An Interview with Marian L. Thomas

I was raised in Oak Park, Illinois, and for a long time, I thought I’d become a journalist. Life, however, had other plans – and I’m so glad it did. Today, I’m a women’s fiction novelist who loves bringing characters to life as they navigate real struggles, discover love, and uncover the beauty tucked inside everyday moments.

When I’m not writing, you’ll probably find me watching Pride and Prejudice for the hundredth time and championing my belief that popcorn should absolutely count as a vegetable.

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What inspired you to start writing this book?

The idea for What Love Leaves Behind came from my fascination with how love continues to echo long after loss. I wanted to explore what happens when two mothers – whose lives end as new life begins – leave behind more than grief. They leave behind love in its purest form: through their children. It’s a story about how the people we meet after tragedy can help us rediscover hope, rebuild connection, and learn to love again in unexpected ways.

Tell us the story of your book’s current title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

It took time – like all meaningful things do. I wrote much of the manuscript before realizing what the title should be. One night, as I sat revising a scene where a character reflects on his wife’s death, I found myself writing the words, “Love doesn’t end – it leaves something behind.”

That moment stopped me. Because that’s what this story truly is – a look at the traces love leaves in us after loss: the courage, the memories, the soft strength that carries us forward. The title What Love Leaves Behind came naturally after that. It wasn’t just a name – it was the soul of the book.

Describe your dream book cover.

My dream book cover would look exactly like the one What Love Leaves Behind now wears – a tender balance of beauty and melancholy.

The image of a woman standing alone before an empty swing, framed by golden autumn trees, feels like a visual echo of the story itself. It captures that moment between remembrance and renewal – the space where grief lingers but love still breathes. The golden leaves drifting around her symbolize both endings and beginnings, the way love never truly disappears; it simply changes form.

The deep teal sky mirrors the emotional depth of the novel, while the light breaking through the trees speaks to hope – the quiet kind that comes after heartbreak. It’s a cover that invites reflection, gently asking the same question the book does: What remains when love is gone, and what does it leave behind in us?

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

The story carries the rhythm of love and loss – quiet, soulful, and tender. Its soundtrack would include songs that hold space for both grief and healing:

Supermarket Flowers – Ed Sheeran

Lose You to Love Me – Selena Gomez

Pieces – Rob Thomas

All I Want – Kodaline

Each song echoes a chapter of the emotional journey – from heartbreak to hope, from standing still in grief to finally moving toward love again.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I’ve worked in marketing and events – fields that taught me how emotion and story connect us. Something readers might not know is that I love watching movies like Pride and Prejudice. There’s something timeless about the way love and restraint dance together in historical settings. One day, I’d love to write a historical fiction novel that captures that same quiet intensity and emotional depth.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker. They showed me that beauty and truth can exist even in pain – that love stories don’t have to be simple to be real.

I write to give voice to women who have loved deeply, lost deeply, and still find a way to rise. That’s what What Love Leaves Behind is really about: ordinary people carrying extraordinary love through impossible loss.

Where is your favorite place to write?

I do most of my writing late at night, when the world is still and the air feels thick with emotion. There’s something peaceful about those quiet hours – the way moonlight wraps around you, inviting you to feel everything more deeply.

In those moments, writing feels less like a task and more like a conversation with the heart – one that speaks softly about love, loss, and the quiet courage to begin again.

What advice would you give your past self at the start of your writing journey?

I’d tell her: Don’t be afraid to write what hurts. The stories that scare you are often the ones that will heal someone else. Every tear you shed on the page becomes a bridge for someone walking through their own darkness.

And remember—love always leaves something behind. Even in loss, you’ll find a reason to keep creating.

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

I hope readers close the book feeling seen – and reminded that love has a way of staying, even when everything else changes. It lingers in the laughter of a child, the kindness of a stranger, the sunrise after a long night.

What Love Leaves Behind is about second chances – not just in romance, but in life, in healing, in the courage to open your heart again. Because sometimes, the most beautiful chapters begin in the spaces where love once lived.

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Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.