Author Margaret Izard
Margaret Izard is an award-winning author of historical fantasy and paranormal romance novels. Her latest awards are the 2024 Reader’s Favorite Honorable Mention for Stone of Love and the 2024 Spring BookFest Silver Award for the same title. She spent her early years through college to adulthood dedicated to dance, theatre, and performing. Over the years, she developed a love for great storytelling in different mediums. She does not waste a good story, be it movement, the spoken, or the written word. She discovered historical romance novels in middle school, which combined her desire for romance, drama, and fantasy. She writes exciting plot lines, steamy love scenes and always falls for a strong male with a soft heart. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and adult triplets.
This is Author Margaret Izard’s writing and publication journey in her own words…
With a lifelong background in performing arts, my main study is dance since age three, yet I started acting at nine and other performance arts into my adulthood. I’ve told stories my whole life, be it dancing or acting but I’ve wanted to write for so long. It wasn’t until I finished tutoring my triplets through college that I finally put my foot down and said, “This is it!” Once my family overcame their shock, I wrote my first book, then another, and another. I started writing full time five years ago and landed my publisher two years ago. With seven books under contract, I head into pushing through the last two completing my first series, Stones of Iona by the end of 2025.
My performance background is my greatest asset to my writing. The techniques I’ve learned are how I work through each story. From scene to scene, I run the overall story arc in my head like a movie or a play. I’m the director/choreographer, and the characters are my actors/dancers. I run scenes differently to produce the outcome I want/need to push the story forward. The dance training has had a significant impact on writing scenes that involve body movement. Merging physical details with emotion is a particular favorite of mine.
I lean into classics due to all the ballets I’ve studied or performed. Yet I also like modern dance, which places a twist on some of the norms. These experiences drive the types of stories I want to tell. They are something based on the classics with a twist.
Izard’s inspiration to start writing and how she manages to successfully combine historical fiction with imaginative fantasy and romance seemlessly…Â
I’ve always wanted to write but never had confidence. I’d write a short story, then trash it over and over. I read great stories and love them. I read others that didn’t resonate with me and think on how to improve them. Over time, the desire to write grew until I had to pursue the craft.
Fantasy is the power or process of creating incredibly unrealistic or improbable mental images in response to psychological needs. Fantasy is a need, something that feeds the soul. For me, it isn’t a challenge to blend fantasy and romance. Romance, at its heart, is fantasy in reality.
Taking fables and folklore and applying them to real life is the heart of my books. It’s what makes the unbelievable portion of the story real and relatable. True love happens all the time. Love, at first sight, happens more than you think. Finding love in unexpected places is how most romantic relationships start today. These traditional tropes are relatable because they come from our reality. And who’s to say the fantasy aspect isn’t real? Maybe a Fae did come along. You just didn’t see them.
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Challenges as a writer…Â
Being a very creative person all my life is the core of my storytelling talent. I’ve told stories over and over again in many mediums. It’s writing them well that’s been the greatest challenge. I can dance circles around a room, recite Shakespeare from the heart, pantomime scenes dramatically, and paint/draw art but writing is a craft that must be practiced to be perfected. This took time, energy and patience. The writing craft is something I work on with every draft, every book.
One of Izard’s favourite scenes from Book 1 of her “Stones of Iona,” series, “Stone of Love.”
Colin took a minute to study her. She was fair, with petite features and light-brown hair pulled into a loose bun, leaving golden tendrils desperately escaping, caressing her face. He wanted nothing more than to free the bun and run his fingers through the soft brown curls. Her cheekbones were high, with a spot of dirt on one side and a pert nose to match her tart personality. When she was angry a second ago, her eyes had flashed almost green. Now they were a light golden-brown, like a fine whisky.
His gaze traveled over her body. She wore twill pants and hiking boots with a button-down shirt that might have been tan if not for the light layer of gray dust. Under that sat a white tank top with a smudge of dirt on the front near her abundant cleavage. His gaze lingered, then continued to her petite features, set perfectly in her heart-shaped face. She wasn’t what he expected, far from it. Wait, she said her mom was from Glasgow.
“Was?” Colin asked quietly.
Brielle blinked.
He stepped away from the window at her blank stare and approached her. “Was. You said your mother was from Glasgow.”
She blinked again and rubbed the back of her neck, then gave two quick nods and replied, “Yes, she was. She died last year of cancer. My father passed the year before. I have a brother, but we aren’t close.”
He held out his hand, then glanced at it. Brielle stared at his hand, then tentatively placed her hand in his and peered at his face. He smiled as his other hand closed over hers and held it between his own.
Her hand was small and warm. It trembled so slightly he almost didn’t notice. He could detect a callous on a finger. She didn’t mind hard work. Strong yet vulnerable. Brielle.
He spoke honestly, for he understood her loss as much as his own. “I am sorry for their deaths and yer loss.”
Brielle glanced at their hands, then back at him, and smiled, but her head nodded in a tic again. “I am truly sorry over your parents’ loss as well. I wish I could have attended the funeral.”
