Grand Winner of our hotly-contested Captivating Opening Contest, with
the fabulous novel Winter Princess, Skye MacKinnon, has just released her latest Scottish
gem:
Skye MacKinnon is an
International Bestselling author who has a slight obsession with Scotland, bunnies
and dried mango. And when she says slight... her friends are trying to find
ways to trick her into not having a book set in Scotland.
You'll often find Skye
bribing herself into writing words using cake and tea, but whatever works,
right?
Whether it's set in space
(Scottish space, obviously), fantasy worlds (Scottish fantasy worlds,
obviously), or Scotland, Skye's tales are full of magic, romance and adventure.
Oh and unicorns. There's a few demons too.
Welcome to the blog, Skye
— what genre do you consider your books to be?
I hate describing myself,
so to help, my good friend and co-author Laura Greenwood wrote me a bio
recently: “Skye MacKinnon is an International Bestselling author with a slight
obsession with Scotland, bunnies and dried mango. And when she says slight... her
friends are trying to find ways to trick her into not having a book set in
Scotland. You’ll often find Skye bribing herself into writing words using cake
and tea, but whatever works, right? Whether it’s set in space (Scottish space,
obviously), fantasy worlds (Scottish fantasy worlds, obviously), or Scotland,
Skye’s tales are full of magic, romance and adventure. Oh and unicorns. There’s
a few demons too.”
I write mostly reverse
harem, where one woman has several love interests and doesn’t have to choose.
Think love triangle but without the angst and decision. My reverse harem books
are all sorts of genres though: most are paranormal romance (for example my
bestselling Daughter of Winter Series), but I also have fantasy (Ruined Heart
Series), sci-fi (the Mars Diaries) and post-apocalyptic (The Drowning Series).
As you can see, I don’t like to choose, just like my female characters.
Tell me about your recent
release, Polar Fates. How did you
come up with that (story, angle, idea)?
Polar Fates is the second
book in The Drowning series. The novel is set in a post-apocalyptic Scotland
and tells the story of Isla, a young woman who meets and falls in love with
four bear shifters. In the first book, it was all about them getting to know
each other, but in Polar Fates, there’s a bit more mystery, mythology and
magic.
I came up with the idea
for the setting when walking home from work and listening to a podcast about
climate change and the effect it could have on Scotland. So then I did some
research and suddenly I had a world I could have my story set in. That the
characters turned out to be bear shifters just happened somehow, it wasn’t
planned. But most of the times I don’t plan much and the stories just develop
by themselves.
What interested you in delving
into this particular genre (historical novels, mysteries, sci-fi, children’s
books, etc.)?
I read my first reverse
harem book about two years ago (Charcoal Tears by Jane Washington) and have
read little else since then. I believe love comes in all shapes and forms, and
why does it always have to be two people? It’s much more interesting as an
author to have more than two main characters. It gives me the chance to get
into their heads, explore their dynamics, have them interact in different ways.
It’s a very fluid genre that is still evolving. When I started reading it, they
were predominantly one woman with several men, but slowly, there are RHs with
more than one woman emerging (like my own Ruined Heart Series). RHs can be
fantasy or contemporary, they can have vampires or zombies, they can be set on
Earth or on Mars. That’s the beauty of this genre - why choose!
What kind of research did
you do for this book?
I did quite a bit of
research on how the rising of the sea levels would change the world’s coast
lines and climate, specifically in terms of Scotland. There are some great
simulators online which show you how the world could look in the future.
But then there’s also
been some other stranger research topics like the properties of bear milk…
Describe your typical
working day. When and where do you write? Do you set a daily writing goal?
Until two weeks ago, I
was working full time and mainly wrote during lunch breaks and evenings, as
well as the entire weekend. But now I’ve reduced my hours at work, so I have
two extra days a week to write. I’m still getting used to that, but usually I
prefer to write in the afternoon for several hours in one go, but if that isn’t
possible, then a few half-hour sprints throughout the day.
I write every day, at
least 500 words, but on a good day it can be around 5,000 words.
I have a favourite cafe
around the corner where I like to go. They all know me there by now and
recently, the waitress even gave me some free hot chocolate because I started
crying while writing a really sad scene.
Any new books in the
making?
My next release is in two
weeks so that’s what most of my time is being spent on. The book is called Into
the Mists and is the second book in the Seven Wardens series that I co-write
with the amazing Laura Greenwood. The series is a reverse harem full of
Scottish mythology and legends and it’s great fun to write. Laura and I don’t
really talk about what’s going to happen, we just go with the flow. That means
that we usually destroy each other’s plot point, but we’ve noticed how well
this method works for us and the readers seem to love the series as much as we
do.
