Interview of Marilyn Gardiner

by

Sue Thornton

Q: What genre do you write and have you thought about expanding to other genres? If so what?

A: I write in many genres. Over the years, I've published everything from short stories and poetry to juvenile and "old folks" stuff. FLIGHT OF ANGELS is a paranormal romance and is my first published book. Next, in March, will be MY PRETTY LADY, a contemporary romance, the launch title for the new Encore L'Amour line. Then in June comes an adventure/romance, KEEPER OF THE SINGING BONES. Wings is also looking at an historical romance, and I have a romantic suspense ready to send. I'm also beginning the first book in a series (working title: BANJO EYES), so I feel as if my fingers--and heart--have truly taken flight, finally. Talk about dreams coming true.

Q: What is the support system of your family and friends like?

A: I have a strong support system. My husband has always encouraged me to write and my daughters, and now even my grandchildren, are enormously thrilled with the prospect of a real live author in the family. I am beginning to think I have a constitutional aversion to computers, and learning how to operate one is coming hard--and SLOW. My youngest daughter is very helpful, however, and when I get stuck she is always available to come and bail me out. I also have been blessed with a couple of very good critique groups in the past and can't possibly count the ways they've been valuable to me. Fran Priddy (another Wings author) and I are a mutual support system at the present.

Q: Finding time to write can sometimes be difficult, especially around the holiday season. How do you organize your time, or motivate yourself to write for a few minutes each day knowing there are dozens of other things to be accomplished?

A: While my children were still at home, I set the alarm for 5:00 every morning and wrote for two hours before getting everyone else up and off to work/school. Then I'd go to work, with a notebook always in the drawer to record spurts of inspiration. (I was the secretary for a counseling center as is Ellen in MY PRETTY LADY.) Now, there is just my husband and myself, and after him--my writing comes first. It is more difficult carving out time to write when you have children, but we do after all, go where our hearts leads. I go to the office (an extra bedroom) anywhere from 6:00 onward and write until noon. Usually I don't do much actual writing in the afternoon, but do edit the morning's work, and often go to the computer after everyone is in bed at night. I am also a minister's wife and that is a full-time job in itself. I am constantly adjusting, adapting and reorganizing my schedule to fit everything in, but writing is my priority.

Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

A: I wrote my first book when I was eight years old. Today it reads, embarrassingly, much like ANNE OF GREEN GABLES. I've been writing ever since. Can't seem to stop. Once when, discouraged, I threatened to quit, my husband said, "Oh I hope you aren't serious. You're so much easier to live with when you're writing.

Q: Where do you find most of your plot ideas come from?

A: Plot ideas come from experience, from the newspaper, from people I know--everywhere. There aren't enough years left for me to write all the stories I have in my head. I have a voracious appetite for experience. I've crawled around in an unimproved cave, in unrelieved, hideous, blackness, while doing research for KEEPER OF THE SINGING BONES. I rubbed the original brass from which the story for FLIGHT OF ANGELS was drawn. I rode with the police several long nights gathering information for WHEN THE WIND BLOWS, the romantic suspense I mentioned earlier. I traveled the hills and jungle terraine of Jamaica where KEEPER OF THE SINGING BONES takes place. I raised two daughters: hence, MY PRETTY LADY. From every one of these experiences, my bank of knowledge grows and my list of questions balloons. "Why," seems to be my favorite word. That and "what if?" Plus, I've lived a long time. Experience is an invaluable tool to a writer.

Q: Do you outline your complete book before attempting to write, or do you allow your characters to come alive and write through you?

A: I have a general outline both in my head and on paper before I begin a book. That is, I know the beginning and the end and have a vague idea of how I want to get there. But the characters themselves tell me how the story develops. It's is enormously exciting when a character simply pops up on the screen in front of you, and you had no idea that he/she was coming or where he/she came from, or what part they are going to take in the story. Yet they turn out, often, to be the pivotal character in the story. That kind of thing is what draws us writers back again and again to the computer. You feel blessed in some unnamed way, by a presence you didn't even know was there.

Q: What was the most difficult scene--or book--for you to write and why?

A: Death, especially that of a child, is always the most difficult scene for me to write. I struggled, mightily, when the need for this scene first came up, argued against it, didn't want it to happen--and when I could no longer plot around it and admitted there was no other way, I just ground my teeth and did it. Mopping tears the whole way. I hate to write about death. And yet it is an integral part of life and must be dealt with.

Q: Can you tell me a little about your muse, your inspiration?

A: I have no idea what my muse/inspiration is or where it comes from. I just sit down at the computer and ideas begin to flow. I never go to bed at night without a pad and pencil on the table beside me. Sometimes I dream the next scene, one I'd been agonizing over--once I dreamed an entire book. Never wrote that one, however! I have a huge curiosity to know what happens next to people, all people, not just my characters. And why it happens. What the motivation is/was. My grandmother only had a 6th grade education and I can remember, when I was about ten years old, her saying to the family that some day Marilyn was going to write all the books she never could. Maybe my muse is my grandmother. Cousin Kate in FLIGHT OF ANGELS is patterned after her and her Scottish heritage.

Q: How and where do you do or find the research for your books?

A: I think I've already answered part of the question about research. Despite my reluctance and inexpertise in using it--the computer is a wonderful tool for research. As is National Geographic Magazine. Since I love historical writing, I have gathered a rather impressive library of research books on the settling of our American west. I read a lot.

Q: If you could have one wish come true regarding your writing career, what would it be?

A: One wish regarding my writing? I think it's already come true. I'm within weeks of seeing my first published book. It's been a lot of decades coming, and a lot of hard work, but it is truly my fondest wish and dream realized.

Thanks for such interesting questions, Sue. This was great fun. And, good luck with your own career. Lots of nice sales!!!! Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

Marilyn Gardiner