Madelyn Alt's Bio

Still with me?

Okay, so what you see above is the official version. The truth is, I'm just your average, run-of-the-mill small town Midwestern girl who was blessed at birth with an active imagination and a steadfast love for the written word. Writing is one of the best jobs in the world, even taking into consideration the long apprenticeship, the years of rejection, the critics eager to crush you. . . Did I mention this is the best job in the world? Truly. What other job can you think of that lets you sit around in your fuzzy bunny slippers all day and make things up for money?

Not to mention, the world is my office. Have laptop, will travel. It's a Very Good Thing.

Why I write what I do:

So what's a nice girl like me doing writing about ghosties, ghoulies, and things that go bump in the night? Truth is, I've always been intrigued by the paranormal. Certain things I've experienced myself have fueled that interest, not to mention things others have shared with me, people whom I trust. Isolated incidents can be explained away; these are not isolated incidents. They are also not the kind of things that can be proven easily by scientific methods. While that might sound like a pat answer, I've never been convinced that science has enough technology to have the right to pooh-pooh everything away. It seems the height of arrogance to say that we have all the answers. The fact is, people are experiencing things that their logical minds want to explain away, but can't. That's not to say that science and the mystical won't some day coexist happily and sensibly, but until that day I think it's possible we're not meant to understand everything. Not yet.

The most important thing about life is the journey. Only at the end should we be able to look back and make sense of the lot of it. Part of the beauty is in the mystery.

The World According to Me:

I played classical violin until my senior year in high school. Music speaks to me on an emotional, gut level. It always has. It always will.

My favorite color is a deep, amethyst purple. Second favorite, aqua green.

I have an abiding love for the British Isles, one that reaches deep down into my soul.

Life doesn't get much better than having a steady supply of kisses. Chocolate or otherwise.

Considering the subject matter I've chosen to write about, I suppose it goes without saying that I believe the spirit world to be a rich and important part of our lives. . . even when we don't realize it's there.

I believe intuitive/sensitive phenomena to be real . . . but let the buyer beware. As in all aspects of life, there are a lot of scammers out there who think only of themselves.

Tolerance and compassion can make all the difference in this world.

A wicked sense of humor and laugh lines are two of the sexiest things a man can possess.

That being said, certain accents melt me. Scottish? Be still my heart.

Crowds either hype me up or stress me out, depending on the overall mood.

I cry at sad movies… commercials… books… songs… Now replace sad with happy and repeat the sequence. Get the picture?

My hands are rarely still when I'm talking.

I love to laugh and tease, and do, as often as possible.

I love silver and crystal, candles and colored glass, velvet and cashmere.

Flowers mean so much more to me in the garden than sitting in a vase on the dining room table.

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be an archaeologist. And, a ballerina.

By the time I was fifteen, I dreamed of becoming a novelist, but I turned my back on the dream for something “practical.” Isn't it funny sometimes how life tends to come full circle?

I really love being a mom.

I am a thinker; an intuitive; a practical person who daydreams constantly; a sometimes diva who loves to dance and sing but who also doesn't mind getting her hands dirty mucking in the flower beds.

The saddest thing in the world is someone who has lost their way and can't find their connection to the higher power that guides us all.

Love and music are universal and can overcome all barriers and all boundaries.

I'm occasionally a little on the unconventional side, but I also love tradition and history.

I love to travel, but I also love nothing more than to be home.

I tend to pick up accents, inflections, and dialect easily.

I'm a storyteller and word artisan first and forever. What drives me, what intrigues me, are the things my characters whisper in my ear. Who are they? What are their stories? Because if I can't remain true to that, then why would I even bother? And from there all I can do is hope that I am able to find some connection to the psyches of my readers. To reach out through all the words and the pages and touch them is a very powerful thing.

On blogging...

I've joined a group of talented fellow authors in an experiment in blogging. We all write fiction that ventures into paranormal waters, so who knows what will show up in our blogs? If you're curious, please join us here at the Witchy Chicks.

I've also added a new personal blog, All Things Madly, where you will find ramblings that didn't seem to belong with the Chicks' posts. Anything goes here, peeps, so no tomatoes, please.

I'm also blogging at MySpace. See my page at: www.MySpace.com/madelynalt. Speaking of MySpace, have you added me as a friend? :-)

Want to write to me?

Readers wanting to get in touch with me can email me at the following address.

MadelynAlt@yahoo.com

Please be aware that abusive emails {perish the thought!} will be forwarded to the proper authorities.

