Interview with Mary Georgina de Grey, writer of contemporary romance

Please help me welcome today’s guest, Mary Georgina de Grey…

Website: https://marygeorginadegreyauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086424198194
Email: marygeorginadg@gmail.com for newsletter and other enquiries.

Bio
After a children’s adventure story in her early 20s, which sank immediately, Mary Georgina wrote no fiction until about ten years ago. She was creating languages courses for schools and one editor asked her to produce a pack of French short stories and poems – and she was off on her writer’s journey: she enjoyed this dip into fiction so much, she had to write a novel. But life was busy, and it wasn’t until lockdown that she began to write seriously.
As a linguist, she finds it logical to use the setting of countries she’s lived and worked in, and this forces her to try to understand the culture and how it affects anyone with a different background. Stuck at home, she wanted to travel, and Italy glowed in her mind as a desirable place to visit, and so her first published novel began. Then The Earth Moved was published in 2023.
The main character is always a strong young woman determined to make her way in the world and each novel has a love story at its centre.
She lives on the beautiful English Riviera with her artist husband where she indulges in her passion of writing, reading and creating things, especially in fabric.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=then+the+earth+moved+by+mary+georgina+de+grey

This was followed a year later, by Let Love Find a Way. It is based on a true story heard when travelling in South America and is set in the 1960s.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=let+love+find+a+way+by+mary+georgina+de+grey

Her most recent book, Then Time Stands Still, is the story of an archaeologist, with the Roman site set on a vineyard in northern Spain.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Then+Time+Stands+Still+by+mary+georgina+de+grey

Blurb
English archaeologist Dr Amancia Harding has looked after her family for five years. Now it’s time to take care of herself and leading a team on a dig in Spain is the perfect way to propel her career forward. Her good intentions are threatened when she meets vineyard owner Max Serrano.
Damaged by war in Ukraine and a tragic event in his past, Max has given up on relationships and taken refuge in making wine, but the attraction he feels to Amancia forces him to confront painful issues. There’s also the gulf between their two cultures to consider if a relationship is to have any chance of success.
Ambitious and fiery in character, can either accept that compromise is sometimes necessary to find happiness?

Mary Georgina, how important is research for a romantic novel?
It’s as important as for any other novel. You must get it right, even if you’re writing fantasy, because the world you create has to have a structure everyone can relate to. For Then Time Stands Still, I researched the following in some depth:
Roman archaeological sites and what happens on site
The gritty world of academia!
Making promotional films
Festivals in Spain, specifically Zaragoza and the surrounding area
Food, drink, restaurants and entertainment in Zaragoza, renewing my acquaintance with the city
Similarly for Barcelona in Spain and Bristol in the UK
The climate throughout the year in both countries
Grape growing and wine making and how climate change is affecting these activities
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Controlling behavior between men and women
How being of mixed race might affect your everyday life and the way you view the world. Thank you to friends who have helped me with this and to my sensitivity reader, fellow Wild Rose, Lynn Griffin.

Do you have any advice for beginning writers?
• Read a lot in different genres, fiction and non-fiction, and some psychology. Reading in your own genre can be helpful and you begin to respect others, seeing how cleverly they handle a difficult transition or an emotional situation.
Here are three books I have recently read:

• The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti (Italian)
• The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan (Irish)
• Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan (English)
  None of these is about writing or romance but such reading will feed your imagination.
  • Writing is hard work, so settle down at your desk and write – and ditch perfectionism at this stage. Find out what’s most comfortable for you – paper or computer – and write. I like to get through the first draft quickly because I love editing. Writing friends have recommended participating in NaNoWriMo – 50K words in one month – to get going.

• What will help you? Make a plan, a pathway to the end you envisage. If you haven’t envisaged an ending, this should be the first step. Your plan can be quite sketchy, but don’t be afraid to tackle a later scene that’s already fully formed in your mind as soon as it arrives there.

• Courses and books are useful. I’d recommend a series of books by Janice Hardy. If you are writing romance, her book on Show Don’t Tell is hugely helpful for the beginner.
Buy Links:

https://wildrosepress.com/product/then-time-stands-still/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Then+Time+Stands+Still+by+mary+georgina+de+grey