SEELIE KAY: Postcards from The Ledge: This week in The Loft: Author Viviana MacKade!

Joining me today in The Loft is author Viviana MacKade. Viviana writes contemporary and fantasy romance, and romantic suspense. She spends her days typing on her beloved keyboard, playing in the pool with her babies, and eating whatever her husband puts on her plate--she says the guy is that good, and she really loves eating. Besides beaching, she enjoys long walks, horse-riding, hiking, and pretty much whatever she can do outside with her family. Viviana lives in a small Florida town with her husband, son, and daughter.

The avatar for author Viviana MacKade

S: Good morning, Viviana! Thanks for joining me today.

As a writer, did the pandemic and the subsequent isolation work to your benefit or detriment?

V: My little girl was born in August 2020, smash dab in the middle of the pandemic. She was not a pandemic baby, she was conceived before it all started, but she was born into it. And the two things played and built on one another in different ways. The pandemic per se killed my creativity, so I could not write anything new, but I had a few stories that were 75 percent written. My husband was the one helping our then seven-year-old to navigate online classes, so I could focus on the little one and fill in the missing parts of those stories. "Valkyrie Love" is one of them.

S: Congratulations on the new baby! I am sure you have had your hands full. Kudos to you for getting some writing done.

What inspires your stories?

V: It could be anything. Sometimes is a sentence I think, or a dialogue I hear inside my head, and it pushes me to find out who these people are and what they are talking about. Other times is an idea, or a type of person. It’s never the same thing.

S: Are there any characteristics your lead characters share?

V: In my current release, they are both lost, although in different ways. Reed lost sight of how to be the man he used to, and Brenna froze herself in old hurt and never allow herself to grow. They both are very loyal, know pride and courage. And both love to fight for what’s right.

S: How did you meet your current partner? When did you know he/she was “the one?”

V: We were high school sweethearts.

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

V: Absolutely. Zero doubts about it.

S: What famous book do you wish you had written?

V: "Wuthering Heights." One of my favorite books, and still one of the best studies on emotions out there. I wish I have such gift for capturing feelings so violent.

S: That's a good choice. It's a book that sets the bar for writers.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

V: Honestly, keeping it together during this mess. It could be overwhelming, so keeping a clear mind most of the time is something I’m proud of.

S: I have to agree. The pandemic brought more stress and some new challenges, and it's still not over. Sometimes, it's really hard to focus on writing.

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

V: Turn into a snarky bitch for release day. Margaritas usually help.

S: What inspired "Valkyrie Love?"

V: I wanted to write an adventure, I wanted to write a fantasy, and I also love Norse mythology. I put all of them together, and I had a plan. Then I wanted to write about a fighter who needed to discover the woman in her, and the man who helped her.

Here's the blurb--

Valkyrie love never comes easy.

Brenna left Asgard with a curse on her name and a broken heart.
A Valkyrie now free and independent, for millennia her life had been great. Just great.

Then a bleeding Elf knocks at her door holding a baby.

Alexander Reed left the Marines and lost the wheel of his life.
A soldier without a worthy fight, he became everything he despised.
Until he ends up in the wrong backyard at the wrong time.

Fljóða, Queen of the Light Elves and last of her lineage, is an infant with a death sentence on her head.

Hunted by the Night Elves, her survival brings Brenna and Reed together for the ultimate mission: take the little Queen to safety in the Vanaheim Realm, deep in the Roots of Yggdrasil.

Not simple, but straightforward.
Or so it seemed.
Between flaming giants, demons, and an army of Half Breed determined to kill the Queen and conquer all the Elvin Realms, Brenna and Reed will have to face their inner monsters.
Monsters appearing in the form of feelings neither want but cannot control.