Usually, the names of my characters simply come to me, along with their physical characteristics. I always know how they look, because long before I have any idea of the plot, I visualize at least one scene with the main characters. It may be the first scene, or it may one that happens later in…
Author: Mary Gillgannon
Mary Gillgannon began writing historical romance soon after she discovered the genre. She loves how these stories allow her to portray the excitement and high stakes of past eras, yet focus on relationships and create a happy ending. She has written seventeen novels, including romances set in the dark age, medieval and Regency time periods, time travel and historical fantasy. Her books have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Dutch and German. She has worked at the Laramie County Library for over twenty-fire years and acquires adult fiction as part of her job.
Fate and the Crooked Pathway
I recently had a dream about the boss who fired me. I remember being pleased to see him (in real life he’s been dead for nearly ten years) and wanting to thank him for firing me. Because it ended up being the best thing that could have happened to me. If he hadn’t fired me…
Getting faster all the time… Not!
I’ve been writing fiction for almost 25 years. You would think in all that time it would get easier and the writing would go faster. But this is how it really is: I begin my book. Three lines in, I start to agonize. Am I starting in the right place? Is this a dramatic enough…
Fifty Shades of Self-Doubt
As I was reading Jeff Seymour’s recent blog (https://rmfw.org/my-names-jeff-and-im-a-failure-by-jeff-seymour), I was struck by the thought that for a writer, there are all kinds of ways for demoralization and discouragement to find their way in and poison your life. Jeff describes his sense of failure in terms of sales and income, in other words, his writing…
My Secret Battle With Writer’s Block
For the first twenty years I wrote fiction, I didn’t understand when people spoke of “writer’s block”. Of course there were times when I got stuck, and it took me a day or two to figure out where to go with a story. But usually, when I sat down to write, the words flowed. It…