Read the series intro to Will Come the Words: Writers & their creative spaces.
GAIL GALLANT lives and writes in Grey County, Ontario, Canada.
What I like about my space
Most of my two novels, ghost stories set here in Grey County, Ontario, were written in my kitchen, either sitting at a table or standing at a counter. It’s a big farm-sized kitchen with a cast iron woodstove that’s kept lit three seasons of the year. From the back kitchen window, I look out over forest and bush, with a blue ribbon of water in the distance. That’s the Sound itself, opening into Georgian Bay.
Our 160-year-old stone farmhouse is just outside of Owen Sound. It sits on 56 acres, set far back from the road and perched on the edge of a limestone ridge. I’m not saying it’s haunted (just in case I have to put it on the market someday) but I refuse to stay overnight here by myself. If my husband has to be away, I stay at a pied-à-terre we have in Hamilton. Just to be on the safe side.
I can’t imagine writing my ghost stories without the Grey County landscape surrounding me, rolling hills, and old farmsteads with weathered grey barns. I owned a huge old barn for a while myself. Let’s just say I wouldn’t have spent the night in there either.
What I write here
For many years I’ve written TV scripts and narration for science and history documentaries, but more recently, two YA novels — supernatural, thriller-romances about a teenage girl named Amelia who sees ghosts in, among other places, a haunted barn. Apparition came out in September 2013 (Doubleday Canada), and its sequel Absolution will be released in fall 2014.
My favourite writing quote (in honour of Alice Munro!):
“I can’t play bridge. I don’t play tennis. All those things that people learn, and I admire, there hasn’t seemed time for. But what there is time for is looking out the window.” ~ Alice Munro
My creative spaces online:
Gail Gallant Books on Facebook
PLUS
13 S-s-scary Things about Writing Your First Book by Gail Gallant (on this website)
♦ ♦ ♦
Also in this series (alphabetically by last name):
Stephanie Dickison (series intro)
lol, there really are some places that are scary, and I wouldn’t spend the night either. 🙂