An Interview with Helen Scott Taylor and A Contest!

Please welcome Helen Scott Taylor to my blog today.

Alisha: Can you tell us a little bit about your childhood? Favorite memories?

Helen: I lived in the countryside with a menagerie of animals including dogs, cats, chickens, and ponies. I remember lying on my stomach in the dirt with my sisters watching the rats line up with the chickens at the feed troughs, picking peas with my mother and eating more than I put in the bowl, losing my boots in the mud around the stables, and finding tiny baby mice in the bottom of the feed bins. Fun memories, but I prefer my life now.

Alisha: Tell us about the hero and heroine in your latest release.

Helen: The Magic Knot is set in Cornwall in the South West of England, and in Ireland. My hero Niall O’Connor is half Tuatha dé Danaan and half leprechaun. (He gets rather touchy if anyone teases him about leprechauns!) The Tuatha dé Danaan are a romance writer’s gift: a race of tall, beautiful fairy people descended from the Greek gods who travelled to Ireland millennia ago. Niall wears crystal knives strapped to his wrists, rides a motor cycle, and plays the stock market using his leprechaun touch of luck. My heroine Rose is half-human and half Cornish pisky. Rose sets out for what she believes to be a normal accountancy job. She slowly discovers that in the mystical depths of rural Cornwall, there is a world full of magical creatures, and she is their queen!

Alisha: If you were granted three wishes by a genie, what would they be?

Helen: In no particular order. One, to be able to eat as much as I wanted (especially chocolate) and not put on weight. (I have just told my husband about choice one, his response, “Wouldn’t it be better to wish you only wanted enough food to be fit and healthy.” Men just don’t get chocolate!) Two, for The Magic Knot to be a NY Times bestseller. Three, for my kids to live happy, healthy lives.

Alisha: If you could go anywhere to tomorrow, where would you go?

Helen: I’m probably bending the rules, but I’d like to go back in time to when I was a book-mad teenager and tell myself to start writing then and not leave it until I was in my forties before I started.

Alisha: If you could see anyone tomorrow (dead or alive), who would it be?

Helen: My paternal grandfather who died when I was at University, yet I still miss him thirty years later.

Alisha: If you could choose six people to spend one week on a desert island, who would it be and why?

Helen: My husband to build a little shack as he’s handy like that (and I’d miss him), my two critique partners Mona Risk and Joan Leacott so we could have a week of brainstorming our stories, and their husbands Sam and Victor so the men could talk and do man things while we brainstormed.

Alisha: What word or phrase tingles in all the right places for you?

Helen: Passion Beyond Reason: the title of the first paranormal romance I wrote. For me, the phrase evokes the essence of romance with an undertone of danger.

Alisha: If you had one day to spoil yourself, what would you do?

Helen: I’d choose a warm day, not too hot as I don’t like the heat. Then I’d sit in a comfortable chair in a leafy glade where a waterfall is gently trickling into a pool, and I’d read non-stop for hours. I get so little time to read these days, it has become an indulgence. Oh, I’d also have a huge box of luxury chocolates to eat.

Alisha: If you could change one incident in your life, what would it be and how would you change it?

Helen: I wouldn’t change anything, because I’m the sum of my experiences. If I changed my past, I’d be different, and I’m happy right now.

Back Cover Copy Of The Magic Knot:

HE’S A BIKER WITH AN ATTITUDE

What woman wouldn’t be attracted to Niall O’Connor’s soft Irish brogue and dark good looks? But Rosenwyn Tremain must find her father, and she isn’t going to let a sexy, stubborn Irishman and his motorcycle distract her. Rose’s intuition tells her he’s hiding something, a secret even the cards cannot divine. Her tarot deck always reads true, but how can one man represent both Justice and Betrayal?

SHE’S A WOMAN ON A MISSION

Magic. Niall’s body tingles with it when he finds the woman snooping in his room. Rosenwyn might believe she’s a no-nonsense accountant, but her essence whispers to him of ancient fairy magic that enslaves even as it seduces. Her heritage could endanger those he’d die to protect, but her powers and her passion, if properly awakened, might be the only thing that can save both their families, vanquish a fairy queen bent on revenge, and fulfill a prophecy that will bind their hearts together with…THE MAGIC KNOT

Short Excerpt Of The Magic Knot:

Rose Tremain sat on the chair before Niall’s desk, his Magic Knot cradled in her palm. She swayed slightly, her eyes dazed and dreamy. His nerves sparked. Need for her struck like lightning. He managed to suck in air, to ruthlessly crush the feeling until his body calmed.

So, he had been right. Rose Tremain was more dangerous than she appeared. She’d been sent to enslave him by capturing his stones. If she thought he’d give in easily, she had another think coming.

Silently, he walked forward and closed his hand over hers. His vision blurred at the whip of sensation. Too late, he realized his mistake in touching her. Gritting his teeth, he fought the mental pull as she sucked his very essence through their joined hands into a deep hidden part of her that whispered of ancient magic and mystery.

Niall snatched up his Magic Knot and stumbled back. His breath came in short gasps as he stared at her in shock. Rose was the Cornish pisky Tristan wanted. How had she stopped them from sensing the truth about her? That deception alone proved she was up to no good.

Slowly, her green eyes focused on him. Confusion set tiny creases between her delicate brows, then surprise chased them away. She slapped a hand over her mouth.

“Aye, be afraid, little thief,” he whispered. “You’ll pay dearly for your deception before I’m done with you.”

To find out more about Helen and read the first two chapters of The Magic Knot please go to her website at:

Helen Scott Taylor

CONTEST: LEAVE A COMMENT FOR HELEN AND YOU'LL BE ENTERED INTO A DRAWING FOR AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF THE MAGIC KNOT!!