Margaret Tanner is an award-winning, multi-published Australian author. She loves delving into the pages of history as she carries out research for her historical romance novels, and prides herself on being historically correct. Many of her novels have been inspired by true events, with one being written around the hardships and triumphs of her pioneering ancestors in frontier Australia. Margaret is a member of the Romance Writers of Australia, the Melbourne Romance Writers Group (MRWG) and EPIC. She won the 2009 Author of the Year at AussieAuthors.com. the second time she has won this prestigious award. Margaret is married and has three grown sons, and a gorgeous little granddaughter. Outside of her family and friends, writing is her passion.
Thanks for being here, Margaret. It’s a pleasure.
The pleasure is all mine, thank you for having me Kelly.
#1- Tell us a little about yourself outside of your writing career…
I live in Melbourne Australia, and work part time as a Medical Audio-typist in a Radiology Department. Hopefully within the next couple of years I can retire so I can become a full time writer. That has always been my dream.
My husband and I love to travel. We have a son living in London, and we have visited him four times, and done some side trips to France, Turkey and Italy. On one of our trips we spent 4 nights in New York. Absolutely loved it, then 4 nights in Las Vegas. Can’t honestly say I enjoyed Las Vegas as I was confined to my hotel room with food poisoning, hubby enjoyed it though.
#2- Can you tell us a bit about your book, Frontier Wife?
Frontier Wife has been published before, with a title of The English Rose, but unfortunately the publisher went out of business. I made quite a few changes then submitted it to TWRP with a new title, and was thrilled when they gave me a contract for it.
Tommy (Thomasina) Lindsay arrives in colonial Australia to claim the rundown farm she and her brothers have inherited.
Hidden behind her fragile English rose beauty, beats the heart of a courageous young woman. She will need all this strength to survive the unforgiving heat and dangers that confront her, not to mention her ruthless neighbour, Adam Munro, who is hell-bent on getting rid of this interloper.
She hopes to find true love in the harsh frontiers of colonial Australia, but it will have to be a special man who can love her little orphaned brother as well.
Adam Munro, a rugged frontier man, has no room in his heart to love a woman. All he wants is a presentable wife who will provide him with heirs. When he meets Tommy he is captivated, but fights his feelings because he doesn’t need passion to complicate his life.
#3- How do you handle the negative reviews and critiques you receive?
I just grin and bear it. I can usually find some grains of comfort in even the worst review or critique, because I always learn something from them.
#4- You pride yourself on being historically accurate in your books, once even spending a couple hours in an old goal cell to feel what it was like. Can you tell us about some of your research?
For my World War 1 novels, I travelled to the battlefields and cemeteries of France and Belgium, to get myself into a frame of mind where I could write against such a tragic background. I didn’t realize exactly how much it would affect me. I think it was the sheer scale of the catastrophe that got to me. Here in Australia, I knew from the history books that some country towns became ghost towns because most of their young men had been killed. A whole generation virtually wiped out. I read about it, but to see it spread out in front of my eyes, hundreds of cemeteries and thousands of white crosses. Those few days there were the saddest most poignant of my whole life.
I have spent a lot of time in North Eastern Victoria, where several of my books are set. I know the area extremely well, (I was born there). I have read the diaries of some of my pioneering ancestors, interviewed elderly relatives (not easy when some of them are stone deaf), trawled through museums and archives. Morbid may be, but I always find country cemeteries a good source of information too.
#5- What is your favorite historical period and why?
World War 1. Gallant young soldiers and the staunch, brave women who waited for them to return home. I couldn’t find more worthy heroes or heroines. They just begged me to tell their stories. To make sure their deeds were not forgotten. I only hope I did justice to them.
#6- Are there any upcoming releases we would like to know about, and could you give us your web site so readers can check it out?
Reluctant Father, which is set during the Vietnam War, will be released from The wild Rose Press, on the 17th September 2010.
http://www.margarettanner.com/
#7- This about concludes it. Thank you again for joining us. Is there anything else you would like to share?
No, I think your questions covered quite a lot of ground. You can find more information about me and my books on my website. I have two publishers, Whiskey Creek Press and The Wild Rose Press, and I am grateful to both of them for making my dreams of publication come true.
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