Interview with Mary DesJarlais

By Howard Lovy

Introduction

The Interview

LOVY: Your story also features strong, independent women characters. The book takes place during Prohibition, but are you making any comments about contemporary society?

DESJARLAIS: I think writing about strong women that want or need to stand up on their own two feet are more relevant stories now more than ever before. I work with many small business owners (especially those that run companies in the construction world) who still struggle everyday to find their place in that business world and prove they can do a great job as woman.

The same thing goes for women who work in nontraditional fields—those who are electricians or pipefitters. Every day can be a battle. I am associated with a group of widows (The Young Hot Widow Club) and often the conversation is one of desperation. Their husbands die (early) and they struggle to raise children on a single income. Women are still not paid the same as men for the same job.

LOVY: You have endured hardships in your life, with your health and the health of loved ones. Through it all, you continued to develop your writing. Is writing difficult with so many real-world distractions? Or is writing therapeutic?

DESJARLAIS: With my first novel, writing was a great escape from first husband’s ten-year brain cancer saga. I had found a writing group I loved and felt like a creative life eased my worries.

As I was writing my second novel, my next husband was diagnosed with and treated for cancer. We had a brilliant marriage and looked forward to such a great life together. I was sad and full of grief a year before he died and then afterward, I was numb lost all of my creative mojo. I didn’t touch the manuscript at all (in fact, I forgot the password to my Mac).

Eventually, I found my way back to it and finished, but it was hard to do that. I had all the memories of Kevin reading over my shoulder and encouraging me. Of course, there is a lot of grief woven through this book!

LOVY: Writing can be a lonely, solitary pursuit, but you’ve also participated in many writing workshops. How have these influenced your works in progress?

DESJARLAIS: I adored my time at the University of Iowa’s Summer Writing Program. I didn’t have time or finances to get an MFA. My children were small and my husband had brain cancer. A week in Iowa with people who wanted to talk writing and reading was so wonderful. I stayed all alone in a friend’s house without any real-life distractions. Summer camp for nerds! The teacher that I had for the first novel writing class (I presented the first fifty pages of Dorie LaValle) was so encouraging and that was good emotional energy for me to ride for the rest of the book’s creation.

LOVY: Can you give us a sneak peak into what your new novel is about?

DESJARLAIS: It’s tentatively titled Written on the River and it’s based on the stories of baby farming in Great Britain in the early 1900s. There were several women hanged during that time for the mistreatment, and sometimes murder, of infants that came to their care. At that time, if someone was poor and couldn’t afford to take care of their own children, they would seek out these women for long-term care or sometimes ask them to find the children a new home. When the children became ill or difficult to care for or place, a number of women murdered these children.

In my novel, a young Irish girl finds herself widowed, alone in St. Paul with no employment.  She decides to place unwanted babies for a fee as a means to support herself. Very early into her business venture, she connects to the local pickpocket as a partner and finds this baby business venture is very difficult. In my research into early St. Paul, I found out there were women hired as police matrons who were tasked with looking after the welfare of women and children. They couldn’t arrest anyone and couldn’t carry a gun, but I was intrigued by the idea of a smart woman who tries to solve crimes.

LOVY: What kind of research did you do to immerse yourself in the Prohibition era?

DESJARLAIS: For the first book, I loved going to the library and the Minnesota Historical Society. Books!  Volumes of books! Not Google.

However, my favorite thing to do was to hear real stories of people who lived through the era.  I was connected to a friend’s dad who was a young boy during Prohibition. He told me the greatest stories about that time, and many snippets are in the book. My favorite: he said that when he was very young, there was car accident in front of their farmhouse. A man landed on their lawn, bleeding with glass embedded all over his face and neck. His mother got a tin of flour and dumped it over the wounds to coagulate the bleeding.I liked stories of women who had nothing and did it all because they was no other option.

LOVY: Why did you choose Calumet Editions to help you re-release your book?

DESJARLAIS: I was connected to publisher Gary Lindberg through a friend of mine who knew I was looking for a place for this book to land. I toyed with the idea of self-publication, but was not sold on that concept. Gary and Ian Graham Leask are both professional, savvy, and smart about promotion. They know and adore writers. My gut told me this was the place for this new novel.

LOVY: What books are currently on your nightstand (or e-reader)?

DESJARLAIS: Pat Conroy’s book on writing, A Lowcountry Heart, and I just got Dan Chaon’s new book, Ill Will.

LOVY: What advice do you have for others who feel they “have a book in them,” but feel that family, work, and life just will not allow it?

DESJARLAIS: Read things you admire and want to emulate. Start writing. A page a day or an hour day. Do not start editing—that will kill your creative buzz. Move forward like a shark until you have first draft. Use writing exercises to jump-start ideas. Keep a writer’s notebook. Collect names, stories, jokes, fact, descriptions, etc.—anything you will use later.

LOVY: OK. I have to ask. You write that you once kissed Bruce Springsteen. Is there a story about that you’d like to tell? Or should we keep it mysterious to protect the guilty?​

DESJARLAIS: I was always a huge fan and have seen him every time he has been to town since 1980. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer (and Mark was dying, too), my oldest friend in the world cried and said she wanted to do something for me. I joked that she could get Bruce to sit on my hospital bed and sing to me. That got her wheels spinning.

She had a Notre Dame fellow alum who lived near E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg. She contacted him, told him my story, and asked if he could pull strings to let us meet Bruce when he was coming to St. Paul for a concert in May. Max connected to Barbara Marsh, Bruce’s publicist, and made it happen. We got to go to the sound-check, have dinner with the band and in the final fifteen minutes before the show we got to go to Bruce’s dressing room and chat with him and take photos. I was mute with pleasure and he was gracious and wonderful. As he was departing for the show, Janet and I got a squeeze and a kiss.

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