The 8 1/2 Overly Pretentious Questions for Ailish Sinclair : The Seventh Question

And now the final blog post in the series – remember to sign up for the wee blog if you haven’t already to find out. And also, don’t forget to sign up for the Wee Mailing List to find out what the Eighth question might be.

1. And finally, Amalphia Tredwell – a high functioning Autistic dancer, just beginning her life in the world of ballet. She is a fascinating person from the get-go, and that’s before she heads off to the mysterious dance school in the North of Scotland. Even her name is wholly unique. I’d be fascinated to know if she was inspired by anyone real or if like Athena before her, she leapt fully formed from the creator’s mind and onto the page?

She pretty much appeared fully formed, not inspired by anyone. I’m not quite sure where the name Amalphia got plucked from. It had been in my head for a while before I started writing the book. I wanted her to have a specialsurname too and for it to have something that could be applied to dancing, hence Treadwell. She uses it here, in Fouetté, the third book in the Dancer’s Journey series:

I had to go back in. Tread carefully, Treadwell, I thought to myself. Eyes up. Toe in front of heel. I pressed the phone button to reactivate it as I reached the door and climbed through again, hoping to bring light to dark matters.

That third book sounds really fun 🤩

If you’ve enjoyed this small glimpse into the next publication of my good friend Ailish Sinclair why not check out her blog here, along with her Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, Pinterest, Tumblr, TikTok, Goodreads, Facebook , YouTube, and Kofi. If you’ve enjoyed this very mildly pretentious question of mine, follow the wee blog if you haven’t already, and don’t forget to check me out on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, Pinterest, Tumblr, TikTok, Goodreads, YouTube, Facebook and Kofi.

Instead of my usual closing remarks I shall leave you with these words…

Tendu is out now, buy your copy today.

The 8 1/2 Overly Pretentious Questions for Ailish Sinclair : The Sixth Question

I love a good Byronic hero – remember to sign up for the wee blog if you haven’t already to find out. And also, don’t forget to sign up for the Wee Mailing List to find out what the Eighth question might be.

Aleks Zolotov is Amalphia’s primary Love interest within the pages of Tendu, the hero to her heroine – could you share with us some of the inspirations that helped form Aleks as a character?

Aleks, as he is in the beginning of the story (he will grow), is a type of man who is not uncommon in the theatrical world. He’s achieved great success; he’s handsome and admired. He’s also experienced the loss of his career, something that has left him with some insecurities. His ego and his behaviour can be out of control at times. Life is a bit of a performance, or even a game, to him, especially when he’s triggered or threatened. He will pay for his naughtiness, though. FOREVER…

Oh Alex’s, what have you brought upon you? 😆

Instead of my usual closing remarks I shall leave you with these words…

Tendu is out now, buy your copy today.

The 8 1/2 Overly Pretentious Questions for Ailish Sinclair : The Fifth Question

And now, my most pretentious question yet – remember to sign up for the wee blog if you haven’t already to find out. And also, don’t forget to sign up for the Wee Mailing List to find out what the Eighth question might be.

Through the decade long process of writing and editing this series, would you say that it’s changed a great deal since its original conception? That is, the story, the messages, the themes – are they still what you first imagined they would be? And if they have changed, what do you think influenced that, other than the passage of time of course?

The basic story has stayed the same, though many, many details got altered as I went along. Simone, another antagonist from TENDU, was really sweet and nice in that first draft. And Will, a dear friend to Amalphia and a good guy, was a bit of a disrespectful idiot. Amalphia, Aleks and Justin came through fully formed from the start; their characters really haven’t changed. And I love them. Did I mention that I love them?

They do have minds of their own, though. They deviated far away from my planned plot in CABRIOLE, the second book in the series. I have to admit that what they did has made the story more unusual and interesting. Writing it any other way, as one publisher tried to get me to do, proved utterly impossible.

I’m really looking forward to that next book 📖

Instead of my usual closing remarks I shall leave you with these words…

Tendu is out now, buy your copy today.

The 8 1/2 Overly Pretentious Questions for Ailish Sinclair : The Fourth Questions

Two pretentious questions for the price of one – remember to sign up for the wee blog if you haven’t already to find out. And also, don’t forget to sign up for the Wee Mailing List to find out what the Eighth question might be.

Of all the characters to feature in the Dancer Series – of which there are many – which is your favourite to write and why?

I don’t know. I love them all. In fact, I think I may be in love with the whole lot of them, at least a little bit. So, just to mix things up, I’ll say Michelle. While she is very much the antagonist of TENDU, or, at least, one of them, I know why she is the way she is. Readers will learn more through the series as it progresses. She’s so very clever, quite brilliant in fact, and I love the absolute focus of her mind, even though it leads to terrible things.

My favourite is Justin.

