SEELIE KAY: Postcards from The Ledge: This week in The Loft: Canadian author Maggie Blackbird!

Joining me today in The Loft is fellow eXtasy Books author Maggie Blackbird. Maggie writes contemporary, erotic, paranormal, fantasy, and young adult romance, and shares her Ojibway heritage in her stories. Based in Northwestern Ontario, Maggie resides in the country with her husband and their fur babies, two beautiful Alaskan Malamutes. When she’s not writing, she can be found pulling weeds in the flower beds, mowing the huge lawn, walking her dogs deep in the bush, teeing up a ball at the golf course, fishing in the boat for walleye, or sitting on the deck at her sister’s house, making more wonderful memories with the people she loves most.

Avatar for author Maggie Blackbird

S: Good morning, Maggie. Thanks for joining me today.

Why write romance?

M: I write romance because I love reading the genre. I guarantee readers a Happily-Ever-After (HEA) or Happy-For-Now (HFN). I love writing about two people getting together while overcoming the many obstacles in their path. I love watching my characters grow throughout the story. There are just so many reasons why I love reading and writing in this genre.

S: To me, romance as a genre is the most inclusive. Love comes in all shapes and sizes and that is pretty freeing.

What do people get wrong about romance?

M: They think it’s two people having sex. They also don’t understand the many sub-genres of romance and the storylines involved for two characters to get together.

S: If you had to do it all over again, would you still choose to write books?

M: I sure would. There is nothing I enjoy more than working in the field of romance.

S: What inspires your stories?

M: Anything can inspire them. Headlines. An idea from the TV. Lyrics in a song. You name it, it can inspire me to come up with a novel, novella, or short story.

S: Complete this sentence: “When one of my books is released, I….”

M: …keep working on my next release. Seriously, I don’t get excited over book releases. Don’t get me wrong, I’m quite pleased, but by the time the release happens, I’m too excited over the latest project I’m working on.

S: For me, the first book releases were exciting, but you're right. You're usually so buried in the next project, the release is a mere ripple in your day.

What inspired "Born for This?"

M: An author friend came up with an idea about a corn field and a scarecrow. From there, four of us dreamed up our own ideas of what that could represent. For me, the scarecrow became Mandaamin, the corn spirit of the Ojibway people.

S: Is there anything special you would like people to know about your book?

M: This was the last book my dad helped me with--since he had a great understanding of the Treaty area and was the historian for our reserve--before he passed away. The book is quite special to me for that reason.

Here's the blurb--

She’s always been obsessed with her ancestors, and now he’s offering her a chance to live with them…forever.

Second-year university student Edie Whitecrow gobbles up each course on Indigenous studies. If only she could experience the lives of her Anishinaabe ancestors instead of reading about them. On her way to a Halloween party decked out as a historical Ojibway maiden, she spies a corn maze in a spot known to be barren.

A scarecrow figure beckons Edie to enter with the enticing offer of making her biggest wish come true. She jumps at the chance and finds herself in the past, face to face with the man who haunts her dreams—the handsome brave Thunder Bear. He claims he’s spent twelve years waiting for Gitche Manidoo to send her to him.

Life in the eighteenth century isn’t what Edie romanticized about, though. When her conscience is tested, she must choose between the modern day or the world of her descendants—where the man she was created for resides.