A Warm Welcome to Jane Toombs!

1. What is Sweet Hawk of Love about?

The hero, Coleman, is a man who doesn’t think he’s interested in commitment. He grows and changes as he comes to appreciate the heroine’s qualities.

The heroine, Aldis, is a woman burned by a bad marriage , now ended, and doesn’t want any part of a love relationship. She has a younger sister she believes is far more attractive and vital than she is.

The title refers to her pottery creations, which feature birds in cages.

She’s raising her dead husband’s much younger sister, Moya, in her huge old family home on the west bank of the Hudson Rive in upstate New York.

The theme of the story is how love can free you and change your concepts of life. At the end of the book, the heroine has discovered how she’s superimposed her own beliefs onto the child she’s raising and , like the pottery hawk she’s able to create at the end of the story, allow the girl to fly free, just as she, herself, is able to accept love.

2. Could you give me a short sample passage?

Moya is the young girl Aldis is raising. She was supposed to go back to boarding school, but instead turned up missing, Aldis and Coleman have been looking all over for her when they finally decide to go the local cadet academy in the town:

A graying man in an Army officer's uniform approached them. "I'm Captain Scarborough," he said. "Can I be of help?"

Aldis told him what had happened, showing him the picture of Moya she carried in her wallet, and described the clothes she'd been wearing.

"No, I haven't seen her. Let me ask our cadet officer of the day." He turned to the mess hall. "Lieutenant McCoy!"

A young cadet sprang to his feet, marched up the aisle between the tables, halted in front of the captain and saluted. "Yes, sir."

The young lieutenant frowned when Aldis showed him the picture. He hesitated and finally nodded. "I did see a girl who looked something like this."

Thank God. If only it was Moya.

"At around thirteen hundred hours," the young lieutenant went on. "I didn't think anything of it because our cadets are returning from spring vacation today. A lot of them come with their families and I thought she was somebody's sister."

"If necessary," Captain Scarborough said, "we'll search the grounds. I'll have the entire corps of cadets fall out in barracks square and assign each company an area to patrol." The captain seemed eager to send his cadets into action.

"That might not be necessary," Aldis said as an idea took hold . "Can we look in the stable area first?"

"The stables?" The captain looked surprised.

"She loves horses," Coleman put in.

The captain nodded. "A lot of our cadets do, girls especially. As a matter of fact, I suspect that's why some of them come to the academy in the first place."

Aldis mentally urged them to stop talking and get moving. Why hadn't she followed up after Coleman had told her about talking with Moya about horses? That had to be her reason for asking to transfer to Stanton. If only I'd paid more attention instead of jumping to conclusions.

"I'll be glad to show you the stable," the captain told them.

After dismissing Lt. McCoy, he led them down a road past the faculty houses and across a field dotted with equestrian jumps, some hedges and other bars laid between low uprights.

"For cavalry training," Captain Scarborough said.

The stables, an old, long, low building, was at the far side of the field. Inside the odors of horses and hay, a nostalgic smell that reminded Aldis of the time, at thirteen, when she'd begged her parents to buy her a pony. How could she have forgotten?

The captain turned on a row of four unshielded overhead lights. As they walked from one end of the stable to the other, horses whuffled and stamped their feet in their stalls. Otherwise, the stable appeared empty.

Noticing a door at the far end, Aldis asked, "Does that lead to more
stalls?"

"No, it's our tack room."

She opened the door and looked into a shadowed room redolent with the odor of leather. She saw bales of hay piled along one wall and, curled up on top of them, a dark figure.

"Moya?"

The figure rose from the makeshift bed. Aldis saw it was Moya. Aldis held out her arms and Moya ran to her.

"Oh, Aldis, I'm so glad you came." Moya hugged her so hard it hurt. "I don't want to stay here, I want to go home. Please take me home."

On the drive to the Gorman house, Moya sat in the back to the small car. Aldis, half-turned in her front seat kept an eye on her.

"I thought I'd like the academy," Moya said, leaning toward her, "but I didn't. I was there all day wandering around and all I really liked was the horses. They were fab. But somebody's always telling the cadets what to do. The older cadets give orders to the younger ones, the cadet officers give orders to the older ones, Then the instructors give orders to the officers.
It's as bad as--" she put her hand over her mouth.

"As bad as I am?" Aldis asked. "It's all right, you can say it. Now I can see I wasn't listening to you. Because I was too busy trying to make sure you had the chance I missed."

"I know you want to help me." Moya wiped the tears from her face. "That's why it was so hard for me to come right out and say anything. And maybe painting's what I want to do. I'm not sure. There are so many things I could do, so many possibilities. I might want to paint or be a vet or direct films."

3. Who do you consider your writing influences?

Mostly my father, who was a published non-fiction author who encouraged me to write stories as a child and would always say something good about my work before pointing out ways I could improve it.

I was also an eclectic reader from childhood on--didn‘t matter what it was, I read it. I was published before I joined RWA, but they’ve been a wonderful resource for meeting other authors and making friends. But I’ve made friends on the lists as well.

4. Where are you from?

I was born in California, but my mother brought me home to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula when I was nine months old and I grew up there. Though I’ve lived in several areas of California, in Upstate New York, Northern Nevada and Florida, the Viking and I have come back to live where we grew up--in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula wilderness.

5. How experienced are you as an author?

My first book, a gothic titled Tule Witch, was published by Avon in 1973. In those days all gothics had no more than a kiss or two. How the world has changed. I’ve been writing ever, since so I have quite a few published books. My web site is: www.JaneToombs.com for anyone curious.

6. Is there anything else about you that you'd like readers to know?

With a writer friend of mine, Janet Lane Walters, we published Becoming Your Own Critique Partner, a book for helping aspiring authors. We tried to include what we wished we’d known when we first starting writing, but had to learn the hard way.

7. If I lived in an enormous mansion where you were welcome to stay, what would you prefer your guestroom to be like?

Since we live across the road from the south shore of Lake Superior, I’d need windows in my room with a view of a lake, an ocean, distant mountains--something that changed with the seasons. A garden outside would also be necessary, one birds and butterflies would want to visit. And because I’m no longer young, I’d want a comfortable couch and a chair such as a La-Z-Boy that adjusts. I‘m a writer, I’d need the latest in computers, printers and the like, with wireless access. Something that would play music as well, with my choice of what I like to listen to. I read more than I watch TV, but if I had a good ereader, I would not need an array of print books, since I could download what I wished to read. I’d like the room to be a suite, with the bedroom separate from what would be the writing and living room. I assume a cook is on the premises, one that is appraised of individual allergies or dislikes. One more addition. Since I can’t live without the Viking he’d have to share the suite with me--so add another adjustable chair and a TV to the bedroom so he can watch and not disturb my writing. A private bath with tub and shower is assumed. All this sounds so good, I wish I was there!