Mary Alice Monroe, THE SUMMER OF LOST AND FOUND & THE ISLANDERS

[2:03]Zibby Owens: This is Zippy Owens, and you're listening to the award winning podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. I'm also the host of Moms Don't Have Time to Lose Weight, and I'm the editor of the anthology, which you should run out and buy, called Moms Don't Have Time to A Quarantine Anthology. All proceeds of that book go to COVID nineteen Vaccine Research. And I'm the editor in chief of Moms Don't Have Time to Write a New Publication on Medium, and we're accepting submissions, so please send your personal essays there. And if all that isn't enough, you can follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens, and my website is zibbyowens.com. Okay. Now back to this amazing podcast. I am so thrilled that Ferity brand is back at being my sponsor again because as many of you know because I talk about them a lot and I post about them a lot, Ferity is like my favorite clothing brand right now. It is fashionable enough that I always feel good wearing it, super comfortable, very forgiving, and just really cool. So I'm so excited they're my sponsor. You can get a discount with fairybrand.com/zippy and you'll get 20% off. Again, that's feritybrand.com/zippy. Get 20% off. And a few other things that you should know about Ferity aside from the fact that I'm living in their dresses for this summer, is that they're a family run brand fueled by purpose and optimism. They make high quality, sustainably minded, feel good favorites that you'll be proud to wear. I certainly am. They believe in family, quality, sustainability, and community. Summer is in their DNA, and they've created many staples for the summer, sustainably minded with the highest of quality, comfort, and versatility, and all are made for life, which I can 100% attest to, and you should definitely go check it out. So again, fairetybrand.com/Zibby for 20% off. Go try it out. Mary Alice Munro is the author of The Summer of Lost and Found and The Islanders. She's a New York Times bestselling author of 27 books, including the Beach House series. The Beach House, Beach House Memories, Swimming Lessons, there are many books in the series. Her debut middle grade fiction series, The Islanders, just came out as well. She is a 2018 inductee into the South Carolina Academy of Authors Hall of Fame. And her books have received numerous awards, including the 2008 South Carolina Center for the Book Award for Writing, the 2014 South Carolina Award for Literary Excellence, and many others like the 2017 Southern Book Prize for fiction. Her best selling novel, The Beach House, is also a hallmark hall of fame movie starring Andy McDowell, Minka Kelly, and Jad Michael Murray. By the way, loved Minka Kelly from Friday Night Lights, the TV show. Did anyone else watch that? Anyway, she is the co creator and co host of the weekly web show and podcast, Friends and Fiction, which features five dear friends and bestselling authors, Mary Alice Munroe, Mary Kay Andrews, Patty Callahan Henry, Christy Woodson Harvey, and Kristen Harmel. Christy Woodson Harvey, by the way, is also a best selling author now and was on my podcast recently. With more than 37,000 readers tuned in, the women talk about books and life while also spotlighting indie bookstores. Mary Alice is also an active conservationist and supports numerous conservation focused organizations. Her work includes serving as a board member emeritus for the South Carolina Aquarium and a state certified member of the Island Turtle Team. She lives on the Isle Of Palm, South Carolina, which is a source of inspiration for many of her books. Welcome, Mary Alice. Thank you so much for coming on Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Thank you. Always have been looking forward to this. Me too. This is so nice. And you've already had me on your show, Fantastic Fiction, and all of the rest. No, Friends in Fiction, what am I talking about? It's also fantastic. But You're a favorite. You know that. Oh my gosh. So you have two new books, like, coming out basically at the same time. An adult book summer read, The Summer of Lost and Found, which I read, and The Islanders, a middle grade, which now I have to read with my kids but have not yet. So first of all, congratulations on all the new releases. It's

[6:08]Mary Alice Monroe: amazing. And then I have the anthology for Dorothy Bettin Frank that we wrote in memory of her. That's right. I read that. So I've never before had a book out in April and May and June. And I don't think I ever will again. So it's a phenomenon for me, but it's

[6:25]Zibby Owens: been a joyous ride. I loved Reunion Beach. I loved it. Was so beautiful. I felt like I got such a sense of who Dottie was even though that's not what I called her because I didn't know her. But I feel like now you guys have let everybody into her interior life and got gave such a great portrait. I mean, it's like I don't know. I said at the time, I don't know who I who was I talking to about it? Oh, Adriana Trogani. I was saying everybody should have a book like that when they pass away. You know? I'm gonna ask I'm gonna hold you to it, Xivian. I'm serious. Everyone should have one. And it would be even better if it came out like before they passed away. Maybe everyone deserves a book of tribute. So we can fake them.

