Amanda Scott

Article: Abducted Heiress, the first book...

Abducted Heiress, the first book in my new series, The Secret Clan, was born when I moved to Warner Books and my editor encouraged me to put fairies in the new book. She said fairies and their ilk had become very popular, and she was sure I must know all about the Celtic varieties. In truth, I didn't know a thing, but I said I'd do some research and see if I could come up with something interesting.

From the start I knew I didn't want to write about tiny Tinkerbells with wings, gauzy gowns, and star-tipped wands. Delightful though they may be in their own tales, I wanted wee folk with more substance, and intriguing problems, who could provide a parallel to my main characters' story. In short, I wanted at least one grumpy old lady, and to my delight Scottish folklore provided powerful "household spirit" Maggie Malloch and her son, a Border brownie called Brown Claud. Several sources described Claud as a "dobby", a dull-witted brownie, so I added a lustful nature. Poor Claud falls into lust at the twinkle of an eye.

I also discovered that Highland fairies are more akin to their Irish cousins than to other Scottish creatures-gauzy gowns, etc. Since I've always enjoyed exploiting differences between the Highlands and the Borders, that conflict seemed ready-made for me, and so the feckless and very Celtic Catriona was born to draw Brown Claud into trouble and set him at odds with Maggie.

The next step was to find a historical incident or event that clearly must have involved fairies, and when I learned that in 1539 three men successfully defended Eilean Donan Castle in Kintail against a horde of angry Macdonalds, I knew I had found it. The fact that the present Laird of Kintail lives nearby and was willing to expound on Kintail's wee folk and to let me rewrite one tiny detail of his family history didn't hurt a bit. Abducted Heiress was fun to write. I hope you enjoy it.

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