Gwendolyn Womack

Author of "The Memory Painter" and "The Fortune Teller"

News & Events

My Virtual Book Talk with El Segundo Library on 8/5/20

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Please mark your calendar & join me on Wednesday, August 5th at 7pm PST for my virtual book talk with El Segundo Library. I will be discussing my latest thriller, The Time Collector, a novel about a psychometrist who has the ability to read the memories within objects. This talk is a fun fiction followup to the library’s previous program for the nonfiction book What We Keep, a collection of stories about peoples’ most treasured objects. I will also share the story behind my favorite object and how it helped me write the novel. 

I’m very excited psychic Mary Daisley will be joining us to discuss her use of psychometry in her readings.

To RSVP – Email refdesk@elsegundo.org OR people can call the library’s Reference Desk phone number at 310-524-2728 to reserve a spot and get the Zoom details. I look forward to seeing you there!

PS – If you have a story you’d like to share during the talk about a personal object or heirloom, please let the library know when you RSVP.

Crop Circles & The 2020 Season

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We’ve entered crop circle season & if you read my last novel, The Time Collector, you understand my fascination. I researched the phenomenon for the book and became hooked with the mystery.

Crop circles appear every year like clockwork, generally between late May through August when the crops in fields are high enough to show the imprint. This is what is called “the season.” There are 2 kinds of crop circles – manmade ones using stomp boards, which damage the crops and are imperfect designs… then there are the other ones, which show geometric perfection that mathematicians can gleam theories and equations. The crops inside those circles are folded over at perfect uniform angles and not harmed.

Here is a good example of a crop circle from 2008 with a mathematical message. The design is the number Pi in geometric form down to 10 decimal points.

Why geometry? Well, for starters geometry is the language of the Universe. When NASA sends messages up into space, they send math.

So maybe we’ve been getting replies for years. Here is a picture of my all-time favorite crop circle, the Empire State Building of crop circles – a breathtaking design spanning almost 800 feet with 409 circles creating three interlocking spirals. This crop circle appeared in 2001 in the middle of the night with wet and windy weather conditions. And to give you a sense of scale, the lines in the fields are the tractor lines for the farmer. This crop circle is about the size of 5 football fields.

Now here we are in 2020 in the midst of a year we never could have imagined, and crop circles are starting their season once more. We’ve had three crop circles so far. The first one to appear on May 28th was highly unusual.

More details on each circle can be found at my favorite crop circle website, temporarytemples.co.uk. There is also an archive where you can click on a previous year and see all the circles they photographed.

I hope this phenomenon will gain more attention this year. Crop circles are really one of the most fantastical mysteries that we continue to live with and generally ignore. So let’s see what June, July and August will bring. I’ll be sure to share any images on Facebook and Twitter as I find them.

In closing here is a short 3 minute clip on YouTube from Ancient Aliens that touches on some of the highlights & and below is a screenshot where you can see people standing inside a circle. I plan to do that someday.

The Time Collector Interviews & Events

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Hello! Happy summer all. I’ve just updated my website and gathered all the interviews, book talks and guest posts I’ve done for The Time Collector the last few months. You can click on this Press page to see the list and links. It’s been a lot of fun doing events and hearing from readers for this book.

COMING UP ON THE CALENDAR…

If you’re in the LA/ South Bay area, I have 2 more events towards the end of July. On July 21st, I’ll be doing the multi-author event, Smart Summer Reads, in Manhattan Beach. On July 31st, I’ll be at the El Segundo Library joining in their book-of-the-month discussion for The Time Collector. And online at Goodreads, I’ll be leading a discussion the last week of July with the American Historical Novels Group.

For anyone wanting to take a closer look at the inspiration behind the book, here is a link to the bibliography page detailing my research & the playlist of music that inspired me while I wrote.

Signing off with a recent favorite picture I took of one of my kaleidoscopes. I like to post them on Instagram if you want to see others.

View from my kaleidoscope

Upcoming NC Book Events for The Time Collector

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This coming weekend I’ll be heading to North Carolina for 2 book events for The Time Collector!

On Sunday 6/9 I’ll be in Durham at the metaphysical store Everyday Magic doing a reading and signing from 4-6pm.

Monday 6/10 in the evening at 7pm I’ll be at Bookmarks in Winston Salem doing a LIVE recording of Inside The Writer’s Studio with Charlie Lovett.

If you’re in either city or have friends who are, please join us and help spread the word.

New Orleans ~ The City Behind The Time Collector

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As I eye the calendar waiting for pub day, I wanted to share my inspiration behind choosing New Orleans as The Time Collector’s central location and share some pictures from my research trip for the book.

When I started imagining The Time Collector, I knew right away I wanted to have Roan, the main character, be from New Orleans. There was no question in my mind New Orleans was his city. Roan is a psychometrist and has the ability to read the past within objects, and I couldn’t imagine a better place for a psychometrist to have grown up than a city steeped in time.

In late 2016 I had just finished edits on The Fortune Teller and it was time to start working on The Time Collector. I’d been to New Orleans twice before in my life. The first time was when I was a young girl, around age 10 or 11. When I was growing up, my mother loved to go antique hunting and find old furniture to restore. We took a family vacation to New Orleans one summer and stayed right in French Quarter. I remember spending several days going in and out of antique shops and out-of-the-way furniture warehouses. For most of my childhood I actually spent many a Saturday or Sunday going to antique stores and flea markets in Texas. All the old objects would ignite my imagination and I would wander around, picking them up, wondering about who had owned them before. Perhaps the seeds for the story began even then.

The second time I went to New Orleans was about fifteen years ago with my husband for the wedding of our dear friends, John & Jackie. In the fall of ’16 when I started writing The Time Collector, I knew I’d need to go back for research. John & Jackie were now living there and invited me to come stay with them. I flew out in December. Before the trip I’d literally written the opening chapters right up to the page where Roan arrives back in New Orleans from his trips to El Paso and LA. I felt I needed to go to New Orleans before I could write any further. 

I spent several days touring all over the city with the best guide possible. Jackie is originally from New Orleans and the city is her stomping ground. We spent three days in her car going everywhere.

I would grill her with questions, furiously taking notes and countless pictures. We must have visited most of the antique stores in the city.

With each day I started to envision Roan’s childhood, his storefront, his warehouse… I walked all through the French Quarter and up and down Magazine Street. One evening we caught a wedding line celebration heading down the street, so magical. You can see the bride holding the white umbrella.

After the trip I came home and started writing the New Orleans chapters the very next day. Special thanks to these wonderful two for all the inspiration and help. Here we are together on my last night.

The Time Collector is less than a month away from publication, and I’ll be celebrating the book’s launch in New Orleans on April 16that Garden District Book Shop. I’m so excited to be going back. If you’re in the city please come & join me at 6pm.

And if you haven’t been to New Orleans yet, I highly recommend taking a trip to experience the rich tapestry of culture, art and music. The city is brimming with history that feels tangible. Cheers!

PS: Coming soon, I’ll be sharing Jackie’s personal gumbo recipe. Gumbo is also one of my favorite dishes.

 

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