MARYLEE MacDONALD
- Guest Author -
G'day folks,
I'm pleased to interview another award-winning author from the USA.
Welcome, Marylee ...
1.
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT
YOURSELF AND YOUR WRITING JOURNEY.
My hometown newspaper
published a plotless story of mine when I was in fourth grade, so I guess you
could say that’s when my journey to become a writer began. Like most journeys,
mine has had a lot of speed bumps and detours, so it’s only now, at age 71,
that I can truly say I feel like a writer.
2.
WHEN AND HOW DID YOU
BECOME A WRITER?
After my first husband was killed in a car accident and
after the birth of our fifth child, I chose to return to school for a Master’s
degree in Creative Writing. Totally impractical, from the standpoint of earning
a living, but at the time, I thought I could teach writing and English at a
junior college. I was 26 and probably not thinking straight. Clearly, the
delusion of becoming a writer stuck with me, because here I am, answering your
questions.
3.
WHAT TYPE OF PREPARATION DO YOU DO FOR A
MANUSCRIPT? DO YOU PLAN EVERYTHING FIRST OR JUST SHOOT FROM THE HIP?
Aha! Am I a planner or a
“pantser”—meaning, “Do I write by the seat of my pants?” I’d like to be a
planner. I do plan, and if I wrote thrillers or mysteries, probably I would be
obliged to plan. Instead, I write a discovery draft, and after I finish my
messy first draft, I root around for the most interesting parts. Alive, vivid
scenes stay in. I look for one thing causing another, and then I impose a plot,
usually by just working on paper until the storyline begins to shape up. On my
blog I have a post that talks about a two-sentence way to get a grip on plot.
Many writers have told me this method has helped them.
4.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST
ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
I enjoy the writing itself. I love to tinker around with
sentences and make them beautiful. I never tire of living in imaginary worlds.
5.
WHAT IS THE HARDEST
THING ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
I hate marketing and promotion. Until 2014 when a small
press in Maine published my novel, I’d never thought of having to learn the
marketing piece of publishing. Now I know that having a presence on the
internet is essential. Without that, no author can hope to find readers.
6.
WHAT WERE YOU IN A
PAST LIFE, BEFORE YOU BECAME A WRITER?
I’ve always been writing and sending out my work, but for
my day job, I worked as a carpenter. I had an all women’s construction company
in Urbana, Illinois, and my business partner and I trained other women in the
trades. After a while I shifted more to the writing side and worked as an
editor for various building trade magazines. I think I might be the only
grandma out there who’s equally comfortable buckling on a tool belt and
changing diapers.
7.
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST
WRITING ACHIEVEMENT?
It was a great honor
for me to win a Gold Medal for Drama from the Readers’ Favorites International
Book Awards. That was for my novel, Montpelier
Tomorrow, a book about a caregiver and her struggle to protect her family
from Fate.
8.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING
ON AT THE MOMENT?
I’m working on a novel set in 1769 during the Transit of
Venus expeditions that brought Cook to the South Pacific and the astronomer,
Chappe d’Auteroche to Baja California. The novel’s about the young artist who
left Paris, hoping for a quick route to fame and fortune, and returned with his
hopes dashed.
9.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
Other writers inspire me. I love looking back through
magazine archives to learn about the preoccupations and working methods of
writers who’ve gone before me. Esquire
and the New Yorker have some terrific
stuff in their archives. I mine those for tips to make my job easier.
10. WHAT GENRE DO YOU WRITE?
Primarily, I write
literary fiction, both novels and short stories.
11. DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR NEW
WRITERS?
If you think you don’t have time to write, set a kitchen
timer for 15 minutes. Use Scrivener, rather than Microsoft Word. Learning
Scrivener takes time, but makes revision easier.
12. DO YOU SUFFER FROM WRITER’S BLOCK?
Never. I’ve waited so many years to have unencumbered time
that writing is a complete pleasure.
13. DO YOU HAVE A PREFERRED WRITING
SCHEDULE?
