.com.