[7:06]Mary Alice Monroe: What was really great about it was we were her friends and her editor, Carrie Farrin was her friend. And so I know Carrie. Carrie has one of my dogs. And she asked us, would we consider doing this? And of course it was an easy yes. We wanted to find a way to say goodbye to her because she passed so unexpectedly so quick. And none of it, I didn't think she was going to pass. I really didn't. I thought she'd come out and it would be all back to normal. So my story was the mother child reunion, which is that story of a mother and a child who the child was released at for adoption at birth. And they've never met each other. She's 40 years old, the girl. And this before the drive to meet each other and that's all before, because to me, that's the real interesting part. And I think the only criteria was that we write about something that takes place on a beach in the low country. Other than Adriana went all the way up to heaven. That was awesome. Pat Conroy in there, so I think she brought the low country with her.

[8:11]Zibby Owens: It was I think all the stories were really heartfelt. So I'm proud to be a part of it. You should be. It was really lovely and beautiful and very well done. A model for And things to you also, in terms of a model of things to come, as far as I can tell, this is the first book I've read where the pandemic is a part of the story and that it's told over that time frame. I mean, gosh, I don't even know how you did it that fast. It's May 2021 now. And, you know, it starts in March 2020 and there's an entire novel. I mean, it's like I kept like looking. I was like, how is she doing this?

[8:48]Mary Alice Monroe: Thank you for recognizing that. First of all, it was without a question, the hardest book I ever wrote because I was writing it in real time. I'm usually a writer who my books are all set against some aspect of nature. So I usually do an academic research before I even know the book. I know the species. So I work with a species and I do an academic research and I either train or rehabilitate somewhat depending on the animals. Work with the animals. And I always like to say the animals tell me the story. So I know before I begin a book, the structure. I'm a structuralist. I know characters. I know where I'm going. I know where the climax and resolution is. But honestly, this book, I dealt with the human species more than anything else. I decided, and I have to admit it, I knew it was risky, but I decided I was going to write the story based on what we were living through right now, because I think this pandemic truly is like a wartime that we went through and it's going to be, where were you when the Trin Towers fell? Where were you in the years 2020? How did you survive? And I think all those heightened emotions and the challenges and the introspection that we all went through should be chronicled. I wanted to do it in real time. I didn't forget. So I knew it was raw. The hard part was that I didn't know where I was going. I was writing as I lived it. So my outline went to the garbage can pretty quick. And it was so emotionally roller coaster for me because I had to watch what was going on around me and experience it myself and put it down through my characters. And I think I was worried if I was going to be able to get it done towards the end, because I always like to say something in my novel as I'm the old crone in the story as it were with that little bit of knowledge that I'm sharing with you. And it was a hard one. It was really hard one, but I think I pulled it off.

[10:56]Zibby Owens: Best seller. Are you kidding? You came out on the list already.

