We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mary Smathers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Mary thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

I write historical fiction and short stories set in California. I also write bilingual picture books for children, in English and Spanish. Being a writer is my “second gig,” as I had a full career in education before focusing on writing.

I, and my books set in contemporary and historic California, are completely products of my upbringing and my work. I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area my entire life. (Though now I also live in Costa Rica part time, which inspired my bilingual children’s picture books!). I deeply love the state, its diverse residents and empathize with the difficulties many face living in a wonderful but often challenging place.

I worked in California public schools, almost exclusively in low income communities, for 30 years. I was a high school teacher and administrator. I ran school district wide programs. I was a charter school co-founder and director, and helped start three education companies where I worked with teachers, students and parents on a daily basis. I have literally interacted with thousands and thousands of California school kids and their families in the variety of communities that make up the state. The stories I heard, the families I observed, the colleagues I worked with inspired me every single day. My short story collection, Fertile Soil: Stories of the California Dream is heavily influenced by my years in public education.

And because I always lived in the same part of the state, I have seen the place change, I have seen the magic of the innovation that comes out of Silicon Valley, I’ve seen the people and focus change. I have seen people who suffer terrible tragedy persevere to survive, and even thrive, despite enormous odds against them. California is a magical, fascinating and complex place. It is physically gorgeous with great weather and many activities that people can enjoy. People are hard-working and industrious, always figuring out how to solve problems. But it is far from perfect.

A lot of people throughout history have come to California with dreams and lofty goals in mind. Whether the Spanish coming across the ocean, the priests who were setting up the Missions, and then independent Mexico expanding, people coming out west for the Gold Rush, or people fleeing problems in the South or after WWII, California has always been a beacon on a hill. But it isn’t all sparkly and gold. The dream is not always realized. There is poverty and income inequality, terrible homelessness, poor treatment of immigrants, segregated communities, discrimination, people struggling to keep up with the expensive cost of living and the boom and bust economies which have persisted in the state for hundreds of years. And there is the land and what happens to it….its beauty and how people interact with it, how it is forgotten and also abused.

I find that complexity fascinating, and rich with material to write about. SO, I am interested in working people, just regular people, who deal with all kinds of issues and in many cases, are resilient, who persist and keep working hard, doing the best they can against forces way bigger than themselves. And historically, I am interested in telling the story of the regular people of California 175 or 200 years ago. For my debut novel, I created a 250-year family tree with Spanish colonizers and Native American patriarchs and matriarchs and followed it through to contemporary San Francisco. I based this fictional family on extensive historical research.

I am interested in regular people who do heroic things and why. What drives someone who doesn’t have much, to look out for someone else with even less? What conditions lead to compassion? To resilience? Why doesn’t everyone just collapse under the weight of terrible unfairness or heavy problems? Not everyone does. And will that continue? Is California sustainable?

Another theme I am really interested in is why the Silicon Valley area is such a hotbed of innovation. What has shaped that place’s culture? What influences have, and continue, to make it one of the most uniquely productive and innovative regions of the world right now. When we were kids we had to study the Fertile Crescent area of the world, as I am sure you did too, a cauldron of new developments, new farming technology and innovation thousands of years ago. Well, I don’t want to overstate the importance of Silicon Valley (because it already takes itself way too seriously in my view!), but it does have some of that same coalescing of people, forces, industry, brainpower as at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates millennia ago.

And why is that? What led to that? I find that fascinating. One of my theories is that the Gold Rush had a huge impact on the area and actually is one critical factor in the type of person, attitude and hutzpah, if you will, that exist there to this day.

If you left everything you had back in Connecticut or Virginia and got on a boat to travel around the bottom of South America to get to California, or you got on a horse and travelled 3,000 miles across the plains and mountains of the US with no idea of what you would encounter along the way, or when you got there, I think you would have to be a very certain type of person to do that. Gutsy, brave and a bit thrilled by danger. You’d be a risk-taker and you’d be darn tough. You’d be hard working, persistent and a problem-solver or you would never survive. And you’d have to have quite a bit of hubris to think you’d even survive the journey and get rich in California. So I think those kinds of people and that kind of attitude influenced what the area became, even way beyond the very short lived Gold Rush. I find that historical significance and influence incredibly fascinating and teeming with rich material to write about.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I write fiction for adults and children. Unfamiliar Territory, released in May, 2025, follows a key character from my first novel into Gold Rush California. My debut novel, In This Land of Plenty, a family saga set in California history, was popular with book clubs and won multiple awards, including the 2021 Fiction Book of the Year from BiblioLab’s Indie Author Project–California, and a Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal for Western Fiction. I also have published a collection of contemporary short stories, Fertile Soil: Stories of the California Dream and a bilingual children’s picture book series set in the tropics, Tropical Tales.

