Margaret Egrot
Coventry
UK
Good morning, Margaret! And welcome back to Vision and Verse. What's new with you. Tell us about what you've written.
Silent Echoes is a novel about three generations of the same family. Saving Grace is a YA novel about the friendship between two teenage girls growing up in difficult circumstances and the older girl’s efforts to save her friend from sex traffickers. And Alex Still has Acne is a YA novel about two teenage boys, trying not entirely successfully, to deal with problems in their own families. I also write short stories, including a collection (Cast Off)based on female characters in Shakespeare, and plays.
What is your favorite genre to write?
It is usually the genre I am currently writing in. At the moment I am working on a play – which is basically a series of monologues about being a woman – so that is my current fave genre.
Favorite food.
Thai king prawn green curry
Tea or coffee?
Both. I religiously alternate between the two, starting with a strong tea first thing in the morning and ending with a decaff coffee in the evening.
Pizza or ice cream?
Ice cream (rum and raison flavor, since you ask)
Wine or beer or soda?
Beer
Myanmar. My son lived in Thailand for 10 years and I planned to go to Myanmar, which is just over the border, when visiting him. But a coup and Covid put paid to that plan. And now he and his wife are back in the UK.
Favorite musical artist.
Paul Robeson, Johnny Cash, Louis Armstrong.
Do you listen to music when you write?
I need complete silence when I write.
What makes you laugh?
I’m easy to please. Any comedy (play, film, sit com) so long as they get the timing right.
Ditto stand up comics e.g. Bill Bailey. My dog – who thinks he can bully me into taking him out just by giving me a fixed stare. It works.
Favorite work of art or sculpture.
There’s just too much good stuff around to have a favorite.
How old were you when you started writing?
I won a prize for a story written for the Brownie magazine when I was 8. (Sad not to have lived up to that early promise)
I find if I do extensive planning, the mojo for writing the damn thing has evaporated.
Oh, that's the best answer to that question I've had in the ten years ai've been hosting these interviews!!
Describe your perfect evening.
A long hot bath with a good book. (Whilst my husband does the washing up and takes the dog out).
Where do you get your inspiration?
My YA novels came out of my work in Probation and Social Services. Silent Echoes was an exercise in writing with deaf protagonists so I couldn’t rely on things being overheard etc. to move the plot forward. It was based on my experience of living with a deaf grandmother.
What do you do when you get a writer's block?
Try to convince myself that I don’t want to be a writer anyway (and hope inspiration returns of its own volition). And I keep my blog going, writingandbreathing.wordpress.com, every week, to convince myself all is not lost.
Who is your favorite author?
Best book you ever read.
I love my old edition of the Collins Dictionary as it gives a brief history of a word, not just its meaning. I check something in it at least once a week – the Internet isn’t always right.
Last book you read.
Isidora Sanger – Born in The Right Body (a collection of essays written by a doctor about the impossibility of changing your sex, and the physical and mental harm medicines and surgery to try to do this causes, especially for young girls)
What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer?
As a young woman I would have liked to be a mountaineer/guide, but injured my hips in a fall so that option was out. I have never earnt much as a writer, and had to have a ‘proper’ job for years. But I now have a pension so the pressure is off. Hence, I am now very lax at marketing my work (and maintaining a writing discipline).
On the whole I have had a happy life, thanks to my husband (and son). Which must have had a very detrimental affect on my creative angst. I do wonder what masterpieces I could have written if I’d suffered more.
If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
I’d like to listen in to Leonardo da Vinci bouncing his ideas around with a group of his friends. He just seems to have been fizzing with ideas on all sorts of things.
What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?
Don’t overthink – just do it. Then, when you’ve proved to yourself that you have the motivation to write rather than do other things – like staring out of the window – join a writers’ group or sign up for a writing course.
More good advice! Thank you for taking the time out of your busy writing schedule to be with us, Margaret. I've enjoyed this interview. You are delightful and I think my audience will agree. Come back and see us anytime.
Link to Margaret's last visit here on Vision and Verse:
https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7343419041396488238/4596026082332844103
Do you have some links for us to follow you?
Links to my books and social media
You can find all my books and short stories on Amazon books, At least one story always free. ALL BOOKS FREE ON KINDLE UNLIMITED
www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00RVO1BHO
www.writingandbreathing.wordpress.com
And Alex Still Has Acne – An adventure story for teens of all ages. £6.99, e-book £1.99. Free on Kindle Unlimited. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alex-Still-Has-Acne/dp/B08LNFVRLY
getbook.at/AndAlex
CAST OFF. Short stories about Shakespeare’s women. £6.99, e-book £1.99. Free on Kindle Unlimited. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08M8BKZKHgetbook.at/CastOff
Saving Grace. What kind of trouble has Grace got herself into? And can Courtney save her before it is too late? £6.99, e-book £1.99. Free on Kindle Unlimited. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08P9LFG7N getbook.at/savinggrace
Silent Echoes. Loosely based on family memories. The Carters seem just like any other family. Apart, that is, from the life changing events nobody wants to talk about. Will history just keep repeating itself? Ebook-£1.99, Print-£7.99.getbook.at/SilentEchoes
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