I wanted to interview author Mary Jo Dyre, a member of NCWN-West, as soon as I heard her read and discuss her two books, Dark Spot and Springheads.
GCB: MaryJo, I greatly appreciate you taking the time to talk with me about your recently published books.
MaryJo Dyre writes and publishes novels. This Mississippi native uses the background of her rich environment and an obsession with reading as a child to enhance her imagination.
GCB: MaryJo, tell us where you were born. Describe your family—how many children and where do you fall on the list?
MJD: My birth took place in a hospital in Winona, MS. The family home was located near an even smaller Montgomery community, Kilmichael, MS. Our homeplace, as it is called in the South, was in an even more remote area called Poplar Creek Nations. I have three older sisters and one older brother. I was 16 years old before I took in the fact that I was obviously the surprise child. My parents had their daughters and then their son. Seven years later, I came along.
GCB: Did you grow up in the city or the country? What are some fond memories of your childhood?
MJD: I grew up Mississippi rural in the 50s. When I was not yet a year old, my family moved from the Poplar Creek Nations area to Gore Springs, another small, rural gathering of families near Grenada. My father initially managed a dairy farm. My fondest memories involve endless play in the great outdoors. Screen time did not enter my world until I was eight. Imagination was my constant companion. Kingdoms created under pine trees, mudpies decorated with wildflowers, hot summer afternoons cooled with play in nearby creeks were enjoyed barefooted with hands and clothing stained from blackberry or muscadine juice.
Many poignant childhood memories involve an elderly neighbor couple, Mr. Jim and Mrs. Willie. Their farm gave me the opportunity to gather fresh eggs, learn the art of churning butter, and discover the sheer magic of an earth-hewn root cellar. Little did I know that I was living the word “organic” and honing an approach to education that would serve my future career in strong ways.
Reading became a powerful force in my childhood as it merged with a very active imagination. The sheer joy of curling up with a good book for hours of reading, checking out as many books as my arms could carry from the Elizabeth Jones Library soon made a believer out of me -- a tale well told has the power to transport me into the realm of dreams and possibility.
GCB: What were your favorite subjects in school? Where did you go to college and what degrees do you have?
MJD: If reading and writing were at the core of the subjects, I enjoyed all. Hands-on science had my attention, but not the textbook version. Math did not resonate with me until I was introduced to Transformational Grammar in college. I attended Delta State University, a small college known for producing amazing teachers. I earned a BS in Education and an MA in Literature. The Delta itself, the diverse culture, the creativity that poured from backroads Blues establishments, brush strokes with artists and potters, and powerful words from writers, all provided an equally powerful source of education.
GCB: Mary Jo, you’ve had a very successful career in education. You started a private school in Murphy and directed it for 20 years.
MJD: In 1983, I founded a private school that became, in 1997, one of North Carolina’s first 33 charter schools. Except for a short year-and-a-half period in the early 1990s, I directed the school until 2019. I remained the Executive Director for another year as I trained and worked with my replacement. I continued to serve the school through May 2022, to find answers for the increased need for expanded and renovated facilities for the growing population of learners we attracted annually.
Working to provide a choice in education was passion work for me. It was a calling that I will forever treasure. The 38-year, rich legacy of students and their families we served will continue to touch and benefit our future.
GCB: Were there challenges that you faced in this process?
MJD: Please understand first, that numerous obstacles on many levels stood in my path, in the journey, the mission to bring a choice in education to this area of Western North Carolina. I have frequently said that building a choice in education was like swimming upstream with salmon. On some occasions, the obstacles came in the form of pointing to the fact that I was not a male and that a male was needed to break through the barriers that seemingly stood in the way of building strong educational choices for area youth.
I learned early in my education career to ask plenty of questions to people who had strengths I did not have. This habit served me well. Additionally, there are many strong examples of females who turned the world of education on its heels for improvement. Again, I “leaned in” to all that I could glean from these strong, innovative women leaders.
