Ceci Giltenan, Author

Last night I learned that Highland Solution is my publisher’s number one best seller! Champagne Books (http://www.champagnebooks.com/) is a small press, but they have a number of excellent authors and produce a surprising variety of books. If you have the opportunity, take a stroll through their online bookstore. The little tiny, competitive, Type-A portion of my personality is strutting around as if she won an Olympic medal. Shhhh, don’t interrupt her. It is so rare that she gets this opportunity. 😉

I am thrilled to announce that Highland Solution was released today in paperback. You can order a copy directly from my publisher at http://champagnebooks.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&manufacturer_id=163&product_id=680. It will be available on Amazon soon.

Loving life and hanging with my beautiful daughter at Disney!

‘Nuff said.

When you read a story with a villain in it which do you prefer:

A) The villain is unredeemable. He or she is the embodiment of evil and is destroyed in the end. (Think Voldemort in Deathly Hallows)

B) The villain is unredeemable. He or she is the embodiment of evil but is not destroyed in the end. Instead remains as a lingering threat. (Think Voldemort in the first 6 Harry Potter books).

C) The villain is not necessarily the embodiment of evil. Perhaps the villain is simply misguided or the result of his or her environment. He or she is redeemable and is perhaps even redeemed just before being destroyed. (Think Darth Vader)

D) Like option C, the villain is not only redeemable, but is redeemed and lives happily ever after. (Think Gru in Despicable Me)

E) The villain was never really a villain in the first place. Perhaps he or she was an unlikable character but was actually a hero. (Think Professor Snape)

I am interested in this because I am wrestling with the final disposition of the villain in my next novel Highland Courage. In reality I like the idea of redemption and forgiveness. However, I also love to hate a villain, and if there is nothing good about that person, it makes having the blackguard trampled by a horses oh so satisfying. 😉

Have you ever wondered how I developed the story for Highland Solution? I answer that question today on fellow Champagne author Linda LaRoque’s blog, http://www.lindalaroqueauthor.blogspot.com.

Stop by and leave a comment to be included in the drawing for an electronic copy of Highland Solution.

Also check out Linda’s newest release Shared Whispers, a collection of short romantic stories from contemporary to historical to science fiction/fantasy, by an eclectic group of award-winning writers from across the globe. Each story reflects the allure of amore in our lives. Shared Whispers

Does anyone not know where Platform 9 3/4 is? If you answer London, King’s Cross Station you are wrong. Platform 9 3/4 was created in the mind of JK Rowling and exists only in her works of fiction. Yes, in her novels Platform 9 3/4 can be accessed by stepping through the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10 in London’s King’s Cross Station but it doesn’t really exist outside of movie sets or a theme park.

Likewise Cotharach, Loch Craos, Duncurra and all of the other locations described in Highland Solution were created in my imagination and I placed them in the midst of medieval Scotland. Don’t go looking for them on a map, you won’t find them.

I created the location names from Scottish Gaelic and they have meanings. For example, Loch Craos, the fictional lake on which Duncurra is situated, is a long narrow lake running north to south. It is narrowest at its southern tip and then widens significantly on the northern end where the crag on which Duncurra sits, juts into it. In my imagination, it is shaped like a snake, with it’s mouth open around the crag. The Gaelic word craos means an animal’s mouth or maw.

Cotharach means “forget-me-not.” The following description appears as Katherine is dressing for her wedding:

Emma helped Katherine dress in a fresh white linen kirtle under her best deep blue linen gown, the neck, cuffs, and sleeves of which Katherine had embroidered with delicate, pale blue, forget-me-nots like those growing near the loch by which Cotharach stood.

Duncurra is an amalgamation of the word dun, meaning fort, and cùra meaning protector.

Because the characters and places that I created are purely fictional, I was a bit disappointed to recognize a small bit of Eilean Donan Castle in the background of my cover. Of course the lovely man in the foreground renders the background nearly invisible! Still, it is not the keep that I envisioned. The picture below is a bit more what I imagined Duncurra keep to look like, with its two towers. It is actually Malahide Castle in Ireland, parts of which date to the 12th century.

I pictured it located on the point of crag, perhaps a bit like Riggindale Crag in this photo.

Ah well, in some ways I think the best thing about reading is developing one’s own image of the places and characters. I hope you have enjoyed this brief tour of my imagination!

Several great new reviews of Highland Solution have been posted on Amazon. I can’t tell you how absolutely giddy I feel when I hear that someone likes the book. The flip side is that negative reviews cut deeply. “Shake it off,” “Ignore them,” “Everyone isn’t going to love it,” is some of the advice that I have heard. This is all unquestionably valid advice. Why then is it so hard to do?

The answer is simple. I have very low self-esteem and hair-triggers. For example, I have always had a weight problem. In the last two years I have gained much more control over that, but still when I look in the mirror a fat ugly girl looks back. That has defined me.

I am a skilled vocalist. Years ago, I was the only student accepted in the Maryland State High School Honors Chorus from my very large high school (nearly 3000 students). Still, the thing I wanted more than anything was to be in one of the musicals and I was never even cast in the chorus. Why? I learned the reason after one audition when I was a junior. The director and music director pulled about twelve of us aside and said, “It isn’t that you don’t have talent. You can all move and sing well. However you are all overweight. People come to the theatre to see life idealized. You aren’t what people want to see regardless of your talent.”

The message, “Looks are more important than talent.”

Another time a young man told me that he would never date a fat girl. I asked, “What if she was the nicest, funniest most wonderful girl to be around ever?”

He answered, “I would never even get to know a fat girl.”

The message, “Looks are more important than anything else.”

These are just two very old examples of negative messages I have retained. I have also received thousands, perhaps millions of positive messages. I have a successful business, and my first novel has been published (have you heard?). 😉 Nevertheless, the internal message that plays when I receive negative feedback is, “You are worthless.”

Why am I sharing this today? I want to help people understand Niall. He is the strong, well-respected, intelligent (not to mention gorgeous) leader of his clan. Still his step-mother was cruel and mocking throughout his childhood and the first woman he loved, who he thought returned his love, betrayed him. His mistrust of women is as deeply ingrained as is my low self-esteem. Like me, Niall has a few hair-triggers and when they are tripped, he reacts automatically.

Does it make him stupid? I hope not, because then I am as well. I think it makes him a flawed human who initially didn’t recognize those triggers and was perhaps a bit slow in learning to disarm them. Same here. I owe thanks to so many of you who have helped me!