19 Novels, 13 Marathons, and a Life of Impact | Maureen Anne Meehan Interview

Welcome to the Legacy All Stars podcast. We feature inspirational stories from people who dedicate themselves to helping others. Here is your host, Alan Pavloski.

All right, welcome back to the Legacy All Stars podcast where we celebrate inspirational people making a difference in the lives of others. Today's episode is no exception. Today on the Legacy All Stars podcast, we welcome someone who truly defines perseverance, creativity and impact. Maureen Ann Meehan is an award winning author of 19 novels, a film producer, and a Hawaii Ironman triathlete. She has run 13 marathons, including the Boston Marathon, and has served as a Superior Court judge in Orange county for nearly two decades, specializing in mental health. Her novel Red Hands, part of the Mary McIntosh series, has earned her the Impact International Author of the Year Women Empowerment Award for its powerful storytelling around the missing and murdered indigenous women of North America. Her book 60 Dates in Six Months, which I just started diving into, by the way, With a Broken Neck is the full title. Very compelling title. Hard to resist. It's a deeply personal and satirical take on dating after loss. It was recently adapted into a feature film and won the 2025 Eric Hoffer Award for for Independent Thought in Literature. Her story is about resilience, creativity, and using one's platform to champion change. Welcome to the show, Maureen. It's an honor to have you here. Thank you for being here.

Oh, thank you, Alan. It's my privilege and pleasure.

Yeah, thank you. Let's jump right in. You have worn so many hats. Triathlete, judge, author, producer. Let's start in Wyoming. How did your upbringing there shape your voice as both a writer and a person and. And a judge for that matter?

Yeah, I was born and raised in a small, quintessential darling western town of Sheridan, Wyoming. And my grandparents, born and raised in that town. My grandfather was an attorney, a high end oil and gas and probate attorney. I worked at his law firm since age 12. My grandmother was a gourmet chef and musician and actor. So I was raised in a very creative environment and a legal environment and all my siblings are dentists, so medical. My mom was a labor and delivery nurse and college professor. So raised in an academic, athletic, avid skiers, water skiers, snow skiers, golfers, tennis, swimming. I was raised in a really active environment with a really healthy family that were very, very close. My daughter got married two weeks ago in Santa Barbara and my entire family.

Love that.

Thank you. Yeah, so it's. I'm done with paying for weddings and college. That's nice.

Wow. Yeah, I'm on the grandparents side. Now, so I'm having.

Yeah. I have a granddaughter as well, so congrats.

Wonderful. Thank you.

It's so fun. Yeah. Yeah. So growing up in Sheridan, I guess a hometown fairly small. Everyone knew everyone your parents knew. If you got into trouble before you got home, teachers knew your parents directly. So there was a lot of accountability. Being raised in a small town in Wyoming, and there's a lot of character. And I think I brought all of Wyoming with me. My 19 legal thrillers are all based in Wyoming, Jacksonville and Sheridan. My. My protagonist, Mary McIntosh, is a strong female prosecuting attorney and then FBI consultant. Over the 19 deep legal thrillers, all for sale as content right now. Hint, hint. Taylor Sheridan, I've pitched to you. I haven't heard from you anyhow, But I have 23 novels total. So I have the 19 legal thrillers, all based in Wyoming, which shaped a large part of how I write Wyoming, is a character in my legal thrillers. And then my three dating books, including 60 Dates, which is now adapted to film, and then a parenting book called Single mom, no manual included, which is a satire about all the dang things that can happen when you're a parent. You're just trying to muck it through it.

Wow, that's an amazing compilation of content there on various different subjects. So I love that.

