Sisters in Crime



Mary O'Gara,
     Former Steering Committee Member

Please welcome Mary O'Gara as the February guest of honor. Mary is a longtime member of the online chapter of Sisters in Crime. She has a diverse background, including that of journalist, real-estate agent, and other sales and marketing related endeavors. Through much of that time one thing remained constant: her interest and experience in the psychic realm. Currently Mary teaches and writes. She is a Reiki Master (read on to find out what that is!) and continues to learn and grow.

Along with mystery fiction, Mary also writes poetry, a sample of which appears below. A humdinger of a short story, Grave Note, appeared in Verse Onto Us, February 1997. See for yourself how talented and interesting our member Mary is. The interview was conducted January 5, 1998 by Louise Guardino for the Internet Chapter (IC). 

MEMORIES OF A BURNING
    By Mary O'Gara


She beckons
Eyes flashing   hand pointing
The way   the path
Through mist like smoky veils

Faces   hands   nameless hands
Lift fire to the wood at my feet
Dry wood   flames lick
Catch at wool underskirts
Wet from a winter in witch cells

My feet    warm again
As close to their heaven as
I am like to get
And it wasn't the fire killed me
That time
Just the smoke.


       Fire and Ashes Chapbook, Copyright © 1996, Mary O'Gara
IC
The poem: wow!
Mary O'Gara
Thank you! "Memories of a Burning" is one of my favorite works.

"Memories of a Burning" is from a fragment of a past life memory of mine...matched with the little I know about an ancestress who was sentenced to be burned as a witch.

IC
"Memories of a Burning" is haunting. Vivid imagery and sort of after-the-fact smacks you in the face. What inspired it? Oops, you just answered. True to form! You anticipated the question. And speaking of that: you are a professional psychic, are you not?
Mary O'Gara
Yes, I've been a professional reader since 1976, when I started my apprenticeship in astrology in Santa Fe, NM.

The tarot cards spoke to me as soon as I got my hands on them. But I was totally unwilling to deal with health questions. My mentor led me back to a lifetime when I was burned at the stake for working as a healer.

IC
Professional reader? Did you gravitate from astrology to being a psychic or did the psychic ability precede your interest in astrology?
Mary O'Gara
Psychic ability has been there as long as I remember. My father was a small town lawyer who used his own psychic abilities and taught me to use mine.

I learned about the languages of tarot and astrology in the early 1970s, but didn't actually hold cards or see a "real" astrology chart until 1976. Then I immersed myself, studied everything I could get my hands on, applied everything I learned to get as much experience as possible.

IC
Most unusual. And fascinating. The knowledge you have of the ancestress who was burned at the stake: did this come from your family telling you or from being led back in lives by your mentor?
Mary O'Gara
That scene came from past life recall. My mentor led me back originally. Later, I went back with a doctor (M.D.) experienced in hypnosis; the idea that the witch died of smoke inhalation was her question--related to my asthma in this lifetime.

Mother knew about our three witches all along...but it wasn't something she wanted to discuss. She only shared it with me after the past life work.

IC
Three witches in your past. Dare I ask if your Mom along with your Dad had special abilities?
Mary O'Gara
Actually, she shared two of them with me. The Carringtons, ordered executed at New Wethersfield, CT. A couple of years ago, I learned that my father's ancestress, Mary Botsford, was also sentenced for witchcraft. But then, they almost got Priscilla and John Alden's son for witchcraft, too, and where would we be without the Alden legends?

Mother's astrology chart shows she's the most strongly gifted of the three of us, but she's totally disinterested.

After her heart attack a couple of years ago, Mother got interested in my healing work and actually sent a friend to me for healing a couple of years ago. Just this month, she admitted she finds my ability to forecast driving weather interesting :)

IC
Botsford sounds familiar. It was a bad time for many in certain areas of the country (like Salem, MA, for one.) Survival was out, once accused.
Mary O'Gara
John Alden's son was warned and fled their colony and stayed in another colony until it blew over, politics died down and the accusations were withdrawn. Women found that harder to do :(
IC
With your poetic streak and interest in the mystic how did you gravitate to mystery/crime?
Mary O'Gara
My parents were both voracious readers...I can't remember not reading mystery/suspense. And I gravitate to anything that shows people stretching to be and do more than they knew they could.
IC
Are you, too, a voracious reader? What do you read and what do you tend to read the most?
Mary O'Gara
Absolutely voracious. Addicted! Esoteric Christian and Kabbalah head my metaphysical list these days. Mystery/suspense and romantic suspense for relaxation. Poetry. Anything about writing. In a pinch, I suspect I'd read cereal box labels...but I've got huge TBR piles, thank goodness!
IC
And you still manage to fit some writing in! Is your mystery writing soft, hard, or not so restricted in classification?
Mary O'Gara
I'm still finding my way as a mystery writer. I want the focus to be on the person stretching, having to face their own fears and grow, so not pure hard-boiled action. I'd love to use a psychic heroine, and I'm working on that now.

