At what point in your life did you make up your mind you were going to become a published author?
I told my mom that I wanted to write books when I was 8. I think I saw it as an easy way to make a living. Boy was I wrong.
I toyed with the idea again in about 1986, during one summer when I didn't have work. I got serious about it in 1989/90, when I cranked out 70,000+ words of a really awful medieval romance that taught me much about plotting and character development. An idea for another medieval morphed into a western, which ended up being my first published book, Hostage Heart.
Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
Immortal Warrior is the first in my new series about a crew of Viking raiders cursed to live for eternity as weres of their fylgjur, their spirit companions. This first hero, Ivar, spends his days as a great eagle. He's managed to make a tentative life for himself by working as a mercenary/spy for the Norman king, but one evening the loneliness becomes too much. Instead of asking King William for payment in gold, he asks for land and a hall where he can enjoy the company of men for a time.
What he does not expect is that with the land comes a wife - a beautiful, intelligent, aggravating wife from whom he must somehow keep his dark secret.
What was the inspiration behind your book? Why did you feel a need to write it?
I had a dream. That's not usually how I come up with characters, but it's what happened this time. I awoke with a crystal-clear image of a tall, blond man in formal evening clothes. I knew nothing except that he was a thousand years old - and that turned into a bear every morning.
I had to figure out all the rest, but it all evolved from there.
What kind of research did you have to conduct to write your book?
A lot. I had to find out about Viking culture and religion; therianthropy (shape-shifter mythology); Norman England; medicinal herbs; castle construction; Anglo-Saxon myths and religion; women's roles in medieval times; forms of address; clothing, right down to belt buckles; how books were constructed; food. In other words, all of it. It was like fantasy world-building as far as the degree of detail goes, except it's all real and someone, somewhere, will feel obliged to tell me if I get it wrong.
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