Guest Author, Molly Stark

Today's Guest Author is Molly Stark, whose book Midsummer Magic came out in print on November 21. Molly is a fellow Rose at The Wild Rose Press, and after the rave reviews she's received from Simply Romance Reviews and Long and Short Reviews, we look forward to seeing more books in her Sisters of the Heart series soon!

Who are you?

My name is Molly Stark. I’m a writer and a reader, a teacher, a quilter, a baker (mmmm - eating homeade shortbread right now), a wife and a friend.

What type of stories do you like to write and why?

I love to write about the Regency period. I find the paradox of rigid manners and raw romanticism utterly fascinating. My heroines always dance to their own inner music, and during the Regency period the consequences of challenging social conventions were particularly dire.

What type of stories do you like to read and why?

I have eclectic tastes, but I love real romance -- the knee-melting, sigh-inducing kind. Sex is fine, but romance is essential.

When do you write?

I do my best writing in the morning at a lovely (quiet!) little coffee shop near my house. I can also write at night, but I need time and quiet to actually create pages.

When do you read? Where?

I confess I like to read in bed, on weekend mornings and as I fall asleep. And in the winter, there’s nothing better than curling up in front of the fireplace on a blustery afternoon, a cup of cocoa in one hand and a new read in the other.

Where did you get the inspiration for Midsummer Magic?

Funny, I remember this so clearly. I was sitting through a boring lecture, and I had this sudden image of a single scene: a young woman pinning up her hair as she talked to an older woman. The young woman warns that the man waiting downstairs will know she’s an imposter and will shame the whole family by telling the world that they tried to pass her off as his bride. The older woman argues that it doesn’t matter -- even if the man knows he is being tricked, he will be too polite to say anything. That was the seed. At that point, I had to come up with a reason the family would be trying to pull a switcheroo, and that became Midsummer Magic.

Where do you go to think?

I do my best thinking on long walks. Also, I have a very long commute, and I find that I can do some good thinking while I drive. Unfortuneately, that means other drivers sometimes catch me talking to myself. (I prefer “eccentric” to “crazy,” thank you very much.)

How did you come up with your title?

I went through several titles until, in consultation with my editor, I settled on Midsummer Magic. The climax of the book is at a Midsummer revel in Cornwall, and I loved the symbolism of Midsummer being a threshold, when the seasons change, when the veil between this world and the next is lifted, when the usual rules simply don’t apply. The magic isn’t “woo woo” magic, but the magic of things we cannot understand. Like love. Nicholas spends much of the book convincing Mira to let go of logic and believe in that kind of magic. It’s something I struggle with myself.

Why do you write?

Of course I love to tell stories, to dig into what makes people tick and build characters from the bones out. But I really write because I love words. Always have. There’s nothing better than sifting through words, weighing the nuances of their meanings, and choosing exactly the right one. I love stringing together words, not only for their meaning but for their sound. I always read my writing out loud, and pay as much attention to the cadence of the language as I do to the sense of the story.

At the tender age of twelve, Molly Stark began pilfering her mother’s historical romances, staying awake until the wee hours, lost in the lives and loves of women from distant times and foreign lands. She knew from page one that she wanted to create and share her own stories of humor, passion, and mystery . . . stories that would transport readers and keep them turning the pages long into the night. Molly lives in Texas with the love of her life and a brood of temperamental felines.