Excited to welcome Mary Camarillo to the blog this week to chat about her latest novel
Author Name: Mary Camarillo
Book Title: Those People Behind Us
Book Genre: Literary Fiction
Release Date: 10/10/2023
Publisher: She Writes Press
Welcome, Mary! How would you describe Those People Behind Us?
It’s the summer of 2017 in Wellington Beach, California, a suburban coastal town increasingly divided by politics, protests, and escalating housing prices—divisions that change the lives of five neighbors as they search for home and community in a neighborhood where no one can agree who belongs.
What sparked the idea for this book?
I originally wanted to try my hand at writing a mystery where someone goes missing and someone is murdered. I wrote character sketches that seemed to be in conversation with each other. But none of the characters were interested in going missing or murdering anyone. Characters can be frustrating like that.
During the pandemic, my husband and I spent a lot of time walking the streets of our neighborhood. We heard someone pounding on a drum set and decided it was a kid who dreamed of rock and roll fame. One of our neighbors always left all of their doors wide open, day and night, and we wondered why they were so careless. We were also curious about the flags our neighbors flew, what they thought about, and how they spent their days.
We saw a lot of suburban wildlife on our walks–coyotes, possums, skunks, racoons, herons, hummingbirds–and started paying more attention to the types of trees and plant life. Most of these ideas came together in Those People Behind Us. And spoiler alert, one of the characters does think pretty seriously about killing someone. You’ll have to read the book to see how that turns out.
How long did it take for you to write the book? Did you do any research?
This book took about three years to write, in between publishing and promoting my first novel, The Lockhart Women, which took me seven years to write. My process is to start with characters, give them a lot of trouble, and see what decisions they make to try and get out of it. I don’t use an outline until much later in the process. It would probably be more efficient if I knew where the story was going earlier in the process but the fun for me is the surprise in figuring it all out.
I did a ton of research for The Lockhart Women which was set in 1994 and centered around the O. J. Simpson trial. Those People Behind Us is much more contemporary, although the post Trump election/pre-pandemic summer of 2017 seems like historical fiction. I read up on the horrific Charlottesville, Virginia Nazi march, especially former Tennessee governor Terry McAuliffe’s Beyond Charlottesville: Taking a Stand Against White Nationalism. Jared Yates Sexton’s The Man They Wanted Me to Be was helpful in exploring toxic masculinity.
Most of my research doesn’t end up in my novels though and to be clear Those People Behind Us is not all about toxic masculinity and The Lockhart Women is not about Simpson. Doing all that research allows me to ground my story in realism even if it doesn’t end up in the book.
What was more helpful was rereading Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, and revisiting Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town. I also reread linked story collections like Dylan Landis Normal People Don’t Live Like This and Rebecca Barry’s Later at the Bar and my favorite, Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge.
What’s your favorite part about writing/being an author? What do you find challenging?
It’s truly wonderful to have a passion for this artistic endeavor at the age of 71. I feel very lucky to have my work to look forward to every morning.
Sometimes the technical parts of promoting my novels are frustrating. Mailchimp seems to revise its platform and raise its prices constantly. I ran my own website for way too long. I can spend way too much time designing Facebook posts on Canva. I haven’t been able to run Amazon ads successfully. I can usually figure out how to do stuff but it takes up way too much time. I’m learning to pay professionals to help me and save my energy for creating and editing.
If you were speaking to someone who hasn’t read your writing before, why should they want to read Those People Behind Us?
I would tell them that I enjoy reading and writing stories about working/middle class people making their way through the world without a ton of money to solve all their problems. Stories set in Southern California are often about people with wealth and privilege, who are rich and famous.
A review I particularly like from The Book Life Prize said Those People Behind Us offers “intimate and raw perspectives on everyday people in everyday circumstances, delivered in a way that makes each character’s experiences feel inspired and pivotal to the plot.” That’s pretty much what I aim for.
What do you hope readers will take away from this story?
Empathy for people who aren’t like them. J R Stradal, author of the New York Times bestseller Kitchens of the Great Midwest, recognized this in his generous blurb when he called Those People Behind Us a “beautiful, propulsive masterwork of empathy. This was a huge thrill for me because I find Stradal one of the most empathetic contemporary writers.
More and more these days in these increasingly divided united states, people seem to be lining up on different sides of the fence, especially in my neighborhood. I don’t think we all need to agree with each other but I wish we could all learn to listen and empathize a little more.
What about the writing/editing/publishing process has been the most surprising to you so far?
Learning about the publishing aspect of writing has been eye opening. I had no idea bookstores could order books and immediately return them. I didn’t know readers could buy an eBook and return it for full credit either. I knew nothing about the costs of paper, ink, and distribution.
I honestly had no idea that I was going to have to talk about what my first novel was “about.” I thought I could simply tell people to read it. I’ll hopefully be more prepared to talk about Those People Behind Us before my pub date of October 10, 2023.