Now the Dancer Series is actually set in the same continuity as your historical romances, I hear. So, tell us Ailish, should we expecting to see the return of any familiar faces or names?

Well, there is the anomaly of Crispin Truelove, but I never speak about that. Readers of my historical fiction have so far enjoyed the brief mentions of the Mermaid and the Bear in the pages of TENDU. There will be more of that in the next series – Castle Dancers – as a television documentary is being made about the history of the castle in the second book, and two of the main characters will play Isobell and Thomas from Mermaid. That was great fun to write, and I hope it’ll be good to read too.

Oh I have no doubt it will.

Instead of my usual closing remarks I shall leave you with these words…

Tendu is out now, buy your copy today.

The 8 1/2 Overly Pretentious Questions for Ailish Sinclair : The Third Question

Onwards to the Question – remember to sign up for the wee blog if you haven’t already to find out. And also, don’t forget to sign up for the Wee Mailing List to find out what the Eighth question will be.

Tendu is not the first of your books to have an Autistic character at the forefront – the main character of Sisters at the Edge of the World, was certainly heavily on the spectrum. Though because of her time period she would never have been diagnosed as such. However, Amalphia is the first of your characters to be outright stated in the narrative as Autistic, and it effects many aspects of her life within the pages of Tendu.

From friendships, to relationships, to her placement in her original dancing college; all the way up to her involvement in the mysterious and, slightly sketchy, research of the unsettling Michelle. Obviously, her Autism is not a minor element of her character. Or the story itself.

So, tell me what was the inspiration for this particular character choice? Was this the plan from the start, her Autism diagnosis, or did it come about naturally through writing the character?

It was while writing these books that I found out that I,myself, am on the autistic spectrum. Though Amalphia is a very different person to me, I realised that she was neurodivergent too, and the discovery added a richness to the writing of her character and adventures. I suppose it made it all more intensely personal.

But do remember that she’s not me, with all that’s to come; she has way more energy!

Well noted 😁

Instead of my usual closing remarks I shall leave you with these words…

Tendu is out now, buy your copy today.

The 8 1/2 Overly Pretentious Questions for Ailish Sinclair : The Second Question

And now I give you my pretentious question – remember to sign up for the wee blog if you haven’t already to find out. And also, don’t forget to sign up for the Wee Mailing List to find out what the Eighth question will be.

Amalphia’s story takes place in the beautiful and cutthroat world of professional ballet – what inspired the decision to set her story in that particular backdrop?

When I was first considering writing a contemporary romance, I was unsure exactly where to place it. Inspiration struck while I was lying in the bath contemplating the issue. I saw a line of dancers in my mind. They were at the barre performing ronde de jambe, a circular leg exercise, and I knew the ballet world would be the setting for the story. My own dance training and career provided many of the details,and everything grew from there.

A good choice, it’s a fascinating world.

If you’ve enjoyed the small glimpse into the next publication of my good friend Ailish Sinclair why not check out her blog here, along with her Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, Pinterest, Tumblr, TikTok, Goodreads, Facebook , YouTube, and Kofi. If you’ve enjoyed this very mildly pretentious question of mine, follow the wee blog if you haven’t already, and don’t forget to check me out on Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, Pinterest, Tumblr, TikTok, Goodreads, YouTube, Facebook and Kofi.

Instead of my usual closing remarks I shall leave you with these words…

Tendu is out now, buy your copy today

The 8 1/2 Overly Pretentious Questions for Ailish Sinclair : The First Question.

What Ho wee readers and welcome to the first of my blog series to feature the collaboration of Ailish Sinclair. If you’re familiar with the formula already you should know this week I’ll be releasing a blog post a day – each one taking the form, as the title might suggest, of a question . An overly pretentious question. Which hopefully Ailish will oblige me by answering – remember to sign up for the wee blog if you haven’t already to find out. And also, don’t forget to sign up for the Wee Mailing List to find out what the Eighth question might be.

So Ailish, your first three books – The Mermaid and the Bear, Fireflies and Chocolate, and Sisters at the Edge of the World – were all Historical Romances. But your new books – the Dancer Series – are strictly contemporary in nature, tell me was this a big change for you as a writer?

Well, there was no need for years of research, especially as I have a dance background and the castle was fully formed in my mind from the previous books. It was actually a fun change to write the modern world. The characters have phones and watch TV. They go to Chinese restaurants and walk through present-day London. The castle has a swimming pool and a theatre and dance studios.

Though, essentially, at their core, relationships and love are the same throughout time. Misunderstandings happen. People behave badly or well. They fall in love. They try to make it work. They worry that it won’t. These things remain. They are timeless. And I love writing them.

Wow! I mean I did already know she had a dance background, but that was a really good reply.

Instead of my usual closing remarks I shall leave you with these words…

Tendu is out now, buy your copy today.