Biography of Author
Mary A. Gilmour, born Mary Ann Gilmour, January 25, 1964, New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A. The youngest of nine with a 24 years age difference to eldest brother. In addition, a ten-year gap to the next youngest sibling. Born into an Irish-catholic family and poverty. Her father, Kenneth Jenkins Gilmour, Sr., was a local 59- truck driver. Her Mother, Violet Ruth (Johnson) Gilmour, she raised eight children and one novelist. She is the inspiration to Mary's over active imagination. She suffered from acute Schizophrenia. Her story telling was very vivid and memorable to a young Mary.
Years of schooling led her to believe that she was more scientifically inclined. Her love of creative writing end due to grammatical errors. Her inability to write eloquently hindered her stories. She had one teacher in high school and one in college that believed in her writing. They looked beyond the grammatical errors and actually read the text. Encouraged by them she wrote some wonderful short stories. However, money became the issue and she returns to work. It would be many years later before she would return to writing.
During the pregnancy of her son, Michael W. Medeiros, Jr., her mother passed away. She died after 9-year battle with colon cancer. Two years later, She lost her father to pneumonia. Alone, Single and a mother she returned to college. After a near physical and psychological breakdown, she withdraws from college a couple courses shy of a bachelor's degree in Medical Laboratoroy Science. She immediate returned to work in a clerical job.
While vacationing in Salem, Massachusetts for Halloween. She was involved in an automobile accident. The jolt of the impact injured and irritated her spinal cord. Months of doctor's, and physical therapy revealed a cyst on the thoracic spine. Out of work and very bored. Mary's mind started to work overtime. She had to vent her frustrations of boredom and loneliness so she began to write, again. Once she started, she could not stop. The words came out so easily and freely. Before too long, she had written her first novel, The Feeding Farm. A year later she wrote another science fiction novel, Highway Graves.
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