Featured Interview With Marcy Pusey
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born at Camp Pendleton Military Base in Oceanside, California. I was raised alongside the sea, which continues to be a place of peace, restoration, and joy for me. I love the sound of the waves, the fresh sea air, and the ocean life the graces land-livers with their water sprays, cute-whiskered faces, or the periodic fins of a pod of dolphins. Ironically enough, I now live in land-locked Germany. However, my home is where three countries meet, Switzerland, France, and Germany, and I’m surrounded by many rivers, waterfalls, and spas. Yes, spas count as a water-filled “happy-place” for me 🙂 Against my will, we have two guinea pigs. We love to dog-sit our favorite dogs and get a pet-fix that way.
My husband was born in Colombia and was raised between there and the U.S. Together, we have four children… all of which were given to us in a year and a half. Figure that one out! Our third-oldest son is our first born. Our oldest son is our second. Our second-oldest daughter is our third. And our fourth daughter is our fourth child. I’d love to see a birth-order book explain that one out! All of that happened in 20 months. We were foster parents who parented multiple children during this time, adopting our oldest two from foster care.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I come from an impoverished family. I attended the Boys and Girls Club every day after school. One day, they hosted a writing contest. We all had an opportunity to write an essay to win tickets to the local circus. My parents, in their whole lives, had never been to a circus. Neither had we, their two daughters. So I wrote my essay… and I won. In that moment, I realized that my writing and been a gift to my whole family. We loved our trip to the Circus… it’s a favorite family moment. And to know that my writing earned that joy for each of us… wow!!! I have been writing ever since and have won a few other contests along the way. Many teachers and classmates affirmed that I was gifted. It still took many years before I took on professional writing, which for me still looks more like a hobby at times, coming after caring for my family and serving my local community as a counselor.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite book as a child was “‘Stand Back’, said the Elephant, ‘I’m Going to Sneeze!'” by Patricia Thomas. And, to be totally honest, some of my favorite books to read now are STILL picture-books (and that is also one genre for which I write). My favorite authors are Mo Willems, Adam Rubin, Jef Czekaj, and anything by my critique partners and dear friends, Dorina Lazo Gilmore, Amy Dixon, and Bethany Telles.
Currently, my favorite books to read are Y.A. (I know!) I LOVE Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) and Divergent (Veronica Roth) is up there too. I also really like The Fault in Our Stars (John Green). When I’m not lost in Y.A. I’m reading books by Shauna Niequist, Lisa-Jo Baker, or Lysa Terkeurst. I also read Biography / Memoir. I just finished Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom.”
I would be remiss to not include some of my favorite illustrators, like Maria Bogade, Daniel Salmieri, Howard McWilliam, Daniel Jennewein, and Kadir Nelson. Of course I could go on.
Some of my greatest writing inspiration comes from Anne Lamott and Laurie Halse Anderson.
And as far as what inspires me to write? Usually some life contemplation or experience. I want my life and stories to be a hope and encouragement to others. I want children and adults to know that they are valuable, that they matter, and that they are not alone.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book, Reclaiming Hope: Overcoming the Challenges of Parenting Foster and Adopted Children” is inspired by over sixteen years of working with families and children, as well as being a foster mother, adoptive mother, bio mother, and counselor. As we struggled through our own journey of fostering and adoption, I realize how MUCH we don’t talk about. How many surprises might have been manageable if others had been talking about them. And perhaps we were somewhat smitten with the nobility of fostering and adopting and I didn’t listen well… either way, here we are and it’s been hard. But it’s also been amazing. I wrote this book to NAME all of the challenges that we don’t talk about… to bravely call out the struggles that many of us face, with the hope that readers will know that they are not alone, that they are not crazy if they struggle, and that there is HOPE in this journey. That our sweat and tears and trauma are not in vain.
Readers have told me that they couldn’t put the book down. They’ve shared how it has inspired them to get help. Or how it has prepared them better to enter adoption or foster care. Or how they wish they’d had this book 20 years ago when they began. A number of readers have shared with me how excited they are to share it with their friends and family. Nearly everyone knows someone who is fostering or has adopted… this book is for all of them.
I wrote this book in four weeks. I know, right? My house was not clean, my family ate a lot of “quick-food” and my husband graciously gave me the space and time to write. The editing gave me some reprieve between drafts. And now, only a week or so in the world, the book is an Amazon Best Seller. And it’s National Adoption Month! I didn’t even plan that.
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