TBG: Hi, Susan! So great to have you on the blog! We just have a few questions for you to answer 🙂
Where did you come up with the idea for a Withinner and will we see more real time with Taliesin? He was one naughty, but HOT, sorcerer.
Susan: Oh Taliesin is quite a character, isn’t he? Rough, tough and sexy…and dangerous and we all know we love a bad boy To be honest, I’ve always been intrigued with the idea of each one of us having an alter ego, a dark and a light side, two halves of the same person. So when I started thinking about this book, I conjured up this dark man living in another time as Quinn’s very own ‘magyckal’ presence. The ‘Withinner’ name was simply how I thought of him-Taliesin always lived within another person and hey presto, the term ‘Withinner’ was coined.
TBG: Does Taliesin have the ability to love and live a real life in his world? With his being at Quinn’s beck and call, I can see how that might be an issue. He seems to like to share Quinn’s men (past tense, of course) so I wonder about his own love life, separate from Quinn.
Susan: Absolutely. He’s a bit of a hound dog, bisexual too, especially when it comes to the Fey attraction. He is a distinct real person in his own time in the sixth century, in the time of Merlin and King Arthur, and has his own life. He lives in an isolated stone cottage on the wild Welsh coastline, close to a village, enough to go down to the local tavern and find a willing bar maid or man to ravage. He has an extremely protective nature towards Quinn, and as such, he wants to share in his life and especially in his sex life
TBG: Was the phosphorescent in the water with Cade a water sprite in disguise? If so, will they make themselves known to him? And will Cade have the ability to change forms once he understands his fey powers?
Susan: Ahh, you’re making me give away all my secrets in Book 2. But yes, there are Sprites in the Hampstead Heath ponds. And yes, Cade gets to know them although not in a way you’d expect and that bit may make you shed a tear or two. Form changing isn’t something I’ve factored into Cade’s story as Sprites are essentially human form but with powerful abilities. But you’ll see how that all works out when you read book 2 *grins syly*
TBG: I understand that Quinn is worried about Cade and his unknown fey powers and what other’s will do, but in what universe does he believe that hiding all that from Cade will work out in his favor?
Susan: Quinn is a typical, arrogant Alpha male. He thinks what he does is just cause, and his love and fierce desire to protect the man he adores above all else tends to colour his judgement. He does mellow though in Book 2 but it’s one event above all others that causes him pain and grief that makes him realise he needs to let Cade develop and that he can no longer keep him in the dark.
TBG: Are there more than two books in this series, or is this it?
Susan: This is it -for now. I have a burning desire to write Taliesin’s story, something more historical and saga driven, so that is always something for me to consider. I have a friend who is a Bard and a Druid and he studied Taliesin in depth as part of his studies, so I know where to go to when I need the history and fact bit. I’d love to see Talisin find his true love, and yes, it will be a man.
TBG: Double Alchemy is a total 180, a complete departure from the first book I’d read of yours, Saving Alexander. Where do you come up with your ideas and influences?
Susan: I have this strange yen to keep writing out of the norm, to constantly challenge myself to see what happens. I don’t write for the market, I write what feels good and what I enjoy. So yes, the paranormal genre is, as you say, a complete turnaround from my usual. I have this fascination with the occult and witchcraft in particular (being a Wiccan myself) and with the story of Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General, on my doorstep here in the county of Essex, I thought I’d combine my love with the M/M genre with the paranormal.
TBG: Have you written any of genres besides gay romance?
Susan: I have written two previous books in my Starlight trilogy, which were M/F. Cassandra by Starlight and Together in Starlight were the first two books I ever wrote. I loved it, and Bennett and Cassie’s story was simply something that had to come out and be told. It was written based on my fixation with a young British actor called Benedict Cumberbatch. Then I found the M/M genre and fell completely in love and that’s where I am now.
TBG: What exciting things do we have to look forward to in future, can you share?
