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Maureen Gill
Maureen Gill is a native Chicagoan and especially delighted that her writing style has been compared to a “gale force wind off Lake Michigan.” Her first novel, January Moon, has re...view moreMaureen Gill is a native Chicagoan and especially delighted that her writing style has been compared to a “gale force wind off Lake Michigan.” Her first novel, January Moon, has received excellent reviews and Maureen has also been compared to Michael Connolly and Lee Childe. January Moon is the first novel to situate female genital mutilation (FGM) at the heart of an American detective story and has been written in a refreshing new way that proves Maureen is unafraid to push boundaries and challenge conventions.Maureen explains, “I was trained in history at Loyola University Chicago and I used my training as a historian to write January Moon. As a professionally trained historian I don’t feel bound by all the formulas and style guides or other so-called rules about fiction. I write fiction using the techniques of a historian which I can explain this way: January Moon is about a cult and how actions inside the cult by one or more crazy people changed the lives of all the main characters. If I were going to write a compelling, fascinating story about the FBI’s raid on the Branch Davidians in Waco, I’d go down there and interview the whole town, all the survivors, their families and friends, as well as all the so-called important people like the federal agents themselves or the Attorney General. I’d write the story from the ground up, not the top down, and I might begin by interviewing a local woman who was the first to see the ominous helicopters move toward the cult compound as she was hanging out her ‘wersh’ one morning. That’s how I’d build the big picture: through the interwoven stories of the little people as well as the big people. I might open the story with the comments of the woman hanging out her wash. In January Moon I felt the need to tell a remarkable story through the voices and experiences of many people; some of those people would know how the events in the story changed their lives while a few might never know but taken together their lives were all a part of the bigger story. As a historian I’m very comfortable with huge epic stories about great men but they all also contain the many voices and influences of hundreds of people. I understand how history is written and now I’ve taken my professional ability to weave a great historical story out of real facts into the world of fiction, a special place where I can actually invent the facts and spin them to my own liking with all the bias I want and no worry about footnotes and bibliographies! It’s been very liberating.”Maureen explains her decision to go indie this way: “I received tremendous feedback from agents almost immediately after I began the query process. I was incredibly ignorant about querying but I’ve since learned I won the Lotto. I sent out less than 50 queries and within weeks was discussing the story with three important agents. Within 6 weeks of my first query I entered into a 90-day exclusive with one of them. Shortly thereafter, however, the discussion went south after they came back to me and suggested changes that would have totally altered the story. Most astonishingly, I was told I needed to ‘dumb it down’ because it was ‘too sophisticated’ for the ‘average’ American reader. I rejected that; I don’t think that’s true but even if it is, here’s the deal: I write the kind of books I like to read and I like stories with complex plots, intriguing characters, speed, surprises, and a lot of intellectual meat.”There were several things the agent said publishers appeared to be nervous about; the first was the FGM and the other Maureen’s critique of religious extremism. “Both of those topics, especially FGM, add to January Moon’s special uniqueness. While we were in these absurd discussions I did my own extensive research about my other options. It was obvious to me, for many, many reasons, that indie was the rational way for me to go. I did so and have never looked back. I’m at a point in my life where I understand the strength of my writing and I’ve been validated as a writer in many other venues and I never believed I needed traditional publishing to validate me. I also won’t pimp my work out for any reason.”Maureen explains further, “It surprises people that, given my training, I don’t write historical fiction. To that I say, I write contemporary historical fiction and by that I mean that I incorporate many of the hot-button issues in modern society into my stories. I do that to wedge open discussion about those topics and hopefully make readers think about a variety of important topics in a new ways.”Maureen believes she’s been successful in this because “the one thing I hear most often about January Moon is that people have learned something they might not otherwise have known or thought they even wanted to know. People write me deeply personal emails talking about these issues and sharing their personal experiences. I’m always deeply moved by their trust and willingness to share.”“People repeatedly tell me that they thought the FGM might be a turn off but it wasn’t. I’ve heard from men and women, Americans and Europeans, and received nothing but praise for how I handled the subject. People have thanked me for tackling it, explaining it, and not sensationalizing. I’ve been told I’ve written with class and great understanding.”“But January is about so much more. It’s about racism, religious fanaticism, mental illness, dysfunctional families and strong families. It’s about love and hate and loss and there are several really powerful love stories that are woven throughout the story.”“I spoke before a group of book club women in Chicago recently and was overwhelmed by their love for the story and the main characters. One woman astonished me – she could recite whole sections of the book! It’s been said that I write like a man and some readers have said they were surprised to learn I’m a woman but one lady said to me that I write like both a man and a woman. She said she heard manly voices as well as womanly voices and she strongly identified with a mother’s pain in the book. She said, ‘I know you think like a mature woman and you’re a mother.’ Some of the women told me they thought January Moon was a love story but their husbands thought it was a great cop story. I think that’s fantastic praise.”Among other academic awards, Maureen has won four Carnegie-Mellon Foundation awards for outstanding historical research and writing. A former legal and medical researcher, paralegal and college history and philosophy teacher, Maureen uses her grasp of US history and popular culture, as well as her skills for in-depth research and analysis, to write cutting edge contemporary fiction.January Moon is the first in her "Del Carter Calendar Series." The second book in the series, March Storm, will probably be available in the late summer or early fall 2011. Maureen is also writing a history book titled Daylight & Déjà vu. Maureen describes it as “all the good stuff you never learned in school and probably need to know now.”view less