“Your voice matters, and people want to hear it”: An Interview with Mary Leoson
“Don’t listen to the haters. I would have gotten a lot more done a lot sooner had I had the courage to just believe in myself.”
Dr. Mary Leoson is a Pushcart nominee who teaches in the English Department at MTSU and serves as the Director of MTSU Write. Her YA horror novel, The Butterfly Circle, was released by Manta Press in 2023. Her writing has been also featured in the Twisted Vine Literary Journal, Coffin Bell Journal, Untoward Magazine, Underwood Press’ horror journal Black Works, Castabout’s Halloween Anthology, The Lost Librarian’s Grave Anthology, Free Spirit Historic Tales Anthology, GNU Journal, The Gyara Journal, Genre: Urban Arts, Obra/Artifact, and on NPR’s This I Believe series. She loves to write with her dogs at her feet while creating worlds of darkness and light. She holds a Doctor of Arts in English Pedagogy & Literature, an MFA in Creative Writing, an MA in English & Writing, and an MS in Psychology. You can learn more at www.maryleoson.com.
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From June of 2022 through October of 2023, you co-hosted a podcast about writing techniques and tips entitled Exhuming the Bones. My favorite moment would have to be when you were discussing The Butterfly Circle and how you used your family history to truly set the story in the 1940s. What would you say was your favorite piece of advice given on the podcast?
Probably just understanding that all writers have their own unique way into a story. It was so helpful to talk to other writers about their process in-depth. There were places where we crossed over, places where we came at a story from completely different perspectives. I had a process for a long time that seemed to work. Then, with The Butterfly Circle, it required a different kind of energy from me, and I’m not sure why that is. But I think it felt like a special story because of that. I feel like I start to write the characters, and then they tell me where they want to go, rather than me telling them where they’re gonna go. Now I get surprised by some of the choices that they make.
Was there anything you weren’t able to get to on the podcast or you have thought of since the last episode was released that you would want to discuss?
S o much. We went on a hiatus because of schedules. It will pick back up at some point! Horror is such a broad genre, and now that I’m getting more into YA horror, I’m discovering all sorts of different things. I’m really into historical fiction. There’s a lot to be uncovered.
This podcast was a project under the Horror Writers Association. Would you mind explaining what the HWA is and why an author might be interested in becoming a member?
The Horror Writers Association goes from people who are very well-known all the way down to the average person who maybe doesn’t have so many titles under their belt yet but they have at least a short story published or something like that. And then we get to learn from each other and have all sorts of conversations. There are different chapters — currently, I belong to the Ohio chapter — and I did find out that there’s a newly formed Tennessee chapter. I’ll be transferring to Tennessee, probably. People don’t really anticipate that the horror community is welcoming, but they really, really are! Very welcoming, nurturing, and accepting.
You are also part of an organization called Women & Words, which you founded in 2022 with Lakeland Community College. I was discussing this with a friend of mine, and we were both very interested. As the founder, would you mind sharing the vision for the project and how it functions to reach its goals?
The idea was to extend the English classes beyond so that all of these beautiful people who had connected to each other could continue to have a place to meet and talk about a lot of creative things. They could talk about their personal problems and things going on. We started to write poetry together, and then I taught them how to translate the poetry into digital stories, which are three-to-five-minute movies that consist of them reading their poetry, images, sounds, and music. We did one that was collaborative, too: alternating the reading, alternating the writing. That one was probably the most healing one of all. Even though we all have our own stories, when we combine our voices — especially if they’re different from each other and coming from different perspectives — we’re gaining compassion and empathy through this type of project.
To move on to The Butterfly Circle, I know that the idea for the book was conceived because you wanted to tell a story about a house for unwed mothers. Throughout the writing process, did the purpose of the story evolve at any point beyond what you had originally planned? Did you have the sequels in mind from the beginning, or did the story become too big to be contained in just one book?
The Butterfly Circle is about a haunted home for unwed mothers in 1948. The published novel includes two storylines — one in 1948 that focuses on four pregnant girls and another in 1863 about two sisters (who are now ghosts walking the property of Prescott House). Originally, there was another storyline — one set in the 1990s when Eliza was a grandmother and her granddaughter was going through a pregnancy scare. I ended up pulling the 1990’s storyline because it was too complicated.
I tried to pitch it to agents as a standalone or as part of a trilogy. One of my good friends, who was a beta reader, was talking to my publisher and said, “You know what? This really needs to be a trilogy.” And I was like, “Thanks!”
Right now, I’m writing the sequel, and it is … if The Butterfly Circle felt like a lot, then this is like woosh! Dot has her own voice, Rebecca has her own voice. We have all these characters and different settings. I’m about one-third of the way through, and I’m still not sure where it’s going to lead. It’s continuing to surprise me!
I have been fortunate enough to be able to speak with higher ups from Best Publishing Company and Three Ravens Publishing, and advice that I hear again and again is “Connections. Connections. Connections.” What is your advice on growing connections for new and aspiring authors?
Social media is key. Especially during the pandemic, it took up such a space in people’s lives where it hadn’t before. On Twitter, there was a huge community of writers, and it’s shifted and grown outside of that because political ideologies got in the way of writer talk. Instagram, BlueSky … a really great way to hone in on a conversation about writing. Another thing I just learned is that writers are just people, sensitive people. Respecting yourself as a writer, regardless of where you are on your journey, is a really important thing.
There are countless stories of authors struggling to get their stories published. What was your personal journey for the release of The Butterfly Circle? What advice would you give for dealing with rejection and persevering to get your book out there?
I started out querying to agents, and I got a couple that were requesting the full manuscript. It wasn’t quite the right fit. And so I thought back to my days in my MFA, and one of my mentors there said, “Don’t be afraid to go to indie publishers. Open that door and see what happens.” Then I started to send it out to smaller publishers, and that’s actually where it happened.
You have a plethora of experience in writing before the publication of your novel, from articles to anthologies. If you could go back in time to the start of your writing career to give yourself just one piece of advice, what would it be?
Don’t listen to the haters. I would have gotten a lot more done a lot sooner had I had the courage to just believe in myself. A lot of that came from my second marriage, my husband now. He really helped me see that I could do it. And I could! I just needed somebody else’s perspective, somebody that I trusted. In the past, those messages that I had gotten were not supportive and not kind from some key people. I’m deeply grateful for [my husband]; he helped me love myself more. I think we just need to remember to do that, to take the risk because what do we have to lose? Yes, sometimes, there’s rejection. I’m a very sensitive person; it was difficult for me to get that thicker skin initially. But, if you don’t, you miss out on the opportunity to do some beautiful things. Your voice matters, and people want to hear it.
Kathryn Pendergrass is a junior at Middle Tennessee State University and an English minor.
