Mary, thank you for being our guest on Netwest Writers today and taking time to answer our questions. You work as a mental health counselor, and I imagine the pandemic
has changed your work life in many ways.
GCB: Are you working from home and are
your clients accepting the new methods you have to use now?
Mary: Thank you for asking about
my work as a counselor. It’s the
science, talent, and heart that feeds me well beyond whatever we usually think
of as career.
Yes, I’m working from
home. Most people are fine with this
change from in person visits at my downtown office, since all of us understand
the safety needs of the pandemic. I have
a revolving door of clientele, so already there are some I’ve never met in
person. There are a few people who
prefer to wait, deal with their issues when they can meet with a therapist in
person. I treat that like any other
personal preference- it’s up to them, handle it with all the respect any human
being deserves.
The pandemic is very
stressful for people. No one calls for
help simply because of the pandemic, but it adds to stresses already there.
GCB: I imagine you had to learn new
technology for working at home and did your clients have trouble accepting
the changes?
Mary: Primarily I’m working via
my cellphone. I’ve learned to use
speaker phone so the phone is not in my ear all the time, and I’ve learned some
tricks about how to keep it charged. I
do meet via video with skype. I already
knew how to use this, so I’ve managed to avoid learning a whole new technology,
thankfully.
Some people have to go out
to their car with their phone to gain the privacy needed for a counseling
session. Other people simply can’t
manage because their children are home from school. Some arrange for child care. Others muddle through.
GCB: Do you find working from home more tiring or easier than going to your office each day?
Mary: I miss my office. I thought it would be a real treat to work
from home, and indeed in some ways it is.
I’m incredibly more fatigued at the end of my work day now. It takes much more energy to attend only via
voice, or even the face that shows in the video of skype or any other
tele-conference. I’m constantly finding
words and asking questions to make up for the nonverbal cues and the energy I
usually get in person. Besides that,
there is a difference in the reward I feel.
Nothing makes up for that in person energy exchange. For now, however, it’s safety at all cost.
GCB; You are a poet. How has this chaotic time affected your writing? Do you feel less creative or more creative in your writing? Do you find you write more now being home so much?
Mary: I’ve been determined to
write as much or more as usual during this pandemic. I’m counting on creativity and my time in
nature to bring me the balance I need in life.
Honestly, the pandemic stress is so gigantic, it’s a tough call to meet
that balance. I can keep writing and
even bring poems to completion, but the business side of writing, like
submitting, is suffering down here at my place.
My schedule is to get
focused during my early morning walk, then start writing before the world gets
in my way, and before going to work.
I’ve kept this schedule during this odd time. It gives a predictability to my life, and I
think it keeps me tuned with the time and ritual when I expect my creativity to
appear. I even take a note pad on my
walk, write down images or ideas. If I
don’t, it all drifts away like a dream you think you are going to remember.
GCB: Recently you published a poetry
book, a memoir in poetry, about your parents and your life growing up in
Mississippi. Tell us how that book came to be. Did you set out to write
poems for this book or did you find you had poems already written that fit
in this theme?
Mary: Slowly I came to a decision
that my life in Mississippi during my formative years was worthwhile. I avoided knowing that for a great deal of my
adulthood, embarrassed about the racism of the times. Other problems in my family were not what I
wanted to write about. I worked within
myself for quite some time to find the worth, discover what I was proud of.
I did set out on purpose to
write the poems that turned into the book.
I went through picture albums, remembering, jotting notes all over my
house. I phoned my brother and sister,
asking for tidbits and gems. I talked to
my parents, if you can really talk to the dead.
I called one cousin on my mother’s side, and I talked often to my aunt
on my dad’s side. All this generated
memories in a kaleidoscope kind of fashion.
I was thrilled and frustrated with no pattern coming to the
surface.
I kept noticing point of
view in any kind of poems I read. I got
the idea to get inside my parents as best I could, try to experience the move
to Mississippi and our life there, how it must have been for them. That turned a corner. I got excited to the max, started writing in
every spare minute I could find. By the
end, I had fallen in love with my parents and found a new aspect of being proud
of my life.
GCB: Do you prefer traditional
publishing or self-publishing of
your poetry books?
