Gilian Baker is a former writing and literature professor who finally threw in the towel and decided to just show ‘em how it’s done. She has gone on to forge a life outside of academia by adding blogger & ghostwriter to her CV. She currently uses her geeky superpowers only for good to entertain cozy mystery readers the world over. When she’s not plotting murder, you can find her puttering in her vegetable garden, knitting in front of the fire, snuggled up with her husband watching British mysteries or discussing literary theory with her daughter.
In her next life, she fervently hopes to come back as a cat, though she understands that would be going down the karmic ladder. She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona with her family and their three pampered felines.
Gilian
Baker is the author of Blogging
is Murder, the first in the Jade
Blackwell Mystery series. Blogging
is Murder will be released on
Amazon on February 19, 2017 and is now available for pre-order.
Could
you tell us a bit about your most recent book and why it is a
must-read?
Sure,
Amy. Blogging is Murder
introduces readers to Jade Blackwell, a former tenured English
professor who left the rat race behind to start a blog. She’s a
vivacious reader of classic mysteries and is lovably nosy.:) In the
first scene she learns that her friend and fellow blogger, Liz
Collins is being cyber-stalked by a crazed fan. Things escalate
quickly— the stalker is murdered and Liz is the prime suspect. To
help her friend, Jade sets out to prove she didn’t do it.
Unfortunately, Jade’s “help” ends up making matters worse, and
Liz is thrown in jail. Full of guilt, Jade enlists her friend and
lawyer Gabrielle Langdon to take the case. After many false starts,
plot twists and mishaps, Jade accidently breaking the case wide open,
while putting herself in harm’s way.
What
are your writing techniques? For example, do you pants it or plot it?
The
first step for me is to come up with a kernel of an idea and then
just start writing. I write until I come up against something in the
plot I’m not sure how to handle or until I’m out of ideas of what
to write next. When that happens I take a break from it for a day or
so. I might journal about it too. I find that the answers to the plot
problem or where to go from there is inside me. I just have to coax
it out.
After
the plot and characters have developed enough for me to get a clear
picture of where I’m going, I’ll go back and add in clues, red
herrings, etc. Sometimes I have to add a new character or change an
existing one based on where the plot is going.
I’ve
tried to sit down and plot out each chapter, but all I do is stare at
the page. I just can’t write fiction that way. Maybe it’s because
I do everything else as a plotter—I’m a planner, organizer and
list-maker to the extreme. So when it comes to the creative thing in
my life, my mind won’t do anything but pants-it.
Do
you have a day job in addition to being a writer? If so, what do you
do during the day?
Yes,
I do, for now. I taught college English for years, but was able to
“turn in my syllabus” over a year ago. Now I have a few different
day jobs, including a ghostwriting service. As I’ve written and
marketed this first book though, “author-ing” has become a large
part of most of my work days. I expect with book two and beyond it
will become even more so.
What
is the biggest surprise that you experienced after becoming a writer?
The
biggest surprise has been that the writing process is the same no
matter what you are writing. As I said, I taught college student how
to write for years, so I “get” the writing process. But somehow,
I thought writing fiction would require a different type of process.
But I find myself using the same one that I used when I was writing
literary criticism in grad school. I find that concept fascinating
and exciting.
Tell us a little about your plans for the future.
Tell us a little about your plans for the future.
I’ve started working on the second book
in the Jade Blackwell Mystery series. It will be released in May
2017. I plan on moving further into the world of “author” and
moving out of earning my living through the other types of writing I
currently do. In addition to the Jade Blackwell mystery series, I
have an idea for another cozy mystery series percolating now. I look
forward to “authoring” the rest of my life.
Visit Gilian Baker's website to learn more about her and her book and upcoming news!
http://gilianbaker.com/
The trailer for Blogging is Murder is changing what people think about book trailers. The recently released live action video trailer features real actors, real blogging, and real murder mystery.
View the trailer for Blogging is Murder on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEhhctO0iRM
Order "Blogging is Murder: A Jade Blackwell Mystery" here!
https://www.amazon.com/Blogging-Murder-Jade-Blackwell-Mystery/dp/1542331064/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1490834369&sr=1-1&keywords=baker%2C+gilian
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