Cornelia Amiri draws on her love of history and fifteen years of research on the ancient Celts, to write tales of long swords, hot heroes, and warrior women. Ms. Amiri is the author of five Celtic/Romance novels, Druid Quest, The Fox Prince, The Vixen Princess, Danger Is Sweet, and One Heart One Way published with Awe-Struck e-books /Earthling Press. The latter was a finalist in the EPPIE 2004 Contest, the premier award for electronically published authors. Over a hundred of her short stories and articles have appeared in both print and on-line magazines. She lives in Houston, Texas with her wonderful son.

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Q: Tell us a little about your life outside of writing.
A: I live in humid Houston, Texas. I divorced in 1983 and have been a single mom since then. My wonderful son is now grown, 23 years old, and lives with me. I work part time at Honey Baked Ham. I like to read of course and go to movies. I collect vintage clothes which I buy at area thrift stores then I sell them on e-bay.

Q: What made you start writing and when did you start?
A: The Celtic Warrior Queen Boudicca made me start writing. I love history and in reading a book about the dark ages I came across Boudicca. I was so impressed by her, I started jotting down notes, but they were fiction (it must have happened like this type). Before I knew it, I had written a novel. I thought, gosh I can really do this. So after accidentally writing that novel, I wrote one on purpose, The Fox Prince, which turned out to be my first published book.

Q: Who are some of your favorite authors?
A: There are many. Some are Morgan Llywelyn, Cecelia Holland, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, J. R. R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Don Coldsmith, Rosemary Edghill, Teresa Mederios, Anya Seton, and Judith Merkle Riley.

Q: How do you come up with the idea for a book?
A: Once you have an idea, do you plot it out, fly by the seat of your pants, or what? The ideas come from everywhere, a historical event, a dream, or something someone said. Once I have my idea (my premise), I pick a plot to go with it. Then I work up character charts on the hero and heroine, which include information on their family history and their likes and dislikes. Then, with a fairly good idea about the beginning and ending in my head, I begin the rough draft.

Q: What type of writing schedule do you have? Is it flexible, or do you have a goal for each writing session?
A: My schedule is flexible, but still stays pretty much the same. On a day when I'm off from my day job, I usually begin somewhere between 8 am or 9 am. I go to the computer pull up a completed rough draft I have to do rewrites on or I'll pull up a new project where I write fresh with the purpose of finishing a rough draft. It depends on how high my energy level is. I usually have one finished rough draft and two with only a few chapters written. Also, I usually have about five additional plot ideas, characterizations and premises for future projects. So I always have plenty to do. The better I feel, the more likely I am to work on something new. Then I get hungry. I eat. I work on my writing some more. I get tired. I rest. I write some more. I get kind of bored. And I do some critiques or answer some more e-mails or research or write my monthly column for Savvy Click. Then I eat super, watch a little TV, and talk with my son. I go back on the computer for an hour or two, write more, and I go to sleep about 12 midnight. I wake up about 4 am and write. I go back to sleep about 6 am, wake up about 8 am, and do it all over again. It would be a very geekish and boring life to most people but I find it fun. I am never happier than when I am writing.

Q: Do you ever use real people as the inspiration for characters in your books? If so, why do you choose those particular people?
A: To let you in on a secret, many of my villains resemble, in both personality and appearance, some bad bosses I've had. On a brighter note, in One Heart One Way, I drew on a zany, bubbly, and sweet co-worker. When she came into a room, it was as if sunshine came with her. I used her personality for my heroine, Ricole. For the same book, One Heart One Way, I drew on an old boy friend as inspiration for the hero, Blaise. But I took his name from my son's history teacher, Mr. Blaise, who is Welsh.

Q: Tell us about the first time you got the call or the email from a publisher wanting to publish one of your books.
A: When I received the e-mail form Awe Struck accepting my novel, the "Fox Prince", I was on cloud nine. Bubbling with happiness, I was more animated then usual at work. I followed my standard good mornings with, "Did you hear about my book?" I e-mailed my publisher, Kathryn Struck, to tell her that I too was attending the Romantic Times convention and that I would love to meet her. She replied, "I am taking all the Awe Struck authors to dinner on Thursday and would love for you to join us." I walked around work waving the e-mail saying, "Look, look, I'm going to have dinner with my publisher and the other Awe-Struck authors."

Q: If you include love scenes in your books, are they difficult for you to write? How do you decide whether to include a love scene at that point in the book, and if so, how explicit to make it?
A: Yes, I use love scenes, but find them difficult to write. I have to step back, just let the characters go, and imagine what they are doing, seeing, and feeling. My love scenes come out of my characters' personality, maturity, and their relationship to each other. They decide when the love scenes take place and how sweet or how steamy they are. My love scenes are usually mildly sensual to sensual.

Q: Out of all the characters you've created, which is your favorite, and why?
A: Tryffin is my favorite because he was my first character. I was working as a file clerk and having an allergic reaction to dust. I closed my eyes to get a grip and in my head I saw the face of this man with reddish brown eyes and thick auburn hair, he reminded me of a red fox. Suddenly, the plot I had been kicking around had a hero and a title, The Fox Prince. He'll always be special because I didn't find Tryffin, he found me. I learned a lot about writing male characters from Tryffin. And Tryffin's a nice, stand-up guy. Cute too.

Q: What's your current writing project? How did you come up with the idea?
A: My books are moving into more of a fantasy and paranormal genre. Danger Is Sweet will be released August 2004. It's a selkie story set in ninth century Scotland amid the reign of Kenenth McAlpin. While researching Kenneth McAlpin, I came across an article that said, "There were rumors of Selkies among the McAlpin's." That's how I came up with the idea of Malcolm, my selkie hero. I am also working on a sequel to The Fox Prince, called The Vixen Princess, and one of the characters is a matchmaking ghost. I came up with that idea because several readers mentioned how much they liked Nesta, Tryffin's sister in The Fox Prince. I also wanted to write a book with a middle-aged heroine. I realized if I took Nesta and moved her twenty years forward, not only would I have my middle-aged heroine, but I would have a story set during King Arthur's reign. I had to kill off her husband, Gwydion, but I knew the readers would want to see him so I turned him into a ghost.