{"id":14728,"date":"2026-04-21T15:27:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T19:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regalhousepublishing.com\/?p=14728"},"modified":"2026-04-21T15:29:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T19:29:34","slug":"thats-my-story-maryka-biaggio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regalhousepublishing.com\/2026\/04\/21\/thats-my-story-maryka-biaggio\/","title":{"rendered":"That’s My Story – Maryka Biaggio"},"content":{"rendered":"
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RHP staff had the pleasure of sitting down with Maryka Biaggio, author of Margery and Me<\/em>, to talk about her path to publishing as well as her approach to the writing craft. We are delighted to share her answers with you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When did you start writing?<\/h4>\n\n\n
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I started writing in grade school. I found a short-story contest advertised on a matchbook and told my mother I was going to enter. Being busy with cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry for a husband and five children, she said something like, \u201cThat\u2019s nice. Now get out of my way.\u201d I submitted a story and anxiously waited to hear back. They never responded, and I hadn\u2019t saved a copy of the story, so who knows what it was about\u2014probably something about the hijinks my siblings and I got into when left on our own. [See photo, right, of my siblings and me making a pyramid.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you ever use your cell phone to compose your work or track your ideas? Are there any author\/writing apps you recommend?<\/h4>\n\n\n
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I absolutely adore Scrivener, a writing tool that lets me put everything I need in one place\u2014not just the chapters, but character sketches, photos of important places, website addresses for essential information, and even marketing materials. You could say it keeps me from straying too far from the novel in progress because it allows me to put all my resources in one place. And I also have Scrivener loaded on my phone, which is great on those occasions when I\u2019m out and about and have some idea I want to record lest I forget it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the most cringe-worthy thing someone has said when you tell them you\u2019re a novelist?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to write a novel. When I find the time, I\u2019ll bang out a bestseller. How hard can it be?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a fair bit of interest, scientific and otherwise, in the links between creativity and insanity. How crazy must someone be to be a good author?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A good author has to be a little crazy. How else could they stand to spend endless hours putting words down on a page and hoping that the story they build will actually find its way out into the world? It\u2019s a rough business, and I can encourage only those with thick skin and lots of perseverance to undertake the writing of a novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you develop your characters?<\/h4>\n\n\n
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I find I have to write my way into my characters. I\u2019ve chosen quite an array of real people as subjects\u2014ranging from a nineteenth-century con woman to a model-turned-spy during World War II. I couldn\u2019t be more dissimilar from those two characters, both of whom were gorgeous and wily, so I often spend weeks, sometimes months, trying to find the voice. But when I\u2019m on my morning walk or baking a pie, and the character starts talking in a way that sounds like how I\u2019ve imagined them, I know I\u2019ve found their voice! It\u2019s as if, after a great deal of mulling and research, my subconscious finally comes through for me. That\u2019s the magical part of writing. [See photo of The Model Spy<\/em> book cover, left.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maryka Biaggio<\/a> is the author of Margery and Me<\/a><\/em>, releasing from Regal House Publishing on April 21, 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RHP staff had the pleasure of sitting down with Maryka Biaggio, author of Margery and Me, to talk about her path to publishing as well as her approach to the writing craft. We are delighted to share her answers with you! When did you start writing? I started writing in grade school. I found a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":442,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[235,145,1,240],"tags":[202,434,466,465,241],"class_list":{"0":"post-14728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-author-interview","7":"category-regal-authors","8":"category-regal-house-titles","9":"category-thats-my-story","10":"tag-historical-fiction","11":"tag-interview","12":"tag-margery-and-me","13":"tag-maryka-biaggio","14":"tag-thats-my-story","15":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9DpGh-3Py","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14740,"url":"https:\/\/regalhousepublishing.com\/2026\/04\/27\/the-margery-crandon-harry-houdini-feud-belief-and-certainty\/","url_meta":{"origin":14728,"position":0},"title":"The Margery Crandon\u2013Harry Houdini Feud, Belief, and Certainty","author":"Maryka Biaggio","date":"April 27, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Maryka Biaggio Margery Crandon In the 1920s, America\u2019s fascination with the supernatural collided head-on with a rising faith in scientific proof. Few clashes captured that tension as vividly as the feud between\u00a0Margery Crandon, a celebrated Boston medium, and\u00a0Harry Houdini, the world-famous magician turned debunker. Their battle was never just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Literary Musings"","block_context":{"text":"Literary Musings","link":"https:\/\/regalhousepublishing.com\/category\/literary-musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/regalhousepublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Houdinis-Quest.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/regalhousepublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Houdinis-Quest.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/regalhousepublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Houdinis-Quest.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/regalhousepublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Houdinis-Quest.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3222,"url":"https:\/\/regalhousepublishing.com\/2019\/05\/07\/martha-kalin-on-writing-fearlessly\/","url_meta":{"origin":14728,"position":1},"title":"Martha Kalin, on Writing Fearlessly","author":"Martha Kalin","date":"May 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Regal House Publishing Senior Editor, Pam Van Dyk, interviews Martha Kalin, winner of the Terry J. 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Their unexplained, unexpected, and ever explosive snorting. The way they twitched distinct patches of their skin to dislodge flies. 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