Welcome to GloriaWhelan.com!

Something About The Author

How I Started Writing

I began making up stories before I could write. I would tell a story to my baby sitter and she would type it out. When I got to elementary school I began writing poetry. In high school I edited the school paper. I never stopped writing. I think all the books I read when I was young had a lot to do with my writing. 

What I Write About

A lot of my books are about a favorite place in Michigan like my books about Mackinac Island. Sometimes I write about places that are far away or about earlier times. This gives me a chance to live in other countries and in other times -- at least in my head. The research for these books is like a treasure hunt, I never know what I'm going to find. I’ve made imaginary trips to China, India, and Vietnam and imaginary and real trips to Russia and Africa.

Where I Live

For over thirty years my husband and I lived in the woods of northern Michigan in a cabin on a small lake, Oxbow Lake. Our children and grandchildren often visited. The nearest house was a mile away and I had to walk half a mile to get the mail. In the winter the lake was a big white circle and the snow piled up from the ground and hung down from the roof until you could hardly see out the windows. Sometimes a coyote trotted out on to the lake and lay on the ice, its muzzle between its paws, lazing in the sun. In the summer we saw fox walking around the lake and deer drinking at the lake. The eagle and the osprey fished the lake and the blue heron stalked the lake’s edge. The things I saw as I walked in the woods or looked out of my study window often found their way into my books. There are herons and eagles in my book about India and Africa and China, only their plumage is a little different. 

What My Day is Like

After breakfast, I’m at my computer or writing in my secret garden. I usually work until noon when its time to explore the frig. After lunch I’m out walking along Lake St. Clair. That’s when I solve any problems that have come up that day in my writing. I’m also thinking about what I’ll be writing next. Getting a story down for the first time is the hardest part because you have to make up everything: the weather, the people, their clothes and the food they eat. Revision is my favorite part. It’s when you get to make the story more and more like the story as you imagined it. When I’m not writing or walking, I’m cooking or reading, mostly reading. I read a lot and when I put a book down, I feel the author has become my friend. I hope my readers feel the same way about me.