Thank you. Yeah, I've been writing for 30 years. The reason I started writing, though, is a bit of a dark story. I'll sum it up as quickly as possible, but my legal secretary in Orange county was murdered in 1996 by her estranged husband. And it was foreseeable, and it felt like it could have been preventable. And despite the restraining orders and all those things, he snuck into their apartment, her apartment, while she was in the shower on a Saturday morning. And as she came out of the shower, he stabbed her to death, viciously. Her children from a previous marriage were there. They were ages 8 and 6 at the time. Luckily, their father was the University of Utah's football coach, and he was able to come and get the children and raise them in their big Mormon family in Utah. So the children ended up in a good environment overall. But they did lose their mother when they were quite young. So I started writing the Mary McIntosh series to keep Lisa alive. So my protagonist, people think, is this you? Slowly, it evolved into me over time. But my first couple books, it's really Lisa. I loved her, I adored her, and I wanted to keep her alive in my heart through my writing.

What first drew you to the law and ultimately to the superior Court bench. I know you had legal background in your family, but what drew you to the superior court bench especially? And I'm really intrigued by this, especially in the mental health.

So in 1995, a law passed in California saying that a judicial team needed to go to every lockdown psych ward in the county so that patients didn't have to be transported in custody because most of them aren't criminals. They just have mental health issues. Some are criminals, but those are in the jail. Orange county was the first to adapt into this program in 2005. So there was a job opportunity for a person with mental health education and background and a law degree to become a judge. So I auditioned for the part, if you will, interviewed for the job. And because I had a master's degree in educational psychology, I taught high school before I went to law school. My master's really helped, and being a teacher in both California and Wyoming helped me. And I'd become a lawyer. Been practicing for, I don't know, 15 years or so when this opportunity came up and I was awarded this position to be a mental health court judge. And I've been in this role since 2005. So what we do is we went remote the end of February of 2020 because we had geriatric lockdown psych wards. People were not doing well, and they didn't want our team traipsing through anymore. So we went remote. We will always remain remote. We're way more productive and have more time for the patients being remote as a judicial team. But we service all of the hospitals with lockdown psychiatric wards and all the jails in Orange county in the role of a mental health collaborative court team serving the public, helping people. We have a wraparound team. We always have. So we are able to get outpatient after treatment for these people with social services mental health. And all we do is help people. We get them whatever they need, basically whatever it takes. We have a lot of rinse repeats, but we try really hard not to have that happen. We have an excellent team that's still in place since 2005. The same people. We all still work together. We love our job. We love helping people in mental health.

Yeah, what a great track record. You know, the resources being put there rather than in enforcement. And putting people in jail as a result of mental health seems to be the right path. I'm not trying to editorialize here. I'm just saying that it seems that it's less expensive as a society for us to treat mental health rather than to incarcerate mental health 100%.

And, you know, we started this program, we rolled it out to the rest of the state and then to the nation as a pilot. Some people have adapted to it, some counties and states have adapted to it, some haven't. Those who have adopted our collaborative approach have done very, very well, like San Diego, for examp. Other counties in California haven't. And it's very evident those who really take the wraparound and collaborative approach to helping people with mental health issues, which there are. A lot of. Our courtrooms are packed. My calendar is always very busy, but I end every hearing telling the people via zoom or teams or whatever. We're using webex. So grateful to meet you or nice to see you again. Thank you for your time today. I hope everything turns out well. So we approach it as a very loving environment, in a safe environment to get mental health treatment so that people embrace it. And I think we do a good job.

Yeah, it sounds like it. You know, mental health is such a pressing issue. What have 19 years on the bench taught you about compassion, resilience, and justice, for that matter?

I find that it to be something highly embraceable. I feel like our clientele as a team and as a whole, with respect with whom we serve, cares a lot. We're very compassionate, we're very caring, we're loving. It's not punitive at all. It's collaboratively helping people get better if we're at all able to do it. And I think we do a pretty darn good job doing that. And it's taught me to be patient, to be a good listener, to understand, but for the grace of God, we could all be in a different place at any given moment in life.

And.

And losing my husband 11 years ago reinforced all of those things in my family as the loss and resilience and trying to help people in our mental health program because I, you know, honestly, I was really depressed when my husband was dying and my children were depressed. And we did have grief therapy during that process and after. And the grief therapy was critical to us healing as a family. And I encourage people to get help when you need it. I've been there. I needed it. I was in grief therapy up through November of 2023, nine years later. So I'm all about getting help when you need it. And there's nothing wrong about asking for help. I've asked for help, and I encourage other people to do the same. We all need it from time to time.

