Ask the Author: Mary M. Barrow

“I'm so very proud 'Small Moments' was a winner of the Midwest Book Awards, a Finalist for the Indie Excellence Award and Bronze Medal Winner for the Reader's Favorite Awards. Hope you like it.” Mary M. Barrow

Answered Questions (8)

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Ms Mary, If, and when, you do a rewrite...how much time do you allow yourself to put away the manuscript before you return to it to do the rewrite?
Mary M. Barrow It is embarrassing that you asked me this so long ago and I am just answering. Thank you for your interest and patience.

I do rewrite. I don't have a specific amount of time between rewrites but find that I will do several before feeling a manuscript is complete.
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I'm afraid something is bothering me about your book "Small Moments". It's "creative nonfiction", so parts are made up. You didn't make up the part about Amelia MacIntosh losing a son and the way he died, did you?
Mary M. Barrow
This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)
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How do you deal with writer’s block?
Mary M. Barrow There is nothing like reading a good book to inspire me. I particularly like lyrical fiction. I keep thinking, 'I can do that…' and when I go to my desk, I do.
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How do you get inspired to write?
Mary M. Barrow I get up in the morning.
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What are you currently working on?
Mary M. Barrow I am forever working on publicity for 'Small Moments: A Child's Memories of the Civil Rights Movement' as I believe it is an important book. I am also editing two other manuscripts and writing a work of literary fiction about a woman's life during the years of Reconstruction after the Civil War.
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What’s your advice for aspiring writers?
Mary M. Barrow Don't wait to try to find a publisher. I wrote several books, but let them sit while I worked at my paid job. Now the market is flooded and getting noticed by readers is ever more difficult.
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What’s the best thing about being a writer?
Mary M. Barrow What and how you choose to write provides a great deal of insight into who you are and whether you are growing in the direction you have chosen.
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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?
Mary M. Barrow I decided it was time to write the stories of my childhood but was unclear about how I wanted to 'string' them together. So I took a class at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis about writing memoir. The lesson I learned was that a memoir has to have a theme. I knew immediately that the stories I'd written that took place during the Civil Rights era were strongest and proceeded from there.
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Mary M. Barrow
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