The best thing about summertime is the ability to
escape. Whether it’s in your backyard reading
a book or to your favorite vacation destination,
there’s nothing quite like leaving it all
behind… even if it’s only for a little
while. But, imagine if it wasn’t. What if
one afternoon you decided to get in your car and
just drive without telling anyone where you were
headed? Better yet, what if you chose to start anew
focusing on yourself rather than your family?
Well, that’s exactly what this month’s
Jen’s Jewels wrote about in her first release
entitled THE RICHEST SEASON. Newcomer
Maryann McFadden beautifully depicts one woman’s
journey to find herself. Of course, along the way
the main character discovers much more than she
ever could have imagined about herself as well as
the family she has left behind. Without a doubt,
this novel is the perfect companion for a lazy day
at the beach.
As part of this interview, Hyperion
Books has graciously donated five
copies to give away to you, my faithful readers!
So, don’t forget to look for the trivia question
at the end of the column.
Please grab yourself a refreshing glass of sweet
tea and then read all about my sparkling new gem,
Maryann McFadden.
Jen: I was immediately drawn to your
book for two simple reasons. I grew up in New
Jersey and I spend my summers in South Carolina.
Both of these locales are beautifully portrayed
in your novel. With that being said, your foray
into the publishing business has not been a typical
journey. So that my readers can better understand
the person behind the words, please tell us a
little bit about your educational and professional
background. 
From the time I was a young girl and fell in love
with reading, I wanted to be a writer. I got a bachelor’s
degree in English, and when I graduated college
I began freelancing for local newspapers, gradually
breaking into magazines like WORKING WOMAN
and WOMEN’S SPORTS & FITNESS.
I also did some corporate writing for the makers
of Crayola and even taught a bit of journalism
at my local college. I didn’t make a ton
of money, but freelancing was great because it
allowed me to stay home and raise my kids until
they were in school, which was really important
to me.
After about ten years of freelancing, I was honestly
tired of working from home. The kids were in school
now and it was lonely. Plus, my husband’s
job changed and I suddenly needed to make some
real money! Well, after lots of interviews for
corporate jobs, and unhappy about the prospect
of giving up so much time with my family, I decided
to go into real estate. My brother had actually
just bought a Century 21 office in my hometown
and even my mother, who’d not really worked
her entire life, got her license and was doing
really well. And guess what? I did, too. I learned
that people really just wanted someone who was
honest and that they could trust. I loved working
with people and became a top agent in Northern
NJ.
But real estate is a 24/7 commitment and after
about ten years, as my children were leaving the
nest, I began to miss writing. I decided to go
back to school and get a Master’s Degree
because I wanted to write fiction, and didn’t
feel really prepared to do that after such a long
absence. I also had a wealth of material from
the many people whose lives I’d become intimately
involved in.
Jen: THE RICHEST SEASON came to fruition
originally as a self-published book back in 2006.
Currently, you have a contract with Hyperion Books
who just released your novel this month. From
a business standpoint, what has been the most
significant difference in the launching of your
novel now that you are with a major publisher?
What lessons have you learned in respect to the
marketing of your work as well as yourself that
would be helpful to aspiring authors just starting
out in their careers?
Maryann: When I did it myself, I was on my own.
I was not just the writer, but the publicist,
marketer, and distributor. It was exhausting.
Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to get my book
out there in readerland and get it sold so I could
hopefully get a real book deal. But after a while,
I didn’t have time to write anymore.
I’ve felt from the beginning that this
was a special book, that it could be—dare
I say it?—a bestseller. Now I have all the
resources to make that happen. National distribution,
whereas before the chains wouldn’t touch
me. Sales reps in the field, pushing my book from
store to store, all over the country, not just
in my area, or wherever I happen to be going.
A publicist, an editor, and a publisher who also
believe in this book in a huge way. In short,
I’ve got an entire team of people behind
me who want to make this happen as much as I do.
Probably the biggest lessons I’ve learned
is that you are your own best promoter. Believe
in yourself and make that come across. I’m
still making personal calls to newspapers and
booksellers because that one on one contact is
special and it will make them remember you. These
people get hundreds of books a month come their
way, so you want to stand out from the crowd.
Be shameless. Ask for what you want. That’s
a little lesson from my real estate sales days.
If you want to do a signing with a bookseller,
ask them. If you want them to read your book,
ask them. If you want a newspaper to do a piece
on you/your book, tell them why they should, then
ask if they will. If you want a bookseller to
recommend you to a book club, ask. I start out
by smiling and saying, “I’m shameless,
but I’m hoping you’ll consider…”
Just fill in the blank.
