Meet Gayle M. Irwin

We were lucky to catch up with Gayle M. Irwin recently and have shared our conversation below.

GAYLE M., so glad you were able to set aside some time for us today. We’ve always admired not just your journey and success, but also the seemingly high levels of self-discipline that you seem to have mastered and so maybe we can start by chatting about how you developed it or where it comes from?

I am an only child, and my parents emulated hard work, perseverance, integrity and responsbility. After my first two years of college, they moved to a different state, and I learned ‘adulting’ quickly. After a two-year break from education, I decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree, and though I moved closer to my parents, I remained a six-hour drive away, and therefore, continued ‘adulting’ while finishing my degree and working part-time. My writing career began as the first full-time reporter for a small Montana newspaper and a few years later, I became editor and reporter for a different newspaper in a different town. In both situations, I was given major responsibilities and deadlines that needed to be met. I believe the self-discipline I developed as a child and teenager grew stronger with the decision to pursue a degree in communications and took deeper root during those first career moves afterward. Now, as an author and freelance writer, I continue leaning into that skill, writing several books each year and crafting articles for various online and print publications.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

For the past two years, I’ve served as an author of sweet and Christian romance books that weave pet rescue and adoption into the love story as well as a freelance writer for various online and print publications. I retired from my ‘day job’ to pursue this work fulltime. Previously, as a creative, I wrote books and articles on a part-time basis, whenever I could fit such work into my schedule. I’ve dabbled in freelance writing since the late 1980s, after I left my first newspaper job, and then I picked it up again during the early 2000’s and have been going ever since.

I wrote and published my first book, a children’s chapter book, in 2007, and I continued creating children’s books for the next five years. I’ve also written a few Christian devotionals. These books feature dogs, whether ones who have lived with me or others that I have known, primarily focusing on the lessons we can learn from them, such as friendship, courage, perseverance, and trust.

I wrote and published my first sweet romance in 2019. This book, “Rescue Road,” became the first in a-soon-to-be eight-book series (7 are published, and #8 releases the end of December 2024, and it will be the final book in that series titled Pet Rescue Romance – Yellowstone Country).

I am also published in eight “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books. Most of those are dog stories.

I am a strong supporter of pet rescue and adoption, and I donate a percentage of my book sales to animal rescue and adoption organizations.

Going into 2025, I plan to write and release a few stand-alone sweet romance stories, likely along the same theme of pet rescue and adoption, and another children’s book.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I believe in order to have a successful career as a creative, especially as an author, a person needs these three things:
1. Creativity — coming up with story ideas that resonate with readers. No matter the genre, your story idea needs to draw readers in and engage them. I use settings (Montana and Wyoming) that I know well (having lived in both states most of my life), in particular in and around Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks and also the theme of pet rescue and adoption to draw readers into my stories.
2. Perseverance/Persistence — being an author isn’t easy. The story may not be difficult to write because you love your idea and want to share it, but getting one’s work in front of audiences, online or in-person, grows more difficult by the day because many books are written and published and found online. An author needs to persist through ‘the noise’ and persevere in marketing the work once it’s published.
3. Community — it’s easy to work alone as an author, but you need a community of additional writers and others to encourage you and to help you grow in your craft. Writers’ groups, conferences, online workshops, craft and marketing resources and books — all of these help an author improve and become more self-confident.

For a new author, I highly recommend online workshops and in-person writers’ conferences. A person cannot go wrong in their career, no matter what that is, by learning from others’ experiences and being taught by those more knowledgable and ‘in the trenches’ longer. Improving and growing is the key to better book writing and increased book sales.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

There is an online group known as The Writing Gals, and they have been instrumental in my growth as an author. They offer YouTube tutorials and host an annual conference; they also have a writing academy for a mininal monthly cost. I learned about them when I first began writing sweet, contemporary romance books, and for the past five years I’ve followed the Facebook page and attended the online conferences. I joined the writing academy a few years ago. Each experience helps me learn and grow, and they have inspired me to create additional series, which I hope to start in 2025 or 2026.

Additionally, my local writing groups (I’m involved with three) provide feedback and encouragement, and I’m grateful to spend time with these other writers, including sharing booksignings.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gaylemirwin.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wycabinlady/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GayleMIrwin
• Other: Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/gayleirwin

  Blue Sky Social: gaylemirwin61.bsky.social

  Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/gaylemirwinwriterwyo/

Image Credits

I own the rights to all of my book covers and I pay for a service (Book Brush) from which I create graphics for promoting my books.