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Oprah Winfrey (0:00)

This episode of the Oprah Podcast is presented by our partner AT&T. My 126th pick in the 30 years, it's called Solace in Winter. It's inspiring for anybody who's thinking about their second act or third act in life. So you just started out with a man and his dog.

Mary Lawson (0:18)

I took this old man for a walk and he found a dog, and then a little later, he found a boy and the whole story unrolled from that.

Oprah Winfrey (0:27)

Well, I think the book boils down to one of the greatest lessons that I learned from The Oprah Show, and that was the human need to matter to somebody. Sometimes a person doing the rescuing is also the person who is being rescued as you will find in this story.

Hi there and welcome to The Oprah Podcast. We are celebrating the 30th anniversary of my book club this year. Thanks to all of you, marvellous, fantastic readers. And I'm excited to share number 126 with you, my 126th pick in the 30 years. It's called Solace in Winter. Don't you love the title? Such an appropriate time to be talking about Solace in Winter. By New York Times bestselling author, Mary Lawson. I love a beautiful title. And I was so taken by the title because we could all use a little Solace right now.

And this is the perfect book to, I have to tell you, cozy up with this season. You want to be, you know, snowed in with the story and these characters, hopefully, by a fire. But I know if you live in an apartment, you can't. But so turn up the heat and get under a blanket. It is just my delight and pleasure to welcome to my tea house the writer of this exquisite novel, Mary Lawson. Hello.

Mary Lawson (1:52)

Hello, Oprah. It is such a thrill to be here. I'm just delighted. Thank you for the invitation.

Oprah Winfrey (1:57)

I love learning about writers. And I have to say, I found it so fascinating that you did not publish your first novel until you were 55 years old. And I think people find some solace in that. It's inspiring for anybody who's thinking about their second act or third act in life. How did that happen?

Mary Lawson (2:17)

Well, it's not quite as inspiring as you might think, because it isn't as if I started when I was 54 and got published when I was 55

Oprah Winfrey (2:25)

Yeah, you'd been working.

Mary Lawson (2:26)

I had been trying to write anything at all, far less a novel, since my kids started school. So I would have been in my mid-30s. I didn't have a clue how to go about it. So I thought, well, short stories are at least short. So start with those and then you won't have wasted years.

And I managed to get a few short stories published, quite a few actually, but that was for women's magazines. And their brief is quite restricted. It's Boy Meets Girl and Set in the Present Time.

Oprah Winfrey (3:02)

Yes, all the things.

Mary Lawson (3:03)

All of those things.

Oprah Winfrey (3:04)

Magazine writers, readers want to accomplish while they're sitting under the dryer back in the day.

Mary Lawson (3:09)

Exactly. It really wasn't what I was interested in writing about. And also I realized that the short form didn't allow you to develop relationships and personalities over time.

Oprah Winfrey (3:23)

That's why I am not a fan. Listen, I'm just not a fan. So don't go judging me because of it. I'm not a fan of short stories because I always want more.

And I want more, and I mean I really want more. I'm not satisfied with not having the more.

Mary Lawson (3:40)

Yeah. You want to get into it and you want to be with them while they develop and see what happens next.

Oprah Winfrey (3:45)

I don't want to be left wondering what just happened. Anyway, without giving too much away, how do you set up the story of Solace in Winter?

Mary Lawson (3:54)

For me, it's never what is the book about. It's who is the book about.

So I start off looking for a character. And after writing A Town Called Solace, which is the previous one to this, it was a whole year before I had any ideas in my head at all. And I have-

Oprah Winfrey (4:13)

Wasn't it your sister?

Mary Lawson (4:14)

It was my sister and my husband.

We get together and talk about books. They have been, we've been doing this for 25 years since I started writing with Crowleg. And we knock about ideas. And my sister said, I see an old man and a dog walking along a snowy road. And I thought, okay, I can, I can see an old man and it's snowing. And I'm seeing him from behind. Actually, the dog isn't with him. I think he comes across the dog. It's been hit by a car and it's by the side of the road.