Ceci Giltenan, Author

This was a musical in the sixties and pretty much sums up my life these days. Too much that I must do. Too much that I want to do. Too many conflicting emotions. I want to be the good girl and do the things I must, all the while my dreams are calling. I absolutely know there is great contentment in accomplishing anything and yet my head spins, I flit from one thing to the next and accomplish nothing. Neither my work nor my dreams are getting a fair shake.

What I need is a private vacation from life. I don’t mean lying in a hammock on a beach somewhere for a couple weeks, signalling to the cabana boy to refresh my drink. What I need is for the world to stop for two weeks–for everything to freeze. Everything except me and my computer, that is. I want absolutely uninterrupted time to get the stuff done that I need to do in order to meet business deadlines and to have some time to follow my dreams too.

Imagine what it would be like if a single second passed for the rest of the world, but in that second you had the time you needed to accomplish everything on your to-do list.

If you could have a vacation like this would you take it?

I love interesting bits of trivia and my brain is a warehouse full of nearly useless facts. I can’t remember what I had for breakfast, but I know how many vertebra are in a giraffe’s neck. The people who love me have been known to feed this obsession. This year for Christmas my darling daughter gave me a 365 day calendar filled with odd and amusing tidbits. For example, do you know what force causes one’s body to be thrown when accidentally electrocuted? It is the body’s own muscles. Apparently, the electrical impulse causes all muscles to contract violently.

Who knew?

I mentioned this to my husband over the weekend. He said, “That would make sense. I saw a man get electrocuted once and it looked like he launched himself backwards.”

“You saw someone electrocuted?” In nearly 23 years of marriage, how had this never come up in conversation?

“Yeah. It was in Ireland and he was another carpenter on a job I was on. He was hammering over his head and his hammer hit a live wire.” At my shocked expression he added, “It wasn’t supposed to be live. The electrician said all of the power was off.”

“That is terrible! Did it kill him?” A logical assumption on my part. After all, the European voltage is 220 which packs quite a wallop.

“No, it didn’t kill him but he had a twitch for the rest of the day.”

“You mean he just kept working?”

“Well not right away. It took two people holding him to keep him from killing the electrician first.”

By the way, in case you were wondering, a giraffe has 7 neck vertebra, the same as a human.

Most of you know that I live in “God’s waiting room” which is also known as Southwest Florida. According to the last census, 24.9% of the population of the county where I live is over 65. Perhaps more than any other group of people that I have ever encountered, the older folks here seem very concerned about catching illnesses, particularly the flu. In many ways this is a completely rationale fear. Influenza is a serious illness, made even more so if one is older and has other health problems. So it isn’t surprising when people take steps to avoid coming into contact with it.

For those of you who are not familiar with a Catholic Mass, there is a point during the service when participants give each other a sign of peace. This can be done in a variety of ways. Typically it is done by shaking hands and saying the words “Peace be with you.” It is not uncommon for people who know each other well–spouses, family, close friends–to hug or kiss instead of shaking hands. However, there are always those folks who prefer to avoid contact, particularly during cold and flu season. This is perfectly acceptable. These people will usually clasp their hands together, and nod, saying the words or they will make the classic peace sign, holding up two fingers, palm out. All of these are beautiful ways in which to share the Peace of Christ with others.

Some of you may see where I am going with this. In some places (Ireland, England and Scotland, to name a few) if you reverse the peace sign, that is if the back of your hand is pointing out while holding up two fingers it is a very rude gesture. It is equivalent to an American holding up their middle finger. It is even ruder if move your arm or hand, motioning upwards. The video below is an excellent example of how this is done properly. Keep your eyes on the Baroness sitting to the speaker’s right.

Imagine my surprise when I turned around to see an elderly lady motioning in just such a manner–two fingers held up, back of her hand out, waving it up and down at everyone around her. Bless her.

I love games. Word games, board games, car games, puzzles, it doesn’t matter. I love them

I am suffering a bit of withdrawal. I gave up Candy Crush for Lent. It was sucking up time that I didn’t have and it was a good thing to set aside for a while. Still I am sorely in need of a game fix so I decided to make my own.

I am going to send you on a scavenger hunt for answers. I have asked two questions each about four great authors (and two about me) the answers for which can be found on their websites. You may have to click around a little to locate a few answers, but they are pretty easy to find and the questions are multiple choice. Click on each Author’s name below to link to their sites.

