Meet our Author on Spotlight, multi-award-winning creative writer, Maggie Kirton.
Maggie is the author of the bestselling memoir, My Firefly and the highly acclaimed Epic Fantasy, The Sagaman Series.
Tell us something about Maggie Kirton, the Writer
The Writer in me believes that everything and everyone has a story. Whether it’s an object or a living being, (human or otherwise,) there are two things they have in common:
1) They have a story about how they got to where they are.
2) They have a story about where they’re going.
Because of these two factors, I’m constantly fixated on Observation & Imagination, as shown in the following example:
An oddly shaped rock in the ditch caught my attention. It has no voice, no identifiable sound to tell me how it got there. Did it come from a gravel pit where it was dug up from thirty feet down in the earth? Was it consequently spread on this gravel road alongside others who also have no voice? Did it flip out from a tire driving over it and accidentally fly into the ditch? Which of these things is most important—which of them tells me the most unusual and interesting story?
Ultimately, the Writer in me will choose to give a poetic voice to the rock and I’ll discover what it feels like to be a rock—a rock that can fly.
This is Maggie Kirton, the Writer … I’m just a rock in a ditch deciding where I’ll fly for my next adventure in the inky realm of words and books...
How did you start writing novels?
I started writing in my early 20’s. I wrote by hand for hours and hours during the night by candle light. The things I wrote were ugly. The grammar was bad, the spelling was worse, writer’s cramp ruled my right hand—often clear up into my shoulder, and the handwriting was most often illegible. But I was learning how to write, and despite the gazillion rejection letters, I was determined to learn.
However, everything I wrote always, and without fail, carried bits and pieces of dirty little secrets about my abusive childhood. No matter how I tried to disguise it with fiction, it was always there—until 1997 at the age of 40 when I decided enough was enough.
I spent the next 5 years writing those dirty little secrets onto paper by hand; then typed them out on a shiny new electric typewriter--at least ten times. In 1999, I learned how to turn on a computer and I wrote my first real novel, a memoir, in a Word Document. Despite having grammar and spelling assistance from Word, it took until 2003 before I had 1000 copies printed and bound. I sold out within 3 months and have only one single copy of the original in my possession. In 2011 I launched the memoir entitled My Firefly: Walls of the Storm on Amazon and it eventually became a best seller for 4 years in a row.
Although I wrote the book for 5 years, I’ve never read it. Like the rock in the ditch, the story needed to be written. When it was finished, I was able to spread my wings, fire-up my arse-light and search out new and exciting writing adventures.
Can you share something personal about Maggie, the woman?
I’m overwhelmingly shy and insecure around other people, although it doesn’t show when I’m chatting via computer—the computer is like a safe space. No matter how much I might like them, interacting with people exhausts me.
I have c-PTSD and because of it I tend to stay at home and use my energy being creative. I love my life and I’m grateful to God that I’m still alive and doing ok. I love knowing that I made my dream come true by writing my Big Red Book while still supporting other authors, assisting them to make their dreams come true.
And I’m grateful, so very, very grateful that I’m married to a man whose gentle love I can see in his eyes every single time I look at him.
What moves you? What is your driving force?
Being creative is what drives me, it’s in my DNA. I am a writer and I have an insatiable desire to write, but the muse is not always available no matter how observant I may be. That said, the muse’s lack of attention is a handy excuse because I procrastinate by doing other creative things, wood working, gardening, beading, sewing, etc., until I notice that one inspiring thing I’d been searching for—like the rock in the ditch—and I quickly return to my keyboard.
I think procrastination, for me, is like taking a time-out, a much-needed break required to avoid burnout. I guess it’s always more fun to blame it on the muse.
What was the first book you published?
The first book I published was only a small booklet of poetry. I printed out the interior and the cardstock cover, stapled the spine, and trimmed it with scissors. It was a disaster in more ways than one. I was selling it at a craft market venue in one of the local malls.
I’d sold a few copies and then we had an earthquake—literally. The mall was evacuated and thankfully no one was hurt. At the time I was also dabbling in freelance journalism and I always had my camera with me. I immediately took stock of the situation, pinned my PRESS ticket onto my jacket and started taking pictures and interviewing people. When done, I submitted the story and photo-film to the editor of the newspaper the next morning before they went to print. My photos and my interviews were published on the front page … under another journalist’s byline. I contacted the editor and was told that since I’m only a freelancer, the employees of the paper had priority, and, no… I will not be compensated. I stopped freelancing.
As for an officially published book, my first book is my memoir and being an award winning and bestselling book, it certainly paid more than the newspaper paid which was $0.05 per printed inch.
Let's talk about The Sagaman Series.
What inspired this 4-book series?
A turtle inspired the series.
While walking up the trail leading to our small cottage on the lake, I spotted a piece of deadfall hung up on an old fallen log. The deadfall, from the angle where I first saw it, looked like a prehistoric turtle with a wild shell extending far over its outstretched head. Its two front feet were wide and thick and implanted into the mossy belly of the fallen log. From that image, a children’s story was born.
But the children’s book (a WIP) led me to remember that there are other ways to use the working title I was using for the kid’s book: Sagaman: Keeper of the Word.
Those words were all the inspiration I needed. I started doing my homework as I’d never written in the Fantasy genre. I read every fantasy book I could get my hands on for two solid years. I read the good, the bad, and yep, the ugly.
