Ask the Author: Gloria Gay
Answered Questions (9)
Gloria Gay
I just finished reading "A Governess for the Brooding Duke" by Bridget Barton and liked it a lot.
I intend to read a few Regencies this summer, as usual, but I will also be reading romantic suspense and mysteries because that is what I'm writing, as well as time travel romances. :)
I intend to read a few Regencies this summer, as usual, but I will also be reading romantic suspense and mysteries because that is what I'm writing, as well as time travel romances. :)
Gloria Gay
Long ago I read a gloomy sequel. I don't remember the title. The couple return to the area and they have a hectic social life, with Mrs. Danvers plaguing Mrs. De Winter again. I hated it.
Gloria Gay
Hi, Gloria,
I was kind of obsessed with "Rebecca" and had read it several times, so I wrote a letter to Daphne DuMaurier, and asked her if Manderley was real or if it was just her imagination, because to me, Manderley seemed very real. I told her I was an aspiring writer, etc.
Ms. DuMaurier surprised me by answering my letter! Not only that, but she sent me a couple of snapshots. One was of the estate where she and her husband had lived and which in part had inspired "Rebecca". The estate was called "Menabilly" and to her and her husband's sadness the 20-year lease expired and the owner would not renew. She and her husband then moved to "Kilmarth", a similar house as Menabilly. She included a photo of Kilmarth.
She also told me that the larger idea of Manderley came from another estate she had visited when she was about eleven or so, called "Milton" in the Midlands (England).
I wish I could include here a copy of her letter and the two photos she sent me but I think even letters and photographs are copyrighted. I think the recipient may own them but cannot publish them. Ms. DuMaurier's brothers own the copyrights of her works and I think that includes her letters. I will try to find out from an attorney friend and if she tells me it's all right to publish my letter and photos I will do so at a later date on this site.
Thank you for your letter. I really appreciated it!
I was kind of obsessed with "Rebecca" and had read it several times, so I wrote a letter to Daphne DuMaurier, and asked her if Manderley was real or if it was just her imagination, because to me, Manderley seemed very real. I told her I was an aspiring writer, etc.
Ms. DuMaurier surprised me by answering my letter! Not only that, but she sent me a couple of snapshots. One was of the estate where she and her husband had lived and which in part had inspired "Rebecca". The estate was called "Menabilly" and to her and her husband's sadness the 20-year lease expired and the owner would not renew. She and her husband then moved to "Kilmarth", a similar house as Menabilly. She included a photo of Kilmarth.
She also told me that the larger idea of Manderley came from another estate she had visited when she was about eleven or so, called "Milton" in the Midlands (England).
I wish I could include here a copy of her letter and the two photos she sent me but I think even letters and photographs are copyrighted. I think the recipient may own them but cannot publish them. Ms. DuMaurier's brothers own the copyrights of her works and I think that includes her letters. I will try to find out from an attorney friend and if she tells me it's all right to publish my letter and photos I will do so at a later date on this site.
Thank you for your letter. I really appreciated it!
Gloria Gay
I'm a writer, artist and poet. When I'm not inspired to write a poem, I'm painting, which, as I paint (and think) something pops up in my mind either a scene for a new book or a scene or event in what I'm currently writing. I'm happy that I just published my first book of poems, "Poems of Love and the Sea". So my three interests complement each other and feed off each other. Very inspiring!
Gloria Gay
I'm writing another time travel romance. This one came out of a short story I once wrote - it's really the continuation of the short story. The heroine's mother left a journal about an experience she had after a visit with a psychic to read her hand. The daughter goes through a harrowing marriage and turns to her mother's journal as an escape and becomes a little obsessed with it as a way of forgetting her own problems....
Gloria Gay
Read a lot of books on writing first. Take a basic course in writing, whether online or at your community college. Join Romance Writers of America and your local chapter or Mystery Writer associations or the one that applies to what you would like to write. Being with people that have your same interest and hopes will make you start thinking of yourself as a writer. Then when you feel you can begin, even just a chapter or short story, put it on paper. It's a start!
Gloria Gay
Great question! There isn't a best thing, but rather, many things. And I think everyone is a writer, just not discovered it in oneself, yet. Years ago it was more usual to write letters instead of phone calls or emails, so people took great care in composing their letters. Some were like literature! Writing, like art is an expression of oneself, so when you feel you are really expressing yourself on paper or computer as you really wanted, there's a great satisfaction in it. :)
Gloria Gay
I sit down at the computer and re-write the last few paragraphs. That gets me going again. I never really get writer's block but rather "fear of starting again each day" kind of freeze, so I do the above and that gets me again into the book I'm writing at the moment, and pretty soon I'm getting ideas, etc. :)
Gloria Gay
I started a "A Bridge Through Time" a long time ago. The idea came to me when I read about the Druid Dolmen stones. The book was first a screenplay entitled "The Dolmen Stone". Then it lay dormant for a few years - :) Then I redid it and changed it into a book with a lot of different things in it, in particular the hero. So that book had a lot of changes to it. I don't advise writing a book that way, too much work. But I'm happy with the result.
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