Tuesday, February 10, 2009

This Tuesday At The Tiki Hut - Marie Treanor


Author Marie Treanor is joining us today in the AuthorIsland Tiki Hut all the way from across the pond in Scotland!!
Marie Treanor was born and bred in Scotland, but for some years moved around the UK working and studying. Now she's back home and happily married with three young children.

Having grown bored with city life, her family lives in a picturesque village by the sea where, instead of working for a living, Marie is lucky enough to be able to enjoy herself writing stories of romance and fantasy.

She draws the inspiration for her books mainly from the people around her and from Scotland's rich history and culture - with, of course, large helpings of fun and imagination!
Thanks for joining us today, Marie!


Hello!

I’m thrilled to be here at the Tiki Hut today. Actually, I have to confess I’m also a tad nervous, because it’s my first visit as guest blogger, and because, like many authors, I live so much in my imagination that it’s difficult to readjust to write about “real life”.

But then, even the most fantastical worlds in fiction have to be based on some degree of reality. My most fantastic world (in the sense of its distance from our world today) is undoubtedly the setting of my City of the Damned trilogy with Changeling Press. It’s a bleak, post-apocalyptic future world, devastated by nuclear war. The survivors live in isolated, very different communities - and the City of the Damned is more different than most!

Here, the particular cocktail of radiation poisoning suffered by the inhabitants appears to have created mutant species - the most powerful of which would be instantly recognizable to many generations of gothic, horror and romance readers as werewolves and vampires.

So, definite fiction. But inspired by some of the more dangerous aspects of our own world. Fascinatng, if scary, to speculate on what might happen if it all goes horribly wrong, and how surviving humanity might cope with what’s left.

This was a big departure for me. When I began writing romances, I set them deliberately in my home country of Scotland, because it’s the place I know best. With the City of the Damned I had to bring my own vision of this ruined, struggling world to life, almost in a vacuum. Somewhere on Earth. And it was curiously liberating. I thoroughly enjoyed creating my unique City.

I’m not sure when I first realized where my City was. I think it was when I first began to consider the relationship between it and the safer Dome City from which Lara, my heroine in Loving the Wolf, came in search of her missing brother. Subconsciously, I’d placed Lara’s Dome City in the south, and the City of the Damned in the north. There’s no such thing as country, so it’s never named, but I began to realize that, without really meaning to, I was still writing about Scotland. And by extension, Britain.

My City of the Damned is, in fact, a devastated Glasgow. The ruined graveyard through which David tracks the beautiful vampire Katia in Loving the Man, is Glasgow’s historic Necropolis. The southern Dome City, better protected than anywhere else from the consequences of nuclear war is, of course, London.

The vast, empty Highlands to the north of the City of the Damned, where my heroes and heroines hope to discover the tether that could save the world, now needs no introduction. The same Scottish Highlands turn out to be the home of the mysterious and powerful Dragul in the two spin-off series Dragul Rising, and Rogue Warriors.

Having admitted it to myself, as more contact formed between these communities, I called their shared environment “the Island”. And when in Rogue Warriors, the Island drifts in to a new war with the next power they encounter spreading from the west, the West is a similarly devastated and recovering America. And the outer islands over which their military forces fight are Ireland and the Hebrides.

So there you have it – the geography of the City of the Damned revealed for the first time! Although the observant may already have guessed! If you haven’t yet read the City of the Damned trilogy (Loving the Wolf, Loving the Vampire and Loving the Man), all three novellas are now available from Changeling Press in one bargain e-book collection: http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=1072.

Even better, it’s today’s spotlight book at Author Island - you could win it here: http://www.authoriland.com/.

Well, thanks for letting me ramble about one my favourite subjects! If you’d like to read some excerpts from City of the Damned, or find out more about my other books, please visit my website, http://www.marietreanor.com/.

You can also keep up with my latest news by joining my Newsletter only group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marietreanornewsletter. Or the chat group I share with fellow authors Kyla Logan and Kara Griffin: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sexydelights.

Best wishes!

Marie

23 comments:

  1. Hi Marie!

    Well I'm sure you will feel much warmer at the Tiki Hut than what you are actually experiencing in Scotland. Hope you don't have too much snow? It's a cold drizzle down here in Greater London. Brrrr!!

