DeborahAnne MacGillivray

DeborahAnne MacGillivray has an excellent working knowledge of the book trade, both as an avid reader for the last three decades and from the angle of owning a bookstore for three years (with 75 percent of its clientele dealing in historical romance fiction). It was a small store, which permitted her to interact with the loyal readers and hear their likes and dislikes about every popular author of the period.

But her true love is Scottish history. She has spent the last 25 years helping her grandfather, a retired historian, sort, restore and rewrite the history of their family in Scotland and England. That is where she came across the basis for her novel Paganheart, set in the year before the rising of William Wallace. She had begun work on those pages for the history of her family in the late 1200s and thought it was a perfect story to make a marvellous novel. Her second novel-in-the-works, Ravenhawke, will lead into a series of books on the saga of Scotland's war for independence. She also is completing a pair of contemporary novels.

She currently resides one-half of the year in Britain, the rest in Kentucky -- a lifelong pattern -- receiving her education on both sides of the Pond, giving her a unique perspective into both countries. She created and ran WISE Writers & Readers at MSN Groups -- the graphic-intense pages are completely her creations -- and has many published writers as members as well as up and coming voices in the field. She also runs three MSN groups for British history: Alba Go Brath, The Picts and History, Lore & the Middle Ages. She does all the web design, creates all the graphics for the sites, which display some of her original essays on Scottish myth, lore and history. She was resident historian at Waxing Poetic for a year and is webmistress for bestselling author Lynsay Sands.

She has a joint company with artist Carmon Deyo called Clan Raven Ltd. She writes tales of Pict-Celt lore or stories from her family, and Carmon takes them and turns them into the most beautiful jewellery in silver and gold. She also produces greeting cards, throw pillows, scarves, totes and silk paintings on them. Their joint effort The Three Faces of the Goddess, a highly original look at the Pict-Celt goddesses, has won awards and impressed Barnes & Noble enough to sponsor a month-long showing in Texas of the works in 2000. They hope someday to compile the works into a book.

She has three cats, Foutchie, Clloydd and Pokie; two horses, Lady Katie and Lasher; loves dancing and collects swords and Barbie Dolls (what a combination).

Stories by DeborahAnne include:

Will Millar & Paul Horn
• Journey of the Celts

Howard Shore
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Jen Black
• The Banners of Alba

Dan Chernenko
• The Scepter of Mercy #1: The Bastard King

Michael D. Coe, editor
• Swords & Hilt Weapons

Maggie Davis
• Winter Serpent

Katherine Deauxville
• The Amethyst Crown
• Blood Red Roses

William Hamilton, et al
• Blind Harry's Wallace

Victor Head
• Hereward

Charlotte Huck
• The Black Bull of Norroway: A Scottish Tale, illustrated by Anita Lobel

Harold F. Hutchison
• Edward II