Gail grew up in a small town at the foothills of the North Carolina mountains. The granddaughter of a minister and niece of several English teachers, she inherited their interests in storytelling along with her mother's love of people. Her first writing appeared in a grammar school newspaper she and a friend put out about their classmates. Much later at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C., she enrolled in the college's first professional writing class, placing several poems in the literary magazine and one in The Anthology of American Poetry, published by Royal Publishing Company in Dallas, Texas. After graduation she worked in Atlanta, Georgia, as an editor and copywriter until she married. Then while helping her husband with his business she published poems and freelance articles. While some were selected for anthologies two historical pieces ended up in museums. After being nudged by others to do more with her writing Gail published her first book, Now Is The Time, a Christian novel. In 2004, the year it was released, the American Christian Writers Association named her a regional Writer of the Year. She also has been listed in Who's Who In Writers, Editors and Poets; Who's Who in the South and Southwest; Cambridge Dictionary of International Biography; and The World Who's Who of Women. She lives in Georgia, with Rick, her husband of thirty-seven years. When she isn't writing, she enjoys reading, swimming, traveling, and visiting with friends and relatives.

2. What made you start writing and when did you start? I often laugh and tell people, “Writing is the only thing I can do.” And, that's enough to make one start doing it. Un-teachable when it comes to crafts, I once sewed a cross-stitch picture to my jeans and had to take out every piece of thread to remove it. But I've been writing for as long as I can remember. As a child I made up stories and co-edited a literary magazine in grammar school.

3. What person has had the biggest effect on your life as a writer and why? William Paulk, an award-winning short story writer and poet, who taught English and started a professional writing class at Western Carolina University, in Cullowhee, N. C., where I attended college, had the biggest effect on my life as a writer. Giving my creative ramblings focus, he immersed me and his other students in writing techniques as well as encouraging us to submit work. After college when I applied for a position in the Public Relations Department of a large insurance company, the Department Head hired me as a receptionist. But, one day he put a stack of press releases on my desk. “Read these and see if you can write one. If you can I'll promote you,” he said. Thanks to William Paulk's instruction, I analyzed the press releases, copied the style and became part of the writing team.

4. How do you come up with an idea for a book? I usually hear or see something that sparks my imagination and gnaws at me until I do something about it. Then, I begin working with it by writing drafts of the plot, characters and settings.

5. What one thing do you like the most about being a writer, and why? What do you like least? I enjoy escaping to a different world to spend time with the people in it. I dislike rejections more than most things I can imagine.

6. Do you ever use real people as the inspiration for characters in your books? If so, why did you choose those particular people? Without real people, there would be no inspiration for fictitious ones. I don't choose a particular person and say, “I'm going to write a book based on him or her.” Rather, the characters become a composite of many things I've heard different folks say or have seen them do.

7. Do you write related books, such as series that revisit characters and/ or settings you've written about in previous books? As a reader, do you read other authors' series? I couldn't resist setting another book in Destin, so I've started my second inspirational romance / mystery. Even though I've read series books, I belong to a book club, so I tend to read our list first.

8. How much of your own life and experiences do you put into your books? Everything I write about has touched my life in some way. Since I empathize with people I don't have to have an experience to relate to it. I try to capture the essence of the feelings I think an event or circumstance has evoked and the effect it has had.

9. Are your books something you create alone, or do you have trusted advisors, brainstorm partners, or first readers you rely on to help you get the story right? I alone write a book, but I study or interview authorities while doing research for it. Also, I often have my daughter and my husband read it before anyone else. For LOVE TURNS THE TIDE I received valuable input from my editor at Awe-Struck.

10. Tell us about one fan letter you received that really touched your heart. Whenever anyone takes the time to compliment me on something I've written, it not only touches my heart, but also encourages me. The most unexpected comments I have received came from a book store manager where I'd held a book signing. Until I got her note in the mail it hadn't occurred to me that she had liked having me as much as I had enjoyed being there.