Welcome to Marie Treanor's guest blog!

Welcome Ms. Marie Treanor to Love Romances and More, thank you for joining us.

Thanks, Danny, it’s wonderful to be here. Thanks for having me!

Did you always want to become a writer?

Yes, I did! That is, I was always writing, from when I was a young child and made my friends perform in my specially written plays. As I grew up, I got shyer about it, though, and wrote in secret, so it was really only after my kids were born that I began to write with a serious view to being published.

What is the most, and the least interesting fact about writing?

The most interesting has to be living in your characters’ world, and experiencing with them all the exciting things that happen to them. I love just about everything about the writing process, but the least interesting is probably the editing, where you have to look much more clinically at your story, and deal with dull things like words you’ve used too often and any bits of the plot that don’t quite work. It can take the magic away - but only temporarily, and you’re left with a better book afterwards, so it has to be a good thing!

How did you celebrate your first release?

I can’t remember the details now, but I’ve a feeling it involved fizzy wine in the bath

What was it like to see your book in a bookstore?

I’ll have to answer that one a bit later! Most of my books are in ebook only, but I love seeing them on publishers’ sites and Fictionwise etc. BUT, Gothic Dragon, has just been released in print by Samhain, so I’m hoping I won’t have to wait much longer!

Do you have a special ritual for celebrating a book release?

Not really. I’m too chaotic to have rituals. But there is a special feeling about a release day that keeps me happy and excited, and I’ll drink a toast to it in the evening

How did your family react to fact that you also write romance novels? Have your family read your books?

My husband’s the only one who knows, and he thinks it’s great fun. And he’s helped me out with my plots, like the chess game in Queen’s Gambit and the tether in City of the Damned. Romance isn’t really his thing, though, so he doesn’t really read them – except the sexy bits

Most authors are also avid readers. Is this the case with you? If so, who are some of your favorites? Have any influenced your writing?

Yes, I’ve always read lots and read widely, and I think, whether I’m conscious of it or not, everything I read must influence me in some way, either positively or negatively. If I had to pick one author of all time, it would be Dorothy Dunnett, the historical novelist, but I enjoy books in many different genres, including the classics, historical, crime, fantasy, science fiction and fantasy. And romance – of course! – where I have too many favourites to mention!


Your characters come to life in your books. Do you feel each of your characters live with you as you write? Do their lives sometimes take over a part of your life? Can you name an example? Do you have living role models for your characters?

Thanks! And yes, they live very close to me as I write! Too close for sanity, sometimes J. Once I’m into a story like this, the characters begin to write it themselves and often take me in directions I didn’t really mean to go. The real world tends to fade at those moments and I can forget that important things might really be happening. Like the time my old boss and her friend came for lunch – they were up in Scotland for a holiday and we’d planned this a long time ago - and I forgot all about it! They arrived to find me wide-eyed and tousled after a hard morning’s writing and the house a total mess. I had to scuttle off and buy emergency rations to feed them. I felt so awful about that!

I don’t necessarily have living role models for my characters, although some of them have been partly inspired by real people. And don’t tell him, but my heroes tend to be various aspects of my husband

Where do you get the inspirations for your books?

Lots of different places! Sometimes a face I’ve seen on a train, or on the television, or a photograph. Sometimes from a moment in history that suddenly strikes me in a new light.
Scotland, where I’ve lived for most of my life, supplies most of the backgrounds to my stories. But to give you a few examples…

Steamy Nights at Changeling, grew out of old bodysnatcher stories and the atmosphere of Edinburgh’s old town. A television advert inspired Killing Joe (Samhain); a news item about Satanism in Italy inspired The Devil and Via (Samhain). A few chance words of my father-in-law’s about pandemics inspired Magic Man (coming soon from The Wild Rose Press). Others like the City of the Damned stories at Changeling, and Hunting Karoly (coming from Ellora’s Cave on 5th June) grew out of my longer-term fascination with werewolves and vampires, and the various environments in which they might thrive.

Do you find it difficult at times to write love scenes?

Not initially, because they flow naturally with the story. Sometimes, I find it difficult to add to them later if my editor wants me to, or to change things around to suit publisher’s requirements – like using condoms at particular times. But love scenes are obviously central to romance, and I love writing them!

What is your favorite book from the books that you have written so far?

Oh dear, I change my mind a lot about this! And I suppose like most authors, my favourite is always the one I’m writing at the time. Perhaps my absolute favourite is Hunting Karoly.

Who are your favorite hero and heroine, and why?

Aargh! See the question above. If I had to pick a hero – maybe Rab from Requiem for Rab, because although he’s fun to be with, his humour covers much deeper feelings than most people know. Although there’s also the Magician from Magic Man. I love his understated strength mixed with sensitivity and sheer sexiness!

My favourite heroine is probably Jenny from Hunting Karoly, because she’s such a fun mixture of aggression and vulnerability.

Which book was the hardest to write and which the easiest?

Do you know, I don’t think any of them were hard to write! It always seems to be harder not to write them! Steamy Nights did tie my brain in knots at times, trying to keep track of time paradoxes and such, so I suppose it was hardest. Easiest…I’ll say Requiem for Rab because I seem to remember it all flowed along very fast and I understood the characters immediately.

If you could change places with one character from your books, who would it be and why?

Oh Esther from Gothic Dragon! I’d love to fall into one of my favourite books, and I certainly wouldn’t object to hanging out with someone as sexy as Drago

If you could travel through time to visit a special time period or famous person, what or who would it be and why?

Just one?? Too hard. I’d love to go back and meet lots of different historical characters, mostly to see if they’re anything like I imagine them, or like history portrays them. Heroes like William Wallace in the thirteenth century, dashing soldiers like Prince Rupert of the Rhine in the seventeenth. Also, “idea” people like Leonardo da Vinci, John Lilburn, the seventeenth century “Leveller”, Mrs Pankhurst. Writers like Jane Austen and George Eliot. And enigmatic characters like Vlad the Impaler, who was probably not as black as he was painted, though I think I’d need a lot of courage to find out!

Do you listen to music while you are writing and if so what music is it?

Sometimes, I do. And what I listen to tends to depend on the mood of the story, or the scene that I’m writing. For example, I listened to a medieval music CD when I was writing parts of Gothic Dragon. And I distinctly remember writing some of Requiem for Rab while Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” played – in fact it probably inspired the scene where my heroine wakes up to discover the ghost of her ex-husband surfing the web to the blaring sound of that very track

If you could choose of your books for a movie, which one would it be and who would you as the cast?

Hmm, I always find that difficult to imagine. But it just came to me that Ariadne’s Thread might make a fun movie, and I think I’d have Rufus Sewell (Dark City) playing the hero. If he can do a decent slightly-Scottish accent!

Are you working on anything right now, and can you tell us a teaser about these projects?

Somehow I seem to be working on lots of projects! We’ve just finished final line edits on a story I wrote with Bonnie Dee – Cinderella Unmasked, which comes out at Samhain on 18th August. It’s a sort of erotic post-fairytale fantasy and great fun. We’ve also just started on another fairytale idea. And I’m involved in another joint-project with another author!

On top of that, I’m in the middle of editing an old story for re-release as Magic Man with The Wild Rose Press.

But mostly, I’m writing a solo vampire story, a sequel to Hunting Karoly, involving Karoly’s ex-lover (who wants to turn his ancestral castle into a vampire commune), and a Scottish ex-gangster gone straight

Life is good!