Travel Around the World with Mary Georgina de Grey
Mary Georgina de Grey is a writer of contemporary romance and a fellow Rose. In her interview today, she shares her travels and some wise tips for new writers.
How has travel influenced your writing?
Learning several languages and using them at work has meant I have lived in different European countries, and I also spent a couple of years in South America. This rich experience has provided me with lots of material for my novels.
I’m not writing a series, but the novels each have a love story as central and feature strong women determined to make something of their lives, despite setbacks – and there are quite a few.
Setting is important for me. For my first novel, I chose Italy, the second takes place in both South America and South Wales UK, and my newest novel, Then Time Stands Still, which releases in September, unfolds in Spain. At the moment, I’m writing my fourth novel, rekindling my love affair with France, specifically the Midi-Pyrénées.
I live in South Devon in England with my husband, an artist. When not writing a novel, I’m putting together talks about romance and why it should be given serious consideration as a genre. As you can imagine, I get booked up around Valentine’s Day, but I also speak at festivals when I get the opportunity.
Will you have a new book coming out soon?
Then Time Stands Still will be published on the 18th of September, but I won’t be doing the launch until late in October because of other commitments. I’m excited about this one as there were so many things in it that I enjoyed writing about.
How did you choose the genre you write in?
I had written three books before I came to romance, all thrillers, and there’s one I’m very proud of which I’d still like to get published. But in lockdown 2020, I became selfish: I wanted to travel away from the boring everyday but couldn’t, so I asked myself what genre would enable me to do that, to have a great holiday without leaving the house, and romance seemed to offer me the most possibilities.
I could use my knowledge of languages and the countries in which I had lived to create something a little different. In 2016, there’d been earthquakes in the Abruzzo, an area of Italy I knew, and I itched to write about it. Suddenly, I was off, and viruses and lockdown disappeared for hours at a time.
Then there was the tiny stumbling block of finding a publisher. After I approached various companies, the Wild Rose Press took me on in 2022 and Then the Earth Moved was released in March 2023.
I found I was enjoying romance and there was a whole world to conquer, given the appalling way in which people can dismiss romance as not being worth reading. I want to put that right – through my writing and through talking about it.
How much research do you do for each book you write?
Research is everything, and I do a lot. I know the places I write about, and I usually speak the language, which does give you a great way in to seeing how things really are in a country and an understanding of the culture. But if you’re writing contemporary novels, you have to keep things up to date. Also, people have jobs – you can’t just make an assumption of how things work in a particular field; you have to know.
This shouldn’t mean you tell people all the facts, but it helps you create an authentic setting in which you place your characters, so I do some research in advance but also look some things up along the way. I ask questions like these.
Would he really be okay with that?
Could they afford to walk away from …?
I keep testing my characters in this way and if I can’t answer the question, then more research is needed.
Marketing
I hate it and I love it – the former when I’m in the middle of writing a book, and it pulls me out of the zone. Here’s what I do:
I mostly talk about the background to my books and enjoy finding good photographs to illustrate that information, for instance with Then the Earth Moved, I did a whole series of articles about Italian food and customs, even things like romance as portrayed through paintings. The possibilities are endless.
Sometimes I comment on a newsworthy item in the literary world – most recently, the opening this month of the Booklovers Bookshop in Edinburgh, entirely dedicated to romance. https://www.bookloversbookshop.co.uk/ Everything I post is about writing or relates directly to my books, my research and other writing activities.
Newsletter
When I’m on form, this goes out once a month and often contains similar material to Facebook, but maybe in more detail.
My Own Website:
I tried very hard to create a website that looks attractive and not like every other authors’ websites. See https://marygeorginadegreyauthor.com I hope you think I succeeded. Having built this myself, I can change anything at any time, and that’s a huge advantage. Where appropriate, I hand out bookmarks with the name of the website on them and hope the people who take them will be encouraged to have a look.
Face to Face:
I buy my own books from the publisher and am happy to run a stall, preferably with another writer. This is useful for networking and can be fun. I talk to everyone, and usually, I sell a few books.
Presentations and Book Launches:
I give talks to promote the romance genre, some just fun, others more academic in approach, and I try to get invited onto panels at festivals.
Other Social Media:
I love to be invited onto someone else’s blog, so thank you, Zara. It is truly a pleasure. You do have to search for such opportunities.
I think marketing has to be what works for you, where you live and what you feel comfortable with. I do not work full time for anyone else these days, so I have more time than many writers. If I had to choose, I’d say do Facebook (or Book Tok, maybe) and some face-to-face activity, especially going to festivals and events for the networking, when you can fit it in.
Tips for Writers Starting out
Read a lot in different genres, fiction and non-fiction, and some psychology won’t come amiss. 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:
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
A modern version of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid
Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris
None of these is about writing but such reading will feeds the 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 helps? Make a plan, a pathway to the end you envisage. If you haven’t envisaged an ending, this is probably 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.
That’s it. Thanks once again, Zara, for having me on your blog.
Then Time Stands Still
by Mary Georgina de Grey
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 for 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.
With their ambitious and fiery characters, can either accept that compromise is sometimes necessary to find happiness?
Available from:
AMAZON US | AMAZON UK
Learn More about Mary Georgina de Grey
I live in South Devon in England with my husband, an artist. When not writing a novel, I’m putting together talks about romance and why it should be given serious consideration as a genre. As you can imagine, I get booked up around Valentine’s Day, but I also speak at festivals when I get the opportunity.
Website: https://marygeorginadegreyauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086424198194
Email: marygeorginadg@gmail.com for newsletter and other enquiries.
