Launch: Susie Baggaley’s Grown Men Don’t Cry
INTERVIEW BY SUSAN HIGGINBOTHAM
Susie Baggaley is English, retired, a former CEO and ocean sailor, now living in Devon writing Women’s Fiction. Being a ‘blue water’ sailor, Susie began her writing career on those long ocean passages, and her storylines have come from the many and varied experiences she has had along the way. From her first novel – Dead Reckoning – (written under her maiden name of Su Garcia) to the latest in her ‘Mac’ series of historical novels, Grown Men Don’t Cry, Susie has been an independent, self-published author with an ever-increasing readership.
How would you describe Grown Men Don’t Cry and its themes in a couple of sentences?
As 1930 begins, Doctor Tom Wallace, a 35-year-old ship’s surgeon, is torn between a failing marriage to his twin brother’s widow, following the 1914–18 war, a love affair gone wrong with the woman of his dreams, Doctor Elizabeth Stuart-MacKenzie (Dr Mac), and a medical career in jeopardy. Unless he can come to terms with his demons, everyone involved will feel the full impact of the collateral damage.
What brought you to write historical fiction?
A fascination with young, gutsy pioneering woman of the late 1800s and early 1900s who left their homelands to travel to foreign destinations to do good work in often dangerous or trying circumstances. Examples of such women are Karen Blixen, Gertrude Bell and Margaret Ida Balfour.
Your novels are set in 1930s India. What drew you to this time and setting?
Meeting a retired, 80-year-old, Scottish, female doctor in my Hertfordshire village back in the 1980s, who had spent her early medical career working in a leper colony in Kashmir before tending to the sick and needy in Jodhpur. Elizabeth MacDonald (Dr Mac) had, with the support of the Maharaja of Jodhpur, project-managed the building of a native hospital for his subjects and a Presbyterian Church for their souls before returning to England during Indian partition. I went to Jodhpur some years later, visited the church and Dr Mac’s house (sadly the hospital had burned down) and had tea with the Presbyterian Minister who gave me valuable information on the area, its history and Dr Mac’s legacy. The Mac series was inspired by her story.
What is the genesis of your heroine?
My fictional Dr Mac (Elizabeth Stuart-MacKenzie) grew up in the Scottish Highlands, the eldest daughter of a Presbyterian Minister. The family moved to Berwick-on-Tweed, Northumbria when Elizabeth was a child. On reading of Florence Nightingale’s life in the Crimea, medicine became her goal. Qualifying from Edinburgh University as a doctor and with no interest in settling down to family life, Mac applied to the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine to undertake PhD research in tropical diseases. Boarding a P&O passenger liner in 1929, Mac was on a mission to ‘change the world’. Falling in love with a married ship’s surgeon and battling the misogynistic and intransigent men of the Indian Medical Service were, however, not in her plan . . .
Why did you decide to write Tom Wallace’s back story for Book 3 of the series when Dr Mac is your main protagonist?
As the series will be seven novels in length, the reader needed to understand and sympathise with Tom Wallace if the plot was to maintain momentum. These two protagonists’ lives are intertwined both personally and professionally throughout the series.
This novel is the third of a series. Do you have any advice to share for writing a series (maintaining character continuity, etc.)?
A novel series has many benefits for an author. The characters become familiar to readers who will want more, the readership grows with each new book and the author can enjoy a regular income stream. But, the plot has to have a powerful hook, the characters need to be strong and credible and the reader needs to feel empathy with the protagonists if they are to follow their story to the end. Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe and Diana Gabaldon’s Claire and Jamie are great examples of this. My advice would be to clearly define your audience, make sure your plot has real breadth, then plan each novel’s storyline and time period before starting Book 1. Your characters will become personal acquaintances of your readership so maintaining their idiosyncrasies will be essential if you are not to ruin your readerships’ expectations. Unless, of course, you have deliberate ‘red herrings’ embedded in your plot . . .
I understand that you formed your own publishing company. Can you tell us a little about the publishing path you chose?
My writing career didn’t even begin until I was in my 60s. With little in the way of a back catalogue of novels, evidence of commercial sales or personal longevity, I was not optimistic about obtaining either an agent or publisher for my work. Self-publishing was becoming a serious option and having run my own commercial business for 25 years, creating a publishing company to market my novels seemed the way to go. It has given me gravitas in the industry, allowed me to approach my work in a professional manner, and as a limited company, it will protect me as an author from potential future litigation should that ever occur.
From your Amazon page, I understand that you enjoy sailing. Has that played a role in your writing?
Calm ocean passages and long night watches are ideal environments for letting the creative juices flow. My husband and I took early retirements and went ‘Blue Water’ sailing back in the late 1990s and covered over 60,000 nautical miles, crossing the Atlantic Ocean four times before swallowing the anchor. I loved every single minute of it, even the tough bits, and my first and second ‘stand-alone’ novels, Dead Reckoning and Rum Punch both had sailing at their heart. Many acquaintances I met along the way formed the basis for a number of my characters.
Not wishing to risk a divorce and uncertain if my first novels would flop, I published Dead Reckoning and Rum Punch under my maiden name: Su Garcia. Fortunately, David and I are still very happily married.
What do you enjoy most about the writing process? On the flip side, what do you dislike most?
Likes: Losing myself in my characters’ lives. I fully understand that they are a figment of my imagination, but they will insist on taking me off at a tangent, usually to a set of circumstances I never contemplated before sitting down to write. That makes me smile.
Dislikes: Editing, editing, editing!!!
What is the last great book you read?
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese.
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