[11:01]Mary Alice Monroe: Know, but I think for more important than that, for me as the writer, I know what I wanted to say in this novel. I want what I wanted to share with my readers that my characters learned. And so did I. And what was that? It's what Eckhart Tolle has talked about since for decades, which is to live each day to the fullest. And I knew that that's almost, you can embroider it on a pillow. We all know that saying, but I didn't get it. I didn't know what it meant. But when I went through this year and I was watching people like myself included, the older generation fearful of their lives, taking care of people who are very sick. I lost family members. I know you did too. Going through that. And then the young people, in my house here where I'm living right now, this mountain house, there were four women that I sheltered in this house during that time, sort of like the mushroom and the rain story, the children's book. That was my house. And so that's why in the novel Linea brings people into the house, speech house, because I was doing that. But while I lived through that, I was watching the young people, their lives came to a complete stop. You know, they lost their jobs. They didn't have dating, you know, or they, if you were mindful of COVID that you didn't date, there was the whole mask issue redirection of where do I want to, what do I want to do really going back to school? But throughout all that we had the best time. And so what I learned was you can't plan. I used to always I'm a planner. I like to know what's happening tomorrow and work for it. And I've learned to come down, take a deep breath. And I'm with you right now, Zibby. I would don't know the next time I'm going to talk with you. And I'm enjoying these moments. And I'm saying yes to my kids. My daughter wanted to take me. It was basically an intervention to get me to exercise. She took me to a spot. Mom, you got to start exercising. And usually I would have said, no, no, no, I've got a deadline. My book's coming up. I said, yes. So I know what I now know is to live each day to the fullest because we get to choose how we're going to live this day. We do have that choice. That's all the choice we have is right now, right here. And that you can sort of plan for the future, but you don't know what's going to happen for sure. You know, you might COVID might hit tomorrow in another wave, or you might have some personal issue. So just I'm enjoying and I'm happier. That's amazing. So that's a tough lesson. It's not an easy lesson to learn that you actually live it. And that's the difference knowing it intellectually and believing it with your heart and soul and doing it. That's the difference.

[14:03]Zibby Owens: Well, that was beautiful.

[14:06]Mary Alice Monroe: Hard one, as I said, hard one. No, it's great. I mean,

[14:11]Zibby Owens: it's true. I feel like I'm like you, I'm a planner and I used to have everything planned to the minute and trips booked a year out and like everything was known. And I literally had to remind myself every day, like, just keep looking here. Like, look down. Like, anytime I looked, even tomorrow, I would get so anxious that I couldn't even function. So I was just like, I'm just going to look today. What do I have today? I've got these books. I've got you know? So I'm with you. That's wise. That's hard won wisdom. You have to go through it, don't you? Yeah. To be able to reach that point. To have a time of life with so much uncertainty that the only choice is to, you know, cling to now. So I don't know, for anxious people or planning people or I don't know. I think it actually was probably

[14:54]Mary Alice Monroe: good wake up call on the ways to live. I do. And writing this book for me, I mean, while I was doing it, I came away with the characters look and I liked where they ended up. I mean, it's funny. There are some funny scenes in the book and the boat scene, and there's some beautiful moments where heartfelt conversations. I love the love triangle. I mean, there's a great love triangle, which really for me was showing personal choice. I made this triangle because it just it materialized out of nowhere. For those of you who are listening, this young girl, Lynnae is in the beach house. And her old boyfriend who broke her heart is the neighbor's son. And he appears because he's in quarantine and quarantine is the big issue of the pandemic. Whole, is it possible I caught a disease? So anyway, he's in quarantine for truth leaks and she's, Oh my God, what's he doing here? But it stirs old emotions and she doesn't want that. And then her old boyfriend who happens to be coming from England, who's Zivvy, he was in the series. He is English. It worked out so beautifully that he would happen to be there and had to come back. It was like, okay, all the road signs are there. I should write this book. He came in and there's this triangle set up that she had no intention of getting involved in. But the journey for her as she juggled between can I love two men at one time? I always liked the journey to be in the end, what do I want to do as a young woman starting my life? What choices do I make? And I think that she had to work her way to that realization

[16:32]Zibby Owens: that it's really not between two men. It's here in her heart and here in her mind. I've told friends before who are debating between two guys. I'm like, usually if you really can't decide between two guys, chances are they're both wrong.

[16:46]Mary Alice Monroe: Yeah. Or the timing is wrong. That's

[16:50]Zibby Owens: not a good sign.

