Dark Themes, Hopeful Answers: The Heart Behind 'The Green Blade'
Meet Mary Rose Kreger, YA Fiction Author & Legend Fiction Mentor
Let’s meet Mary in this interview!
How do you avoid burnout from all the pressure of being an author, and get back your creative spark?
My current lifestyle as an author, wife, and mother of three does an excellent job of preventing me from falling into writer's burnout. It is very rare for me to have enough writing time in a day or week to feel that I am getting "burned out" from writing my stories.
More often, my writing is interrupted by my duties as a mother: taking children to and from school, making meals, changing diapers, playing dress-up with my daughter, watching Lions games with my husband, etc., Rather than take away from my writing, these duties and encounters with my family enrich and give greater meaning to my fiction.
When I do need to get my creative spark back, I try going out into nature or visiting one of our many lovely museums here in the metro-Detroit area. The Detroit Institute of Arts is a particular favorite, because I studied art history and graphic design in college.
I also like to hear and read stories by other fiction authors like me - especially the writers in Legend Fiction!
What is your current WIP about and why does it matter to you?
My current WIP is THE GREEN BLADE, a fantasy adventure novel for teens and young adults. It is the sequel to my debut novel, AVALON LOST, which I released in February 2024. This book matters to me because THE GREEN BLADE is both the heart and the hinge of my Avalon trilogy.
The greatest character growth for Philia and Will occurs in this book, and also the story's central event. I expressed this book's storyline visually in my college art show 16 years ago, but I've never shared the full written story with readers. When it is published, THE GREEN BLADE will reveal the complete story behind the watercolor paintings in my college art show - and much, much more.
I am a big advocate for the idea that good writing takes time -- months, years, decades -- to reach "perfection". Think of THE GREEN BLADE as a glass of fine whiskey or wine - the taste only gets better with time. Another reason this story is so important to me is because it deals with trauma and healing.
THE GREEN BLADE presents my YA audience with fantasy versions of common mental illnesses, as well as how to cope with them. Depression, anxiety, childhood trauma, and PTSD are all experienced by the story’s main characters, although usually by other names. The main characters never have to go through these internal struggles on their own - there is always a friend, parent, or mentor to help them on their journey.
And each of these illnesses is combated with a loving, life-giving alternative. Dark themes, hopeful answers.
How would you describe your spirituality, the unique way your faith is present to you as you enter more seriously into it?
It's really not that difficult to explain: I am a woman in love with Jesus Christ. I spent 19 months in the convent to become His bride. However, when He sent me out of the convent in 2014 to find my husband and have a family, Jesus never took away His invitation.
I am a bride of Christ, called to be His spouse even while living with my family in the world. This is the anchor of my faith and my life. In everything, I seek to find and remain in God's will for me - to "cloister" my heart in the enclosure of God's plan for me, each day.
I seek to trust God radically, and to be a place of refuge for Him, in a world where so many do not know or love Him. And because I have given everything to God, as much as I can, I trust that He will take care of everything for me.
I trust that He will work through me to help other people, too. God always knows what He is doing - all I have to do is be faithful to what He asks of me in each moment - the "present moment".
If you didn’t write, what would you do for a living?
I would like to be a massage therapist! You only have to go to school for one year, and then you can help other people feel better with the strength of your hands.
This has always sounded very appealing to me.
What is the best advice you have received as a writer?
The best writing advice I've ever received came from the leader of my local writer's workshop: "Keep writing, Mary!"
You can't get better at writing if you don't keep doing it. You can't get better at telling stories if you don't write down your mediocre attempts first. For me at least, the secret to good writing is to write, re-write, edit, write, re-write again.
Having a talent for writing isn't enough. You also need diligence, perseverance, and a solid work ethic to craft beautiful stories.
I am busy putting in my 10,000 hours of writing now, so that one day I will become an epic writing master!
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Thank you so much for sharing this, Dominic! :)