All material on this website not otherwise copyrighted is Copyright © 2009-2010 Gracie Stanners
ABOUT
First, I'd like to say that--contrary to my critique partners' opinions--
I am not actually inhuman.
I write as Gracie Stanners and Gracie O'Neil. But you knew that.
My age? Well, as the numbers roll over every year and as my math sucks I can't keep up.
As for the rest...
Gracie was born in London, and raised and educated in New Zealand. She lives in an RV in a state of cheerful chaos with her husband, and a German Shepherd who thinks itself a four-legged human being with a rather frustrating speech impediment.
As a teenager Gracie dreamed of being an investigative journalist a la Superman but settled for the--supposedly--less risky career of primary school teaching. However, when she discovered that the adults she met came up with far more interesting fairytales than did her primary school students, she realised she should have stuck to her guns.
So she changed careers.
But not to "mild-mannered reporter". She has since worked as a counselor, an office manager, a technical helpdesk operator, editor of a local newspaper, and a book reviewer. She currently writes technical documentation for a company that manufactures electronics.
Her recent term as Vice President of Romance Writers of New Zealand (2007-2009) gave her not only the responsibility for the regional chapters but also the incredible privilege of getting to know so many fabulous writers.
Her current position as one of the moderators of the RWNZ loop--together with her online Websites for Writers courses--enables her to continue to give something back to the organization that helped her through some very dark days.
Now, Gracie writes--mostly paranormal romantic suspense.
She dreams--mostly things she'd never tell her mother.
And she reads.
Oh yeah.
She reads, and reads, and reads.
MOTIVATION--or 'HOW IT ALL BEGAN'
Reprinted from Wairarapa Times-Age of 13 July 2006 with permission. Article by Joe Dawson.
SAVED BY ROMANCE
The world of romantic stories has made dreams come true for Gladstone author Gracie Stanners.
Love saved Gracie Stanners’ life.
Mrs Stanners, from Gladstone, recently won the Romance Writers of New Zealand autumn short story competition, and she has her craft to thank for even being here to write.
In 2004 Mrs Stanners was in a bad way. Suffering from a protracted bout of depression that began with the death of her father in 2000, and weighing in at 180kg (400 lbs), Mrs Stanners said she had come to the point where she had lost the will to live. With the outlook getting bleaker by the day, she was encouraged by her husband Jeremy to do something she had always wanted to do, which was go to the annual conference of the Romance Writers of New Zealand and pitch her work to an international publishing house. She took her husband’s advice and in a last ditch bid for happiness went to the conference.
It was an act that changed her life.
Her experience there and the positive feedback she received from the New York publishing agent she pitched to gave her the inspiration to turn her life around.
“The New York agent liked my work, and said to send it to him when I finished. Up to that point I didn’t give a damn if I lived or died. But I very suddenly realised I wanted to be around to see my first book on the shelves. I had been told by doctors I was going to die, and that was the motivation for me to consider other weight loss methods. I’ve always been big, even as a little kid, and I’ve done every diet under the sun. You lose a little bit of weight, but never for long.”
She came back from the conference revitalised and just three months later underwent major weight loss surgery.
This decision, too, proved a success, and today Mrs Stanners is a picture of health.
“I’m now less than half the woman I was. My diabetes is now gone and my bloods and cholesterol are back in the normal range.”
Although she is yet to have a novel published – she’s working on half a dozen, including the one the New York agent liked the sound of – wining the short story competition has given her valuable confidence in what she is doing. She said while it is great to have friends and family reading her work, having it assessed by those in the know is something else.
“To have other people who do the same kind of thing evaluate your work and say really nice things about it is a tremendous motivation to take yourself seriously and put your nose down, your tail up and get going.”
Comments on her winning story, Mr Snowman’s Kiss, from the prejudges who selected the six finalists included “enchanting” and “this must be the perfect story”.
Perhaps of greatest value though will be the publishing of the story in the New Zealand and Australian Woman’s Day, which have readerships of 868,000 and 2.6 million respectively. It will be published in the August 28 issues of Woman’s Day.
Having her work potentially seen by such a massive audience does not overly daunt Mrs Stanners.
“Not with Mr Snowman’s Kiss. It’s written for a general readership. Possibly other things I write wouldn’t be. I do tend to go more for the dark stuff than the romance side of things. My preference is for romantic suspense. It is a very large readership. It’s a wonderful thing, and I’m grateful to Romance Writers and Woman’s Day for doing what they did and saying what they said.”
Mrs Stanners is off to her third Romance Writers conference, called Charmed and Dangerous, in August and will be pitching again, this time to a Canadian publishing house. After that, something suitably romantic beckons– she and Jeremy are off to tour New Zealand in a bus for a year.
“We’re basically going to look for a place we simply can’t live without. That’s the current plan.”
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