Good Neighbors

Pockets Of Joy

Amy Mangan’s latest book is a smaller view of life in larger ways.

By James Blevins

When last seen on the highway of her writing life three years ago, Amy Mangan had just published her first book, a memoir entitled This Side Up: The Road to a Renovated Life, an intimate chronicle of how Amy and her family endured the economic crash of 2008 and the next 10 years of hardship and renewal that followed.

Shortly after arriving at this significant publishing milestone, Amy admitted candidly that she wasn’t entirely sure where her writing life would take her next. She assured her readers that she needed to drive down her own private road a while longer to find just what her heart needed to say.

“For me as a writer it’s more of an organic process,” confesses Amy. “I don’t think about it in terms of, ‘What’s my next book?’ I really just see where my path takes me. So when I completed the memoir, which any type of memoir is going to be really intensive, I just set out to enjoy a different form of writing.”

But not long after returning to the Ocala Star-Banner, humming along the highway of her beloved column, she suddenly spotted a figure fast approaching over the unwritten horizon. It was, as it turned out, her sister Julie, thumbing with an idea Amy couldn’t resist.

“She kept saying that she thought I should publish a collection of my essays,” remembers Amy, 56, of her older sister’s suggestion. “And I thought, ‘Hmm, that’s interesting, because it would really be kind of an homage to my father.’”

Amy’s late father, Sherman Yeary, wrote four non-fiction books in his lifetime, all self-published well after he had turned 60. These books—The Story Pole, A Time of Summer, Main and Magnolia, and The Courthouse Square—detailed his thoughts on his life and legacy, his time spent in Ocala, and the lives of his dear family and friends, as well as touching on many relatable topics familiar to anyone who grew up in a small town.

“My children love Papa’s books,” states Amy of her son, Griffin, 26, and her daughter, Gillian, 24. “So, I thought, ‘You know what? If the only readers are my children, and it gives them the same thing that my dad’s books gave to me, you should do it.’ And that is where the journey took me.”

The journey took her, finally, to her latest book, Accent Pieces: Collected Writing and Moments that Decorate Our Lives, published in mid-June by Black Rose Writing and described on her website as “a personal homage to creating the life you want right where you are…[a] collection of essays [that] makes sense of life, home, love, heartache, and friendships, all while sharing a decorating tip or two.”

“I knew from the beginning that I wanted this book to incorporate my love of home and what that meant,” says Amy. “And also my love of interior design and decorating and why that’s more than just a clock or some flowers.”

According to Macmillan Dictionary, “accent pieces” are a form of interior design, a piece of furniture or a rug or work of art that complements the whole room. They’re never the main focus in a living room, for example. That honor usually belongs to the sofa or coffee table. In a bedroom, the bed, of course, often catches the eye.

Accent pieces are often the end tables, night stands, candles, book nooks and various other assorted knickknacks sharing any given space. The stuff that builds up in a room’s peripheral vision. But it’s these accent pieces that give a room its character. Just as a life’s accent pieces—love, family, friends, and the many hard-fought lessons learned along the way—give character to the person living that life.

To Amy, furniture and the stories that cling to them are always a part of these larger designs, and she wants people to see them for what they are. See the value inherent in physical totems that carry the stories of their lives with them just like we do.

“I am very interested in the role that environment and design plays in our lives,” continues Amy. “Because it’s intrinsic in everything that we do, everything that we choose. In my view, furniture is never simply just a piece of furniture.”

Likewise, “simple” is not quite how Amy might have described the emotional challenges involved with writing her first book, This Side Up, but she discovered, quite to her surprise, that collecting the individual pieces that would grow to become her sophomore effort was relatively easy by comparison, even fun.

Thanks in a large part to Amy’s longtime collaborator and designer, Steve Codraro—who had been collecting her work from as far back as Southern Living and Salon—and personal friend Bailey LeFever—a UF Journalism School graduate who would come on board to edit the book—Accent Pieces quickly began to take shape.

“I leaned on Bailey [a lot],” admits Amy. “I asked her to crawl through [all of Steve’s collected material] and find what could work best for my idea of what the book should be. And she did a fantastic job.”

Broken up into six parts, the book operates as a kind of map of Amy’s life: what lies in her heart, what makes her smile, her dear family and friendships, her past and hopes for the future, and her hometown of Ocala. Especially her hometown.

Ocala figures largely in the book. And it may come as no surprise but early reviews from local celebrities, as well as big names in the interior decorating publishing sphere—such as Carolanne Griffith Roberts, former editor of Southern Living, and Jim Ross, editor of Loss, Home, and Places in Between, to name but two—have been exultant.

“This wonderful community has truly overwhelmed me with their support of this book,” says Amy of her early praise. “I’m truly humbled by it.

“And community is something I write a lot about,” she continues. “Community to me is Ocala.”

Though Ocala is accented by her writing—each essay a work of art that complements the whole town—Amy doesn’t want it to be a barrier for readers who may not be as familiar with its landmarks. As far as she’s concerned, there is something for everybody between the pages of Accent Pieces, regardless of where you happen to live.

“My hope is that wherever readers are, they can pick it up and they can find pockets of joy in the present in whichever chapter they choose,” says Amy. “I hope this book speaks to whatever that reader needs at that hour in time on that particular day.”

Amy’s ultimate goal for her book is to embolden others to seek out their own accent pieces, to see them not only for what but who they are, and to always look to complement one’s life with the sort of meaning and memories that encourages growth and the upkeep and spread of love.

“Here’s the thing” explains Amy. “It’s beyond furniture. Accent pieces, for me, represent change and all that complements my life. Wherever I am.”

Today, she’s sitting in her home office and looking across the room. She sees a little plant sitting on her bookshelf. In front of that plant is a sign that says “Mama Mangz.” And beside that sign are two more accent pieces that remind Amy of her daughter, her husband, Mike, and all of the rewarding experiences she couldn’t have imagined for her family 10 years ago.

“Right now,” concludes the everhonest and hopeful author. “Looking across my desk and seeing those accent pieces is grounding to me. It’s seeing a smaller view of life in larger ways. And that’s something I hold to my heart.”

WANT TO KNOW MORE? amymangan.com