By Kerri Williams

WESTPORT – You might find yourself in familiar territory when reading one of the suspense-thriller novels of Moira McGarvey Black.

That’s because the Westport resident will often use suburban Connecticut as the setting for her fiction, even placing one of her 15 books in Westport itself, with mentions of Compo Beach and Longshore. 

“A lot of people in my audience find Connecticut kind of intriguing,” said McGarvey Black in a recent interview. “I love including the leafy roads and stone walls.”

McGarvey Black also includes a lot of suspense in her psychological thrillers, which are known for being page turners. 

One of her more recent ones, “The Second Honeymoon,” spent two weeks last month as #1 in Kindle books for the UK. Both she and her publisher were excited by the news, toasting the accomplishment with champagne.

But it wasn’t that long ago that being a published writer seemed like a faraway dream for McGarvey Black. She began writing in her 50s following a successful career in advertising and later as an executive recruiter for internet companies. Her first attempts at writing short stories were just for her, but then a good friend convinced her that she could write an entire book.

McGarvey Black did her homework, spending a lot of time honing her craft and learning about publishing. She attended writing seminars, listened to podcasts, and read anything she could about becoming a published author. 

“I made it my business to learn everything about it,” she said. “It became a whole new career and the favorite of my careers.”

If she has one piece of advice for anyone who is thinking about taking the plunge in a new endeavor, it’s just to get started. “You can do this thing,” she said. “Don’t say you’re too old. You’re not.”

After writing her first manuscript, McGarvey Black sent it out to more than 100 publishers. But no one was interested, she said. Rather than get discouraged, she read more about successful authors and learned that many of their first attempts did not get the attention they had hoped for. So, she set back to work on a second manuscript and sent that one out as she had the first.

This time she received an email from a small publisher in the UK who was interested in publishing it. Her first thought was that the email was most likely a scam. But it turned out to be the break she was hoping for.

After publishing her first several books with that publisher, McGarvey Black was able to sign up with a larger publisher, Joffe Books, also in the UK.

In her journey, McGarvey Black and her husband, Peter, lived for many years in Wilton where they raised a family before moving to Florida for several years and then to Westport about a year ago. The couple loves Westport, she said, calling it a “hidden gem.” Some of her favorite things so far are the Westport Library, the Levitt Pavilion, and the beaches.

But McGarvey Black also spends a lot of time writing, sometimes working seven or eight hours a day when she is in the middle of a project. She plans out her books in detail, she said, which is important for her genre where there are plot twists, and she often leaves “red herrings” for the reader.

She finds inspiration for her novels all around her. Sometimes in the news or in people she meets. She even got the inspiration for a book about a murder on a cruise ship after she and her husband went on one together.

She calls her husband her “biggest supporter,” often coming to writing events and taking photos or sending out press releases.

Readers have become accustomed to the surprise endings in her books, but McGarvey Black said one of the biggest surprises for her, now in her 60s, is to be living out her dream as a published writer. “You never know what could happen,” she said.

Kerri Williams

^{_{Kerri Williams is an award-winning writer and journalist. She has worked as a reporter at the Norwalk Hour, as Living editor at the Darien News-Review, and managing editor for the Norwalk Citizen-News. For Westport Journal, she is a reporter as well as a gardening columnist, writing “Cultivating with Kerri.” She recently published her first children’s book – “Mabel’s Big Move,” based on her daughter with special needs.}}