The Pandemic Changed It All, Including How I Write Fiction
Mary Alice Monroe
Every book I write is a journey. Yet the writing of T
he Summer of Lost and Found was, like the year 2020 it was written in, an experience like no other.
For the past twenty years I have written books in a process that I had designed to help me create themes I developed from the species or environmental issues I chose as the novels’ backdrop. It started in 2000, when I became a member of the Island Turtle Team in South Carolina. I still am! Working daily with the loggerhead sea turtles and the public on the beaches, I saw clearly that critical issues faced the survival of the turtles that most of the public was not aware of yet. I asked myself, what could I do to help? How could I use my books as a force for good?