Fresh Fiction Blog | Erin Quinn | Falling in Love with Rory MacGrath

Have you seen the gorgeous man on the cover of Haunting Warrior? I mean, seriously, do they get any sexier? If I saw him walking down the street would I throw caution, decorum and sanity to the wind and accost him...probably yes. (Okay, okay, absolutely yes...)

Well, meet Rory MacGrath.

I fell in love with Rory during the first draft of Haunting Warrior. It was about that time when the reserved and sometimes angry man began to show me his softer side. Disconnected from his past, his family, and even his heritage, Rory had a vulnerability that was a direct contradiction to his manly exterior. But even Rory knew that the front he presented was just that-a façade that might fool strangers, but couldn’t fool those who knew him.

Or people like me who were about to fall in love with him.

Tough on the outside and lost on the inside, I knew that all Rory needed was a woman who could help him see his own strengths-a woman who would challenge him to rise above the past that had crippled him emotionally. This woman would bring him back into the circle of the living. She couldn’t be just any woman and she certainly wasn’t easy to find. In fact, Rory had to travel through time to reach her.

One of my favorite scenes in Haunting Warrior comes when Saraid (Haunting Warrior’s heroine) faces the fact that man she’s wed is not the loathed Ruairi the Bloodletter, but another man who watches from the same blue, blue eyes..

Saraid stared at her splayed fingers, feeling that the freezing hand must surely belong to someone else. Not her. Not Saraid. Yet she could feel the coldness of it pressed against the burning heat of the Bloodletter’s chest. Feel the fierce pounding of his heart beneath her palm. She was numb and raw at the same time. Her mind felt dull and yet every pore of her skin was sensitive to the slightest shift in the air. The draft coming from beyond the curtain chilled like a blustering wind. The voices in that other room boomed loud and jarring. How could they still be laughing? Playing music and dancing? How could they not know what Saraid had witnessed? The impossibility of it felt as enormous as the sky, the sea, the very earth beneath her.

"It is you she foretold. It was always you." Saraid spoke the words before she’d even realized their truth.

But somehow her eyes and her mouth had accepted what her mind still rejected. This man staring at her from behind the Bloodletter’s blue gaze had changed-pulled himself in two and . . . and . . .

She moved her icy fingers, trailing them over the heated muscle to the rippled pucker of a scar just over his heart. Slowly she traced the outline while he remained perfectly still, barely breathing. Watching her with the same shock she felt inside.

The scar was as big as her hand, spread wide over it. It was shaped in three continuous spirals that had no beginning, no ending. She knew them, recognized the symbol from the ancient stones at Tara, from the countless mounds and dolmens scattered throughout Éire. It was the triple spiral that represented life, death, and rebirth. The same symbol that she’d just seen locking what could only be the Book of Fennore. The spirals had been burned into this man’s flesh so long ago that the skin was now white and silky. But the scar hadn’t been there before, when he’d stripped his clothes. When he’d taken her on the bed...

I hope you’ll take the journey through time with Rory and Saraid and I hope you’ll find the same fascination with Rory MacGrath that both Saraid and I shared. Be warned though…he might steal your heart.

If you could travel through time, where would you go? And who would you hope to meet?

Comments

If I could travel through time ,I would go to Nashville and would love to meet Elvis!
(Cheryl English 12:16pm May 12, 2010)

I'd travel into the future and I'd go on a
spaceship to see the universe and hopeful
meet a yet unborn relation of mine.
(Sue Ahn 3:08am May 12, 2010)

I'd love to travel to Elizabethan times and meet Sir Francis Drake...oh my!!!

Thanks for giving us such yummy heroes to fantasise about.

