By Sharon

I met Alison Bruce at one of Sherry and Brandon’s Prana readings where she announced that her novel Under a Texas Star was soon to be released. It’s a beautifully written novel with rich details that transport you to the middle of the wild west where juggling deception, murder and romance is all part of a heroine’s day. Many of us know how long a road it is from those first words on the page to publication. It’s a feat worth celebrating, so Romance and Beyond is thrilled to chat with Alison today.  

SC: You obviously did major research for Under a Texas Star. On every page, I felt transposed back in time. Which part of researching the book was the most interesting to you?

AB: You really started with a tough question. The easy answer is that I love researching everything and it’s sometimes hard to make myself stop and write. I have a background in history and wrote a paper on the robber barons. Putting some of that research to work was interesting. The most fun stuff to learn about was period weapons and the information on horses.

SC: Your characters certainly know what they’re doing around weapons and their horses—so, well done! Would you call yourself a character writer or plot writer?

AB: For me, the main characters always come first, followed shortly by my goals for them. Then I build a plot to get them from point A to point B in an interesting way. From then on, it’s a seesaw. The plot will illuminate my characters in ways I didn’t expect, which in turn influences the subplot. Plot drives the creation of supporting characters, but once they’ve developed in my mind, they start influencing the plot too.

SC: I love it when characters begin to tell their own story. How do you get inside your character's heads?

AB: Like many children, I talked to imaginary friends. Unlike most adults, I kept talking to them. I role play my characters in my head - sometimes out loud. I think if I had a better memory, I’d have made a great actor. However, I have a devil of a job remembering lines.

SC: What was the most difficult aspect of your novel?

AB: I wrote the first draft of Under A Texas Star over twenty years ago. The hardest thing was to get back to it and make it into the story Marly and Jase deserved. It was written with orphan technology and the only hard copy had been outputted on newsprint with a dying dot-matrix printer. Fortunately, Under A Texas Star has had a diehard fan from the start in Frances Nunn. She cleaned up the OCR document and bugged me until I started working on it again.

SC: Well then, we owe Frances Nunn a thank you! I love the scene where Marley learns to shave a man. How did you prepare for this scene?

AB: Two things inspired the scene. One was my father who once told me the sensual pleasure of a really good, professional shave. The other inspiration was a memorable scene, in a very unmemorable movie (that is I can’t remember what it was), where someone learns to shave with a straight razor using a balloon.

Little things, like learning to shave and to make decent coffee, were ways Marly could demonstrate how much she cared for Jase without crossing the boundaries imposed by her masquerade.

SC: Sounds like the equivalent of a good hair washing, the ones with a scalp massage that has you holding back a moan. Speaking of moans, you mentioned that your editor asked you to ramp up the romance between Marley and Jase. How did you handle this? Are you comfortable writing intimate scenes or do they make you cringe?

AB: I don’t cringe writing intimate scenes. I sometimes cringe reading them. It isn’t the intimacy but the cliche euphemisms that make me shudder. Nothing like that was required of me. The tricky part was that it had to be mostly in their heads. Because of their circumstances, they couldn’t just fall into each other’s arms. I enjoyed the challenge.

SC: What are your favourite books to give or receive as gifts?

AB: I love introducing a new author to a friend and having it “catch”. I introduced my mother to Charlotte MacLeod. I wish she were around now to introduce her to the Canadian mystery authors I know personally. My father would have loved Under A Texas Star, and I was the one who hooked my sister on Tolkein and Pratchett. Similarly, I love being matched with a new author that I might never have found on my own. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

SC: What's brewing for your next story?

AB: There are a couple of other lawmen that are introduced in Under A Texas Star that have stories to tell. I also have a mystery in the works... but that is news for another day.

SC: What question would you like to ask our readers?

AB: I started writing Under A Texas Star while I was recovering from surgery. Escaping to the old west was better than Valium to get my mind off the pain and the odd woman in the bed next to mine. My question is, dear readers, where in time and space would you escape to?

Alison Bruce has an honours degree in history and philosophy, which has nothing to do with any regular job she’s held since. A liberal arts education did prepare her to be a writer, however. She penned her first novel during lectures while pretending to take notes.

www.alisonbruce.ca

www.facebook.com/alisonbruce.books

http://alisonebruce.blogspot.com

twitter.com/alisonebruce

Don’t forget to pick up a copy of Under a Texas Star here:

Under A Texas Star, by Alison Bruce, Imajin Books (www.imajinbooks.com)

The eBook is available at Amazon Kindle Store and Smashwords for only $3.99.

The trade paperback is available at Amazon.com in paperback for $14.99