Birds, Beasts and Rotten Relatives

by Anna Campbell

Have you all read Gerald Durrell? His two books of memoirs about his childhood on Corfu, MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS and BIRDS, BEASTS AND RELATIVES are among the most beautiful books I know - and they always make me kill myself laughing. Seriously if you want a treat, get them!

But strangely, I'm talking about neither birds nor beasts today (well, perhaps tangentially, the birds and the bees, but they always get a look-in in the lair!).

I actually want to talk about rotten relatives.

Specifically rotten relatives in romance novels.

It struck me last week how often romance novel plots rely on the device of the truly horrible relation. I only had to think of my own work.

In CLAIMING THE COURTESAN, you wouldn't want Kylemore's mother for quids. She makes a hissing cobra look like Mother Teresa. No wonder the poor boy's so mixed up. Actually his dad left something to be desired as a parent too!


In UNTOUCHED, the bad guy is another relative. Gorgeous Matthew's horribly evil uncle, Lord John Landsdowne, has imprisoned our hero as a madman and is making hay with the family fortune. He's also the guy who kidnaps our brave and virtuous heroine Grace and gives her to Matthew as a sex toy. Not someone you want to move into the house next door, I feel!

By the way, this is the Spanish cover of UNTOUCHED, out in September from Random House Mondadori. Isn't it just SOOOO gorgeous? Apparently Por Primera Vez means "for the first time". Nice, huh?

In TEMPT THE DEVIL, Olivia is blessed with a brother who would make you want to be an only child.

And things are even worse on the family front in CAPTIVE OF SIN. Charis, our brave but virtuous heroine (hmm, seeing a pattern here), meets up with the gorgeous Gideon (yep, definitely a pattern!) when she's fleeing her stepbrothers who have beaten her within an inch of her life. They're trying to force her to marry their degenerate friend so they can split her fortune between them. And Gideon's family, frankly, isn't much better.

Oh, well, at least these two have something in common! I'd hate to think my hero and heroine had nothing to talk about on those cold Cornish winter nights when the sea thunders in and the wind howls.

Mind you, talking isn't exactly their first choice of time filler! Snork, as Duchesse would say! I think this is where the birds and the bees come in!


I can think of hundreds, even thousands of books that have relied on evil family members to push a plot along and to provide antagonists for our protagonists. You don't have to look much further than Cinderella or Snow White!

I have a theory that it's something to do with the promise of the family being a haven of love and security. Sadly, it's not always true, but we all think it should be! When someone in the family does the dirty on us, it really raises the stakes.

So my questions for you are:

Why do you think baddies in the family are so popular in romance novels?

Do you have a favorite baddie in a romance novel who's a relative of either the hero or heroine? Why?

Adding to the TBR Pile!

Wow, what a great day I had finding about everyone's reading tastes! Thanks, guys, for playing with such gusto.

Because of the great response, I've decided to give away TWO books.

A signed copy of CLAIMING THE COURTESAN goes to:

AVONLADYJERRICA!

A signed copy of TEMPT THE DEVIL goes to:

MAGOLLA!

Congratulations, girls. Please email me on anna@annacampbell.info with your snail mail details and I'll get your books off to you pronto. We can't have those TBR piles languishing, can we?

Happy Easter, everyone!

RBY Celebration Prizes!

Thanks to everyone who made my R*BY celebration such a hoot. It is with great pleasure that I announce the winners of the signed copies of CLAIMING THE COURTESAN! Yeah, it's three copies. I can't count! ;-)

PJ!!! FEDORA!!! MARGAY!!!

Congratulations. Please email me with your snail mail details and I'll get your books (and a couple of extra goodies) off to you. Happy reading!

Short People

by Anna Campbell

Am I showing my age if I mention the song Short People by Randy Newman? For those of less advanced years, here's a link to the video:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1NvgLkuEtkA

I must say I got a shock when I saw it went all the way back to 1977!

I suppose you could say this is sort of a follow-up post to the big fat books one. But 'short' is on my mind right now because, shock, horror, pain, agony, I have to write a short story this month.

