Rescued by a Highlander by Susan Payne

 

She would do anything to save her father and her heritage…even wed a highlander

I guess you could call me a “Second Chance” writer. I had always read everything I could. My ability to read so well and quickly, hid the fact I am dyslexic until my children began their reading.  I never realized why I had trouble writing or even printing until then.  I just thought of myself as being a messy writer.  So, my second chance came after I had joined and then left a writers group in the 1990s.  It seemed as if everyone else did it so effortlessly and I never cared for my words once they were down on paper.  They sounded so good in my head.  Like poetry only better.  Then one day a couple came to me and began telling me their story. Both at the same time talking over one another and wanting me to write it down.  That’s when I became a stenographer for the “people-in-my-head”.  Those two people began a series of eight stories of fictional Sweetwater, Kansas where they lived and thrived and, if you ask me, live there to this day even though my series began with two people living in 1873.

An interesting point is that I never see couples from the present.  Not even from this century although I now have two, I add to every once in a while.  One’s called Private Dick about an off-road P.I. who is a real sleaze and a short, short about a couple who ends up as singles at a hook-up all inclusive resort on the Caribe. Titled On the Same Page (Finally) they both have to do with writing/reading. Don’t know where they came from but they jump into my head every few weeks and I add it to their story.  Most stories I write, however, are historical romances for lack of a better term.  I usually have more than one couple involved in things and there is a secondary story along the way.  Love doesn’t happen in a vacuum and we all have family, friends, life that gets in the way.  No one can spend their whole day searching for and finding the perfect mate.  Even romance writers know better than that.  Not so easy sometimes to know what we want.

Since I got a late start, once I did begin writing in earnest, I’ve tried to make up for it in quantity.  I have over 80 ready to publish and another 20 works-in-progress. Actually, I was trying to free up my mind.  I know better now.  As soon as I finished one, two more jumped in.  I realized I’m never going to get ahead of them so have learned to live with the voices and the scenes and the unusual need to research equine encephalitis of 1873 or canning jars and how the lids were made.  This falls into my other love – learning tidbits that will make me no money.  I mean, it’s not as if I’ll ever get on Jeopardy or anything but I’m ready if I ever do.  Want to know the gestation of a calf or elephant?  Got it. Want to know how to make candles or soap from rendered fats?  Got it. If it’s something I don’t ‘got’ then I can’t sleep until I do understand it.  It may be why I read dictionaries and thesauruses as a child.  Encyclopedias were my best friends and one of the first things I bought as a married woman.  Remember, there wasn’t the internet and google available then.

I take reviews to heart and was one of the reasons I stayed away from publishing.  Even when people aren’t snarky it is difficult hearing that your baby is ugly.  I love my babies and do feel glad when I can see that a reader understood my character as well as I do.  That I was able to bring them to life so that another could meet them.  Understand where they came from and agree they deserved the happy-ever-after I gave them.  I know when I finish telling a story, my characters are happy and satisfied with their lives.  Most of them merely want to find someone to love them, to stay with that person and live a long and happy life.  Isn’t that what we all want for ourselves and our friends?

Blurb:

Tall, beautiful and slender, she dressed like a boy and fought like a warrior and won Laird Macgregor’s interest in a single moment. Jillian was fighting to protect her father and save her heritage – could she trust a Highlander to help her?

Excerpt:

[image error]On the ride back to the fortress, Gawain had not turned around, knowing what the young woman looked like up in the saddle. Her legs splayed to both sides of the animal covered with the tight knit hose most men wore while riding through woods, the chainmail covering her more interesting attributes. The short length of dark blond hair emphasized her chin and jaw line which spelt beauty to his eyes. Her mouth, though most often held in a mutinous frown, appeared kissable.

In fact, Gawain wanted to kiss it into a soft poutiness, make those green eyes spark with desire not hatred. Even though he may have to sleep with one eye open to prevent the little vixen from piercing him with his own dagger in the night, he would think the experience of bedding her well worth the danger. He knew a smile settled on his features as he imagined her squirming under him once they were in his bed. Such thoughts had made for an uncomfortable ride home.

BUY LINK:     https://www.amazon.com/Rescued-Highlander-Susan-Payne-ebook/dp/B08DZDYD84

About Susan:

A voracious reader her whole life, author Susan Payne loved the written word.  When reading more than fifty books per month wasn’t enough, she decided to allow her mind to take flight and write all the many stories that kept intruding in her life. [image error] She blended her love of history and her love of words to create over eighty stories.  All historical and centering on a couple finding love and a happy ever after together.

The author has published a series of stories surrounding fictional Sweetwater Kansas beginning with Harrison Ranch through The Wild Rose Press and Montana Lineman by Literary Wanderlust due out by end of 2020.  Also, contracted through Wild Rose Press this summer was The Persistent Marquess, Forever Kind of Woman, Rescued By a Highlander and to be released yet this fall, Texas Ranger and the Professor, Regency Christmas anthology, Three Sisters and Blind Faith.

Website:  http://www.authorsusanpayne.com

Buy site: https://www.amazon.com/Rescued-Highlander-Susan-Payne-ebook/dp/B08DZDYD84

Amazon URL  https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Payne

Email:  authorspayne@gmail.com