Cynthia MacGregor

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Self-Improvement Family & Relationships Contemporary Education NONFICTION

Multi-published freelance author/editor Cynthia MacGregor has over 50 published books to her credit, most of them conventional paper but a few e-books too. She’s written “everything from catalog copy to promotional video scripts to website copy to... you name it” in addition to all those books “and a great deal more books that haven’t seen the light of print yet...but I’m still looking for homes for them.”

As well, she has edited numerous magazines and books and websites. Writing is not only her career, it is also one of her hobbies, chiefly in that she writes all the plays produced by the Palm Springs Players, a community theatre group in the village of Palm Springs, “the one in Florida...not its rich and famous namesake in California. I don’t get a penny for the plays,” she says, “but it’s fun.” Not surprisingly, she also enjoys wordplay, specifically punnery, and is a member of the online punsters’ group PUNY and a frequent attendee at the annual O. Henry Pun-Off World Championship, held each May in Austin TX, where she sometimes appears as a contestant and sometimes is a judge. Her other hobby is cooking “and entertaining, ‘cause if you’re going to cook, you need to have victims...I mean beneficiaries...to eat up all that food.”

The self-described “happiest woman in the world,” Cynthia avers that “there is no one in the world I’d want to trade lives with.”

Q: Which do you enjoy more, writing or editing? You do so much of both.

A: I love both but, honestly, I love writing more.

Q: Of all your books, which is your favorite?

A: No fair! That’s like asking a mom to single out her favorite child! I could say “my first, because writing it and getting it published was momentous,” or “the next one I’m going to write, because it’s always exciting to start a new project,” but I think I’ll take a pass on the question.

Q: How do you get so much writing done?

A: First of all, I work seven days a week. There’s nothing I’d rather be doing than write...though my workday isn’t all writing. There’s editing, marketing the books I’ve already written and now need to find homes for, work in support of the three websites I devised and own, and more stuff to do. I wake up each morning by or before 5 AM, eager to get to work. Second, I write fast.

Q: Do you write all evening too?

A: No! Getting up at 5 AM as I do, I don’t do evenings with grace. Under ordinary circumstances, I’m asleep by 9.

Q: Sounds like you live alone and keep your own schedule. No husband or kids?

A: I have a significant other, but he’s very understanding. And we’re two individuals. We got together later in life, when we each had established our own careers, routines, needs, habits...and we respect each other’s life. We’re a couple, but we’re definitely two individuals. As for kids, I do have a daughter from a long-ago marriage, but she’s grown and a mother in her own right, not living with me or even near me.

Q: What inspires you to write?

A: I could be a smartass and say, “All the bills I have to pay,” but I’ll give you a straight answer: I need to write like we all need to breathe. If I don’t write, I’ll burst. If I don’t write, I’m miserable. It’s an absolute necessity for me. Seriously.

Q: Any plans for retirement?

A: NEVER! They’ll pry my cold, gnarled fingers from the keyboard when I finally die in spite of myself, but I plan to be working right to the end...which I hope won’t be for a good, long time yet.

Q: Then you plan to keep on writing more books?

A: Forever! And doing a lot more things, too. As I answer these questions, I’m in negotiations with a syndicate about a syndicated column. It may happen, it may not, but I’m pushing it. I’m also waiting to hear back in a few months from a local TV station about a TV show I want to produce and host. (Funny, me wanting to be on TV. I absolutely NEVER watch TV!) They say they’re interested but have no available slot for me at present. They say they want to talk to me again in three months. Again, it may happen, it may not, but I’m pushing it. There are two products I’ve invented that I’m in the process of trying to develop. I try to always expand my world. You never can tell what I’ll get into next. But one thing you can be sure of is that I’ll never stop writing. If I do, check my pulse!

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