Please welcome today's guest blogger, Rosanne Parry!
Mentoring and the Life of a Novelist
by Rosanne Parry
When I thought about writing today's blog post, mentoring
is the first subject that came to mind. That's because about ten years ago I had lunch
with Kirby for the first time at a Willamette Writers conference. She was so
warm and encouraging and she gave me some very practical advice about the story
I was working on at the time, Written in Stone. I remember thinking, why on
earth, when publishing is such a competitive field, would any author ever offer
another advice of any kind? It seemed counter-intuitive, especially when you realized that thousands of books
are rejected for every one published.
But that lunch with Kirby was not that unusual. Time and again I’ve
been astonished by the generosity of my fellow writers. Here are a few who were generous mentors to me many years before I showed any promise as a
novelist:
Susan Blackaby
Carmen summed up the benefits of mentoring very nicely.
She pointed out that I could not write a book like hers even if I spent years
studying her specifically, nor could she steal an idea of mine and have it come
out remotely like a book I would write. “I have nothing to lose from helping you,
Hermanita, and much to gain,” said the very wise Carmen.
Here's another way to look at it. A book is not a
car. People traditionally replace cars every five to eight years. Not so with books. People don’t buy a book, love it, and then not buy another for five to eight years. One book leads to another. So it’s in my interest as a working novelist to elevate the quality of books in
print because the more people read books they love, the more they want another
book. It’s the happiest of addictions!
Today I wanted to thank two women who were wonderful mentors
to me on my very first job out of college more than 25 years ago. Veronica
“Mice” James and Kathy Law worked at Taholah Elementary when I arrived there to
teach in 1987. Mice was, and still is -- three generations later--, the Quinault Language and Culture teacher. Kathy is a
historian and, at the time I arrived, was the school librarian. Both these women warmly
welcomed me into their community and answered a thousand questions that first
challenging, exhilarating teaching year.
My own daughter is graduating from
college this year and I am praying she’ll find such women as Mice and Kathy to
nurture her though those first years as a professional woman in the world.
If my husband had not been an Army officer I think we would
have settled in Taholah for the long term, but as life would have it I moved
away from the Olympic Peninsula in 1989. But the place and the people had a
hold on my heart and imagination in a way I couldn’t ignore for long. I started
writing Written in Stone a year or two before the Makah resumed their whale
hunt in 1999.
Kathy and Mice were encouraging from the start and offered me many
useful sources of information including unpublished doctoral research. More
importantly they were willing to help me understand the parts of their culture
that are not recorded anywhere but in the hearts of their own people—in
particular the practices of grieving the death of parents. I could not have
written this book authentically without them and my editor would never have
accepted it without their input. So a
hearty See-oh-qwee-al (thank you) to my Quinault mentors, Mice and Kathy. I
can’t wait to bring this book to the school where I taught so many years ago
and to the children, now grown with children of their own, who inspired me to
write it.
Thank you, Rosanne, for this touching insight into the history behind your new book. What a powerful connection to your own past, and to the Quinault past, this book offers. Siqwil!
Two authors who were known for their mentoring and encouragement of new authors were Ray Bradbury and Madeleine L'Engle. So many writers who went on to do well could look back fondly and remember their encouragement. I think it's one way of passing the torch.
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