Short does not come easily to me. Sheesh! I have trouble restricting myself to the 400 pages that Avon allow me to tell a story. Every book I've written has come out at least twice as long in its first draft. So with restricting myself to 100,000 words proving tough, you can imagine how I feel faced with something only a few pages long. Ouch!

In May, I had the pleasure of seeing my first published short story. I wrote short stories in my long, LONG writing apprenticeship. I entered them in contests with variable results - generally if it was a romance, I did OK. But the length always felt unnatural, especially as my ideas are usually complicated enough to last a whole novel.

Anyway, the Australian Women's Weekly took on LADY KATE'S SCOUNDREL and I got a nice Regency illustration to go with it. I suspect the artist had seen the BBC PRIDE AND PREJUDICE - the hero has a definite whiff of Mr. Darcy about him, hasn't he?

By the way, you can read LADY KATE here. The wonderful people at Avon Australia have put it on their website.

On a personal note, I got a real thrill from the AWW gig. The magazine is an institution here in Oz and my late mother would have got such a kick out of her daughter being in the Weekly. I mean, you can keep your publishing contracts from New York. You've REALLY made it if you're in the Women's Weekly! I knew Mum was somewhere chortling!


Which brings me back to my current short story project. On Monday, some good news became official. CLAIMING THE COURTESAN has finaled in the Romantic Book of the Year Award here in Australia. The R*BY is our equivalent of the RITA and is open to all romances published in 2007 written by an Australian or a New Zealander. There are two awards, one for category romance and one for mainstream. They make a lovely fuss of you - the finalists are announced in another huge magazine here called The Woman's Day and we have a big awards night at our conference in August where the trophies are presented.

As a finalist, I also have the opportunity to write a romantic short story for The Woman's Day. LADY KATE came in just over 4,000 words. This time, I have to restrict myself to 1,500 words. How tough is that? But it's fantastic publicity for me and my writing so I can't say no. And anyway I enjoy a challenge - at least when I've surmounted it, LOL.

Wish me luck! And I'll let you all know when the story hits the presses.

In the meantime, writers, do you write long or short? Are there advantages you can see to either approach? Readers, do you enjoy romantic short stories? My mother, who was a lifelong romance reader, used to hate them because she just got interested and it was over! Does anyone have any favorite short stories - romantic or not? Are there times when you think short is BETTER?

Also, make sure you check out the Eloisa James/Julia Quinn charity auction. It's for a really great cause and some wonderful items are up for grabs.

Please let me know if you haven't read CTC. I'm giving away a signed copy to celebrate the great news about the R*BY!

The Tyranny of the Blank Page

by Anna Campbell

After Jo's beautiful post yesterday, I wasn't sure what I could follow it up with today. Anything after that would just seem banal.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you something I've been thinking about a bit lately.
As a lot of you know, life chez Anna Campbell has been pretty exciting lately. It's awards season and to my delight and surprise, both UNTOUCHED and CLAIMING THE COURTESAN have appeared on several lists of the year's best. A great thrill, because it's based on reader votes, was being chosen as Best New Author of 2007 in the All About Romance Annual Reader Poll. Another great thrill because it's such a prestigious award was seeing CLAIMING THE COURTESAN nominated (along with my talented fellow Bandita Donna MacMeans's THE EDUCATION OF MRS. BRIMLEY) for Best First Historical Romance in the Romantic Times 2007 Reviewers Choice Awards. Michelle Buonfiglio at Lifetime TV chose CLAIMING THE COURTESAN not only as Debut of 2007 but also Book of the Year! Wow!

But as most romance writers, aspiring or published, will tell you - the one you really, REALLY want to final in is Romance Writers of America's RITA Awards. It was one of the dreams that kept me going through my years in the wilderness before I sold. The hope that one day I'd be able to say I was nominated for a RITA! You need such dreams when you're struggling against self-doubt and rejection and a world which keeps telling you to be sensible and give up trying to get what you want because it's impossible to achieve.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, this impossible dream came true. I received a phone call in the middle of the afternoon from megastar Lorraine Heath to let me know that BOTH my books had finaled in the Best Regency Historical Romance category. It took quite a while for the news to sink in! One of the loveliest things about that moment is Lorraine was among the first people to read CTC and she gave me a great quote which appeared on the cover. So there was a fantastic feeling of artistic balance about the whole occasion!

