And when I ask ‘research questions’ you give such great answers…
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I asked:
Name me the moment in history, including a date if it's that specific, and the person that Lady Mairead could be associated with.
There were so many great answers. I wish I could write about all of them, but I chose Beth Fedornak’s idea:
“Abby Aldrich Rockefeller who's collection of art led to the Museum of Modern Art.”
Thank you, it was perfect, I now want to write a whole book just based on Lady Mairead and her friends in NY.
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I asked: Let's say there's a highlander who has never been to present day, but yet, here he is, 300 years in the future.
What would blow his mind right off the bat? A thing or experience, something cool that would be marveled at?
There were over 300 answers and most of them were long lists, thank you for your enthusiasm!
I have a long list too, so I narrowed these answers down to refrigerator (or appliances) because Fraoch says, “And ye hae shewn me, m’bhean ghlan, Florida, with the marvels of a... what dost ye call it?”
“What?”
“The box with the food inside?”
“The refrigerator?”
“Aye, they are livin’ in a world without a refrigerator. Can ye even call it livin’?”
I chuckled. “No, Fraoch, you really can’t.”
Thank you Debbie James, Wendy Kirby, Tess Irish, Bethany Bilyeu, Peggy Stoudt, and Stephanie Milledge for your suggestions.
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I asked, “She (Kaitlyn) has a bag, she looks in it, hoping to find something helpful and instead she finds one thing...
...that is not truly helpful.
Dammit.
What is the one thing in her bag?”
There were so many awesome answers, I learned one thing, we all need to clean out our bags!
This was what I picked:
There was only an old grocery list: diapers, wipes, chocolate, pasta; a wadded up baby wipe that had been used on Archie’s hands; and an empty candy wrapper. I had taken out everything important and put it in the diaper bag.
Thank you to Tana McLaughlin Jorge (A grocery list), Jamie Strand (Empty candy wrapper), Mary Ellen Holley (Empty candy bar wrapper), Patti Edwards (Used Kleenex), Theresa Partridge Fuller (Used Kleenex), Crislee Anderson Moreno (dirty kleenex...) and Sly Greenberg (Used tissue)
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I finally named Magnus’s kingdom.
Thank you to Krysten Sheffield for coming up with Riaghladh. Once I did some research it came to me that it would have been altered through time, much like the name Breadalbane (from Bràghad Albainn)
I decided it would now be Riaghalbane.
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Thank you to Sapphire Grandmont in response to her friend Samantha Erin for hilariously saying this... and yes, you inspired Kaitlyn to say it too.
“Dang it, Magnus, you beautiful highlander.”
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If I have somehow forgotten to add your name, or didn’t remember your contribution, please forgive me. I am living in the world of Magnus and Kaitlyn and it is hard some days to come up for air.
I mean to always say truthfully thank you. Thank you.
Thank you to my brother, David Cushman, a chef, for planning Chef Zach’s welcome menu for Fraoch. You said, “Oyster shucking and then my famous shrimp and grits: Locally caught shrimp, sautéed with andouille sausage, peppers, and onions, in a Tasso gravy over Blue Dog Farms stone-ground grits, finished with homemade green tomato and datil pepper chutney.” I included it as you wrote it, sounds delicious. When we have a KATH retreat on Amelia Island someday, I hope you’ll make it for us.
Thank you to Kevin Dowdee for being there for me in the real world as I submerge into this world to write these stories of Magnus and Kaitlyn. I appreciate you so much.
Thank you to my kids, Ean, Gwynnie, Fiona, and Isobel, for listening to me go on and on about these characters, advising me whenever you can, and accepting them as real parts of our lives. I love you.
In memory of Gail Bissett, a member of the KATH Facebook group almost since the beginning. She was a kind, fun, wonderful person, and she is missed...
Also by Diana Knightley
Can he see to the depths of her mystery before it’s too late?
The oceans cover everything, the apocalypse is behind them. Before them is just water, leveling. And in the middle — they find each other.
On a desolate, military-run Outpost, Beckett is waiting.
Then Luna bumps her paddleboard up to the glass windows and disrupts his everything.
And soon Beckett has something and someone to live for. Finally. But their survival depends on discovering what she’s hiding, what she won't tell him.
Because some things are too painful to speak out loud.
With the clock ticking, the water rising, and the storms growing, hang on while Beckett and Luna desperately try to rescue each other in Leveling, the epic, steamy, and suspenseful first book of the trilogy, Luna's Story:
Leveling: Book One of Luna’s Story
Under: Book Two of Luna’s Story
Deep: Book Three of Luna’s Story
About me, Diana Knightley
I live in Los Angeles where we have a lot of apocalyptic tendencies that we overcome by wishful thinking. Also great beaches. I maintain a lot of people in a small house, too many pets, and a to-do list that is longer than it should be, because my main rule is: Art, play, fun, before housework. My kids say I am a cool mom because I try to be kind. I’m married to a guy who is like a water god: he surfs, he paddle boards, he built a boat. I’m a huge fan.
I write about heroes and tragedies and magical whisperings and always forever happily ever afters. I love that scene where the two are desperate to be together but can’t because of war or apocalyptic-stuff or (scientifically sound!) time-jumping and he is begging the universe with a plead in his heart and she is distraught (yet still strong) and somehow, through kisses and steamy more and hope and heaps and piles of true love, they manage to come out on the other side.
I like a man in a kilt, especially if he looks like a Hemsworth, doesn’t matter, Liam or Chris.
My couples so far include Beckett and Luna (from the trilogy, Luna’s Story) who battle their fear to find each other during an apocalypse of rising waters. And Magnus and Kaitlyn (from the series Kaitlyn and the Highlander). Who find themselves traveling through time to be together.
I write under two pen names, this one here, Diana Knightley, and another one, H. D. Knightley, where I write books for Young Adults (They are still romantic and fun and sometimes steamy though, because love is grand at any age.)
DianaKnightley.com
Also by H. D. Knightley (My YA pen name)
Bright (Book One of The Estelle Series)
Beyond (Book Two of The Estelle Series)
Belief (Book Three of The Estelle Series)