Ask the Author: Heather Day Gilbert
Answered Questions (16)
Heather Day Gilbert
Hi, Roger. You can contact me at heatherdaygilbert (at) gmail (dot) com. Thank you for asking.
Heather Day Gilbert
Thank you for contacting me! I'm not looking for an editor, and my early reader team is currently full. Feel free to follow my newsletter at heatherdaygilbert (at) gmail (dot) com for any opportunities along those early reader lines that open up. Thanks!
Heather Day Gilbert
Thanks for asking! When I my get rights back from the publisher and republish the books in a few years, I'm considering adding at least one book to the series (I can't now since it's still with the publisher and they didn't contract more). For now, I recommend my Belinda readers go straight to my Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mystery series, which is a similar clean cozy series, and it's the one I'm actively building. Book One is NO FILTER. Thanks--and enjoy!
Heather Day Gilbert
I have several other projects I'm working on completing first (ie: Book 4 in the Murder in the Mountains series, another possible Viking project, and my Barks & Beans Cafe mysteries), so I'm not exactly sure when that will happen. I do already have the cover designed for it, though. ;) Thanks for asking!
Heather Day Gilbert
Hi, Sandra! Thanks for asking. Yes, there is at least one more Murder in the Mountains mystery planned, hopefully for a 2022 release. It'll take more work since it needs to tie up some loose ends...like Axel Becker. ;) Anyway, all the best to you with your books! I'm thrilled you enjoyed mine.
Heather Day Gilbert
Aww! I love this! Thank you for letting me know. I'd love to have more books in the series, but that will depend on the publisher. I did leave room for more at the end of book 3. But rest assured, I will have other cozy mystery series releasing at some point, as well. Thank you!
Heather Day Gilbert
Yes, there will be! Thanks so much for asking, Linda. We do have some loose ends we will need to tie up (like who IS Axel Becker???). However, since I'm working on new cozy mystery series, it might be 2019 or 2020 before the next book releases. ;) I do hope you will enjoy the other mysteries I'll be getting out in the interim, as well!
Heather Day Gilbert
I am working on a 3-book cozy mystery series that will be published by Kensington Books, and I am so excited about it! Will share more on my blog, my Facebook author page, and in my newsletter as I can.
Heather Day Gilbert
I would love to know if I'm actually blood-related to Eirik the Red through his son, Thorvald (as is the story that's been handed down in our family), but then again, maybe I'd just rather blindly believe it's true, because that's what inspired me to write books about Eirik's family who sailed to North America. I suppose at our core, we all wonder about the mysteries of our own genetic makeups since that's something we may never know 100% (despite testing, I doubt we will know each name in our family trees up to Adam and Eve. ;) ).
Heather Day Gilbert
This is a great question! Hands down, it's Tommy and Tuppence Beresford in Agatha Christie's Tommy/Tuppence mysteries. This is the couple I loosely modeled Thomas and Tess Spencer on in my Murder in the Mountains mysteries. Tommy and Tuppence had such a great rapport--they joked with each other but also supported and protected each other.
I also loved Farmer Gabriel Oak and Bathsheba Everdene in Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, Renata and John Dixon in Becky Doughty's Renata and the Fall from Grace, and I will admit, I was totally Team Jacob, at least until things got weird with Reneesme.
I also loved Farmer Gabriel Oak and Bathsheba Everdene in Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, Renata and John Dixon in Becky Doughty's Renata and the Fall from Grace, and I will admit, I was totally Team Jacob, at least until things got weird with Reneesme.
Heather Day Gilbert
Yes indeedy! Thanks for asking. There will be a book 3 and a book 4 in the Murder in the Mountains series. GUILT BY ASSOCIATION is book 3, and you can find it on Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2....
Heather Day Gilbert
Nice to chat with you, Nathan! Keeping busy writing my next Viking historical--how is your writing going?
Heather Day Gilbert
It is in the works, though not moving too fast! I have been developing my contemporary mystery series these past couple years, but I am planning to get Forest Child out in 2016, if all goes well. Thanks so much for your interest!
Heather Day Gilbert
One of my favorite mysteries is Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie. This one is very character-driven and I loved the romantic aspects of it. I also love By the Pricking of my Thumbs by Agatha Christie...creepy! Regardless, I'm a die-hard Christie fan. It's a wonder I didn't name a daughter Agatha (hubby put the kaibosh on that!).