Also, please be aware that I am almost always behind on my email. Mea culpa! :-)

My Favorite movies of all time:

Dear Frankie
Phantom of the Opera
Serendipity
American Dreamer
P.S. I Love You
Love, Actually
Enchanted
Bridget Jones' Diary
Practical Magic
Stardust
Pan's Labyrinth
300
Pride & Prejudice (the movie)
Becoming Jane Austen
Sense & Sensibility
Emma
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
All of the Harry Potters
All of the Pirates of the Caribbeans
The Princess Bride
Ever After
Young Frankenstein
Last of the Mohicans
Tristan & Isolde
Mists of Avelon
Romancing the Stone
The Gift
Stir of Echoes
The Mothman Prophecy

Favorite Actor:

Gerard Butler, hands down. He’s a brilliant actor, talented, funny and intelligent. A rarity in Hollywood, certainly. Other faves: Johnny Depp, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Clive Owen, Ioan Gruffuld.

Favorite Actress:

Kate Winslet. Besides being enormously talented, she also possesses a terrific outlook on life. Other favorites are Cate Blanchett, Rachel Weisz, Keira Knightley. Yes, I realize none are American. I can't help it. These talented women somehow manage to pursue their careers without making tabloid nuisances of themselves. I honor them for that.

Favorite Woo-Woo Fiction:

My own (well -- I never said I was a saint ;> )
Ammie Come Home by Barbara Michaels (vintage, but the perfect ghost story).
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (also vintage, and wonderfully shivery!)
Bewitching by Jill Barnett (Love!)
The Undead series by MaryJanice Davidson (so fun!)
All of Annette Blair's Witch books (charming and witty and whimsical!)
The Charmed series by Candace Havens (Candy does kickass heroines right)
Kate Austin's tributes to Magical Realism
The Chintz & China series by Yasmine Galenorn
The Psychic Eye series by Victoria Laurie
The Rachel Morgan series by Kim Harrison (so inventive, I love them...)
The Women of the Otherworld Series by Kelley Armstrong
All of the Harry Potter novels (all paranormal/suspense/mystery authors should kiss Jo Rowling's feet, IMHO)
The Forever King and The Broken Sword by Warren Murphy & Molly Cochran
The Three Sisters Island trilogy by Nora Roberts
The Southern Vampire/Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris

Non Woo-Woo:

Absolutely anything by Jane Austen
Absolutely anything by Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers
The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon (Jamie!!)
To Love a Dark Lord by Anne Stuart (inspired by the stage version of Phantom)
The Stephanie Plum mystery series by Janet Evanovich (hopelessly torn between Morelli & Ranger)
Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series (I love her sense of humor)
Poetry by Robert Burns
Any good travel book

Some of my favorite things to do:

Long walks (when the weather cooperates, I average 15-20 miles a week). Movies & reading. Puttering about my yard. Bike riding. Traveling. Exploring wild or ancient places. Canoeing. Not necessarily in that order.

Where I Was Born:

Landstuhl, Rheinland/Pfalz, West Germany (Yes, you guessed it. Air Force Brat.)

Other Places I’ve Lived:

Torrejon, Spain
Oscoda, Michigan
Mary Esther, Florida
Zaragoza, Spain
Midland, Michigan (a fond shout out for my home town)
Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Augusta, Georgia
and for the last fifteen years, various towns in NE Indiana

Non-US Locales I’m Dying to Visit:

Scotland. Ireland. England. Wales. (Um, are we seeing a trend here?) Australia. New Zealand. Tuscany. Venice. Slovenia. France. Montréal. Vancouver.

Schools I’ve Attended:

Midland High School, a brief stint at Central Michigan University, and, perhaps most importantly, the School of Hard Knocks.

Some Of My Favorite Serious Quotes

Ni’l ’sa t-saghal so acht ceo. (Translation: This life is but a vapor.)

“Love, in its essence, is spiritual fire.” --Swedenborg

“What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.” --Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator, 1890

“We look forward to the time when the power to love will replace the love of power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.” --William Gladstone

“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” –Rudyard Kipling

“Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.” --Tom Robbins

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Some Of My Favorite Fun Quotes

"To err is human . . . but it feels divine." --Mae West

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly past." --Douglas Adams

“By the time I was at book five or six, I knew I was never going to be the world’s best romance writer. I was not such a great romantic person. I was starting to run out of positions. My husband was looking really tired. All that research. He was pale, he was going bald, he was losing his hair, and he couldn’t keep up with it... Then the other thing that happened to me was that about halfway through romance writing I went through menopause and I realized I had a lot more interest in murder than I had in sex, so I moved into crime writing.” --Janet Evanovich on writing romance v. writing crime

"I used to be Snow White... but I drifted." --Mae West

Of Note:

On March 8th, 2006, my mom and dad celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Pretty cool, no?