Mary: So far, I’ve only published by traditional publishing. I’m intrigued by self-publishing; I may go there yet. Mainly I want to present my writing in the most professional and respectful way I can.
GCB: I find that marketing is the
hardest and most time consuming part of being a writer. How do you feel
about marketing and do you have any tips for our readers on how to best
handle this part of being a writer?
Mary: I always wish I knew more
about marketing, or that it would come easier, and that someone would do it for
me. No one does it for me, it’s harder
than it looks and it constantly changes, and no one seems to understand
enough.
For me, it helps to talk
about my books to everyone I know and even some I don’t know. I have to push myself about this. I read in public everywhere I can, bring
books for sale, and keep looking for new places to read. I try to invent places to read. I stop myself from dreaming about being
popular and fame coming naturally to me.
I go to writing conferences whenever I can, volunteer to read and also
trade books with other authors.
I keep wanting to learn to budget
my time to spend a regular portion of time weekly on the business end of
writing. I’m not there yet, but I’m sure
it’s the right practice to achieve.
GCB: You have been a member of NCWN and
NCWN-West for two decades. How has this membership benefited your writing
life?
Mary: I would have done nothing
with my writing if I had not been a member of the North Carolina Writers' Network. The alliance with other writers has been the
cornerstone of my writing. The tradition
of joining with others for critiquing our work has been skill-building help and
a motivator for me. I’ve grown in
confidence as a writer during my time as a member. I need my connection with other writers in
order to grow.
GCB: I often teach aspiring writers.
What advice would you give an aspiring poet who wants to one day publish
his/her poetry?
Mary: Write daily if at all
possible. I used to set my alarm for 5
am so I could write for an hour before getting my child up for school, do all
the getting ready, and then go to work myself.
Share your work with
others. You don’t quite know yourself if
you live in total isolation. It’s the
same with writing.
Read your work in
public. Our reading events are as much
for ourselves, our own growth as for the opportunity to share and entertain.
Write from your own
experience. Be willing to learn who you
are, be willing to be surprised at who you find.
Tell the truth when you
write, even if you change the truth somehow.
That may sound like a riddle.
It’s not.
GCB: Tell us about each of your poetry
books, please, and where they can be purchased.
Mary: Disorgananza was my first
book, in 2000. It’s a small book,
printed on a home computer, and put together for family and friends, mostly as
Christmas gifts.
I have one copy only now.
I Hear the River Call my
Name is my chapbook, my first book via a publisher, Finishing Line Press, 2007. I didn’t know I could do this. I took a class in putting a chapbook together
simply because the class was being offered, and well why not? This book is out of print. When I spend more time on the business of
writing, I’ll figure out how to re-publish it.
Shade and Shelter was
published by Kelsay Press, 2017. I felt
like I sent that manuscript to a million places, and ultimately changed the
title a time or two. Once Karen Kelsay
accepted it, there were no significant changes to be made.
Mississippi: The Story of
Luke and Marian was also published by Kelsay, 2019. I frankly did not know how in the world I
would get this book published. Over and
over I submitted it. When I was ready
to start over with a real big breath, I sent an inquiry to Kelsay press because
I had not received a response in the time they advertise. I got an almost immediate reply saying my
book was already accepted, but someone in the chain of staff had not seen her
email. After that, things went pretty
fast.
Thanks, Glenda, for this
opportunity to converse about writing.
It’s been fun.
GCB: We appreciate Mary Ricketson taking time for our interview and for all she does for writers.
Glenda Council Beall is Program Coordinator for NCWN-West , Owner/director for Writers Circle around the Table.
gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com
About the instructor: Karen Paul Holmes won the 2023 Lascaux Poetry Prize and received a Special Mention in the Pushcart Prize anthology. Her two poetry books are No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin Books) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich Press). She's is widely published in literary journals, including Plume, Gargoyle, and Prairie Schooner, and her poems have been read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer's Almanac and by the US Poet Laureate on The Slowdown podcast. Karen founded the Side Door Poets in Atlanta in 2010 and still hosts the group monthly. At about the same time, she started a monthly Writers' Night Out in the N. Georgia Mountains and hosted it until recently. She is also a freelance writer and has taught writing workshops at local and international conferences and various venues. Karen is a member of the North Carolina Writers' Network. www.karenpaulholmes.com
