Meet Gayle Coates Wigglesworth

Gayle has always been torn between her skills at organization and management and her    creative needs.  As a young woman she bravely moved to San Francisco on what she considered her life’s adventure.  And while she built a career in the banking industry, eventually rising to the level of a Senior Vice President, she continued to develop her artistic skills.

She became an accomplished potter producing unique pottery, both on the wheel and by hand.  This of course, delights her friends and family who are often the recipient of these pieces.  And her art provides her with unique serving pieces to highlight the food she serves.  Gayle is a wonderful cook, having learned as a young girl when the social life of her family revolved around their meals. 

Gayle has continued to develop her writing skills and is now an active member in Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America groups.  Her mystery, Tea is for Terror placed second in Mayhaven Awards for Fiction (2002) and was published by Koenisha Publications in 2004.  The sequel to that book, Washington Weirdos placed third in the 2004 Mayhaven Awards for Fiction and published in November 2005.  The third mystery in the series, Intrigue in Italics, was published in 2006 and takes Claire and her mother to Northern Italy.  Gayle is currently working on the fourth Claire Gulliver Mystery, Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’, which is set on an Alaskan Cruise.

A few years ago Gayle moved to Houston to take a new position.   Her husband assured her they would regard it as a “foreign assignment” and they could move back to the San Francisco Bay Area when her assignment was over.  Little did they know that they would love Houston, where they now live.  But with all the children, grandchildren and good friends back in California they could no longer host the traditional family get-togethers.  That inspired Gayle to write “the book,” Gayle’s Legacy, so that the traditions could continue, albeit, with other people now hosting the meals.   This cookbook, a family history with recipes, stories and pictures, was published by Xlibris in 2003.

Gayle, now mostly retired from business, spends her time traveling, writing, potting, reading and cooking.  She belongs to Sisters in Crime, www.sistersincrime.org  and Mystery Writers of America, www.mysterywriters.org and recommends these groups for aspiring or published mystery authors.