Ceci Giltenan, Author

Highland Echoes, book 2 in the Fated Hearts series will be released on May 15, 2015. It is available for pre-order now on Amazon. Book 1 in the series is Highland Revenge, my novella in Highland Winds – The Scrolls of Cridhe Volume 1. It will be available in a few days, as a paperback. 🙂

I have written over and over again about how I love fairy tales. Scratch any romance (at least the kind I like) and at the heart you will find some version of a fairy tale.  I think that is the part of romance novel that appeals to many women–good triumphing over evil and a satisfying “happily ever after.”

Early this evening I went to see the new Disney Cinderella with my lovely daughter.  We loved it. It was perfect. It was visually very beautiful. The ball gown Cinderella wore moved like liquid. The fairy godmother was funny. The prince was noble and…charming. 😉 It is one of my new favorites.

Here are three things that I particularly loved.

One, the step-mother and step-sisters were not ugly on the outside. OK, they wore some pretty hideous dresses, but a very clear point was made that their ugliness was inside.

Two, when Cinderella’s mother was dying she told her to “have courage and be kind.” This was the underlying theme of the entire story and it was Cinderella’s kindness that made her so lovely. When I became a mother, the thing I wanted most, was for my children to grow to be kind.  I would like to think I value kindness above all things. I also try to ensure that my protagonists are kind and courageous.

Three, when Cinderella was leaving with her prince, she turned to her step-mother and said, “I forgive you.”  This stood in stark contrast to what, up until now, was one of my favorite versions of Cinderella, “Ever After” with Drew Barrymore. When she leaves with her prince, she says “I want you to know that I will forget you after this moment, and never think of you again. But you, I am quite certain, will think about me every single day for the rest of your life.” This wasn’t a bad ending. However, forgiving someone who has so grievously wronged you, may be the ultimate act of courage and kindness.

I try to practice forgiveness and my characters do as well. In fact, they are probably better at it than I am. One of my favorite negative reviews of Highland Courage is the reader who commented “What is all this b.s. of forgiveness…You just made it seem that the main characters were pushovers and forgave everything and never punished.” Yes I did. I did it again in Highland Revenge. Those of you who have read it will know that in the end, forgiveness (not revenge) is the primary theme.

So, I highly recommend the new Cinderella movie. It captures every element of a fairy tale that I love and I don’t think I am alone. I was thrilled to see quite a few elderly ladies in the theater. Like I said, I think most women, regardless of how old they are, enjoy a beautiful fairy tale. Sigh.

Highland Courage is on a Kindle Countdown deal. It will be $0.99 until tomorrow morning. After that it will be $1.99 for 2 more days. After that it returns to its usual price of 2.99.

Click here to take advantage of this sale!

I saw a story on Facebook today about a mother who planned a party for her six year old son. You can click here to read the full story, but essentially she invited her son’s entire class, sixteen children, and no one came. When she posted what she described as a “rant” on Facebook about her son’s profound disappointment, the response was amazing.

I simply cannot imagine the heartbreak of throwing a party for a child and having no one show up. After reading this I feel my own rant coming on regarding the etiquette associated with receiving an invitation.

I believe, if someone has been kind enough to invite you to a party, the polite response is to thank the host for the invitation and to let them know whether or not you will attend.

Period.

I believe this applies in most cases, regardless of whether the host asks for an RSVP or not.

Just for the record, RSVP is an acronym for the French phrase “répondez, s’il vous plait” which essentially means, please respond. Somehow, I think there is a misconception that RSVP only means to tell your host if you plan to attend and that silence means you won’t be there. It doesn’t. Please respond one way or the other.

The only time when silence is an acceptable response to an invitation is when the invitation states: “RSVP-regrets only” or “Regrets Only.” In this case your host is assuming that you will attend unless you say otherwise.

Personally, I would be uncomfortable sending out this kind of invitation. I can see it now. I invite ten friends over to celebrate St. Swithun’s day. No one calls with “regrets” so I bake a cake and put a standing rib roast in the oven, set the table with the “good china” and get my husband to change out of his paint stained work clothes. Then dinner time comes and goes, no one shows up and I am stuck with a huge roast beef and cake for twelve. Wait, I love cake. Maybe that was a bad example, but you get my point. I am a firm believer that only saying “yes” means “yes” in all situations.

