Ask the Author: Bridget Allison
Answered Questions (8)
Bridget Allison
Working on it now! Thanks so much!
Bridget Allison
I really wanted to resolve the source of Gretchen's flight to Bridle Springs and had always planned to address it in book two. Since childhood I have been intrigued by natural remedies and wild edibles, I studied that in college and at my mother-in-laws kitchen table. I also wanted to give more depth to my characters in "Maid in the Shade. I think it is important to empower beyond gender and generations. Thanks so much for your question!
Bridget Allison
Hi Jeanie and thanks for the terrific reviews! I have someone in the literary business reading through it now. I don't want to disappoint! She's getting married next month so I'm on the back burner for now, but I really think it will be worth the extra time. I can't wait to get it to you, and I so appreciate your wonderful comments!
Bridget Allison
I love mysteries, I love writers who range from Agatha Christie to Donna Tart to Charles Dickens. I have always written, but mostly poems, and those were for me. I won some small contests for poetry as a girl and in college but the thought of writing poetry for a living or any kind of "high literature was daunting. In fact it was stopping me altogether.
I decided to "write what I know." I included my father and his real name because he wanted me to pursue my writing and he actually was an amazing parent my parents derserve some homage for what they did for me.
Despite the humor in the series there is some darkness. Gretchen's demons are the demons I know myself and I wanted to empower her in the same way I was empowered to learn to live with them.
I appreciate the fans who point out that while these books made them "laugh out loud" they find Gretchen to be a much deeper character than one finds in most serial mysteries.
I decided to "write what I know." I included my father and his real name because he wanted me to pursue my writing and he actually was an amazing parent my parents derserve some homage for what they did for me.
Despite the humor in the series there is some darkness. Gretchen's demons are the demons I know myself and I wanted to empower her in the same way I was empowered to learn to live with them.
I appreciate the fans who point out that while these books made them "laugh out loud" they find Gretchen to be a much deeper character than one finds in most serial mysteries.
Bridget Allison
I am working on "Maid in Waiting" (yes, still) and a novel which is a complete departure from the Maid for Murder" Series. I will keep writing the "Maid for Murder" books until I reach a point where I feel I am not writing them for the right reasons. There are some lovely things about being a reader, loving a series and anxiously awaiting that next book, only to discover the author has begun to "phone it in." I never want to do that to my fans.
Bridget Allison
Dare yourself to write. Dare yourself to be rejected. In the old days I sent out a young adult novel to two publishing houses. I received a rejection from one which was boiler plate and another which was a rejection, but an encouraging one. Looking back, I realize I should have set a goal of not stopping until I had received 100 rejection letters. Instead I shredded the book and I regret it deeply.
Bridget Allison
The best thing about being a writer is the freedom to shape a world you can escape to and to populate it with characters I can love, understand and even fear. But when I get a letter from a fan who is invested in that world it is the most exhilarating feeling I have ever had.
Bridget Allison
The best way to deal with writer's block is to start working on something else, something altogether different from that primary piece of writing that refuses to be forced into shape. I am sometimes paralyzed by fans who want to know where the next book is. That pressure becomes an obstacle. The only way to get past it is to keep writing, to write something, anything at all, until I circle back with a fresh mind and a glad heart to the work that is most important to me. Another helpful tip my daughter gave me is to stay with the book, but to jump ahead and work on a scene you have in mind for later. It doesn't matter if most of it is drivel or completely useless in the end, if you have one fine sentence you are in love with from those pages it was worthwhile. There are books I have remembered all my life because of one sentence, crafted so lovingly by the author that it is a part of me.
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