Mary Flynn
Apopka, Florida
(Central Florida, Orlando area)
USA
Good morning, Mary, and welcome to Vision and Verse, the site for art and authors, and those who love them. Can you tell us a little about what you've written?
I started out as a full-time staff writer for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Later on, while employed by the leader in guided reading materials used in the U.S. public school system, I discovered I enjoyed writing observational humor and had some success with it, being featured in The Sunday New York Times and other dailies and magazines. Later on, I moved into illustrated children’s books, which have been successful in large part because I have a great illustrator in Donna Craft.
I always intended to become a novelist, but first a series of short stories, some of which have won awards, and one of which is published in The Saturday Evening Post Anthology of Great Fiction. Then, a middle grade novella. Since I’m also a poet, I published my book of poems and, finally, my first novel, “Margaret Ferry,” which went on to win a gold medal in fiction, a silver medal in Christian writing and a silver medal in religious writing.
I have just released my second novel, “The Flower Cottage” in the same vein, although the slant is more about faith than doctrine.
I am dedicated to writing compelling fiction without vulgarity, foul language or gratuitous violence. I like to set my stories in 1950s Brooklyn, a time before technology took over and people could not rely on easily reaching each other. My sub-genre is magical realism, which is not to be confused with Sci-fi or Fantasy. I liken it to the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” in which all of the characters experience real-life dreams, challenges and failures…but there is one element that changes everything, the angel. I love twists and turns, surprises and miracles.
What is your favorite genre to write?
I have a hard time picking favorites with regard to almost anything. I enjoy too many possibilities. But if I must choose, I would say the novel, general fiction.
Favorite food?
Depends on what I’m hungry for, but my Mother’s linguine with crab sauce and whole blue claw crabs I could eat any day of the week.
Tea or coffee?
Funny for someone who did not drink coffee until I was in my forties, but I love one cup of Café Bustelo Cuban espresso in the morning.
Pizza or ice cream?
Pizza, as long as it really is true New York pizza with a thin, crispy crust and a bit of oil that could drip down your arm if you weren’t careful. Ha.
Wine or beer?
Beer. But I usually can’t finish an entire glassful.
Where would you like to visit?
I’ve been blessed to have visited many parts of the world, and to have lived overseas, but right now it’s all about the Adirondacks. I love the north woods. And although I never thought of myself as having a bucket list, I can’t think of anything I would enjoy more than riding in a horse-drawn sleigh at night in the snowy woods.
Favorite musical artist?
Guitarist Jesse Cook.
Do you listen to music when you write? What?
That’s impossible for me. I would make images of the songs I’m hearing. I’d be dancing in my head, summoning memories, and so on. Just couldn’t concentrate. Instead, I sometimes play forest sounds – birds and waterfalls. Love that.
What makes you laugh?
Verbal horse-play with friends. Silly talk. People who do funny things, sometimes even when they didn’t mean to be funny. Hamming it up. Never laugh at people, however. That’s a sin. So, I never thought popular shows like those awful videos in which people were dangerously hurt even had an ounce of humor in them. Neither do vulgar comedies, in my book. Outgrew Abbott and Costello and Martin and Lewis, but Victor Borge’s humor seems timeless to me and still makes me laugh – “A woman got run over by a steam roller. She’s in the hospital in rooms ten through eighteen.” What can I say?
Favorite work of art or sculpture?
My father was in charge of protection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. So, I spent many wonderful days there over many years. My first love was Rembrandt. Couldn’t get over the way the light and dark looked (I later learned it was called Chiaroscuro). And when I visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and saw the full-wall Rembrandts, I found them overpowering and unforgettable. I love Edward Hopper’s “Early Sunday Morning.” I also like a more obscure artist by the name of Edouard Vuillard, whose garden scenes captivate me.
As for sculptures, there are so many amazing ones and they are not necessarily famous. So, while I think Michelangelo’s David is extraordinary, I stop every time I go to the Leesburg Public Library and see the bronze sculpture of a man reading to a child on a bench outside the building. How does one pick?
