FAQ
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Q.
You seem like such a nice Southern lady. Where do you come up with all the terrible things you write about?
First off, thank you! I’m delighted that people find me so genteel–my mother would be proud! I am southern, and I try to be nice, but what I am personally has little to do with the stories I tell. There’s an old chestnut that says, “write what you know.” If I wrote what I knew, it would bore the pants off everybody. So I write about what scares me–the awful things that ordinary people come up against any day. I live near the woods, so my fiction tends to the rural more than the urban. The snapped twig behind you on a hike, the strange cry at twilight that you can’t identify. Perhaps it harkens back to my enjoyment of campfire ghost stories when I was a girl, but that’s the fiction I like to write.
Q.
Are there places you won’t go in fiction? Scenes you won’t write?
First off, thank you! I’m delighted that people find me so genteel–my mother would be proud! I am southern, and I try to be nice, but what I am personally has little to do with the stories I tell. There’s an old chestnut that says, “write what you know.” If I wrote what I knew, it would bore the pants off everybody. So I write about what scares me–the awful things that ordinary people come up against any day. I live near the woods, so my fiction tends to the rural more than the urban. The snapped twig behind you on a hike, the strange cry at twilight that you can’t identify. Perhaps it harkens back to my enjoyment of campfire ghost stories when I was a girl, but that’s the fiction I like to write.
Q.
How did you start writing?
When I was in the second grade, I wrote a one page story about my chihuahua and won a prize. My parents were so thrilled they bought me a typewriter for Christmas, which I still have (check it out on my editorial services page). I was an early reader and loved books, so I guess the writer tracks were laid down early in my little brain. English major in college. I’d hoped to go into journalism, but wound up writing ad copy for the Grand Ole Opry. Fast forward a few years and I had a chance to ghost write for Bonnie Bryant’s Saddle Club series. It was great fun and taught me a lot about plot and writing on deadline. After that I started writing my own novels, but without much success. Then I moved to the mountains of North Carolina and set my work in hills and hollers. Apparently, something clicked, because I came up with In the Forest of Harm and the rest, as they say, is history.
Q.
What’s your favorite book?
Too many favorites to list here, but if I were stranded on a desert island, I would take Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible. It’s funny and exciting and sad and moving and everything wonderful fiction should be. It’s also a master class in point-of-view, for those of you who would like to write. I would probably also take a dictionary, the Bible and a Shakespeare. I’d be extremely well-read if I ever made it off the island!
Q.
Who do you read?
As mentioned above, I rarely miss a Kingsolver book, or Margaret Atwood. I read The Handmaid’s Tale years ago and am so glad it has become popular on TV. Gillian Flynn is a wonderful stylist; Julie Smith writes funny, scary mysteries. I’ve always thought Stephen King could tell a good tale, though I don’t much care for the monster aspect of his work (too many monsters in real life). The late Richard Wright and Toni Morrison did some amazing work. The writer who really got me cranked up when I was little was William O. Steele, who wrote about pioneers in the early years of our country. His words just sang, and really made a story come to life. I always thought if I could write that well, I’d be doing okay.
Q.
What books would you recommend for someone who wants to write? What advice would you give a wannabe writer?
Well, the cliché of READ is true. Read copiously what you want to write—be it mystery or historical fiction or literary fiction or Sci-Fi and fantasy. Get to know what’s been done before. At first everything will seem beyond your capabilities, but keep reading and someday you’ll go into the bookstore and flip through a book and think ‘Wow, I could write at least this well ‘ Then it’ll be time to sit down at your computer and get to work. There are a jillion books about writing, and many of them excellent. The ones I’ve found most helpful are books by Sol Stein and Lisa Cron. Also, the irreplaceable Elements of Style by Strunk and White. And a good dictionary (if you haven’t left it on the island)
As for other advice, as Woody Allen said, “eighty per cent of success is just showing up”. Writers write, and sitting down and writing will probably teach you more than any book. Yes, it’s hard, particularly when the weather is nice and there are soooo many other fun things you’d rather do, but that’s the price of admission the muse charges. It’s high, and it separates the sheep from the goats pretty fast.
Q.
When you’re stuck, what do you do?
I know this totally contradicts my above answer, but I turn off the computer and DO something physical. I play tennis or take my very bad dog on a walk or take myself on a walk. While I’m doing all this exercise, I do not consciously think about my work. I just let my wheels spin. If it’s a plot problem, the answer will usually just pop in my head. If it goes beyond that, then it’s a characterization problem, and I’ll realize that I need to go deeper into the character that’s holding me up. Listening to opera helps me, too. It’s so huge and beautiful and overblown, it kind of sets me free as a writer.
Q.
What’s a day like for you?
My writing day is mostly this: Up early, consume lots of coffee, get to work. Knock off early afternoon, have lunch, run errands and exercise. After supper I read or watch TV (writing late keeps me up too late). Rest and repeat. As I said earlier, my real life is, for the most part, blessedly uneventful.
Q.
What are you most proud of?
My three children and two grandchildren first come to mind. Though I missed a few soccer games and once almost left my son stranded at school in a blizzard, my children were always loving and supportive and have grown into amazing adults.
Professionally, though, it has been eye-opening to re-visit the whole arc of the Mary Crow books. Of course I remembered the main points of the plots, but the twists and turns, dialog and characterizations often came as a delightful surprise. This is pretty good stuff, I remember thinking. I can’t believe I said that so well. So I feel like the muse has been kind—to be able to look back on your work and be proud is a gift. I hope that you who are new to the Mary Crow experience will find it equally compelling.