I'm not published in mystery-suspense. But I am published in short fiction, nonfiction, essays/columns and poetry.

IC
You've written some short stories, have you also written longer works?
Mary O'Gara
I did a book-length work-for-hire on astrology. And I hope my Ph.D. project on the four elements will be used both as a correspondence course and as a book. Otherwise, shorter works.
IC
Four elements: fire, water, ...?
Mary O'Gara
Four elements...fire, water, air and earth.
IC
You feel, then, that the mystery/suspense genre is best suited to your desire to show a character facing his fears and stretching to conquer and go beyond them?
Mary O'Gara
Oh, yes, mystery/suspense is a large part of what's left of the mythical frontier. The frontier let anyone venture forth and become greater. Suspense is the genre that let's any hero or heroine become greater than any of us really wants to have to become :::laugh:::

Psychic work is about frontiers, too, of course...vision quests are frontier work. But in fiction, suspense is it...along with sci-fi, fantasy suspense, and horror, of course.

Pioneers (and psychics) venture out to the frontier. So do P.I.s. Other fiction heroes experience the frontier right in the midst of their daily lives. And that excites me.

Good question, Louise. I didn't know it was the frontier that drew me to either of them. Thank you!

IC
Is your current work then a blending of suspense and mythic with a dash of psychic?
Mary O'Gara
I hope so. People have so many illusions about psychics...that we read minds, know everything about something, or that we're weird and know nothing. I'm spending a lot of time building a heroine I hope will be realistic but still interesting.
IC
Ay, and that's the secret: making the heroine seem like most every woman (or man) but for an extra gift.

Was it your venture into the mystery/suspense area that drew you towards Sisters in Crime or vice versa?

Mary O'Gara
And of course we all do have psychic gifts. Look how mothers know when their children are at risk. Or lovers know when the phone is for them :) So it's both common and intriguing. I hope intriguing.

Mystery/suspense writing was what I wanted to do even before my astrology apprenticeship. I'm a former police reporter, for one thing. I just didn't know enough about putting it together in book form. As the desire to write suspense fiction was emerging again, I found SinC on Genie.

SinC is a wonderful opportunity for readers and those of us who are unpublished in mystery to swim around with experienced writers and make a contribution back to them by supporting them in the marketplace. We don't just come begging :)

Because of SinC, I've gone out in stormy weather to a Martha Grimes book signing and to Sara Paretsky's reading and signing. By supporting them, I got to watch two masters do totally different public presentations in the same bookstore. Good training. Keeping us all in one pool encourages service along with learning, I think.

When I served on a federal jury, no lawyer questioned my being a psychic. But one did want to know what Sisters in Crime was and what kinds of crime we, uh, supported :)

IC
(heh! You answered another Q before I asked.)

Did you get excused from that jury where your SinC association was surfaced?

Mary O'Gara
No. I served on that jury...learned how to hide drugs in a load of tires to fool the dogs :)

Just write in questions as needed...psychics do that kind of stuff and don't mean to be rude when we do it.

IC
Not rude at all.

If they were on trial, did they really fool the dogs? (I've heard the dogs are trained to catch the scent regardless of what malodorous stuff surrounds.)

Mary O'Gara
In this case, they were caught at a weigh station with faked numbers on the truck. But the scrap rubber was intended to mask the odor, I think.

Understand, drug transporters are not the IQ geniuses of the nation or they wouldn't be doing the high-risk, low-pay part of the business.

IC
You've mentioned absorbing the lessons of how to do book signings (presentation) as a result of your SinC membership, how about the Internet Chapter: what have you gained from that?
Mary O'Gara
The Internet Chapter is my only connection with SinC. So even though I went to local signings, it was "representing" the Internet Chapter. I'm the only SinC member in Albuquerque, NM, or I was then.

