Interview B.G. McCarthy
By
Tamia Dawn Osburn
1. What made you decide to be a writer?
It sounds snooty but I’ve always had an urge to rewrite things‑‑endings to the classics, storylines on television soaps and dramas. I had to stop watching Gilmore Girls because it made me furious. Way back in the eighties I read a book called Hummingbird by Lavyrle Spencer, my first romance novel. I fell in love with the concept and the hero, Jesse, and I started to try my hand at writing my own historical romance novel. I never got the historical part right, but decided I could take old-fashioned situations and put them in modern settings.
2. How did you come up with the characters for Thief at Heart?
I love books where characters have big, juicy secrets and secret lives. Reviewers often poo poo the idea of the “Big Secrets” plots, but as a reader it always gives me a happy shiver to find a book where the characters are not who they seem, or telling blatant lies to each other. I always wanted to write a book about an ex-thief who is still a bit of a rogue. I loved that show It Takes a Thief as a kid and had a massive crush on Robert Wagner. I am sorry to say that I’m a television junkie.
3. Where do you come up with the ideas for your writing?
I steal... No, I borrow... No, I reinvent, as I think we all do. I watch a lot of old movies, read everything I can get my hands on in practically every genre and just go from there. I also have really interesting dreams. Sometimes, before I write, I paint an imaginary hero and keep the painting with me. That is how Robin Butler was born and my talented daughter, Casey, used that piece of artwork as my cover.
4. Who’s your biggest supporter while you write?
I’d like to say my hubby, but as much as I love him, he just keeps asking me when I’ll be done so he can use the computer to look up FARK or the Nascar sites. I have a wonderful friend named Lorelei. She reads all my stuff and tells me, literally, what I’m doing, where I am going and what it all means. I didn’t even know I could do symbolism, but she assures me I do it. She’s a treasure in all ways, as a loving friend and as an astute editor.
5. Did you use your imagination or use real places for the scenes for Thief at Heart?
Thief at Heart is situated in Vancouver, where I live, so some of it comes from places I know and situations I’ve been in. I lived and taught school in a logging town on the West coast for eight years and since some of Thief at Heart takes place in a biker town, I used my knowledge of it. We had a notorious biker club in town; I taught many of their children and my husband worked with many of the bikers. They were, for the most part, interesting people.
6. How do you come up with the name for Thief at Heart and the characters Riley and Robert
Thief at Heart is a bit of a private joke, though it does pertain to the content of the novel. I read a master’s thesis on romance novels once. (I kid you not.) The writer ascertained that readers love to buy books which have the word ‘heart’ in the title. LOL I could also say that it’s based on that long ago Robert Wagner series I mentioned before. The hero is called Robin for Robin Hood, of course. Riley Jane, the heroine, needed a name both tough and tender.
7. Why a wealthy, high society bride and a man from the wrong side of the tracks?
The book is about a con man who infiltrates high society circles. Who is he, exactly? We readers know in a way who he is, but not who he works for. The heroine doesn’t have a clue, but she has her druthers about him based on the fact that he resembles the boy who ‘done her wrong’ fifteen years before. She is a bit jealous of his quarry, her boss’s daughter, and because she thinks Robbie is rich and looking for a rich bride, he is even less her equal. It’s also about two people who are not the cream of society, but at the core, are good--especially for one another. And I’ve always liked the idea of the con game and books that revolve around the rich and snooty.
8. Who influenced you most to become a writer?
In grade four we had contests to write a great story every week. The prize was an Eat more bar. I liked to write and I loved chocolate, but my classroom nemesis, Donald Weeks, always won the story contests, with me second because he was a boy and more popular. His stuff was more Dr. No than Little Women. I wrote a gory story where the teacher was murdered in front of the class and Donald got kidnapped by the Cubans (it was during the Bay of Pigs crisis) and was taken away forever to a slave island. I actually won that one. I can still taste that Eat more bar.
9. Did the dangerous situations in your novel make the character’s bond stronger or weaker?
I think by the end of the book, Riley, though very angry at the hero for what he has done in deceiving her, finds it is too late to go back. She is madly in love and decides she can’t live without him, no matter who he turns out to be, so she has to trust him or pay the consequences.
10. What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
Write and persevere. Take the time to learn but don’t allow attending workshops that teach you the mechanics of writing keep you from just plunging in there and making your own mistakes. We spend too much time planning, not doing. Write what you want to read.
11. What is the one thing about yourself, that no one else knows about?
I’m obsessed with Martha Stewart and intend to mention her in every book I ever write.
12. What’s the most exciting part of writing Thief at Heart?
Trying to make the middle as good as the start and knowing that I did a pretty good job at it. Hate saggy middles.