7 Questions For: Author Jessica Lawson

Jessica Lawson holds a BA in Spanish and an MS in Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resource Management. She’s worked in the nonprofit sector (with charitable-giving foundations), as a preschool teacher, at a dude ranch, and on National Forest trail crews. She lives in Colorado with her husband and children. The Actual &Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher is her first novel. - See more at: http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Jessica-Lawson/414413200#sthash.aKeh1vOK.dpu

Jessica Lawson holds a BA in Spanish and an MS in Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resource Management. She’s worked in the nonprofit sector (with charitable-giving foundations), as a preschool teacher, at a dude ranch, and on National Forest trail crews. She lives in Colorado with her husband and children. 

The Actual and Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher is her first novel. Click here to read my review.

And now Jessica Lawson faces the 7 Questions: 

Jessica Lawson holds a BA in Spanish and an MS in Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resource Management. She’s worked in the nonprofit sector (with charitable-giving foundations), as a preschool teacher, at a dude ranch, and on National Forest trail crews. She lives in Colorado with her husband and children. The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher is her first novel. - See more at: http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Jessica-Lawson/414413200#sthash.aKeh1vOK.dpuf

Jessica Lawson holds a BA in Spanish and an MS in Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resource Management. She’s worked in the nonprofit sector (with charitable-giving foundations), as a preschool teacher, at a dude ranch, and on National Forest trail crews. She lives in Colorado with her husband and children. The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher is her first novel. - See more at: http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Jessica-Lawson/414413200#sthash.aKeh1vOK.dpuf

Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

That’ll change every time you ask, but right this instant I’ll stick with kid lit and say Rumer Godden/Barbara Cooney’s picture book The Story of Holly and Ivy, Roald Dahl’s Danny, The Champion of the World, and Beth Hilgartner’s historical middle grade novel A Murder for Her Majesty.

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

Not as much as I’d like! I try to find an hour or so during the day to write and I read about thirty minutes to an hour at night. My preference would be to write in the early morning, but babies tend to put a damper on preferences. As do 5-year-olds. With kids, it’s really just about writing and reading “in the cracks” and finding time wherever/whenever it presents itself.

Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

I was a stay-at-home mom who was watching too many reruns of Gilmore Girls, so I started writing in the summer of 2009 as a hobby—at least that’s what I told myself (it helped to keep my expectations low, which comes in handy when amassing rejections). 

In the fall of 2009 I started querying. My first effort was a women’s fiction novel set in a small town eerily similar to the one featured in…Gilmore Girls. Needless to say, that manuscript was trunked and padlocked. I soon realized that, as a woman who was still re-reading Where the Red Fern Grows in my 30s, maybe I should try writing for a different audience. 

I wrote/queried several other manuscripts (both middle grade and young adult) before writing The Actual and Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher, the manuscript that landed me both an agent and a book deal. Middle grade literature is my comfort zone and the resting place of my heart, both in reading and writing. 

Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

I’d say both. There are writers out there who were born to write—the people who seem to innately live the written word and it pours out of them compulsively, whether they want it to or not. As for me, it feels like a return to something that always fit me well, but that never really registered as a possibility for a career.

I’ve put a lot of effort into learning more about writing in recent years, but I still feel like a raw scrapper—more of a Rudy-type, who got really lucky with publication because of persistence, practice, love of books/writing, and the ability to take a lot of rejection without giving up, rather than because of a pure, natural skill.

Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

My favorite thing is finding a character who seems special—who makes me want to discover and write their story. 

Least favorite thing is feeling guilty when writing takes me away from personal family time.

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

 

Set deadlines for the writing goals you want to accomplish as motivation, but don’t worry too much if those deadlines get extended…and extended again. 

Concentrate as much on the learning process and on writing the best story you can write as you do on rejection/request ratios. 

Find a solid critique partner or four who will give you honest and helpful feedback, keep you accountable, and join in your struggles/successes.

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

Barbara Park. When I heard about Barbara Park passing, my heart hurt so much. The genius of her Junie B. Jones books is that they appear so effortless, but that voice, my goodness. They say that laughter is the best medicine, and Ms. Park was an understated master of blending laughter and truth. I would like to be able to tell Ms. Park that the joy she’s brought to several of my family members, both in easy times and times when we all could really use a smile, is immeasurable. I’d like to personally thank her for that.