Susan: I’m writing a six book series called ‘Men in London’ which tells the different stories of various men coming together in a restaurant called Galileo’s in Soho. Each story is unique but the restaurant, and the first two characters in the series, Gideon and Eddie, will be a common thread in all. Each book will set up the characters for the next.
Gideon and Eddie’s book is called me ‘Love Me Senseless’. Gideon Kent is an award winning chef and owner of Galileo’s on his way to cooking stardom. Then a house fire and tragedy leave him with the inability to smell and taste. He’s a purist when it comes to his craft and decides he can no longer cook and create signature dishes. Now he simply manages the restaurant. Then along comes Eddie Tripp, another younger and up and coming chef star on the horizon, lauded for great things. Of course there is conflict, passion, envy and lust and one by one, both of these men’s defences fall.
TBG: Thanks so much for coming on The Blogger Girls!
About Susan Mac Nicol
Susan Mac Nicol was born in Leeds, UK, and left for South Africa when she was eight. She returned to the UK thirty years later and now lives in Essex. Her debut novel Cassandra by Starlight, the first in a trilogy, was published last year by Boroughs Publishing Group in the US. Sue’s latest story, Double Alchemy is her fifth m/m romance.
Sue has written since she was very young, and never thought she would see herself becoming a Romance writer, being a horror/psychological thriller reader all her life. But the Romance genre is now something very close to her heart and she intends continuing the trend.
Sue is a member of the Romance Writers of America and the Romantic Novelists Association here in the UK.
You can reach Susan at Website, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, & Pinterest
About Double Alchemy
Powerful yet tormented warlock Quinn Fairmont must initiate the silver-eyed Cade Mairston into the world of witchfinders, Withinners, and what can happen when two men fall truly, madly, deeply in love.
THE WORLD IN SHADOW
In modern London,, there lurks a warlock. Quinn Fairmont. Dangerous, powerful, tortured. Sharing his body with the soul of an ancient Welsh sorcerer, Quinn is never alone—and never wholly himself. He fights against all those who would exploit his kind. He also takes pleasure where he can find it.
In the forest of Hampstead Heath, Quinn’s hometown, Cade Mairston appears like a waking dream. Lithe, lean and silver-eyed, he evokes feelings in Quinn unlike any other: along with lust comes true affection, immediate and shocking. Cade is clearly more than he seems. And yet, though a man of the world, Cade knows nothing of warlocks, witchfinders or Withinners. He knows nothing of what he is, what he might be, what he might feel. For him, the story is just beginning, and magyck, peril and passion await.
Available at: Boroughs Publishing Group, Amazon, All Romance eBooks & Smashwords
The prize in this blog tour is a chance to win an eBook copy of either Stripped Bare AND Cassandra by Starlight by Susan Mac Nicol! Just click the link below to enter!
Please be aware that the only way to enter the giveaway is to click the Rafflecopter link above. Any comments on this post will not count towards entering the giveaway but will be welcome anyway.
Don’t forget to check out JustJen’s review of Double Alchemy to see what she thought of it!
Good luck!
After their umpteenth breakup, Brad Sweeney and Jeff Hayden are living apart and starting over from scratch. The morning after a promising first date, they’re more optimistic than ever that they can make it work this time . . . until Jeff’s ex-wife and business partner calls to announce she’s pregnant with Jeff’s baby. Brad’s already competing with a demanding business for Jeff’s time. Now there’s a baby on the way, and worse, he’s afraid Jeff is still carrying a torch for the woman who’s carrying his child.
The author lives with an imaginary cat, and works in computer support (you know, the day job), all in Upstate New York. He divides his time between writing humorous suspense novels, reading science fiction and urban fantasy, absorbing too much British TV (or as his roommate would say “those crappy BBC mysteries”), pondering why he didn’t write a scifi or fantasy novel, and his various hobbies. No, reading isn’t a hobby. It’s more like a vocation. The author also wonders how people get away with talking about themselves in the third person this way. It’s awkward. [cough]
The Blogger Girls 