Quarter Castle Publishing sat down with Diane Lynn McGyver and talked with her about her upcoming release Nova Scotia – Life Near Water, her first anthology. In the coming weeks we’ll post pieces of this interview here.

QCP: What book are you reading now?

Flying with a Broken Wing by Laura Best. It’s about Cammie Deveau (aka Cammie Turple), a visually impaired girl abandoned by her mother and taken in by her Aunt Millie. The story takes place in Tanner, Nova Scotia just after the Second World War. Best is a Nova Scotia author, and this is her second book, released this month. I was introduced to her when I read Bitter, Sweet, her first novel.

QCP: Do you write an outline before every book you write?
Diane Lynn McGyver: I tried using an outline once, but it didn’t work for me. When I begin a story, I have a basic outline in my head of what will happen, but I never write it down. It’s stuck up in the brain on a sticky note that never disappears.

Often times the only thing I know about a story is at which point it begins and where it ends. I discover all the ‘stuff’ in the middle on the journey from point A to point B. And for me, that is the greatest fun about writing. I never know what the characters will do from one scene to the next. I just have to make sure they arrive at their destination.

…more about Nova Scotia – Life Near Water with Diane Lynn McGyver next week. Look for the short story collection in softcover (in both standard and OpenDyslexic font) and eBook in October 2013. If you’ve missed Part I of the Interview, check it out here.

DON’T FORGET to enter the Goodread Giveaway for Nova Scotia – Life Near Water.