Love a man with a sexy accent, a good sense of humor, and a surprising wealth of knowledge on sailing? Meet Tristan of A Star To Steer Her By!

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Beth: Tristan, thanks for taking a few minutes of your time in Puerto Rico to chat with me on the phone.

Tristan: I’ll always make time for you, Beth. (said in delightful Scottish burr).

Beth: swoons Thanks, Tristan. So, can you tell the readers a bit about yourself, where you’re from, that sort of thing?

Tristan: Sure. I’m twenty-one years old, and I’m from just outside of Glasgow, Scotland. I’m currently working as a deckhand on a schooner that runs a semester-at-sea program. We’re at various ports-of-call throughout the Caribbean for the next six weeks or so and then we head up the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. to New York.

Beth: Sounds pretty heavenly to be in the Caribbean right now, given the cold weather in New York.

Tristan: Aye, it is.

Beth: What’s it like to work with students who have never been sailing before? Do you get frustrated with them when they don’t know what they’re doing?

Tristan: I love it. I grew up sailing with my parents, and since I learned it as a lad, it’s always been second-nature to me. It gets a wee bit frustrating if students tend the wrong line, or aren’t paying attention, or sit around idle when there’s clearly work to be done, but for the most part, they all take to it really well, and I love watching them learn to love being out at sea. There’s nothing like being in a squall, with the ship flyin’ across the water and the wind tearin’ at your hair.

Beth: I can hear the grin in your voice even through the phone. You’re wishing you were in the middle of a squall right now instead of chilling at a beach bar in Puerto Rico with a mojito in your hand, aren’t you?

Tristan: Nah, it’s nice to take a wee break after a long stretch at sea. And I’m actually just drinking coffee. We just got in to port this morning, and we’re diving this afternoon. Can’t drink before diving.

Beth: I’m jealous of the diving—it’s been too long since I’ve strapped on a tank. I bet the students are looking forward to that.

Tristan: Aye, most are.

Beth: Most?

Tristan: One of the lasses in my watch group, Ari, is pretty terrified. Something happened to her a few months ago, and she hasn’t been back in the water since. I’m going to ask her to buddy up with me on the dive—I’m a Divemaster, so I’ll feel more comfortable if she dives with me than with another student.

Beth: That’s nice of you. Won’t that take away from your own enjoyment of the dive?

Tristan: If I can get her in the water, even for just a few minutes, it’ll be well worth it.

Beth: Sounds like you’re pretty hung up on her.

Tristan: clears throat Red’s one of the students. I’m looking out for her, like I do with the others.

Beth: “Red?” You have a nickname for her?

Tristan: Aye, she has all this long, red hair that reminds me of a sunset— breaks off awkwardly

Beth: Just a student, huh? Come on, spill. You like her, don’t you?

Tristan: She’s a student, and I’m a deckhand. I can’t get involved with her.

Beth: That doesn’t answer the question, Tristan.

Tristan: sighs I feel…a connection to her. She hasn’t been sleeping because she’s been really seasick. She’s been spending as much time as she can out in the fresh air, and since I don’t sleep well either, we keep running into each other up on deck in the middle of the night. We end up talking a lot. I wish she’d tell me what happened to make her so afraid of the water.

Beth: You just coincidentally keep running into her, eh?

Tristan: clears throat again Like I said, I don’t sleep well and neither does she.

Beth: Do you think she’ll get through the dive?

Tristan: She’s so determined to be a great sailor—I saw it on the first day, when she took to the helm like she was born to it. I know she desperately wants to be able to get in the water, and I hope I’m good enough to help guide her through it. I think once she does get back in the water, she’ll…become whole again, you know? Anyway, I have to get going so I can get my dive gear together.

Beth: Thanks, again, Tristan. I hope that Ari can get through the dive—I know she’s in good hands with you.

Tristan: mutters I wish.

Beth: Sorry, I didn’t catch that.

Tristan: I said, thanks. Catch you later, Beth.

Beth: mutters I wish.

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About A Star To Steer Her By

I’m scarred. Broken. I’ll never be the same.

But I will take this journey.

Ever since my last dive ended in bloodshed, I’ve been terrified to go back into the water. But the opportunity to spend a semester at sea is too good to pass up. I need to get my life back.

I never expected to love it this much. And I never expected Tristan MacDougall.

Rugged, strong, and with demons of his own, Tristan helps me find the courage I thought I had lost and heals me with every stolen moment we share. But the rules of the ship mean we can’t be together.

When a dive excursion goes terribly wrong, our only hope for survival is each other.

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Beth Anne Miller’s first book, written in elementary school, was bound in pink fabric and was about—what else?—a girl and her horse. She soon began cheating on horses with the sea, becoming an open water scuba diver at age 14. That love of the sea led her to a college semester aboard a schooner. She returned with fond memories of the exhilaration of being on a ship under full sail, less fond memories of hurling over the leeward rail on a daily basis, and a sailing bug she couldn’t quite shake.

In addition to horses and the sea, she has a fascination for all things Scottish (including, but not limited to, men in kilts), which she explored with her first novel, Into The Scottish Mist (The Wild Rose Press, 2011), and carried into her new novel, A Star To Steer Her By (Entangled Embrace, March 2017). A native New Yorker, Beth Anne works in the publishing industry and is always looking ahead to her next voyage, whether a short one on a dive boat or whale watch, or, with luck, a longer one on a tall ship.

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