I love that girl...

Katrina Buckhold, my protagonist, my mentor, my hero...

Oh, my goodness, I love that girl. Katrina Buckhold, my very first female protagonist to make it onto the printed page, the star of my debut novel THE TRAZ and the lifeblood of the  BackTracker series. I fell in love with her when she first appeared in my dreams as frightened young girl on an autumn ridge. Waiting...for what I did not know. Terrified, and I did not know why.

Katrina Buckhold

"Tell me. Tell me. Tell me," I said and she did.

Not everyone loves Katrina, and most of us don't at least some of time. She's abrasive and annoying. Self-centered and manipulative. Immature. Sometimes shallow.  But always, somehow, compelling.

She survives tremendous odds, faces unfathomable traumas, is perpetually in danger. Saves lives and touches souls.

I want to be her and I don't know why. Her life is so very tough, full of heart-ache. Murder, death, lonliness. Betrayal. Her social circle so small. Her fans, far away and silent.

But she stays with it. She's determined. She has a self-confidence I can only dream of. She is committed to seeing things through. She wants so much--for herself and her world--and she never stops reaching for it.

At the end of each book, each chapter of her life she is better, stronger, kinder, wiser than she was in on page one. Through each novel she changes and, as she changes, she changes me.

Perhaps that's why I love her, am obsessed with her, spend so much time spinning her tales. Perhaps that's why there are eight books drafted in the series. Perhaps I want to be her so...I can change lives.


Brought to you by The BACKTRACKER Series 

Eileen Schuh, Author
DISPASSIONATE LIES
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ

Well...imagine that!

The muses have visited me since I was a child and today their magic still surrounds me. Perhaps the grandchildren have inherited my connection to the mystical--or perhaps I'm instilling in them creative wonder.

__________________

Although it was -40C/F last night, I went camping with the six-year old. We set up a tent, went fishing and hunting, built a fire and ate the fruits of our labour.

Look at this dandy! Here is the biggest fish we caught. It was a pike.

Here is the smallest fish we caught.

We caught a medium sized fish as well. I shouldn't say 'we'. The six-year old caught them all.

Then we went hunting and brought down this moose--actually the six-year old shot the moose but I helped carve it up and carry the meat back to camp.

This is our tent.

This is where we went fishing.

This is our fire. The fish are sizzling in that frying pan on top.

Off to the right is the pot we cooked our moose in.

Actually, it wasn't the six-year old that I went camping with--it was CHASE, the detective dog from PAW PATROL. He made a fine camping partner, sniffed out the moose, chased away the coyotes, brought down a bear...

Magic of the Muses...from whence inspiration comes.

Eileen Schuh, Author
DISPASSIONATE LIES
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ

Tall, Dark and Kilted... (yum)

If your vacations often come packaged between book covers, you just may want to travel to Scotland via the pages of the novel TALL, DARK and KILTED. Author Lizzie Lamb has a Canadian connection, too. Find out all about it...

A big warm welcome today to Lizzie from across the pond. Welcome to Magic of the Muses!

Hello, Eileen, thank you very much for inviting me onto your blog and introducing me to Canada. During the 1950’s my father (then a sailor in the Royal Navy) spent some time in Canada and when he returned to Scotland he was very keen to emigrate there, but somehow it never happened. Wonder how different my life would have been if it had. He said the people there were so welcoming, especially when they learned he was Scottish. I hope readers of your blog might feel the same about me and my novel. 

 All About Lizzie Lamb

After teaching my 1000th pupil and working as a deputy head teacher in a large primary school, I decided it was time to leave the chalk face and pursue my first love: writing. In 2006, I joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers Scheme, honed my craft and wrote Tall, Dark and Kilted. Born in Scotland, but with Irish and Brazilian blood in my veins I’ve always wanted to write a novel set in the romantic Highlands and Wester Ross and with Tall, Dark and Kilted I’ve done just that. I’ve had enormous fun researching men in kilts, falling in love with brooding heroes and rooting for feisty heroines. I love the quick fire interchange between the hero and heroine - like in the old black and white Hollywood movies, and hope this comes over in my writing. Although much of my time is taken up with publicizing Tall, Dark and Kilted, I have finished my second novel and am editing it for publication autumn 2013. I am a founding member of an indie publishing group: The New Romantics 4 and our watch cry is: all for one and one for all. Our philosophy is: if you’ve got a dream - go for it. Life is not a rehearsal.

 TALL DARK and KILTED

Fliss Bagshawe longs for a passport out of Pimlico where she works as a holistic therapist. After attending a party in Notting Hill she loses her job and with it the dream of being her own boss. She’s offered the chance to take over a failing therapy centre, but there's a catch. The centre lies five hundred miles north in Wester Ross, Scotland. Fliss’s romantic view of the highlands populated by Men in Kilts is shattered when she has an upclose and personal encounter with the Laird of Kinloch Mara, Ruairi Urquhart. He’s determined to pull the plug on the business, bring his eccentric family to heel and eject undesirables from his estate - starting with Fliss. Facing the dole queue once more Fliss resolves to make sexy, infuriating Ruairi revise his unflattering opinion of her, turn the therapy centre around and sort out his dysfunctional family.  Can Fliss tame the Monarch of the Glen and find the happiness she deserves?

Read the first three chapters of Tall, Dark and Kilted on Amazon Kindle for free.

 http://t.co/jKpB4WMM4F

Reviews:

“If you fancy a bout of total escapism with some serious sexiness thrown in, this book ticks all the boxes.”

“Lizzie Lamb has written a great debut novel with wonderful characters, a great location (mainly the atmospheric Scottish Highlands) and some very witty dialogue.”

“The heroine, Fliss, is feisty yet vulnerable and the hero, Ruairi, is...well...he's just gorgeous! The tension that sizzles between them is written to perfection, leaving you guessing right up to the end.”

*********
Lizzie's visit to Magic of the Muses is sponsored by:

THE TRAZ

Get hooked on a series for £1.32  $1.99

viewBook.at/B007JW8RMA

“A young unhappy 13-yr old girl…caught up in [a] violent world..."

“I'd recommend reading THE TRAZ today - you'll thank me for it”   

"J'aime votre livre..." 

“…takes the reader on a whirlwind of emotion”