As you can imagine, I've been excited and happy and pleased and grateful and... You know the drill! I've had several riotous celebrations, including one with my local writer friends that I talk about here. And for a week or so there, the house was fragrant with the bunches of flowers wonderful wellwishers sent me.

But in between all this hoopla, my REAL life continues. And my real life is writing my fourth historical romance for Avon.

With all of this positive reinforcement, you'd think writing the next book would be a doddle, wouldn't you?

Well, the answer is a resounding...

NO!!!!!

The awards and the praise have been absolutely amazing and I'll always be grateful for the lovely things that have happened to me over the last few weeks. But the stark truth is that filling blank pages with my stories, finding out what I want to say and saying it as well as I possibly can, bringing characters who are alive in my head alive on paper, that never gets easier.

Which I've decided is a GOOD thing!

Well, I think it's a good thing...

There's something scary but unerringly honest about trying to tell the best story you can. I think the process makes you honest. It's just you and the writing, nothing else. It's ruthless, occasionally rewarding, often terrifying. But it keeps me grounded the way very few other things do. And each book turns out to be as big a challenge - or sometimes a bigger challenge - than the book before. Because each book presents its own world and its own problems and requires its own solutions that you only reach through painful effort and more ups and downs than your common or garden rollercoaster.

And at the end of all that anguish and hard graft, you hopefully get a book that you're proud to see on a shelf somewhere. And hopefully that other people will like and tell you that they like! So long live awards season!

What keeps you grounded through good and bad times? What makes it all worthwhile for you? Can we help you celebrate anything? You know we love a party in the lair!

Anyone for Camping?

I've got a deep, dark confession to make, Banditas and friends! In the early '80s, I had a HUGE crush on Adam Ant whose picture graces the top of this blog. When he sang Ant Music, I was in ant heaven. Or perhaps I should say the ANT-eroom to heaven! But the weird thing is I only liked AA when he wore make-up and his rather naff highwayman gear. When he looked like a normal guy, I wasn't interested. Why?

I'm a huge fan of the Scarlet Pimpernel but find him much more attractive when he's lily-livered Sir Percy Blakeney. I much prefer him making up groan-worthy verse about seeking those Frenchies everywhere than saving people from the guillotine!

I could go on. Captain Jack Sparrow. That man can wear eyeliner! David Bowie in the 1970s. ALL Restoration comedy which I developed a real fondness for when I did English lit at uni. Frances Crawford from Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles. Camp as they come but SOOOOO dashing and gorgeous. Lord Peter Wimsey from Dorothy L. Sayers' classic mysteries.
I have a fairly loose theory that the reason I find these men attractive has something to do with their ability with the English language. Well, Adam Ant aside! But all of these dudes can talk their way out of a corner better than most. Do these particular examples float my boat because they might be camp, but they're dashing as well?

So a couple of questions. Am I alone in my attraction to these theatrical but extremely gorgeous manifestations of masculinity? Do you have any camp heroes of your own - and no, Caren, we're not talking about the scouting movement! What is the eternal lure of the camp?

Colette Gale Fires up the Phantom

Interviewed by Anna Campbell



ANNA: Colette, thank you so much for coming over to party with the Banditas today. I can't wait to hear about your new release Unmasqued, an erotic re-telling of The Phantom of the Opera. What an intiguing premise! But first I'd like to ask you about your writing history. Give us the goss on Colette Gale before she was published!
COLETTE: I'm ecstatic to be here! The Banditas have really made quite a name for themselves in such a short time--I'm completely impressed. Thanks so much for having me. Okay, the writing history. Well, Colette Gale is actually the pen name of my alter ego who writes historical paranormals, and who has been a guest here on the Banditas in the past. But Unmasqued is Colette's first book, and we won't talk about that other girl today, other than that she is multi-published. :-)
ANNA: I'm so looking forward to reading it and finding how you deal with the sexual tension between the members of the central triangle in the story. Can you tell us about Unmasqued?

