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

Joining me today in The Loft is fellow eXtasy author Maggie Blackbird. Maggie writes romance that features Canada's indigenous people. An Ojibway from Northwestern Ontario, she resides in the country with her husband and their fur babies, two Alaskan Malamutes. When Maggie isn't writing, she can be found pulling weeds in her flower beds, mowing her huge lawn, walking her dogs deep in the bush, teeing up a ball on the golf course, fishing for walleye, or sitting on the deck at her sister’s house.

Avatar for author Maggie Blackbird

S: Welcome back, Maggie! How do you get in the mood for writing?

M: I have a set schedule I stick to. Mornings before, I walk the dogs, then I work on writing-related projects. Once I return with the dogs, it’s time to write.

S: I am on the opposite end of the spectrum. I write when I'm inspired. Then I write until the words run out. Otherwise, I move on to other things.

Have you ever shelved or thrown out a manuscript?

M: I have eight manuscripts I've shelved. They weren’t good enough. I wrote them in the late 90s and early 2000s to destress inside my hotel room, since I traveled tons for my job. I don’t see it as a waste. I had lots of fun writing those books.

S: Who knows? You might go back to one of them for inspiration someday.

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

M: I sure would. I enjoy what I’m doing. Does it feel like a job some days? Of course, it does. There are times where I don’t want to write, and I don’t want to go near the computer. But it’s what I do, so I get my butt in the chair and work.

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

M: “…am already knee deep in another book that I’m writing.”

S: What inspired "Back Where You Belong?"

M: This book started as a short story, but I liked the characters so much, I gave them their own novel. I felt what they had to say couldn’t be covered in a short story.

Here's the blurb--

He rejected love the first time. Now he wants a second chance.

After having his love tossed back in his face, Hudson Suggashie has eliminated the word trust from his dictionary. Since his return to his Ojibway community, his suspicions are running high, all because one man is hinting at a second chance—the too-gorgeous and sexy ball-crusher who turned Hudson’s world to black fifteen years ago.

Stephen Brandt knows he screwed up big time when he rejected Hudson’s love, and he’ll do anything to win him back, even if it means being a mere bed buddy to the man whose love he aches to reclaim.

The longer the former best friends engage in their no-strings affair, they want something more—what they lost as teenagers. But Hudson isn’t about to open his heart again, leaving a desperate Stephen searching for a way to earn back the trust he broke, or for the second time, they’ll lose the greatest love either has ever experienced.