Gina Carroll

Gina Carroll began writing, blogging and speaking after leaving a large corporate law practice to raise her five children. Her first book, 24 Things You Can Do with Social Media to Help Get into College, helped students show their best selves and tell their own stories online. Dedicated to the belief that everyone has a story worth the writing and the telling, she wrote A Story That Matters: A Gratifying Way to Write About Your Life, to help aspiring writers get their life stories written, polished and shared. She founded Story House, LLC (formerly InspiredWordsmith), a writing, editing, and authorship services company based on the belief that the storytelling universe needs more authentic and diverse voices. She is most proud of the debut Story House publishing effort, Stories Are Medicine: Writing to Heal, An Anthology, a beautiful offering from a committed and brave group of Black women writers from Houston and beyond.

Instagram: @GinaStories

Threads: @GinaStories

Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write?

Sort of.  As a part of character development, I create playlists for each of my characters. Bella, the main character in my book, is an old soul. Her music tastes are grounded in what her grandmothers listened to as she was growing up. So, she loves Black R&B artists of the late 90’s-2000’s and also soft-jazz that was so popular at that time. I have these old CD’s from KKSF, a San Francisco radio station who made these Smooth Jazz Samplers that were truly awesome. I do not listen while I write.

Favorite non-reading activity?

Tennis has, for years, been my obsession. But during COVID, I was not able to play, so I am very slowly getting back to it. Bella has me interested in gardening; I am endeavoring to create my own garden for the first time. I learned a lot while writing the book. It’s hard work; requires planning and know-how. It is quite simply—glorious.

Not all books are for all readers… when you start a book and you just don’t like it, how long do you read until you bail?

My mother taught me NEVER to abandon a book. So, I rarely do. My editing role model, the late Michael Denneny, once said to me that as an editor, your reading of a client’s book may very well be the only perfect reading of it. In other words, you may be the only person who commits to spending the time necessary to give it full consideration and attention. I really take that on as an editor, and it bleeds over to my reading for pleasure. I will stick it out and, in the end, I am almost always rewarded with SOMETHING. Now, that’s not to say I won’t put it down for a spell. I do that on occasion. But I eventually come back and finish.

What’s the difference (at least for you!) between being a writer and an author? How do you shift gears between the two?

OOOH, so I LOVE this question. In my editing and coaching work, I encourage people to write in order to share, as opposed to writing just for themselves. First of all, I believe that everyone should write because I believe that the storytelling universe needs more diverse voices. We don’t all write the same or with the same mastery, but we don’t need to in order to reach our audience, share our message, and add our stories to the mix. Plus, there are LOTS of people around to help you with your writing if you want! Technically, an author is someone who writes professionally. But I like to define authors as people writing in order to contribute to the world; chime in on the conversation; people who endeavor to go on the record. And I am an evangelist for more people doing it.

What do you worry about?

I worry about the epidemic of brain disease—Mental illness and dementia are so prevalent as to be almost expected. I think our lifestyles are destroying our brains and we need to stop, change the way we work, eat, move and rest. My book is partly an ode to the beauty of returning to the soil to reclaim our minds. It’s just one piece of the mental health puzzle, but it’s important.