Viking raiders travel the seas west to England for gold and treasure, but when laying siege to the Devorn castle, the Viking leader, Jarl Eriik Thorennson spies a lady of the manor in the tower and decides gold isn’t the only treasure he’ll be taking back to his homeland. When given the choice of the destruction of her home or leaving with the Jarl, the lord’s brave daughter, Lillian, goes willingly across the sea to the Norse lands.
Will Lillian’s choice to protect her home by returning to sea with Jarl lead her to a happily ever after, or ill her life be forever tainted by her decision? Cathy Sharp, author of ‘Viking’s Passion’, has spared a few minutes from her busy schedule to share snippets of Lillian’s future. Cathy, what inspired you to take a trip back in time to explore the wonderful world of Viking romances?
The book began with my love of everything Viking and a picture in my head of Eriik, the Viking in the book, a very handsome Viking Jarl.
You’re right about that, as we can see from the book cover, Jarl doesn’t look all that bad. Did you find that aspects of your characters, like physique or temperament, were inspired by people in real-life?
The characters came to me strictly from my imagination.
Were the events in the tale also solely drawn from your imagination, or were there events from your own life that you used to develop deeper connections?
The only life experiences I drew on is the way people interact with one another.
Character interaction really is one of the central tenets of ending up with a great story. And I’ve always felt that the development of place is another very important aspect to get right to make sure your story is awesome. Have you used the argument of the importance of developing a strong sense of place to taking yourself on a literary pilgrimage, to develop your own world, or walk in the world of another author?
No, I can’t say I have.
I hope that you get to make a little literary pilgrimage, in honour of this book! It would be fantastic fun to explore the English land and those Norse seas! What do you feel was your biggest learning experiences from writing this book?
I did a lot of research about Vikings and learned a lot!
Research is always lots of fun! But sometimes the writing part is not. Do you find the process of translating and combining your ideas and research together into a story energising or exhausting?
A little bit of both. It energizes me when I have some good ideas, but if the ideas have been put on paper already and I’m trying to just get some words on paper, sometimes I get very tired.
So, what’s on your mind when you’re energised and rapidly putting your thoughts onto paper?
I immerse myself in the story, especially if it’s fiction.
What was the most important thing that you found you wanted to share with readers from your immersion in the depths of ‘Viking’s Passion’?
It is, in the end, a love story. It starts out as a raid and a kidnapping by the Vikings but ends as a true love story. It also has some very steamy sex scenes.
You gotta love a love story! Is your next or current writing project also a love story?
I am writing an autobiography of my flying years as a flight attendant. I’m retired now after 40 plus years of flying for two commercial airlines and one private one.
Wow, that’s a huge change from historical romance. I hope you have fun returning to the world of flight! After writing in such different genres, I’m curious to find out how you think your author voice has progressed as you’ve continued to write?
I think I’ve learned through the writing of three books and my voice continues to grow. I don’t think there is ever a time when it will stop.
As you’ve watched your voice grow during the course of these three books, have you started to consider applying a marketing strategy, or developing an author brand to clearly connect your works together?
Actually that thought has never come up.
It’s something new to research! As much fun as it would be to explore the depths of author branding today, I don’t think we have enough time, so instead let’s have a little fun by exploring a little more of the mind behind the voice with a few quirky quickfire questions. Let’s see what your opinion is on words. What’s your favourite word?
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
A word that surely would let you win every time at Scrabble if you could only get it on the board! Here’s a question, that might incite some interesting thoughts, can you cry underwater?
No.
Interesting point of view. And to continue on points of view for our final question today, are you left or right-handed?
Right-handed.
As I’m keen to see how your author voice continues to develop in your upcoming autobiography, I’m going to let you and your right-hand return to the wonderful world of writing. Cathy, thanks so much for sharing a taste of your historical romantic world, and I can’t wait to see your next written contribution to the world!
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Excited to read the book we discussed today? Find it here on Amazon: ‘Viking’s Passion ( ASIN: B01F7JK440 )‘.
Want to find out more about Cathy Sharp? Connect here!