Within about a year, I was able to clearly identify what was good or bad or ugly … and it was then that I returned to the good ones and read and reread them until I could pick out the masters of the genre, the ones like Tolkien, Martin, etc. I even reread Clemmens’ (Twain) books because of the way he could make characters so real.
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I studied all of them for the next year and I discovered the one secret they all had in common no matter what genre they wrote in: they broke the rules. They set the rules aside and followed the beat of their own heart. They became my teachers.
So, properly armed with Microsoft Word as my grammar and spellchecker, I decided to write the Sagaman Kessler book … but not before mentioning it to my foster dad whose last name was Kessler and had his blessing to use that name. He knew about my dream to write a big red book. He knew the memoir was already long behind me. And he knew I could write the book.
What neither of us knew at the time was, what started as a single big fat book, would turn into 4 big fat books.
Why did you shift to Fantasy?
I truly do not know how that happened. It just felt like the right way to go and so the homework began.
How did you approach creating believable worlds with their own rules and internal logic?
I approached it by looking at the ‘human condition’ in today’s world. The human condition never changes … it varies from person to person, but it never changes. Only the scenery changes. I chose specifically to create my characters in such a way that anyone could identify with them.
Did you draw inspiration for your characters from real people, or are they purely from your imagination?
With the vague exception of one character, they are all from my imagination.
How long did you write the 4 books?
It took a total of seven years to complete the entire series, excluding the two prior years of homework. And then I published a second edition this year and had to rewrite some more.
What do you love most about it?
I love that I had laughing tears running down my cheeks because of a Vergrandi.
I love that I had real tears when characters were lost.
And I love that I was able to move forward between those two things.
Is there a message or theme you hope readers particularly take away from this work?
Yes! I hope any reader who chooses to read the series realizes that life is meant to be lived. That despite the dramas and traumas we experience, we can still live life with laughter in between the bouts of grief, pain, and tears. We are all human and we all have our individual struggles—war, pain, grief, illness, etc.—no matter the struggle, we are all designed to live fully and completely, without exception, even if it’s only for short moments at a time.
What's the most rewarding part about being an author?
For me, on a personal level, the most rewarding part of being an author is when one single person can see the message in what I write and believes it’s good enough to be out there. I’ve never been able to find that belief inside of me and so hearing it from someone else makes it real and that’s good enough for me.
On the flip side, what's a challenge of the writing life that many people might not realize?
The greatest challenge will always be to get feedback without having to beg for it. Without feedback, the author remains completely alone in front of the keyboard and never truly knows what he or she should be doing to make the literary work shine more brightly.
Can you share a picture of your writing space, where the magic happens?
As Fionta would say in Book One of the Sagaman Kessler Series:
“Be ye daft in the head? I’ll not be posting a picture of my space. I’ll be the only one who knows how to navigate the room and the piles and how to swing the chair ‘round so ye can just drop ye’r arse-light into it. Ye’ll not get a picture … it’s a secret … it’ll be staying that way and ye’ll not be changing my mind.”
Ok! We're staying away from your writing space! 😂
As an Indie author, how do you find the whole publishing process?
I publish exclusively on Amazon which means I no longer park a tent beside my mailbox while waiting for another rejection letter. That might make being published sound much simpler, but it’s not that simple.
All authors need a sounding board, someone to tell them what’s right or wrong with the work. We all require editors—without exception. We either have marketing skills or we don’t… there is no middle ground in this area. If an author doesn’t have the skillset to navigate the marketing of their work, then start saving the pennies while writing the book and hire someone after it’s been written and fully edited.
Great story-telling skills, excellent editing, and marketing are the keys to success.
How do you balance the business side of being an author with the creative side?
Other than keeping within a small budget on a month-to-month basis, I have no business skills. There’s nothing extra in the bank. I hired Eeva Lancaster (The Book Khaleesi) who manages all aspects of the Sagaman Kessler Series. She does the business end of things and I get the freedom to continue writing.
Any advice for aspiring writers trying to break into the industry?
Never give up on your dream to be a writer. We can’t all be best selling authors, but on the other hand, we can if we do it the right way. Yes, there are millions of authors out there but at the same time, there are also millions of readers.
Even if it takes years, write your story. Break the rules and make the story stand out from the crowd … learn from the masters in your genre—they are gentle teachers who betray their literary secrets to those who read between the lines.
What's next? Do you have another book in the pipeline?
At the time of this interview, it’s currently spring so the next step is to get the garden ready for planting. Regarding another book, I am currently semi-focused on finishing the children’s book I started so long ago. There’s also a phycological thriller currently at 30k words... we’ll see what comes out of the pipeline eventually.
Just for fun:
What is your nickname?
I have several but the most common ones are:
Baby from my husband
Maggie from friends
Firefly from those who understand
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If you could have any fictional character over for dinner, who would it be and why?
I would enjoy the company of Gandalf the wizard from Tolkien’s The Hobbit. I think I could possibly encourage him to write his memoir – but we’d first have to go on a few adventures together to understand his love of adventure truly and fully. I also wonder, and would likely question him, if writing his memoir would put a complete end to his love of adventure because, of course, putting a period at the end of an adventure completes it—and periods must be used in the writing of any tome. I’m unsure what we would eat although ‘take-out’ could be quite the adventure for both of us since I seldom leave the office. 😁
