LAST UPDATED: 24 October 2000

VZSciFi Live Creator Event Transcript: Author Mary Gentle Part One
Tuesday 27 June, 7.00am VZT (PST) 3.00pm GMT, Space City Conference Centre


Mary Gentle is one of the most prominent and successful fantasy writers of today. Born in Sussex in 1956 Mary Gentle left Hastings Grammar school at 16 and worked a variety of jobs Ð a cinema projectionist, warehouse clerk at a wholesale booksellers, a cook in an old folk's home, a valuation officer for the Inland Revenue, voluntary Meals-on-Wheels driver before finally becoming a self-employed writer in 1979 (supplemented by various unwholesome jobs like toilet cleaning at a girl's school and bottle washing in a chemist's shop).
In 1981 Mary talked her way onto her first degree course as a mature student at the University of Bournemouth where she took a BA in Combined Studies (Politics/English/Geography). Finding much inspiration for her writing, degree fever hit - all very useful research for her writing - and Mary enrolled at Goldsmith's College to take an MA in Seventeenth Century Studies which gave her material for two and a half books. For her latest novel, Ash, published this month in the UK by Victor Gollancz, Mary took another Masters degree at Kings in 1995 in War Studies.
Mary finished her first novel at the tender age of 15. It wasn't published, but a year later she was contacted by the editor she had sent it to, who asked whether she had completed anything else. She sent them the first part of what would later become A Hawk in Silver and it was published when she was 18. Her next novel, Golden Witchbreed was plucked un-agented off a slush pile for publication and the rest, as they say, is history...
But Mary is not all about fantasy writing. She has researched Renaissance magic, Memory palaces and Shakespearean drama. She has learnt to sword-fight with an instructor she met in the Tower of London. She has slept out on the pavement of London South Bank attempting to save the newly-discovered archaeological remains of the Rose Theatre from property developers. Has written comic scripts, edited anthologies, written scripts for the Sony Psygnosis PC computer game - Zombieville - and under the pseudonym Roxanne Morgan has written a series of erotic fiction.
Having lived in Sussex, Dorset and South London, Mary now lives in Stevenage with several fancy rats and an unexpected number of Kune Kune pigs. Her partner, Dean Wayland, is a keen amateur historian, and teaches a form of medieval sword-fighting. He is Registered Blind.

Go for more web links about Mary Gentle (This information is at the end of this interview which is three pages long)

Please note: this has been edited slightly for spelling, with repetitions removed, and to add additional information where appropriate. Special thanks to Mary for going over it again for us! The event was moderated by Caretaker Cuz

Caretaker Cuz: Today, we're delighted to have author Mary Gentle with us, creator of several acclaimed novels including her latest, Ash: A Secret History.
This is a moderated event. To ask a question, please ESP me your question and I will relay the question to Mary and the group.
I have a few questions here to kick us off... Mary, what made you become a writer?
Mary Gentle: Start with the easy ones, why don't you? ;)
Caretaker Cuz: LOL yup
Mary Gentle: Um... I always wanted to do it, ever since I was in school.
Caretaker Cuz: What was your first sale, and how long did it take to break into the market?
Mary Gentle: My first book was a young adult book, a Hawk in Silver. I sold that when I was 18, but I'd been sending things out since I was 16... novels, and a few short stories.
Linsue: Wow so young…
Mary Gentle: Yes, I feel much older now!
Caretaker Cuz: Was it hard to be taken seriously as a young writer?
Mary Gentle: Yes and it is hard, to be taken seriously in young adult or SF to start, but it gets easier as you go on. (More)