Today, meet my lovely guest, Maggie Mason, also known as Mary Wood. If you like historical novels, this is the author to follow:
Tell
us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Maggie Mason is a pseudonym under which I write my
Blackpool based books for publishers Sphere but I also write under my real name
of Mary Wood for Pan Macmillan. I have many
heads in life besides my author
heads as I have been married to my lovely Roy for 56 years, am a mother,
grandmother and great grandmother. I was born post-second war - one of the
thousands of boom babies and am the thirteenth of fifteen children. We were
poor, as most of the kids I knew were, but we were rich in love. My mother though,
came from a well-to-do family, and her story is one of real life - girl being
banished from the home for getting pregnant. However, she loved my father and
was happy. Reunion with her family did take place, and we learnt such a lot
about her and our ancestors. One in particular, I am very proud of and am
equally so to follow in the footsteps of her great-grandmother, Dora Langlois,
who was an acclaimed author, playwright and actress in the late nineteenth –
early twentieth century. I had a varied career from cleaning pubs to running
them, but it was my late career - my ten years with the Probation Service that
gives my writing its grittiness, as I feel the need to tell it how it is, which
takes my readers on an emotional journey to the heart of issues. Books to-date
number 2 published by Sphere - Maggie Mason books with 2 waiting to be
published by them. 11 published by Pan Macmillan - Mary Wood books with 3
waiting to be published 1 published under a second pseudonym Molly Kent - a
gangland thriller that I self-published on kindle. Would love to find time to
do another of these. 1 that will never see light of day as it was my first
effort. And I have a work in progress, besides four more contracted for Mary
Wood
What
is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
BLACKPOOLS DAUGHTER This
ALSO ON ebook outlets where it is just 99
Why
did you choose to write in your particular field or genre?
What kind of research did you do, and how
long did you spend researching before beginning this book?
Once I have an idea, I start to plan it out, and
research in two ways - as I go, that's if I know a lot already about the area
it is set as with the Blackpool stories. As then I just have to look up
something as it occurs. This might be a film of the day if they are going to
the cinema - or likewise book, if it is relevant. Or what was going on in the
wider world at the time it is set . For any part of a book, or a whole book that
is set in an area I don't know well - either here in UK or abroad, then I have
to visit the place to get the feel of it and find the streets I want to use -
love this kind of research - a holiday on the tax man... whoops, I didn't say
that!
How
do you select the names of your characters?
These I get from old census records, or if I need a
French/German/Polish name for war settings I look these up on line.
How
long did it take you to write this book?
I am a very quick writer and am already a quarter of
the way through writing my third book in 2019 - around six weeks to write first
rough draft, one week to read and polish and that's it.
May I use this space to thank you very much for hosting
me, I really appreciate it, and to say hello to your readers, and to send them
my love. I am doing a giveaway which is a raffle of all the names of those who
leave a comment. The prize is a signed copy of Blackpool Daughter.
https://amzn.to/2Zy0XUj
AUTHOR’S
BIO
Maggie
Mason is a pseudonym of author Mary Wood. Mary began her career by
self-publishing on kindle where many of her sagas reached number one in genre.
She was spotted by Pan Macmillan and to date has written many books for them
under her own name, with more to come. Mary continues to be proud to write for
Pan Macmillan, but is now equally proud and thrilled to take up a second career
with Sphere under the name of Maggie Mason. A Blackpool Lass is her first in a
planned series of standalone books and trilogies set in her hometown of
Blackpool.
Mary
retired from working for the National Probation Service in 2009, when she took
up full time writing, something she'd always dreamed of doing. She follows in
the footsteps of her great-grandmother, Dora Langlois, who was an acclaimed
author, playwright and actress in the late nineteenth - early twentieth
century.
It was
her work with the Probation Service that gives Mary's writing its grittiness,
her need to tell it how it is, which takes her readers on an emotional journey
to the heart of issues.
You can follow Mary at:
https://amzn.to/2KYwICx
Mary Wood @sphere #blackpoolsdaughters #historicalnovels #newrelease #blogtour #novels #blackpool #francinebeaton #romancewriter
Loved this blog, and loved the way Mary's interview and words have come over. Such a true report
ReplyDeleteReally lovely blog.
ReplyDeletelovley blog thank you francine
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed reading this blog, thank you.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your blog Francine!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Francine, a lovely blog. I really appreciate the effort you went to, to get this in place for me, much love, Mary x
ReplyDeleteThank you both Mary and Francine xxxx I love your blog Francine and really enjoyed your chat with Mary 😀 xxxx
ReplyDeleteMary and Francine fascinating interview, very inspiring. x
ReplyDeleteFab blog
ReplyDelete