Reviews and blurbs from booksellers are gold.
Get just one and use that to promote your book
and get others. These are the people in the bookselling
trenches, they can really help you. Especially
the independent booksellers. They are an aspiring
author’s best friend.
Jen: In the constant on-the-go world
in which we live, I would think that many of us
at one time or another has entertained the thought
of just picking up and starting over. You touched
upon a theme that I think we all can relate to
in some way. How did you arrive at this premise?
Maryann: You’re right, running away from
one’s life is a common fantasy, especially
when life becomes overwhelming. We want to start
over, reinvent ourselves and our lives. And as
I’ve written, sometimes the things we dream
of are not, in the end, the dreams we really wanted
at all.
I’ve reinvented myself several times in
my life, first going from writing to real estate,
then real estate back to writing. But I think
because I’ve lived in the same small town
most of my life, the thought of going someplace
new and doing this is almost exotic. I think a
setting can transform you. I know each vacation
I’ve spent on Pawleys Island has been just
amazing. As soon as my feet hit the sand, I would
feel my insides relax, my heart swell and my imagination
take off. I wanted to give my character just that.
Joanna, the corporate wife, is very different
than me, and has had a very different life. But
in the end, I think we all want to feel happy
and fulfilled inside. And we all want to connect
with the place where we live.
Jen: What I like best about your book
is the way in which you were able to weave three
unique voices into one story. The main characters,
Joanna, Paul, and Grace, all have internal struggles
that they must come to terms with in order to
move on in their lives. Of the three, which character
was the most challenging to write and why? Which
one could you personally most relate to and why?
Maryann: Actually, Joanna was the hardest for
me to write. Maybe because she’s a middle-aged
woman like me, who’s been in a long marriage,
it was hard to be objective. But I think it was
because I tried to make her so different than
me that I had some struggles. I guess I didn’t
want people to read the book and think I was Joanna.
My favorite character is Paul. Ironically, Paul
is most like me in that we both struggled with
jobs we were really good at in sales, but that
seemed to sap so much out of our lives personally.
How do you walk away from a job where you make
really good money? But what if it doesn’t
fulfill you? I had that dilemma during my last
years in real estate. I’m also a huge gardener,
I love working outdoors, and I feel that we all
need to get our hands in the earth. Paul grew
and came to realize that money isn’t everything
and you can happy with a simpler existence.
Jen: Sometimes the secondary characters
can steal the show without taking away from the
flow of the plot. Please tell us about your characters
Hank and Buffy and what significance do they play
in Joanna and Paul’s lives respectively?
Maryann: Hank and Buffy are the “other”
people in Paul and Joanna’s lives when they
separate. Hank is a simple man, the opposite of
Paul, and he teaches Joanna that even grownups
need to have fun. She begins to soften and becomes
a different person because of this relationship.
Buffy is, ironically, another corporate wife in
Paul’s neighborhood who has the same complaints
about her husband that Joanna had about him. Only
Buffy is younger and just beginning her corporate
journey. She becomes a friend to Paul, the only
one he really has, but she seems to want more
from him. I think his interaction with her helps
him to see, objectively, what his wife’s
life must have been like when he was gone so much.
Jen: Struggling with an illness is an
emotional journey in itself but when facing it
alone, it can seem insurmountable. Why did Grace
choose to shut out her family but yet allowed
Joanna, a total stranger, inside? How are these
two women similar? Who is the stronger person
and why?
Maryann: Without spoiling the plot, let me just
say that Grace’s decisions are both selfish
and self-less. She wants to finally live for herself,
near the ocean, which has always been a dream
of hers, but which is inconvenient for her family.
Selfishly, she goes anyway, indulging this dream
of hers. Her decision to spare her family suffering
is a self-less decision, and probably the most
controversial part of the book.
I think it’s often easier to spill our
souls to those we don’t have history or
baggage with. Gradually, Joanna and Grace warm
to each other, and they are similar in that they
are both running away and trying to find something.
I think Grace is the stronger, if there has to
be a choice. I love her character. She is the
quintessential sage we would all love to sit down
and have a good conversation with.
Jen: When the hurricane hits the coast,
Joanna and Grace decide to ride out the storm
rather than seeking higher ground. Would you say
that it’s the turning point in their relationship?
How does it also affect Joanna’s relationship
with her family?
Maryann: Oh yes, it is a turning point. They both
reveal things that night that they’ve held
in for a long time. Things neither suspected of
the other. And I think it becomes the stepping
stone for Joanna to finally forgive herself for
some wrongs in the past, which enables her to
soften inside.