    Hope your sales of City of the Damned are fantastic. Blessings, Maz. ^j^

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  2. I loved reading about you today. I'll be going to check out more of your books as soon as I stop typing lol. Good Luck in your future.

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  3. Thanks, Maz :)
    Actually, my bit of Scotland's missed most of the snow! We had a bit yesterday and Sunday, but it's all gone now. Still freezing cold, though :)
    Marie

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  4. Oh thank you, Leah! And in yours too :)
    Marie

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  5. Welcome to the Tiki Hut Marie!!

    I love hearing about how authors create their character and their worlds - esp with paranormals!

    Enjoy your time in the sun - we are suppose to have sun and 65 degrees today - YAY!!! But, I'm sure we'll be seeing more of the white stuff before long - it is only February...

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  6. Thank you for the background info. It fills in the gaps (esp. for those who haven't been to Scotland), without having been forced into the stories themselves.

    We're having a heat wave here too - near 70F and it's been over 60 for a couple of days. A welcome relief after a week of snow and temps into the teens, keeping the ice on the roads.

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  7. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and life with those of us who can only dream of visiting Scotland. It is such an intriguing place, full of beauty and history. Your stories are wonderful also.
    Thanks,
    Vicky Cormier

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  8. I enjoyed today's interview. Your books sound like good ones.

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  9. Thanks for having me here, DeNita :) And I'm very glad you were interested in my ramblings!

    65??? That's a balmy summer day for us and no way would it happen before April at the very earliest, more likely June :) Thank goodness it's so sunny here at teh Tiki Hut :)

    Marie

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  10. Hi Karen,
    Glad you found it useful :)
    On your weather - wow! I can't get used to the idea of heatwaves in the middle of winter!
    Marie

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  11. Hi Vicky,
    Thanks, and you're welcome :)
    And I agree there is plenty of beauty to be found in Scotland - and variety to keep it interesting :)
    Marie

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  12. Hi Estella,
    Glad you enjoyed it - and thank you!
    Marie

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  13. Hi Marie,
    Love your books and you mostly write furturistic/paranormal books. I just wanted to know what got you starting writing erotic books and do you love reading the genre you write about?

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  14. Thanks for posting.

    I had not heard of your books before but they sound really good. And the excerpts I have read are great. Look forward to reading the full books.

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  15. Tameka, thank you, you're very kind :)

    Hmm, I got into erotic romance through ebooks. My first romance was more sensual than erotic, and in my second, my sditor encouraged me to heat it up some more. By then I'd read more and was ready to give it a try :)

    Yes, I do read the genres I write in, but I read other genres too - even non-romance :)

    Thanks for asking!

    Marie

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  16. Hi Donna!
    Thank you! Hope you enjoy them :)
    Marie

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  17. Hi Marie-
    Thanks for sharing the info today. I haven't read your books yet but the info here makes me want to get them! Are all of your books paranormal or futuristic? Are they all erotic or does that vary?
    Scotland is a place I would love to visit. It seems to be a place of deep history perfect for magic.

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  18. My pleasure, Martha :)

    Most of my books are paranormal or futuristic, but they vary from ghost stories, to time travel, a bit of science fiction, fantasy, suspense, vampires, shapeshifters...

    Apart from Ghost Unlaid (my very first romance which will be rereleased some time soon by The Wild Rose Press)which is sensual rather than erotic, I think my books are all erotic without being too extreme.

    I hope you do visit Scotland one day. It's not short on history :) But on the other hand, you'll probably find it's not quite how it's portrayed in many romances :)

    Marie

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  19. I have always wanted to go to Scotland. It always sounds so beautiful.

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  20. Does this romantic time of year inspire you to a writing frenzy?

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  21. Hi Debby,
    I hope you get to come one day and see for yourdelf :) Thanks for dropping in!
    Marie

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  22. Hi Michelle!

    Actually...no :) I probably shouldn't say so, but I can never take Valentine's Day seriously. There's something about a designated romance day that takes away sponaneity for me and makes it not really romantic at all! My inspiration is a little off-beat, and my writing frenzies occur whenever there's enough peace in my house :)

    Not that I object, you understand, to any Valentine flowers or other gifts that might come my way, or being taken out for dinner - but I enjoy these things just as much at any time :)

    Marie

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  23. Just want to say thank you to everyone who came by and read my guest blog :) It's been fun talking to you!

    Marie

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