Thursday, April 25, 2019

Meet my Guest: Maggie Mason

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 was inspired by reading a book by Gillian Mawson 'Guernsey Evacuee's' a real life account of the evacuee's taken from Guernsey during the second world war. It is a fascinating account and set up a story based around that tragic event. My heroine, Corah, is an evacuee from Guernsey who finds herself ill treated and having to cope with much as she desperately seeks to be reunited with her mother. BLACKPOOLS DAUGHTER IS AVAILABLE IN UK AT ASDA AND MORRISONS SUPERMARKET AND ALL GOOD BOOKSTORES 
ALSO ON ebook outlets where it is just 99 https://amzn.to/2Zy0XUj





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

9 comments:

  1. Loved this blog, and loved the way Mary's interview and words have come over. Such a true report

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  2. Really enjoyed reading this blog, thank you.

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  3. Thank 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

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  4. Thank you both Mary and Francine xxxx I love your blog Francine and really enjoyed your chat with Mary 😀 xxxx

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  5. Mary and Francine fascinating interview, very inspiring. x

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