Sue-Ellen Welfonder
What other name does Sue-Ellen Welfonder write under?
a. Devorgilla Wiseun
b. Allie Mackay
c. Sill E. Belly
d. Scott O. Phil

What is the title of Sue-Ellen Welfonder’s next release (available now as a pre-order)?
a. Highlander in Her Dreams
b. Once Upon a Highland Christmas
c. Haggis is a Many Splendored Thing
d. To Love a Highlander

Tarah Scott
What other name does Tarah Scott write under?
a. Scarlett O’Hara
b. T.C. Archer
c. Earl MacLean
d. T.J. Cinnamon

What does Tarah Scott say her favorite book is?
a. A Tale of Two Cities
b. Highland Courage
c. Gone With the Wind
d. Are You My Mother?

Kate Robbins
What is the series name for Kate Robbins’ historical romances?
a. Heather and Mist
b. Highland Bound
c. Highland Chiefs
d. Kate’s Clans

What is the name of the contemporary romance that Kate Robbins is currently writing?
a. The Lady’s Portrait
b. Newfoundland Bound
c. I Dream of Ginger
d. Polar Vortex

Suzan Tisdale
What does Suzan Tisdale say her heroines end up doing?
a. Ripping their bodices
b. Traveling back in time
c. Throwing amazing Facebook parties
d. Rescuing the hero

Who is quoted on Suzan Tisdale’s home page?
a. Saint Patrick
b. Ceci Giltenan
c. Robert De Niro
d. Agatha Christy

Me (You can find the answers under the “about” tab)
What was Ceci’s first career?
a. Oncology Nursing
b. Sommelier
c. Opera Singer
d. Teacher

Where did Ceci meet her husband?
a. At a gas pump in New Jersey
b. At a friend’s wedding
c. At their wedding (much like her books, it was an arranged marriage)
d. On the side of the road when her rental car broke down in Ireland

Make a note of the letters corresponding to the correct answer and enter them, in order here:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don’t use any commas or spaces. For example, acdcdbabc (this is not the correct sequence 😉 )

The contest ends on Friday at 2:00 Eastern Daylight time on Friday, April 4, 2014. A winner will be selected from the correct entries and will receive a $10.00 Amazon gift card and a copy of each of my books (if they don’t already have them).

One digital copy of any book from Tarah Scott’s back list.
One signed copy of Bound to the Highlander by Kate Robbins
One audio book from Suzan Tisdale
One copy of Sue-Ellen Welfonder’s new release on release day

Someone once told me, “When you point your finger at someone, remember you have three fingers on the same hand pointing back at you.”

I cannot claim to be perfect, but I try not to point fingers. I especially try not to point at other authors and criticize. I read a lot of books that I love and I read others that I don’t love. I don’t leave many reviews. Before I was an author, I didn’t realize how important they were. Now I only leave reviews of books that I enjoy because I simply cannot bring myself to criticize someone else. I would also never write a blog post where I presumed to criticize another author’s work. Period. It isn’t that I couldn’t find things to criticize, even my favorite historical romances of all times have the odd thing that I don’t quite love in them, but I choose not to.

I am not saying this is wrong for a reader to do. I have heard often enough of how frustrating and hard-headed Niall (Highland Solution) is, even from people who loved the book. I have learned a few things about what readers want to see in a hero from these comments. I will probably still create flawed heroes in the future, but I may change a few things. I am just not comfortable offering an unsolicited public critique to another author. For everything that I might choose to comment on that another author does, I am dead certain that there are multiple things to criticize in my own work.

I have recently read some blogs where the authors did this, specifically they publicly criticized another author’s work or even an entire genre. I cannot do this. Consider the following scene from Highland Solution. It occurs during the Christmas feast, the first real celebration Katherine is a part of at Duncurra.

Noticing her discomfit, Malcolm asked, “Lass, what has ye so distressed?”

Flushing even more deeply, Katherine answered, “It is a little embarrassing that every warrior in this room seems to be able to dance, while I stumble like a drunkard.”

Malcolm laughed and patted her arm warmly. “Katherine, of course they can dance, they are Highlanders. Highland warriors practice intricate dances to help build their agility, and then they celebrate victory by dancing them. Ye have nothing to be embarrassed about. Even though these country dances are not simple, ye did very well for your first attempt.” He leaned a little closer and, lowering his voice conspiratorially, he said “Ye know very well if there had been much room to criticize, Lady MacIan would not have missed the opportunity, but ye will notice she doesn’t dance at all.”