I’m also doing another
co-writing project with Bea Paige, which is a retelling of Dante’s Inferno. It
will be published in the Realms and Rebels box set in the summer.
And finally, I’m working
on Winter Queen, the third novel in my Daughter of Winter series. I’d be lying
if I said that there weren’t other projects I’m writing on in the background,
but those are secret for now...
This year is going to be
really exciting though!
Where do your ideas and
inspiration come from?
I wish I knew! I have new
ideas all the time, sometimes just out of nowhere, sometimes because of what I
see on the news, or films, or just random images I find online. I have far too
many ideas and far too little time to write them all down.
What is the hardest part
of writing for you?
Finding the time. I have
so many ideas and projects I’m working on, but there’s always so much else to
do. But now that I’m working part-time, I’m hoping to have a lot more time for
writing.
What do you think of
using book trailers – do you think they are effective?
I’ve made a few book
trailers, but I don’t know if they’ve been effective. I don’t have one for my
latest release, but for the first book in the series:
What’s the best thing
about being an author?
Being able to share
stories with others and not keep them all penned up in my head. Basically,
letting the voices in my head out into the open 😉
Where do you see yourself
in 10 years?
Living on a Scottish
islands with lots of bunnies and cats, maybe a child or two, and my very own
library. And of course having lots of books published and read by a lot of
lovely readers.
How long have you been
writing for?
I’ve always written
stories, even before I could properly write (I used to replace words I didn’t
know how to spell with drawings). But I became more serious about it when I was
sixteen and a friend entered one of my short stories into a competition. It won
and got published, and I got the bug. I managed to get about a dozen short
stories published in various anthologies, while starting to write a longer
novel on the side. I wanted to become a writer but people kept telling me that
wasn’t a “proper job”, so when I finished school, I studied Journalism and
worked as a freelance science journalist for a while. With a stressful job that
required a lot of creativity, I no longer had the energy to write prose in the
evenings, so my writing took a backseat for a while... until spring last year,
when I changed jobs and suddenly had the time and energy once again.
Do you have any writing
advice for aspiring authors?
Don’t think you need to
follow convention. I tried plotting and planning my novel and got frustrated
whenever I didn’t manage to stick to my outline. Then someone asked, “Why don’t
you just write without a plan?” and I tried that and ever since, I no longer
take years to write a book but months or weeks. I just let it flow and let the
characters make their own decision. If the book turns out to be totally
different than expected, who cares as long as it’s a good story?
Do you read reviews of
your book(s)? Do you respond to them, good or bad? How do you deal with the
bad?
I try not to read them
but usually I do. I never respond to them, unless I’m tagged in one on Facebook
and then I usually say something “thanks for reading my book”. Sometimes the
bad ones can be really helpful feedback that I like to take on board. If it’s
just something like “I hated this book”, I try to ignore it. But if I ever get
depressed by bad reviews, I look up some of my favourite books and look at
their bad reviews – it shows how even those authors get them.
What is your least
favourite part of the writing / publishing process?
The editing and all the
other non-writing aspects that need to be done to get the book ready. Luckily I
have an amazing formatter who makes them look pretty, so at least that bit is
being taken care of.
Can you give us your
social media links, tours etc. and details of any works-in-progress?
Here
are some of my social media links and my website:
Facebook group: facebook.com/groups/skyesbookharem
Facebook page: facebook.com/skyemackinnonauthor
Website: skyemackinnon.com
Newsletter: skyemackinnon.com/newsletter.html
Twitter: @skye_mackinnon
Instagram: instagram.com/skyemackinnonauthor
I’ll be at a signing in
Belfast in March: titanicsigning18.eventbrite.co.uk
and in Edinburgh in May: edinburghauthorsigningevents.co.uk.
My next releases are Into the Mists on the
16th March, and Hidden on 16th
April.
Thank you so much, Skye,
and keep writing...!
Readers: find out why Skye’s fabulous entry Winter Princess, was the outright winner in our hotly-contested Captivating
Opening competition:
One sassy demi-goddess.
Four hot Guardians. And a few evil people.
As a demi-goddess, Wyn has always stood out from the
human crowd. And now, on her 22nd birthday, her magic finally surfaces with a
bang. A Big bang. She’ll need the help of not one, but four (sexy) Guardians to
control her destructive powers. If only they weren't so distracting...
Her mother, the Winter
Queen, waits for Wyn in the Realms of Gods, but there are enemies who will try
and prevent her from ever reaching the Realms, even if that means going to war.
Will Wyn be able to
survive the journey? And if she does, can she resist falling for her Guardians?
GET IT HERE
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