Interview B. G. McCarthy

by

Lynn Romaine

1) The title and description of your new book is intriguing--can you give us a little more about the book and what motivated you to write this story?

The book is the first of a series of stories about the goings-on in a small town. It continues the story of the female sheriff of the town in Mr. Midnight, my last romance. Michael Blackheart, from that book, often mentions his friends the hell-raising Newmans. The plot involves bikers, drug chemists, identical twins, narco-terrorism and will introduce a shadowy figure from an elite counter-terrorism group. At the same time these books are love stories about opposites attracting.

2) Can you give me a little about your background? Where you grew up, where you live, what your life is like?

I grew up on the Canadian prairies where my father was a landed immigrant from the U.S. and a very famous figure in Canadian sports. We moved to British Columbia when I was sixteen. I have a degree in graphic art and later applied that to a teaching degree. Art will always be my first love. I lived for the first six years of my marriage in a small logging/biker/Indian reservation town on the inlet. It was incredibly interesting. I taught some cute little boys like the Newman brothers, who I knew were born to be hell raisers, because there was nothing much else to do.

3) What motivates you to write in general? Is it strictly to entertain or is there some other, more internal, motivation going on?

Entertainment is about it. I like writing stories I want to read. I write for my friends. I love spy novels and delving into what makes people do what they do. I also have a thing about reunion stories and people who fell in love as teens.

4) Is this book in the same genre as your other books or a turn in the road for you in terms of themes? What gave you the idea for this book and what's next in the series?

Yes, as mentioned before, it is a series. And there is no departure in genre or theme. In the first two books, two brothers have arranged to meet. One disappears. That brother may have gone to the dark side. The hero, Ice Newman, has long lived in his big brother’s shadow--and in my mind. Another hero makes an appearance here but you’ll never know who he is because he’s in very deep cover. Madrigal is all my childhood heroes wrapped into one: The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Saint, The Man From UNCLE. Add a little obsessive Phantom of the Opera and Michael from La Femme Nikita and you have Mad.

5) Do you have a book you dream of writing but have not yet attempted?

Actually Thomas Hardy already wrote Far From the Madding Crowd. But I’d sure like to take up where he left off to see how Bathsheba and Gabriel got along.

6) If you could be compared to any author out there in the published world, past or present, who would you like to be compared to and why?

I don’t compare myself to anyone. I would like to be as prolific as Nora Roberts. I’d like to be doing what she’s doing. I’d like to be as brilliant as Thomas Hardy, Michael Collins or Don Delillo or Jane Austen and live in the reader’s heart forever.

7) Do you have any words of wisdom for aspiring writers--anything about how to write a novel or improving your writing?

Don’t go to so many workshops! No one can really tell you how to do it if you don’t have the instinct already. Try to muddle through the way that feels best. If you’re seeking fellowship, great, but I just come out of those things feeling confused. Read a lot. See what’s out there, what works and what doesn’t.

8) Do you write full-time or have a daytime job? How do you find time for writing and what sort of life do you have that you can structure around writing?

I work at home as an artist, so I fit in writing whenever I can get the computer. I write an hour a day and usually write first on paper and transcribe later. I do most of my thinking and plotting while I work out, a seven mile walk daily. My work time is structured around my kids, who are at stages in their lives. They come first.

9) What is the most important aspect about your book--the character line or story line? Why?

Good question. My books are all character driven. The books I love to read are character driven. I like to explore how people handle what happens to them, but I think my stories are pretty strong as well.

10) Do you have more books planned out and if so, are you working on something now? What is that?

I’ve just finished the drafts for the two sequels. Jinx and Kelly’s story. Ellen and Madrigal’s story. I hope to start soon on the book about Ice and Jinx’s brother, Stormy. He isn’t really speaking to me yet. Jinx is way too intrusive.

11) In this current book, what would you describe as the overriding theme of the book? What is it about your book that would make someone really eager to read it if they knew?

The overall theme is about a wounded woman coming out of self-imposed isolation. It’s also about a totally open, free and seemingly irresponsible man who can’t settle down in one place. Maggie has always been fascinated by Ice, but afraid of how he makes her feel. She lives in a very carefully ordered world where she is in control. Outside events force her to trust her deeper instincts about Ice’s character and ultimately her own. At the risk of sounding too deep, it is actually a very funny, fast-paced book. I think people will want to know more about the Newman family and about Maggie’s crazy housewife on the edge cousin, Ellen.

12) Is there anything else I didn't ask that you'd like to say about Maggie And Ice?

No.