Interview with Rachel McMillan #2

About the Author

Rachel McMillan is a keen history enthusiast and a lifelong bibliophile. When not writing or reading, she can most often be found drinking tea and watching British miniseries. Rachel lives in bustling Toronto, where she works in educational publishing and pursues her passion for art, literature, music, and theater.

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The Interview

Fun Questions

​1. What is your favorite dessert?
Carrot cake 

2. What is your favorite beverage?
Americano from Starbucks (although when in Vienna, I love the Einspanner coffee that Klaus and Evelyn are fond of in Love in Three Quarter)


3. What is your favorite movie and/or TV show?
Movie: Master and Commander
TV: Foyle's War, Endeavour

4. Where is your favorite place to go on holiday?
I really do love to travel to Europe  and try to go once a year somewhere over there.But I also love traveling 2 hours north of where I live in Toronto and visiting my parents and watching BBC miniseries with them.  As far as American cities, my favourite is Boston ( the setting of my newest historical mystery series)

Author Questions

1. What did you want to be when you grew up?  Did becoming an author ever cross your mind?
I knew I wanted to work in books and publishing.  And I do both. My day job is in Educational publishing and I write on the side.  I always was writing and reading. 

2. What authors do you enjoy? Do these authors inspire your own writing?
I have so many favourite authors in so many genres.  Charles Dickens, Lynn Austin, Deanna Raybourn, Rhys Bowen, Martha Grimes .... every good book inspires me to think long and hard about why I loved the experience so much and that informs how I approach my own work.    I especially love character driven pieces.

3. What top 5 books are currently sitting on your TBR pile?
1)Fawkes by Nadine Brandes; 2)Where the Fire Falls by Karen Barnett; 3)The Knowledge by Martha Grimes; 4)The Limelight by Emily Organ; 5)A Note Yet Unsung by Tamara Alexander 

4. When you are not writing, what other "hats" do you wear?
I work for Canada's largest Educational Publishing company.  I am aunt to two adorable little nieces.   

Book Related Questions

​1. What inspired the idea for Love in Three Quarter Time?
When I was 11 I read Vienna Prelude by Bodie Thoene for the first time (I have read it once a year since) While I fell in love with the hero and heroine and story, I truly fell in love with the city. Vienna became my dream city.  Since then, I have spent quite a bit of time there on vacations and have been fascinated by its history, its coffee culture, and its music. Books can have such a profound influence on our imagination and I knew I always wanted to write about Vienna in some way.   My birthday falls on Valentine's Day every year and as a single woman it can often be tough to deal with some of the (well-intentioned) jokes about getting older alone on the most romantic day of the year. So, I decided to reclaim it and explore a story that is all about the romance we can find beyond relationships: in new cities, in coffee, in music and experience and books --- that is the heart of Love in Three Quarter. And this year my birthday is a book release! how fun is that! 

2. What do you want readers to take away from reading Love in Three Quarter Time?
That romance is more than what is experienced in the traditional sense and that it can be found in many shapes and forms.  That there is a virtue in gentlemanly manners (the customs of the Viennese ) that I think our society could use a little more of.  To encourage women to recognize that they should wait until they find someone who values and treasures them and treats them the way they should be treated. 
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3. What is your current WIP? What can you tell us about this project?
I am currently writing the second Van Buren and DeLuca mystery for Harper Collins.  It is tentatively called Murder in the Court of Miracles and is set in 1930s Boston with a noirish tint.  This series is an historical mystery with massive dollops of romance on top.     I am also working on the second novella in my Vienna trilogy ( following Love in Three Quarter Time) called "Rose in Three Quarter Time."  While Love in Three Quarter Time takes us into the world of the Opera Ball and waltzing, Rose's story is in the beautiful concert halls and features a love story between a conductor and a first violinist. 

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