Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work.
Today: National bestselling author Meg Macy first dreamed of seeing a book with her name on it in the school library. She’s always found comfort, adventure, and connection in books—which might explain why she now writes stories that offer all three.
Meg writes LGBTQIA+ romance with a touch of spice, intrigue, and plenty of emotional payoff in the LOVE IS LOVE series. M/M romance and M/F polyamory, her stories are comfort reads with a twist. She’s also written cozy mysteries for Kensington, the Shamelessly Adorable Teddy Bear series, and is one half of the D.E. Ireland team for the Agatha-Award nominated historical mysteries featuring Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins.
She lives with her writing companion, Mr. Whiskers the cat, and prefers pages to parties.
FB: https://www.facebook.com/MegMacyAuthor
IG: https://www.instagram.com/meg.macy.author/
TT: https://www.tiktok.com/@meg_macy42
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/meg-macy
Thanks so much, Meg, for joining me!
J. Scott Coatsworth: What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?
Meg Macy: When I first started writing, I read and re-read Self-Editing for Fiction Writers to recall grammar, phrasing, etc., plus books on writing and plotting (Stephen King, Ronald Tobias, Robert McKee, plenty more), so I totally recommend those resources. To this day I still follow Michael Hauge’s 3-act (or 5 point) plot structure in writing my books. AI? HELL, no.
JSC: Name the book you like most among all you’ve written, and tell us why.
MM: Surprise, surprise, I loved writing All You Need Is Love since Jack Riley was so different than any other characters who knocked inside my head. He holds a special place in my heart along with Reese Baxter. But I have to admit I had the most fun co-writing the Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins mysteries with my best friend. Sound-boarding off each other, writing alternate chapters, editing and re-editing so they were seamless… but tough, too. It’s like having a bunch of kids — you love them all in different ways.
JSC: What does success mean to you?
MM: Clearly not money, ha. It’s been a long struggle for the past sixteen years since graduating with an MA in Writing Popular Fiction to make headway up the huge sand dune, sliding backwards several times, but I haven’t given up yet. Not even with the current AI nightmare going on, because success to me is being proud to have my (pseudonym) name on books I worked my tail off on to research, write, edit, proof, etc., from my first two western historical romances, my historical mysteries written with a co-author/friend, my cozy mysteries, and now my LGBTQ series plus the novellas. In a nutshell, I’d rather have them than hundreds of AI slop.
JSC: How did you choose the topic for P.S. I Love You?
MM: This is book 3 of my series, and I needed to find a Beatles theme song. I first chose All My Loving, but one third of the way into the book, the title didn’t seem to fit — since Jack and Reese are “taking a break.” So P.S. I Love You seemed to fit better. And since Jack is a former actor, it made sense for his ex, Kyle Kingston, to show up and persuade him to act in an indie LGBTQ film. Then I had to research about actors, sets, production details, director and assistant roles, intimacy coordinators, etc. I found it interesting to incorporate all that into the book.
JSC: What secondary character would you like to explore more? Tell me about them.
MM: Stevie Nicholls is Jack’s transgender best friend, and they go way back. She will play a big part in Book 4, All My Loving, which is only three or four chapters written (more on this later), because she’s fascinating. A loyal to the max friend, with a huge heart but a tragic past — she deserves her own happy ending.
JSC: What’s your favorite writing rule to smash into smithereens?
MM: Despite being a grammar and spelling fiend, I love sentence fragments. Enough said. 😉
JSC: Tell me about an event that absolutely changed your life. Did it change your writing too? How?
MM: When my child graduated high school, I cried buckets they were “flying from the nest.” Once they were in college, although I kept an eye on them, I knew it was my time — and writing skills trumped my watercolor art. It took a few years, but I soon got an agent and realized my dream. Seeing books with my name on it in bookstores and the library definitely changed me.
JSC: What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?
MM: I’m a big LOTR fan since high school, so Tolkien inspired me many times to keep going. “Not all those who wander are lost” since my family thought I was too buried in books, plus “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” At this point in my life, I’m grateful for the chances I’ve had to become an author, to earn accolades, to hopefully inspire and educate other readers about how justice should triumph over evil, and that love is love no matter who one chooses to share their life.
JSC: Star Trek or Star Wars? Why?
MM: Oh, boy. I was never an original Star Trek fan (ducking rotten tomatoes), but did get hooked on Voyager via my kid plus caught up on many episodes of TNG (I love Patrick Stewart). While I loved the original three Star Wars movies, great fun and decent storytelling, I felt the rest (pre- and post) were money-grab disappointments. So I choose Peter Jackson’s LOTR trilogy (not the Hobbit trio, God no) despite a few flaws since the books are FAR better!
JSC: If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it?
MM: No. I am finding that out right now, in fact. I had a reverse shoulder surgery two months ago and my left hand still has numb pinkie and ring fingers (from the nerve block). I chose to read during recovery — and PT takes all morning, nnngh. Just showering, getting dressed, driving there, yadda yadda, walking in the park after since the gym is still off limits. It’s exhausting. I wrote stories by hand as a kid, of course, and wrote essays by hand in college (cutting, taping segments, the horrors) until finally typing them up and using White-Out. I worked my fingers to the bone before the internet, for God’s sake, researching in the library stacks. So when I switched to writing in the 80s, I will never go back. I also cannot “voice” into an email or text, because the typos drive me crazy. But now that I managed to answer all these questions in the space of a few hours, instead of a few days, it’s time to get back to work on book four! I expect it might take longer anyway, as my shoulder hurts now. Nnnngh. I keep hitting the caps lock, too.
Thanks for having me again on the Spotlight!
And now for Meg’s latest book: P.S. I Love You:
Jackson Riley and Juliette (aka Jules) Baxter are enmeshed in new situations. Jack fled his latest trauma to act in a rom-com film, taking a break from his relationship with Reese, but now regrets his impulsiveness.
His ex-lover Kyle is the least of his problems when odd things happen on set and off. Jules and Chris are committed to their new love affair and in charge of the breakfast café and a new bakery, but keeping on top of employees and finances is not yet a “piece of cake.”
Family problems also plague Jules and Reese, while Jack discovers that acting in a film is totally different than acting on the stage. Will he and Reese ever learn effective communication rather than just sex? Will Reese solve the mystery of Jack’s mysterious past?