We definitely do, for sure.

Yeah.

Let's jump into your novels. I want to talk more about your legal thrillers centered around Barry McIntosh, a strong female protagonist. I know you talked about inspiration for that earlier, but is there a certain degree of yourself reflected in her character?

I think at this point 100% of myself. So through the process of these 19 novels, she, over time doesn't want to be single anymore and she gets married to somebody she loves dearly. And then something happens along the way without being a spoiler alert, that she and her person have to part ways. I lost my husband, so that's how it happened for me, but I didn't want to write it that way. So she and her husband, husband, after having four children together, they separate ways but remain friends. And I like how that evolved. She starts, she tries to date again. It just doesn't work out. And she decides over time that she's happy being whole by herself. So Mac, on the last novel I wrote, the 19th of the legal thrillers, is single but happy. And that's kind of where I am in my world. I'm single, I'm happy, I'm whole. I'm still looking if you're out there. I'm just kidding. Hint, hint, wink, wink. But I bring Mac full circle in my life. So she is me at this point. She's now a consultant for the FBI. And one of her most recent cases is Gilgo beach, which is about Rex Heuerman, who is standing trial in New York City currently. I think the trial date isn't even set yet for 2026. But he's serial killer, architect, high end architect who was married with children, and he would go out and sneak out in the night and kill mostly female prostitutes. And he was just charged in January of this year, I think with eight counts of murder. They're still putting together the case on him. In Gilgo Beach, a Mary McIntosh novel, I write the ending to Gilgo Beach. I adapted it to script this year and it's already won some awards and has Emmy award winning producer who's very interested in making it into a film. So I'm excited about Gilgo Beach. Logan Crawford's the one who told me about it. I've appeared on his podcast many times and you know, Blue Bloods, House of Cards. He's an amazing man. I'm appearing on his podcast November 3rd, but he's one who told me about the Gilgo beach serial killing cases and so that's how I wrote it this past year. I wrote it January of 2024 right after he was charged, adapted it last month and it's already winning awards. So proud of that one. But I bet 19 deep in these Red Hands, which I just won the International Impact Book award for, has been adapted. So I have five adapted from the Mary McIntosh series. All content for sale on film, Freeway, VPF, the Blacklist, etc. And I have a lot of producers interested in it, but I don't have a firm offer yet. So if you're out there and you want to buy all the content, that would be super duper.

Yeah. I want to talk more about Red Hands. It's a. It shines a light on the missing and murdered indigenous women in North America. What inspired you to tackle that subject?

So, being raised in Sheridan, Wyoming, we were just shy of the Montana border and the Crowd reservation. So Crow Native Americans. My best friend through the third grade was a Crow Native and, you know, have sleepovers at her house and really get to know her dad was 100% Crow native. And the Crow Native Americans in Sheridan are. Have a big impact. But we have, I think, 28 tribes in Wyoming. And our rodeo, they do a giant powwow. All the tribes come together. They compete in the Indian relay races, which is a blast. It's a hoot nanny. But the powwow is huge. They wear their native wear, and they have their horses and their regal, you know, be. Native Americans are a big part of my culture and a big part of Wyoming. And so I wrote Red Hands because the missing and murdered indigenous women of North America, these crimes are underrepresented. They're under investigated, they're under prosecuted. And it bothers me. The red hand print over the mouth is a grassroots movement to raise awareness about these missing and murdered indigenous women. And I wrote it because it's near and dear to my heart. I wrote it last summer, adapted it this fall, and I just think it would make such a great movie. It's very similar to Wind River. Wind river is about one woman. This is about all women. And I give the Savannahs act all the laws. In my novel, I talk about the grassroots and these laws that have been passed to try to solve this. But the problem with it is there's jurisdictional issues. You have federal, you have the Bureau, you have the Department of Justice, the FBI. Then you have state, you know, problems of enforcement, and then local and then the tribes, and they all fight for jurisdiction, and nothing gets solved. So the missing and murdered indigenous crime for these women underreported. Like I said, with jurisdictional issues, I think only 2% get reported to the Department of Justice. I mean, that's criminal in and of itself. Had women near my hometown of Sheridan killed and nothing happens. And in Red Hands, my novel, I have Mack prosecuting a crime that did happen in fact outside of my hometown. And she does take it to the end is catching this person at Devil's Tower, which is in northeastern Wyoming. So it's got a big ending where Close Encounters of the Third Kind it was filmed, it has a big ending. But the fact that these crimes don't get reported and prosecuted bothers my heart a lot. And I would like that to change. If I able to sell this and make this movie and make some money out of it, I'm going to donate all and create a legal defense fund to try to help prosecute these crimes.

