The Inspiration Behind My Highland Christmas Tales and the Fae Characters Who Steal My Heart
Both of my Highland Christmas romances were born from one shared spark: tradition. The rituals we inherit, the ones we cling to, and the ones we rebuild when life refuses to go the way we planned.
Thistle in the Mistletoe grew from two quiet side characters in Stone of Love, book 1 Stones of Iona Series—Roderick MacDougall and Mary Comyn—whose gentle connection lingered with me long after the book ended. I kept imagining their winter in the Highlands: candlelit feasts, clan customs, and the small comforts that turn into anchors during hard times. Their morning carrot-cake ritual became the emotional heart of their love story. One simple tradition carried their entire arc. That was the true inspiration—heritage preserved through love.
Highlander’s Holly & Ivy came from a different spark altogether: a tiny wedding announcement buried in an old Scottish newspaper about a Highland solicitor marrying an “English rose.” That single line in history shaped Alex MacDougall and Iris Erskine’s story, set in the uncertain years after Culloden. Their romance became a tale of choosing which traditions to keep, which to let go, and which new ones to create together. The holly and the ivy—evergreen and resilient—became the perfect metaphor. This book asked: how do traditions survive when the world is changing? And their love answered it.
While the inspiration for these Christmas books may have started with Highland heritage, I can never resist weaving in the Fae—because they are, without question, my greatest creative outlet.
I adore writing my Fae creatures. They’re playful, mischievous, emotionally intense, and deeply magical. The good ones have hearts full of wonder; the evil ones are delightfully devilish. And best of all, I get to drop them into impossible odds and watch them claw, glide, scheme, or charm their way out in astounding ways. They surprise me every time. They challenge me. They are the wildest, truest expression of my imagination.
Whether it’s a candlelit Highland Christmas or a tale of Fae magic woven through winter, these stories come from the same place: the belief that love, in all its forms, is the tradition that endures.