Mother, Inventor, Entrepreneur, Author
Meet Merrimac
Merrimac Dillon’s path to fiction has taken several forms, each one adding to the voice she brings to her work. After completing her undergraduate studies and MBA, she entered publishing through a New Orleans magazine group, where she contributed to the company’s growth into additional markets. Her career eventually carried her to Dallas, New York, and abroad, working in senior marketing and sales roles and building long-standing professional relationships across media and retail.
Through those years, writing remained a steady interest. New Orleans—the city where she grew up—continued to shape her imagination: its layered history, social nuance, and sense of place offered a natural backdrop for storytelling. She has often said that New Orleans feels like “the only city in America where you stamp your passport,” and its influence can be felt throughout her fiction. A lifelong reader, she gravitated to mystery, family drama, and contemporary suspense. She wrote short stories and children’s books early on, and later turned her attention to adult fiction.
Alongside her corporate work, she published two nonfiction titles:The 50+ Travel Guide (Doubleday/St. Martin’s Press, 1993) and The Real Life Guide for the Second Time Bride (Bounty Press, 1994)
As an entrepreneur, she was able to build and sell two luxury retail companies, The Pillow Bar and The Curtain Exchange leaving little time for writing. Drawn to stories that explore ambition, family ties, and personal reinvention, when she stepped away from daily business leadership in 2021, she devoted her time fully to fiction.
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Her debut novel, Moss in the Oaks, follows a contemporary Southern family facing shifting power and old secrets after the patriarch’s death. A second volume, The Next Generation, is underway. She has served on the board of various charities and volunteered with organizations connected to education, equestrian programs, and women in business. She attended Louise S. McGehee School in New Orleans and earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky, where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She later completed her EMBA and is a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program.
Selected business recognition includes:
Two international patents for The Pillow Bar machine design
D Magazine – Best of Big D (2008)
The Wall Street Journal – Best Innovation (2009)
Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses graduate (2014)
ICON Awards finalist (2015)
Dallas Business Journal – Women in Business Award (2016)
Gold Medal ADDY Award for television (2016)
O, The Oprah Magazine – Summer Picks (2017)
Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Ethics (2017)
O, The Oprah Magazine – Oprah’s Christmas List (2018)