Author Spotlight Novermber 2021

 Author Spotlight November 2021

  

Review: “Happy Holidays Meena Mouse.” This great holiday story, teaches children about caring, giving, and sharing is well rhymed. This type of books is hard to write but Ms Trilby Plants does an excellent job doing this. There is no forced rhyme but a clean flow all through out. The beautiful illustrations add to the full story. What made the illustrations unique is the use of Christmas colours all through out. It makes a perfect Holiday book. I also loved the details of the characters facial expressions, it brought them to life. The one thing this book lacked is character development. Overall, I enjoyed this short read. I would recommend this holiday books for children two to five. Since it is meant to target a younger audience. I will give this book four stars.        

 

Trilby Plants is a retired educator who was always a storyteller. She wrote her first story when she was ten. It won a blue ribbon at the Montana State Fair. She has been telling stories ever since and always wanted to be an author when she grew up.

When she first started teaching fourth grade way back when, she had this wild idea that children who authored stories would be better readers. Research now clearly backs this up. She modelled a simple story with input from the entire class and then turned them loose to author their own stories, which they published in little booklets. This was all done by hand, pre-computer days. The kids enthusiastically read each other’s stories and were encouraged to read library books. Not long after she retired, she discovered a file (actual file folder) with two of the stories she had written. “The Giant Rubber Band That Ate New York” will never see the light of day. The other story was about a helpful little frog named Hubert Little, handwritten, and illustrated with crayon drawings. Plants scanned the illustrations, photoshopped them into poses, and added backgrounds while she crafted the story. It became Hubert Little’s Great Adventure. Hubert has grown up and does not want to be a frog. Hubert Little’s Great Wish encourages children to like themselves for who they are.

According to a family story passed down by Plants’ mother, one of her mother’s great-aunts was lost in the woods in northern Michigan in the 1890s. The parents despaired of finding the child alive after two nights of freezing weather, but she wandered out of the forest unscathed. She claimed a “grey lady” kept her warm and fed her. Nobody lived within miles of where the girl disappeared. In Meena Mouse’s Perfect Raspberry, Meena eats the last raspberry. She wants to find another but gets lost in the woods. It is a story about responsibility that every child can enjoy. Happy Holidays, Meena Mouse tells how Meena discovers the true meaning of the holidays.

Plants has published children’s books, fantasy/horror, and romantic suspense. Her fiction has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine and The Petigru Review, the literary anthology of the South Carolina Writers Association. Her story “Retirement,” which appeared in TPR 2018, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. A proud member of the South Carolina Writers Association, she lives in Murrells Inlet, SC, where she writes, knits, and creates animated book covers and video book trailers.

The Questions

1)   What inspired you to become a writer?

When I was six years old, my mother read me Gulliver’s Travels. I was intrigued by the idea of tiny humans and other worlds, while my brother, a year younger than I, was fixated on Gulliver putting out the fire in the Lilliputian town by urinating on it. My brother has always been practical. People and creatures from fantastical worlds inhabit my mind.

In high school, I developed a passion for science fiction and read authors like Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke. My father decided I should be exposed to the classics and paid me a dollar each to read Shakespeare’s plays. He had a copy of R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Russian playwright Karel Čapek, the man who coined the word robot. Reading that play opened my mind to the fantastic and hooked me forever.

 

2)      What did you find most fastening by teaching fourth grade?

When I first started teaching way back when, many children were reluctant readers. I had a crazy idea that if they wrote stories, they might be better readers. Research now clearly backs this up. I would model a simple story with input from the entire class and then turn them loose to write their own stories. We made the stories into books. This was all done by hand, pre-computer days. I discovered kids read more. They read each other’s stories and library books.

One story I saved from my early teaching days is, “The Giant Rubber Band That Ate New York.” It will never see the light of day. In that old file was a story I illustrated with crayons about a helpful little frog named Hubert Little. It wasn’t a “story” in the publishable sense, so I crafted it into one. I scanned the illustrations and photoshopped them into submission. It became Hubert Little’s Great Adventure. And yes, I know octopi do not inhabit swamps, but it still made it into the story. Hubert has grown up, and I revisited him with Hubert Little’s Great Wish.

 

 

3)     Can you please share a bit about your writing process?

I write every day. If I’m not writing, I’m scribbling notes in a notebook or on sticky notes. I used to be a “pantser,” someone who just started a story and went with the flow from the “seat of my pants.” As I learned the craft, I discovered planning is essential. Now I’m a “plotter.” I use software called Plottr to organize my books. I love it. You can take notes on chapters and scenes and plug in images of characters and settings. You can get a free trial here: https://plottr.com/

My process:

·         When I get an idea, I brainstorm it with some writer friends. I take notes because I don’t want to forget some gem that gets mentioned.

·         Then I start writing with no plan. For a children’s book, I write the whole thing with no backtracking, no self-editing, no spell checking, no matter how awful it is. For a novel, I write a few chapters. That’s the fun part. Then I get to work.

·         I write a pitch or logline: main character, conflict/obstacle, stakes. (Example for Happy Holidays, Meena Mouse: A mouse wants to give everybody the perfect gift but discovers there is more to holidays.)

·         Then I make a detailed outline of every chapter and every scene, or for a children’s picture book, every page. Then, I start revising.

 

Of course, plotting out a story is not perfect. Characters have a way of becoming real and following their own paths. In Happy Holidays, Meena Mouse, I hoped to show children that kindness and sharing are important. What began as a simple Christmas wish became a story that includes the holiday celebrations of many cultures. You can read an early draft of the text for Happy Holidays here: https://trilbyplants.com/category/trilby-plants-fantasy-author-trilby-plants-fantasy-author/page/2/

 

 

 

4)     Did you and the illustrator work close together on this book?