COLETTE: Well, the story came about because of my dissatisfaction with the ending of Lloyd Webber's musical version of The Phantom of the Opera. I mean, he made the Phantom passionate and attractive, and showed us how much he and Christine loved each other--and even more so in the film version--and yet he has Christine leave the love of her life to run off with that milquetoast Raoul at the end! Quelle horreur!

(I must confess that I've seen the Phantom play many times, and that when the movie came out, I had this hope that maybe Lloyd Webber had tweaked it enough for it to end the way I thought it should have ended. But no.)

So I set about writing my version of the story, explaining why Christine left with Raoul, forsaking her passion for Erik (the Phantom). It started off being just a fun project for my alter ego, when she was between other books (those historical paranormals), but when she finished the book, her agent wanted to see it--and then she sold it.

The book is an erotic novel--not an erotic romance. There is a line between the two, in my opinion, and although Christine and Erik do have their happy ending, as one would expect in an erotic romance, and they do not have intercourse with anyone other than each other, the book leans more toward erotic fiction. In fact, when I sold this book, my editor and I--and all of her colleagues--had long discussions about where this book belonged.

Did it belong as an erotic romance (yes, because there's a love story at its heart and a happy ending), or a straight erotica (yes, because the sexual situations are more like what one would find in that type of novel)? It really is sort of smack dab between them.

The book is definitely not for everyone, because it's not merely explicit sex scenes between the main characters. The settings, the motivations, the situations, are all important to the story, yet they're sexual and erotic in nature.

(I talk more about my opinions on erotic romance v. erotica, and erotica v. porn during this interview at Bam's site.)

ANNA: I gather you're drawn to darker heroes (I'm sure that's one of the reasons we get on so well!). Tell us about your Phantom, and how he's different from Leroux's original creation, and Lloyd Webber's as well.
COLETTE: Oh, Erik is such a tortured hero--in all three versions! Leroux created a horrible, murderous genius, Lloyd Webber romanticized him, and I took it a few steps further and made him complete hero material. Hot, possessive (in a good way), honorable, and madly, madly in love with our heroine.

He is probably the most tortured hero that I've ever written. I loved doing it, because I knew from the beginning how much he loved Christine, and how much of a risk it was for him to reveal himself to her. He'd watched her from the shadows, gotten to know her and to love her through his tutoring--but to actually talk to her, touch her, be with her...he was risking everything. So at first, his fear is obvious through his need to control the situation, to keep her from really seeing and knowing him--because once she did, he feared her rejection. Yet, he can't stay away from her.

Yet, Christine was never afraid of him. Ever (well, except when she takes off his mask, but that's well into the book). She recognizes their connection, their kinship, their passion, and she wants to get to know him.




ANNA: Your byline on your website is "seducing the classics" which I think is brilliant. I notice your next book is a re-telling of The Count of Monte Cristo story. Can you tell us a little more about this?
COLETTE: Yes, my next book will be released in May and it's titled MASTER: An Erotic Novel of The Count of Monte Cristo. I loved writing this book more than I thought possible. The book by Dumas is fabulous--if unbelievably complicated and long--and it was a challenge to streamline it enough to focus on the love story between Edmond Dantes and Mercedes Herrera while explaining what else is going on behind the scenes, but I had a blast doing it.

For those who aren't familiar with the story, here's the back cover copy for the new book:

Betrayed by his friends, Edmond Dantes spent fourteen years imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Now, miraculously freed, he returns as the rich and powerful Count of Monte Cristo, seeking revenge on the four men who sent him to jail...and determined to have the woman he has never been able to forget.

Mercedes Herrera was devastated when the man she loved disappeared and was never heard from again. After searching for Edmond, she had no choice but to marry one of his friends...and for the past fourteen years, she's lived in an empty, abusive marriage, mourning the loss of her love.

