We were lucky to catch up with Maggie Critchley recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Maggie , you’ve got such an interesting story, but before we jump into that, let’s first talk about a topic near and dear to us – generosity. We think success, happiness and wellbeing depends on authentic generosity and empathy and so we’d love to hear about how you become such a generous person – where do you think your generosity comes from?
Growing up in lack, lack of resources, lack of guidance, lack of supervision, offering whatever I could to whomever I could became habit eventually. It took a long time to get there but, sharing really is caring, especially time.
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?
By day I work in mental health, the rest of the time I am working on the next book in my series, Southwest Faerie Chronicles, short stories for my Substack, baking and spending time with my friends. Tucson Author Alliance was founded in 2024, as a founding member I am involved in helping making the local, indie author community more fair and equitable. We’ll be at Tucson Fesrival of Books and all of our other events can be found on our website!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Being a curious person who wants to find out has helped me countless times. Research comes easily, knitting together story is somewhat of a family tradition so, both things have been key in my writing journey. Its cliche to say “write what you know,” but it’s cliche for a reason. Whatever it is you know, madness, joy, lack, write about that and it will feel easy. Also, have a critique partner or two to help keep your tools sharp.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
The first book I fell in love with was The Hobbit. It felt like home and adventure simultaneously. Tolkien is so skilled in writing true friendships set against beautiful backdrops even if the stakes are win or die. I’ve always valued my friendships and The Hobbit reflected that value back to me as well as the appreciation of good food and cheer. I am a hobbit in all but size, afterall.
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