MENUMENU
  • About
  • Buy
  • Press
  • Book Clubs
  • Writer Resources
  • Allie Larkin
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • g

Allison Larkin

Internationally Best-Selling Author

You are here: Home / 3Ws / 3Ws – Greer Macallister

3Ws – Greer Macallister

November 11, 2014 Filed Under: 3Ws, author interviews, books are awesome, writing

Greer square profile

What do you create?

Words, words, words. Mostly fiction these days, with a smattering of poetry and playwriting here and there. My first novel, The Magician’s Lie, is coming out in January 2015. Which seems either years away or basically tomorrow, depending on the mood you catch me in. The Magician’s Lie is historical fiction, set in 1905, about a female magician whose most famous illusion involves cutting a man in half – a dangerous notion for the time, and one that gets her in hot water when a dead body is found under the stage after her show.

Historical fiction is my focus these days. It’s an enormous pain to write – so much research! – but I just love the idea of drawing the reader into a completely different world. That’s what I enjoy as a reader, so it’s what I try to create as a writer. Something absorbing. Something that takes you away.

Why do you create?

Because I can’t not. There have been a few – maybe more than a few – dark and demoralized times where I’ve thought about quitting writing forever, but they never last. I’ll go to bed Monday swearing I’m never writing again and I’ll wake up Tuesday with a powerful new idea percolating. I’m a fairly practical person, yet it’s exactly when the logical things are going completely wrong – a story gets rejected, some career door closes, a harsh but fair critique comes in – that I often feel most creative. Maybe it’s because when it seems like writing will never lead to recognition or money or any other external validation, I realize that I’d do it anyway, without any of those things. I do it because I love it. Because it’s an itch nothing else can scratch.

 

What do you consume?

Everything in moderation, including moderation. Having kids has changed my consumption habits a lot, as you might imagine. I almost never see movies in the theater anymore, but on the other hand, I’m constantly awake in the middle of the night with the baby, and she doesn’t object to me reading a book, or wandering the interwebs, or streaming Netflix. Some is just entertainment (who knew there were so many seasons of “Chuck”?) and some is research for the next book, and the best stuff checks both boxes. Right now I’m reading Karen Abbott’s Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, which is nonfiction about four female spies in the Civil War, and it’s riveting. I tried streaming the Ken Burns Civil War documentary, but if you’re trying to stay awake at 2 a.m., that’s not the way to do it. It takes something with a little more zing.

Links

Website: http://greermacallister.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/theladygreer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greer.macallister
The Magician’s Lie: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781402298684

 

TML cover

Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

  • Home
  • Allie Larkin
  • Blog
  • Book Clubs
  • Contact
  • Writer Resources

allielarkinwrites

We are in the habit of starting and ending our day We are in the habit of starting and ending our days side by side in our lawn chairs, while the light rises or dims. It’s still chilly at the outer edges of the day. Sometimes Roxy shivers. I bought her a sweater, but she won’t wear it. Sometimes I try to wrap her in my jacket, but she’s not having that either, so I throw her ball and try to get her run and then she comes back to her chair, warm for a little longer. #dailyroxydog #huskychihuahua #dogssittinginchairs
“I got a secret I should tell. I’m going up to “I got a secret I should tell. I’m going up to heaven in a split pea shell.” ~ @petermulvey43 Words Too Small to Say
Happy as a dog in a freshly dug nap hole. #dailyro Happy as a dog in a freshly dug nap hole. #dailyroxydog #huskymixesofinstagram
I saw this little dresser at my favorite magic ant I saw this little dresser at my favorite magic antique store sometime in November and didn’t buy it. But then, of course, I kept thinking about her. She’s the perfect size for my office, and I found those drawer pulls hilarious. When I finally went back in December, I told myself I was shopping for wall art, because I assumed she would be gone. But she was right where I’d seen her last: balanced on another dresser with boxes of old picture frames and tchotchkes piled on top (the true mark of a magic antique store). I didn’t even realize she had a towel rack — that she was a wash stand, not a dresser — until I asked about the price, said I’d take her, and my favorite magic antique store person asked if we needed to unscrew the towel rack to fit her in my car. I suspect this little sweetie is not from the days of necessary wash stands so much as from a country kitchen in the 80s. She was in rough shape, and not made from wood worth stripping and re-staining, but her price reflected that. I had to disassemble that door and put it back together, but I’d been in the market for some experience working with old furniture, and she made me feel brave about trying. I thought about painting her something more neutral, but I’m so glad I didn’t. She deserves to be pink. She’s not perfectly painted and needs a few touch ups. I learned some things about chalk paint and finishes. The drawers stick a bit. Eventually, I’d like to line them with fabric and when I do, I might plane the edges to smooth things out. But goodness, I love her in a way that I wouldn’t if I hadn’t spent time cleaning away her cobwebs and scrubbing the grime from her hilarious drawer pulls. She’s also become a little shrine for the book I’m working on, which makes me love her even more. I’ve always been a person who sees some soul in certain things, and I’m learning to cherish that idiosyncrasy, because there’s so much joy to be found in a brave little toaster or an underdog wash stand. We’re not here in the world for all that long. We may as well love some bright little things. #furnituremakeover
After Roxy started stealing my seat, I dragged a s After Roxy started stealing my seat, I dragged a second lawn chair out. She nudges me over and we sit in our chairs, side by side, and watch the sun set. Well, I watch the sun set. She spies on the neighbors. #dailyroxydog #dogstagram #sundayevening
I truly don’t understand how anyone is this cute I truly don’t understand how anyone is this cute. I never get used to it. There’s no immunity. She’s adorable beyond what pictures can capture. #dailyroxydog #huskymixesofinstagram #ilovemydog
Load More... Follow on Instagram

© Allison Larkin | Site by Little Leaf Design