While I loved my career in education, I always, secretly, wanted to write fiction. During my education career, I often did technical writing producing reports and newsletters or editing manuals, or whatever writing was needed. I wrote grants on and off for twenty years, raising over three million dollars for many different K–12 school programs throughout the state.

When I was able to make a life change, I switched my focus to writing and creativity. Although I’d always loved writing and had been an English teacher, I had to work hard to teach myself about writing fiction. I had to learn a whole new industry. I had to uncover the craft of writing a well plotted story with compelling characters. I had to learn about publishing and book production, about editing and revising, about bookstores and agents. It was an entirely new world for me so I dove straight in.

I read book after book by famous writers on their writing recommendations. I found excellent online classes on LinkedIn Learning. I attended writing conferences and went to every single session possible on the craft of writing fiction. I went to Shut Up and Write Meetups and attended mini courses at the wonderful San Francisco Writer’s Grotto. I joined my local branch of the over 100-year old California Writers Club. And everywhere I networked and asked advice from the experienced and shared resources with others just learning like me. Although I briefly considered applying to an MFA program, I decided against it. I wanted to spend my time and resources on learning but also beginning to produce my own books and not be stuck in program requirements. And so I started writing short stories.

Many have asked me what inspires my stories and motivates me to do my creative work.

For fiction, I think you need to be deeply inspired. I am moved by people I know who do great things or people I met or heard about who dealt with incredible hardship and persevered. You have to feel strongly about something in order to tell a story, I think. So passion, compassion or anger or awe—those are great, strong emotions to have within you when you write.

Sometimes when I read my own stories out loud as an editing technique, I cry. When I read the part about school parking lot attendant Connie, who struggles with constant money problems in The Great Stagnation in my Fertile Soil short story collection, being recognized by her entire community for the dignity and competence with which she does her job, I cry. I love my characters deeply. I admire them and their struggles. I applaud their achievements, no matter how little. So my work comes from a place of strong emotion. You have to really care. You have to find beauty in the smallest things and be determined to represent that to your audience.

I hope others admire Connie and think about what people like her endure and maybe have greater compassion toward a Connie in their life in the future. To me, Connie is a hero. She comes to work everyday with dignity and pride and determination to help others, despite her own struggles. And with a spirit of grace. She finds artistry in what to many people is a very mundane, unimportant, undervalued job. She never complains, never blames others, even though there are many things beyond Connie’s control which make her economic struggles just not right. But such is the way for many. I have met many people like her through my life and work and I have always admired such people.

And for the historical stories, I have a persistent curiosity about regular people’s lives in our California setting hundreds of years ago. What would it have been like to be a poverty stricken teen fleeing an abusive father by joining the Spanish Portola Expedition to come settle California out of desperation? Diego, at the outset of my novel, In This Land of Plenty, truly believes he will have a heroic return to Spain as a wealthy man and marry his childhood sweetheart. But that is not what happens so how does this young man survive the brutality of settling Alta California and establishing the Missions for Church and King? You’ll have to read the book to find out! But that ordinary young man forced to figure out how to survive in an extraordinary and difficult time is what intrigues me. And motivates me to keep researching the history and writing stories about regular people in challenging times.

In my just published sequel, Unfamiliar Territory, Juanita has lost everything and is facing a completely changed world in 1850 California. What will she do to survive, and find a way to thrive even, in a new country with unfamiliar language, economy, religion and culture? Those challenges and how people face them fascinate me and make for great stories. Check out the book to find out what she does in those difficult circumstances!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think writing a book is incredibly hard work. It takes enormous discipline and determination. It takes research and planning. And it requires lots of patience. Patience with yourself. Patience with the process. Patience with the story to form and grow. It involves revision, revision, revision. It is just a ton of work and so you have to be disciplined to sit down and work. Therefore, if you are having problems, you need to take some time to analyze why.

First, you have to be inspired. As I mentioned earlier, as a writer you must write from a place of deep emotion. If you don’t really care that much, if you don’t feel anger, passion, urgency, awe, compassion, grief, jealousy, desire, love or admiration, or some such gripping emotion, then it is going to be difficult to dredge up the will, the guts, the discipline to write.

The cliché of “write what you know” to me is a bit simplistic. I think it is more like write what you care about, write what you are curious about and want to delve into more. You may know something about it at first but make sure you want to know more. You are going to spend a lot of time on the topic, the story, with your characters, so make sure you are writing about things you care enough about to spend time on.

As a writer of historical fiction, clearly I don’t know everything about a life based around horses for transportation and work, for example, versus a world based on cars. So I must research carefully, imagine creatively by putting myself in a different time and world. I have to be truly curious about a horse based life if I am going to describe it effectively for my readers.