Katherine had to laugh at the notion that it was possible to consider silence from Eithne as praise. It did give her the confidence to try again when both Fingal and Father Colm asked her to dance later in the evening.

Even the very despicable Eithne knows when to hold her tongue. I pray that I remember this always. Silence can be a beautiful thing and I am learning to appreciate it more and more.

I am thrilled to announce that Highland Courage is available in paperback now. Woohoo!

For the next few days it is only available directly from my publisher Champagne Books but it will be available on Amazon in a few days, followed by other retailers!

I will be at the Turning The Pages book signing event with author Heather Smith on April 26th 2014, from 10:00 to 3:00 at the Florida Hotel and Conference Center, 1500 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32809. I will have copies of both Highland Solution and Highland Courage.

I hope to have another signing event at Book Traders in Hamilton, New Jersey in May. I will also be signing books at the RNC convention in Las Vegas in July and at the Believe, Hope, Live Charity event in Augusta Maine in August. Stay tuned for details.

I may have mentioned this once or twice recently, but I am a huge fan of the new urban fantasy, Dark Hope, by H.D. Smith.

Dark Hope was an incredible read! I didn’t want it to end and I simply couldn’t put it down. I was instantly sucked into the world H.D. Smith created and became so invested in Claire that I had to keep reading. Claire is both smart and strong but she has been dealt a raw deal. I love the way she kept her head and solved problems, learning to use her emerging powers. I felt her hurt and betrayal; my heart ached for her each time she learned a new truth. The action never slows or stops. I think it would be a spectacular movie! The ending was fantastic–everything was tied up perfectly. I cannot remember the last time I enjoyed a book this much.

There have been several great reviews on Amazon so far. One reviewer said “Dark Hope rivals titles from Kim Harrison and Charlaine Harris.” Another said, “Even after finishing I am still thinking of what happened and feel as though I was actually in the story experiencing it first hand. LOVED IT!” I couldn’t agree more, I felt exactly the same way.

Link to Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBvtfAmOPNk&feature=youtu.be

Loving a demon isn’t the end of the world—losing him is.

Claire, the Devil’s assistant, knows very little about the world she was dropped into five years ago, when she inherited her mother’s unpaid debt to the Demon King. She certainly didn’t expect to be a contender for the Fallen Queen’s throne, a target for the Druid King’s mafia, or a suspect in the murder of Junior, the Devil’s oldest hell spawn.

In a last ditch effort to save her life and get out of her deal with the Devil, she sets out to solve Junior’s murder only to be taken prisoner by the four most dangerous immortal hell spawn alive.

Not to be out done, the Pagan Queen Mab, claims Claire for entering her realm uninvited. She has an old debt to settle with her brother the Devil. Taking Claire from him after losing her years ago is just icing on the cake.

Will Claire win her freedom, and save herself from the Devil? Or be trapped by Mab forever?

HD Smith has been writing as a hobby for over ten years. DARK HOPE is her first traditionally published full length novel. She has previously self-published two middle grade novellas in ebook format. She is a software developer by day, working for an awesome cruise line in Celebration, FL.

HD grew up in South Carolina, but has called the Sunshine State home since 1997. She has Computer Science degrees from Clemson University (CS) and Florida Institute of Technology (MS). Her other hobbies include painting and screen printing. She enjoys creating t- shirts inspired by the places in her books. For more information, visit HD’s website at http://www.hdsmithauthor.com/.

HD’s Links:

Author Website: http://www.hdsmithauthor.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/floridaHeather
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hdsmithauthorpage
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7352038.H_D_Smith
Street Team: https://www.facebook.com/groups/heathers.hellions/
(message me to join my street team!)

Purchase Links:
Barnes & Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-hope-hd-smith/1118724651?ean=2940045711326
Kobo:
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/dark-hope-2
Amazon:

This morning Highland Courage is the #1 Bestselling Scottish Historical romance on Amazon in the US and the UK! It is the #6 bestselling historical romance on Amazon in Canada.

I am thrilled beyond words!

Thank you to everyone who has read and loved the book.