When the Count of Monte Cristo arrives in Paris to put his plan of vengeance into play, Mercedes alone knows Edmond Dantes has returned. But this harsh, angry man sends chills down her spine even as his very touch reminds her of the passion they once shared. She realizes soon enough that his plan to avenge himself on the men who incarcerated him also includes another sort of revenge...on her.

From the seaside town of Marseille...to the exotic caves of Monte Cristo Isle...to the glittering ballrooms of Paris unfolds an erotic battle of wills and unquenched passion between one of literature's most famous pairs of star-crossed lovers.

As I said, it was so much fun to write. And for those who are familiar with the story, I'll also divulge that Haydee has her own subplot, and so do Valentine and Maximilien.

In comparison to Unmasqued, I would say Master is a little less edgy and dark, though no less erotic. However, my goal when I write erotica is to arouse and titillate, as well as to tell a story, and I try to keep to the promise of at least one orgasm (the characters, not the reader!) per chapter--and I'd say that aside of one chapter in Unmasqued and one in Master, that pretty much holds true.
ANNA: Do you have any more classics in your sights? Why do you think people keep returning again and again to these archetypal stories?
COLETTE: I'm currently working on another proposal to my editor, and we have several ideas in mind for future classics that are just begging to be seduced. :-) I think the reason people like these kinds of stories, and like to be able to get more explicit, is because often the setting and situation are inherently sexy--but at the time they were written, sexual explicitness wasn't exactly mainstream.

For example, in the original Count of Monte Cristo, there is a scene in what is described as Aladdin's Cave (which is on the Isle of Monte Cristo) in which not only does the eating of hashish occur, but also an orgy. Yeah. But it's only alluded to, not described in detail. (I, uh, took care of that little detail when I wrote my version.) And there's lesbianism in the book as well, and a whole host of sexual innuendo--in Monte Cristo as well as in the original Phantom novel (don't try and tell me that Christine spent a week with the Phantom and nothing happened. Uh, no.), and other classics.

Now we have the ability to tell the stories that have always been behind and beneath the words in all their glorious detail.

Having said that, I know that I have certain literary favorites that I would hate for anyone to mess with in this way (Little House on the Prairie, LIttle Women, Pride & Prejudice)...and there are people who feel the same way about Phantom and Monte Cristo, and others. And that's okay. To each his own!
ANNA: Who are some of your favorite writers?
COLETTE: As far as erotic fiction goes, I've been influenced by Bertrice Small's Skye O'Malley books, The Story of O, Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty series, and Madeline Oh's PowerExchange.
ANNA: Can you give us some insight into your creative process?
COLETTE: I have no idea where I'm going most of the time, until I get there. :-) I write basically one draft, cleaning and revising as I go.
QUESTIONS:
Do you think there's a difference between erotic romance and erotica? Do you have a favorite classic that you wish had gone further? Have you found yourself wanting to rewrite a book or a movie's ending? Which movies? Which books? Why?
WIN:
Colette would love to give one of our honorary Banditas a copy of her new erotic novel Unmasqued. A comment will be chosen at random on Wednesday, 8th August. Good luck!

Anna Campbell Sets the Scene

posted by Anna Campbell

Australia is a very new country, even newer than the United States or Canada. If you’re talking architecture, 100 years is old to us. I live in a 1928 Art Deco block of flats and that is considered heritage.

So what is a girl to do when she’s been in love with the past, the more distant the better, ever since she was a little kid reading fairytales?

A girl is to go to Britain as often as she possibly can! Even though the flight is awful and the exchange rate between the pound and the Aussie dollar is worse. When I need my history fix, I need my history fix! I’ll endure any pains, slog through any cold English rain, chat up any gorgeous Scotsmen (hmm, that’s REALLY suffering) just so I can see something built prior to 1900! I will suffer for my art!

