Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Hummel Gallagher.
Hi Heather Hummel; thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, tell our readers some of your backstories.
My maternal grandmother was a top comedy writer back in the day. She taught me a lot about language and how to use it. I used to send her essays (in the mail long before emails), and she would critique them and mail them back to me. She greatly influenced my writing career through my teens and early twenties. She passed away when I was 21, but to this day, I use the tools she taught me. Add to it that my father was a private school English teacher, and I had all the beginning influences to becoming a writer. I also became an English teacher before I left to launch my writing career. My first novel, Write from the Heart, is about a writer, and my second novel, Whispers from the Heart, is about an English teacher. Both novels focus on the love of journal writing.
Would it be a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Initially, it was a smooth road. In 2005 my mother became a lifestyle model at 63 when a Hollywood producer discovered her. She was featured in a local magazine, and her story went viral (before social media even). The AP Press picked up the story and started appearing in different newspapers nationwide. From there, we decided a book was in order. I wrote three sample chapters and a book proposal and landed the first agent I reached out to. Within a few months, we had a book deal with McGraw-Hill, and a year later, the book Gracefully: Looking and Being Your Best at Any Age was launched. That opened a lot of doors for me. However, being a novelist is different from being a ghostwriter for non-fiction books. A different level of marketing is involved, and the industry is changing rapidly. I worked diligently to stay up with the new trends, especially with Amazon. I’mI’m now writing my 7th novel, and I haven’t looked back.
Thanks for sharing that. Can you tell us more about your work next?
I am an award-winning best-selling author of two series and two stand-alone books. My books’ awards include a New York Book Festival award for Whispers from the Heart and an incipient prize for Call it Kismet. I’m a graduate with High Distinction from the University of Virginia and hold a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies degree with concentrations in English and Secondary Education. I was born in Greenwich, CT, but soon left New England and spent my twenties and thirties traveling and living in every corner of the country. I followed my grandmother’s footsteps with the written word and was more interested in traveling around the United States than settling down and starting a family. I wrote novels in coffee shops from Virginia to California to Colorado. Eventually, I settled down and married for the first time in my early fifties. My husband, Stephen, and I have two Labradors, Kizzy and Luna, and we travel in our RV.
How do you define success?
For most of my career, I lived in Charlottesville, VA, which boasts two famous authors—John Grisham and David Baldacci. While this was back in the 2008 timeframe, when I was writing my first two novels, their advice still sticks with me. One morning John Grisham was on the Today Show in an interview with Matt Lauer, who asked, “What advice do you have for aspiring writers?” He expected Grisham to reveal a magic formula, wand and all. Yet, Grisham, in his writer-wisdom tone, responded with, “Write a page a day.” He was quite matter-of-fact in his response, as though it was the most obvious solution (which it is). Lauer said, “But what if they can’t think of anything to write?” Again, digging for magic. Grisham responded, “Well, then they won’t get published.” He went on to point out that writing just one page per day is equivalent to writing a book a year. I also heard David Baldacci, a 1986 graduate of Virginia Law, speak at the Virginia Festival of the Book. During the Q&A, someone asked what his writing habits were. Baldacci stated, “I write two thousand words per day.” I loved that answer because my personal goal was 2,000 words per day. My license plate at the time was 2KWPD. Both authors reminded me that some people believe there’s a magic formula to becoming a writer. Yet, it’s as clear-cut as Grisham and Baldacci indicated—write. Writing helps you be good at writing, and the more you write, the more you grow. As with any profession, if you’re not doing it, especially regularly, then you won’t make it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.HeatherHummelGallagher.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heatherhummelgallagherauthor/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeatherHummelGallagherAuthor
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherhummelgallagher/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/heatherhummel
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oqRC1k1suk&t=2s
Image Credits
Headshot: Photo credit Heather Hummel Gallagher