I start at 8 in the morning, after I’ve done the New York Times’ crossword puzzle. I
write for an hour and then look at my other commitments for the day. If I can
get in three or four hours of writing time, that’s a good day.
14. DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE WRITING
PLACE?
I have a home office. It’s nice and quiet and has a good
ergonomic setup. Occasionally, a writer friend and I will meet in a cafe for a
“power write.”
15. WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST JOY IN
WRITING?
It’s probably the day I see the book cover and realize that
this pile of paper will turn into a real book. The joy comes from releasing the
book into the world and knowing I don’t have to labor over it any more.
16. WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND
WHY?
Gina Berriault is my favorite author. Her story collection,
Women In Their Beds, is phenomenal.
More than any other writer, she has shaped the way I write sentences.
17. WHAT’S THE GREATEST COMPLIMENT YOU
EVER RECEIVED FROM A READER?
“I started your novel and had to park my kids in front of
the TV until I finished it.”
18. WHAT WAS THE WORST COMMENT FROM A
READER?
Oh, god. Well, I guess I could look at the comments on
Amazon or Goodreads, but just in general, it’s when readers say they didn’t
like my characters. I, of course, love them, flaws and all. Comments like that
never fail to sting.
19. WRITERS ARE SOMETIMES INFLUENCED BY
THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN THEIR OWN LIVES. ARE YOU?
Oh, sure. I keep a writing journal, and things that happen
in my life eventually make their way into stories. Here’s one from yesterday, a
story a woman told me about attending the World Parliament of Religions in
Barcelona. “A Sikh man rushed up to me and said, Arlene, I remember you from
last time! You’re the one who lent me underwear.”
20. OTHER THAN WRITING, WHAT ELSE DO YOU
LOVE?
I love to build things. I recently rebuilt my landlady’s
dry-rotted front porch, and thought, “Gosh, why did I ever stop working
construction? I love being outdoors pounding nails.”
21. DID YOU HAVE YOUR BOOK / BOOKS
PROFESSIONALLY EDITED BEFORE PUBLICATION?
I run a writing
workshop in Phoenix, Arizona, and I teach Creative Writing at a university.
You’d think I wouldn’t need to have a book “professionally edited;” however, I
always benefit from a careful read. I sent my story collection to an editor,
and she told me how to order the stories. A terrific copyeditor caught errors I
would have missed. The publisher of my novel raised some valid questions about
the plot, and she did a thorough job copyediting the book.
22. DESCRIBE YOUR PERFECT DAY.
My perfect day is
writing from 8 till noon and then going for a walk in the Desert Botanical
Garden. I enjoy birdwatching, though I’m not very good at it. The Southwest is
a great place for birdwatchers because we get the Mexican migrants (of the
feathered variety).
23. IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND
WITH ONE PERSON, WHO WOULD IT BE? WHY?
Well, my husband, of
course. He’s compassionate, creative, and a pitch-in kinda guy.
24. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IF YOU HAD THE
CHANCE TO SPEAK TO WORLD LEADERS?
Give up all your
armaments and help the starving feed themselves. Stop polluting our drinking
water and get a grip on climate change.
25. WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?
I’d like to write
another book of historical fiction about the founding of the California
missions by the Spanish. I’m almost done with a memoir, and I have another
story collection that’s in the “almost done” category. As far as immediate
plans, I’m taking my husband to Venice for a romantic getaway.
26. WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON BOOK TRAILERS? DO THEY SELL
BOOKS?
I don’t know if book
trailers sell books or annoy readers. I’ve had trailers made for both my books,
and I thought the young man who made them did a great job. A trailer should
tell the potential reader if they’re buying a ticket for a wedding or a
funeral. It’s up to the reader to decide which of the two might be the most
amusing.
27. DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN ANY OF YOUR
CHARACTERS?
In a sense, giving birth to my characters is like giving
birth to a child. The stories retain my DNA.
28. DOES THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY
FRUSTRATE YOU?
