Member Spotlight: Tania M. Bayard

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Throughout my writing career I’ve focused on the Middle Ages, first as an art historian studying Gothic cathedrals, then as a horticulturist specializing in medieval plants and gardens, and now as a novelist writing a series of mystery stories set around the year 1400. Writing about the Middle Ages is way for me to escape from what’s going on in the world today. I hope my readers will have the same experience and, at the same time, find the medieval world as fascinating as I do.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? I force myself to keep writing, putting down whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial it seems. When I go back over what I’ve written, I usually find it’s not as bad as I thought it would be, and instead of blank pages, I have some text I can’t resist working on.

What is your favorite time to write? Any time of day.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Remove unnecessary words.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? My mystery novels feature Christine de Pizan, a medieval woman who used her writing to castigate men who slandered and denigrated women. Today, women everywhere are still struggling to be given the same level of respect as men. I find it exciting to write about a woman who fought the same battle six centuries ago.

Tania Bayard’s Murder in the Cloister is out now with Severn House Publishers.