[16:53]Mary Alice Monroe: Honestly, I look at my children who are in their thirties now, but I say, I remember at 26, it's like, you're a baby. Oh my gosh, have so much. Think at that age, everyone thinks they know and they want experience. I'm saying go experience, find out what you're good at. What's your passion? That's all I've ever taught my kids is. And that's what Kara teaches Linea. Like what's good for you? That's a good selfish. Follow that

[17:22]Zibby Owens: and not choose a man to save you because a man ain't ever gonna save you. I love I love when Linea spies Jonathan. His name's Jonathan. Right? Who like, right across the way and, like, sees him in the window and then realizes he's quarantining there and and they they can she, like, does that little wave in the gravelly driveway. And then, like Like, half wave. Calls her colleague and, like is like, I'm getting wine. Meet me in the back. Like, I love that. It's like

[17:47]Mary Alice Monroe: We all know that moment when you need your girlfriends, you need your girlfriends. That's what I liked too, that during the, I think what was heightened during the pandemic, and it's not about the pandemic, like you said, it's a setting. But what happened was relationships were intensified. So you found your safe group. Some people call them COVID groups or pods, or there are names for it. COVID couples, we had a COVID couple in the book and it's just intensified who you were with, but it was really based on trust. You trust these people in your pod that you can rely on them for your own safety.

[18:26]Zibby Owens: And that's that wartime mentality a little bit. And I love that you highlighted the financial instability that the pandemic wrought on so many people. I mean, was you did a really nice job with that, you know, because the uncertainty was not just in like, hey, when are we gonna make our travel? I mean, that's like such a, you know, ridiculous woe is me problem. I mean, the the it wasn't the planning. It's like, how are we gonna pay our rent? Can we bunk up together? Like, how when I depend on income based on catering, like, what am I gonna do when all the gigs are up? And like, when is the Yeah. When is this furlough ending? And anyway, that you really gave People are really in trouble. Yeah. You gave that the characters that sense. It came through very clearly and and in a really compelling way.

[19:09]Mary Alice Monroe: Oh, I'm so glad you said that because I was actually when I'm in nature, you go out in the wild and I'm working with a species, you just watch. You keep very quiet and you watch, you know, eyes and ears open. And I sort of watched what was going on with my family. I had the four women in my house, one of which was a niece in her thirties who was out of a job and still here and just watching her refocus, redirect, not dating and the depression that also accompanies that, that little I'm on of course, you're going to be depressed when you're scared like that. And then I was watching my daughter who moved into my beach house from Chicago with all the kids, best summer ever. They didn't have to go to school. From April till September, they were in my beach house. Even the dad who could work from home remotely is like, he says pandemic was great. I stayed on a beach for all these months. So they had a good time, but I was watching the mothers trying to, as you probably did, teach your kids, you're a substitute teacher. What do you do with your kids who can't play with friends? That's why I put a little girl in the book. How do you entertain? And there were yet a lot of great moments. Like they went out in the backyard to sit and talk. And this this kid surfed. And I love the juggling board. That's just the kind of thing that that's a real thing by the way, that surf competition. And I just wanted to show that there were some really great moments into the whole time. My sisters and I, and my niece up here in the mountain house, we never could have been together. Everyone just leave their jobs and live. We were back in the nursery, working out a couple of issues. But in the morning we'd get up in the morning and have our coffee and sit down and look at the mountains and drink coffee and read poetry.

[21:03]Zibby Owens: That's how we started our days. Is not how I was starting my days.

[21:08]Mary Alice Monroe: You got little kids. Sounds nice. Yeah. You and my daughter trying to get their kids to school with computer laptop. But in the evenings we came together and we talked again. So I think families did my I watched my daughter, They played jigsaw cousins. They wanted to get them off the screen. Today's episode is sponsored by Quince.

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[24:05]Zibby Owens: Yes. And tell me about the Islanders and how how that middle grade novel is about your mission to get kids off screens.