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Book Review: THE ACTUAL AND TRUTHFUL ADVENTURES OF BECKY THATCHER by Jessica Lawson

First Paragraph(s): My left leg twitched at the tickle of another night-boy. Hidden by the wide trunk of a river sycamore, I shifted in my crouch and reached a hand inside Jon’s overalls to trap and smack the creeping skitter. Darn things had been a considerable nuisance since I settled myself along the Mississippi to have a look-see at the grounded steamboat and its crew. 
The men had piled onshore and hauled sitting logs from the brush while I played at them being pirates and me being a stowaway. With the help of passed flasks and a roaring riverside fire, they’d gone from grumbling to mighty spirited in the last hour, and before long I got sucked in by a story one of them was reading from a tablet of writing paper. I was tolerably invested in the tale of a dimwit and his ornery bullwhip—the dimwit having whipped himself nearly to tears while the bull watched—and barely had time to react when the listener nearest me rose with a chuckle and a belch. 
While the crew applauded the story’s end, I deepened my crouch and slunk farther behind the tree, checking to make sure Jon’s marble sack was still stuffed into one of my hip pockets. 
The belching man stumbled around the fire with a happy laugh. “You mean to tell us,” he said, lurching at the storyteller, “that you put those words together in your own head?” 
 “That’s how writing generally works,” the story man said, standing and stretching. “Think up a few lies, put them to paper. I imagine any of you liars would make a fine writer." 

Esteemed Reader, I'm so excited to tell you about this week's book as it was written by an Esteemed Reader such as yourself and it's one of my new favorites. Jessica Lawson is a long time friend of the blog and a fan of the world's finest zombie fiction (mine, naturally). When I learned she had a book coming out, I was curious. When I found out it was a middle grade novel set in the world of Tom Sawyer, I absolutely had to read it.

I love Tom Sawyer almost as much as I love Huckleberry Finn and it's a wonder to me that a Becky Thatcher solo book wasn't already a thing. It's one of those ideas that's so clever you have to wonder why no one else has done it. I'd be hard pressed to think of a concept for a book more likely to appeal to agents, editors, teachers, librarians, and finally readers, than a new story set in Tom Sawyer's world. What I said to Mrs. Ninja when I first saw the book was "all Jessica has to do is write a story that doesn't suck, and she's golden."

Jessica Lawson has done a lot better than simply "not suck." Her writing is fiercely funny and written in the style of Mark Twain while making itself a bit more accessible to the younger readers of today. Does she have the same wit as the literary giant whose shadow is cast over all modern literature and who is remembered as a greater writer than even he could have possibly been? And that there question, which readers are bound to ask, is probably the reason why this book hasn't already been published. Comparisons between Jessica Lawson, debut novelist, and Mark Twain, literary god, are inevitable and just to make certain, her publisher has boxed her brand-new book with Twain's classics.

The marketing is a double-edged sword. It's a swell promotion opportunity for a new writer, but it puts her in the hot seat, not to mention her middle grade story for modern readers is set is Missouri 1860 when slave owning was still a thing (American prison statistics suggest it's still kind of a thing). This tells us that Jessica Lawson is either one of the bravest writers who ever lived or crazy. Well, she's not crazy. She is, however, extremely clever. 

That fellow above in the first few paragraphs of the book is a steam-boat pilot passing through by the name of Sam Clemens. No spoilers, but you long-time Mark Twain fans can be assured that Lawson pays homage where homage is due and includes a very fun plot device that declares her book not to be official cannon before anyone else can. By acknowledging within the story that she is clearly not Mark Twain and her book is its own separate thing, Jessica Lawson skirts around the comparisons and lowers the guard of feisty English majors everywhere.

As for slavery, Becky and her family have Miss Ada, a "colored woman" (alas, there are no n-bombs dropped) who lives with them and cooks their meals and is technically their slave, although the family is from the North and they don't think of her that way. She's with them of her own free will and genuinely cares for Becky, but there are dynamics to that situation wisely left unexplored. Miss Ada is a lot like Alice on The Brady Bunch, an unofficial member of the family. If there's anything that gives me pause about The Actual and Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher, which is a wonderful book, it's this white-washed fence of a portrayal of slavery as "not that bad." You long-time Esteemed Readers may recall I've taken a strong stance on this in the past.

If I wrote this book (why didn't I write this book!?!), I wouldn't be able to resist the temptation of writing about the harsh realities of slave owning (even a nice family from the North might change when moving to the south to discover they can own a person and more people if they like).

And it would be a mistake.

Slavery is a scene steal-er and you can't have just a little of it in your story without it taking over. How will modern readers sympathize with the Thatchers or any of the slave-owners in town if we think of them as true slave-owners? It would put a barrier between us and create a situation that the plot would have to address, drawing focus away from all else.

