INTERVIEW WITH CAIT LONDON’S GREER AISLING

New York Times best-selling author Cait London has written more than 60 novels–historicals, category/series, paranormal, and now romantic suspense. She lives in the Midwest, where she raised her three daughters. Cait agreed to allow me to interview one of her characters.

Greer Aisling is a famous psychic who has aided authorities all over the world. She is also the mother of the psychic triplets in Cait’s recent trilogy that includes At the Edge, A Stranger’s Touch, and For Her Eyes Only.

SUSAN: Greer, thank you for agreeing to talk to me today. I know your time is in great demand. Cait’s books are about your daughters, who’ve inherited your powers in different ways. Would you tell us a little about how these powers came down to you and your daughters?

GREER: Sometimes I wish they hadn’t, for my daughters’ sake. My mother tried to stop her psychic gifts and mine, at an early age. We’re descended from Aisling, a Celt seer. I took her name, when I began working as a professional psychic. We resemble her, red hair, fair skin. But each of my daughters has a different gift. I knew from the moment we conceived (my husband and I) that they would be very special. I protected them for as long as I could, but when my husband died, I had to bring in an income and began working as a psychic. I began working with the police and wrote several books. My daughter, Tempest, displays more of the Viking tendencies inherited from the chieftain who captured Aisling, and whom she loved. As yet, not one of us has demonstrated communication with the dead, except with Aisling. Since she’s in our blood, I guess a part of her still lives on. I talk with her sometimes. It helps.

SUSAN: At the Edge is the first book in the series and tells Claire’s story. Although the girls are triplets, she’s the youngest. You’ve described her as the most vulnerable. Why is that?

GREER: Claire is a very receptive empath. She senses the emotions, needs and physical pain of others around her. I’ve known she needed special care since birth. Tempest, the middle-born was easier to protect because her gift lies in her hands, in touching an object, or a person. I used to order tons of gloves for her, then cleansed them before she could go anywhere outside our home, which I had also cleansed. Leona, the last born, is a precog—a precognitive, and hates anything to do with psychic ability. She denies her gifts, but someday, she’ll have to reckon with them

But back to Claire: The girls were always closely related, but traumatic events in their lives, one just absolutely horrible, drew them even closer, their thoughts linking. As they developed even more, their thoughts mixed too much with each others, and that is why as adults, they live in different parts of the country. Very special environments, away from water, which can transmit psychic impulses, sort of like a telephone connects two ordinary people, if there are such things. (I think everyone has intuitive ability somehow.) Now that they are adults, we can only be together for a short time, the impulses tangling around us are that intense. Plus, Leona dislikes my profession intensely, resenting the times I had to travel—one of which threw my daughters into hell. I wasn’t there to protect them and will never forgive myself. The friction between us is difficult for Claire.

A horrible “event” with others’ terrors, greed, fears hit Claire one day and almost ended her up in a mental hospital, which would have killed her—she’s that receptive. Now she’s a handbag designer in rural Montana. Leona’s shop in Lexington, KY sells them. They’re absolutely beautiful. (Mother bragging a bit. J) Tempest is an artist, too, a sculptor.

SUSAN: You must’ve had difficulties raising three precocious, psychic daughters. Please tell us a little about that.

GREER: Well, I’ve already told you about Tempest’s psychometry. She can hold an object and absorb its past and something of the people who held it. Gloves helped her when she was outside our home. And Leona has never forgiven me for anything that I am, or she is, or some of the events that happened because they were such special children—the press, you know. Very intrusive. So much so that my daughters were home schooled or had special tutors who could cope with them. When I began working heavily with the police, there were dangers of involving my children, so special precautions were taken. My housekeeper and different people always vetted anyone coming into our home. Fortunately, there are schools for psychic children, so the girls could play with others. They needed to assimilate into society. I did the best I could.

Leona had horrible nightmares that popped up at any time. She didn’t want to believe that they were actually her precog gifts. She’d see something while we were driving, someone behind a windshield and she’d dream they’d be in a horrible accident. The newspapers usually proved her “dreams” to be true.

Tempest, always a rebel, hated wearing gloves as a child. She took them off to play at a friend’s house and unfortunately the toy had been held by a pedophile.

