About Anna Markland

Lancashire Lass

I was born in a fairly large industrial town in Lancashire. In the seventies, the government reorganized boundaries and decreed that my...

My Garden

I have a love-hate relationship with gardening. My husband and I bought our current home 23 years ago because it had a large yard with...

The Garden City

I live in a city located in the only sub-tropical area of Canada. As a result, the flora of Victoria is unlike that found in other parts...

The Importance of Family

Most of my series tell the stories of several generations of one family. The 12 books of The Montbryce Legacy, for example, trace the...

Puzzling!

I used to be a keen genealogist—addicted might be a good term to use! That all started a few years ago when I was teaching a small group...

Naming Fictional Characters

Medieval censuses sometimes provide excellent names for characters. Others get their names because of the circumstances of their birth....

Character Development

I'm often asked how I develop the characters in my stories. The quick answer is I don't! I'm what's known as a pantser. In other words, I...

Home Is Where the Heart Is

I was born in the UK but emigrated to Canada years ago. For a long time, I lived near Lake Superior in Northern Ontario, a couple hundred...

How Long is Too Long?

I have to make a confession right off the bat. When I am surfing Amazon for a book to read, I steer clear of books of more than 100000...

Book Covers

An enticing book cover can make a world of difference to a book's appeal. When I first began publishing, I designed my own covers. That...

Aging (Not So) Gracefully

When I was in my twenties, I couldn't imagine ever being 50 years old! Now I'm way past that landmark, I wonder where the years went! I'm...

A Typical Writing Day

I'm often asked to describe my typical writing day. This used to be easy. At the beginning of my publishing career, I thought nothing of...

Things You Might Not Know About Me

For a change of pace, I thought I'd share with you some things about me you may not know. I was born in the north of England, in the...