Rowena is a Fantastic Escape

The last book in the Land's End Trilogy is now out and all I can say is, I hope Melodie Campbell takes us back through the wall in the future. I also wish I asked her that question when I interviewed her last week.


What inspired you to create Rowena and Land's  End?

I needed escape.  Oh Lordy, did I need escape.  My mother had been admitted 38 times to hospital, dying.  I sat at her side for seven weeks, as the news got worse and worse.  At one point I looked up at the wall in her room and thought, if I could walk through that wall into another world right now, I would.  That night I started writing Rowena Through the Wall. 

I wrote the wildest fantasy I could imagine!  A world where emotions where heightened, and the adventure was rollicking.  Complete escape from our world where I had to be stoic.

And that's what I hope to offer readers.  A complete escape for a few hours, into a book and world that is dangerous, fun and sexy. 

How much is Rowena like yourself?

She is what I would like to be.  Okay, maybe a little more than that!  In all the crises that Rowena faces, I tried to think of how I would react.  Rowena is a survivor.  She is smart and savvy.  She's a modern girl thrown into a medieval world, and is doing her best to survive.  She is faced with difficult decisions - I don't make it easy on her.  None of this acting coy and somehow talking your way out of things - that's not realistic.  It's not how it would have been.  Yes, this is fantasy, but I've tried to make things as realistic as possible, when it comes to male-female relationships.  And so Rowena is forced into difficult situations where she must choose between paths for her own fate and survival.

Which of your many sexy heroes is the closest to your ideal guy?

At first I thought Thane.  He is, after all, an intellectual as well as the newly crowned King.  But then I realized his character wouldn't allow him to act without reason.  If faced with a choice between logic and passion, he would choose logic, or regret it in the end.  (As he does, in the beginning of book 2.)

My ideal man would put his passion for me before anything.  Not only that, he wouldn't regret it.  Instead, he would celebrate it. When faced with a fight, he wouldn't walk away.  No, he would face it firmly, and maybe even relish it a little.  It took me three books to realize this and find him, but that man is Lars.

Rowena and the Viking Warlord

With her loved ones in peril, Rowena casts a spell to move back time to save them, unaware of the consequences. As Cedric fights battles down south, she unwittingly rides into an enemy war camp and is taken prisoner by her old friend Lars, who is not what he seems.

“A heart-pounding thrill-ride full of adventure, lust and magic. Once again, Campbell has spun words into gold.” —Brenda Dyer, award-winning author of Love's Prophecy

“Edgy, sexy and fast. Leaves you breathless with laughter and craving more.” —Sheri Fredricks, award-winning author of Remedy Maker

"Is that a broadsword on your belt, or are you just glad to see me?"

When Rowena falls through her classroom wall and lands in an alternate world, she doesn’t count on being kidnapped―not once, but twice―and the stakes get higher as the men get hotter.

Now on sale for 99 cents.

Billed as Canada’s “Queen of Comedy" by the Toronto Sun (Jan. 5, 2014), Melodie Campbell achieved a personal best when Library Digest compared her to Janet Evanovich.

Winner of nine awards, including the 2014 Derringer (US) and the 2014 Arthur Ellis (Canada) for The Goddaughter’s Revenge (Orca Books), Melodie has over 200 publications, including 100 comedy credits, 40 short stories, and seven novels.

Melodie got her start writing stand-up. In 1999, she opened the Canadian Humour Conference. These days, she is the Executive Director of Crime Writers of Canada.