Gina Dale is an historical and romantic fiction author – her works include the Viking series: Viking Wolf and Viking Warrior, and the Brushstrokes trilogy: Brushstrokes, Darkness Falls and Drama Unfolds.
An avid reader and writer of short stories for most of her life, Gina’s writing career began with a creative writing course in 2016 and an exercise to choose a picture to write about – as a spark or seed for a story.
The picture Gina chose was one on the wall of her newly decorated study – as a horse lover, owner and breeder she had selected a large print of Carolus-Duran’s stunning ‘Mademoiselle Croizette’s Equestrian Portrait’ to hang above her desk.
The more research Gina did the more fascinated she became with Carolus-Duran’s life and work – a short story became a novel, which then became a trilogy, and now Gina has published five novels with more on the way…
“As a child I was an avid reader consuming all Enid Blyton’s books and the Pullein-Thompson sisters and read anything to do with horses and dogs. I went to boarding school at 11 and my love for historical fiction was fostered there by Anya Seton, Jean Plaidy and Georgette Heyer.
I had a vivid imagination and would concoct stories with me as the heroine weaved around life immersed in Yorkshire with countless horses and dogs and then eventually men…
One of my English teachers complimented my story writing and said I was a born storyteller and should consider writing as a career. Being a practical Yorkshire girl I did not think my parents would relish this idea!
Life puts so many barriers in the way of achieving goals that this ambition was to remain unfulfilled for a very long time.
After I completed my first creative writing course in 2016, I attended a short course on Historical Fiction in 2017, run by Dr Livvy Michael at Manchester Writing School. After hearing I had written over 100,000 words in 12 weeks she encouraged me to carry on.
The rest, as they say, is history, or in my case, historical fiction!”
Gina Dale
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