About Mary D. Brooks:
Mary lives in Australia and has been writing since she was eight when she rewrote her favorite tv shows when stories didn’t quite end up the way she wanted. Sometimes in a world of her own, she relished the quiet to invent new stories and worlds. Mary has written non-fiction articles for Australian and US magazines but her first love is fiction. It wasn’t until 2001 when she wrote her first full length novel. When she’s not writing, she’s designing sites, creating art or being chief editor/owner of AUSXIP.
What inspires you to write?
I have always been drawn to creating stories and for as long as I remember, I have been writing them down. Usually short stories inspired by what I’ve seen on tv shows or songs. It wasn’t until 2001 when my grandfather passed away and I was looking back at photos of him, that the idea of telling a story that he lived (somewhat). He was in the Greek Resistance during the German occupation of Greece and he told me stories about the town and the defiance it had shown to the Germans. I had also the inspiration of my next door neighbor who was an Auschwitz survivor. She taught me so much about the holocaust that I would have read in any book. It shaped my young life. I wanted to tell the story of the Greek Resistance and two incredible women helping the Jews escape as a testament to my grandfather and my adopted grandmother’s courage. That’s how my Intertwined Souls series was born. I’ve been writing this series now for fifteen years spanning five novels and a novella with more books on the way.
Tell us about your writing process.
I would love to be an outliner; I strive to be an outliner but alas it’s just not in me. I will do a rough draft of an outline and skirt around the edges of it but seat of the pants type of writing is what I do. I use Scrivener for all most research notes and characters. I have the characters all fleshed out in my head before I write. I’m not quite sure how ideas come about but they do. Wish I could say ‘this is the process I go through to get from point A to point B’ but it doesn’t work that way for me. It just happens. I’m just the writer and the characters are in control.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
Oh absolutely. I listen to them ALL THE TIME. One particular character is very vocal and she speaks to me in Greek. Good thing I know how to speak the language. My characters have quite distinctive voices and personalities.
What advice would you give other writers?
Just sit down and write. Doesn’t matter if you think it’s ‘not that great’ – just do it. You can erase that bit the further you go; put it down and you go back and revise. You are inspired by the voices and the ideas; run with them. Don’t let the ‘what if I’m not good enough’ little voice win. That voice you can ignore. You can’t ignore the other voices yammering to be heard. Go for it.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I was initially published by a small press publisher in 2001 and over the years, I’ve had several publishers. It wasn’t until 2015 that I decided to take on the challenge of opening up my own publishing house. It’s been a wild ride so far. For new authors I would say if you like to get your hands dirty, you don’t mind educating yourself and you are keen, go for self publishing. If you are not confident about doing it all, go for a small press but read the fine print and research the company to make sure they are a good fit.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think the future is ebooks. I love print books, I’m a book collector and a bookworm from the year dot but ebooks are the future. Electronic means of reading your favourite book is here to stay and there is no going back.
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: historical fiction. urban fantasy, LGBT
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Mary D. Brooks Home Page Link
Link To Mary D. Brooks Page On Amazon
Link to Author Page on other site
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
