Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Interview with Meg Hennessy, author of A Pirate's Command



Title: A Pirate's Command
Author: Meg Hennessy
Publisher: Entangled: Seclect Historical
Genre: Historical Romance
Format: Kindle 

His secrets could destroy her...

New Orleans, 1817

Colette Kincaid once knew such love and delicious passion in the arms of her pirate husband, Donato de la Roche. Yet Colette could not continue to live as the wife of a pirate, when reunited with her family. So she fled, taking their son with her and reconciling herself to never seeing her husband again...

Until their son is taken.

Donato is convinced his wife is behind his son's disappearance-just as she is convinced he is the villain. Now they're unable to leave each other's side as they seek their child, forced to confront the desire that still smolders between them. But Donato knows that soon he must face the secret about Colette he's been hiding for so long. And it's a secret for which there is no forgiveness...

ORDER INFORMATION

A Pirate's Command is available for purchase at  
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What are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your life?
Since this is an author interview, my answer will reflect my writing only. So I would say I was most proud of my first book, Shadows of a Southern Moon.  Why? Because I finished it. The hardest thing for a writer to do, is to finish the book. Southern Moon was published by The Wild Rose Press in 2009, and that book will always hold a special place in my heart.

How has your upbringing influenced your writing?
Everything I write is southern, though I was raised in Wisconsin. My father had been born and raised on the gulf coast. My grandmother’s home was only two blocks from the large sprawling beach along the Gulf of Mexico. My father grew up on the water. As children we would visit my grandmother and cousins. My father’s family was quite large, so there were many cousins. And life in that small coastal town was so different from the rural area we lived in Wisconsin. I was enamored with life there and felt such a strong connection to the Gulf Coast. My writing, in some ways, keeps me connected to my family and their history.  

When and why did you begin writing?
I became interested in family history, since my father was from the Gulf Coast and my mother from Minneapolis. I knew I had ancestors who fought each other in the Civil War. I was intrigued by that and started working on an historical that would take place in Mississippi. The heroine was easy. She was a combination of all the wonderful southern woman in my family. She was my grandmother, my aunts, my cousins, she was me. But the hero was a challenge. Who was he? When I started to research the Union soldier, Brandt Michaels just stepped out of the page. Again, I am referring to Southern Moon.

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
Many years ago, about 37 to be exact I was put on bedrest while carrying my daughter. I did nothing but read. I found myself going over and over some of the paragraphs I had read, analyzing the craft. I didn’t really start writing until later, but that was the moment I felt the “bug” to write.

When did you first know you could be a writer? 
I don't think we ever know at what point we can say, YES, I'm a writer. Becoming an author is a long journey of trials and failures whether published or not.

What inspires you to write and why?
If I don’t write the stories circle around in my head forever. If I don’t write their story, the characters  get older, their families expand, they have grandchildren, but they remain in my head unless I put them on paper. I collect, and that's the dangerous word, collect, but I collect old books. I especially like history books. My oldest is dated 1842. I have an encyclopedia set that was published in 1863 from New York. It's fascinating reading. My library is quiet extensive, filled with history books of all kinds. They inspire me. My husband and I travel around the country and love to visit historical sights. For Shadows of a Southern Moon, we had visited all the battlefields and antebellum homes of Mississippi. We had toured a Creole plantation on the Louisiana river road. The stark differences between the Creole homes and the American homes inspired Dark Secrets, Deep Bayous. The first book in the series, Secrets of the Bayous.

What genre are you most comfortable writing?
I write Historical Romance for two reasons. I am a history buff and enjoy learning about different times in our history. I love to imagine those worlds and create a new backdrop for my characters to enjoy. I like to write about relationships and the art of falling in love.

What inspired you to write your first book?
My father was from the south and when they retired they’d spend the winters in Mississippi. They did this for 35 years. When they came back I’d get all the gossip of what was the latest on my many cousins. One time in particular, my mother had learned of my father’s cousin doing family research and had learned two of my father’s ancestors were in the Confederate Army. That intrigued me, I asked about her family, since she was from Minnesota, and learned her great grandfather had fought with the Union Army. I was so fascinated about this, wondering what a young man from the north thought when he found himself in the swamps of Mississippi shooting at other Americans. I stopped at the library on the way home and found a book called A Day in the Life of Billy Yank. As I read about the life of Union soldiers, the hero of Shadows of a Southern Moon simple stepped out of the pages.

Who or what influenced your writing once you began?
I’d have to say my husband was very supportive, and I joined WisRWA, Wisconsin Romance Writers. Without that organization, I would have stopped long ago.

What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general?
Writing the novel is fun and enjoyable. I write without pre-plotting, so I have to write quickly to find out what happens next, because even I don’t always know. The challenges are publication.

Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it?
Oh, yes, my latest release taught me something extremely valuable. I had sold the book on a blurb because it was the second in a trilogy. I had yet to write it. Since I am someone who just writes as the story unfolds I had to somehow make that work for the blurb. I lacked confidence in doing so, and ended up writing one of my favorite books. A Pirate’s Command.

Do you intend to make writing a career?
I intend to write, wherever that takes me, is where I am.

Have you developed a specific writing style?
I think we all have our own writing style. It’s called “voice.” It's how we tell a story, whether in person or in a book. It's how we communicate.
What is your greatest strength as a writer? I write what they call "tight."  
What is your favorite quality about yourself?
My tenaciousness when it comes to getting a project done. For some reason, I always push through it.

What is your least favorite quality about yourself?
My tenaciousness when it comes to getting a project done. For some reason, I always push through it. This is truly a double edged sword.

What is your favorite quote, by whom, and why?
Well just heard one today by Julia Quinn. “Finish the book, the world is full of chapter ones.”
Why because there are so many want-to-be writers but never get the first book done. Finish it or you'll never move forward as a writer.




Award winning author, Meg Hennessy, lives amid rolling hills of the Kettle Moraine in Wisconsin. Besides writing, spoiling her first grandson or pampering her much-loved horse, she enjoys backyard birding and admits to being a gardening addict.  With her father born and raised on Mississippi’s gulf coast, Meg grew up immersed in the culture of an old Southern family and writes with a strong Southern flavor.  It was her sense of wonderment when visiting her grandmother's home as a child that now bubbles upward into her writing of today. She likes to create high-energy characters against historically rich backdrops, offering her readers a vivid peek into the lives and loves of yesteryear.

For More Information

Visit Meg’s website. Visit Meg's blog
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