Marissa Yarrow of Colorado Springs on Life, Lessons & Legacy

Marissa Yarrow shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Good morning Marissa, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
It’s hard for me to pat myself on the back for my work. There’s always room for improvement, and I have a hard time seeing past that. But recently, I’ve had two short stories accepted into two different anthologies and I had to step back and remind myself that my work must be good for someone else to want to include it in their collection! So I’m very proud of my horror story, Doll Parts, which is being published in Robots Past & Future by Flame Tree Publishing, and my romance story Good Girl, which is being published in the Publishing Persuasion’s Jingle These Bells anthology (as Lucy Nightshade).

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am a Colorado writer, through and through. I love the beautiful and sometimes eerie settings this state provides. Although my work blends genre between horror and sci-fi, and I even dabble in romance, nearly all of my stories are set in Colorado. I have a novel coming out next year from Mad Axe Media called Island X which is not set in my home state, but I still have a little call out to it.

I’d also like to think that my writing itself is pretty unique. Horror is my favorite genre to write, and I love all the ghosts and vampires, but I also like using them as metaphors for what really scares me, like psychological trauma and capitalism.

Okay, so here’s a deep one: What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
As a kid, I thought that being an artist was literally impossible. I believed I was just a regular person and there was no way I would ever get someone to pay me for my art. Seriously, the idea of producing books or movies or music seemed like it belonged to people on another echelon, who not only had talent that I believed I lacked but also money and connections. I wish I had learned earlier that it’s not quite the case. There is a fair amount of gatekeeping, to be sure, but you’re also just allowed to make art because you like it. You can self-publish books and self-release music and make short films for submission to film festivals that won’t screen it but at least someone saw it! (Speaking from personal experience, if you couldn’t tell).

I guess I don’t believe now that I’m as incapable of making art as I once thought. I hope kids today aren’t living under the same delusion as I did.

When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
That was the whole idea behind my novel, There it is Again. I really let loose and allowed myself to explore my trauma and CPSTD through the narrative of that story. Even though I had written two novels prior to that, I think that’s when I really allowed myself to start thinking of myself as an author. Nothing could hold me back after that.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Is the public version of you the real you?
Definitely not! “Marissa Yarrow” is a pen name, which allows me to act a bit bolder, a bit spookier, and even a bit sexier. The complete inability to post regularly on social media is the real me, but the stuff I post and the stuff I write is filtered through this much more confident persona I’ve created.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. If immortality were real, what would you build?
I think this is a great question. It’s one of the ideas behind the novel I’m currently working on.

In a sense, we do live forever through our actions. If someone remembers a kindness from us, or a slight, and acts differently because of it, then we live on. We live on in the art we create and the communities that we help build, or destroy.

Similarly, if I were to live forever in the same immortal body, I would want to build a community where people were safe and respected. I’d want to enjoy the art of the new generations and help give as much guidance to young writers as I could. I’d do what I could to advocate for wild spaces and clean water and public access to those things.

Basically, I’d do what I’m doing now.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://marissayarrow.wordpress.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marissayarrowauthor/
• Other: https://bsky.app/profile/marissayarrow.bsky.social

Image Credits
InfiniteForests (Murder on the Mesa)
Flame Tree Publishing (Robots Past & Future)
Robin Alvarez (Jingle These Bells)