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AN INTERVIEW WITH JO-ANN MAPSON:
What’s your life like? Do you have an office?
JM: My life is pretty ordinary. I live in a little house on the prairie about fifteen miles outside of Santa Fe’s Plaza. My “office” is the smallest bedroom in the house. I have a desk and a bookshelf. I took out the bed because it was too tempting to nap instead of write.
How do you come up with your stories? Do you have a secret life or something?
JM: I love to wander around public places and eavesdrop. In airports, I study people, imagine their histories. Sometimes my heart breaks, other times I am stunned at the bravery. I think that’s why I love to write about ordinary people overcoming insurmountable odds. I think: How does a person go on after “insert difficulty here?”
I do have a few secrets, but I’m not going to tell you. They wouldn’t be secrets anymore, would they?
Tell one.
JM: All right. I grew up watching All My Children and One Life to Live. That’s probably why I could sit down and write a sequel to any of my books. I learned how to tell stories in episodes, in a serial, as it were.
What is essential to your writing process?
JM: Diet Cherry Coke. Quiet—I can’t write with music playing. A fan. I have to feel air blowing or I get claustrophobic. I also really need my computer to do what I want it to do or I get so annoyed. Which brings me to the fact that I also need my husband to be home so he can fix it.
What does your family think of you being a writer?
JM: My husband loves it because it keeps me sane. My son (grown, an RN living in interior Alaska) is fine with it because he doesn’t know any different. My immediate family is a lot more careful what they say around me. You know, the pen is mightier than the sword.
What else are you good at, besides writing?
JM: I make jam with local produce and give it for Christmas presents. I love to make it. I’m a good teacher and editor. My students who have gone on to publish make me so happy.
What can’t you do very well?
JM: Math. My math ability is similar to Math-is-Hard’s Barbie. I remember my multiplication tables, but after that I get confused.
What’s your favorite film, and how does that fit into your writing?
JM: The original Parent Trap with Hayley Mills and Maureen O’Hara. Estranged family coming back together, living on a ranch on the Monterey Coast, I write about those issues. Then Powwow Highway, which paved the way for people like Chris Eyre and Sherman Alexie. With humor and pathos, it really shed light on Native Americans, to whom I feel the US owes an enormous debt, for all those broken treaties and promises. For me, laughter has always been salve. My books use humor to get through really tough times.
Which of your characters is your favorite?
JM: Hands down, Phoebe DeThomas from Bad Girl Creek. She was dealt a bum hand in life (she’s in a wheelchair), and she could have sold her aunt’s farm and lived a quiet life in her little condo, but instead, she made a place for struggling women, revived a business, took a chance on love, and gave birth to one of the most difficult daughters in the history of the world. Just thinking about her brings happy tears to my eyes.
There’s so much concern these days that kids aren’t reading. Do you have the solution?
JM: What comes to mind are those beach vacations my family took every summer. The places we stayed had no television, so we played cards and read. With a little prearranging, any parent today could duplicate that. I freely admit that when my son got to an age where video games tempted to take over his recreation, I paid him to read. A great investment. I also read to him for years. Long ago he passed me by in terms of breadth of reading. The Great Books, medical texts, history, philosophy. I’m so proud of him for many reasons, but that he reads is secretly my favorite.
You haven’t mentioned your husband. What’s he like?
JM: The character he most resembles is Job. No kidding. He works very hard. The fact that he still loves me all these years later (we celebrated our 38th anniversary in August 2012) and finds me amusing amazed me. He’s a wonderful artist. He takes excellent care of the dogs and the house, and has learned to cook. Without Stewart, I doubt I could get a book written. He knows just when to push me. He is a fabulous listener, kind and gentle, brilliant, talented, good father. I adore him.
What are your favorite shoes?
JM: Thank you for asking. I am, and always will be, in love with Old Gringo cowboy boots. I could put on a brand new pair and go for a five mile hike, if I hiked. I own four pair. I am so lucky.
Which writers do you read?
JM: Jodi Picoult, Alice Hoffman, James Lee Burke, Sarah Waters, Rumer Godden, Mary Stewart, Judi Hendricks, Caroline Leavitt, Carolyn Turgeon, Jeanine Cummins, Timothy Schaffert, Jim Harrison, Valerie Miner, Sherry Simpson, Anne Caston, Edward Allen, Richard Russo, John Updike, Wallace Stegner, A.S. Byatt, Sarah Waters, Tana French, mythology, psychology, fairy tales….
WATCH VIDEOS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLvmENPim1o&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSAU408mrZI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGCBo1hcfh4&feature=channel&list=UL
What’s your life like? Do you have an office?