Finally, once you have responded (or not responded to a “regrets only” invitation), follow through. If your host is expecting you, be there. If something absolutely unexpected and unavoidable arises on the day of the party, let your host know. Just deciding you don’t feel like going to a party and not showing up is, in my opinion, exceedingly rude and potentially hurtful behavior.

In fairness, in this case it is possible that all sixteen parents politely declined the invitation. That still would have been a heart-breaking situation for a mother, but forewarned is forearmed. She might have been able to prepare her child in some way to minimize the disappointment, or to plan something else.

Failing to respond, or accepting the invitation but not attending the party is simply inexcusable.

Rant over.

Titillating title for a post, no?

I hope you chuckled.

I didn’t the first time I heard my son describe my books that way.

He was being funny. He performs a little stand-up comedy on the side and thought it would get a laugh from the crowd. In fairness, it probably will if he ever puts it in a set.

Still, I love Scottish historical romance (does that surprise you?) and I took a wee bit of offense at that description of my stories.

I bristled with indignation. “It is so NOT like Fifty Shades of Gray. It is NOTHING like that.”

However, once my righteous anger was spent, I thought more about it and noticed a few parallels. Before you roll your eyes and stop reading, let me explain.

I have long maintained that a fairy tale is at the core of every romance novel and some element of that fairy tale addresses a fondly held fantasy for many women.

Who doesn’t wish to be adored? Sought after? Saved from a life of drudgery? Cinderella would only have been a story about a nice, underprivileged girl getting a night out if Prince Charming hadn’t devoted his full energy to finding her after she left the ball.

What about the idea that true love can reawaken even the coldest heart? Without that, Snow White would still be lying in that glass casket and Aurora would be snoozing away.

Perhaps one of the most satisfying fantasies of all is being able to change the man you love. Whether it is getting him to put the toilet seat down, or finding the human hidden within the Beast, as Belle did.

So how are these themes evident in both my books and the Fifty Shades trilogy? I will start with adoration. Sigh. To a man, my heroes adore their wives. Niall may not want to initially, but there is no denying that he does. And as for Tadhg and Fingal, well…sigh. Even in Highland Revenge when Eoin captures Fiona, he wants to hate her, but he too falls hard and fast. In Fifty Shades, Christian Gray  absolutely adores Anastasia Steel. Perhaps it is in a profoundly overwhelming way, but in spite of that she adores him too.

She adores him. That is critical to the next fantasy, the transforming power of love. In Highland Solution, Katherine believes if she is patient and constant, Niall will accept that she truly loves him, in spite of the pain and humiliation he had experienced at the hands of other women. In Highland Courage, Tadhg wants only to release Mairead from the walls of fear and shame she built years ago. He knows it will take love and faith in her to do that. Likewise, in Fifty Shades, Anastasia believes that her love can draw Christian from his darkness into her light. Wow.

In the case of Highland Solution and Fifty Shades, it is this transforming power of love that achieves the final fantasy. With the strength of their love, both Katherine and Anastasia are able to find the man within the beast. They both effect a dramatic and permanent change in the very flawed men they love.

And here I thought the toilet seat thing was great.

Assuredly, it is unlikely that you will ever find a kinky, billionaire in one of my novels. Still at their core the themes of mutual adoration and redemptive transforming love are why I love reading romance and what I believe resonates with other romance readers, including those who love Fifty Shades.

Over the course of the last year and a half, I have done a variety of interviews. One question that has been asked frequently is “How do you manage a family, a full time career, and a being an author?”

Over and over the answer has been some form of “I don’t.” What you see publicly is what I have devoted most of my time to. Much of the year my children are away at college so the role of mother is much less involved. Furthermore, I am not a great house keeper and I owned a consulting firm, so I had tons of flexibility with my career.

