Ask the Author: Midge Raymond
Answered Questions (5)
Midge Raymond
I go for walks, which helps clear my mind to allow creativity back in. And I also turn to research to keep myself going on the project even when I'm stuck on the actual writing. I always need to step away from the desk (and keyboard and screen) if I find myself getting stuck ... a simple change of scenery, and a notebook and pen, do wonders.
Midge Raymond
For me, one of the best things about being a writer is learning. Once I get curious about something -- such as penguin conservation, or unsolved true crimes -- I get to dive deeply into it, talk to fascinating people, and then write stories based on what I've learned, with a healthy amount of imagination. For someone who has had one career in life, the best thing about being a writer is trying on all these different lives on the page.
Midge Raymond
Write what you love to write. Always.
Never give up. Ever.
Never give up. Ever.
Midge Raymond
I'm often inspired by travel (my first novel, MY LAST CONTINENT, is set in Antarctica) but even more than that, by learning about wildlife and the amazing naturalists who study animals and do their best to protect them. FLOREANA will be my second penguin novel (I can't seem to resist them), and it was inspired by the endangered Galápagos penguins ... as well as the bizarre human history of Floreana Island.
Midge Raymond
The idea for FLOREANA came to me during a visit to the Galápagos Islands, during which I got a glimpse of the magnificent Galápagos penguins and learned about conservation work being done for them -- as well as learned about the strange human history of Floreana Island, in which a group of European settlers arrived on the island beginning in 1929 and, within five years, two of them had vanished (never to be seen again) and two others had died under mysterious circumstances. What really happened? I envision what might have happened in FLOREANA, when in 2020 a penguin researcher finds the long-lost diaries of one of the settlers and learns the true story.
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