GCB: Your brother was an author and had published a series of legal thrillers. He was killed in an accident. Can you tell us about that and where was his unfinished novel at the time of his death?
MJD: Arnold Douglas Dyre published two memoir-style non-fiction collections first. He then moved to fiction with his Jake Baker Mystery series. Arnold died of a massive heart attack while driving back to his home near Jackson, MS. The vehicle wrecked totally without the aid of a driver. The partially completed Dark Spot, the fourth book in the series, was in his computer that was also in the destroyed truck. Recovering the file from a very damaged hard drive took time.
GCB: Had you read his books before he died? Were you and your brother close in age and did you see him often?
MJD: Yes, I read all my brother’s books before his death. I eventually read them countless times after I said yes to finishing the unfinished manuscript he left behind.
My brother was seven years older. He was a prime mover in my life through my teens. In many ways I idolized him. He, of course, spent a great deal of time with neighborhood boys near his age. I begged him to let me tag along with everything he did. My mother balanced that desire on my part by having my brother read to me. I was close to seven before I realized he was not reading. Instead, he was spinning a story as I sat spellbound. Even then he was teaching me the art of storytelling. I can still hear him telling me he would someday be an author. Of course, I began to say the same because I longed to be just like him. When my brother went to Ole Miss, then joined the Navy, did a tour in Vietnam, and married, the days of my childhood following in my brother’s footsteps seemed to fade into the past. Time constraints, family commitments on the part of both of us and living in different states kept us separated in many ways. My sisters and I still treasure the time, just months before his death, when all five of us were together in my home in North Carolina.
GCB: I imagine that you had reservations about writing the book he had started. How did you come to be the one to write the ending of his last book?
MJD: Yes, I had reservations. Perhaps the strongest hesitation was the desire to make sure I remained true to how he would have “told the story.” At the same time, I knew that it was essential for me to have my own emotional connection to his plot and characters. When Arnold’s nephew sent the partial manuscript, I knew I had to feel the first read in my core. No question, I felt it and knew I could take on the project.
Because of my background in teaching literature and writing and the fact that I had my own proverbial dust-covered unfinished manuscript seemingly lost to a demanding career, family members asked if I would consider finishing Arnold’s work.
GCB: How did you continue with the same characters he had imagined? Did you change any of them?
MJD: I often answer this question of how I continued with Arnold’s same imagined characters in this simplistic way: I crawled into my brother’s imagination. The process of tapping into that sacred place began with re-reading the three published novels in his series, carefully creating character sketches and timelines of each. I researched and interviewed people that I felt certain were captured within his layers of fictional disguise. Patterns of awareness began to emerge. I more readily saw the development and growth of my brother’s writing. I became aware of topics being explored in the third novel that he seemed hesitant to include in his earlier writing. The unfinished manuscript convinced me that the horizons of his writing were broadening to yet more topics not yet explored. He had gone bolder with both characters and plot. No question I had to sustain the reach he seemed to prioritize in the fourth book.
The character of Kelly, introduced within the first couple of pages of Dark Spot, spoke to me in strong ways. I sensed my brother’s blessing, so to speak, to unleash my feminine intuition with this character. She offered so much undeveloped potential to bring a fresh approach to the stereotypical May-December wife, made wealthy through marriage.
GCB: You had been working on your own novel for several years but your work as a founder and director of a school kept you too busy to find time for writing. Did you decide to finish your and his novel after you retired from teaching?
MJD: I took on the completion of Dark Spot when I was still a full-time executive director in the field of education. Delay or hesitation was not in my vocabulary. When the voice in the mind refuses to go silent, the writer in me knows it’s time to write. My brother had a reading audience that was waiting for his next novel and many, many loved ones who were not ready for his voice to end.