❤ Ceci

Married to an Irishman you might imagine that this would be a big day at our house complete with corned beef and cabbage, soda bread and two kinds of potatoes washed down with green beer. Not so. Although public celebrations in Ireland are beginning to look a bit more like they do in America because of the large numbers of tourist who expect it, this isn’t the way the day was typically observed.

St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland is a little like a combination of Thanksgiving and July 4th in the United States. First and foremost, it is a Holy Day of obligation for Catholics so they go to Mass. Generally they would also have a nice family dinner, similar to Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter, featuring ham, turkey, lamb or something similar. In addition to the Christian aspects, of course St. Patrick’s day is a celebration of national pride, not unlike July 4th. There are parades during the day and sometimes fireworks at night.

So why corned beef? The bulk of Irish immigration to the US came at the time of the potato famine. When meat was available to the poor in Ireland it was nearly always inferior cuts of pork. Generally they boiled it to make it tender enough to eat. In the US cheap cuts of beef, like brisket or its pickled form corned beef were more widely available. I suspect that on a holiday where it was traditional to serve a nice meal, a brisket or corned beef was a special, festive meal. Over the years this became seen as the way to celebrate the day. While in the US this became carved into tradition, in Ireland people kept celebrating the feast day with the nicest food available to them at the time and this changed over the years.

The widespread display of the color green and other symbols of Ireland also has its roots in those first immigrants. While you will certainly see symbols of Irish pride everywhere in Ireland too, it has achieved epic proportions over the years in the US. During those early waves of immigration, the Irish, who were almost exclusively Catholic, were fleeing English oppression. There exists no such person as an Irish Catholic, was a statute. In their attempt to bring the Irish to heel, there were laws that prohibited any show of Irish nationalism in Ireland and came with harsh punishments. Incidentally, this was also true during the Highland clearances in Scotland. Once free of this oppression, the Irish immigrants could openly celebrate a Catholic holy day by displaying symbols of Irish pride in every way possible. Eventually this became a tradition resulting in the holiday being more closely linked to Irish nationalism in general that its Catholic origins.

Curious about anything Irish? Feel free to ask, I will share what I have learned after nearly 23 years of marriage to an Irishman. 😉

One of the questions that I have been asked repeatedly is why I choose to write Highland/Scottish romance. For anyone who knows me they usually add, “Your husband is from Ireland, why don’t you write books set in Ireland?”

The answer to the first question is, I write Highland romance because I fell in love with the genre the first time I read it. I chose to read it because my heritage is Scottish (among other things, like many Americans). My Grandmother was a Lowther and her mother was a Douglas. My family, on both sides came to America in colonial times. Over the years I have done a lot of research on medieval Scotland and England because it intrigued me.

The second question is harder to answer. I love Ireland and have spent a lot of time there–significantly more than I have spent in Scotland. My pen name is Irish. My husband came to the United States as an adult so much of his family still lives in Ireland and we visit often. I do want to write some books set in Ireland. The fact is, I just don’t know that much about medieval Irish history but I am currently researching it.

Perhaps the bigger reason I haven’t tackled this yet is what I have learned of the medieval history of Ireland is particularly painful and often tragic. Isn’t all history painful you might ask? Perhaps, but compare the Norman invasion of Britain with the later British invasion of Ireland. In 1066 the Normans successfully invaded Britain, took over completely and the Anglo-Saxon Britons were enveloped by new laws and leaders. Eventually, the entire population was considered “British” rather than “Anglo-Saxon” or “Norman.”

Therefore, although they were descendants of the Norman invaders, it was the British as opposed to the Normans that invaded Ireland in 1169. This time, the invaders did not incorporate the local people effectively. There was a book written in 1612 (more than 400 years later) by Sir John Davies, King James I’s, attorney-general for Ireland called A Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely Subdued and Brought under the Obedience of the Crowne of England. In it Sir John notes that the Irish were never granted the benefit and protection of the English laws so that they could be oppressed by the English. Essentially, if they weren’t ever considered subjects of the crown, with the same rights under law as the English, how could they be expected to obey the crown?

My books have historical settings, but they truly focus on human relationships more than the history. So far, I have intentionally not chosen settings during particularly violent periods of history. I find it difficult to write the fairy tale romance I love, when the lord of the castle, and the people in power are the oppressors. Romances written from the point of view of the oppressed are equally difficult. I will probably never write a Scottish romance close to the time of Culloden for the same reason. That said, I certainly do applaud those who tackle this difficult subject matter.