This all began to change in October. I accepted a position as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs with a small European pharmaceutical company, previously one of my biggest clients. In December my children came home for about six weeks. Of course I loved this, but I elected to spend more time with them than I have during past school breaks. Plus, I had a few extra distractions thrown in.  The result? I became an even worse housekeeper, was much less visible on social media, I haven’t written much and I didn’t update this page at all.

So now my daughter is back to school. My son graduated  in December, but lives and works now in Maryland. And I have hired someone to help with housekeeping occasionally. My career still demands much of my time, but I am hoping to get back to writing soon. I started today by updating my unfortunately ignored website.

Now links to all of my Duncurra books (electronic, paperback and audio versions) can be found under the heading “Duncurra Series.” The links to Highland Winds, The Scrolls of Cridhe Volume I, can be found under “The Guardians of Cridhe.” Very soon, I will be updating readers on my next, still to be names series. The first book in this series is Highland Revenge, my contribution to Highland Winds.

I will try to post something here a bit more often. If there is some topic about which you would like to know more (my characters, my settings, or even “What in the heck is Regulatory Affairs?”) please ask and I will devote some blog time to your questions.

I received lots of comments after the release of Highland Solution about how much readers love Fingal MacIan. Last spring, before the release of Highland Courage, I interviewed Fingal.  You can read that interview here if you wish https://cecigiltenan.com/2013/12/02/an-interview-with-fingal-macian/

I thought I would provide brief update.

Ceci: It is lovely to see you again. I have a lot of readers who have been anxious to learn more about you.

Fingal: Ye are very welcome, lass. It is my pleasure.

Ceci: The last time we met I said that my readers would think your future wife very lucky to be married to you.

Fingal: (Laughs) I remember. Clearly ye are no seer. King David II asked, or should I say required, me to marry Gillian MacLennan, Malcolm MacLennan’s heir. He wanted to ensure a stable leader for that clan. Unfortunately, Gillian hates me.

Ceci: How could she hate ye? Does she even know ye?

Fingal: Aye, she knows me. I visited Brathanead and the MacLennan clan often enough over the years.

Ceci: Hate is a pretty strong emotion. What could ye have done to earn her hate?

Fingal: That’s just it, I did nothing. She hates me because of what my mother did, but that is another story.

Ceci: I’m sorry to hear that. This marriage sounds doomed.

Fingal: Aye, I thought it might be–until I kissed her. (His eyes twinkle and he winks at me. Dear God in heaven, how could Gillian not swoon?).

Ceci: (trying desperately to maintain my composure) So one kiss is all it took to win her? (That might do it for me).

Fingal: (He chuckles) Ye give me too much credit. Nay, one kiss didn’t win her. However, when I kissed her the first time, during our wedding, she…well, let’s just say she wasn’t immune to my charms. I knew it would take work, but I believed I could win her heart eventually.

Ceci: And did ye win her heart?

Fingal: Now, ye wouldn’t want me giving away the whole story would ye?

Ceci: I suppose I wouldn’t. However, you are both charming and persistent, so I am fairly confident that Gillian will come around.

Fingal: Yer lips to God’s ear, lass. Gillian is magnificent. She is strong, loyal, compassionate and absolutely stunning.

Ceci: Well, I am certain readers will want to read more about you and your lady love. And they can by reading Highland Intrigue, available at Amazon, B&N and Kobo.

Lady Gillian MacLennan’s clan needs a leader, but the last person on earth she wants as their laird is Fingal Maclan. She can neither forgive nor forget that his mother killed her father, and, by doing so, created Clan MacLennan’s current desperate circumstances.

King David knows a weak clan, without a laird, can change quickly from a simple annoyance to a dangerous liability, and he cannot ignore the turmoil. The MacIan’s owe him a great debt, so when he makes Fingal MacIan laird of clan MacLennan and requires that he marry Lady Gillian, Fingal is in no position to refuse.

In spite of the challenge, Fingal is confident he can rebuild her clan, ease her heartache and win her affection. However, just as love awakens, the power struggle takes a deadly turn.  Can he protect her from the unknown long enough to uncover the plot against them?  Or will all be lost, destroying the happiness they seek in each other’s arms?

Woo hoo!! Fingal’s story is finally here!

Highland Intrigue