Any words of wisdom you give your pre-published writer self (or to a new writer)?
To my pre-published self, I’d advise enjoying the ride a little more, which was difficult to do back in June of 2021 when we were still in the midst of the pandemic. Books don’t have a shelf life though, they live forever, and it’s been so gratifying to have people write me about The Lockhart Women two years now after publication.
To new writers I suggest the following:
- Find a writing workshop but learn to trust your own voice.
- Don’t be afraid to revise. You can only make it necessary to revise again.
- Read widely. Read like writing is your job.
- Support your local writing community. Writers are incredibly supportive of each other.
- Support your local independent bookstores. It’s against the law to go into one and not buy something.
What are your interests outside of writing and reading?
Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time dealing with the aftermath of my father’s death. He died in February of this year at the age of 100 and one-half years and I miss him fiercely. There’s been a lot of paperwork and follow-up, dealing with banks and realtors and going through possessions and photographs.
I’m planning some travel pre and post book launch, hoping to get to Portugal and Egypt in the next year or so. In the meantime, you can find me listening to music or going out to hear live music.
Are you working on a new project? Please tell us about it.
It’s too soon to say much but I’ve been fooling around with ghost stories set in the 70’s, an era which has just recently qualified as historical fiction. I love the short story form but predict that as usual, these stories will end up as a novel.
Where can readers find you?
You can find me here:
https://www.facebook.com/marypcamarillo
https://www.instagram.com/marycamel13/
Upcoming Events
October 14, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at LibroMobile bookstore in Santa Ana, California in conversation with author Stacy Russo
October 15, 3 p.m. at Book Jewel bookstore in Los Angeles, in conversation with author Debra Thomas
October 21, 1:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble Huntington Beach in conversation with author Kate Anger
Thank you, Mary! Those People Behind Us is out now.
Those People Behind Us
It’s the summer of 2017 in Wellington Beach, California, a suburban coastal town increasingly divided by politics, protests, and escalating housing prices—divisions that change the lives of five neighbors as they search for home and community in a neighborhood where no one can agree who belongs.
Real estate agent Lisa Kensington juggles her job, her shopaholic husband, a mother-in-law who knows how to push her buttons, and teenagers with ideas of their own. Ray Gorman, a haunted Vietnam vet, cares for his aging mother. Keith Nelson, an ex-con, lives in his car, parked near his parents’ house. Sixteen-year-old Josh Kowalski works through the shock of his father’s abandonment by slamming on a drum set. Jeannette Larsen, an aerobics teacher numbed by horrific tragedy, turns away from her husband and toward reckless behavior. In the end, they all discover that despite their differences, they are more connected than any of them would have imagined.
“ . . . . mesmerizing . . . . A worthwhile read with characters who grapple with timely political conundrums.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The stakes are high and the ground unstable in the fictional town of Wellington Beach where even a real estate agent’s seemingly innocuous pamphlets are loaded with undercurrents of significance and menace. Yet Camarillo’s novel offers hope, and, because of her facility with characters, I found myself unabashedly rooting for the fallible and suffering Wellington community.” —Victoria Patterson, author of The Secret Habit of Sorrow and The Little Brother.
“The vivid characters that populate Mary Camarillo’s fictional community of Wellington Beach are a testament to the author’s deep knowledge of a very real and fascinating terrain. Their intersecting lives and backstories add a technicolor verisimilitude to her highly engaging new novel. —Nick Schou, author of Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Its Quest to Spread Peace, Love, and Acid to the World and Kill the Messenger
Author bio:
Mary Camarillo is the author of the award-winning novel “The Lockhart Women.”
Her awards include the 2022 Indie Author Project Award for California Adult Fiction, the 2022 Willa Literary Award Finalist in Multiform Fiction, the 2021 First Place Award in the Next Generation Indies for First Fiction, the 2022 Finalist for the Screencraft Cinematic Book Award, and the 2021 Finalist in the American Book Awards in Women’s Fiction.
Her second novel “Those People Behind Us” will be published in October of 2023. Her poems and short fiction have appeared in publications such as TAB Journal, 166 Palms, Sonora Review, and The Ear.
Mary writes about living in Southern California, a place she’s called home for more than fifty-five years and is still trying to understand. She had a long career with the postal service, which might be genetic—both her grandfathers were railway mail clerks. She sorted mail, sold stamps, worked in the accounting office, and went to night school, eventually earning a degree in business administration, a CPA license, and a Certificate in Internal Auditing.
She currently serves on the advisory boards of Citric Acid, An Orange County Literary Arts Quarterly, and LibroMobile, An Arts Cooperative and Bookstore in Santa Ana, California. She’s a member of Women Writing the West, Women Who Submit, and Women for Orange County. Mary lives in Huntington Beach, California with her husband, who plays ukulele, and their terrorist cat Riley, who makes frequent appearances on Instagram.