An Interview with Tricia McGill

by

Cynthianna Appel

Tell us all about your exciting new release, Amaryllis.

Amaryllis is my first and only attempt--so far--at a sci-fi romance. To escape the thugs intent on murdering her, Melanie, my heroine, escorts a space-ship back to a far planet when the alien piloting it on a reconnaissance trip to Earth becomes sick and is about to die. On Amaryllis Melanie meets Reve, commander of the planet's starship, and things start to get stranger and stranger. He looks very much like her recently murdered husband and the inhabitants of the planet resemble well known people on Earth.

That’s intriguing how Reve looks very much like the Melanie's recently murdered husband…

Right, the alien who dies on Earth and sends Melanie back to Amaryllis in her spacecraft has implanted images in Melanie's brain. While she was in Melanie's flat she took her husband's image from a picture. Then from watching TV she takes all the “beautiful people” (i.e., stars and models) and implants these images in Melanie's brain so that when Melanie gets to Amaryllis she sees these images instead of the real thing. My weird imagination has no trouble coming up with these ideas…

Melanie's husband was an undercover cop about to disclose the identity of the leader of a drug importing group. He was murdered by this man and it's this character who is threatening Melanie, giving her a good reason to escape by fleeing in the spacecraft when offered this option.

How does the love story intertwine with the science fiction action?

Reve, although like her dead husband, is larger than life and certainly exudes more sex appeal than her poor old deceased mate. Reve has special talents-sex wise (Need I say more!) and Melanie is forced to concede that she married for all the wrong reasons. Reve is intrigued by the characteristics of the Earthwoman, who has many attributes lacking in unemotional Amaryllisan females.

This was the aspect that delighted me more than anything while writing Amaryllis--I could go to any lengths.<g>

How did you come up with the story for Amaryllis?

Like all my books, it began with one scene, an idea that popped into my head--probably in the middle of the night. I wanted an Earthwoman to go to a far planet and fall in love with an alien. It grew from there.

I didn't need to do a lot of research on this story (unlike my historicals and time-travels) and that's one of the reasons I enjoyed writing it so much. When you are writing about a planet you have conjured completely from your imagination you can do just about anything you like, stretch incredulity to great lengths. And I simply reveled in creating my sexy alien hero.

How long have you been writing?

I've always written, since as far back as I can remember, but didn't start full time until I retired early about 14 years ago. I began Amaryllis about 2 years ago.

Once I'd retired from my job in the fashion industry I began to scribble like crazy, and soon had pages filled. My first full length story was a category romance. My husband decided I must have a typewriter. He soon got fed up with the noise of the keys and I graduated to a word processor then a computer.

My husband was my champion. He died just before my first novel was accepted I'm sad to say. Without his encouragement and faith in me I probably would have given up after the first dozen or so rejections.

You said you did some research for historicals and time-travels. How many other books have your written and/or published?

My first, Blue Haze, is a historical romance set in Botany Bay in the early days of settlement. Not enough is written about Australia's pioneering days and I absolutely relished researching and writing about the period. Blue Haze begins in 1818. I have a sequel with Jacobyte Books now and am planning a third to follow on. My second published book is the time-travel, White Clover. For a change I sent both my hero and heroine back to Scotland of 1050. I have Scottish ancestors so it was a delight to learn things about Scotland as I researched for this one.

My next release with Wings is a contemporary romance, and my work-in-progress is a sequel to White Clover since I loved my Scottish hunk so much I had to give him a story of his own. I have a couple of contemporaries that are almost ready to send out. Traces of Dreams, due out in the new year, is a family saga set in London and sees a poor family struggling through depressions and two world wars. I do seem to have more of a flair for stories set in the past but if I had to choose which appeals to me the most I really couldn't say. I just love writing whatever takes my fancy.

Do you read a lot of romance in these sub-genres? What else do you enjoy reading?

Because of limited time I stick to reading what I really love and that's time-travels and historical romances. When a member of my critique group has a book published and it's out of these sub-genres I will read it, but seldom read a non-romance. I love happy endings too much.

What suggestions can you give to other writers who are tackling novel-length fiction to help them become successful?

You must be dedicated. I know so many wannabee writers who give up round about the third chapter. Be prepared to do endless drafts until you get it right. Look on rejections as another learning curve. Heed the advice of multi-published authors and never give up if you are really determined to see your books published. Have confidence in yourself. Join a critique group.

What was the best piece of writing advice you ever received?

I've received so much advice along the way, but I think the one that stands out is to send your work to a professional editor for assessment--even if it costs money. We love our creations to death, and often fail to see the faults that are blatant to a professional. If you just can't afford to pay for advice have your work read by published friends or someone whose opinion you value.

Another good piece of advice is never be in a hurry to send your book out there. Finish it, let it sit, then go  back to it after a reasonable period of time and just see how many mistakes you can find. Meanwhile start the next project.

What was the worst piece of writing advice you ever received and consequently ignored?

"Send it off to a publisher. It's a good way to find out whether your writing is any good or not."

This is such bad advice--and costly. The acquiring editor hasn't time to look at your book and send you a critique. I wasted so much time and money in the early days by sending my work out into the world too soon.

And don’t forget to visit Tricia’s web page…