Also as a writer you must confront your fears. Fear, and the related insecurity, self-doubt and I’m-not-good-enough sentiments, which can overwhelm a writer, can be debilitating blocks. SO, to deal with writer’s block or a paralysis born in fear, you’ve got to work hard. You’ve got to be determined and motivated by emotion and you’ve got to plow through fears and self-loathing. Ha! All way easier said than done.

Several key tricks to keep me going when the work feels overwhelming include:

1. Read. A good writer is a good reader. Read everything you possibly like and admire. Read your genre and completely different styles of writing and genre. Just read.

2. And then look at the quality, the language, the craft of what good writers are doing. How did the writer get you emotionally involved? When you don’t like a book or story or essay, take some time to analyze why. What made you like or dislike a certain movie or streaming series? You have to remember your audience when you are writing. So analyze stories from an audience member point of view.

3. Read craft books and essays to give you guidance and tips but don’t overdo that. Just be sure to include them in your reading. Read Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott; On Writing by Stephen King; Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. Listen to her podcast, Magic Lessons. Read Lisa Cron’s Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence. (And Lisa Cron just published a new book so check that out too!) Blake Synder’s Save the Cat plot structure is a great resource. As is Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell, is an excellent one on the revision stage. There are also many outstanding craft of writing courses and workshops online. Check out LinkedIn Learning for many great mini-courses, including Lisa Cron’s, which is excellent. There are many others but these have been particularly helpful to me.

4. Write. Sit in that damned chair and write something. Anne Lamott’s “shitty first drafts” are key. It won’t be good much of the time but you can’t revise a blank page. You’ve got to accept that much of what you write will be crap. OK, fine. Then write it and then deal with the crap later, in the revising, rewriting and editing stages. But you gotta get some “shitty first drafts” down on the page before all else. Give yourself a pass. Face the fear head on and write. No one is perfect. Even Anne Lamott or Lisa Cron.

5. Finally, be real. In non-fiction, essays, history or biography, you have to get your facts exactly right. There can be no straying from the truth. But in fiction, you can make it up. Invent and imagine. But it has to ring true to the heart. If your reader doesn’t buy it, then you are sunk. A writer must be authentic above all else.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I believe I have gained a following of book club readers and earned awards for my work because I am uncompromising about producing and presenting a high quality final product.

You will not gain respect, and earn only disdain, if you put a book out into the world that is sloppy, unedited, poorly constructed, weakly conceived and filled with errors. Anyone who starts off their writing journey this way will lose all credibility, will never get an agent or be traditionally published, will never receive positive reviews or build a reader following.

But to produce a well written, high quality book, both inside and out, is a long process. Whether you gain a traditional publishing contract (which is very difficult to do and which requires obtaining an agent first) or not, you must engage an outside, neutral editor with professional editing experience. Your friend the former English teacher, or your aunt who loves to read, might be great “beta” readers, which is someone who gives feedback on early drafts of the project. This can be very helpful but it is different than a professional editor with industry experience.

Professional editors with experience in traditional publishing, many who freelance, can act as a sounding board with advice as “book coaches” while the writer develops the concept. They can do “developmental edits” where they give feedback on general plot structure, character development and story arc issues. Editors can also do “line edits” in which they provide detailed notes reviewing every line of the story and a lengthy report for the author after their review. “Copy editing” and “proofreading” are final stages that are critical for finding typos and punctuation errors, or incorrect grammatical structures. All these types of edits are key to developing a quality book. The professional editor is not only skilled, and impartial, in the technical details of editing, but also knows the industry. They understand what publishers, readers, industry editors and agents want to see in a book.

This is not to say that the writer just produces one draft and hands it over to an editor to clean it up. An author goes through many stages to develop a book–building the story concept and plot, developing characters, writing it all out and then revising, revising, revising. Even before a professional editor sees a manuscript, the author most likely has written, revised and edited it many, many times. The Refuse to Be Done book has been a godsend for me in this stage of the process.

Another key area that many neglect is producing a beautiful, appealing book cover and a well formatted and attractive book interior. Professional book designers can be key in this area. If a writer is also a graphics expert or a visual artist with knowledge of programs such as InDesign, then they may be able to do their own book design. But if not, an author needs professionals to assist with formatting, including for creating e-book files which work properly on Kindle, Nook or other e-book readers.

As in any business or creative endeavor, taking time to build a quality product or service is critical to success. Sloppily produced works will never sell in a world of at least a million new books coming out each year!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.marysmathers.com
• Instagram: @marysmathers.writer
• Facebook: Mary Smathers Writer
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-smathers-2603407/