As I've said, Jessica Lawson is extremely clever. She doesn't deny the reality of slavery, she simply acknowledges it without wallowing or allowing it to become the main event. She does this primarily by limiting the perspective of the novel to Becky. Becky sees Miss Ada as a sort of surrogate mother, not property, and that makes us care for Becky, which is priority one. And besides, Becky Thatcher has plenty to deal with outside of slavery, such as the very real possibility that the Widow Douglas might just be a witch (love this passage):

Sid scowled plenty. “I reckon we’re not. See her red-tipped tools? Might as well be a devil’s pitchfork in that mix. She’s always outside with her crazy weeds and herbs.” He stared at me again, jutting his chin out for good measure. “Evil weeds and herbs. For her spells, I imagine.” 
I squinted at the herbs. One looked like  lavender to me. And I saw a bunch of mint for certain. Miss Ada says it spreads like gossip. But I knew it wasn’t polite to argue too much when a new friend is pointing out the town witch. Besides, those red-tipped tools were a dead giveaway. Everyone knew red was a devil color unless it was on clothes, strawberry jam, the American flag, or Christmas decorations.

I laughed all through The Actual and Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher. It's a fun story with a new take on familiar characters readers are going to love. Younger readers probably aren't going to care about the authorial acrobatics Jessica Lawson is performing. They're going to care that this a witty tale of fun similar to Tom Sawyer, while doing it's own thing.

Becky gains a new best friend in Amy Lawrence and the two give Huck and Tom a run for their money in the adventure having game. I'll let Ruth explain the particulars of their unique relationship:

Ruth ignored her and jabbed a finger toward the stream. “Why don’t you go sit with Amy Lawrence? Her daddy being the town drunk and your daddy being the town judge, you’re bound to run into each other soon enough.” She smiled sweetly, but her eyes stayed as mean as a trapped raccoon. “Oh, and her mama’s dead and I hear your brother’s dead, so you can talk about dead people too.”

For all the fun and excitement, this story has a lot of heart. Becky's brother Jon, who she sometimes called Huckleberry--which becomes important later--has died months before the start of our story. As if this weren't enough grief for one eleven-year-old girl, Becky's mother is severely depressed and has retreated to her bedroom full time, leaving Becky to fend for herself.

Becky has plenty of emotional baggage to unpack by the story's end, but she's also got a problem. Tom Sawyer is a no-good tattletale and needs to be dealt with. Oh, and there's the little matter of traveling criminals on the loose:

Straightening my posture so I looked good and grown-up, I stepped into Daddy’s home office to say goodbye. My eye caught on a poster sitting on his desk. Daddy was nowhere to be seen, so I let my shoulders drop and roll into a hunch while I leaned forward to read. 

WANTED: 2 PRITCHARDS (Billy and Forney) 

Wanted for train robbery, bank robbery, and possible murder. 

Description: Billy Pritchard~near 6 foot tall. Forney Pritchard~considerably shorter. 

Few teeth, longish dark hair, fondness for liquor and tobacco. 

Generally filthy.

Goodness me. I hope those Pritchard boys don't become an issue for Becky and Amy later on:) I'd tell you more, but this review is already too long, so I'll just say that any Mark Twain fan should snap up this book at once. If you're not a Mark Twain fan, you haven't read him, so read this book and then read his and you've got yourself a wonderful weekend ahead:)

Jessica Lawson has penned a truly impressive debut novel that brought me a lot of joy. I respect her as a writer whose considerable skill I can appreciate, but I also like her as a storyteller. The Actual and Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher is a great tale and something extra special readers don't come across that often, but always appreciate when they find.

As always, I'll leave you with some of my favorite passages from The Actual and Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher:

“Makes me think of John 8:32.” “Jon who?” “It’s a Bible verse, dear. John 8:32 says that the truth will set you free.” “Yes, ma’am,” I said, thinking two things. First, that instead of setting him free, the truth would most likely get Danny Boggs a whipping or scolding at home. Second, I guessed that my brother Jon and the Bible’s John probably wouldn’t be friends up in Heaven, having different opinions on what sorts of things made a person feel free.

His lips fell like someone who’d opened up a present and found a pile of cat poop.

That’s a beautiful and dangerous thing to have in a best friend, one that’s not inclined to lie. Daddy would probably plunk honesty in the category of being responsible and grown-up, but telling the plain truth didn’t suit my lifestyle much. I’d been gradually convincing Amy that most lies were right nice, because you were telling people what they wanted to hear, and what could be wrong with making people happy?

“Brought you half a pie,” I whispered back. “Miss Ada made extra.” Maybe it would cheer her daddy up. I heard that misery loves company, but I suspected it would get along with pie, too. Also, I figured Amy was an inexperienced mischief-maker, and it didn’t hurt to balance the idea of bad-doing with a reward of something good-tasting.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: All reviews here will be written to highlight a book’s positive qualities. It is my policy that if I don’t have something nice to say online, I won’t say anything at all (usually). I’ll leave you to discover the negative qualities of each week’s book on your own.