50 word bio
Gigi Vernon writes historical thriller and mystery fiction. Her publications appear in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and elsewhere, and her “Show Stopper” was a 2015 International Thriller Writers best short story finalist. She has an MA in Crime Fiction Writing and a PhD in history. Helen Heller represents her.
100 word bio
Gigi Vernon is a historian and librarian in the Finger Lakes region of New York. She writes historical thrillers and mysteries and has never met a time period she doesn’t love.
Her short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and elsewhere. Her “Show Stopper” in Mystery Writers of America Presents Ice Cold: Tales of Intrigue from the Cold War was a 2015 International Thriller Writers finalist for best short story. She has an MA in Crime Fiction Writing from the University of East Anglia and a PhD in history. Helen Heller at The Helen Heller Agency represents her.
Longer bio (140 words)
Originally from the Washington, D.C. area, Gigi Vernon now lives in the lovely Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. She has been known to swim across Cayuga Lake. She’s a historian and librarian who writes historical thriller and mystery fiction in the company of a needy conure (small parrot) known as Her Feathered Majesty. She’s never met a historical time period she doesn’t love.
Her short fiction and flash fiction have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and elsewhere. Her “Show Stopper,” which appeared in Mystery Writers of America Presents Ice Cold: Tales of Intrigue from the Cold War, was a 2015 International Thriller Writers finalist for best short story. She has an MA in Crime Fiction Writing from the University of East Anglia and a PhD in history. Helen Heller at The Helen Heller Agency represents her
Long rambling story of my writing journey
I am the descendant of a civil war scythe-murderer, and as such, I could be said to have murder in the blood. While I have been known to kill an insect or two when provoked, my own interest in murder is restricted to reading and writing about it.
Neither of the fellows in these intriguing photos (I can never get enough of old photos) are my actual ancestors (of whom no photos exist), but you get the idea.
What happened with the scythe-murder…. well, it’s a mystery, no one really knows. It’s another story, a long story, for another time.
To return to me and the present…
I never wanted to be a writer. Although I was a voracious, precocious reader from an early age, I never dreamed of being a writer, never thought I could be one. But my brother says I was always making up stories as a kid. I don’t remember telling him that, but I do remember the stories in my head. I thought everyone did that, that it was normal. Apparently not.
Even though I didn’t see myself as a writer, I did write fiction as a kid. When I was ten, I wrote my first novel long-hand in a booklet I made myself (this was in the days before laptops). My little friends saw me and decided to write books too and so my first writers’ club was formed. Then the teacher saw us and had the brilliant idea of making an assignment for the entire class of writing a book … And then my classmates hated me because they were forced to write books and they considered murder…. It’s a miracle I made it out of fifth grade alive.
That incident was traumatic, and for a long time afterwards, I stopped writing novels. During my teenage and college years I was more interested in good grades and boys, not necessarily in that order, and avoided anything artsy to my great regret now. It wasn’t until I got to grad school and was looking for ways to avoid writing my dissertation in medieval history that I returned to fiction writing. What a bad idea to do both, a very bad idea! Both my first novel (deservedly buried in a drawer with a couple of other novels) and dissertation suffered, and went slowly, excruciatingly slowly, but I persevered and eventually finished both.
Along the way, I came to understand that a story in your head isn’t quite the same as fiction on the page. Imagination is definitely necessary for fiction, but it’s not enough. Writing is about finding the right words to produce an emotional experience. Well, it’s not as easy as it might sound, especially for someone who never really wanted to be a writer in the first place. It took years of hard work–workshops, courses, how-to books and articles, joining writers’ organizations, an awesome local critique group (see my Writing Life), and lots of practice to get published.