Mary Kathleen Mehuron

Mary Kathleen Mehuron is a career educator who made a splash with her first book, Fading Past, an autobiographical novel whose protagonist, like Mary Kathleen, grew up Irish-Catholic in New Jersey. The Opposite of Never is Mary Kathleen’s second book, and to finish it, she traveled alone to Havana in January 2015 in order to experience the city before it became Americanized. Mary Kathleen lives and teaches in a ski town in Vermont where they call her Kathy. This is where she and her husband raised three sons,  and she is an occasional columnist and writes curriculum daily for private math and science students. She takes extended time to work on her novels on Grand Turk Island and in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.

Have you ever experienced Imposter Syndrome?

Have I ever! Every day of my life I’ve suffered from insecurity. But I identify with something the legendary painter Georgia Totto O'Keeffe said, "I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from a single thing that I wanted to do."

The self- help author Susan Jeffers says, “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” This is how I run my life. In fact, if I don’t wake up some nights petrified by a deadline or big decision to move forward I know I’m not pushing myself hard enough.

Here’s a good example: I have a newspaper column that I grew into a fund raising book which became a non-profit that gives grants for projects that showcase the history of the Mad River Valley in Vermont. I am not a lawyer. Not an accountant. And when I am done with this interview, I will sit down and try to file taxes for my Take Me Back, Inc. 501(c)(3). I have no experience at this! I just watch online videos, conduct internet searches and do my best. Nothing is scarier than the IRS, but I learned that doing my best, with integrity and purpose, is usually good enough.

Vacation druthers… City or Rural destination? Why?

I have always preferred being off the beaten path. City or rural. For example, we spend a lot of time in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont which is as country as country can be. Pristine waters, clear mountain air. There we hike and kayak and obsess over the progress of this year’s baby loons.

And we have also decided to spend the winters now in Savannah which has the music, art, culture and authentic grit like New Orleans. It also has its own cuisine like The Big Easy, but it’s not as large nor the crowds as crazy.

Savannah has similarities to Charleston as well. The history runs deep as it was an English colony before we became the United States of America. It is extraordinarily beautiful because the Union Army did not destroy buildings like they did through so much of the south. The city is the home of Savannah College of Art and Design so, I’m sure you can imagine, artists abound. And it’s a smaller sized city, making it easy to get around.

I joke that if New Orleans and Charleston had a child—it would be Savannah.

We are also in love with a remote place called Grand Turk Island in Turks and Caicos in the British West Indies. It is another pristine location with the third largest coral reef in the world. Whales and other sea creatures use it like a major thoroughfare. Deep sea fishing and scuba diving are popular among both locals and visitors. My husband is a diver. But for me? Grand Turk is the best place on earth to write. That’s the very reason that my new novel, The Belonger, is set there.          

If you could create a museum exhibition, what would be the theme?

Earlier I mentioned my non-profit, Take Me Back Inc. We raise money to benefit projects that showcase our local history. On the same day my novel launches, a non-fiction coffee table book will too. It’s called Take Me Back: An Anecdotal History of the Mad River Valley. It’s filled with hundreds of gorgeous images but it’s also the story of writing my Take Me Back stories. All the writers, photographers, editors, tech support and readers donated their time. The graphic design and printing was paid for by Valley businesses, so 100% of the profits will go toward history projects.

If I had the chance to create an exhibition, it would reflect all the history that I’ve learned in my Take Me Back journey.

What do you worry about?

I worry that I will let people down. I mentioned that I am trying to do our non-profit’s taxes. What if I make a mistake that costs the organization money? Money that could go to history projects just wasted because I couldn’t read directions correctly?

The Take Me Book is published by me. Any mistakes are ultimately my fault. When I awake in the middle of the night, these are the concerns that make me toss and turn.

What brings you great joy?

What I call, “The Joy of Creation.”

It can be literal, such as having my three sons and helping them become the men they were meant to be. Or it can be dreaming up characters that are as real to me as my friends are. Best-selling author Marley Gibson wrote about my new book, “The Belonger is a satisfying journey, full of rich, realistic characters whose plights and challenges have you cheering for them as if they were family.” When I read that, I was elated. But it is the ‘doing’ of writing, the creation, that makes all the thousands of hours of focused solitude worth it in the end.