Buffy's write zone: Meet AKA teammate: Maria Corley

Monday, February 20, 2012

Meet AKA teammate: Maria Corley

Meet another one of my AKA Literary teammates, represented by Terrie Wolf.

Name: Maria Corley

Lives in: Lancaster, Pa.

Family: two kids, Kiana and Malcolm

Writes: Women’s fiction

Day job: Musician – concert pianist, church music director, collaborator, music teacher. I also arrange music and contribute on occasion to Broad Street Review.

Titles of books you’ve written/sold: Choices (Kensington); Langston and Cecile

Website: www.mariacorley.com (music related, and in progress)

Twitter: @mariacorley

Facebook: Maria Thompson Corley

Favorite book: Impossible to pick. “Seabiscuit” and “The Namesake” were favorites, as was "Giovanni’s Room” and “Anna Karenina”

Favorite book character: See above.

Book you’ve learned the most from: The Bible (I know, I know...but it's true!)

If you could have dinner with any author, who would it be and what would you ask him/her? Honestly, I don’t have a dream date. I enjoy talking to all kinds of people, and it’s the talking to people that gives me things to write about. I feel awkward talking shop just to talk shop, frankly.

What is the best piece of writing advice you ever received: Kill your darlings. It’s hard to edit, at first, but it gets easier.

Finish these sentences:

I wish I...had more hours in the day. Then again, I’d probably just be more exhausted at bedtime! How about I wish I were more tech-savvy? Then again, that’s something I just need to figure out a time to do. So ... I wish this world weren’t so driven by the pursuit of the almighty dollar, at the expense of everything else.

If I knew...what I knew now when I was younger, I wouldn’t have been younger, I’d have been middle aged. Still, I wish there was a way to acquire wisdom without hard experience (hmmm....that looks a bit like the other question)!