Ciji Ware's Blog

Pin ItWhat reader isn’t fascinated by the idea of women secret agents operating behind enemy lines during WW II? What we now know about these unsung heroines is primarily due to the 1995 opening of formerly classified archives on the 50th anniversary marking the end of that terrible conflict. In early phases of Allied clandestine operations, many female secret agents played the role of “Honey Traps” and “Madam Fifis”–goodlooking women recruited to use their charms to ferret out information from... Read More...

Pin ItI have been in “radio silence” for the last weeks while working pretty long hours to get a first draft of That Autumn in Edinburgh finished by October 1, and–glory-of-glories–I managed to do it! Next up? Starting on page one to do a polish (or two…or three…) and hoping that I can make the deadline of getting this second novel in the “Four Seasons Quartet” published before the end of the year…perhaps by December 1. Meanwhile, I heard from... Read More...

Pin ItAnyone who has not actually “gone the distance” writing a novel might imagine that authors sit home and conjure what’s on the page of their works-in-progress out of thin air. Well, perhaps some do–and Internet search capability has certainly made fact-checking a lot easier these days–but for me, the reality of creating fiction…even contemporary fiction…demands a fair amount of legwork. Take my most recent trip to Scotland to prepare to write a contemporary sequel to my eighteenth century historical,... Read More...

Pin It When I wrote my historical novel based on the life of Jane Maxwell, the 4th Duchess of Gordon (1749-1812), there were events chonicled in that book about which– as a former reporter–I had my doubts. Twenty-five years ago, I hadn’t had the budget nor the opportunity to visit the Scottish Borders where a key event in Jane Maxwell’s life occured and I have fretted about the accuracy of my fictional rendering of that pivotal moment ever since. Now... Read More...

Pin ItWe’d heard the rumors. On June 17th, when we had an “advance peek” of Sir Walter Scott‘s fantastical creation, Abbotsford, in the Scottish Borders south of Edinburgh, word was that “a member of the Royal Family” would be honoring the reopening of the castle built in the early 19th century and which was inhabited by members of his family until 2004. And sure enough, the rumors were correct. None other than Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II appeared today, July... Read More...

Pin ItOne of the joys of this particular trip to Europe is that I could combine research for That Autumn in Edinburgh (the follow-on novel to That Summer in Cornwall ) with a search for some of my husband and my families’ more obscure tartan patterns. In our joint two clans, we have the Scottish names McCullough, McVicker, McAllister/Alexander, McGann, Hunter, Pattison, Harris, Brown, Gibbs, Forester, and Bell. My husband Tony’s surname is “Cook,” and he always assumed it was... Read More...

Pin ItOne of the goals of my research trip to Scotland for That Autumn in Edinburgh was to understand the trials and perils of having inherited a family woolen textile business and an historic home in the modern age. To understand the latter, I set out for Traquair House, the seat of the Maxwell Stuart family and the oldest, continuously inhabited home in Scotland. As I drove through the spectacular gates of the grounds nestled in the Tweed Valley in... Read More...

Pin ItIt’s been more than fifteen years since I was last in the city of Edinburgh where the historical figure (and heroine) of Island of the Swans, Jane Maxwell, rode pigs down the High Street of Edinburgh in 1760, the year King George III ascended the throne and Scotland’s independence as a separate nation was well and truly gone. And it’s been even longer since my husband, my son Jamie—now a father himself—and I rented a house (with a boat)... Read More...

Pin ItWriters are constantly asked the perfectly sensible question: “Where do your ideas come from?” I certainly heard that often enough whenever I speculated aloud that I might do a new novel, That Summer in Cornwall, as a spin-off from an earlier book, A Cottage by the Sea. People would exclaim, “You’re going to do two novels in the same place with some of the same characters? Haven’t you run out of ideas by now?” For me, the notion for... Read More...

Pin ItIn the first novel in the Four Seasons Quartet, That Summer in Cornwall, the typical attire that clothed my characters consisted of blue jeans, cable knit sweaters, and green, rubber Wellington boots. Nothing nearly as glamorous as one of the frothy headpieces Kate Middleton has put on the map. Ah…but in the new book, all that will change! That Autumn in Edinburgh involves the world of design, and those in that world tend to be snappy dressers, which means... Read More...