Then because they were beginning to communicate mentally, that horror rippled to the others and set off a round of nightmares for Leona and horrible, shocking scenes for Claire. I rushed them home, but it took days of recovery.  

SUSAN: How are your daughters’ powers different from yours? And have you guided them or have you eased back and given them full rein?

GREER: First, none of us are mediums for the dead, though Aisling gives us images from her life. I am able to glimpse what happened in a room, a place, to the person, just before they died. Sometimes I can hold their possession and follow a link; it all works differently. I have minor abilities in other areas, some precog, and actually the daughter who has the most potential is Leona, the one most like me. She’s fiercely protective of her sisters, and potentially the strongest, if she opens to her gift. She hates and denies it. But someday. . . .

Yes, I worked with my daughters, and they also had tutors. Control of a psychic gift is essential and children have much to learn, blocking to protect themselves, for example. It’s a mental exercise and essential. It’s basically slamming the door on abilities that want to push through and overwhelm. Full rein isn’t an option, not with children.

I’m so sorry that Claire was vulnerable this last time. She’d been doing so well.

SUSAN: I’ve read At the Edge and liked the book very much. Loved Claire, so vulnerable at the start and strong by the end. But there’s an overarching plot that moves through all three books, challenges and dangers to the lives of your daughters.

GREER: Yes, the trilogy has a story arc, which is a huge gamble for a writer. If any one of the books meets disfavor, it could lessen interest in the others. Again, very big gamble for a writer. This trilogy, the storylines, individual and the threads were all laid out at once.

But each daughter has her own gift, her own story, her own love. Unfortunately, danger is always near and begins to activate in the first book. The threads of their past, Aisling’s gift to them, their relationships, the problems flow all through the 3 stories, and the dynamics change. Each sister, and myself, move in and out of the others’ stories, and frankly, the danger around my daughters is terrifying and very, very strong. I think Leona can handle it. I pray that she can.

If anything happens to any one of my daughters, they will weaken. I will weaken and perhaps this very strong danger can bring us all down. I’m working very hard to determine just what it is, and how I can stop it.

If only Leona didn’t feel so badly about her gift, about me. Again, my three daughters, and myself are so closely melded, that if anything happens, not only death but loss of mental capabilities, we are all in extreme danger.

SUSAN:  What in your opinion is the hardest part of having your extra senses?

GREER: It’s different for each one of us. An overload, such as what happened to Claire, can ripple through and upset the others. “Upset” isn’t correct; it could devastate them. Once one is weaker, concerned about the other sisters, causes a vulnerability where that gift could take over and send them into mental oblivion. To sense what a loved one feels, their horror and body pain is probably the worst part—aside from the horror anyone of them could experience from their individual gift.

SUSAN:  If you could invite three people to dinner (real, fictional, living or dead), who would they be? What would you serve and why and what would you want to discuss over coffee?

GREER: Oh, definitely Aisling and her Viking chieftain. I’d love to see her sitting at our table with my daughters, and Thorgood. Who wouldn’t want a Viking chieftain, in the flesh, sitting with his love, Aisling. And he thought he could make her his slave. Poor guy. What lessons he must have had to learn in their marriage.

SUSAN: Thanks so much for your insightful and intimate answers, Greer. And thank you to Cait for bringing you today.

GREER: Thank you, Susan. I enjoyed talking about my daughters. And I’m so glad you enjoyed AT THE EDGE. I hope you also enjoy, Tempest in A STRANGER’S TOUCH and FOR HER EYES ONLY, Leona’s story.

Friends, I know you enjoyed Greer’s chat today. I certainly did and I loved Claire’s book so much that I’m off in search of the other two sisters’ books. Readers can find out more at http://www.caitlondon.com/triplets/triplets.html. You can read an interview with Claire at http://caitlondon.blogspot.com/2008/04/claire-of-at-edge-cait-londons-psychic.html  and what the daughters posted about self-tanning at http://caitlondon.blogspot.com/2008/05/triplets-discuss-self-tanning.html. Cait London’s blog, http://caitlondon.blogspot.com, also discusses writing.

Thanks for visiting and come back next month for another interview.