[24:13]Mary Alice Monroe: Yeah. Well, that really prompted it to see that it was my husband's a child psychiatrist. And he always said, unplug your children and two things, unplug your children and sit down for family dinner and have conversations. And I know you wrote an essay on that too. It's for real. We have roses and thorns. What was your rose? We was your do that too. Best and worst. That was inspired because I always wanted to write for the middle grade kids. Have two picture books for the very young, but it was the middle grade kids who say, I can be anything I want when I grow up. The world I wanna be a judge and a ballerina when I grow up. Okay. You go for it. And they believe it. And they also know they can change the world When they see plastic issues, when they see endangered species doesn't daunt them. We can fix it. And that can do enthusiasm. These are the stewards of tomorrow. This is the audience I wanted to talk to. So when I raised my children, my husband's family has this huge sheep farm in Vermont. And my husband was at the NIH doing research in DC. And I would say goodbye to my darling husband and take my kids and live on top of a mountain by myself with these three kids and the cousins. And there was no TV back then, no internet. So we were like, I'm so bored. There's nothing to do. And you just have to let the kids be bored because boredom I believe, and I've watched is the key to opening up the imagination. It forces kids to find out what they can play. So they went wild in the mountains. I'm lucky they weren't eaten by bears. Really am. I just didn't like bye. It was a sort of a very open mentality back then. But they'd come home at the end of the day. And the only thing I required is they'd have to bring a leaf or a plant or talk about a bird and we would find the name of it. Because if you we had big bulletin boards and drawings and they drew on the walls. And I said, you know, if you know the name of it, you're not afraid of it. So the wild becomes your backyard. And they, I mean, my little girl's first words were ox eye daisy. Knows she could identify that wildflower. So with today I took, I look at what's going on even with my grandchildren now. And it's hard to find that place that's wild. So I put these three kids, one's an army brat whose father was injured in the war and he has to go live with his grandmother. Or doesn't wanna do that on a remote island that exists called DeWees right off Isle Of Palms where I live accessible only by boat. It's a nature sanctuary. So much to save. There's an alligator. There's a bald eagle's nest. There's, you know, everywhere you look. So he's got to go to this remote island for the summer. There's an African American boy from a wealthy family in Atlanta and that family's there. And then there's a girl kind of an Hermione Granger, kind of a she's smart. She lives on the island. She knows everything. These kids would not have been friends if they had been in Atlanta, but there's on this island and they are compelled to explore because they think it's the worst summer ever. But they explore, they find wildlife, they get in a little trouble. They find turtle nests. It's the best summer ever because they've been unplugged. And they call themselves the Islanders. That's the name they come up with. So I'm inviting kids to become Islanders. And it can be in your own backyard, in your local forest preserve. It can be somewhere where you can be let loose to explore. As kids, that's good for your mental health. It's good for imagination. It is good for confidence. And it also teaches kids two things. One is that this is their planet. This is their home. And don't be afraid of wild. If you know the names, it's your backyard. So that's why I wrote the book. Wow.

[28:22]Zibby Owens: Well, that is a lot of output. Do you like tell me a little more about how you get it all done. Do you sit and write all day? Like do you structure time? Like what is your trick? How do you do it?

[28:36]Mary Alice Monroe: Well, right now I'm actually writing very little in terms of pounding pages because I'm on book tour and you know what that's like, you just are going from place to place. But I actually came up with a synopsis for two books that I want to write. And I'm already writing the next middle. The middle grade is a series. So I'm already writing the second in the series. And that's done. I mean, I know it is once tour is over, I'll finish that. I'm very fast first draft. I call it projectile writing. I have it all bubbling inside the research, the thinking, the character notes. My mind is like, you don't want to live there. It's just always going. And then when I pull it all together, I get very quiet. And then I write nonstop until I get the guts down. And as Anne Lamott says, it's a shitty first draft. I don't worry about what it looks like, if it's pacing's right. I figure out what I want to say in that book. And then after that, I get into a very regimented lifestyle, no going out. I put on my tool belt cause that's craft. And then I sit down and I get into a very, love routine. By time I wake up, time I take a walk, time I go out and I begin editing draft after draft, after draft. And that's fine tuning. That's why I say, you can write from the seat of your pants, but you have to know how to edit. It's for me, I'm in the stage now where the ideas are a little frenetic. I get a little hyper, I'm excited, and then I have to bring it all in. And my body says, thank you. And I get into routine and I think a writer needs some routine. Don't you? I agree. Yes. But you can't live like that every day. You have to go out and do the research. You have to be with the people. Yeah. I have to be with the animals that I'm I'm exploring whales right now. And it'll probably take two, three years before I know what that story's about. But I'm not writing two books at the same time, but I know that I'll spend a month working with whales here and I'll go someplace else and work with them there. And when I come back, I always say the animal will tell me what that story is going to be. Because I mean, I'm not trying to write a book for either the Islanders or this whole beach house series. And they are standalones. This series, you can read any book out of order, but it is twenty years in the making. I've been writing the series for twenty years. It's because I know what's right for that species. And when there's a story that takes place on my beach with sea turtles, because I still am a sea turtle volunteer. I have my license. I monitor nests that I feel it's not preaching. It's more like sitting a story world where I want to catch the interest of people who might not know they care about sea turtles or might not think they care. I'm not trying to talk right to people who already know a lot. I want someone who, oh my gosh, I loved the story. It was a great novel, you know, wow. I learned a lot about turtles. That's the key. And if they learn that, then they can go on to libraries, bookstores, do more research, volunteer themselves. But I just want to make people aware that this is a shared planet. So that's been a twenty year mission. I've done this for twenty years. And Zibby, I'm looking at it now and I'm ready to tie it with a bow and put it on a shelf right back there. And now I'm going go a little road. I don't know what it's going to be a little more expansive, I think. And I don't know what's coming. I'm going to find out day by day. See, that's the whole thing. Circling back to your main point. Going back.

