The Earthquake Machine by Mary Pauline Lowry

My first novel, THE GODS OF FIRE, is based on my experiences as a forest firefighter. Was that a natural progression for you? Are you a screenwriter or was this your first full-length screenplay? You adapted your previous novel, The Gods of Fire, into a screenplay. I think it's neat that she and I both have focused our careers on bildungsroman novels - she wrote a dissertation about them and taught them to college students and I write them. We've always been really close, and, growing up, we were both voracious readers. She has a PhD in Literature with a focus on American women's coming-of-age novels. My older sister Margaret is kindly helping me with publicity for the book. Does she work in the writing field as well? Your sister is involved with the book's release, helping with publicity and outreach. It s a magical, fantastical book about a girl who runs away to Mexico and passes as a Mexican boy. If you had to summarize The Earthquake Machine in twenty words or less, what would you say? I am working on a new novel that focuses more on women dealing with domestic abuse. THE EARTHQUAKE MACHINE is more of a fun, adventure book. And their courage and bravery was very inspiring.īut THE EARTHQUAKE MACHINE isn't about these women and children, who I think of as the forgotten ones. Being around women and children struggling to stay safe and find work and a place to live made me realize what a privilege it is to have energy and time to focus on creative work. Working at the domestic violence shelter definitely motivated me to write. Did the real stories inspire your fiction, or motivate you to write? While writing this novel, you worked at a domestic abuse shelter. To learn more about Mary's life of writing, firefighting, and traveling, keep reading! Mary's newest book, The Earthquake Machine, comes out today. I thanked her, and she continued: 'I first learned the term bildungsroman when my big sis Margaret was getting her PhD in women's coming-of-age novels. 'Your blog has the raddest title on Earth,' she said.

When author Mary Lowry and I first crossed paths, she immediately commented on the title of my blog.

The Earthquake Machine by Mary Pauline Lowry