JM: My life is pretty ordinary. I live in a little house on the prairie about fifteen miles outside of Santa Fe’s Plaza. My “office” is the smallest bedroom in the house. I have a desk and a bookshelf. I took out the bed because it was too tempting to nap instead of write.
How do you come up with your stories? Do you have a secret life or something?
JM: I love to wander around public places and eavesdrop. In airports, I study people, imagine their histories. Sometimes my heart breaks, other times I am stunned at the bravery. I think that’s why I love to write about ordinary people overcoming insurmountable odds. I think: How does a person go on after “insert difficulty here?”
I do have a few secrets, but I’m not going to tell you. They wouldn’t be secrets anymore, would they?
Tell one.
JM: All right. I grew up watching All My Children and One Life to Live. That’s probably why I could sit down and write a sequel to any of my books. I learned how to tell stories in episodes, in a serial, as it were.
What is essential to your writing process?
JM: Diet Cherry Coke. Quiet—I can’t write with music playing. A fan. I have to feel air blowing or I get claustrophobic. I also really need my computer to do what I want it to do or I get so annoyed. Which brings me to the fact that I also need my husband to be home so he can fix it.
What does your family think of you being a writer?
JM: My husband loves it because it keeps me sane. My son (grown, an RN living in interior Alaska) is fine with it because he doesn’t know any different. My immediate family is a lot more careful what they say around me. You know, the pen is mightier than the sword.
What else are you good at, besides writing?
JM: I make jam with local produce and give it for Christmas presents. I love to make it. I’m a good teacher and editor. My students who have gone on to publish make me so happy.
What can’t you do very well?
JM: Math. My math ability is similar to Math-is-Hard’s Barbie. I remember my multiplication tables, but after that I get confused.
What’s your favorite film, and how does that fit into your writing?
JM: The original Parent Trap with Hayley Mills and Maureen O’Hara. Estranged family coming back together, living on a ranch on the Monterey Coast, I write about those issues. Then Powwow Highway, which paved the way for people like Chris Eyre and Sherman Alexie. With humor and pathos, it really shed light on Native Americans, to whom I feel the US owes an enormous debt, for all those broken treaties and promises. For me, laughter has always been salve. My books use humor to get through really tough times.
Which of your characters is your favorite?
JM: Hands down, Phoebe DeThomas from Bad Girl Creek. She was dealt a bum hand in life (she’s in a wheelchair), and she could have sold her aunt’s farm and lived a quiet life in her little condo, but instead, she made a place for struggling women, revived a business, took a chance on love, and gave birth to one of the most difficult daughters in the history of the world. Just thinking about her brings happy tears to my eyes.
There’s so much concern these days that kids aren’t reading. Do you have the solution?
JM: What comes to mind are those beach vacations my family took every summer. The places we stayed had no television, so we played cards and read. With a little prearranging, any parent today could duplicate that. I freely admit that when my son got to an age where video games tempted to take over his recreation, I paid him to read. A great investment. I also read to him for years. Long ago he passed me by in terms of breadth of reading. The Great Books, medical texts, history, philosophy. I’m so proud of him for many reasons, but that he reads is secretly my favorite.
You haven’t mentioned your husband. What’s he like?
JM: The character he most resembles is Job. No kidding. He works very hard. The fact that he still loves me all these years later (we celebrated our 38th anniversary in August 2012) and finds me amusing amazed me. He’s a wonderful artist. He takes excellent care of the dogs and the house, and has learned to cook. Without Stewart, I doubt I could get a book written. He knows just when to push me. He is a fabulous listener, kind and gentle, brilliant, talented, good father. I adore him.
What are your favorite shoes?
JM: Thank you for asking. I am, and always will be, in love with Old Gringo cowboy boots. I could put on a brand new pair and go for a five mile hike, if I hiked. I own four pair. I am so lucky.
Which writers do you read?
JM: Jodi Picoult, Alice Hoffman, James Lee Burke, Sarah Waters, Rumer Godden, Mary Stewart, Judi Hendricks, Caroline Leavitt, Carolyn Turgeon, Jeanine Cummins, Timothy Schaffert, Jim Harrison, Valerie Miner, Sherry Simpson, Anne Caston, Edward Allen, Richard Russo, John Updike, Wallace Stegner, A.S. Byatt, Sarah Waters, Tana French, mythology, psychology, fairy tales….
WATCH VIDEOS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLvmENPim1o&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSAU408mrZI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGCBo1hcfh4&feature=channel&list=UL