Valerie
in Germany
(Valerie Bongards 6:24am May 12, 2010)

I would definitely travel into the future, and probably be grateful for the return trip. What a great cover!
(Joanne Reynolds 6:26am May 12, 2010)

Having ancester from Spain and day dreaming as a young girl. I always dreamed in meating Don Diego de la Vega (Zorro). Something about those men on horses with hispanic features. The women with the great gowns with pearl and lace and jewelry on there hair.
(Cynthia Plaza-Harney 8:22am May 12, 2010)

I would travel to Victorian times but in Scotland as I am a sucker for the Scots!
(Barbara Hanson 8:28am May 12, 2010)

I believe I would like to see of the wild western time.
(Sherry Russell 10:14am May 12, 2010)

I don't want to go forward or
backward in time. Now is hard
enough.
(Tanja Haack 10:40am May 12, 2010)

Oh I could fall for a man like that!!! I love the historcal romances and love a hero that is rugged and buff from work and those Scots could make aa girl go weak in the knees! So YES if I could go back in time it would be for a man like your Rory MacGarth in a New York min.
(Vickie Hightower 10:59am May 12, 2010)

Wow, what a diverse group we have here today. 1/2 would go forward, 1/2 would go back and one in the middle who's staying put, lol!
(Erin Quinn 11:14am May 12, 2010)

I'd want to go to the 1930's and meet some of my family members.
(Leni Kaye 11:19am May 12, 2010)

I'd like to visit the early 1940s and see our country in full patriotism mode.
(G S Moch 12:12pm May 12, 2010)

I would like to go to Scotland in the time of Robert the Bruce.
Blessings,
Marjorie
(Marjorie Carmony 1:35pm May 12, 2010)

Ummm.... I would go back to 1400's Scotland and find a hot Laird in a Kilt.... or even earlier and go to Finland/Norway and find me a Hot Viking, lol
(Brandy Blake 1:45pm May 12, 2010)

Life was so hard in the past I don't think I'd like to be there,however, going with one of your characters is wonderful. They always pull me in and make it seem so real.
(Elizabeth Parzino 1:50pm May 12, 2010)

I would go to Scotland's distant past and hope to meet a gorgeous Highland Laird.
(Patsy Hagen 2:36pm May 12, 2010)

I'd love to go back to the Roaring 20's! Go to a speakeasy! That would be cool!
(JoAnn White 2:47pm May 12, 2010)

I would love to travel to ancient Egypt and meet a pharaoh or two and learn about their customs, beliefs and beauty secrets.
(Jane Cheung 3:19pm May 12, 2010)

I would travel to meet Nostradamus and ask him about 12/21/12.
(Vikki Parman 3:20pm May 12, 2010)

I would go back to my high school days, but I would hope not to be so bashful. I missed out on a lot that I could easily have been a part of.
(Gladys Paradowski 3:26pm May 12, 2010)

There are so many historical places & times that we all want to visit; but seriously....do without indoor plumbing or Toilet paper??? I have become a total wuss in middle age. All my time traveling will be between the covers of books, from the comfort of home. Easy access chocolate, guaranteed!!
(Susan Driskill 3:37pm May 12, 2010)

I'm staying put as my Mr. Right is even cuter than Rory.
Keep writing.
Pat P.
Smith Mt. Lake, VA
(Patricia (Pat) Pascale 3:39pm May 12, 2010)

Would love to visit any historical country
there is so much to see and learn
(Carole Lepore 4:00pm May 12, 2010)

So long as I could return whenever I wish. Regency England to meet MY Mr Darcy.
(Mary Preston 4:08pm May 12, 2010)

Hm, perhaps during Viking Age and tell those Vikings about Hawaii so they could leave all those cold places and the iffy food (lutefisk and hákarl? ew).
(S Tieh 4:22pm May 12, 2010)

Wow travel back in time... so many great locales and times to visit... I do not think one place would be enough... the old west, pagan Ireland and Scotland, victorian... I do not know!?!
(Colleen Conklin 4:28pm May 12, 2010)

I like where I am right now with my own Mr. Right of 36 years. If I could travel back in time, I would want to go wherever I would need to go to find him.
(Cathy Phillips 5:07pm May 12, 2010)

I would love to travel to a time when I have a family of my own. I can't wait to have a house full of kids and dogs with a dude.
(Caitlin Usignol 5:11pm May 12, 2010)

Thank you for your post, Erin.

I'd time-travel to the future. I'd probably really screw up there because I can't even make sense of all the technological changes in the present. Still, it'd be fascinating.

