Marsh Rose Interview Published on: 07, May 2026

I’m glad you asked. It’s my soapbox. I know there are psychotherapists out there who casually apply their professional skills outside of a clinical setting, and I carefully guard against doing that. But the practice of psychotherapy rests on a solid understanding of human nature. To the best I can, with writing, I rely on what I’ve learned beginning in college and up to the present day. So, using basic understanding of psychology when writing, yes. Using practice of psychotherapy outside of a professional setting, no, not with my characters.

What I learned about indie publishing is that it’s not for me. Some indie writers are great at dealing with the demands. I’m not. After the indie, I was feeling defeated by the constant message that it’s impossible to find a publisher and I was destined for indies forever. I got over the hump when my mentor, Marion Roach Smith (The Memoir Project) directed me to Jane Friedman, a publishing expert, who in turn advised me to approach small publishing houses and university presses. (Her direct quote: “It doesn’t matter how well you write, you didn’t land an airplane on the Hudson.” In other words, my books aren’t going to make money for a Big Five publisher, so don’t look to them. I did as she said, and that’s where I got lucky.)

Basically, it gave me time to write. Otherwise, I would have been out there again trying to find an editor, a book cover artist, someone to format all those pages and, the worst thing about indie publishing when I did it, having to do math. I mean, figure out the spine width of a book based on the weight of the paper? I nearly get a nosebleed just thinking about it. Granted, I published my indie book in 2013 and I know it’s become much easier now, but I didn’t want to face it again if there was any alternative. As far as audience reach… I guess, this time the difference was, I reached. With my indie book I was afflicted with chronic shyness and avoidance of social media. I did nothing to promote it. By the time Escape Routes was ready, I knew I needed author presence on Facebook, Goodreads, BookBub, and of course, you.

I began keeping a journal when I was 13 and that voice comes through even when I write fiction. Except for one scene, Lies And Love In Alaska is not my story, but it’s a true story anyway. It comes from dozens of women, and some men, I interviewed in the 1990s during a curious time in the realm of personal ads, before online dating became a Thing. When I read it now, I recognize my journal voice.

Well, my clinical specialty is PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, and the “disorder” applies mostly to the way memory is skewed by the biological impact of trauma. I started right after the war in Viet Nam when the understanding of traumatic memory was new. (Just the understanding was new. The symptoms have been described as far back as Plato.) So I’ve always been intrigued by the impact of emotional experience on memory, how it differs from everyday memory like how to tie our shoes, how traumatic memory differs from other forms of memory. They’re all valid and worthy forms of memory to write about, just different from one another.

I try to keep clinical insight separate from writing. I wouldn’t be able to apply psychotherapy to a character in my writing. Not to say others can’t or shouldn’t. It’s just me. There again, it’s the understanding of human nature versus clinical practice that enters the picture. In fact, I slip the notion into the memoir with the hint that many people can feel suspicious when they find out someone is a psychotherapist. They think we’re reading their minds or analyzing them. Clinical insight is, basically, a work-related tool. Nobody wants to work if they don’t have to.

I was ferociously determined to keep everyone’s identity private, and yet the story takes place in a relatively small, rural community. I needed to carefully craft each scene so that it remained true to real life while continually ensuring that I wasn’t revealing too much. It was a time when simply writing a disclaimer at the start of the book wouldn’t have been enough. It meant leaving out some material I wanted to include.

Homework! Each publication looks for a particular voice. I familiarize myself by reading the work of the writers they publish. It often means rewriting with a different style or point of view but that’s part of the job.

The way we craft meaning from life experience. All experiences count, no matter how insignificant they might seem in the moment.

Hah! Ever? My characters always surprise me. I don’t believe any work “writes itself” but in my experience whether it’s fiction or creative nonfiction, characters constantly creep up on me…in a good way. When they don’t, I wonder if I’m missing something.

Escape Routes is fiction, but I did work in a jail and each character in my book is a fictitious amalgam of many inmates I met over 15 years. Each had their own ideas of escape from their current situation, and the protagonist in the book was also invested in escaping, emotionally as well as physically, from a difficult life. Each identity had its own version of escape, and the routes to get there.

Bottom line, I’m no big deal. If I’ve overshared or revealed something sensitive, my presence in the situation will fade from the reader’s mind but there may be a nugget of truth they might find for themselves. To badly paraphrase Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca,” maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but [maybe some day] for the rest of their lives. And if not, I’m still no big deal.

There are times when humor can be a balm in psychotherapy and in life. I try to apply it where it’s appropriate. and not apply it when it’s not -- even though I might be tempted. The blog, “Landlady Letters,” is the outgrowth of a temper tantrum I threw when I was told I needed to write a blog. Waah, I don’t wanna write a blog! I felt I had nothing of value to offer, there were too many blogs out there and, it seemed, too few people reading them. Pretending my dog writes it is an effort to present something fresh. I was surprised by my own reaction when Holly, my first dog, passed away and I needed to write about her death and introduce a new dog in the blog.

Start keeping a journal for a week. Write everything. Then put it away and don’t touch it for another week. Then read it. I guarantee, you’ll find creative nonfiction in there. That could be your springboard into a world of memoir. Don’t be surprised if you’re startled by some of your insights and comments. If you already keep a journal… for me, the trick is, put it “on ice” from time to time so that the material seems new.

I always recommend AllAuthor, to fellow authors and readers. It connects me to other authors, I can see what others are writing, I get my work out there in a way that’s welcoming and easy. For someone like me who needs lots of encouragement to promote her work and finds most forms of promotion a chaotic circus, you’re a quiet respite. (Oh, and that list of tweets you sent me on January 9 is awesome!)