Jen: I was fascinated with the story
of the turtles and how the hatchlings struggle
to make it to the sea. Do you have firsthand experience
with this or did you research this topic to include
it in the book?
Maryann: I’ve actually sat turtle watches
at nests that were ready to hatch while vacationing
on Pawleys Island. Let me tell you, there is nothing
more beautiful than sitting on that beach on a
warm summer night, with the world asleep and the
moon coming up over the ocean. It is absolutely
magical.
I never did get to see them hatch. But sitting
there I heard the stories, and it wasn’t
hard to envision. And then I did do some research
at a place near Topsail Island in NC, where they
had baby loggerheads they were helping.
Jen: What is your favorite line from
the novel and why?
Maryann: Ooooh, that is so tough. But I’d
have to say it is the very last line of the very
last page. It still gives me chills because I
feel like I “nailed” it, as they say
in the Olympics. But I can’t give that away.
It would be cheating your readers.
Jen: What message, if any, are you sending
the readers by writing this book?
Maryann: There are several themes running through
this book that are near and dear to my heart.
First, that it is so easy to get caught up in
the busyness of our lives that we do end up losing
sight of our dreams. And even pieces of ourselves.
Let’s face it, each year the pace of life
just seems to get faster and faster. If we don’t
take control of our own lives somehow, and take
time for ourselves and the things that are important
to us, a lifetime can go by before we realize
it. Who wants to have those kinds of regrets?
Paul is a perfect example of that. The ultimate
corporate warrior, he had someone tend to all
of his personal needs, be it his wife or his secretary.
When all of that was taken away, he began to realize
that there was so much that he missed. And began
to really enjoy and cherish.
As for Grace and Joanna, the duties of being
a wife and mother eclipsed their own wants, as
it does for most women, until enough time went
by that when their children were grown and gone,
they’d all but forgotten their early dreams.
Another message I truly believe is that we as
humans have become much too far removed from our
physical world. In past centuries, people were
in touch with nature each and every day. I love
nature. Gardening, walking in the woods, listening
to the birds in the springtime as they mate and
build nests in my yard. These are my happiest
moments. We need to bring nature back into our
lives. And our children’s lives, as well.
Jen: Are you currently at work on your
next novel? And if so, would you mind telling
us about it?
Maryann:
Yes, I’m actually coming close to finishing
it. It is a sandwich generation novel called SO
HAPPY TOGETHER. I think so many of us can
identify with that situation. My character, Claire,
is a woman in her forties who raised her daughter
alone, and is about to finally spread her own wings,
but then…the rug gets pulled out from under
her by both her daughter and her parents. It’s
about how when you’re a mother, or a daughter,
you’re never really free. And now Claire has
to decide how far she’s willing to go to achieve
her dreams.
Jen: Please tell us about your website.
Do you blog? Do you have e-mail notification of
upcoming releases? Do you participate in author
phone chats? And if so, how would my readers go
about arranging one?
Maryann: I have a website that can be reached
by either going to www.maryannmcfadden.com
or www.therichestseason.com.
Either one will get you to my site. I do blog,
about this incredible journey, and also about
the long story of getting the book published finally.
Anyone who’s ever wondered about the publishing
business, or just loves books, would find it an
interesting story.
I do have an e-newsletter I send out every few
months, so I don’t bog people down, but
it keeps them abreast of exciting happenings and
new things to come, as well as where I maybe appearing
for an author signing or book club or media appearance.
It’s also my way of personally thanking
my wonderful readers who have been so incredibly
supportive. There’s a link to sign up to
my e-newsletter on each page of my website.
And yes! I do author phone chats, book club meetings
in person or via the web cam. Readers can just
e-mail me at maryann@maryannmcfadden.com
Jen: Thank you so much for taking time
out of your schedule to speak with me. I truly
loved your book and wish you much success!
Maryann: Thank YOU so much, Jen, for this great
opportunity to tell your readers about my novel!
I really appreciate it!!!
I hope you have enjoyed my interview with Maryann
McFadden. If you would like to read my review
of her book or any past interviews, please visit
me on my website www.jennifervido.com.
Okay, it’s time for the trivia question.
Be one of the first five readers to answer the
following trivia question correctly and e-mail
me at jensjewels@gmail.com
and you’ll win THE RICHEST SEASON. Good
luck!
What is the title of Maryann’s
upcoming release?
All the books are gone. Congratulations
to Anne K., Stacy B., Denise H., Kathy C., and
Kristina W.
Next month, I will be bringing to you my interview
with Kathleen McCleary from HGTV.com. You won’t
want to miss it!
Until next month…Jen
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Meet
the Author: featuring Jen's Jewels
