Discover. . .: How Research Enriches My Life by Mary Georgina de Grey

Monday, October 27, 2025

How Research Enriches My Life by Mary Georgina de Grey

MUSE MONDAY

Please welcome Mary Georgina de Grey to Muse Monday on Discover. She knows her business on research and inspiration. What fun she's had.

Someone once said to me, ‘It’s easy for a romance writer. You don’t have to do any research. Everyone knows what happens in a romance.’

I confess to feeling annoyed by such an ignorant attitude because all of my books require a lot of research. The fact that a writer doesn’t make that too obvious is due to the skill he or she has.

As I often set my books in foreign countries, I do have to research those places, even if I know the country well, because things change every day. I even check carefully that I have the weather right for the season.

But why do I say it enriches my life? Because it forces me to learn new things. For Then the Earth Moved, I spent time in a design studio and got to know people involved in architecture and interior design; for Then Time Stands Still, I visited a winery in Northern Spain and refreshed my knowledge of Roman archaeology. But perhaps the strangest was learning about sheep farming in South Wales in the 1960s for Let Love Find a Way. I have just completed a lovely deep dive into mysticism, tarot readings, pills and potions for my next novel.

All this makes life interesting. But it is work.

Blurb for Then Time Stands Still

English archaeologist Dr Amancia Harding has looked after her family for five years. Now it’s time to take care of herself and leading a team on a dig in Spain is the perfect way to propel her career forward. Her good intentions are threatened when she meets vineyard owner Max Serrano.

Damaged by war in Ukraine and a tragic event in his past, Max has given up on relationships and taken refuge in making wine, but the attraction he feels to Amancia forces him to confront painful issues. There’s also the gulf between their two cultures to consider if a relationship is to have any chance of success.

Ambitious and fiery in character, can either accept that compromise is sometimes necessary to find happiness?

Then Time Stands Still takes place in Bristol UK, then an archaeological dig on a vineyard in northern Spain.

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I really enjoyed writing this book, especially doing the research into archaeology and wine-making. And, of course, the food and customs of the country. Even if I know the place really well, I still have to ensure everything is up to date. The internet is fantastic, but person to person is still the best.

I love writing contemporary novels, as the research is also into jobs and professions, how they are carried out, and by whom, what it feels like day-to-day. People sometimes suggest it might be boring, but I have often found research unearths plotlines and forces me to consider a completely new (and usually better) way forward.

But my readers don’t want a travelogue, and, at some stage, I have to get down to writing the story. I write in my study at home, sometimes four or five hours a day, once I’m in the story. It’s scruffy but I’m not in there to admire its décor. Generally, I’m seated by a lovely Art Nouveau window which glows gradually brighter, as the sun moves around the house in the afternoon.

Inspiration comes from newspaper and news website articles, stories people tell me, history, but mainly from observing how people react in different situations.

I live in South Devon with my husband, an artist. When not writing a novel, I’m putting together talks about romance and why it should be given serious consideration as a genre. As you can imagine, I get booked up around Valentine’s Day, but I also speak at festivals when I get the opportunity.