The following are questions Maria most often receives from her readers. If you can think of anything else you'd like to know, click on the "Contact" page, and ask away! Maybe we'll even include your question here!
Where did you get the idea for Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress?
Maria: For me, stories don't begin in just one place. They come at me from a lot of different directions. I was recently going through my writing journal ... that's where I take notes or just scribble stuff in order to "find" stories ... and I found one of the beginnings for my novel. It was a paragraph about Sandy, a fifth grade girlfriend.
Sandy was this really sweet, giggly, beautiful blond girl. She was a great kickball player, and we were part of a big group of girls who hung out together. But around seventh grade things started to change. The boys discovered Sandy ... and she discovered them. This was way earlier than the rest of our group became interested in boys, and next thing you know Sandy wasn't hanging out with us anymore.
When my own children started middle school, I was reminded how painful this stage can be, especially when your friends' group changes. I realized I wanted to write about friends growing apart. That's where the novel started.
Are your characters based on people you actually know?
Maria: I never model characters on actual people. For example, when I wrote Brett, I put Sandy out of my mind. However ... as a character comes to life for me, and I figure out more about him or her, I realize they have traits that remind me of people I've known. Nonna, Brett's grandmother in the novel, is nothing like my own grandmother. But after I finished the book I realized she reminded me of one of my mom's friends!
I do find that settings and scenes in my books are inspired by actual places. The island in my novel is based on an island owned by some family friends. I first saw a potato bazooka at my son's 6th grade science fair. And I actually know teenage boys who can steer a boat using a Global Positioning System!
Did you always want to be a writer?
Maria: I've pretty much always wanted to write stories. Except for a brief period in high school, when I wanted to be a doctor. I had a very inspiring biology teacher who really brought science to life for us. At least half of that class went on to be doctors, and I was headed that way, until the teacher took us on a field trip to a local hospital. We walked into the kidney dialysis room, where we saw people having their blood cleaned, and bam! I hit the floor. Fainted dead away. It was the first of many fainting-at-the-sight-of-blood incidents, so I returned to my earlier ambition.
Do you write every day? Where do you write?
Maria: I would like to write every day, but I don't. Every day is a balancing act, and sometimes other things have to come before my writing. When my children were little, I was lucky if I wrote for three hours in a week. I would hire a babysitter, go to my favorite coffee shop, order a big cup of coffee and a brownie, and write like crazy until I had to take the babysitter home! Now that my kids are in school full-time, I have lots of flexibility.
Generally, I like to write in the mornings, after I walk our dog. We have a very busy, demanding dog who loses her mind if she doesn't get enough exercise. No matter what the weather .... and in Maine. you can get some pretty awful weather ... Frisbee (the dog) must go out. I find that every morning, while we walk, I'm thinking about what I'll write when I get back. It's kind of a writing-warm-up, and helps me focus.
I have a very dark, messy basement office where I wrote Brett. There are no windows there, and it's cold. I realize that sounds awful, but in fact, if I saw the sun shining outside, I'd want to go out and dig in my garden, or take the dog for a ski.
I also still write in coffee shops. I bring a notebook and just scribble madly. For some reason, I get a lot of good work done in crowded places where no one knows me.
What advice do you have for young writers?
Maria: I have three pieces of advice for young writers.
First: read. Read read read. Then, think about what made it good. Or bad. Read like a writer, and try to learn from the authors who you think do a good job.
Second: read your writing out loud. A bad sentence, or an awkward phrase, will sound like a pipe clattering on the floor when you read it out loud. Likewise, if you've written something good, it will just sing, and you'll find yourself reading it over and over again, and a big smile will stretch across your face, and you'll think: hooray.
Third: remember that there is no such thing as writing. It is all re-writing. No one ... and I mean no one ... gets it down perfectly the first time through. So, forgive yourself for those bad sentences or awkward, messy paragraphs. You can always go back and fix them.
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