Today, we’re welcoming Sue-Ellen Welfonder to the blog, author of The Ravenscraig Legacy series. In particular, we’re celebrating the release of the sixth book, Haunted Warrior. But we’ll hush up and let Sue-Ellen take it from here.

Hello! I’m so happy to be here today.

Haunted Warrior is special to me for many reasons. Readers who know me, say there’s a lot of me in Kendra, the heroine. That’s true. It’s also true that the story’s setting, a fishing village on Scotland’s North Sea coast, is one of my favorite places in Scotland. My love of animals is also in the ink—see Jock, hero Graeme’s dog, and Graeme’s beloved seals. I could note more things Kendra and I have in common, but I want to share this book’s inspiration. The unusual way the story was born. And I’m framing it around a question that’s surely as old as the telling of tales…

Where do you get your ideas?

Writers are asked all kinds of questions. Some are easy to answer: What’s your book about? Where can I get your book? Will it be available in print? Other questions are pesky, some might say rude: Is it any good? Have I read it? How much money do you make? Then there are the eye-rollers: If you’re at a signing, you might get asked for bathroom directions. If you write romance, you’ll get tackled about the heat factor. Or, as someone once asked me, if cover model, John DeSalvo, was my boyfriend? (no, of course, he wasn’t, but I’ve met him and he’s incredibly nice) So the number, range, and hilarity of questions varies.

But one dominates. The idea question. Writers hear this so often that many have a standard comeback. Mine, when the mood strikes, is to smile, shrug, and say, “the story tree.” And that’s actually the way of it. Whimsically explained, at least. Anyone familiar with my books knows they have whimsy and magic. So finding ideas at a tree bursting with inspiration works for me.

The fact remains that ideas are everywhere.

They surround us daily, invade our sleep, and intrude on us at good and inconvenient times. You never know when one might appear, but when they do, writers recognize them for the gems they are, and run with them.

That’s the moment a story is born.

It’s when the magic begins.

The story tree moment for Haunted Warrior was one of the most mysterious “starts to a story” I ever experienced. As with most of my books, this one was inspired by a trip to Scotland. And because I’m drawn to the wild places, the empty and haunting ones, it was at just such a place that the idea came to me…

It happened on a deserted beach when I spotted a man on the dunes. Tall, striking, and kilted, he didn’t seem of this world. Leastways, mine. He had an air that said he owned the remote beach. Maybe the whole, wind-swept coast. The word “guardian” struck me. I didn’t think he was a ghost—he looked solid.

But he was something. He proved that by vanishing before my eyes. Literally. As in poof and he was gone. I raced up the dunes, thinking I’d see him striding away. The dunes were empty. Likewise, the flat, grassy moors stretching in all directions. This area was isolated, no nearby roads or houses.

He was just gone.

The beach is said to be haunted, so at this point, I did wonder if I’d seen a ghost. The waters there are treacherous and have downed many ships, claiming countless lives. If a ghost, perhaps he guards that coast? He did inspire Graeme MacGrath and Haunted Warrior. The opening scene shows Kendra as she walks that same beach and spies a magnificent kilted man high atop the dunes. Like my experience, the man Kendra sees disappears before her eyes. But she sees him again. They meet a short while later, farther down the beach where German WWII bunkers are half-buried in the beach’s red-gold sand. The story reveals what happens after that. For now, I’m sharing my pictures of the beach, the dunes with the kilted guardian, and the German WWII bunkers.

Thank you for joining me here today. I hope you’ll enjoy spending time with Kendra, Graeme, and the little North Sea fishing village they love so dearly.

SEW

USA Today bestselling author Sue-Ellen Welfonder won Romantic Times Best First Historical Romance Award for her debut title, Devil in a Kilt. Since then, many of her books have been RT Award nominees, and most have received RT Top Picks and K.I.S.S. Hero Awards. She is thrilled to be a winner of InD’Tale’s RONE Award. Her favorite reader compliment is that her stories transport them to medieval Scotland, the setting of most of her books. She is known for her strong heroines, Alpha heroes, and weaving Highland magic and humor into her tales.

You can find her on Facebook, and BookBub