When I decided to pick up my novel, Springheads, again, I still worked full-time in education, was involved in the early stages of the Blu Sky Initiative and would soon move into yet another work adventure. Retire is not a word that has any roots in my life as of the present. In my experience, the voice in the mind of the writer is the driver as opposed to waiting for the ideal free time to write.
GCB: I am a big John Grisham fan, and you say your brother’s book is similar to Grisham’s writing. Tell us your brother’s name and the title of his book that has both of you listed as authors. In what way is your brother’s book like Grisham’s?
MJD: Dark Spot, A Jake Baker Mystery by Arnold Dyre and Mary Jo Dyre
Grisham and my brother both write from the perspective of an attorney. Like Grisham, my brother was an attorney. I know that my brother’s writing was influenced by some of the hard facts that were presented in his career as a defense attorney. The pace, the intensity of character and plot are similar in both John Grisham and Arnold Dyre.
GCB: While you were writing your brother’s book did you feel him with you? What kind of mindset did it take to write what you thought your brother would write?
MJD: To say that I felt my brother with me as I wrote to complete his unfinished manuscript is an understatement. I have shared with many that I feel as if I got an extra year plus with my brother after his death. It was not a great leap to imagine his voice reading aloud his sentences. When I am in my writing zone, I feel the need to go inward. I listen much more than I talk. In fact, I become a bit of a recluse to get “far from the maddening crowd.” This approach was certainly true as I embraced my brother’s writing voice alongside my own.
GCB: Most of us use some personal background in our novels. Did you do that? If so, what were some of the experiences or places you included?
MJD: A major influencer in Springheads is a specific peninsula of land that I know very intimately in real life. This setting becomes a sense of place, a driving force in the unfolding of the plot line. I strongly felt the need to balance the inexplicable introduction of time travel with characters within a real community. Indeed, the people and places that make up the fabric of my life provided a rich pallet of possible characters and settings. Fortunately, fiction allows hand-picking characteristics and combining them in creative ways to ultimately bring to life the strong characters who drive the Springheads’ story. One of my favorite combinations, Miss Sadie, the midwife/healer full of sage wisdom and visionary thinking, is created with character traits found in three women whose skills, physical appearance, and intuitive genius have spilled into my real life.
My basic rules of thumb with character development: Write about what I know best. Draw on a well-rounded combination of real-life people whose personalities get my attention. Aim for powerhouse characters remembered by readers. Remember that my medium is fictional writing.
GCB: Are there other writers in your family?
MJD: To my knowledge, my brother and I are the only two published literary authors.
GCB: Writing a book is not the hardest part of being an author. Now that your books are on the market, do you have a marketing plan in place?
MJD: Dark Spot was published in 2019. Springheads was published in July 2023. With the publication of Dark Spot, the marketing plan grew in momentum around a strong Mississippi reading audience already created by my brother. He had an established presence with several small Mississippi newspapers. I picked up his by-monthly publications with these papers. Invitations to do book events came as a result. Additionally, I created my website: www.maryjodyre.com inclusive of a blog and increased social media presence.
Covid-19 threw a curve ball in the plan to strengthen my audience into North Carolina in late March 2020. I am now making use of the July 2023 publication of Springheads to create a growing reading audience around both Dark Spot and Springheads in North Carolina and Mississippi. I make use of opportunities available through Red Hawk Publications, NC Writers’ Network West, NC Writers Network and increased social media presence. Additionally, I work to create a presence in local bookstores and shops. The next step in the marketing plan is to obtain an agent.
GCB: Your novel is published by Red Hawk Publications. How are they helping with marketing your book?
MJD: Red Hawk has been instrumental with press releases as well as some in-person opportunities in the Catawba County area for book sales. I link my own website www.maryjodyre.com to https://redhawkpublications.com/
GCB: Have you begun another novel or have one in mind?
MJD: Yes, Springheads will have a sequel. My life is busy, but the story does not quieten in my head. An early-stage manuscript is in the works.
Thank you Mary Jo, for your time to answer my questions. Good luck with both of these books.
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