Interview Marilyn Gardiner

by

Jaxine Daniels

1) Why do you write romance, Marilyn?

I write about relationships. The importance of relationships goes back even before written history and is what truly makes our world go around. How we relate to each other in myriad circumstances is, to me, just about the most interesting thing on earth. Relationships are the foundation of everything: politics, religion, love, etc., and I touch on all these things in my writing. Romance is sheer fun. Sex doesn’t begin with the act. It begins with the meeting of eyes, the touch of a hand, the responding to a tone of voice. Showing how all these things build and mesh, crash, and finally culminate is exciting--the hammering into place of a relationship.

2) Your bio says you have a passion for music and books. Does music play into your writing?

In that an astonishing number of writers are also musicians, yes. I think it must have something to do with a feel for tempo and pace and dynamics. There is also something about being moved, deeply and passionately, by beauty or discord, and by making some sense out of a conglomeration of notes/words and ideas that speaks to the soul of certain people. I sing: solo work, ensemble and choral. Music moves me as does nothing else. I can’t listen to music while I’m writing because I get caught up in the swoop and swirl of sound and lose my focus on what I’m writing. However, I always listen to music as I read. If I were ever asked how I’d want to be remembered, it would have to be something about books and music.

3) What is your favorite book that you’ve written?

It’s one that hasn’t yet been printed. I’ve been working on it for 30 years and I think it is my masterpiece. I have a terrific critique group and they agree. “Thine Is The Kingdom” isn’t a standard romance, although there is romance in it, but it would be classified more as Women’s Contemporary, I think. It’s about what happens to one specific family, and an entire community, when a mine waste dam breaks in W.VA. flooding the valley and destroying lives in one broad, sweeping moment. And, of course, how those lives are painstakingly, painfully, put back together.

4) What is your favorite book that you’ve read?

That’s a hard one. It’s difficult to chose only one book. I love M.M. Kay’s work, her long epics: “Shadow of the Moon,” especially. I like Alice Hoffman, almost anything she writes, especially “Turtle Moon.” Sue Monk Kidd’s “The Secret Life of Bees” is another favorite. All of Wilbur Smith’s books are on my shelf of favorites, the Ballantyne series above all. I could go on and on. It seems I can’t pick just one.

5) What made you write “A Trivial Pursuit?”

I need to say up front that A Trivial Pursuit is not a preachy book. I hate Inspirationals that poke you in the eye with the author’s moral values and religious beliefs. However, I feel that, in many instances, in our society, moral fiber has been replaced by the insistence upon instant gratification and the fulfilling of personal wants, not necessarily needs. I believe this mind-set is dangerous and in the long run will lower standards of conduct for our entire nation. (See Marilyn being knocked off her soapbox.) I wanted to write a book about what happens when the corporate world collides with our faith and belief in what is right and wrong. It’s a sticky problem and not easily solved.

6) What other genres might you write someday and why?

I’ve written and published in a great number of genre’s already. Everything from Romance to YA, Children to Inspirational. I’ve written for newspapers, published in numerous magazines (just sold another story to St. Anthony Messenger), sold poetry, written curriculum for Church Schools… I can’t imagine what will be next. “Flight of Angels” is a paranormal--an experience in the inexplicable, “My Pretty Lady” is a contemporary romance with a middle-aged heroine, “Like A River, My Love” is a 1778 historical, “Keeper of the Singing Bones” is an adventure/suspense, “When the Wind Blows” is also suspense--a mother’s worst nightmare. All are romances published by Wings. I have another paranormal, “Dancing Ladies,” in the starting gate--an unapologetic and scary ghost story (gasp), a finished YA, “Smiley Side Up,” about a teen coping with divorced parents, and “Thine Is The Kingdom,” which I’ve already talked about. The only things I have no desire to write are Sci Fi and Erotica.

7) If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I’ve already been to Great Britain several times and Germany and Jamaica. I’d love to go to New Zealand and Australia, Sri Lanka and The Holy Land. None of those are in the immediate future, obviously, but if I’m dreaming--why not?

8) If you could meet anyone in the world (living or dead), who would it be?

Oh my… So many people. Pearl Buck, Jetta Carlton (wrote “The Moonflower Vine”), women from Biblical days, Madeline L’Engle, Maeve Binchey, Rosemond Pilcher, so many others.

9) What is a perfect day?

A balmy spring day when I can sit on my screened porch with a good book at my side and a laptop in my lap. My wind chimes would be uh, chiming, and I’d have a glass of raspberry tea close by. There would be no laundry, no meals to cook, no housecleaning waiting, absolutely no ironing!, and no guilt for neglecting any of these things. For icing on this imaginary cake: my beloved husband would take me to Red Lobster for dinner. Ah bliss…

10) What’s the first thing you’d do if you won the lottery?

I’d take out a tithe for my church and pay off my house! Then, like so may others, I’d travel. Of course, in order to win the lottery you must first buy a ticket, and as I don’t often do that, the chances of my winning aren’t astronomical.