Listening was not always one of Marilyn Wilson’s strengths.
By her own admission, she loved to immerse herself and fully engage in the conversation — especially when people were spilling out their life stories.
However, lending one’s ear to the golden nuggets of information dropping onto her recordings from more than a decade of interviewing an array of human beings is now a finely tuned skill that writer and soon-to-be author Wilson can claim as her own.
For 10 years, Wilson has been getting under the covers of people’s lives, telling their stories, both uplifting and tragic, for publications, both local and international.
And now, with more than 150 interviews behind her, the longtime Richmond resident decided to pool all her best work and launch her debut book — Life Outside the Box.
But it wasn’t always easy getting the right information from the right people for the self-taught writer.
“Everyone has something unique about their lives to share and if you go into an interview with a set of questions, you don’t find that uniqueness,” said Wilson, a mother of three adult children, who was a Broadmoor resident since 1984 before moving to London Landing in Steveston last year.
“I’ll ask people a few basic questions to get the conversation going and then, after that, it’s all about letting that conversation flow and develop and letting them share their stories.
“I get lessons in life every single time I do these interviews and that’s where I find that individuality and uniqueness.
“The challenge for me, in the beginning, was trying to be quiet during interviews and letting people talk.”
It all started more than 10 years ago when she began to search on Craigslist for writing work, attempting to follow through on a passion for people and an urge to tell their stories.
After a few forays for various small publications, Wilson learned early on to record all her interviews, because she got, “so wrapped up in people’s life stories that I sometimes don’t hear everything they’re telling me.
“And it’s when I listen back to the conversation that I realize how many layers there are to that person.
“The gift I think I have is truly enjoying telling that person’s story.”
“This is real stories, not reality TV,” added Wilson. “It’s about imperfections, which are OK; it’s OK someone’s differences are different from you and everyone else’s.
Wilson — whose ten years in the writing business included co-owning a now folded Vancouver-based magazine from 2007 to 2012, featuring people working in the fashion industry — has had the pleasure of meeting and sharing stories of people across the gamut of life.
“I’ve interviewed people that have been blessed in their lives without a lot of hitches and then there’s been many who have totally rebuilt their lives and also those who have struggled to find success,” she said.
“And what each of those people gauge as success is also very different. For some, it’s financial, for others it’s emotional or otherwise.
“But it is real people and real stories.”
The last 18 months of Wilson’s life has been consumed with putting Life Outside the Box together.
And it culminated with a rather glitzy launch in Downtown Vancouver on Wednesday, with dancers and entertainment and attended by many of the subjects in her book, such as international luxury lingerie designer Patricia Fieldwalker, textile artist/fashion designer Katherine Soucie of Sans Soucie, Beauty Night founder Caroline MacGillivray and artist Pamela Mask.
Norwegian perfumer Geir Ness — founder of Laila, The Essence of Norway — also flew in for the event.
You can pre-order the book at Amazon and Chapters and it will be available in stores across B.C. from Feb. 1.