Heather Day Gilbert
As with all the choices I made for this book, I researched extensively before deciding to incorporate this word. Experts disagree as to whether it was being used around that time, but I figured Vikings, who had been plundering for years and exploring as well, would have had SOME kind of word for what they were doing. I went with 'Viking' because it was easily recognizable to my READERS. I know Gudrid would have identified herself with her husband and crew who had taken this risky voyage to the new lands, looking for plunder.
Historical fiction is just that, fiction based around history. For me, I wanted to stick as closely to The Saga of Greenlanders and Eirik the Red's Saga as possible. If you read those sagas, you will see many parallels with the plot structure and events in God's Daughter (and eventually, in Forest Child).
Most of the time I tried to use Old Norse word choices (words they would have had for objects/actions), but sometimes, I could not. I knew Vikings would have HAD words for those things, but occasionally I had to use a word readers would understand (without sounding totally anachronistic, I hope).
Hoping this helps clarify some questions that might be raised. I want to offer readers the most historical experience I can, while sticking to the sagas as much as possible for my guideline in this series. Not to mention telling a compelling story about these Vikings who really lived, loved, and traveled so far.
Historical fiction is just that, fiction based around history. For me, I wanted to stick as closely to The Saga of Greenlanders and Eirik the Red's Saga as possible. If you read those sagas, you will see many parallels with the plot structure and events in God's Daughter (and eventually, in Forest Child).
Most of the time I tried to use Old Norse word choices (words they would have had for objects/actions), but sometimes, I could not. I knew Vikings would have HAD words for those things, but occasionally I had to use a word readers would understand (without sounding totally anachronistic, I hope).
Hoping this helps clarify some questions that might be raised. I want to offer readers the most historical experience I can, while sticking to the sagas as much as possible for my guideline in this series. Not to mention telling a compelling story about these Vikings who really lived, loved, and traveled so far.
Heather Day Gilbert
Great question, Susie! I know it's not a time period we read about often in fiction!
Growing up, my Grandma always reminded me that we were related to Eirik the Red. Every time I could, I read Viking history and followed Viking excavation news, etc. When I finally bought my own copy of The Sagas of Icelanders, I loved reading more about how Vikings lived and explored...in particular, Eirik the Red and his family--and Gudrid was his ward.
I loved that Vikings were pretty fearless...I mean, who just goes sailing right off the side of the earth? And yet I suspect they understood the earth was round somehow (they had a dragon biting its tail in a CIRCLE to represent the oceans of the world). Their carvings were breathtaking. They loved storytelling and played games...in fact, they sounded very similar to family units today...though the plundering/fighting was admittedly not the way we usually live!
Gudrid's story was compelling on so many levels. She was a Christian in a pagan society. She had been trained in the volva (seeress) songs. She sailed with her THREE (!!!) husbands all over the place. Two of her husbands died and yet she was still young...it was just SUCH a rich history there, even simply from the saga accounts. Also, she had the first recorded European child born in North America. WHO sails to a new world while pregnant? One tough gal...or one who really loves her husband, I'll tell you that.
Anyway...great question and I'm so thankful EVERY time new Viking finds or info comes out. It is such a rich time period, and one so little documented. Hoping my 2-book Viking series will bring the sagas alive for people and show them how Vikings were not so very different in their motivations than we are.
Growing up, my Grandma always reminded me that we were related to Eirik the Red. Every time I could, I read Viking history and followed Viking excavation news, etc. When I finally bought my own copy of The Sagas of Icelanders, I loved reading more about how Vikings lived and explored...in particular, Eirik the Red and his family--and Gudrid was his ward.
I loved that Vikings were pretty fearless...I mean, who just goes sailing right off the side of the earth? And yet I suspect they understood the earth was round somehow (they had a dragon biting its tail in a CIRCLE to represent the oceans of the world). Their carvings were breathtaking. They loved storytelling and played games...in fact, they sounded very similar to family units today...though the plundering/fighting was admittedly not the way we usually live!
Gudrid's story was compelling on so many levels. She was a Christian in a pagan society. She had been trained in the volva (seeress) songs. She sailed with her THREE (!!!) husbands all over the place. Two of her husbands died and yet she was still young...it was just SUCH a rich history there, even simply from the saga accounts. Also, she had the first recorded European child born in North America. WHO sails to a new world while pregnant? One tough gal...or one who really loves her husband, I'll tell you that.
Anyway...great question and I'm so thankful EVERY time new Viking finds or info comes out. It is such a rich time period, and one so little documented. Hoping my 2-book Viking series will bring the sagas alive for people and show them how Vikings were not so very different in their motivations than we are.
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