CT: Harley and Me was such an inspiring book, especially considering your past and the challenging obstacles you’ve gone through. Can you tell me about your first encounter with a motorcycle?

BM: At first, I thought it would be interesting to do it for a weekend, but I had no desire to learn. I initially signed up to take the class as research for Harley and Me, and just thought that it would be - kind of - cool if I wrote about this from my character’s point of view.

It wasn’t until I started riding, that I realized the admiration of something that could give me so much joy at my age. If a motorcycle could bring about that awareness, at 48 years old, how many other things - activities, people, or experiences - might also have an amazing impact?

CT: And you did meet amazing people on your journey

BM: I did, absolutely, and I wouldn’t have met them otherwise. As we age, we start to think we know who we are, we know what we like, and in result we stick with the boundaries of what we think we like. I find, now, I like more stuff I didn’t realize I would like. If I’m willing to try and wrestle with the fear a little, to find the other side of it is something I really enjoy, then might be even more I haven’t found yet, that I’m going to be really excited about.

CT: Is it difficult to stay motivated as you get older?

BM: It’s a fallacy in our society to think that, at a certain age, we know ourselves so well that we can be quick to dismiss everything - It gets easier and easier to make your world smaller. I am a homebody – sometimes, if it were up to me, I would not go out at all. Then I think of all the life experiences happening out there, and if I don’t go out there and participate in it, I may miss out on important things. It’s not ok to let my life get smaller, and smaller. I have to join in the human condition because I only get one shot at this. At a certain point, you realize that there might not be a later. You might surprise yourself, like me, and adore something you would otherwise not be interested in.

CT: Did this motivation spark when you started feeling unhappy in your marriage?

BM: I think my unhappiness pushed me into trying new things - like backpacking and marathon running- to feel satisfied in other parts of my life because I was so dissatisfied at home. I needed to find parts of my life to make me happy, so I started doing things I hadn’t thought to do before, and that opened the flood gates. I’m still fighting the battle of trying to let loose and lose control, and I’m getting much better, but I’m still working on that one.

CT: Which was your favorite cross-country ride?

BM: Since I wrote Harley and Me, I rode from Los Angeles to Mount Adams in Washington State, and back with my same friend in the book (her real name is Emily). We rode up to Reno, Nevada, then to Oregon, Washington, and came back down along the coast. The coast in Oregon, and the coast in California were just unbelievably gorgeous. I’ve never seen anything so stunning in all my life.

CT: Do you have another trip planned?

BM: I was supposed to go backpacking in 2 weeks, but I have a foot injury that’s preventing me from going at this time. I don’t have any long-distance motorcycle trips planned, but they come together quickly. Emily will call me up and say “ Hey! Want to do this?” and I’ll immediately say “ Yeah! Let’s go.”

CT: How did you injure your foot?

BM: It’s an overuse injury from running. I’m someone who doesn’t know the concept of moderation.

CT: Are you still dating “E”?

BM: Yeah! I am. He’s a similar adventurer… just got back from climbing Mount Everest

CT: You grew up Catholic. Did your past shake up your beliefs at any point?

BM: I think it clarified my beliefs, but I wouldn’t say it shook my beliefs. My understanding of faith, and God, is bigger now than it was before. I feel my spiritual concepts have me harnessed in a way - that holds me relatively safe all the time. Actually, it made my understanding of spiritual concepts bigger and less confined by any one religion. There’s a great quote by a man who was a comparative religion scholar at Harvard, Huston Smith, and he said, “if you dig deep into any one faith/tradition, that you’ll hit the water table of humanity that connects them all.” I feel like I’m clear now to that water table of humanity where all different faiths come together in my approach to religion and spirituality.

CT; How do you think you’ve evolved, creatively?

BM: I think I’m a little more of a risk-taker. I think I was a very good technical writer all along - I knew how to use punctuation, I knew how to construct a sentence - but they didn’t reveal as much. I’ve been more willing to let my flaws show, and the messiness of my life show in my writing, than I would have been when I was a younger writer, and I hope I’m still growing in that direction.

I wrote in the book about Rapp. She’s a wonderful writer, and a friend of mine, and she wrote a book called The Still Point of the Turning World – about her son who had Tay-Sachs disease and died by his 3rd birthday. She was writing the most agonizing, powerful essays during this time, and many of them ended up in her book. It blew my mind that you can be this honest about what you’re going through, and it challenged me to try and bring that level of honesty to my own work.

CT: You also previously worked as a book critic. How did that shape your writing?

BM: That was the best thing I ever did. For six years after graduate school, I was a weekly critic for the LA Times. In addition to writing for the LA Times, I wrote for other newspapers, so I did an average of 60 or more book reviews a year. I was consuming books constantly, and having to take these books apart from a craft standpoint – why it had worked and why it hadn’t. It was the best education as a writer, possible. Graduate school was good, but being a book critic was fabulous. I wish they still had as many as they used to, because I adored doing that work. It challenged me in many ways and helped me define my own aesthetic.

CT: Does that mean that you were also your worst critic?

BM: Yes, although I think that it’s easier to be harsh on someone other than yourself, sometimes. I can also convince myself that things are ok, when they’re not. That’s why I have friend who are writers who can weigh in on things. I need people to reflect on my work because I can convince myself that it’s better than it is. That doesn’t help me.

CT: I believe writers fit into two different categories: Disciplined 9-5 worker bees and the free-spirit, messy writers that chase their inspiration in unsuspecting avenues. Which category would you say you fall under?

BM: I’m probably in the second category. There are times where I have to write and I’m coming up a deadline. I also write for literary journals - like Palm Springs magazine most recently - so I can’t wait around to feel inspired. I’ve got to sit down and do it. If I know I have to sit down and do something, I’ll do it, but some pieces when they resist me, I know to leap frog to something else for a little while, and maybe it’ll crack open, and I’ll understand why it was resisting me.. I try to see what each process is telling me, and listen to it.

CT: Do you have a favorite part of the book?

BM: Oh God, I don’t know. I’ve never been asked that question. I have no idea! I like the celebration of friendship that weaves in there. I like some of the descriptions of motorcycling when there are those moments that take your breath away.

CT: In what distinct ways have both Kitty and Rebecca (Emily) helped you cope with the changes in your life?

BM: Kitty is someone who will always listen to me, calm me down, and support me, while Emily is someone who will get up and take action - do things with me when something has gotten me down. I have many friends who support me in different ways all of whom bring different strengths - it’s a blessing

CT: Your journey couldn’t have been easy

BM: Thank you, and no it wasn’t easy. It’s amazing. I run into people now and they hardly recognize me from the person they used to know. My life has gotten a lot richer and bigger.

CT: Is there another activity you’re looking forward to trying?

BM: I’m very terrified of heights, but I want to climb the Himalayas – doesn’t have to be Everest itself. I wouldn’t mind climbing Denali in Alaska. My kids and I are also talking