Interview: Mary O, Children's Author & Illustrator

Mary Olkowski Interview by David Boyne

Mary Olkowski, a native San Diegan, is a poet, author and illustrator. Her published work includes a collection of poetry, A Garden Of Verse; and the illustrated children’s books, Life’s A Cinch With Just One Inch, and, Look Out! It’s Vertigus Hoya!

Her books are distributed by Baker & Taylor, and are available through Barnes & Nobel, or by mail from Books by MaryO, P.O Box 83942, San Diego, CA 92138, or online from her website: BooksByMaryO.com. Any book ordered directly from the author will be autographed and inscribed, if requested.

She has recently completed The Twirling Dress, the first book in a series ten illustrated books for young girls that features Mimi Fufu, a girl who knows exactly what she likes. Pre-orders for the printed version of The Twirling Dress can be placed on Mary O’s website: BooksByMaryO.com

Also available on her website, is a free e-book version of The Twirling Dress for viewing and downloading.

The following interview is drawn from two conversations with the author at Santos Café in San Diego, over coffee and very yummy pecan chocolate chip cookies.

WM: So when you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

MaryO: (laughing) I knew exactly what I wanted to be! When I was about six years old I dreamed I was an old lady. I lived in a house built on the grassy strip right in the middle of the road. I’d go out and give candy to all the children in the neighborhood. I even gave candy to the kids who were bad.

WM: And you never wanted to be anything else?

MaryO: Oh, I wanted to be lots of other things. When about eight years old I saw myself being a missionary, and I even illustrated on paper how my mission would look and the various facilities available; education, recreation, carpentry and chapel.

At age 10, having discovered fossils in my neighborhood and National Geographic magazine, I knew for sure that no matter what, I was going to travel the world.

About age twelve, when at a point of feeling completely unloved, I made novenas every Tuesday for a year and prayed that I would meet my husband at a young age. And I also petitioned for healthy children and a moderate income so as not to struggle financially as my parents did!

WM: Very practical.

MaryO: Maybe. But I also never forgot my dream of being an old lady in the house in the middle of the road, giving candy to all the children.

And I believe all my dreams have been met to some degree. I am this old lady now, giving out candy to all children even to those who are bad. My candy is unconditional love. Although I never built my own mission, my husband and I contribute financial support to the first mission orphanage established for girls in India, St. John’s orphanage. And I did meet my husband at the young age of 15, and we married when I turned 21. We have two healthy children and eight grandchildren. And for the past 15 years my husband and I have traveled— not the entire world—but a good portion of it!

WM: And none of these imagined futures is of you being a writer. When in life did you realize that you wanted to write? Was there an event that carried you toward writing poetry, toward telling stories?

MaryO: In 1994 I was asked by the head of a religious organization to write the Renewal for their monthly newsletter. As a religious instructor for over fifteen years, I felt this was a wonderful opportunity to be insightful spiritually, and I thought poetry would be the simplest and easiest way to get a message across. But I had never written poetry! I never even really fancied poetry much.

It was a dilemma, even if I had created it myself. Then it dawned on me: my husband had in a way been teaching me poetry for years, because he was always singing his X-rated songs of love to me while taking a shower! At least I could use what I learned from him about how to rhyme!

Anyway, that’s how I started writing. Later, I was encouraged to compile my poetry into book form. Then I joined a writers group to improve my writing skills. It was like finding buried treasure within— I discovered I loved to write!



WM: You do all the illustrations in your books. Did that come about after you discovered your love for writing?

MaryO: Oh, no. Art came first. I never imagined myself a writer, but I just always accepted that I was an artist.

Ever since I can remember, I would draw. In kindergarten, I was four years old, the youngest in the class, and my teacher had me teach the other students how to draw.

One day at home I was sent to my room for punishment. I can’t remember what I might have done wrong, but I vividly remember looking at the plaster walls and seeing all kinds of pictures within the texture. By the time my mother came in to excuse me, I had outlined all the pictures on the walls. It looked like a mural of drawings. My mother was surprised and I think somewhat delighted with what she saw. She didn’t scold me, but told me I needed to clean away the drawings.

Another time soon after that, I imagined I was a sculptor, and I took a nail and a hammer and I used them to chisel pictures in the concrete patio tiles in our yard!

At college, I majored in art, and I also volunteered my art skills, teaching art to parochial students, grades 6th through 8th. One time I built 72 easels and I took the kids outside and taught them the "thumb method" of perspective drawing. By the end of the year all 72 students had learned this way to draw.

WM: So long before you were writing, you had a career as an art teacher. Did you do your own art professionally?

MaryO: I didn’t do much. I chose raising my children over doing art. Only much later, when my children were grown, I began again by illustrating a couple of newly published authors. I was a bit rusty, but they liked my work, and I’ve since designed book covers for other authors as well as done all the illustrations for my own books.

WM: Do you consider yourself to be a teacher still?