The SinC chapter has given me friendship. During the years of intense concern for my MIL's health and care, it sustained me as part of the writing community.

Marie and my DH and I had a great lunch at Jerusalem's Cafe in Kansas City last year...she's a SinC friend.

SinC has also led me to writers I love and didn't know about...Barbara Paul, for one.

I can't stress enough, though, the importance of being able to serve as a peer. SinC lets you breathe in the suspense writer's life through your pores and absorb what you need for yourself.

The Internet chapter levels the playing field. You don't need a baby sitter, or an overnight trip to a meeting, or anything but a modem and a little time and interest. No politics...everyone's welcome. And there are so few professional groups like that.

IC
(DH? dear husband?) SinC: that that binds. So, it seems as if it has led you to friendships as well as being educational.
Mary O'Gara
DH, dear husband. Yes. Friendship...and probably to sanity during those three years Mom was so sick and so constantly demanding and I was the only adult in the family who was self-employed and could flex.
IC
You've been a police reporter, and have had various professions. Have you decided what you want to be in the future (post Ph.D.) or will the search be lifelong?
Mary O'Gara
I hope it's a lifelong quest, Louise. I'm a Reiki Master and hope to teach Reiki as long as I live. Otherwise, I'm deliberately shifting to more writing and teaching. The great adventure of learning how to do these inner processes is more and more behind me, and the real adventure now is making the quest real to and for readers :)

No two heroes take the same journey...or it wouldn't be a hero's journey. But every fictional hero or heroine can take a journey...and I hope my heroines will inspire other women to make their own quests, to be more creative and courageous in their own lives.

Or at least to know they can if they must.

IC
"No two heroes take the same journey...or it wouldn't be a hero's journey." Well put!

What is Reiki? (and does it come with belt colors (smile)?)

Mary O'Gara
Reiki is a Japanese name that translates roughly as universal radiating energy. Many of us believe it is a rediscovery of the kind of hands-on healing Jesus did; others see it as Buddhist. In any event, it is hands-on natural/spiritual healing. First Degree is basically for personal use. Second is the practitioner. And Master is the teacher. No belts, just hands :)
IC
You've a full plate, then! And an unusual skill to be nurtured.

Tell me you anticipated this one! Given: an iguana, a ferret, and a white rat; which would you select as a pet if you had to? And why?

Mary O'Gara
Have to be an iguana. And no, not for anything did I anticipate that one! I've heard iguanas are as intriguing as they look and very intelligent. My business partner's son had ferrets, and the odor is as memorable as their antics. My neighbor had white mice, and I've been foster mother to a full range of gerbils and hamsters from my first husband's classrooms. So an iguana would be new and interesting
IC
Let's try one more oddball:

If you could come back to earth as anything other than as a human, what or how would you choose to come back? Or would you not come back?

Mary O'Gara
Maybe a black panther. All that strength and stealth and grace and beauty...what more could a writer want?

And of course I'd come back. This is where the adventure takes place...the earth element, the experience!

IC
We've come to the point where it is your chance to present to those who visit the SinC Internet Chapter's public homepage. Keep the iguana warm and go to it!
Mary O'Gara
I'm suddenly speechless. We've covered so much of what I believe about SinC and writing...and the need for a community of writers.

My most thrilling new work is teaching a short story writer's workshop every Thursday night at Painted Rock. Talk about a stretch! And in 1998, I'm hoping to be teaching a workshop on psychics for writers at another writers' spot on the web.

The four elements, the subject of my doctoral paper, are fire, air, water and earth. Fire, air and water are the trinity, internal and external. Earth, though, only appears in external experience. If you blend the traditional red of fire, the yellow of air and the blue of water, you get the brown of earth.

Creativity only comes into life with action! Every creative act adds to our experience and enriches and extends our capacity, our humanity.

Readers participate by creating our scenes in their minds. Writers by putting the scenes on paper. One process, two parts. And SinC honors both :)

IC
Well put.

That's it. Thanks again.

Mary O'Gara
Thank you!

To see previous Spotlight Profiles, click here.

Mary O'Gara Louise Guardino

Questions about the chapter? Write to Prez@sinc-ic.org .
Questions about the web site? Write to WebSister@sinc-ic.org .

Unless otherwise specified, all content is copyright © 2002 Sisters in Crime, Internet Chapter.