Author and MFAC alum Jane O’Reilly* talks about her debut novel, The Secret of Goldenrod. Learn about her writing process for this mysterious new middle grade masterpiece. The images bellow are from the sold-out launch party at the Red Ballon, held earlier this month.
Tell us about your book.
The Secret of Goldenrod is a little bit of
everything—mystery, fantasy and coming of age. The main character, Trina,
almost eleven, travels the country with her dad, picking up odd jobs and house
remodeling projects. When they are given a year to fix up an abandoned
Victorian mansion named Goldenrod, in the town of New Royal, Iowa, Trina is
excited. This will be the first time in her whole life she has ever lived
anywhere long enough to make friends.
Do you have a favorite part of the
book or a favorite character?
I love the
chapter in which Trina goes to the library. It’s a massive, elegant library way
too big for the town. But that’s part of the mystery. In addition to meeting
wonderful Mr. Kinghorn, the librarian, Trina learns some secrets about the New
Royal townspeople. Plus,
something very special is in her pocket the whole time.
Did you ever workshop this story at
Hamline?
I
workshopped the first chapter at an alumni weekend at Hamline. I remember that
Kendra Marcus, of Bookstop Literary, sat in on that workshop. I felt like Trina
that morning—excited and nervous. Kendra made a suggestion that ended up in the
book.
When did you first begin working on
it? When did you finish?
I began
working on the story in the winter of 2011 and felt I had a reasonable draft
within a year and a half. Revising it, sending queries to agents, landing the
marvelous Sarah Davies as an agent, revising twice for her, waiting as she
found not one but two publishers (Egmont, the book’s first home, closed its
doors just after I finished the first revision) and revising again for Alix
Reid at Lerner, over a period of six months, added four more years to the
process.
As the work progressed from inception
to copy-edited version, what were the major changes? How did those changes come
about?
Oh, man. The
first draft had a prologue loaded with backstory. On top of that, because I
always knew that the house was a character, the first draft handled the story
in alternating perspectives—Trina’s and Goldenrod’s. Fortunately, I couldn’t
keep that up. Better yet, very few people saw that draft. Once I started
working with Alix at Lerner, all my effort to get an inciting incident into the
first chapter went out the window and a major happening moved from page 12 to
page 60-something. Alix suggested we see Trina more firmly in her world,
dreams, problems, etc., before we saw her world change. I think her advice was
spot on. Although that change was deemed by some as a “slow beginning,” plenty
of stuff happens if you don’t know what’s coming.
What research did you do before and
while writing the book?
Because of
my real estate background and my childhood, I know a lot about old houses.
Still, I was forever researching stuff from Victorian design elements to
growing seasons— building codes, lights, radiators, girl’s clothing, and, of
course, goldenrod. I also researched small towns in Iowa and distances between
them and bigger cities. The first name of the town near Goldenrod was simply
Royal. When I discovered there really was a Royal, Iowa, I changed the name to New Royal.
Where did you do most of the writing
for this book?
In my
writing room at the time—overlooking the garden. The revisions took place in my
son’s old bedroom. So much time has passed from start to finish, our house has
changed.
Any final thoughts you’d like to
share?
The biggest,
most rewarding lesson has been this: Don’t ever give up on your dreams. But
sometimes you have to be prepared to change them.
*Jane
O’Reilly grew up in a very old house in Fort Snelling on a Mississippi River
bluff. She is the recipient of a McKnight Fellowship in screenwriting and holds
an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University (MFAC
2009). Today she lives with her husband, cat and dog in a very old house in the
Tangletown neighborhood of Minneapolis. The
Secret of Goldenrod is her first published novel.
You can learn more about Jane on her author's website. If you want to know more about The Secret of Goldenrod, check out this Kirkus Reviews post.
Jane, it is inspiring to read about your journey - long, involved and creative, you kept going and never gave up. It's a terrific book and I look forward to sharing it with some of our Hamline readers.
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