Author: Mollie Lyon
Located in: Hermitage, PA
Submitted: October 30, 2014
Tell us a little about yourself. I have always loved story. I drew pictures for stories before I wrote words. I remember most doodling on the margins of the Betty Crocker Cookbook while my mother baked in her blue kitchen. As soon as I could write, I wrote little stories. My first was called Three Dogs for Mollie with my illustrations. I wish I still had it.
I chose nursing as a career when I was fourteen, but writing was always my first love. My favorite class in nursing school was creative writing. I have stuck with nursing for thirty plus years, but never gave up on my writing dreams.
Learning to chart on lap tops sharpened my poor typing skills enough that I am more at ease writing on a keyboard than with pen and paper now. The whole industry with the internet has opened writing opportunities that I never had before.
My oldest daughter in her senior year-seven years ago- wrote her novel. It was in researching and encouraging her to publish that novel, that I started to learn about the publishing path of writing. She never did publish her novel; too hard to put herself out there. But seven years later, I now have two novels published, Summer Triangle and newly released, Main Street.
I have two more novels in the works, as they say, that I hope to publish in the next year.
I also write a blog, Miss Mollie's Musings. missmolliesmusings.blogspot.com
I find I want to share my knowledge about this writing journey, self publishing and encouraging writers. We learn so much from stories. Each one, like a life, has a purpose.
What was your motivation behind this project? The adage is to write what you know and so I set this first novel in the house I lived as a small child to adulthood. Rumors I heard as growing up fueled this project. I introduce my father and his family. His father was killed in a car accident in 1923. I had fun writing this.
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? The novel is short, a working woman's novel. I believe it would be a great book club selection. Issues of prejudice, hatred, isolation and exploring how a couple responds to tragedy could be discussed. Women's rights changes is another topic.
How were you personally impacted by working on this project? I wrote alone in the dark of early morning, which looking back played into the lead character's feeling of isolation. This was my first major project of writing. I loved sharing the small town feelings, imaging my father and his family, and hoping that the story touches people's hearts.
Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists? I dedicated this book to David Yarian, my high school English teacher, who believed in my writing. I held on to his words years later that I would have stories to write and they would be great. Teachers can influence students in long lasting ways. I read Hemingway in Mr. Yarian's class for the first time. His style impressed me.
Later in life when I dipped my toes into the sea of publishing dreams, Bodie and Brock Thoene, Ted Dekker influence the type of books I wanted to write. I love historical fiction, but also find modern day stories fulfilling.
At fifty, I rediscovered Laura Ingalls Wilder and her publishing story. She wrote for a long time before her Little Books were first published at age sixty. I gave myself ten years to publish. I published two books in three years. Then again, the publishing world has changed in eighty years.
Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: I am a registered nurse for thirty two years. I married a day after I graduated and am still married to that man. I have two grown daughters. Two cats and a dog round out our immediate family.
