Guest Author day with Margaret West

To get us started can you tell us a little about what you are working on or have coming out?

  I have just released my newest Paranormal Romance Abigail Cottage. It’s a dark paranormal and very out of keeping with the books I usually write. I wrote it 25 years ago, when computers where unheard of and we got excited of electric typewriters! It started off over 2000 pages and over the years was edited to death and now it’s a more manageable 300 or so.

What makes a book great in your eyes?

That’s a heard one. I usually feel a book is fabulous if I can’t put it down or when I do, it’s on my mind constantly.

Do you have any guilty pleasures?

I eat far too much chocolate. When I’m trying to work out a scene, review my plots or a character is just not shaping up, out comes my stash and I sit and eat. 

How much of the book is realistic?

None. It’s pure fiction.

What is the hardest scene you have had to write (published or not)? Why?

Sex scenes. They just do not come natural to me. I envy those who can just sit down and bash one out. It’s something about being so intimate on paper. Not t hat I am prude or anything, I just can’t write them very well. lol

If you had a reporter follow you around for the day, what would the readers get to see in your daily schedule?

They would be bored to death lol An hour of fitness on the wii, and hour of walking my devil in a cute fur coat, dog and all day in the office tapping away on my computer. All the action takes place in my books I’m afraid.

When you begin your stories, do you go with the flow, or go with an outline?

I have a basic idea in my mind but I mainly go with the flow. I’m not a plotter. I hate to be bogged down by guidelines. It works for me.

Is it hard coming up with titles or characters names?

No, and I have no idea how they pop into my head. I have come to believe my mind is an endless mine of useless drivel. Names, places, costumes are all buried there. A long with drama’s and ‘what if’  ideas.

What does your workstation look like?

At this moment fairly organized. I have two back up hard drives under my desk as I am paranoid that one should break down lol I have a white board to my left for idea’s and memory jogs, a pin board in front of me with various pics and trivia and on my desk to the left, a pink wire three tier drawer set holding all my pins and paper clips. Oh yes, three coffee cups. I tend to have a hoard when I’m working all day.

Are you the type of individual who gets weepy at the end of a good movie, or a sad movie, or do you just stay neutral through it all?

I blub like a baby. I’m renowned for it. If someone cries on screen you can guarantee I’m crying with them. I cried when I wrote a scene in Abigail Cottage…it was so sad..sigh…

Is there any books coming that you are itching to read (either electronic or print) from your favorite authors?

Not really. I have got through my 2010 pile. Next year, no doubt, it will begin to build. There are so many fab writers out there.

If you were to replenish your cabinets with one junk food, what would it be?

Crisps. I’m a martyr to them. I don’t have time to cook when I’m writing and crisps fill that growling space.

My links www.margaretwest.net

http://margaret-paranormalromanceauthor.blogspot.com/

http://magsx.blogspot.com/

Sneak Peek into Abigail Cottage by Margaret West
Available at Hedge-Witchery Books

After receiving an inheritance of a cottage in Ireland and discovering she is adopted, Abbey Newlands goes in search of her real family. But before she arrives at the cottage, a chain of events and a whirlwind romance leaves her deeply in love with Shaun O'Donnell. When Shaun's mother, Aveline, reveals a dark twist of fate that mean they can never be together, Abbey flees to the cottage alone, pregnant and unaware that it is cursed by two demons who reside there. One who will love her, and one who wants her dead. Only Shaun has the power to save them both and lock the demons away behind Hell's door.

Excerpt:

Justin sighed and looked out of the grimy windows of the cottage. He kept the crumbling wreck of a cottage whole through magic. Was it too much to ask for Adrinia, the shadow queen, to order her minions to clean it occasionally?

“Why can’t you content yourself with your existence?” Adrinia asked.

  “Because you know it isn’t enough. I want to be with my wife,” he ground out. “I feel incomplete without her. Not that you’d know how that feels.”

Adrinia gave a long sigh.  “Even a queen can get lonely, Justin.”

“It’s not only that. Look at me.” He threw his arms wide, emphasising his shabby clothes, which barely covered his scaly body. “If it wasn’t for the spells I barter from the night crawlers, I’d have to look like this for eternity. I used to be a handsome man. I don’t understand why I look like this now.”

 “I don’t think you look that bad.  I…” she began and was cut off by a sharp rap on the front door. “Who’s that?”

Justin frowned. “How do I know? I can’t see through doors.”

“Well, it won’t answer itself,” Adrinia said, as she disappeared into a dark recesses in the corner of the room.

 Justin quickly transformed himself into the young man he had been before his death, and opened the door. Words dried in his mouth when he saw familiar sapphire eyes staring back. The girl was nearly identical to his wife.

   “Ello’ mister, my name’s Abigail. I was...um…well, this place was…” She sighed and put her bag down on the floor. “Look, I need a room. I can work for my board. I can sew, cook and clean. My parents owned this cottage. They died in ere when I was born.”

It was if fortune had just walked in and slapped him on the back. Justin opened the door wider and wished the cottage was nicer inside. “Did you say your name was Abigail?”

 “Yes, mister. I was called afta’ the ouse’.”

He could sense the infant growing inside her belly. Even though she took pains to conceal it. It was the special ingredient he needed for his transformation spell. How fortuitous. “As it happens I do have a spare room and as you can see, I’m in dire need of a housekeeper.”

Abigail picked up her bag and stepped into the cottage. Her eyes scanned the small room and dulled in disappointment. “You’d better know I’m expecting a child. But it won’t interfere with my work” she quickly added.

Justin smiled broadly. “No, it won’t interfere with anything I have in mind. I’m sure.”