Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi, I grew up in New Jersey but I was born in Canada and brought to the US by my parents when I was six years old. My parents made sure that we got to know Canada and our relatives and we traveled back and forth there at least once a year. So when it came time for graduate school, I chose Toronto and eventually settled in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital city. I stayed there for many years but recently I wanted to be closer to my brother and escape the brutal winter so I moved to a small town in Florida.
I’ve written three full-length books and three published short stories about romance. Two of my books are nonfiction and my latest, is a mystery that takes place in Ottawa
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Finding Lisa and it is very loosely based around the true life disappearance of an acquaintance of mine in Ottawa. I fictionalized the story to make it between two best friends. What would happen if your best friend went missing right after she told you that she was pregnant with a baby that might not belong to her partner and her partner had a history of domestic violence?
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I dictate everything using Dragon NaturallySpeaking and I love dictation! This means, though, that I have to gather my thoughts very quickly before I speak. And when Dragon makes a mistake, it’s often very funny because the main errors that it makes are in terms of homonyms. For example, sometimes when I want to say the word immune, Dragon writes Indian. But if I say immune system, Dragon will get it right. Dragon also spells everything perfectly, which is a real plus.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
When I was young, I loved Joyce Carol Oates and Charles Dickens. I also liked all the Russian authors, particularly Dostoyevsky, and in the last 10 or 12 years, I have been a huge fan of Jodi Picoult’s mainly because she writes excellent stories yet she manages to address a different social issue in each story, such as school shootings, the plight of elephants in the wilds, autism, or breeding children to be organ donors for their sick siblings (My Sister’s Keeper). I have addressed a number of social issues in Finding Lisa such as domestic violence, dating a man with a criminal record, midlife crisis, unrequited love, and addiction.
What are you working on now?
Right now, I’m just doing my day job as the owner of Book Magic, a copyediting and critique company. We work on a number of fascinating manuscripts and although I would never say this out loud, I love this work and I would do it for free! Don’t tell anybody.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I really like Chick Lit Cafe for my genre and blog tours. I have also found that making my book free on Amazon for a very short period of time — my publisher only allows three days or so — will make sales skyrocket and increase my ranking on Amazon. After that, the book is more visible and I have more actual sales for money.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
My best advice for new authors is to read as much as you can in many different genres. But don’t read your Amazon reviews! Certainly don’t be influenced by your Amazon reviews because you may love a particular character in your book or your series and some of the reviewers may not; in that case, go with your gut. Don’t write to be commercially viable. Write for yourself and sell it because it’s genuine.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t wait for a burst of creativity to hit you. That would take forever. Just do it. Start writing. Devote a portion of your day to writing every day until you get a skeletal draft down. Once you have the basics down, it’s like building a foundation of a house. Everything else will come more naturally because all of writing is rewriting, particularly when we are talking about full-length book. Revise, revise, revise. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Then find some beta readers whom you trust, people with good judgment about books who can give you constructive feedback that is useful. And be open to receiving that feedback.
What are you reading now?
I am reading Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie. It’s an excellent story about a Muslim girl, Isma, who has been taking care of her younger brother and sister for years after their parents died. The father was a jihadist and died in Guantánamo Bay and the naïve brother is seduced into Al Qaeda. Then the twin sister meets a guy she falls for, but his father is a VIP in the government and she doesn’t know how to tell him her family’s background.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m thinking of doing a sequel to Finding Lisa because I deliberately did not tie up all the loose ends at the end of the book.
What is your favorite book of all time?
I’m not sure if I could choose one book out of thousands, but I would lean toward Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand; her philosophy is controversial, thus, the book is fodder for great debate. But what I like best about it, aside from its length, clocking in somewhere around 1100 pages, is that it features a very strong female protagonist. This was important to me when I was young and I didn’t see anywhere near as many strong female role models as there are today. And this woman runs a company almost single-handedly because her brother, who co-chairs the company and takes most of the credit, is incompetent. Atlas poses the question of how much each individual owes the collective and for that reason it is very thought-provoking.
Author Websites and Profiles
Sigrid Macdonald Website
Sigrid Macdonald Amazon Profile
Sigrid Macdonald’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account