Interview With Author Marie Gage Gage
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Writing came to me later in life when I started researching my family history and found stories that people needed to hear. Many of the details of the stories were lost to the sands of time but the overall paths of the stories were still intact and important to convey. Thus, my books are fictionalized but grounded in truth. I have now written 3 novels: The Promise Series. They feature repeating characters but are each a stand-alone novel in their own right.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
A Touch of Promise is the latest edition to the series. It delves into the heartbreak, culture shock, and fight for normalcy that confronted the post-WWII generation. It was inspired by my mother-in-law’s journey as she immigrated to Canada as a war bride. However, it is not her story. I learned through research how chaotic and difficult the transition was for many of the 48,000 women who married Canadian soldiers and followed them back home. Many were hated by Canadians for stealing men who they believed should have married the women waiting back home. Some were deceived by their husbands about the living conditions in their Canadian homes. Having had personal experience treating men with “battle fatigue” from WWII more than 30 years after their return home, I also brought the plight of these brave men to the forefront through the fictional women they married. All these threads are woven into a tapestry of joy, sorrow and triumph.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know how unusual it is but I don’t plan out the story before I write. I usually have a beginning and know where the story is headed in a very general sense but each chapter comes to me separately as I live with the characters in my head and sometimes my dreams. I take breaks between chapters, until I wait while the characters tell me where the story should go. In my first novel, a Ring of Promises, I spent a lot of time peering at the weddiing pictures of my grandparents that are in old-fashioned bubble frames on my dining room wall. It was, after all, a story inspired by their stories and I needed them to help me figure out the missing pieces.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Jean M. Auel’s books, in particular, the Clan of the Cave Bear series, really grabbed my attention and turned me on to historical fiction as a reader. She showed me how to take a historical setting and build a world around it. My worlds are not anywhere near as distant in time but I hope they transport people to them. Diana Gabaldon has also inspired me. The depth of her research into the period she is writing about is something I can only aspire to achieve. In reality, I love reading historical fiction, and thus it was natural for me to write in this genre when I found stories that needed to be told.
What are you working on now?
I am starting to write a story inspired by my mother’s birth story. We didn’t know she was adopted until after she died. We obtained adoption records that revealed how her birth mother had tried, in 1924, to keep her by suing the birth father in a court of law for support. A very brave and unusual act during that era, and one I believe impacted my mother’s life in many ways. I’ve written the first 2500 words, and you can read them if you sign up for my newsletter at www.mariegage.com … however, the rest of the story is slow to reveal itself.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m really best at promoting my books in person and rely on Amazon ads to do the work with people I don’t know. I follow Bryan Cohen’s process of managing these ads.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Learn from other authors … surround yourself with them and find their secrets and lessons learned. I wish I had done that before launching my first books … a series of children’s picture books. I have learned so much since then that would have benefited me at the start.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Hire a professional editor for your Indie books! Best money I ever spent.
What are you reading now?
I am currently reading Stephanie Dray’s book “Hamilton”. I love her emphasis on the women of history and am delighted to learn of the role women played in the times of American and French revolutions.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I need to figure out the next novel and how to make the one I just launched as popular as Jean M. Auel’s books still are today!
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
This is a very difficult question for me because I don’t tend to reread books. But I think I would take the first of Jean M. Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear and its sequels with me as they just might help me to figure out how to survive in a strange new world. And they may give me fodder for writing that would consume all the newfound time I would have on a desserted island alone. However, without my computer, I’m not sure I could write!
Author Websites and Profiles
Marie Gage Gage Amazon Profile
Marie Gage Gage’s Social Media Links
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