What inspired My Brave Highlander? by Vonda Sinclair


I'm excited to have Vonda Sinclair here today with her new release, My Brave Highlander! She'll be giving away a free ebook copy of the book, so be sure and leave a comment below! Plus, besides her hunky kilted warrior cover, aren't the Scottish beach scenes beautiful?
And now, I have the honor to present to you the inspiration for My Brave Highlander by Vonda Sinclair!
Dirk, the hero of My Brave Highlander, was a secondary character in my second book, My Wild Highlander. He’s a friend of the hero in that book. Dirk was a bit different though… the strong, silent type, watchful of those around him and ever alert for danger. I knew he must have had an interesting, perhaps even traumatic background. When I watched an episode of Most Haunted filmed in the UK, inspiration struck. The cast and crew of the TV series were at a haunted castle. What happened there a few hundred years ago was that the lady of the castle, a second wife, saw an opportunity for her son to inherit her husband’s title and lands if only her stepson, her husband’s oldest son, were somehow out of the way. She either murdered him or paid someone to murder him. But her son, the younger boy, was very close to his older brother and loved him very much. He was devastated when his older brother disappeared. One day the younger son saw his older brother through the upstairs window. He was standing in the courtyard below. In his excitement to see his big brother after a long absence, he fell out the window to his death. The elder brother had not been in the courtyard. It was his ghost. Now both boys were dead thanks to the stepmother’s scheming, murderous plots. 
Using this story as inspiration, I learned that Dirk’s stepmother tried to murder him or have him murdered three times during his youth so that her son could inherit. She thought she’d succeeded the third time when she hired an infamous highwayman and contract killer to push the fifteen-year-old Dirk off a cliff into the ocean. Dirk’s family and clan thought he was dead for twelve years. But his uncle had secretly helped him escape to his mother’s clan further south where he could safely grow into a man and become a trained warrior. When he returns home to Durness on the North Coast of Scotland, his scheming stepmother is still alive. Will she try again to have him murdered so one of her sons can inherit?
I love using real history to inspire my stories whenever possible. Truth is often stranger than fiction so it can inspire interesting plot twists and turns.
 Battle-hardened warrior Dirk MacLerie isn't who everyone thinks he is. He's Dirk MacKay, heir apparent to the MacKay chiefdom and Dunnakeil Castle on the far north coast of Scotland. When he returns home after a long absence, will his clan know him and will the duplicitous enemy who tried to murder him twelve years ago kill him in truth this time?

Lady Isobel MacKenzie is a beautiful young widow betrothed to yet another Highland chief by her brother's order. But when her future brother-in-law accosts her and threatens to kill her, she is forced to flee into a Highland snowstorm. When she runs into a rugged and imposing man she thought dead, she wonders if he will turn her over to her enemy or take her to safety.

Dirk remembers the enchanting, dark-eyed Isobel from when he was a lad, but now she is bound to another man by legal contract—an important detail she would prefer to forget. She wishes to choose her own husband and has her sights set on Dirk. But he would never steal another man's bride… would he? The tantalizing lady fires up his passions, testing his willpower and honor at every turn, even as some of his own treacherous clansmen plot his downfall.

As for the setting of My Brave Highlander, I knew Dirk was from a very remote place. When my husband and I visited Durness, Scotland, last year, I knew I had my setting. It is wild and untamed. The unpredictable weather and the cold wind are ever present. It is obvious anyone who lives there must be tough. Despite the harshness of the weather, I love the Durness area. It’s so beautiful!
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Do you like knowing what inspired a book? Do you like for a book's setting to be really vivid and life-like especially if it's a setting you're unfamiliar with?
 Thanks again to everyone who dropped by to check out Vonda's delightful Highland romance! Just answer one of her questions and you'll have a chance to win her ebook!
Author Bio

Vonda Sinclair’s favorite indulgent pastime is exploring Scotland, from Edinburgh to the untamed and windblown north coast. She also enjoys creating hot, Highland heroes and spirited lasses to drive them mad. She is a past Golden Heart finalist and Laurie award winner. She lives with her amazing and supportive husband in the mountains of North Carolina where she is no doubt creating another Scottish story.
website: http://www.vondasinclair.com/facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VondaSinclair
The giveaway ends Monday, November 5, midnight CST.

Thanks, Vonda, for giving us this chance to learn more about your book and to get to drool over not only the Highlander, but the gorgeous beaches! Terry
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Published on October 31, 2012 22:00
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