EPISODE · Jun 16, 2026 · 36 MIN
She Took a Surf Camp at 50-Something to Write This Book — Mary Ellen Taylor on THE SKY BENEATH HER
from The Fresh Fiction Podcast · host Fresh Fiction Media
Samantha Tennant sits down with New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mary Ellen Taylor to talk about her newest women's fiction novel, The Sky Beneath Her. Set on North Carolina's Outer Banks — nicknamed the Graveyard of the Atlantic — the book weaves between 1942, when a ship full of desperate passengers crosses U-boat-patrolled waters knowing they may not survive, and the present day, where a scuba diver who lost her mother at sea is finally forced to return to the water. Mary Ellen opens up about the history book that sparked the story, why she signed up for surf camp in her 50s, her seven-draft process, and the revelation that arrived mid-cookie-bake. She also teases her next book — a California-set story rooted in the early 1970s — and shares that The Sky Beneath Her is the June Amazon First Reads pick (free for Prime members, $1.99 for everyone else).
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What this episode covers
In this episode of the Fresh Fiction podcast, Samantha Tennant is reunited with a friend she’s known for more than a decade: New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mary Ellen Taylor, whose more than 40 novels span women’s fiction (under her own name) and suspense thrillers (as Mary Burton). Their conversation centers on Mary Ellen’s latest release, THE SKY BENEATH HER, a dual-timeline women’s fiction novel set on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. In 1942, passengers board a vessel near Trinidad knowing the Atlantic is crawling with German U-boats. In the present, Tula — a scuba diver who hasn’t touched the ocean since a diving accident killed her mother seven years ago — is drawn back to the water to explore the wreck of that very ship. Mary Ellen and Samantha go deep on: • How a history book about shipwrecks sparked the entire story • Why the Outer Banks is called the Graveyard of the Atlantic • What it actually feels like to get slammed by a wave (research via surf camp) • Her seven-draft process — from sloppy copy to polished manuscript • How she juggles two pen names and two very different creative headspaces • The cookie-baking flash of insight that cracked open her whole plot • Her next book: THE LAST SONG OF LARK SHERIDAN, set in California in the early 1970s GRAB THE BOOK: The Sky Beneath Her is the June Amazon First Reads selection — free for Prime members, $1.99 for non-Prime all month long. Follow Mary Ellen: Instagram @MaryEllenTaylorBooks | Website: maryellentaylor.com
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She Took a Surf Camp at 50-Something to Write This Book — Mary Ellen Taylor on THE SKY BENEATH HER
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