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Read some interviews from past editions:
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Zelda Benjamin
April, 2008
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Shirley Marks
December, 2007
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Donna Wright
December, 2007
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Carolyn Brown
August, 2007
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Roni Denholtz
June, 2007
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Tara Randel
April, 2007
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Sydell Voeller
February, 2007
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Sheila Robins
December, 2006
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Ann Holt
October, 2006
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Cynthia Danielewski
July, 2006
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Jane McBride Choate
March, 2006
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Kathryn Meyer Griffith
January, 2006
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Mel Taylor
November, 2005
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Kathleen Fuller
September, 2005
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Tracey J. Lyons
July, 2005
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Ludima Gus Burton
May, 2005
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Holly Jacobs
March, 2005
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Sandra D. Bricker
January, 2005
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Kathryn Quick
November, 2004
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Cheri Jetton
September, 2004
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Heather S. Webber
July, 2004
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Karl Fieldhouse
May, 2004
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Shelley Galloway
March, 2004
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Ilsa Mayr
January, 2004
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Kathy Carmichael
November, 2003
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Dorothy P. O'Neill
July, 2003
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Joani Ascher
May, 2003
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Patricia DeGroot
March, 2003
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Nancy J. Parra
January, 2003
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Barbara Meyers
November, 2002
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Christine Bush
September, 2002
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Debby Mayne
July, 2002
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Jean C. Gordon
May, 2002
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Charles E. Friend
March, 2002
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Norma Seely
January, 2002
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Glen Ebisch
November, 2001
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Gina Cresse
September, 2001
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John Paxson
July, 2001
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Terri Alcock
May, 2001
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Clifford Blair
March, 2001
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Amanda Harte
January, 2001
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Kent Conwell
November, 2000
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Carolyn Brown
September, 2000
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Annette Mahon
July, 2000
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Jack Lewis
March, 2000
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Amanda Harte
January, 2000
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Joyce and Jim Lavene
November, 1999
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Return to the current Author! Author! interview:
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S.J. Stewart
April, 2008
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Author! Author!: May, 2000
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Click on images to learn more about these books.
An Interview with
Marjorie
McGinley |
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What one question do people ask you most about your writing?
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The one question I am asked time after time is "Why do you write Westerns?" There are a couple of answers to that. One is that I love the time period 1849 to the 1880's. It was such an exciting time! The gold rush began, and the West opened up, practically as an explosion of people. People could go out west and begin again, and reinvent themselves. That's a great opportunity. Ironically, right now, the Internet is providing a similar explosion of opportunity; often without leaving home.
To get back to the subject, after the Civil War, many men couldn't or didn't want to go home, or had no home left to go back to. If you think about it, many of the men who went west after the Civil War were probably suffering form posttraumatic stress syndrome. These soldiers were used to shooting, and it somewhat explains why "shootouts" occurred.
These are interesting, complex people to write about. And don't underestimate the intelligence and courage of many of these people. Some of the books written during that time have such extensive vocabularies; modern day people need a dictionary next to them to read. Try reading Frederic Remington's "Own West" and you'll see what I mean.
On the other hand, many people were illiterate and that posed a special set of problems in their lives.
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What else do you like about the West?
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I love traveling in the West to do research. On the East Coast, we are so crowded together that unless we go out west, we have no idea of the great distances; the incredibly big spaces between things in the western states.
A few places in the West there are signs that say that the mountains you are looking at (which look close) are one hundred and twenty-five miles away. Or ninety miles. There they are in the distance, and I say to myself, "My home is ninety miles from George Washington Bridge in New York City. What I am looking at is the same distance away as the bridge."
It's a little bit overwhelming to be able to see the Painted Desert from the Grand Canyon area.
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Often your heroes are men. Do you find that difficult?
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Not at all. People are people. Oddly enough, the problems my heroes face are the same problems modern people face: home, shelter, relationships, money problems, and "what to do about the bad guy" if he comes into your life. I usually have a little murder mystery somewhere in the story.
I have my husband read my novels before I send them off to the publisher and he'll tell me "A guy wouldn't do that". He's usually right, and I change whatever it is a "guy wouldn't do". Also, Avalon Books has been wonderful at editing. They don't change what doesn't need to be changed.
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How can an Eastern Lady write about the West?
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Beatrix Potter didn't have to be a male rabbit to write about Peter Rabbit; and Zane Grey was a dentist in New York City. I've thought about this a great deal, and that's the answer I give to people when they ask this question.
The truth is, most novels need both men and women in them. Men writers can't just have men in novels, and women writers just women. Writers have to include both, as well as children and animals on occasion. I can invent a wonderful man as my hero: smart, kind, etc. it's great fun. That's what's magical about the novel.
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Why is writing Westerns important to you?
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America could do a lot worse than thinking about some of the ideas contained in the code of the West, where men were expected to be kind to women, children, the elderly, and animals.
A code of ethics is important in modern America; especially with school shooting. One of the rules of the Code of the West was not to shoot unarmed people.
Someone wrote that Western man was the closest thing America has ever had to knights; like the knights in King Arthor's Court. And the women who homesteaded the West were no less heroes than the men.
The cowboy was and is a pretty decent, hardworking human being. I could do a lot worse that to write about him.
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