Meet Gayle Wigglesworth!

Meet Gayle Wigglesworth, the endowed author of the Claire Gilliber Mysteries! Gayle has been writting for neigh on 50 years and has many accomplishments to be proud of.

To find out more about Gayle, read on -

Heather: To start off, tell us a little bit about your background:

How long have you been writing?

Gayle: Since I was a child, more than fifty years

Heather: What started you writing for publication?

Gayle: I always envisioned myself as a published author so it was just a matter of getting there.

Heather: Do you have a set time when you write, or just whenever you get the urge?

Gayle: I write almost everyday and usually between the hours of 9 – 5, unless the muse is with me then it can be earlier and stretch into the night hours.

Heather: Who is your favorite author?

Gayle: I don’t have one favorite I have lots, I like Charlaine Harris’ Lily Bard Series, Margaret Maron’s Sigrid Harold Series, Dick Francis’ early books before he had a co-author and many others such as Radine Trees Nehring and Alexander McCall Smith..

Heather: Have you ever had writer's block, and if so how do you get rid of it?

Gayle: I have my moments, sometime hours and days where I don’t know where I’m going with a plot or scene. I just keep working at it and working at it until I get something down on paper. Once it’s down I can keep going back until I get it where I like it. Sometimes that means I throw away that first solution and have something entirely different. I don’t give into a “writers block,” I just write something.

Heather: What do you recommend to aspiring authors?

Gayle: Just keep working at it.

Heather: How do you invent your characters?

Gayle: I think about them and think about them. I write down character studies for the main characters. Sometimes I model them on people I’ve known or pieces of various people. I have to know how they think and why they do what they do. Sometimes I write pages of back story which never get used in the book, but help me know who they are and how they would react in certain circumstances.

Heather: I know a few authors who keep records (almost like police records) of height, weight, background, etc. of their characters, do you keep tabs on your characters, and if so, what do you usually make note of?

Gayle: I do the character studies at the beginning before I use a character. For my series I have a running character list that I transfer to every folder when I start a new book in that series. I list all characters and who they are, names of any places, animals and pertinent dates that I want to make sure I keep straight. This list keeps me from making stupid mistakes and is very helpful when I want to use a person from an earlier book.

Heather: Some authors say that they feel as though his or her characters are real, do you feel this way, and what do you think about this?

Gayle: Characters do become real. Not only do I feel Claire Gulliver, my protagonist, is real and a close friend, my entire family thinks she is real and talks about her as if she is a member of our family.

Heather: Do you have anything in the works?

Gayle: I am completing the 6th Claire Gulliver Mystery and working on a new series I’m calling Glenda at Large.

Heather: What would you say is the neatest thing you know?

Gayle: That there is a solution for every problem; you just have to find it. And if you keep at it you will eventually succeed.


Heather: What was your favorite part about writing your book?

Gayle: Watching the story unfolding. As fun as it is to read a book it’s many times more fun to write it and see where the story is going.

Heather: Has music ever inspired your writing?

Gayle: Never noticed, I usually forget to turn it on.

Heather: Do you like to write in complete silence or does it have to be noisy?

Gayle: I block out other things so don’t notice. I do like the window in my office which looks into a tree’s branches which I sometimes stare into.

Heather: What made you put your characters in the setting that you did?

Gayle: I usually put them in the world as I see it and places where I’ve been. That makes it much easier to describe the setting so that readers feel like they’re there too.

Heather: Keyboard or pen?

Gayle: Definitely keyboard. I thank God for the delete key.

Heather: What do you think is the hardest part about being an author?

Gayle: The business part of managing, promoting and selling your books.

Heather: What do you usually do while writing?

Gayle: Write, and sometimes pause to think.

Heather: What were the circumstances surrounding your decisions to become an author?

Gayle: The company I moved to Texas to work for got sold and they decided to close that facility and merge it with one in another state. I was faced with finding another position at another company and decided just to retire early and get my book published. Given my previous experience with finding a publisher, that was a gutsy plan, but it worked.

Heather: Some people say that you need to live life before you write a book, do you think that it’s experience that writes a book or imagination?

Gayle: Both. Imagination makes up the stories, situations and solutions, but experience is what allows the writers to describe the stories in a manner which makes them believable to the reader.


I like the colors of: jewels
The sky is most beautiful when it’s: sunset
My favorite feature of a computer is: delete
Thing I love most in the world is: life
Things I hate most in the world is: suffering
My favorite type of electronic device is: computer
My favorite thing that has been available before the year 1900: babies

My favorite thing that has been available since the year 1960: laptop

The oddest thing you have ever written on (hand, wall, etc.) is: the beach


Learn more about Gayle at http://www.gaylewigglesworth.com/