Interview Tricia McGill

by

Barbara Edwards

1.                  Since I don’t know the name of your book, as yet, would you please tell us the genre?

Autumn Fire is a contemporary romance  (Encore L’ Amour line)

2.                  Would you like to give us teaser of your story?

Tess Barrett has been recently widowed. Her world is turned upside down when a man she spent many hours fantasizing about, when he worked for her bully of a husband, comes back into her life. Tess thinks she is plain and ordinary and cannot for the life of her see what Jack Donovan sees in her. After all, he is successful, handsome and fifteen years her junior.

3.                  What is the driving force behind your desire to write?

I really have no idea. I just love to tell stories and really feel good when someone tells me how much they enjoyed reading one of them. Writing is one of the most satisfying of occupations. Where else can you weave fact with fiction, make things up as you go along?

4.                  How have events in your life colored your prose?

Everything that happens to us, no matter how trivial it might seem at the time, is stowed up there in that magnificent storage place in our brain. Even if we do it subconsciously the most mundane event must have an effect on the way we view life and therefore on what ends up on the page.

5.                  Do you create your characters, or do they simply evolve with the story?

I start with a basic idea, but nine times out of ten the characters take over and I have very little say in the matter. I just give them their name, and some idea of where I want them to go and then let them have their head. In Autumn Fire all I started with was a man who was a lot younger than the heroine. And I knew Tess didn’t have a lot of self-esteem.

6.                  Do you outline your characters? And if so, do you do it before or after they "come on the scene" in your story?

When I first began writing I wrote pages and pages of their likes and dislikes, even what they did when they were children, and what food they liked, etc. But not any more. I gave that up when I realised my characters ended up nothing like the originals I’d mapped out. I usually jot down their hair and eye color, their ages and a few other details, but then add to the list as I find out what they are like. It’s more fun that way.

7.                  Do you outline your plot or does it develop as you write?

I do a rough outline, but that, like the characters, has a way of turning out different to the original plot. I nearly always know how the story will end and a pretty good idea of the journey there, but so many incidents happen I hadn’t anticipated that I don’t bother with a detailed outline anymore.

8.                  With what authors, if any, do you dream of being mentioned in the same breath by an avid reader?

Because I am first and foremost a romance author I would be honored to be mentioned along with LaVyrle Spencer or Johanna Lindsey.

9.                  Do you have other works published?

Autumn Fire is my eighth published book, and my fourth with Wings.

10.              Do you have other stories/manuscripts in the works, or finished and waiting? If so, tell us more. If not, what do you think you’d like to tackle next?

I have another contemporary romance, Look Into Your Heart, coming out with Wings on June 1^st this year. I have a historical coming out with my Australian publisher within a few weeks. I’m halfway through a sequel to my time-travel set in Scotland. I’m adapting Amaryllis, my futuristic, to a screenplay. I’ve just finished the first draft of a contemporary with a touch of suspense, which is a totally new exercise for me. I’m about to start compiling and editing another collection of poems and prose from members of the group I do volunteer work for.

11.              If the Blue Fairy showed up with her magic wand, what wish would you ask to transform your art at this point in your writing career?

I would dearly love the funds to start my own production company so I could adapt all my books to screenplays.

12.              What brought you to Wings?

I’d already been fortunate enough to work with Lorraine Stephens at another publishing house and when I heard she’d started Wings ePress I hurried on over there and submitted a query. And never looked back.

Thanks for introducing yourself. Hope to see much more of you in print.