Colin stood there, holding her hand, the energy flowing through the connection. The earth took a breath and held it, waiting for them. He had never had this reaction to a woman upon first meeting her. His response piqued his curiosity. What else did his ma’s special project have in store for him?
Brielle pulled her hand from his and squared her shoulders. “You called me for an update on the renovation. Shall we go over it?”
Colin traveled past her, sat in his desk chair, and waited as she stood there fidgeting. Ah, the wee builder was nervous. When he held her hand and spoke of her mother, he felt a connection, a loss they shared. She seemed like a bright, confident lass, and when she got angry…the spark in her eye, her sharp tongue. She was attractive in a way Colin found endearing. The businesslike builder covered her charm. He hmphed. Too bad she was an American who might ruin his ma’s special project. He’d hate to ask the Historic Environment Scotland to replace her. She started to grow on him.
She watched him over her shoulder, and he smiled as he waved his hand, inviting her to the chair in front of his desk. He sat back in his chair, hoping to appear relaxed, wanting her to be comfortable.
Brielle cleared her throat as she crossed to the desk, sat upright in the chair, clasped her hands in her lap, and began her report.
“We’ve cleared away the rubble and overgrowth so we can start on the demo of the broken stonework…”
He watched her as she spoke. Her gaze traveled across the room, stopping at the fireplace and staying there momentarily. The couch in front of the fireplace was a favorite spot of his. Maybe she also enjoyed sitting in front of the fire on late nights?
Her gaze shifted back to him, then dropped to her hands. “As you know, your ancestors built the chapel around the thirteenth century as a private chapel for the family. We consider the stonework the most detailed from that era.” He used to sit like this with his da, talk about life with a whisky in hand. He was always on the other side of the desk, nervous—like her. A drink, that’s what she needs, a smooth whisky.
He rose and turned to the table. He didn’t ask, just poured two glasses. The scent wafted to his nose, reminding him of his da. He walked to her. She still spoke, as she fidgeted with her hands. He stood directly in front of her and handed her a glass.
She put her hands up, and he wiggled the drink under her nose, knowing the scent would tease her and make her mouth water in anticipation of that first smooth sip with a nip in it.
“It’s Scotland. We drink all the time, plus it’s my da’s best stock.” He handed her the glass again. As she took it, their hands brushed, and awareness shot up his arm. He tried to appear unaffected as he leaned back against the desk with his arms and legs crossed.
“Slà inte,” he said, leaning toward her and clinking her drink, “which is a toast to health.”
“I know what Slà inte means, thank you.” She raised her glass and spoke. “Slà inte,” she replied. She sipped it and smiled. He half expected her to choke, even though his da’s whisky was the smoothest in Scotland. Still, she was an American unused to uisge beatha, or the “water of life.”
Izard’s works…
You can buy all of my books here: Â https://linktr.ee/mizardauthor
Join my readers group: Â https://www.facebook.com/mizardauthor
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Future works in the pipeline…Â
Yes! I’ve just finished the final edits for Highlander’s Holly and Ivy, my second Christmas companion book which is the sequel to Thistle in the Mistletoe featuring Roderick and Mary’s son, Alex, where a forbidden love between a Highlander and an English lady intertwines with magic, betrayal, and the fate of a nation as they fight to unite their worlds and reclaim Scotland’s legacy. Coming November 2025.
Next in the series: Stone of Faith, book 6. Stone of Destiny, book 7 you can look for in 2025. Evergreen Evermore, the third Christmas companion book will come holidays 2026.
Stones of Iona series leads into another connected series, Dragons of Tantallon, my dragon-shapeshifter’s I introduced in Stone of Love which you can look for in 2026.
One thing that Izard has achieved in her writing career that she’s proud of…Â
One of the first things an editor said to me when I started was, “This isn’t a race, it’s a marathon.”
My greatest achievements aren’t only one, it’s the collective of many in a great voyage. The initial goal was to finish that first book, then it was to complete another and another. After, it was obtaining a publisher to get my stories out. Nowadays it’s the steps I climb in the collective of a journey. Each step adds to the overall completion of the goal of sharing my stories with readers and have them resonate with so many. I have so many more stories to tell, messages to express. The stairs will only end when I stop climbing.
Advice and words of encouragement from Author Margaret Izard for aspiring authors…
Read, read, read. Some of my best ideas came from reading history or another story. Material other than your own fires a creative spark and generates the mind to develop “what if?” and then answer it. Research has given my stories so many gifts that has inspired so much.
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Write. Get your story on the page; even if the draft stinks, write. You can always edit words after. Writing is a practiced technique. Storytelling is a practiced art. They go hand in hand, but to learn how, one must practice.
Don’t do this alone. While writing is solitary, crafting and creating great stories isn’t. Take a class, find a writing group, or join a critique group. Find your tribe and jive with them.
Feedback is a gift. This is the hardest one. Feedback in all its forms, negative, positive, constructive, and coaching, is set to provide the creator with something that helps them improve. Not all the feedback I’ve had is easy to take, but at its core, feedback has something to contribute to my creative process. Use feedback to move your journey forward in becoming a better writer without letting it hold you back. That is where I find the gift of feedback.
