M Taylor Christensen Interview

Q: Let me start with asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself.
A. I grew up in Texas, but the only remnant in my speech is a tendency to say “y’all” instead of “you guys.” I’m a design engineer and a university professor, but I would really like to be an inventor when I grow up.

Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
A. It’s been coming on gradually. I wrote a few short stories in high school, just because it sounded like fun. But if I had to point to one event, it would be when I went online to search for a middle grade science fiction story for my young kids for a Christmas gift I was hoping for something along the same lines as Harry Potter or Percy Jackson, which were incredibly popular at the time, but I couldn’t find anything that both took the reader seriously and didn’t have adult themes/content. So I decided to write one myself (that was my first book).

Q: Could you give us the highlights of your professional writing career including how you got your first writing break?
A. I’m not sure I’ve really gotten an official “writing break.” After I finished up my first book and I was trying to figure out what to do with it (querying agents), I entered a handful of novella and short story contests. I won first place in the Story Shares (Texas category), I got honorable mention in the Writers of the Future contest, and I was included in the Insecure Writer’s Support Group 2019 anthology. Then I decided to go ahead and venture out as an indie author.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release, SPIES NEVER QUIT?
A: It’s a light spy-thriller about a girl whose attempt to appease her mother’s kidnapper is foiled by two sorority girls who offer to help her pull off an undercover mission/rescue.

Q: Where did you get your inspiration for SPIES NEVER QUIT?
A: My daughter, Anna, has a very close friend named Hannah, and I woke from a dream one morning imagining that they had a group of girls with names that ended in –ana and they were spies. That, plus Charlie’s Angels.

Q: What is the main thing you hope readers remember from this story?
A: I hate to spoil it, but I actually can’t bring myself to write anything but happy endings. So I guess I hope my readers will remember that it’s okay to hope things will turn out okay in the end (“The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That’s what fiction means.” Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest).

Q: What inspires you to write?
A. Knowing that I can craft a world or a story that will brighten someone’s day.

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?
A. I just finished my edits on book two in the Banana Girls series (Spies Never Swoon) and sent it to my editor. Now I’m trying to fine tune the outline for book three (title TBD).

Q: When you’re not writing what do you like to do?
A. I like to bake desserts and play with my kids.