I love that. I love that. I love that. This is Legacy All Stars podcast and it's all about what we do to serve others and just thrilled to hear your intentions there. Intentions are everything to me and I'm excited about that. I hope that get picked up for sure.

So do I. For a lot of reasons, but mostly to put an end to this. I mean, this has got to stop. This is not fair.

Yeah.

So if we want to segue into the movie for a minute, so in six months with a broken neck.

Yeah, we can go out of order. I don't mind.

Yeah. It's when it won the Eric Hoffer Award in May, I'd already done casting, I'd already adapted it. The screenplay already had won Cannes Film Festival best script of the year. It's won LA San Francisco, Berlin, London. The script is very, very good. So adapted. We'd already done casting and we'd already set our film schedule. So we filmed it from June 21 through July 12. We all lived together, so it was integrated. Film cast and crew lived with me for 15 days. I cooked breakfast, lunch, dinner for people. There's mattresses everywhere in my house. But we filmed in my house on location. But we also filmed all over Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, including some of my really good friends show and Philippe own Bottega Angelina Gorgeous restaurant. My girlfriend Lauren Johnson owns Noel's Restaurant. We filmed in her speakeasy. We filmed at Bottega Angelina. We filmed at Glass Bar. My friend Rob owns that restaurant and my friend Diane owns It's all about the Cake. So we filmed at these locations for free. But I did catering through them as a thank you. And then Strands beach, our botanical gardens in Laguna Niguel. And then pickleball at our elementary school. So we filmed Everything in Laguna, Nigel and Dana Point. The film turned out beautifully. I actually got the last edificated version of it last night and send it to my publicist and my agents. And it is being pitched to Byron Allen today as we speak. So Freestyle Media Group, Byron Allen would be a really good place for this movie to land. I really believe in him. He's produced, I believe, about 120 independent films this year. This is an independent film. I am the executive producer. I was the budget. I am the budget. I would like to make the budget back if I could. But it's an independent film being pitched as we speak. You heard it first. So only Alan and Legacy All Stars knows first that it's being pitched right now to Byron Allen of Freestyle Media Group. And I really think that we would be a really good partnership.

So, you know, bringing right along to that. The title is great. And I started reading the book myself, so I know the story behind why With A Broken Neck exists, and I was just compelled by this. I think the teaser of explaining the broken neck part would be really compelling for our audience.

