Prepare to be captivated by the bittersweet brilliance of THE GOODBYE PROCESS in this week's Jen's Jewels author interview! Ever wondered what happens when a luxury realtor falls for someone helping him detach from years of plastic surgery? Or how about a professional mourner spicing up a funeral? Mary Jones's debut short story collection is a delightful rollercoaster of emotions, blending tender moments with dark humor in the most unexpected ways. Join us as we chat with the author about her quirky characters, surreal situations, and the art of finding laughter in the face of loss. Trust me, you won't want to say goodbye to this interview!
Jennifer Vido: In THE GOODBYE PROCESS, you explore a range of emotional landscapes, from tender to darkly funny. What drew you to these particular tones, and how do they interact within the collection as a whole?
Mary Jones: Tenderness is what you would expect to find in a collection about loss, and my characters do experience these emotions: sadness, longing, anxiety, desperation. I also use humor to cope in my real life, and that comes through in these stories, too, I think. Sometimes when something bad happens, right there next to it—if you are open to seeing it—is a funny way to look at it. This sort of humor is a dark humor, yes. But I think if you are able to go there, it can be a momentary relief and even a comfort. I think I go there in moments in these stories, and, in a way, I think this relieves the tension for the reader when dealing with serious subject matter.
Jen: Many of your stories feature characters at the end of something significant, whether it’s a relationship, health, or innocence. What do you find most compelling about exploring the theme of endings?
Mary: I’m interested in exploring the moments in life where everything changes. I’ve learned to follow my writerly obsessions. People coming to the ends of things is subject matter that I always find myself returning to. I’m endlessly fascinated with the intricacies of very close relationships (husbands and wives, parents and children, siblings), and how people fail each other and come through for each other.
When people think about loss, I think what usually comes to mind is the death of a loved one, but there are so many other things we have to let go of, and say goodbye to, along the way—relationships, youth, health, homes, innocence, life as we know it. I think we experience grief through all these different types of loss, whenever we lose something that is significant to us. This book explores all the different types of loss we face and how we survive it.
Jen: One of your stories involves a man hiring a professional mourner to ensure his wife’s funeral is a success. How did you come up with this concept, and what does it say about our relationship with grief and performance?
Mary: There are three stories in the collection that share the same recurring characters. This story, the title story of the book, “The Goodbye Process,” is the third and final story in that set. I always knew it would take place at a funeral. Having a professional mourner at the funeral felt a bit surreal to me and I liked that... While the professional mourner character is a sort of actress, the pain she shows in the story is authentic. It is not a performance. What this says about grief, I think, is that it’s real, and maybe more people are experiencing it (and more deeply) then we realize.
Jen: Your stories often push readers out of their comfort zones. Was this an intentional choice in your writing, and what do you hope readers will experience when confronted with these challenging emotions?
Mary: I don’t set out to write stories that will push readers out of their comfort zones. Rather, I set out to tell honest stories about life as I understand it, and what it means to be living. Life sometimes pushes us out of our comfort zones, I think, and some of these stories reflect those moments. I think the most compelling stories are the stories where there is a lot at stake: someone stands to lose something that matters a lot to them. This type of situation can produce intense emotions in characters, and in readers. My hope is that in glimpsing key moments from these characters lives, readers will come away with a better understanding of how we all survive loss, and what it means to be human.
Jen: The characters in THE GOODBYE PROCESS face surreal situations, such as a woman camping out on the porch of an ex-lover who has barricaded himself inside. How do you use surrealism to enhance the emotional depth of your stories?
Mary: I think confronting a significant loss often feels surreal. In my own life, when I have been faced with a loss it’s often very hard for me to believe—sometimes for a very long time. I think it takes a while to say, ok that happened, and truly integrate the experience. Until that happens, I think there is a sort of surreal buzz, a slightly skewed feeling in the air. I like to try to capture that feeling in my stories. I feel it mirrors the state we find ourselves in when we go through something like this, and in doing, helps the reader connect with the story on a deeper level.
Jen: You write about a preteen girl caught shoplifting who finds herself in grave danger. What inspired this story, and how does it explore the loss of innocence?
Mary: My stories often start with some image or moment that stays with me... It could be something I personally experienced, or saw, or something I heard about, or simply imagined. I will usually just start writing toward that image or moment. This story was inspired by a personal experience I had when I was very young. A man who was a complete stranger to me ordered me to do something while I was at a store... It was a benign thing; I was not in danger. But it stayed with me, that moment. I’m interested in the idea of compliance, of how far someone will go along with something. I think the narrator in this story goes pretty far, and her view of the world, and especially of her father, is forever changed by what happens. In a sense, she loses her innocence.
