This week I’m hosting Patricia Davids with The Shepherd’s Bride (2 books US and Canada only) and Beth White with The Pelican Bride. If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on your post with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (April 13th) evening.
Interview with the hero from The Pelican Bride by Beth White:
1. Tristan, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
I left home at the age of eighteen to serve as cartographer–mapmaker–for the Sieur de Bienville. I was one of the first French-Canadians to see the Gulf of Mexico and claim land along the gulf coast for King Louis XIV.
2. What do you do for fun?
Cartography is both a science and an art. Sometimes my artistic side takes over, compelling me to paint and draw the amazing and beautiful landscapes along the gulf coast.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
I am naturally a diplomat and peacemaker. Confrontations are hard for me, but I can usually find a way to reach compromise between warring factions.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
I fell in love very young with a Native American girl who was kidnapped and killed before I could rescue her. I have resisted allowing that kind of intimacy again–because losing it is so very painful. This lovely young Frenchwoman Genevieve….it’s very hard to shut her out.
5. What do you want out of life?
I want a piece of land to call my own and the freedom to work it without interference from the King.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
Truth, integrity. I can’t bear it when I find that I’ve been lied to by someone I trust. My brother may be the only person I’ve ever fully trusted.
7. Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?
I’ve not had the opportunity to read widely, though I’ve been educated to read and write. One day I hope there will be a chance for my children to have more leisure than I’ve had, so that they can read the classics.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would go back to the last time I saw my wife, Sholani, and I would do more than peck her on the cheek. I have learned that intimacy requires sacrifice.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
No pets, but there’s this valuable ox I managed to acquire for my farm. I’m pretty proud of him.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
I can hardly comprehend that question, but maybe I would go back to the time of Christ and spend time asking him questions that have always bothered me. Why death? Why blood? How does justice work? Do you feel this constant feeling of guilt I feel? How do I get out from under it? Do you really give second chances?
