Michelle Gagnon
Michelle Gagnon
Michelle Gagnonis an American crime fiction novelist. Her bestselling thrillers have been published in more than a dozen countries worldwide. She has dual citizenship in the US and Ireland, and currently lives in San Francisco. Her second novel, Boneyard, was nominated for the Daphne du Maurier award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense Along with Tamim Ansary, Khaled Hosseini, and Kemble Scott, she is part of the San Francisco Writers Workshop . Her Young Adult PERSEF0NE trilogy received starred reviews from...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
We moved around a bit when I was younger, but I grew up primarily in Rhode Island, in a beautiful seaside community called East Greenwich. It was a small town, and so safe that we rarely locked our doors at night.
I used to be a freelance journalist, so I had to write fast, but I always found writing nonfiction constraining. I like the freedom of fiction, where I get to invent everything, and tidy, conclusive endings are within my control.
I was really fascinated by some of the things happening with Anonymous, the hackers group. I don't necessarily agree with everything they've done, but I thought it was a really interesting use of technology and the fact that there's a whole group of people who can take over systems and fight things from behind the scenes.
I don't have many hours in a day, as I'm essentially a single parent. But fortunately, I'm a really fast writer. My goal is usually 10 pages a day. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but by the end of the week, I aim for at least 10,000 words.
The bane of my existence is the synopses that publishers request for a new novel or series. That's where I'm really producing fiction - my final book never ends up looking like the synopsis.
I'd never really considered doing young-adult novels, but one of the things that a friend pointed out to me is that I've actually had a teenage character in almost every adult novel that I've written.