Jennifer McMahon
Jennifer McMahon
Jennifer McMahonis a novelist who formerly resided in Barre, Vermont and now lives in Montpelier, Vermont. She has a civil union with her partner Drea, and one child, daughter Zella. She is a graduate of Goddard College, and studied poetry at Vermont College...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
believe meets mind open stuff
I have a pretty open mind about supernatural stuff - I do believe that there's more to this world than what meets the eye.
above crazy desk favor guide list middle start wake
Do me a favor - right now, today, start a list of all your crazy obsessions, the things that get your heart pumping, that wake you up in the middle of the night. Put it above your desk and use it to guide you, to jumpstart your writing each and every day.
counselor delivery easter farm house illness job kids last mental pizza quit shelter staff work
Over the years, I have been a house painter, farm worker, paste-up artist, Easter Bunny, pizza delivery person, homeless shelter staff member, and counselor for adults and kids with mental illness - I quit my last real job in 2000 to work on writing full-time.
almost although both certainly extremes identify intensity level life longing loss love mother reached scared winter
Although in my life the level of loss has never reached the extremes it does in 'The Winter People,' I certainly can identify with being both a daughter longing for her mother and being a mother who is almost scared by the intensity of her love for her daughter.
help illness life mental mystery rough save struggled work
All my life, I had this idea that if I could unravel the mystery that was my mother, then I could help save her. But it didn't really work. We were close, but she struggled with mental illness and alcoholism, and it was rough at times.
fairy meant secret
Some things, I think, like fairy books and secret doors, are only meant to be found by children.
wrote
I wrote my first short story in third grade.
again characters drawn keeps life shape
I think we all have a kind of dark side, and that's what keeps life - and characters - interesting. That's one of the things that I'm drawn to write about again and again, the secrets we keep and how they shape us.
absolutely bump exercise love perhaps quite scare trying
I absolutely love writing about the things that scare me, the things that keep me up at night. I don't quite know why. Perhaps because so many things do scare me, and this is my subconscious way of trying to exercise some control over things that go bump in the night!
particular people picking
People often ask if my books should be read in any particular order, but they're all standalone novels, so picking up any one of them would be fine.
bring close consequences course logical lose matter might mind truth
If there was a way to bring someone back, would you do it, no matter what the consequences might be? I know that for me, my logical mind says, 'Of course not!' But the truth is, when you lose someone who is so close to you, it's as if they are a part of you; there's always one more thing to say, one more moment you wish you'd had.
best hope love readers
I just try to write the best story I can, a story I would love to read, and hope that readers feel the same.
ate avoiding family feathers lived pretending sticks wild woods
I practically lived in the woods when I was a kid, avoiding grown-ups and my dysfunctional family, pretending I was half-wolf, a feral child who napped in nests made out of ferns, ate wild blueberries, and wove sticks and feathers into her hair.
water snow doe
If snow melts down to water, does it still remember being snow?