Blair McDowell , Author

Blair's Latest Thriller
'ROMANTIC ROAD'  is the riveting story of a desperate woman's chase across Europe.




SONATA
Blair's gripping mystery about a concert cellist who comes home only to discover a family bombshell and a puzzling crime.

DELIGHTING IN YOUR COMPANY
is a thrilling tale of a love strong enough to challenge the boundaries of time.

Blair McDowell's beautiful novel spans the love stories of two generations of the McQuaid family.
The Memory of Roses

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Romantic Road

by Blair McDowell

Giveaway ends March 07, 2015.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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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 fiction; novels of mystery and romance set in places she knows and loves, peopled with characters drawn from her experiences in those locales.

In 'Romantic Road', her latest novel due for release on Jan. 28, 2015, Blair takes us on a race along Europe's Romantic Road.  As always, Blair chose the location for her novel after visiting there, and her plot was born.  The characters come alive for her when traveling to the various locales, which is wonderful for her readers because they are transported to places they may never get to visit otherwise.  Her heroine in Romantic Road' is Lacey Telchev whose husband passes away, and leaves her with some cryptic clues that she must follow in order to solve a mystery.  She is soon being chased by some very dangerous people, while being accompanied by the handsome Max, but is he her friend, or just another predator? 

One of her favourite places in the world is Greece, the setting for Blair McDowell's beautiful romance novel,  ‘The Memory of Roses’. 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.  The ‘Memory of Roses’ is rife with mystery and romance, taking readers to the Greek Island of Corfu where a young woman finds her own future while searching for her father's past.  

Blair McDowell 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 paranormal romance novel "Delighting in Your Company".  Always fascinated by the unique legends of the West Indians, it was natural for Blair to incorporate some of these into her writing.  In 'Delighting in Your Company’, the reader is transported to the small island of St. Clement's in the Caribbean, with a romantic heroine who finds herself in the unenviable position of falling in love with a ghost. 

The setting for Blair McDowell’s book, ‘Sonata’, is the spectacular city of Vancouver with its vibrant multicultural population and its rich musical life.  Vancouver is close to her own home on Canada’s West Coast, and an area with which Blair is intimately familiar.  In her romantic mystery novel, ‘Sonata’, Blair McDowell’s love of music comes into play, and is intricately woven into this story of mystery and romance about a beautiful cellist who returns home after many years, only to discover that her high school sweetheart and her own father now find themselves at odds.  She must unravel a mystery and walk a tight line between her love for her father and for her lover.

She is also on Book Club Reading List, so you can contact her through that site as well.
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A Personal Note from Blair about herself and the things she loves:

I travel a lot. I usually spend the month of October in Europe, Greece or Italy, and the winter in a little house I built many years ago on a small non-touristy Caribbean Island. I have worked and studied in many places -- Hungary, Australia the US and Canada, and have lectured in most of the States and Provinces as well as Taiwan and various cities in Europe.  I enjoy being surrounded by cultures other than my own. I enjoy my own as well -- but variety is indeed the spice of my life.

I keep busy -- and I love my life. I love meeting the people who come here to the west coast of Canada and stay in my B&B. I love traveling after the tourist season is over. And I love writing. My interests? Music, especially opera, reading everything in print, and Writing.  And walking on the beach and swimming. At one point I had hoped to swim in every major sea and ocean. I've realized that may not be possible in one lifetime -- but trying has been fun!

I have no memory of a time after the age of six when I wasn’t writing. As a child I wrote stories and long, long letters to friends, to my grandmother, to my cousin in distant South Carolina.  I wrote my first story when I was eight, and it was called “Twins in Double Trouble”.  My teacher was not impressed.  Once I started working I always seem to be the one asked to write the report or send an article to the paper/journal. If there was a job requiring writing, I ended up with it.

But when did I consciously decide to write a book? I was a student in Hungary. The Russian occupation army was still there. It required a special visa for me to get in and out of the country. I was studying at the Liszt Academy of Music and observing some of the best teaching I had ever seen in my life. I simply had to write about it. The result was the first of six professional books I wrote, all still in print.

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) and the Pacific Northwest Writer's Association.

If you are traveling to the West Coast of Canada, be sure to visit the fabulous town of Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast of BC where you will find my lovely Caprice B&B. We can talk about my books!