At this point it
baffles me more than frustrates me. On the plus side, the emergence of
print-on-demand publishing means that I can find publishers for my books. On
the down side, these aren’t New York publishers, so it’s up to me to do
promotion. That frustrates me because it’s a time sink, and I’d rather be
writing.
29. DID YOU EVER THINK OF QUITTING?
No. Never.
30. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE MANUSCRIPT
TO WRITE? WHY?
I could say that my
favorite manuscript is whatever I’m working on now; however, in actuality, I
think my favorite is a short story in Bonds
of Love & Blood. The story is called “The Ambassador of Foreign
Affairs,” and it’s about elderly Mr. Tanaka, a low level bureaucrat who arrives
in California on the eve of his daughter’s wedding. He learns she’s about to
break off the engagement, and it’s up to him to make it happen. The small
moments in that story make me laugh.
31. HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE ‘SUCCESS’ AS A
WRITER.
Success is knowing
that, for the most part, readers enjoy my books. That’s an even bigger kick
than winning literary prizes, of which I’ve won many.
32. WHAT SHOULD READERS WALK AWAY FROM
YOUR BOOKS KNOWING? HOW SHOULD THEY FEEL?
Since I don’t write how-to books, I’m not sure there’s
anything they should “know.” As to how they should feel, I hope they feel that
they have walked a mile in the shoes of someone totally unlike themselves. I
hope my books and stories provide insight into what makes people tick.
33. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE YOUR BOOKS
MADE INTO MOVIES? EVER WRITTEN A SCREENPLAY?
Movies
are not on my radar. I have thought about turning Montpelier Tomorrow into a play. It’s dialogue-heavy and would be
easy to divide into scenes. As a play it would have a powerful impact on an
audience.
34. HOW MUCH THOUGHT GOES INTO DESIGNING
A BOOK COVER?
I’ve
found a cover designer I really like. He goes by the moniker “tatlin,” and he’s
at http://www.tatlin.net.
He designed the cover for Bonds of Love
& Blood, and it was a finalist for the Da Vinci Prize. No surprise. The
designer’s Italian.
35. WHAT’S YOUR ULTIMATE DREAM?
I’m living my ultimate
dream. I make careful choices about who I live with, where I live, and how I
spend my time. I’m doing exactly what I want right now.
36. WRITING IS ONE THING. WHAT ABOUT MARKETING YOU,
YOUR BOOKS AND YOUR BRAND? ANY THOUGHTS?
Gag!!! My brand! I know
authors are increasingly urged to have a brand and a platform. I’ve dipped my
toe in that water, and shrunk back from wading in too deep. Whatever I do or
am, I’m pretty much myself.
37. ARE YOUR BOOKS SELF-PUBLISHED?
No. Both are published
by independent presses. I have the skills to self-publish, however, and I’m
thinking about doing that for my next book. I’d like to have control over the
price, and I don’t have that control right now.
38. DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN FIVE WORDS.
passionate,
humanitarian, creative, constructive, loyal
39. WHAT PISSES YOU OFF MOST?
How short life is.
40. WHAT IS THE TITLE OF THE LAST BOOK
YOU READ? GOOD ONE?
The last good book I
read is one that is also independently published. Marion Molteno’s Uncertain
Light is just a terrific book. It’s one of those books I feel
like shoving into the hands of all my friends and insisting they read. I’ve
corresponded with Marion, and I know the book received a very warm reception in
Australia.
41. WHAT WOULD BE THE VERY LAST SENTENCE
YOU’D WRITE?
If Frank Sinatra hadn’t
sung it, the sentence would be this: “I did it my way.”
42. WHAT WOULD MAKE YOU HAPPIER THAN YOU ARE NOW? CARE
TO SHARE?
If my husband would
work less, I would enjoy spending more time with him.
43. ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO ADD?
I’m a big fan of
late-life writers. We have so much to write about and the perspective that
comes with age.
Clancy's comment: Thank you, Marylee. You deserve your success.
I'm ...
