MAGIC SERIES (HISTORICAL)

Will there be more Malcolm and Ives?
Magic Man will be the last of this series for a while, but ideas are dancing in the back of my head, so I never say never...

What is the order the books should be read in?
The books stand alone and can be read in any order, but their order of publication is as follows:
Merely Magic--Drogo and Ninian
Must be Magic--Dunstan and Leila
The Trouble with Magic--Ewen and Felicity.
This Magic Moment -- Christina and Harry
Much Ado About Magic -- Lucinda and Sir Trevelyan
Magic Man -- Aidan and Mora

When will Aidan get his own book?
Aidan has just found his ideal woman--only she's being a wee bit recalcitrant. Read their story in MAGIC MAN (Signet Eclipse, July 2006).

Why are the two families (Malcolm and Ives) so at odds?
Legend has it that whenever Ives and Malcolms come together, disaster happens. But the back story shows that the origin of the legend comes from centuries ago. An Ives who madly adored a Malcolm and married her had reason to believe she was unfaithful, and he cast her aside. The village of Wystan flooded, the Ives suffered losses, and considering the castle they had gained from the Malcolm marriage cursed, they left Wystan. Until Drogo returns in MERELY MAGIC.

Will Michael O'Toole from THE MARQUESS get his own book?
Answer: Michael's book was written and sold immediately after The Marquess was published.  Unfortunately, the house that bought it quit publishing romance, and Michael ended up on my desk again some years later, when I'd moved on to other things.  The story is much too large for today's shorter books, but one of these days I'll figure out how to do his story justice. And thank you for asking, he's one of my favorite characters!

WRITING QUESTIONS

How do you come up with such quirky characters?

Quirky? My characters are quirky? <G> To me, they're real people, with their own opinions and their own way of doing things. I just happen to choose people who have problems that need solving and who have certain idiosyncrasies that attract each other. So when you get fire and gunpowder together--things happen.

Do you have any input into the covers of your books?

I can suggest certain settings or symbols. Sometimes I edit back cover copy a little. But the people who create the covers are professionals with far more experience than I. They don't ask to write my books and I don't ask to create their covers.

How can you write so differently in historical and contemporary genres?

I'm not certain that I actually "write" differently so much as create different types of experiences. Historicals can be purely imaginary within the realm of the setting and period. I don't have to worry too much about showing them brushing their teeth or other everyday practicalities because they're more fantasy-oriented. Readers like to be transported to a different time and place, one when things were simpler and romance more romantic and magic happens.

But creating contemporaries requires a great deal more attention to detail and pragmatics. I might be able to put my character on the courthouse roof, but I can't transport them to a magical woods or castle.  Contemporary life contains things like psychiatrists and courts and traffic, not gala balls and mysterious relatives. It's a different world we live in.

How do you plan for books featuring related characters? E.g., Impossible Dreams, Almost Perfect, McCloud's Woman, or the "Magic" series featuring the Malcolms women and the St. Ives men?

Planning is not my strong point! I seldom plan for these things to happen. I had a wonderful story to tell in IMPOSSIBLE DREAMS, and that story had to include the heroine's sister, Cleo. Cleo nagged at the back of my mind for several years, until she finally had her own story to tell in ALMOST PERFECT. She fell in love with a man who happened to be hiding from his two extraordinary brothers, and she lived in an area that I love, and the McCloud series simply emerged.

I will admit to a little more planning with the Ives and Malcolms. As I started telling Ninian's and Drogo's story, their families kept getting in the way, demanding face time. How could I neglect families with such a perfect conflict of natural talents, the instinctive against the scientific? And then Adonis appeared, and I was hooked.

Do authors and publishers get royalties on used books or books borrowed from libraries?  

The Novelist, Inc site has a good answer to this question.  Check the NINC response.

©2008 Patricia Rice

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