📚 A Bookish Chat with 'Her Alibi' Mary L. Schmidt | Author Interview | #AuthorInterview #BlogTour #Interview
Mary L. Schmidt writes under her given name and a pen name, S. Jackson, along with her husband Michael, pen name A Raymond. She grew up in a small Kansas (USA) town and has lived in more than one state since then. At this time, Mary and her husband split their time between homes in Kansas and Colorado as they love the mountains and off-road four-wheeling. Traveling is one of their most favorite things to do and Mary always has a book to read on her Kindle. Books are one of her favorite things. When she was younger, it seemed like every time she turned around, a new library card was needed due to the current one being stamped complete. Diving into a good book made any day perfect and you would be surprised at the number of books she read over and over.
As a child, Mary drew paper dolls, and clothes for them, using watercolor as her medium when painting scenes, especially flowers. She continued with art in high school exploring a wide variety of mediums such as jewelry making, ceramics, leather works, drawing, painting and more! Her creative loves to be an amateur shutterbug and she has an online art gallery.
In college, she went into the sciences, and received a bachelor’s degree in the Science of Nursing. Throughout her nursing career, Michael assisted Mary in her work with The American Cancer Society, March of Dimes, Cub and Boy Scouts, and sponsored children alongside his wife on music trips. Mary’s nursing career was highly successful, and she hung up her nursing hat in December 2012.
Mary and Michael love to read, fish, play poker, go Jeeping, and travel, especially to visit their grandson, Austin, and granddaughter, Emma.
Website: www.whenangelsfly.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaryLSchmidt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MMSchmidtAuthorGDDonley
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mschmidtphotography/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/marylschmidt/
Art Gallery: https://www.deviantart.com/mschmidtartwork/gallery
Welcome to The Writer’s Life, Mary! What a powerful book. Can we start out by having you tell us why you decided to write it?
Mary: Someone had to tell Harold's story and it was past time. I just want to say that the book “Her Alibi” had to come out. Harold mattered! Everyone matters! But Harold mattered, especially to his three children, Alan, Scott, and Darrel. I don’t know your faith or what you believe, but I know what I experienced the morning after the book was released. I had a Heavenly visit while in my recliner. Without words, no physical anything seen, my right foot was touched with pressure for several seconds. It was Harold letting me know he felt validated, finally. He appreciated my hard work (bad memories) and effort to get this book out. I’m NOT doing this for money. I have money and I donate to many things, causes, and to people in need. But this story needed to be told. Harold mattered. If my family is offended, well, not the first time, nor the last time. HAROLD MATTERED! And I hated being used as her da#m alibi. The TRUTH had to come out!
Can you tell us what makes your book so shocking?
Mary: It's shocking due to the nature of what happens when a woman goes her entire life with untreated mental illness. Growing up we knew no other way of life. My mother, Marguerite, is represented in such a way that her personality deeply impresses the reader, especially considering what she may have done to Harold and her daughter, the alibi. It takes a cold blooded person, or one with severe mental illness, to plan and execute the most devias and vile imagery and verbiage flung onto her entire family.
If it’s not too emotional, can you describe your mother at her best?
Mary: At best, she could cook. Eating at the table is when my mother was at her best, AFTER she had finally stopped force feeding me.
Can you describe your mother at her worst?
Mary: With a sneer and a derogatory comment, she turned on my stepfather, Harold, and leaned over and bit down hard on his back. Haold's son, Alan, witnessed this. The wound festered and was still infected when he died after being shot.
How did you overcome your own personal turmoil as a result of what happened to you? Do we ever heal?
Mary: We never heal, we learn to work around it, we learn to give ourselves moments when needed, and then we get back up and continue on as best we can.
What’s next for you, Mary?
I'm thinking about writing a romance trilogy set in Evergreen, Colorado.
Visions of her Cherokee grandmother, Cordie, flashed through Mary’s mind as her mother, Marguerite, informed her that her stepfather shot himself and was in the hospital. Oh no! Did she use me last night? She’d never use her scapegoat! No, she couldn’t! Even Marguerite wouldn’t sink that low! Or would she? Marguerite had always been abusive and vile to most people, and especially to her children and husbands, but would she shoot Paul? Chills raked Mary and triggered her shuddering. Was she more shocked that her mother shot her stepfather with murderous intent, or that she left Mary as her alibi?
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3mKRbOw
Barnes&Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-alibi-mary-l-schmidt/1142118167
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62218232-her-alibi
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/her-alibi/id6443334045
The Writer’s Life
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