Yeah. So what happened was I got up early and I was hungry, and I had gone out with my girlfriends the night before to a happy hour, and I just didn't eat enough food. So I woke up in the early hours of the morning on a Saturday, and I went downstairs. I live alone. I didn't have my phone with me. My phone was on my nightstand, and I was going to reheat that salmon that I'd taken home with me the night prior. And I had the salmon in the microwave, and I was reaching for the fridge door to get sriracha sauce, because who wouldn't want your sriracha sauce on your salmon? And I kind of just missed the refrigerator door. My handle was a little loose at the time, and I fell straight backwards in my kitchen. I broke my neck and had a brain bleed, very, very serious. I woke up about an hour later. It knocked me out. I wasn't able to brace myself. I went down so fast and hard. So I cracked my head open. I broke my neck. And I knew it because I went to try to roll over, and I didn't have the use of my right arm. So I had some paralysis as a result. It was a very serious break. I knew it was broken immediately because I'm fused from the top of my neck to my tailbone. Now I'm fused all the way from C1 down because of scoliosis that advanced over my lifetime. I had severe scoliosis As a child and then an adult. So it took me an hour and a half to crawl upstairs to get my phone to dial 911. Thank God for Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo. The ICU team saved my life. I was fading. I saw the light when the ambulance arrived. It was a very serious scene. It's in the movie because it happened. It's part of the movie, it's part of the novel, of the resilience of recovering from a broken neck in January of 2024. And it is part of the story, it's part of continued resilience. Working super hard to regain the use of my right arm through physical therapy. Thank you to that team. Of course. And I got home from the ICU on a Wednesday and I had a date on a Friday night. He came to my house because I couldn't drive. I didn't have the use of my right arm yet. So he had to open the bottle of wine. But we shared a bottle of wine and a lot of laughs and he was lovely. We're still friends to this day. It didn't work out as a date, but it worked out as a friendship.

Yeah, I mean, look, it's funny, but it's tragic at the same time.

It was tragic.

And look, do you attribute some of your ability to recover so quickly with all your lifelong commitment to health and fitness?

Health and fitness are. That's the first thing I look for when I'm dating is health and fitness. It's a big part of my life. I exercise every day. I eat very clean and healthy. I still wear my jeans from junior high. I can because I work hard for it. But I will only date people who are like minded in health and fitness. Mental health, physical health, emotional health, EQ matters to me a lot. I want to be with somebody who's extremely healthy in all aspects of their life.

Yeah. I mean, turning such a personal and painful journey into both humor, it has to be challenging. How did that process itself help you heal and grow?

Well, when I wrote it, a lot of people, family and friends were not encouraging of it. They like, that's, you're putting yourself way out there. And my opinion of it is this is real. I have flaws that I'm overcoming. I'm still working through things. I'm always going to be evolving. And sharing it I thought was very personal. And I think that's why it won the Ericofer award, because it is about recovery, it's about growth, it's about risk and reward and potential and always trying to be better. And improve upon your life and sharing something so deeply, emotionally and personal. The dating, the broken neck, the human story to this was important to me. And again, I had some very big naysayers. And then when I decided to adapt in film, there were a lot of people like, are you out of your mind? You're going to put your money and your name behind this? And I said, yeah, you know, hold my halo. I'm going to try something new. I'm going to become a movie producer this year. It's going to be hard. The learning curve is going to be very steep and it remains steep. Trying to get distribution as we speak right now is hard. But you know, trying something new is good for you. And as we get older, I think it's great to continue to do new things, learn a new business. I created my own film, you know, LLC production company this year. That was a leap of faith. But in my opinion, faith is the most important thing we have. Faith, family, friendships, you know, all of those things matter. And faith is number one. Believing in yourself. But believing in your higher being is a big part of my life. I went to mass last night with my girlfriend and we pray together, we had dinner together. I think that all those deep friendships and commitment to your faith are who we are. And that's how I live my life. And I want to be with a like minded, you know, family, friends, hopefully sometime a future dude, if one, if someone is lucky enough to walk into the door as I say it, I try to pitch it in a very positive way. Dating when you're 60 years old is not for the faint of heart, particularly in Orange County, California.

Let's talk about legacy and inspiration. You've blended law, athletics, literature and film into one extraordinary journey. Looking back, what threads these ties together.

Faith and family, friendships bring all this together for me. So for a legacy, I want to leave behind, not only my work as an author and as a producer, but as a daughter, a sibling, a mother, a grandmother and a friend. All in faith. And so my legacy is really just living a life that's fulfilling, trying new things, pushing myself. Like the Ironman triathlon in Hawaii, the world championship that I did, that was hard physically and emotionally. But running marathons, Boston, you know, finishing these things takes training and preparation. That's hard. It's a commitment. But being in faith is a commitment. Being a family and a friend is a commitment. And I think the legacy is all three of those things together combine legacy. For me, that's my message, is faith, family, friendships.

