Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
May McGoldrick | Valentine’s Day Recipe Roundup: HIGHLAND SWORD + Giveaway!
Author Guest / February 12, 2020

We’re pleased to present another delicious recipe on our Valentine’s Day Recipe Roundup from the historical romance writing team, May McGoldrick!  *** In Highland Sword, Aidan Grant and Morrigan Drummond are both proud and principled. He is a barrister. She is a trained fighter in search of revenge. They each know their own mind and are certain about what they want. And they end up spending a lot of time together, be it fighting in Inverness alleyways or the training yard at Dalmigavie Castle or duel each other in a battle of wits. But it is during the night of the Samhain celebration that their romance blooms. Many of our readers already know that May McGoldrick is actually two people – Nikoo and Jim McGoldrick. We write together, live together, love endlessly, and enjoy cooking together. In our household, Nikoo loves the everyday and holiday cooking, and Jim is great at baking. In this Highland competition, players are banned from using their hands. This game challenges participants to take bites out of treacle scones dangling from string. How can you lose?! Ingredients: 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 cup white sugar 1/8 teaspoon salt 5 tablespoons…

May McGoldrick | Let’s Interview Each Other!
Author Guest / September 25, 2019

We’re very, very happy that Fresh Fiction has invited us to interview each other. We’re Nikoo and Jim McGoldrick, and you might know us by our writing names, May McGoldrick and Jan Coffey. After forty years of marriage, twenty-five years of writing together, and fifty books, there have been plenty of times when we’ve answered interviewers’ questions–and we even wrote a how-to book on collaboration–but to get personal like this is something totally different. In this interview, we hope to take you behind the closed doors and give you a glimpse of our relationship. . . because that’s the magic that makes the journey possible. Nikoo: Let’s start easy. Coffee or tea? Jim: Too simple. . . and not too magical. Coffee and cappuccino in the morning, tea in the afternoon. And that’s the same with you, too. Nikoo: What movie or series have we watched more than ten times? Jim: Love, Actually. Casablanca. Pride and Prejudice (the BBC series). Persuasion. Jane Eyre (every version). Little Dorrit. The Guard. Waking Ned Devine. Notting Hill. Emma. It Happened One Night. Jim: What’s our go-to movie every Christmas? Nikoo: Love, Actually. Jim: Do you remember how we met? Nikoo: How can I…

May McGoldrick | Five Badass Women in History
Author Guest / May 15, 2019

By May McGoldrick (aka Nikoo and Jim McGoldrick) When we set out to write the Royal Highlander series (Highland Crown, Highland Jewel, Highland Sword), our goal was to weave the lives of three extraordinary women into the fabric of a revolutionary, but largely forgotten series of historical events called the Radical War of 1820. From that mindset, the characters of Isabella, a university-trained physician; Maisie, an early activist for suffrage; and Morrigan, a militant revolutionary, formed in our imagination. Our research directed us to real historical figures of the Georgian and Regency Era who served as models for our heroines. Women like Dorothea Erxleben, physician; Mary Fildes, political activist and an early suffragette; ‘William’ Brown (birth name unknown), an African woman serving in the Royal Navy); and María Antonia Santos Plata, a rebel guerrilla leader in South America. Since Highland Crown deals with a neglected chapter in Scotland’s struggle against the English Crown, we thought we’d cast a little light on five real-life kick-ass heroines from the past. These are rebellious and radical women who would never be talked about, if some people had their way.   Abigail Adams (1744-1818). Her husband might have been the second president of the United States,…