Welcome Cynthia MacGregor

When did you seriously sit down, and say to yourself, I’m going to write a novel?

A novel? Gee, I’m not sure. My first book was published in 1993, but it, like most of my 54 conventionally published books and over 50 e-books, was nonfiction. I think it was later in the ’90s that my first novel came out, and I think I wrote it in response to a call for submissions. I’d written only nonfiction up to that point…but that alone was reason enough to try my hand at fiction. I like to always be spreading my wings and trying something new.

If you were to start again, with the knowledge you have now, what would be the first thing you do?

Start again at what? Writing? Writing books? Writing novels? Sorry, but your intent is unclear here. I think I’d try writing books sooner in my career—I was sticking to short-form stuff—stories and articles—for an awfully long time. But that’s not because of knowledge I have now, so that doesn’t really answer your question…and I’m not sure I have an answer to your question.

Do you have the support of family and friends?

Well, sure. I mean, who wouldn’t be supportive of a writing and editing career? (I edit too; I’ve been editing almost as long as I’ve been writing.)

Do you have a book coming out? If so what?

I have quite a few books scheduled to be published in the next few months with XoXo Publishing, and a few with SynergEbooks, but neither publisher has given me specific pub dates yet. At present XoXo is having website issues and they’re holding up on new releases. But I do have quite a few due out…and one with XoXo is even fiction. It’s a novella—a “cougar” romance. (The rest of my forthcoming releases, of course, are nonfiction.)

How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?

Quite a bit, though more so in my nonfiction than in my fiction. Of course, not all my books connect to my reality. For example I have a book of true-life stories of adoptees and their birth parents searching for and finding each other. Now, that’s not my life. I am neither an adoptee nor the mother of one.

Do you have a set schedule for writing or do you just go with the flow?

Well, I work all day every day (except for going to church on Sunday mornings and taking time off occasionally for doctor appointments, hairdresser, and such), but “work” doesn’t always mean “writing,” and “writing” doesn’t always involve a book. First of all, the writing business involves a lot of promotion—this interview is a good example of that. Second, as I said earlier, I also do editing. And third, as a full-time freelance writer/editor I do lots of writing besides books. I’ve been hired as a freelancer to write catalog copy, web copy, the scripts for two separate promotional videos, advertisements, and much else. So even though I’m always working, I’m not always writing, and even when I’m writing, it’s not always books. Obviously work for paying customers has to take precedence over such speculative projects as book-writing. But whenever I’m not embroiled in other work, I’m working on a book.

What do you have coming up? Any teasers you want to give us?

Well, as I mentioned earlier, I have a cougar romance novella. It’s titled Cat on the Prowl and will be released soon by XoXo Publishing. They’ll also be releasing a book of children’s bedtime stories called Tuck-In Tales, and two more cookbooks. (I have a print cookbook and three e-cookbooks out already.) And quite a few more books…but as I said, I don’t have a schedule at this time. And SynergEbooks will be releasing several of my titles including Lost Your “Best Friend”?, which is a helpful guide to coping with the death of a pet.

What is your writing routine once you start a book?

Again, I don’t understand the question. I sit down and I write. When I’m done writing the book, I go back and revise. I don’t think the word “routine” is applicable there. I work on the book in every minute of my working day that isn’t claimed by some other project that has to take priority. But surely that’s not what you were asking me. I’m sorry if I’m being dense but I’m not sure what you’re actually asking me here.

What are your thoughts on love scenes in romance novels, do you find them difficult to write?

Yes, kind of. The rest of the book is easier. And nonfiction is easier than fiction altogether.

What kind of research do you do?


As little as possible. I love writing but don’t enjoy research at all. I try to write books that don’t require much if any research, but of course, as a nonfiction writer, I have no choice but to do some research on at least some of my books. (In that regard, fiction is easier!) Sometimes I hire a friend to do the research for me, actually.

Fill in the blank favorites –

Dessert.

I very rarely eat dessert. I don’t have a sweet tooth—I’m more drawn to spicy foods, garlicky foods, highly flavorful foods. I do like pumpkin pie, coffee-flavored ice cream, and a few other desserts, but I very rarely actually eat them.

City.

I lived in NYC much of my life and still love it, but I wouldn’t move back to those cold winters for any amount of money.

Season.

Spring and summer.

I love warm weather. That’s why I live in South Florida.

Type of hero. Real life or fiction?

In real life I admire everyday heroes like Jimmy Carter, who left the presidency and went on to work for peace instead of trying to get richer or more famous. In fiction…well, I don’t read much fiction. I infinitely prefer to read nonfiction. And the fiction I read, when I do, doesn’t necessarily have “heroes” in it. Not all fiction has heroes and heroines. That’s kind of mostly found in romances, which I don’t read at all, even though I’ve written a few. I wrote them to see if I could, and to see if there was money in writing them, but that’s not a genre I’m at all interested in reading.

Type of heroine.

Well, in real life my late mother was and is my heroine, but in fiction, see my answer above.

What are some of your favorite things to do, or your hobbies?

I LOOOOOOVE to write, and write for fun as well as for money. I’m heavily involved in an online wordplay group called PUNY (Punsters United Nearly Yearly) and was named Punster of the Year several years ago by the International Save the Pun Foundation. (I am not making that up—that’s a real group.) I also LOVE to cook (which led to my writing a number of cookbooks).

Who are some of your other favorite authors and/or genres to read?



I don’t have a favorite author. As to genres, I already told you I prefer nonfiction, and within nonfiction I have a preference for humor, for books about words and language, and for interesting books on a wide variety of subjects

Which of your books has been the easiest to write?  The hardest?  The most fun?

They’re all both hard and fun when I’m working on them. The one I just finished (I’m mailing out six copies today to various print publishers)  was probably the easiest.