MaryO: Well, I’ve never been a professional teacher. But I’ve taught as a volunteer all my life. Ever since, as I mentioned, when in kindergarten my teacher asked me to assist my classmates in art.

When I was 10 years old I had a theory, even though maybe I couldn’t put it in words, but I believed that all children were born geniuses. It was just a matter of bringing it out at an early age, was my thought.

WM: That’s unusual, to say the least. How did that come about?

MaryO: Not in a very nice way, I’m afraid. I had very unhappy experiences in my early schooling. I was in a parochial school, and the priests and nuns, well, they were from Ireland, and they were strict, but more than that, they seemed to instantly choose who of the students were smart or talented and who were, well, dummies. Even then I knew a lot of this was based on social standing and who had money. My family didn’t have either, so for thos reasons and maybe others I will never fully understand, I was considered a dummy.

It was humiliating and devastating and I thought—still think— just so unfair. So what I did, somehow, was to take all that unhappiness with my own experience at school and decide that it wasn’t going to be done to my younger brother and sister. I decided to teach them, they were 2 and 4 years old, to read, and write and do math.

By the time they started school they had in fact been tested geniuses. My sister went on to win many awards and scholarships, and my brother, though he slacked for a while, maybe thinking himself too smart to study, maintained an A average through college.

WM: So you proved your theory, all kids are geniuses?

MaryO: Or maybe life proved it, and keeps proving it. I’ve taught a variety of things over the years, from art to coaching boys’ and girls’ soccer, religion and a whole lot of little things in-between. Too sum up, my passion to teach is probably rooted in the fact that no one had patience with me. I have patience. This void within is satisfied when I’m able to build confidence in a child and see their potential blossom.

Since I learned from a very young age that all things are possible with God, what I write carries, always, this theme of love, unconditional love.



WM: You’re doing a series of stories for young girls, featuring your heroine, Mimi Fufu. Tell us about these books, why you’re writing them, where the stories come from.

MaryO: All the Mimi Fufu stories come from my true life experiences with my daughter, Jamie, whom we nick-named Mimi Fufu. The name Mimi came when her younger brother couldn’t pronounce her name properly, and Fufu was a name added by her father and I because, unlike the tomboy I was when young, our Jamie was a Fufu. She proves this by expressing the height of femininity in all her actions. Though adventurous and always trying new things, she just did everything with her own style and flare.

As a mother it was important for my children to have as much freedom of expression as safety as possible. I wanted their lives to be full of adventure. I have to confess this came back to haunt me a little when Jamie was a teenager and remarked to her Aunt that "Everything in life to my mother has to be an experience."

I write these stories to show a young girl taking an ordinary life and simple surroundings and expressing her desires and passions to the fullest. Anyway, I hope that little girls who read the Mimi Fufu stories will be inspired with their own desires of fun adventure.

WM: The first book, The Twirling Dress is about to be released. Are you working on the other books?

MaryO: Oh, yes. In a way, they’re all done, since the stories are all from real life. I just have to write them down and illustrate them!

I’m almost done with the second book. It’s called, Janet Wannet! Quack! Quack! I’ve written it, and the illustrations are maybe halfway done.

WM: What’s it about?

MaryO: The fun and odd things that happened with my daughter and the little pet duck she had when growing up. How the duck would wrestle, actually, beat up, our black labrador retriever. And how the neighbors would sometimes ask to borrow the duck—

WM: Borrow the duck?

MaryO: That duck ate bugs, and it was voracious! We had neighbors who would borrow the duck, put it in their garden, and the duck would eat all the insects and pests! And fertilize the garden as she worked.

WM: Well, I've always liked ducks. Your children’s books have simple stories, but there seems to be a subtext of fable, or even philosophy, to the stories. Does this come from your experience as a teacher and mentor?

MaryO: The basic philosophy in my stories is just one of Love, and more importantly, love of one’s self, for who we are, each of us. Only then can love be extended, and grow.

I try to show this by placing my main characters, even if they are an inch worm, like in Life’s A Cinch, I try to put them in situations that mirror real life. I want to give kids a clue of how one might handle life’s many challenges in a positive way.

Kids understand the story of a journey with a caterpillar named Inch is about how tackling one’s dreams a little at a time will eventually add up to something. But that you won’t get anywhere if the first step is never taken.

And maybe grownup kids will also understand that it’s a fable about fortitude and love, and that goodness can be found amidst difficulty.

>>Back to top<<

From San Diego Writers Monthly publishes California Writers, California authors, new writers, offering readers info on how to get published, from literary agents, writing coaches, San Diego editors on editing, self-publishing how-to, publishing chap books and short-run books, book doctors, ghost writers, San Diego authors events, interviews of writers, book reviews, free readings, book signings, free stories, online fiction, poetry workshops, free novels, free essays, free ideas, science fiction, humorous stories, rants, funny essays, copywriting, freelancing info, and musings about living on this lonely planet circling a lonely star.