Featured Interview With Mary Ogle
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
After attending the Rhode Island School of Design and Art Center College of Design, Mary Ogle emerged with a solid grounding in the traditional techniques of oil painting. Not satisfied with the inherent limitations of brush and canvas, she stumbled upon the fascinating world of computer graphics. Working as a professional artist in the digital medium, Mary’s commissions have included everything from fine art to fan art, book layout and cover design, event posters and magazine illustration. Mary’s love for writing is more recent but no less heart-felt. She is the author of “Orangeroof Zoo” a story based in fantasy / magical realism combined with intricately drawn coloring book pages. Her tv show reviews and articles on geek culture can be found at esopodcast.com and whataculture.com. Mary currently finds inspiration in the Ojai Valley, residing in a snug little cottage with a recalcitrant cat.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I can’t remember a time that books weren’t a huge part of my life. My parents and grandparents were all avid readers and our houses were filled with books, magazines and newspapers of all kinds. Both my sister and I were reading well before we went to school. I had vision problems and my parents made sure I had large print books.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Octavia Butler and Alice Walker are two of my heroines. I know that my love of complicated characters comes from the many hours I spent mesmerized by their novels. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five introduced me to non-linear story telling. Lewis Carroll gave me my love for the absurd. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale showed me how important world building is. I adore science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction. Anything that makes me think is good.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Orangeroof Zoo is a hybrid fantasy. That’s my made-up term for an adult coloring book that is also a fantasy story. I was looking for information about self publishing and read an article about how popular adult coloring books were. Which surprised me but when I thought about it for a while it made sense. Coloring is the best part of making art at least for me. It’s soothing and liberating and puts you into a whole other headspace. I liked the collaborative aspect of other people taking my drawings and creating something else from them. I did the illustrations first but the story was born as I worked on the pictures. These two characters came to life and started talking to each other. So I wrote down what they said.
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