Writing a book is something that is done by one person but, if that person is lucky, never done completely alone.
I recently finished reading Linda Crotta Brennan’s beautiful new novel, The Selkie’s Daughter. This lyrical story of family love, sacrifice, and courage brings the reader into a world where magic unites the earth and sea. Young readers seamlessly learn about life in a nineteenth century Nova Scotia fishing village, ancient tales, and the ballads that kept those stories alive. Summer is a great time to introduce your middle school readers to this exciting story.
I not only read the novel itself but also the flap copy, the dedication, and the author’s note. (I mean, we all do, right?) In the last two, the author thanks her writers’ group, The Story Spinners, for their help and critique as Linda’s vision turned into a novel. And there’s the point I was making in my opening sentence: Linda may have written The Selkie’s Daughter by herself, but she wasn’t alone. Her trusted critique group helped her shape her writing long before an agent or editor ever saw it.
It seems serendipitous that I should have read Linda’s words this week. I have always believed, like Linda, that my group members steered my success. Working with a dedicated writers’ group is really creating a recipe. Together you work hard to make something others will enjoy.
I have been lucky enough to have been part of several writers’ groups in my 30+ years as a published writer. The Write Sisters were the group I was with the longest. If I remember correctly, none of us had published a children’s book when we first got together. A few of us had written for newspapers or local magazines, but kids’ books were our shared love. We met monthly at first, then every other week. Most of us had young kids. Our meetings went late into Friday nights. When we couldn’t do that, we brought the kids along and they played together. Some of us knew where to look for assignments or editors’ wish lists. Some of us were really good at checking grammar or noticing the over-use of adjectives and adverbs. Others could pick out when a story idea was too long for a picture book, too short for a chapter book. As time went on, we would hear each other’s voices as we wrote. I tried to figure out how many books our little group published over the years. It is well into the hundreds, I believe.
Diane Mayr was part of the Write Sisters. A trained librarian, she was our tech expert when we decided to create a group blog. It was Diane who answered when one of us asked, “How do I…?” She showed up whenever one of us had a gig. She had a wicked sense of humor. She and her little car with the vanity plate “Brat Cat” were always up for a road trip.
Sadly, we lost Diane this week. But she left us with a great legacy of memories and fun picture books. Check one out if you can, and think of her.
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