If you publish a children’s book with a commercial house, you usually don’t have much say in the illustrations. As an independent author, I have complete control over my books. This is good. It’s also not good, as I am responsible for all the work and all the decisions and must hire an illustrator. My first illustrator was not available for another book, so For Happy Holidays, Meena Mouse, in December 2019 I found an illustrator on https://www.fiverr.com/ whose work I liked. She gave me a sample drawing of Meena, which I loved, and quoted a price for the interior and the cover, and I went with it. I didn’t need the finished product for three months, so I didn’t hold her to a deadline. I supplied her with a copy of the first Meena book and the text for the holiday book. I provided details about what I expected on each spread (two facing pages). Then the pandemic got in the way, and it took longer than expected. The illustrator had great ideas but was amenable to my suggestions. After almost a year, I received the finished illustrations. There were some tweaks to be done, but fortunately, I’m somewhat competent with photo manipulation, and made the changes myself.

 

5)     What gave you the idea, to write about a mouse?

My mother told family history stories in wonderful detail. Her parents were both French Canadian. Her father spoke English but did not read or write it. Her mother, Minnie, was a small woman at five feet one. Mom told me her father called her mom his petite souris, “little mouse,” but she never knew why. My mother told another family story about an aunt. She was three years old and got lost in the forest in northern Michigan in the 1870s. She came back the next morning, and despite the cold, she was unscathed and said a “gray lady” fed her and kept her warm. You can read about it here: https://trilbyplants.com/2014/05/06/meena-mouses-perfect-raspberry/

According to my mother, her mother was a fantastic cook and made delicious raspberry custard tarts. I used all these ideas and came up with a story about a mouse who ate the last raspberry Mama needed for her tarts. I could not call my character Minnie, so I chose a variation: Meena. That became Meena Mouse’s Perfect Raspberry, a story about responsibility. Next came Happy Holidays, Meena Mouse, in which Meena discovers the true meaning of the holidays.

 

6)     Can you please share some wisdom with new authors?

Everybody has stories to tell. My advice is: write it. Write your story and don’t worry about how good or bad it is. You cannot revise a blank page. Find and join a critique group that meets regularly. You need feedback from writers, not just family and friends. The support you will get from other writers is vital, not only for learning the craft, but emotional support. Only writers understand questions about story and character arcs.

If you want to be a published author and have people buy your books, you must view it as a business. Writing is a job. Revising is work. Marketing your book or story is work. Set goals. Ask for help. Read the kinds of books you want to write.

Important: you should never pay an agent or a company to publish your book. Exceptions would be to hire someone to illustrate, format, or promote your work.

 

 

7)     Was it tough to market your book?

It’s always difficult and time-consuming to market and promote a book. Your choices are to submit to traditional publishers, a process that often takes years, or self-publish. I choose to publish my own books because I have total control over my work. My costs are minimal because I do my own formatting with professional software. I used to use InDesign, but am currently using Affinity Publisher, which is as good as InDesign, and produces a press quality pdf, the industry standard. If you can’t do this yourself, you must hire someone to do it.

You need an editor, whether you are submitting to publishers or self-publishing. You want your work to look professional in every way. Even if a publisher buys your book, you must still do your own promoting. Every author needs a platform: social media to spread the word. I would recommend having a Facebook page. You can create a business page without dealing with friend requests. People follow or like you. If you’re on Facebook already, you can steer your friends and family to your author page. I also recommend having another social media outlet, either Twitter or Instagram. Set a schedule for posts. I have read that blogging is old school, but I still post on my website. It’s a way to speak to people and tell your personal story.

 

 

 

 

 

8)    What do you find the hardest to do while book writing?

 

The hardest part of book writing is revision. It’s a painstaking process. Some writers admit to having writer’s block. I have never been a victim because I have too many ideas. As a former educator, I hope children learn from the ideas that make it into my children’s books.

Not all my ideas become novels. Some become short stories.

My son once speculated that shadow creatures lurked in the darkness under cars, waiting to slither out and grab unsuspecting drivers. That inspired the idea for “Retirement” which was published in 2018 in The Petigru Review and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

My husband and I stayed at a place in a forest, and I wondered what would happen if trees moved closer to the house. Aspens are a single organism and live for thousands of years. What if the trees craved human contact? The story is “Trees.”

My daughter once posted on an antique textile page on Facebook, asking questions about aprons. My mind turned to the fantastical, and it became “The Apron.” These stories appear in Other Realities, A Collection of Fantasy/Supernatural Tales.

 

9)     Do you have any future projects planned?

There will be another Meena book: Meena Mouse’s Perfectly Awful Day. Meena goes to school, and everything goes wrong. But it’s not what it sounds like. It’s about sharing and her misunderstanding of a word the teacher uses that sounds like “awful.” Before I get to that one, I am finishing the second book of a two-book series, a young adult fantasy titled, To Hear the Lee-Ath Sing.

I also have a draft of a paranormal I wrote five years ago for National Novel Writing Month in November. It’s about a woman who sees ghosts and inherits a house and all its dark secrets. I signed up for NaNoWriMo as a rebel. I’m not aiming to make the word count. The book is in fragments—chapters and scenes—and I am determined to put it together into a coherent novel for NaNoWriMo.

 

 

10)                       Do you have any advice for our community?

Make connections. Read voraciously. Join writer groups, take classes (but don’t take too much advice from English teachers who are not authors), watch webinars, go to workshops and conferences, and learn the craft. Most of all: just do it!