Ginny Kubitz Moyer
Author Interview - Ginny Kubitz Moyer
Author of A Golden Life
It’s 1938, and twenty-five-year-old secretary Frances Healey is ready for a fresh start. Hoping to forget her painful past, she takes a job working for Hollywood producer Lawrence Merrill. She quickly becomes absorbed in VistaGlen Studios’s biggest project: a movie about Kitty Ridley, the legendary stage actress who
disappeared from the public eye in 1895. The movie will be the making of Belinda Vail, a beautiful ingenue hungry for a breakout role (who also happens to be Mr. Merrill’s love interest).
But the real Miss Ridley has other ideas. Now ninety years old, she writes a scathing letter insisting the studio halt production of the film. Hoping to change her mind, Frances and Mr. Merrill embark on a trip to find the actress—only to land in a Victorian farmhouse in the Napa Valley. But as she learns the truth of Miss Ridley’s
life, Frances finds herself confronting the very past she’s been trying to forget. And with the arrival of the ambitious Belinda, loyalties will be tested, bonds will be forged, and Frances will learn where true happiness lies. Set in Hollywood and the sun-drenched Napa countryside, A Golden Life explores friendship, forgiveness, and the power of honoring your own story.
Author Interview - Ginny Kubitz Moyer
Author I draw inspiration from:
It’s a long list, but Charlotte Brontë is way up at the top. When I lived briefly in Paris in my early twenties, I took Jane Eyre with me, and it was the perfect book to have at that point in my life; Jane was a young woman navigating the wide world while figuring out who she truly was, and I was doing the same. Charlotte Brontë’s own life story—doggedly sticking with her writing in the face of rejection, using fiction as a way to transcend the confines of a circumscribed Victorian life—has always moved me. If she could find a way to write, with all the uphill battles she faced, then so can I.
Author Interview - Ginny Kubitz Moyer | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
Gardening is one of my favorite hobbies, so my little California backyard is full of flowers three seasons of the year. Sitting out there, my dog lying in the sun beside me, a book in my hand … it’s heaven. It’s very much my happy place.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
This is a weird answer, but I’d choose Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare’s Macbeth (a play I know almost by heart after teaching English all those years). Yes, there’s a chance she might kill me, but I rather think she wouldn’t; her survival instinct is too strong, and she knows we’d have to band together to find a way out. And being alone in an elevator with her, I’d have time to discover who she really is underneath that seemingly ruthless exterior. She’s such a marvelously complex character. It’s no surprise that contemporary novelists keep revisiting her and offering new takes on her story.
Author Interview - Ginny Kubitz Moyer | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
It’s hard to pick a specific moment, but when I look back, love of story has been present in every phase of my life. As a child, I read voraciously, even while brushing my teeth at night. I majored in English because I adored the written word. As an English teacher for twenty-six years, I got to share beloved books with others. And now I get to write stories myself! I’m grateful for this journey.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
Hardbacks have a classy and elegant look, but that’s a double-edged sword; they are so pretty that I’m always afraid to mess them up! So on balance, I prefer paperbacks. I don’t read well on screens, alas; I do much better with physical volumes, which means I have a serious book storage problem at home. I dream of having a library like in the movies, with ceiling-high shelves and rolling ladders.
The last book I read:
Judi Dench is one of my favorite actors; I love how she owns parts as diverse as M in James Bond and Lady Catherine in Pride and Prejudice. I’m currently reading Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, which is a book of her reminiscences about performing in the plays of the Bard over her long stage career. She’s insightful, irreverent, and frequently hilarious as she shares tales of various performance mishaps. It’s a marvelous read.
Author Interview - Ginny Kubitz Moyer | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
I always have a notebook where I journal and jot down ideas. I decorate the notebooks with pictures that capture what I think the setting or characters of a story might look like. I say “might,” because I’m a discovery writer ,and I figure things out as I go rather than outlining in advance. But those visuals really do help my creative process. Plus it’s fun to muck around with paper and scissors and glue… a reminder that creativity and play are deeply connected.
When I’m getting serious about starting a project, though, I do my writing on a computer. It’s easier to edit, and it’ll just end up on the computer anyhow. But going back to the notebook is helpful if and when I get stuck and need to “play” my way out of the impasse.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Betsy Ray, from the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace (it’s a child’s series that continues into the characters’ adolescence and adulthood, and it’s pure delight all the way through). I read my first Betsy book in elementary school, so I feel I’ve grown up with her. She’s so fun and open, loyal to friends and family, able to admit when she’s made a mistake, quick to laugh at herself … plus she is a writer, too, so we’d be able to bond over things like writer’s block and the sting of rejection. Just don’t ask to be in her group for the junior year botany project!
Author Interview - Ginny Kubitz Moyer | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
I’ve loved every art history class I’ve ever taken, so I think I’d be an art historian. I find it fascinating to really study a painting and see how the tiny details contribute to the overall effect. I appreciate a painting even more after a knowledgeable analysis of it.
It’s the same reason why I love director commentaries on movies. A movie (like a novel, really) is a series of creative decisions. Getting to hear how a director made the magic happen is endlessly fascinating.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
I’m split between the 1910s and the 1950s. I adore the big hats and graceful lines of the early 1900s, even though the corsets would probably kill me. And I love the hats and gloves and petticoats and dresses of the 1950s (I drooled over the first few seasons of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), even though girdles don’t sound fun at all. Basically, it would be ideal to wear the fashions from each era for a day or so, just for fun, and then go back to my yoga pants and jeans.
Place I’d most like to travel:
I’ve never been to New Orleans, and I feel very drawn to it. Something about the architecture, the culture, the history … and the music, and the food … it sounds like a totally unique part of the world.
My signature drink:
Coffee in the morning, but black tea the rest of the day. I love it both hot and iced. And when we’re talking drink drink, it’s red wine or, if things are really festive, sangria.
Favorite artist:
I’m a huge fan of director Greta Gerwig. I think Lady Bird is just about a perfect movie, and she did something in Barbie that I’m not sure any other writer/director could have pulled off. Her Little Women takes a unique approach to the story while coming from a place of obvious respect and affection for the initial source material. I am so glad she is making movies.
Number one on my bucket list:
Someday I want to get to England in the spring and walk in a bluebell wood. I’d wander and savor the color and listen to the birds and soak it all up. It sounds utterly glorious.
Anything else you'd like to add:
I love connecting with readers, and I send a monthly newsletter, which is a peek behind the fiction-writing curtain. I share photos of the real-life places that inspired the settings, the faces I have in mind as I craft my characters, how I come up with character names, and other little tidbits. I also try to share as many garden and flower photos as possible, because it’s always nice to get something pretty in your email inbox. If this piques your interest, you can sign up on my website, ginnymoyer.org.
Thank you for the interview!
Find more from the author:
https://www.instagram.com/moyerginny/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090757704243
About Ginny Kubitz Moyer:
Author Interview - Ginny Kubitz Moyer
Ginny Kubitz Moyer is a California native with a love of local history. Her debut novel, The Seeing Garden, brings to life the vanished world of the San Francisco Peninsula's great estates. Her novel A Golden Life (September 2024) moves from Hollywood to the Napa Valley in 1938. An avid weekend gardener, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two sons, and one rescue dog. Learn more at ginnymoyer.org.