[32:29]Zibby Owens: So what advice would you have for aspiring authors? Write what you love. I

[32:35]Mary Alice Monroe: had written five novels when I moved in 1998 to the Isle Of Palms and joined the turtle team. And the passion, I didn't know I'd fall in love with these sea turtles so much, but more importantly, I knew that they were in trouble. And then I thought, I'm not going to change the world. I know a lot about this species, but I believe it sounds so corny, but it's true that the story, the power of story, being able to put people in a book and not teach them and proselytize, but have them see the characters through my eyes and get excited about it. The passion that if they feel that emotion, which is the key, then they start to care. And that was the beach house. I changed the way I wrote books. The themes all came from what I learned from the animals. And I built the world around that. But the story seems simple. You can call it a beach read. I don't care what you call it. My goal was to reach that audience who didn't, popular audience, large number of people. And it worked. So the first book was my first New York Times hit. And then more importantly, like you said, it's important to hit the times for your career must do, but it's a bigger goal. It transcends storytelling. It makes a difference. And that's ultimately the life goal, the mission, the why. So I'm really excited that it's been successful. I don't take that for granted. My legacy is I hope I made a difference. It sounds horny, but I really mean it. Look at twenty years and I go, okay, I did it. And this is Back to Lost and Found. It's number seven in a series, but it stands alone. And if one person just reads that one book and decides that this is less environmental than some of the others, the turtles are in there, but it's really not as set against a species as much as the other books in the series. The pandemic is the humans of the species. But going forward, it's more of the same, but I think I'm slowing down a little bit. I've got a body of work. Now I'm going to make a little bigger book, say a few more things in it and explore a little bit more deeply and take my time because I don't think it's a better or worse novel. People say, oh, you write a book a year. I think there's a sense of pejorative tone of it must not be very good. And then I always say, you know who my hero is? It's John Steinbeck who wrote his five biggest best books in five years. So let's just start there. You can do if have a passion. So if you're a young writer, have that passion. Amazing.

[35:33]Zibby Owens: Awesome. Well, Mary Alice, thank you. Thank you for coming on. I talked your ear off, I'm sure. No. That's great. I loved it. I'm sorry we didn't have more time to dig into more of the books and it's just you have so much going on. It's amazing.

[35:47]Mary Alice Monroe: I So know. I enjoy it, though. I'm lucky. And also

[35:50]Zibby Owens: for helping everybody sort of not miss the plot of life, which is the best gift of all.

[35:57]Mary Alice Monroe: That was a that was a farewell gift. Thank you,

[36:02]Zibby Owens: All right. Have a great day. Thanks for chatting. Thank you, Zippy. Zippy. Bye bye. Thanks so much to Ferity Brand for being my sponsor again. Go to feritybrand.com/zippy for 20% off. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at zibby owens and at moms don't have time to read books.

[36:26]Zibby Owens: and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for the sound editing, and thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and outro music.