How old were you when you started writing?
As I recall, likely around eight years old. I remember the joy I had when there was a blizzard, which meant no school, and I would take my Big Chief writing tablet and my Ticonderoga number 2 pencil into the living room and cozy up with some idea about a dark and stormy night. I was also very fortunate to have gone to Catholic school where the nuns taught nothing about atoms and molecules but made sure we were equipped to write for The New York Times before we reached the age of twelve.
Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards? Or just write?
I had to come to terms with the fact that my mind does not accept the structure of outlines and notecards. I just make sure that I have a list of all the characters and all the details of their lives, even if they have a secondary role. Their dates of birth, etc. When I’m ready to write, I rely on a paragraph typed in red at the top of the chapter, telling what I want to be sure to include in that chapter any why. I never just write. I always do my back-of-the-head work first.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Ideas might come from a single word, phrase, look, thought, memory or piece of one. A single moment or feeling. I believe the important thing is awareness—to pay attention. As with most authors, I’m often occupied by what is possible – the world of “what if.” Then, I trust in divine inspiration. I don’t have to know everything at once. I just allow the creative process to play out. But I do engage in a practice of trying to think a brand new thought every day.
Describe the perfect evening.
I have a casual lifestyle. A meal with friends whether at home or out at a favorite place. Love having friends in for “Movie Night.” Love the 1940s gangster movies…although I usually watch those early in the morning because I don’t like anything heavy before bed. I enjoy solitude, but good friends and conversation over a meal are always a pleasure.
Well, I don’t believe in writer’s block. Firstly, I never sit down and expect to come up with an idea just by looking at a blank screen. I may not put a word on paper for a week, but it’s all playing out in my mind--as I said earlier, the back-of-the-head work. The author John Hersey used to go fishing to do his back-of-the-head work. Ideas have to incubate. Just because I have a lot of yummy ingredients, doesn’t mean it’s soup yet, and I certainly wouldn’t be disturbed by it.
Who is your favorite author?
Currently, Adriana Trigiani.
I love her! Big Stone Gap! Big Cherry Holler! Lucia, Lucia!
Best book you ever read.
“Power vs. Force” by David R. Hawkins. And, of course, The Bible.
Last book you read. I’m finishing up “The Gift,” by Lewis Hyde. It was recommended by author Margaret Atwood. About how the Creative Spirit transforms the world. The cover quote reads: “…if you want to write, paint, sing, compose, act, or make films, read The Gift.”
What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer?
I would hope to be a baseball broadcast announcer, calling play-by-play or doing color. I’m from Brooklyn, so baseball is in my DNA. Ha. I love living in Central Florida where I can enjoy Tampa Bay Rays baseball. I enjoy the announcers as much as the game.
Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
Well, look, I’m a devout Catholic, so I have to say Christ. After all, I try my best…with hits and misses, for sure…to live a good and worthy life. Then, of course, aside from my father who taught me the practical side of life, my mother influenced me tremendously, not only by her own talents and success about which she was very humble, but for impressing upon me that I was capable of accomplishing whatever I set out to do. The only thing she ever asked me please not to do was to take flying lessons when I turned eighteen. I honored her wishes.
If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
By now, you can understand why I would have to say Christ. Next, I would say Walt Disney because he had the most rare and remarkable skill of allowing his passion for what he believed in and his unrivaled imagination to overcome every crisis he faced, while continuing to create.
What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer? Write, and keep at it. Find a local writers/critique group in which you feel the people are kind but honest, and submit to their feedback. Enter contests. And, importantly, finish the piece you start. I have known writers who write part of many stories, then abandon them. This will do you no good. Stick with it, finish, then and only then, move on and start again. Eventually, you will get traction.
Do you have some links for us to follow you?
My website, maryflynnwrites.com - Home :: Mary Flynn » (maryflynnwrites.com);
My recent release on Amazon, “The Flower Cottage”
- Amazon.com : The Flower Cottage by Mary Flynn
My Facebook page - (14) Mary Flynn | Facebook
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