Which comes first, the story, the characters or the setting?


Story. If I’m going to write fiction, first I need to know what I’m writing about. That’s story. Then I have to think who my characters are. Finally I have to decide where to set the thing.

If we asked your muse to tell us three things about you, what do you think they might say?

# 1 - Besides writing and editing I also have a TV show that I host and produce. It’s currently on hiatus—in reruns—and I am waiting with bated breath to find out if it is going to be renewed. At the invitation of the station that it runs on, I sent them a proposal for another show as well. The latest communication from the station is that they are definitely picking up AT LEAST one of the shows, to start production in December. I am on tenterhooks to find out which show they pick up—hoping it’s BOTH. As I write this it’s October 29, and they are supposed to let me know very early in November, so by the time you read this, I may already know.

          In addition, national versions of both shows are scheduled to run on a new network that was supposed to have launched in the fall but has not yet done so. I am waiting very impatiently to hear when it is really going to happen so that I can go back into production with the shows and have them ready to air on the new network.

          Too, I expect to earn some money from the network deal. I have not gotten a dime out of the local show.

# 2 - In addition to all this, I am an ordained minister, though I don’t have a church that I am pastor of. I am active in a church but am NOT the spiritual leader there, though I am a member of the music and worship committee and coordinator of the volunteers and do other volunteer work.

          Briefly I had my own church—we met in my home till the Zoning Department found out about it and shut us down. They said No religious services in a residence.

          After that, my ministry was in conducting Sunday worship services for the residents of an Assisted Living Facility, but the number of attendees at the services diminished as the old residents died off and the new ones declined to come to services, and finally the ALF administration decided it was pointless for me to come in for just a few congregants. They said when they got new residents who were interested in having their spiritual needs met they would call me to start coming in and conducting Sunday services again.

# 3 - Hmmm…you said three things about me. What would be the third? Oh, maybe you would like to know that my best friend is a man who used to be my lover. We were lovers back in 1979 and remained close friends ever after. I usually stay friends with boyfriends afterward. I think if someone has enough going for them that you want to be in a relationship with them, there should be enough to sustain a friendship even after you break up.

Congratulations, your novel was just picked up by a major Hollywood studio. They are letting you cast the characters. Name the book you would choose to be made into a movie and who you think would play those characters.

Probably the one I quoted the passage from, earlier, What Child Is This? And as for the actors, you’re asking the wrong person. Since I never go to the movies, I have no idea who today’s Hollywood actors and actresses are, except for the ones whose names get into the newspapers because they died or got arrested or something. But that doesn’t inform me as to what they look like or how well they act, so really I have no frickin’ idea who would be good to play Marie and the other characters in that book or any other novel of mine.

If you could choose anywhere in the world to set up your desk and write, where would you like it to be? What’s so special to you about this place?

Really, I’m happy right where I am, though I’d love to hit the Lotto and own a house again. Financial considerations dictated that I sell my last house and move into a condo some five or so years ago, but I’d prefer the spaciousness and privacy of a house, and my Significant Other agrees. We’ve been living together only a little over four years, so he never saw my last house.

 What Child Is This by Cynthia MacGregor

Secret Cravings Publishing

Buy HERE

All Marie Levy Erlig wants is to have a nice normal baby.

All Adam Josephson and Rev. Argyle each want is for their respective churches to grow.

Van Jordan, Channel 11 newsman, wants a Big Story.

When two kids see an apparition they believe is the Virgin Mary, and shortly after that Marie gives Share the Harvest an eggplant that seems to bear the likeness of Mary on it, causing a huge uproar in her small town.  Adam, Reverend Argyle, Van, and others see in her a way to pursue their own agendas. They are joined by many who truly believe—but Marie wants to be left alone to give birth to what she keeps telling them is just a normal baby.  Only Pastor Hemmings has no selfish agenda. He helps Marie to make a getaway, complete with a new identity.  But can she really escape the public eye permanently?

Excerpt:

Things hadn’t got so bad that Marie was living in a war zone, but there was certainly no warmth left in the relationship.  She didn’t have a husband, a lover, even an ally.  What she had was a roommate. 

     No, certainly not an ally.  Where Cole had railed at the writers before, he now welcomed them.  Where he had resented the various intrusions, he now appreciated them.  As long as he was the beneficiary.  As long as it contributed to his growing fame or to the growth of his business. 

     One morning, Marie got up at 4:30 after lying awake for a while.  She had to pee; the baby was kicking; there was a lot on her mind; sleep seemed out of the question.  She wandered out to the kitchen.  Through the drawn verticals, she could see a flickering.  Alarmed, she went to the window and peered out.  Four local residents, true believers all, were keeping a candlelight vigil outside her house.  “We’re the faith brigade,” they told her.  “We’ll be here from now on—us or our replacements.  Reverend Argyle worked out shifts.”

     The next day, five more women had joined them.  Catholics all, the five new additions stood there telling their beads, saying the rosary for the well-being of Marie and her son-to-be.  The day after that, the mayor’s office called.  Flamingo Cove wanted to discuss an honor with her, a ceremony at which she would be given a key to the town, in honor of her putting the town on the map.  Unquestionably, she was the town’s most famous citizen.

     She wished it were otherwise.

     There were days when she wished she hadn’t gotten pregnant, times when she regretted her timing in having a baby right then.  Had she had the baby six months earlier or later, and not right after those two kids saw that vision—had she not picked that particular eggplant to take to the Share the Harvest event—if only the confluence of events had been different.  There was even one night, when she awakened at 2:00 to go to the bathroom and shuffled out to the kitchen for a drink of ice water, when she heard the faint murmurings of “Hail Mary, full of grace,” outside the front window and wished, momentarily, that she’d had an abortion.

     No!  She didn’t mean that!