Dirty Dozen Author Interview J.M. Ney-Grimm
Author: J.M. Ney-Grimm
Please tell us about your publications. I write fantasy in which the intimate and personal intertwine with the great forces of history and culture. Most of my stories are set in my North-lands, a world inspired by the watercolor illustrations of the Danish artist Kay Nielsen. My novels include: Troll-magic, Livli’s Gift, Caught in Amber, Fate’s Door, and The Tally Master. I also have a handful of novellas (plus a few short stories), among them: Sarvet’s Wanderyar, Hunting Wild, and Winter Glory.
What first prompted you to publish your work? In 2007, I re-discovered Maddy Prior’s amazing song ‘The Fabled Hare.’
Listening to her powerful lyrics and expressive voice, I grew suddenly aware that time was passing, I was getting older, and I didn’t have forever.
The imagery of the hunter and hounds closing in on the hare made me feel as though death were snapping at my heels.
If there was something I really wanted to do, something I had not done yet, I’d better get going or I might miss my chance entirely.
I didn’t ‘click the publish button’ in 2007, but that year and that song were the beginning of my publishing journey.
Are you a ‘pantser’ or a ‘plotter’? I do some of each.
I prefer having a skeletal outline at the start of a story. Doing without —pure ‘pantsing’—feels like walking a tightrope over Niagara without a safety net. Very uncomfortable! And yet…I’ve done it.
Once I awoke in the middle of the night, so afire with inspiration that I got up out of my bed to write the first scene of what would become the novel Caught in Amber. I didn’t work out an outline until I was a third of the way through the book!
More usually, I sort out the foundational plot line before I start writing. I need to know what happens, but (oddly) I need to not know how it happens. I discover the how as I write, and that keeps the story feeling fresh to me.
Even when I follow an outline, I always feel free to ‘have a better idea.’ Sometimes my outline writhes like a river in flood!
What piece of advice do you wish you’d had when you started your publishing journey? I’m going to pretend you asked me about my writing journey. 