As for going back to the past, there are plenty of periods that interest me. However, I don't believe there's such a thing as "the good old days."

Therefore, traveling to the past would be for practical purposes only, such as trying to prevent something terrible from happening. But if my understanding of karma is correct, that wouldn't work, would it? All that has happened has done so because it HAD to happen.

BTW, Stephen Hawking says time travel may be possible at subatomic levels. Who knows, maybe it'll be possible someday on the human scale. But for now, I've got enough to work on right here in the present.

Keep up the good work!
(Mary Anne Landers 5:18pm May 12, 2010)

I like my own Mr. Right of 25 yrs also. If I traveled back in time I would want to find him when I was 17 yrs old. Before I married Mr. Wrong.
(Julie Swaney 5:29pm May 12, 2010)

If I could travel back in time I would go back 35 yrs when my husband use to look like that.
(Ellen Blakley 6:23pm May 12, 2010)

I'm not sure I would want to go back in time. I love my family and can't think about being without them.
(Diane Sadler 7:02pm May 12, 2010)

If I could travel back in time, I would frankly visit my younger self to give a few key pieces of advice on decisions I had to make.
(G. Bisbjerg 7:15pm May 12, 2010)

Who knew this was going to be such a fun topic?!? I love all of your answers. I don't know if I'd travel in time if it was my choice, but a part of me thinks I wouldn't be able to resist. Wouldn't it be amazing to see all the things we've read about?
(Erin Quinn 7:46pm May 12, 2010)

I would travel back to the first part of the 20th century and meet J. Gatsby (The Great Gatsbyzzzzzzzzzzz0
(Lisa Garrett 7:50pm May 12, 2010)

I would travel back to the mid 1800 Scotland I think. I would love to meet a highlander!
(Gail Hurt 8:38pm May 12, 2010)

If I could travel through time, I would go back to see my parents meet and fall in love.
(Rosemary Krejsa 9:47pm May 12, 2010)

I would travel back to King Arthur's time. The person I would really, really want to meet is Merlin. He is the catalyst that set everything in motion. That era is the most romantic and "magical" time.
(Kai Wong 9:58pm May 12, 2010)

I'm glad time travel isn't real, but if I could be around kings and knights and other royalty, I might pick up a few ideas about chivalry and loyalty to a sovereign country.
(Alyson Widen 10:50pm May 12, 2010)

What a tough decision... I think I would go forward in time and meet my daughter in 30 years to see if she's outgrown the horrible awful step-mom hating phase she's in right now that is breaking my heart. I'd want to ask her how long it took her to out grow it so I can know how many years I have to wait. LOL
(Donna Holmberg 11:20pm May 12, 2010)

I love to read about time travel! I love the cover of your book! Would really love to win it! Time travel, I'm not sure I would want to go forward, more about going back I think.
(Brenda Rupp 11:28pm May 12, 2010)

I love time travel book and that does look like a hot one.I agree whit the one that they would go back en time to meat a highlander that would be so sexy hot.But then i would change my mine because of no bath tissue and other inportent to me things like pads,clean water,Doctors and things.We live in a good time i think the future may be better.that is the ? is it not will it be better.
(Stacey Smith 11:32pm May 12, 2010)

Hello Erin, Please enter me in your fantastic contest and please let me know if I am a winner too! I love entering and winning contests from FreshFiction.com
God Bless YOU, Cecilia
(Cecilia Dunbar Hernandez 12:08pm May 13, 2010)

Would go to England when they were setting Stonehenge to see it when it was complete and in use.
(Lindsey Ekland 3:19am May 13, 2010)

I'd like to travel back to Ireland or the
Highlands prior to England taking over.
I'd just like to see my ancestors. That's
all. :D
(Molly Wilsbacher 9:27pm May 13, 2010)

I think your cover is one of the hottest and best covers out there.I'd take Rory every time lol lol
I'd also love to go back in time before I lost my brothers and Mother so I could be with them again.Thanks Erin.
Carol L.
[email protected]
(Carol Luciano 8:32pm May 17, 2010)

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