Around the Fire Author Spotlight with Mary Georgina de Grey .

Today's guest comes to us from across the pond. 

​Thanks for joining us today,  Mary. It's always nice to get to know a fellow Wild Rose Press Author. Other than writing is there A skill you always wanted to learn?
My father was Polish but like many Polish servicemen with no family left after WW2, he refused to teach his children the language – he wanted nothing more to do with the country.
I was desperate to speak Polish – not being able to do so was like having a part of me missing – and I grasped every opportunity to learn the foreign languages available in school, determined to somehow speak as well as people of those nationalities. Only many years later did I get the chance to learn Polish. It was bittersweet: I’d finally done it but in no way could I achieve the near perfection I craved.

My Daughter in Law is polish. I'd hoped she'd teach my grandchildren to speak the language. Would you rather go back into history or forward into the future?
It’s tempting to say I’d go back in history – there are so many fascinating things we know about, and the future is uncertain and quite frightening at times. But I can go back any day just using my imagination and recreate an earlier time – and generally, I don’t do that, so I think I’d choose the future. Basically, I’m curious about where it’s all leading.

What's your favourite way to unwind"
Getting lost in the novel I’m writing is relaxing. Other writing, presentations and the like, is work. I have a lovely writing room with a stained-glass window, so no view.
Otherwise, I read several hours a day and also indulge in my passion for making beautiful jackets which I can wear for giving presentations.

Do you have a speciality dish
I love to cook, especially when I have visitors. Setting is important for me, which means I don’t just try to get a feeling for the area and the people. I do a lot of additional research, and being an enthusiastic cook, that includes food. These dishes become specialities for a while.
Researching for Then Time Stands Still, I came across the wonderful Chicken Chilindrón from northern Spain. The chilindrón sauce can be paired with any meat but there’s a wonderful mushroom version. 
Champiñones al Chilindrón 
It’s a nice simple dish and takes about 30 minutes to make.
Now I’m writing a book set in France, so I expect my speciality is going to change.

My first car was a 1969 Toyota Corona. What was your first vehicle?
As a student, I worked for a year to buy my first car: chambermaid (holidays), cleaner to a very aristocratic lady fallen on hard times (Saturdays) and even 5 am starts preparing newspapers for delivery in a local newsagent’s (not good). 
The car was a symbol of freedom and immediately, I started to explore the country around where I lived. That desire to travel never left me. I loved my 20-year- old  car, a Morris Traveller, famously described by an American woman as a timber-framed car.

Again, Mary, thank you for spending time with me. Can you tell us about your latest books?
​​

​www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Mary-Georgina-De-Grey/author/B0BWS42CJV
Then the Earth Moved.
Talented designer Isla Bruni is keen to widen her experience before setting up her own interiors business, so she accepts an exchange with a top studio located in an Italian hilltop town. She doesn’t trust Italian men—after all, hasn’t she had good reason? But irresistible, sexy entrepreneur Edmondo Benedetti turns her carefully ordered life upside down. How can she realize her ambitions without sacrificing love? Only when she’s thrust into danger does she begin to understand what is important. The past is the past. Yet if secrets buried there resurface, could they destroy her future?
Then Time Stands Still
English archaeologist Dr. Amancia Harding has looked after her family for five years. Now it’s time to take care of herself, and leading a team on a dig in Spain is the perfect way to propel her career forward. Her good intentions are threatened when she meets vineyard owner Max Serrano. Damaged by war in Ukraine and a tragic event in his past, Max has given up on relationships and taken refuge in making wine, but the attraction he feels to Amancia forces him to confront painful issues. There’s also the gulf between their two cultures to consider if a relationship is to have any chance of success. Ambitious and fiery in character, can either accept that compromise is sometimes necessary to find happiness?

More about the author.
Learning several languages and using them at work has meant I have lived in different European countries, and I even spent a couple of years in South America. Though I live in the UK now, on the beautiful English Riviera, this rich experience has provided me with lots of material for my novels.
I’m not writing a series, but the novels each have a love story as central, featuring strong women determined to make something of their lives, despite setbacks – and there are quite a few. The heat rating for The Wild Rose Press is Champagne Rose – between sweet and hot, but relatively mild.
I’ve always been interested in archaeology and a visit to the Roman section of a museum in Bristol UK set me off thinking about making an archaeologist my main character. A little later, I visited Zaragoza in Spain and loved it, particularly the Roman remains they’d so recently discovered.
While still there, enjoying a glass of the local Rioja, I began to imagine what would happen if a new site were to be discovered in the area and my character had the opportunity to work on it. This was such a great idea, I got to work straightaway on Then time Stands Still, which was published in September 2024 by The Wild Rose Press.
Website: https:// https://marygeorginadegreyauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086424198194
Email: [email protected] for newsletter and other enquiries.