The Memory of Roses

1-Tell the readers a little about yourself. 

I’m a retired university professor. live on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada, and I spend my winters on a small Dutch island in the Caribbean. I run a B&B in the former each summer. In the winter, I swim and read and write.

2-As an author, do you take time to read? If so, what do you like to read and who is/are your favorite author/s?

 I read every day. Generally at bedtime. I love Donna Leon’s series of books placed in Venice, featuring an Italian detective named Brunetti. I feel that I know the people in her books as well as my family and friends. She makes Venice come alive to her readers. And l love the books of Michael Dibdin and Andrea Camilleri. The latter two are detective story writers whose books are placed in Italy.

I also read every Nora Roberts.

 3-How do you stay motivated when the Muse is uncooperative? 

I’m not convinced there is a muse. I just keep plugging away. I think it’s mostly work ethic. I’m not happy unless I’m working, and my favorite work is writing. 

4-If you could go anywhere in the world on a romantic getaway, what would you do and where would you go?

 I am happiest at sea. I think a fairly large sailboat, with a crew to take care of the actual sailing and a cook in the galley, many days out of sight of land would be my destination of choice. My idea of a romantic getaway. I’d want my sailboat to follow the trade winds so we’d be in a warm climate all the way, from—perhaps Lisbon, to Barbados.

5-What is the hardest thing for you to write?

The first sentence of any book.

6-If you could live the life of one of your characters who would you be?

I love Ian McQuaid in The Memory of Roses. I’m not sure I’d want to live his life. It wasn’t a happy one. But he, more than any of my other characters, knew the value of true love. His story touched me in a way no other of my characters has.

I guess I don’t really want to be any of them though. I like being me.

7-The tag line on my blog is ‘Indulge Your Inner Romantic.’ What do you do to indulge? 

Travel. I love to travel. I’m a travel junkie. Greece, Italy, France. The Caribbean Islands. Australia. I love being in places where the people have different perspectives, where the food is more interesting, where the wine flows. 

Blair McDowell wrote her first short story when she was eleven and hasn’t stopped writing

since. After many years producing non-fiction professional books in her field, Blair decided to

exercise her rich imagination and write novels of mystery and romance set in places she knows and loves, peopled with characters drawn from her experiences in those locales.

One of her favorite places in the world is Greece, the setting for ‘The Memory of Roses’, Blair McDowell’s latest novel. While in Greece Blair was inspired by the ancient culture, friendly people and the picturesque settings, and the plot for the ‘Memory of Roses’ was born.

Blair has a home on a remote island in the Caribbean where the local lore of the ‘Jumbie’ (‘the dead who walk’) formed the basis for her novel of that name.

The setting for Blair McDowell’s book, ‘Sonata’, is the spectacular city of Vancouver with its

vibrant multicultural population and its rich musical life. In ‘Sonata’, Blair McDowell’s love of

music comes into play, and is intricately woven into this story of mystery and romance.

Blair is a member of the Romance Writers of America, Romance Writers of America (Greater

Vancouver Chapter), and the Romance Writers of America (Women's Fiction).

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