Interview: Mary Margret Daughtridge, author of the SEALed series

I am pleased to have Mary Margret Daughtridge here today, whose book, SEALed With A Ring, I just reviewed. It is the third in her romantic series about SEALs. Welcome, Mary Margret!

Who would you cast in a movie of SEALed With a Ring?

Funny you should ask. The other night as I watched some made for TV thing, I thought, “SEALed with a Ring” would make a good movie. “Cast the movie” isn’t a game I’m very good at though. Maybe we can ask your readers for help.
Who’s a hunk with absolutely perfect features—the kind of masculine beauty that even straight men, as well as women, can’t ignore? All I could think of was a young George Clooney.

I like these two pictures because they show both how gorgeous he is and how amused he is by the whole thing. Like “I’m a lady killer and I know it, and isn’t that a hoot?”

The heroine, JJ, is also beautiful, but unlike Davy, it hasn’t made her successful with partners her own age. Between her extraordinary beauty and her executive position, she intimidates the heck out of men who aren’t twenty years older than she is. She’s recognized everywhere she goes because she looks a bit like Ava Gardner. Most of the world might have forgotten the 50’s movie star, but not the people of eastern North Carolina. She was born and raised near Smithfield, NC, and her iconic face decorates the walls of a barbeque chain restaurant.

Of actresses today, the only one I can think of who has the brunette beauty and the aura of personal power needed to portray JJ would be Angelina Jolie.
We also need an actor in his seventies to play JJ’s grandfather. He might be aging but he’s still an alpha male to the core—meaning he believes he has the right, even the duty, to order JJ to get married—since he has decided marriage would be good for her. He doesn’t realize the damage he’s doing to their relationship until too late. Peter Fonda might be a good choice.
Fun to cast would be all the supporting SEAL characters, because they would go on to star in their own sequels.

Why did you decide to write aboue SEALs?

The choice was serendipitous. For my first book, SEALed with a Kiss, I only needed a military man whose job severely limited his ability to care for a small child. (SEALs might be out of the country over 200 days a year.) As I researched SEALs to flesh out his background, I learned what remarkable men they are. I realized that although they usually “star” in action/romantic suspense, they could be excellent alpha heroes in character-driven romances—like I like to write.

Which, if any of your characters, are autobiographical, or based on someone you know?

I’m always flattered to be asked this question because it means my characters seemed very real, but I have to say all my characters are fictional. Any resemblance to anyone, living or dead, is unintentional.
Every writer draws on her experience to create characters, but the process for me is entirely unconscious. I have no idea where the bits and pieces that weave together to make up my stories come from. Indeed the only person I can say for sure that they are based on is me, since they are products of my imagination.
Several friends who are executives with privately owned businesses, including one who owns a car dealership, gave me the kind of insider knowledge that would make JJ believable. They are all intelligent, generous, dynamic, forceful women who know how to focus on their objectives, and who feel deeply their responsibility to their employees and their communities. Not one of them “is” JJ, but she’d be welcome, and she’d fit right in when we have our “Ladies’ night out.”

What's a song that always makes you want to dance?

Any waltz. As part of my research for SEALed with a Ring, I took ballroom dance lessons. I learned to waltz and it’s just as wonderful as historical romance writers make it sound.

If you could be in or on any tv show, what would it be?

Ghost Hunters. I believe in ghosts—I’ve seen a few—but I don’t believe everything I see on TV. I’d like to know if any of the show is “reality” or if all the evidence is really manufactured.
I think paranormal investigation would be a lot of fun, in fact I think it would be such fun, I’ve tucked a ghost hunting subplot into my next SEALed book. It will be out this time next year.

Thanks to Mary Marget for stopping by today!