Mary Kathleen Mehuron is the author of The Belonger and this week’s featured interview on Women of Wisdom
What is your book about?
Caribbean-island innkeeper Holly Walker is hunkering down against a monster hurricane. Unfortunately, so is player Lord Anthony Bascombe, a man who excuses his bad behavior by saying he is descended from pirates. Then her grown son, Byron, and his father, Montez—the man she’s never stopped wanting—go missing. Will she ever see them again? What about the many others hurt and dying? And will help ever arrive? With each passing day, Holly’s tumultuous past and the epic storm send her hurtling toward a shattering climax that will change the island—and Holly’s life—forever.
Why did you want to write this book?
In the Belonger, the main character lives through a Category Five hurricane. This is not science fiction. It is happening more and more due to climate change. My family and friends have lived through two Cat 5s. Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful Atlantic storm that caused major destruction in September of 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to hit the Northeastern Caribbean Islands. The eye went right over our little family home down there.
I wanted to deal with the insurance company and told my family that I was going to Grand Turk. Nothing could stop me. But since there was no communication at all with the outside world, my sons wouldn’t allow it. Such a strange thing. For the first time in their lives they were telling me what to do instead of the other way around. My eldest, Bruce, and youngest, Thomas, took charge and gathered survival equipment up and went into that state of emergency.
Little did they know that once they made it in, they would be stuck because another hurricane was on the way. Hurricane Maria was also a Category 5 hurricane that destroyed anything that Irma had not.
For days I didn’t know whether my sons and friends were alive. It’s this experience and the stories told afterwards that set this novel in motion. Then, the rebuilding we all lived through was another enormous challenge that informed the story.
What was the most difficult part about writing the book? The most rewarding?
A Belonger is a native islander with historic ties. As a white American, living on island for only a month at a time, I couldn’t pretend to know what a Belonger thinks or believes. That would be appropriation of another culture. What I have tried to do instead is show my appreciation of Grand Turk Island. What I have written in The Belonger, I have written with love.
I wrote the book in a bungalow on the main street of Cockburn Town. Sometimes I would be wearing a T-shirt that says- Be careful or you’ll wind up in my novel. That inside joke among my friends has been really fun. They talk to me about who said or did what. They are very interested in true events that landed in the book.
What do you hope other people will take away from reading your book?
My novel explores something the musician Bob Marley famously said, “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.” My character, Holly Walker, thought the biggest challenge she would ever face was giving up her Vermont school counselor job and moving to Grand Turk Island to be near her son. She never dreamed that she would be called upon to save lives or that she would have the strength to do so. Nor did she think that she was capable of falling in love again.
I believe that this type of story arc is the definition of Women’s Fiction. There is a romantic interest, but the novel is really about a woman’s extraordinary actions in the face of extraordinary circumstances.
The primary benefit is that it is believable. The reader will be lost in survival mode themselves and immersed in another culture.
If you could tell your younger-writing-self anything, what would it be?
While writing my first book, Fading Past, I thought that I would forget how to do it if I wasn’t careful. Forget how to write. How to sustain a word count of 76,000 words. How to fill an entire day with a make believe world that came out of my imagination. That if I didn’t stick to it every day, that window of opportunity would close, and I would never be able to open it again.
So, if I could have, I would reassure my younger self that instead of forgetting, I would continue to learn more and more about the process. And If I worked really hard, my writing would get better with each book.How long did it take to write your book?
It took five years to publish The Belonger but the bulk of it was written in a two year span of time. Publishing normally takes longer than we want, but during the Pandemic it really slowed down.
What’s the best writing advice you ever received?
A friend of mine is the New York Times best-selling author James M. Tabor. He told me years ago to work with an editor. “Everyone has an editor if they know what they are doing at all.” I took that on as a challenge and value the privilege of editor feedback like a graduate writing class. They have taught me a great deal.
What’s next for you?
On the same day I launched The Belonger, I also launched a non-fiction book called Take Me Back: An Anecdotal History of the Mad River Valley. It is part of my Take Me Back project which began as a few newspaper articles, became a regular column, grew into a 501(c)(3) non-profit and now a book to use for fundraising. 100% of the profits will go to organizations that want to showcase our Valley History.
I am trying to use my skills to do something important for my community. Philanthropy does good work but also draws attention to my novels in a subtle way. Goodreads states that the #1 reason that people buy books is that they, “know the author.” Sometimes they have met that author or read something they wrote or heard of them.
Each time I publish an article or speak, the readers or audience hears, Mary Kathleen Mehuron is a novelist who also has a new book called The Belonger. Instead of buying SWAG and so forth—I am doing good. And that good causes an uptick in book sales. Talk about a win/win!How can our readers get a copy of your book?
You can buy The Belonger, wherever books are sold.
What do you do when you are not writing?
I live, and for many years, taught in a ski town in Vermont where everyone calls me Kathy and my husband and I raised three sons. I have an almost weekly column in our local newspaper, The Valley Reporter, called Take Me Back. The Vermont Arts Council recently gave me an artist development grant and I used it to grow the column into a non-fiction book to benefit Mad River Valley organizations that want to showcase our history. I have two previous novels, Fading Past and The Opposite of Never. When I’m not writing or exercising, I’m hanging out with my husband, my three dogs or my long-time posse of friends. You will also find me at any local event that has live music. We travel to Grand Turk Island, the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and Savannah often.
What is the best way for our readers to connect with you?
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/MaryKathleenMehuron/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marykathleenmehuron/
Twitter: @MKMehuron25
Visit my website at https://www.marykathleenmehuron.com/
