Milestones: an interview, Mary Elizabeth Fricke

I was telling stories before I could write them down. In school, I always excelled in classes where I could read and/or write assignments. I've kept a journal most of my life and I always knew one day I would write 'a book'. That didn't happen until I was twenty-one and getting published was a long, hard rocky road. Sweet Pea was the second book-length manuscript I wrote. An editor told me I had natural talent but I needed professional training. So I studied and it was still more than ten years before I managed to get a poem published (Lady on the Farm, Farm and Ranch Magazine) and an article (Unpublished Does Not Mean Unwritten, Housewife Writers Forum). My autobiography, Dino, Godzilla and the Pigs (Life on our Missouri Hog Farm) was published by SoHo Press in 1993, after three years of writing chapters about topics my editor suggested and sending them to her snail mail, then waiting for a reply. What a godsend email has been!  I wrote non-fiction for many years. Took on the job of editor for the Heartland Writers Guild monthly newsletter and wrote skits for my sons' 4H Share the Fun Nite but my heart was in fiction. I kept going back to rewriting Sweet Pea....about twenty times, at least. I developed the idea for #1 in the Birds in Peril Series, Pigeon in a Snare, during that time. Also, drafted out #2 Roses for the Sparrow and #3 Plight of the Wren. Enough that I knew I was developing a series. But, if I didn't sell Pigeon, I wouldn't sell the others either.  From 2008 to 2013 I wrote many online articles through Guru.com, eventually landing two specific clients. One sold religious and patriotic items from her website and wanted backstories for her merchandise. The other was Civil War oriented. Those experiences taught me all about online research.  In 2012, or so, I found an e-publisher for Pigeon and Sparrow. They were published in 2014.  However, when AKW e-books closed in 2015, I joined other in-house authors who decided to become independent. I had used 'mef Originals' as my logo on crafts items I created for years so I decided to use that as the name of my official independent publisher. I have since self-published the remainder of the Bird Series, the Sweet Pea Trilogy, and Shattered Image.  Shattered Image is set in the 1980s and Sweet Pea is more of a growing-up story from 1970 thru 1990. All of my books fall under the 'romantic suspense'  theme, have rural settings, and the characters are everyday people. Some are rich and successful, others not so much.

A writer has to do what works for them. I've had three manuscripts going at once.  All ideas from the Bird Series that I jotted down quickly and kept in random files so I could compare the separate stories if I had to.  I've also been known to hunker in with one title, determined to at least get it on paper with no interference from anything else.

Being creative. Developing how characters interact with each other as the plot unfolds.

I grew up in the country and I have worked in partnership with my husband on our farm for the last forty-plus years.  So yes, I incorporate previous experiences, and our lifestyle in general in my stories. That's the life I know.

They had known each other all of their lives...sort of.

I'm a night owl.  I have been nocturnal all of my life so my most productive writing is done during the midnight hours when the phone isn't likely to ring and my husband has gone to sleep. When my sons were growing up, I often wrote at night because everything was quiet while they slept. Later, I stayed up waiting for them to come home from school sports games, dates, etc. Now, I have no excuse to stay up. I just do. I find myself putting off most things 'writing' until I am alone in the evening.  I don't know if it's unusual or not. It's just me.  I have often thought if I ever have to go into a nursing home, my nightlife is going to cause some trouble!

Just write it. No one can take that story, song, or poem from your mind and place it on paper or computer page but you. Even if you dictate to a machine or another person, those stories, songs, and poems are products of your mind. Write them, finish the story, the poem, the song in whatever physical form you can. You can always go back to edit and rewrite later.

Creating the character Brenda (in Sweet Pea) was probably the most bothersome. She was so mean, deranged mean, and in real life, I wouldn't even think of some of the things she did. I had to think and imagine beyond my normal realm 'to step into Brenda's persona'.  The same goes for Miriam Ashby in Birds #4 Robin Unaware and #6 Bluebird of Happiness.

I try to make all of my characters as realistic as possible. I live in a world of strong, 'manly' men who may be soft hearted toward their wives and children, but they can be ruthless in business and the rest of the world. The men who are indifferent or thoughtless toward the women, children, and animals in their lives come across as losers, or they have some lessons to learn in the stories. The world of my reality does not include wimpy men. They're strong-willed and independent and often totally baffled by the women they love. They can be deeply hurt and too proud to forgive. They are protectors of their families, their homes, and their businesses.  In today's world, some might label those kinds of male characters old-fashioned. I don't think so. I've lived and worked with men like them all of my life.  I prefer to read books that follow these kinds of male characters.

Oh yes.  The reason why there are so many years between the publication of Roses for the Sparrow and Wise, Bold Eagle is because I developed ongoing serious health issues that kept me from writing.  It was strange that I could rewrite and edit. I published Sweet Pea and Shattered Image both during those years but they were stories I wrote a long time ago. They just needed to be edited and polished to be print-worthy.  However, I could not write anything from 'scratch'. New writing ideas just refused to develop. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get into the Bird Series. It took three years to write Wise, Bold Eagle.  That was a heartbreaking dilemma but I refused to quit the series.  I feel like my reward came in how fast I was able to write the original draft of Bluebird of Happiness.

My niece has designed all my covers.  I tell her what I imagine. As each cover is directly related to something in each story, I give her those passages and she works from there.  The girl is brilliant.  There were only a couple of times when I thought the colors were off or the font needed to be adjusted. Most of the time she gives me two or three to choose from and then perfects the cover I select

Laurie Alberwerth's 'Grain and Gravestones'.  # 2 in her sleuthing series. #1 'Bones and Bloodlines' was a delightful cozy mystery.

I really don't know. Finishing this series has been a major milestone. When I look at it, I see ways it could be continued with more stories but I don't think I want to do that. I want to write a fresh new story, visit some place my muse has not been before. I just do not know, yet, where that will be.

Bluebird took about two months to write and ten months to edit, re-edit, and edit again.  I intended Bluebird to finish the Birds in Peril Series I began nearly ten years ago. I wanted to create a sweet love story using characters from the first five novels of the series to finalize the series with a happy conclusion. Unfortunately, while #5 Wise, Bold Eagle was intended to settle the major issue of who was helping arch-villain Sheldon Humsler do his nasty deeds (and it did), Sheldon was not the only villain. There was one more the Bluebird had to conquer.

NO!  I want silence so I can concentrate on the voices in my head.

I read....a lot.  I also embroider and like to work with crafts, painting, etc.  I used to crochet. In fact, I taught crochet to 4H members, but I was forced to stop crocheting when I developed rheumatoid arthritis. It broke my heart but I had too much trouble trying to maneuver my hands. They were very painful. The RA has gone into remission, I'm told, but I haven't had the nerve to see if I can crochet again.

The character Johnie (Johanna Louise) in Sweet Pea is my age. She grew up in a rural setting much the same as I have lived all my life. I was writing sort of a memoir of my teenage years (late 60s into 1990) so I wrote about people, lifestyles, rural trends, and how the war in Vietnam affected most families. Many of the characters could probably be likened to someone I knew during those years. However, the personal events of Johnie's life were far different than mine. It was just that, I could identify with her personality and her knowledge or outlook on the world at that time.