As I write this, I’ve got a couple of days to wait before I board my big red and white Qantas jet and head off for London for a week followed by three weeks of wandering around England and Scotland. Am I excited? Did the Saxons cop a hiding at the Battle of Hastings?

I’m planning to scout locations and do a lot of research. I’m hoping to come up with a string of ideas for new stories. Experiencing the places where my characters live is so inspiring. Of course, I’m writing romance not a dissertation on the Highland Clearances or the position of women in Regency England. As a writer, I try to subscribe to the iceberg theory—at least 90% of what you know is floating underwater out of sight. Knowing the setting so well is for my benefit, really. I have to believe in the authenticity of the people and their world (although I’m sure I make mistakes—it’s almost impossible not to! And it’s always the little things that slip you up!) when I’m telling a story.

In Claiming the Courtesan, I use a lot of historical detail—hopefully with a light hand. But in my mind, it made those people flesh and blood as individuals of their time and setting.

To give you some examples, the Duchess of Kylemore’s cruel eviction of her tenants was based on the deliberate depopulation of the Highlands in the 18th and 19th centuries as the Scottish nobility decided they’d rather live the easy life in London. The easy life was expensive and wool was the boom industry so the landowners threw people off their crofts in preference for running sheep which were cheap and profitable. The castle and village at Inverathie are based loosely on Inveraray, the home of the Dukes of Argyll, in western Scotland. Just as a small detail, when you walk into the main hall, the walls are decorated with weaponry just as they are in my book. Here’s a link if you want to check out the similarities.

http://www.inveraray-castle.com/Pages/content.asp

So now over to you. Have you ever been somewhere and found it inspired a whole new story? How important is setting in your writing? When you read a book, is the sense of place/history important to you? Is there somewhere you absolutely, positively have to visit for your current work in progress? Has a book ever inspired you to want to visit somewhere through the sheer power of the descriptions?

Eight is enough! says Anna C

Recently, my fellow Bandita Donna MacMeans tagged me for the eight random facts thing. So here we go!

1. I'm a classical music nut. Never ask me a question about classical music or I will bore you rigid with why Ravel should be an essential part of everyone's life. I suspect even Ravel would get sick of the topic!

2. When they re-released Lawrence of Arabia which I'd never seen until then, I went to see it three times in one week. But then I've always had a huge crush on Peter O'Toole and, hey, it was like getting a free set of steak knives with the deal because Omar was pretty spectacular in that too!

3. I do a great Kate Bush singing Wuthering Heights impersonation. Cats from miles around start yowling. It's fab!

4. When I was a kid, I fell in the pool at the local Marineland when I was trying to feed the dolphins.

5. When I traveled in the UK for the first time, I had a job selling perfume knock-offs in soapstone jars to tourists at Covent Garden market in London.

6. I've always wanted to learn Russian.

7. Because I grew up on an avocado farm, I can discourse at length about avocadoes. It's almost as relentless as the Ravel conversation!

8. I have been through the entire British Museum. Every room. Every vase. Every mummy. It took me six months of dogged return visits but I felt like Rocky on top of those steps when I finally got to the last room!

OK, that's me. I now tag...Annie West, Trish Morey, Vanessa Barneveld, Amanda McCabe, Nicola Cornick, Yvonne Lindsay, Sharon Arkell, Nalini Singh.

Have fun, girls!

Pride and Prejudice by Anna Campbell (hmm, I wish that book was by me but Jane A got there first!)

Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking…

Yes, the dreaded moment has arrived when I’m giving my first author talk. Eeek! It’s tonight at Guildford Library in western Sydney if any of you are passing. I’ve coached my friends to watch and see if I look like I’m drying up and if I am, to ask me a series of well orchestrated questions. Stalin’s political rallies are nothing on how staged this talk is going to be!

I’m hoping one of the saving graces of the talk (and of the talker who isn’t exactly used to gigs on a podium!) will be that I feel very strongly about the topic of my speech. It’s Pride and Prejudice. No, not the immortal JA novel. Not even the slightly less immortal but extremely decorative BBC series or the movie (yum, Mr. Darcy is like chocolate in whatever guise!). I’m talking about the fact that I’m proud of writing and reading romance and yet I strike such prejudice out in the general community about my choices.