Jen: In the story about a Los Angeles real estate agent who falls for a woman helping him detach from years of plastic surgery, you touch on themes of identity and transformation. How did this story come about, and what message were you hoping to convey?
Mary: “Realtor” is a dark love story about a luxury Los Angeles real estate agent who is obsessed with his own beauty. He embarks on a relationship that frees him from that obsession, to disastrous consequences. When I started writing it, I didn’t have any idea what it was going to be or where it was going. I just had this idea in my mind of a very polished luxury Los Angeles realtor. The story kept moving in unexpected ways and surprising me. Eventually I realized that in order to tell the story that I wanted to tell, I needed multiple POV characters. This was a risk for me, but I’m proud of how it turned out.
I like to let the readers decide what they take away from my work and I’m always (happily) surprised by the different ideas they come away with.
Jen: Your stories are described as both original and beautifully rendered. Can you talk about your writing process and how you approach crafting such vivid and emotionally resonant narratives?
Mary: When I’m writing, I try to write every day, usually (ideally) in the early hours of morning when I’m still in a bit of a dream state. I usually write for about three hours or so on average. I don’t outline or plan the story in advance. I usually have some moment in my mind, and I’m writing around that moment. When the story takes off and goes in some unexpected direction, I like that. I believe in the saying “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.”
The stories in this collection were written over a long period of time, about thirteen years or so, and as a result I think they contain all the material of a lived life. This is not to say that they are autobiographical, rather, over the course of writing these stories I lost people that I loved deeply (through death and otherwise), (at times) lost my own health, and experienced a myriad of other small and big losses—like everyone does over time. Though I didn’t experience the same losses as the characters in this collection, in every case, I understand where they’re coming from. I think this gives the stories an emotional resonance that might otherwise not be possible.
Jen: As a debut author, what has been the most surprising or rewarding aspect of sharing THE GOODBYE PROCESS with readers? How has the response to your work influenced your perspective on writing?
Mary: After working on this collection for such a long time, it has been very exciting (and a total joy!) to bring it into the world and see readers connect with it, and respond to it, in all the ways that they have. I’m tremendously grateful to everyone who has read it. There’s a quote by Jamie Anderson that I love, “Grief is just love with no place to go.” I hope this collection will give readers a place to go; that it will open up a space for them to think about, and maybe talk about, the different kinds of loss they’ve endured and how they survived it. I also hope it will bring readers hope that there’s another side to grief, and comfort in knowing they are not alone.
Jen: It has been an absolute pleasure chatting with you! Best of luck with your brilliant book of unforgettable stories.
Mary: Thank you so much for all these thoughtful questions!
What happens when you are forced to let go of the things you love the most? What are you left with?
In her stunning debut short story collection, The Goodbye Process, Mary Jones uses her distinctive voice to examine the painful and sometimes surreal ways we say goodbye.
The stories—which range from tender and heartbreaking to unsettling and darkly funny—will push you out of your comfort zone and ignite intense emotions surrounding love and loss. A woman camps out on the porch of an ex-lover who has barricaded himself inside the house; a preteen girl caught shoplifting finds herself in grave danger; a Los Angeles real estate agent falls for a woman who helps him detach from years of dramatic plastic surgery; a man hires a professional mourner to ensure his wife’s funeral is a success. Again and again, Jones’s characters find themselves facing the ends of things: relationships, health, and innocence.
Arresting, original, and beautifully rendered, this story collection packs a punch, just the way grief does—knocking us off our feet.
Mary Jones is the author of the national bestselling short story collection THE GOODBYE PROCESS (Zibby Books 2024). Her writing has appeared in many journals including Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, Subtropics, Epoch, Alaska Quarterly Review, Gay Mag, Epiphany, Santa Monica Review, Brevity and elsewhere. The recipient of a summer prose fellowship from The University of Arizona Poetry Center, her work has been cited as notable in The Best American Essays and appeared in The Best Microfiction 2022. Originally from Upstate New York, she lives in Los Angeles.
Anthology [Zibby Books, On Sale: July 30, 2024, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781958506622 / ]
Jennifer Vido writes sweet romances set in the Lowcountry, earning acclaim as the award-winning author of the Gull Island series. Her debut novel, "Serendipity by the Sea," secured the prestigious Best First Book award from the New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf Contest. In 2024, Vido's talent garnered further accolades, with Baltimore Magazine readers naming her Best Local Author in their annual Best of Baltimore poll, while the Baltimore Sun acknowledged her with an Honorable Mention in their Best of 2024 Author category. When not writing fiction, she interviews authors for her weekly Jen’s Jewels column, leads water exercise classes, and directs a legal nonprofit. Currently residing in Maryland, she and her husband are proud parents to two grown sons and a rescue dog named Fripp.
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