Spotlight shines on Mary Connealy

Mary Connealy is the author of Petticoat Ranch, Calico Canyon and Gingham Mountain. She will be releasing historical romantic comedies for Barbour for the next three years, including the first book of a new series, Montana Rose, coming in July.

Mary is married to her high school sweetheart, Ivan, a Nebraska farmer/rancher. She is the mother of four beautiful daughters Josie, married to Matt, Wendy, Shelly, married to Aaron and Katy. She’s got one beautiful, brand-new granddaughter, Elle.

Mary has offered a signed copy of Gigham Mountain to a lucky reader so be sure to leave a comment and follow the rules at the bottom to enter the drawing.




What is your Gingham Mountain about?


A rancher runs head-on into the new school marm, who believes he's made slave labor out of eight orphaned children.



Grant Cooper crowds too many orphans into his rickety house, just like Hannah Cartwright's cruel father. Grant's family of orphans have been mistreated too many times by judgmental school teachers. Now the new schoolmarm is the same except she's so pretty and she isn't really bad to his children, it's Grant she can't stand.

Who is the most important influence in your life besides God?


I’ve found…to my surprise…that there are threads of biological info in my books. So I’d say my family, just because between my husband and I we have 100 relatives, close relatives, that gives me lot of characters to play with.




Let’s pretend money is not a factor, if you could go anywhere is the world where would you go?


I have this longing to find a truly beautiful spot in the mountains, rent a cabin and just explore. Natural beauty is a huge draw to me. There’s so much of America I haven’t seen yet. We’ve never done a lot of traveling. I’d like to make a bucket list and go visit a hundred places. Maybe I’ll do that—make the list—as soon as I have some spare time.













I would recommend the Ozark mountains in Arkansas. My husband and I have gone twice. They are beautiful.




What book are you reading now? What books are found lying around your home?





I just bought Marcia Gruver’s latest, Chasing Charity. I loved Diamond Duo, book one in this series and I’ve heard book two is even better. So I’m looking forward to it. I’ve got to finish MaryLu Tyndall’s The Red Siren, first. I’m completely hooked on that one.



What is your favorite children’s book?


I’ve got four that I love. The Big Orange Splot by D. Manus Pinkwater. It’s this beautiful, lyrical, funny book about loving yourself and ignoring peer pressure. Tootle by Gertrude Hampton. It’s about staying on the tracks. The combination of The Big Orange Splot and Tootle is wonderful, be yourself, but don’t make indulgent mistakes that take you down the wrong path. A Child’s Garden of Verses by the very best of the best, Robert Louis Stevenson. I read this to my children so many times we could all quote long stretches of most of the poems. “How do you like to go up in a swing? Up in the sky so blue?” And finally, just for pure fun and for how beautifully the English language is used for poetry, a book length people called Maude and Claude go Abroad by Susan Meddaugh. I am just delighted by that book every time I read it.



What do you find most challenging about writing? What do you find most rewarding?


I think the hardest scenes to write are the ones I like best, but at the same time I sort of dread them because I know how much work it is to get them right. Comedy scenes and action scenes are a ton of work for me because I like chaos. I like movement and comedy, dialogue and confusion. In Gingham Mountain, I love the scene where the townspeople come into school and demand Grant remove his children because they’re a bad influence on the rest of the students.


Hannah’s defending her own teaching skills. Grant wants to take his children and leave. Some of the parents are on Grant’s side, most are against him. It’s a big blow up of a scene. Then Grant and Hannah have a big fight, mainly because they’re so stirred up, which turns into a kiss that just makes everything worse. That was lots of fun to write and I changed it around a lot, tweaking, mixing in dialogue and tags and movement.



I love writing. There is no aspect of it I don’t love. I love the first draft. I love revisions. I love tweaking a scene to make it sharper. I love daydreaming about the scene I’m going to write next.



What are you working on next?

My next release is Montana Rose, coming in July and I just adore this book. I try in this book to change things around a bit so I don’t get stale. I picked a wimpy heroine. Scared little mouse of a woman. Then I put her through what I needed to on her road to toughness. It came out really well. I ended up loving sweet, scared Cassie so much. And her hero is one of my favorite characters even.




If your book was being discussed at a book club what do you think the focus of the discussion would be on?


I’m always interested in trying to find a balance with characters being clumsy in their dealings with the opposite sex, but keeping them from being jerks. I love hearing if readers feel like I’ve hit that mark or gone too far. I also find a recurring theme is that people don’t really change. They can change the focus of their lives, toward faith and using their personality as the Lord intended, but their basic personality just IS. So while they’re changing in some soul deep ways, in other, more surface ways, the goal is to be accepted for themselves.

I think you do an amazing job showing the differences between the sexes. I think that might be one of my favorite things about the series.


I always am trying to learn new ways to be organized in the office, what is your favorite organizational tool?

About my only organizational tool is a Yahoo calendar, loaded with ‘reminders’ of all I have to do, that sends me emails reminding me. I’d be sunk without that.


Also, I write 1000 words a day. I try to never fail with that. It’s surprising how fast a 90,000 book emerges if you stick to it.


I love calenders and reminders too. I use the outlook calender. I have also made the effort to write 1000 words everyday.



What would you like your readers to say about your writing?

That they were entertained. That’s the fundamental goal. Yes, I have a spiritual theme, but if I can’t keep a reader turning the page then they’re not going to get my point.

Mary, your books are very entertaining. You are one of my favorite authors. Your books make me laugh and giggle often when others are looking at me. I've almost decided I can't read them in public.



What advice do you have for aspiring authors?

I think a writing in any stage of writing needs to have their very highest commitment go to their work. Marketing and publicity are part of the deal and important, but if marketing is taking you away from your writing you need to think seriously about your priorities. Write the very best book you know how to write every time. There is no marketing in the world that will sell your books as well.


Where can readers find you on the Web?


Find out more about Mary’s Books at http://www.maryconnealy.com/ and check out her blogs: http://mconnealy.blogspot.com/; http://petticoatsandpistols.com/; and http://seekerville.blogspot.com/


To win a copy of Gingham Mountain. Simply answer the daily question and leave a way to contact you via email. Be sure to disguise your email like this: runninmama{at}sbcglobal{dot}net

QUESTION: Tell us about the most interesting place you have visited.

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