Got it. You know, for other women. I'm sure you're mentors to others. For women striving to break through barriers, whether in law, sports, or storytelling, what advice would you give them?

I am a mentor to a number of people. I help people find agents and deals, etc, you know, for their works or jobs. I've placed people in law firms because of friendships and relationships that I've had with managing partners of law firms. But what I advise women who are trying to break barriers as well is never give up. Always have hope. Believe in yourself. Pitch yourself. Be your own best friend. And you know, even if a door closes, a window opens, always. And just look for that window and turn around and help somebody who's in line behind you. I believe in always offering to help other people. People have helped me and I'm grateful. My supervising judge was fantastic. Carolyn Kirkwood. I will never forget her. She's retired and living her best life, but she was amazing. And my neighbor who's a judge, I don't know if he wants me to say his name, so I'm going to be careful about that one. Helped me get this job as a judge, so. Well, Corey Crayman, shout out to you. He lives next street over. Thank you. And then I just helped a girlfriend of mine whose children. Daughters. Babysat my children when I was at the courthouse. I helped her get an agent, and now she's in the New York Times Magazine with one of her novels. I mean, helping friends, you know, that's what we're here for. You know, we have opportunities. I love doing that. You know, giving someone else a leg up. I've spent 30 years trying to do all those things. And it's always good to give back.

Yeah, for sure. You know, vulnerability is an underrated quality, and I try to encourage people to be vulnerable. But I sense that you are willing and able to be vulnerable without compromising yourself. I think that's an amazing quality. So thank you for that.

Thank you. Yeah, I feel that as well. And I think that that's an important character trait. It's humbling and we all need to be humble and kind.

Yeah. So let's get to this important task of letting people know where they can find you if our audience wants to learn more about you or if any film distribution companies want to learn more about how they could distribute your films. Tell me more.

So www.maureenmeehanbooks.com and my other website, because I have two different agents. Www.maureenannmian.com Ann has an E on the end. With respect to Twitter, it's at 60 dates and six months. And I also have another Twitter. It's.

A N22 that has a lot of BTs for the movie and links. I have a podcast called Only the Truth. It's a true crime pod that I've covered all 19 of my legal thrillers with. So it's kind of a fun inside look at, you know, what makes the books tick. So those are great ways to get a hold of me. Facebook is just maureen me and reach out. I have lots of content for sale. I'm looking for that distribution deal with 60 days and 6 months movie and the Mary McIntosh legal thriller series is a lot of content based in Wyoming with a strong female protagonist. It would make a great series for whomever's lucky enough to take it on. Shonda Rhimes is somebody we pitched to. She would be fabulous because she could do Red Hands really well and every all the other legal thrillers. But reached out to Taylor Sheridan and a lot of producers that have expressed some interest. I'm hoping to continue to shop my wares. I'll be at the American Film Marketplace in Los Angeles next month, I think November 13 through 16, shopping the legal thrillers by then. I think the movie premiere is November 21st, if I'm not mistaken. So right after the film Marketplace in LA is a premiere for the film. I think we've just locked in the theater today this morning, so you're hearing it first.

Wow. I'm honored and I hope I get a chance to get that sneak peek as well. I'd love to see.

You will be invited to the premiere if you're wanting to attend. It's going to be from 6 to 10pm Nov. 21, which is a Friday evening in Hollywood.

Nice.

At a beautiful theater that we will be making our announcement once we sign the paperwork, which hopefully is later today. Yeah.

Wow. We've covered a lot of ground here. We've come to the end of the show. I really want to thank my distinguished guest Renan Meehan for coming on the show and sharing her insights and sharing a lot of her great creative work. I hope our audience will dive deeper into her work and also just show appreciation for the things that she does to help others. Until next time, I'm Alan Pavloski signing off for Legacy All Stars.

Thank you, Alan.