Why is this so? I’m a reasonably smart woman and my romance writing and reading pals range from smart right up to the scarily brilliant. So it seems patently obvious to me that romance isn’t just read by desperate spinsters who are too silly to know any better. It also seems obvious that romance is a genre where you can really explore the development of a relationship and be brave enough to offer the punters a happy ending. That’s a long way from the soft porn for frustrated women tag that gets tossed around so often. Yeah, there are sex scenes but that’s part of exploring the relationship in all its facets, surely!

Does romance cop flak because it’s fiction mostly written by women for women? Is it like the old if it’s a man in a kitchen, he’s a chef, if it’s a woman, she’s a cook. Is it because in this cynical day and age, romance challenges the prevailing artistic ethos that all human effort comes to dust in the end? I mean, romance writers promote the value of love and hope and endurance through adversity leading to triumph. Not fashionable but definitely empowering.

What are your thoughts on the prejudice against romance? Have you ever struck a snarky comment because you read/write romance? Do you have a fail-safe response?

OH, AND PLEASE ENTER THE FIRST ROMANCE BANDITS CONTEST MENTIONED IN THE COLUMN JUST BELOW THIS ONE! I wish I could, I want the chocs!! I guess I’ll just have to go and drool over Mr. Darcy again instead.

Places of the Heart

I first visited the Scottish Highlands in 1985 in my mid-twenties on what I thought was a whirlwind tour of Britain just before I flew back to Australia. I'd been away about six months and had hit a point where I was sick of unfamiliar things and people and tired of dealing with all the annoyances created by living out of a suitcase for that amount of time. I'd tried to be a housekeeper in London and lasted all of a week. The experience was so awful (incontinent dogs were the least of the problems!) that I decided I'd spend two weeks seeing what I could of the UK by train and then I'd go home (I'd spent the six months travelling in Europe).

I did a day tour on a coach out of Edinburgh which was billed as a taste of the Highlands. It sure was that - as you can imagine, the amount of territory covered in just a day wasn't huge. And it rained! As it regularly rains in Scotland. We went to a couple of rather cheesy woollen mills, I remember, where you could buy stuffed toy Scotty dogs (shades of the incontinent London beast, a Highland terrier!) and silly Loch Ness souvenirs. Nessy in a bright red tartan tamoshanter, anyone? For a lot of the day, the weather was so misty and cold and wet, you couldn't even see outside the bus windows.

Anyway, after a very ordinary lunch and an encounter with some Highland cattle and a lot of Highland mud, the bus went over the hills from Loch Long, past a lookout called Rest and Be Thankful, which given the steepness of the terrain, made perfect sense to me, and down to Oban on the west coast.

And I literally fell in love at first sight.

The water, the islands, the light (the weather had cleared marginally by now), the people, the rising hills in the background. This was literally the most beautiful place I'd ever seen in my life. The wildness and the grandeur of this landscape spoke to me in a way nowhere else ever has.

I've been back several times since, both on that particular trip, which ended up lasting another 18 months, on a shorter trip in 1995 and I had a couple of months wandering the isles and the coast in 2004. And the magic has never failed me. The west coast of Scotland and the Hebrides are literally the places that live in my heart.

What's weird is that this is Argyll where my Campbell ancestors came from, although whether they came from the mainland or the isles is long lost in family history. It makes you wonder about race memory. The area is so beautiful, I think most people are overcome with wonder when they strike it, so perhaps I'm just a victim of magnificent landscape and not a throwback to my Scottish ancestors after all.

I always said I'd never write about this area because I wouldn't do it justice. But then it came time to recount the tale of a certain Scottish duke and his troublesome mistress. Almost against my will, most of the story of CLAIMING THE COURTESAN takes place in an isolated glen north of Oban. It's a fictional place but the descriptions are grounded in the reality of that glorious part of the world.

What are the places of your heart? Have you included them in your writing? How important is setting for you when you're writing?