#WriterWedneday Author Interview with A-M Mawhiney
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Welcome to A-M Mawhiney to the blog for #WriterWednesday!
Things you need for your writing sessions: I need to be sure to have my laptop, my iPad (for research), a dictionary, paper and pen, a quiet space, and time for regular breaks.
Things that hamper your writing: Loud noise/music, being interrupted when I’m ‘in the zone,’ phone calls, and fatigue
Words that describe you: Introverted, independent-minded, and easy-going most of the time.
Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: weird, clumsy, easily distracted
Something you’re really good at: Speedreading
Something you’re really bad at: Anything athletic. I am really bad at sports but am a great fan of sports.
Last best thing you ate: Gluten-free chocolate truffles
Last thing you regret eating: Bacon.
Favorite music or song: “Pie Jesu.” This song makes me cry whenever I hear it.
Music that drives you crazy: Anything with a strong bass beat that overpowers the rest of the music and that you can feel physically.
Things you always put in your books: Social issues and more than one main character.
Things you never put in your books: Murder, at least so far.
Most daring thing you’ve ever done: As someone who is afraid of heights, the day my sister and I challenged each other to use a rope bridge high over a river and rocks so that we could see a famous waterfall on the other side. I was terrified while crossing and decided it was worth it when I saw the waterfalls.
Something you chickened out from doing: I was going to Barbados with friend who was a certified scuba instructor. I planned to dive but chickened out at the thought of all that water between me and fresh air.
The funniest thing to happen to you: I was celebrating an important milestone with one of my work teams and invited them to a local restaurant. I also invited my supervisor. I was talking to a person beside me when my supervisor asked me if I had a pen. Without looking, I reached into my purse and handed him a pen. Then I notice the previously animated conversations had fallen silent. I looked at my supervisor and realized I had handed him a tampon. I still laugh when I think about this.
The most embarrassing thing to happen to you: I was in an isolated area in the British Columbia, Canada interior doing research for Fugitive Rifts, when I tripped over a stick and it activated the automatic 911 emergency response on my cellphone. When 911 called me, I was so flustered I kept hanging up instead of answering the call. Finally, I connected and assured the operator I was safe and with my sister, who was also one of my emergency contacts. The operator said she would call back the emergency response team hurrying my way. Then she called my sister to make sure everything was okay. At least I know what happens if I ever need to set off the alarm another time.
The nicest thing a reader said to you: “It’s [Fugitive Rifts] a story for every kid who was made to feel they cared too much.”
The craziest thing a reader said to you: “I had no idea you could write something like this. I always thought you were kind of boring.” He apparently thought this was a compliment.
My favorite book as a child: In grade six we read a young person’s version of Les Misérables called Jean Val Jean. I believe I still have that copy. The thought that someone could be hanged for stealing food for a starving family shocked me.
A book I’ve read more than once: We spent our summers as children at my grandparents’ cabin far from any library or bookstore, and we only had access to a car on weekends when my father and grandfather returned from where they worked during the week. I read Trixie Belden and the Secret of the Mansion by Julie Campbell thirteen times that summer. The following summers my parents drove us to the nearest library 30 miles away one a month, and we took out as many books as we wanted.
Your favorite movie as a child: Mary Poppins
A TV show or movie that kept you awake at night as a kid (or as an adult): It was a movie shown on TV one Saturday night called The Fly. I had nightmares for months.
About A-M:
At age eight A-M Mawhiney announced she wanted to be an author. It only took sixty years. Her career, first as a social worker and then as a university professor and senior administrator, ended with her retirement in 2018. She began writing again during the first lockdown in 2020. To her surprise she found herself writing her first novel, Spindrifts. which was a finalist in the 8th annual Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writers’ Prize and shortlisted for the Whistler Independent Book Awards in 2022. Its sequel, Spelldrifts, was released in 2023, and her latest book, Fugitive Rifts, was published in July 2025. When she isn’t writing A-M enjoys reading, taking in local basketball games, time with family and friends, and travelling. She lives in Sudbury, Ontario with her partner Dave.
Let’s Be Social:
Website: http://www.ammawhiney.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Anne-MarieMawhiney
