Hey!
Today’s interview is with author Maggie Tideswell about her writing and her books 🙂
Maggie was born in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Her life has taken her to various parts of this beautiful country, and now she lives in Johannesburg, Gauteng. She has three grown-up children and two grandchildren. Maggie has been writing for many years and has several novels completed, though Dark Moon was the first to be published. She has a strange method of working, or so she is told. She gets bogged down easily and when that happens, she moves on and starts a new story. That means that at any given time, she has about three stories going. It works for her, and it keeps the inspiration alive. She always knew that she would be an author someday. She was very young when she told her mother that she was going to be a writer. Furthermore, she didn’t believe her, of course. Furthermore, she has done all kinds of work in her life, nursing, catering, but always there were my stories.
Q: Do you remember the first story you wrote?
Maggie Tideswell:Â Not really. I remember as a child in boarding school scribbling stories in study hall – instead of studying. Those days my stories were set in the performing arts – I was in a school for the performing arts – but I don’t remember the actual stories anymore. My story writing then was a good training ground for later, when I started writing seriously.
Q: Were you inspired by someone or something?
Maggie Tideswell:Â Life inspires me. You hear a snippet on the news, and it triggers a story. Or you see somebody in the checkout at a supermarket, and you wonder what that person’s life story is. I don’t need to know the facts – my imagination fills in more than the gaps. Of course, I might be completely wrong, but I’m not a journalist. I don’t have to be factual and that is the beauty of being a novelist.
Q: What do you love about writing a story?
Maggie Tideswell:Â As I said above, I love the freedom of making up a story. You add feelings and emotions that you cannot do in any other form of story-telling (news reporting for instance) I also love getting into people’s heads, even if they are fictitious. I write about life, but I create the situations my characters have to deal with. It is very exciting.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about your book “Dark Moon”, and the main character(s).
Maggie Tideswell:Â Dark Moon is set in modern-day Cape Town, South Africa. It is a paranormal romance, which means that it is a romance first, and the situation the characters find themselves in is slightly wacky – not impossible, just a bit improbably – maybe.
Dark Moon is Storm’s story. She is a psychologist, and she is in love with Trevor, but Trevor is not all he seems. Then Storm meets Jarred in an unusual situation. It is love at first sight, though Storm fights her attraction for Jarred. Trevor asks Storm to marry him, but his idea of marriage was not what you and I understand a marriage to be. There had been ritual murders in the area, and the witches believe that Trevor was the murderer preparing for what he planned for Storm. The police can’t hold Trevor long enough to question him as he had developed the ability to control people’s minds. Jarred is the ultimate romantic hero, the man every woman wants to fall in love with.
Q: When was it released and can you tell us a bit about the publisher.
Maggie Tideswell:Â Dark Moon was released in September 2011 by All Things That Matter Press, a small publishing house in Maine. They published books that are slightly different, that would be passed over by the traditional publishers because these books don’t fit neatly into the normal genre categories.
Q: How did you come up with the story for the book.
Maggie Tideswell:Â I love the influence people have on each other. One of my favorite expressions is ‘chance meetings have far-reaching effects’, meaning a seemingly insignificant event could change lives. Another favorite of mine is ‘nothing is as it seems. This last is a threat that runs through all my writing.
Q: Which genre is your favorite?
Maggie Tideswell:Â I love the paranormal, as one can include witches and any idiosyncrasies of the characters, though the story has to be set in the here and now. A reader has classified my work as neo-gothic, which I like very much. It is a very accurate description of my work as there is always the bad male character and a damsel-in-distress heroine. Atmospherics, like the weather, play a large part in my work.
Q: Are you working on something new?
Maggie Tideswell:Â Yes, my second novel, Moragh, is nearly complete and will also be published by All Things That Matter Press later this year. Yet again a paranormal romance, it is a ghost story.
Q: Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?
Maggie Tideswell:Â Oh yes. Perseverance should become your middle name. Do not give up or change your writing style because of a couple of rejections. There is a publisher out there who will be just right for you and your work. And never stop writing.
Q: Which author inspires you?
Maggie Tideswell:Â I have several favorite authors and I read widely. The only genres I do not touch are fantasy and sci-fi. I love the works of Barbara Erskine, Dan Brown and Ken Follett, to name but a few.
Q: Where can people go and read your work?
Maggie Tideswell:Â My book is available on the online book stores in paperback or e-book.
   amazon http://tinyurl.com/3tl3bqu
   Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-moon-maggie-tideswell/1033872538?ean=9780984651764
   kalahari.net http://www.kalahari.com/books/Dark-Moon/632/42728694.aspx
Q: Where can people find you on the internet?
Maggie Tideswell:Â I am on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/pages/Maggie-Tideswell/161954970541011
   Follow me on Twitter @lunamags
   My blog is here http//:maggiestorm.blogspot.com/
   I am also on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Goodreads, and many other social sites