Maybe I can self-publish The Bookish too.

I wrote the article which follows on the Joyce Maynard reading last week. Normally when one wants to pitch an article to a newspaper, it should be done prior to the event. I wasn't sure if I wanted to live the experience or write about it, so I decided not to pitch it beforehand. During the discussion I took a few notes and a couple of pictures and knew I could throw something together. Then, two days after the reading, I pitched it. This is not how someone gets something published in a daily newspaper. Based on my timing, I knew it wouldn't sell but I decided to write and finish the article anyway, just to keep the skill honed.

I have to thank Mrs. Meyer, my 12th grade Journalism teacher, for teaching me enough to carry me through a freelance gig at a newspaper. Her teachings were basic: Tell the entire truth, be objective, and tell the entire truth. This, coupled with an ability to replicate the tone of newspaper writing, got me my first steady paycheck for writing. The editor I worked for gave me enough news to keep me busy and paid and I delivered and, gasp, never missed a deadline. (I only miss my own personal deadlines.) My work was clean, he said, and I realized I knew more than I thought about this type of writing. (Thanks again, Mrs. Meyer.)

I quit writing for the newspaper almost two years ago because I realized that if I covered another town meeting (where the steady freelance money seemed to be) I would be sprinkling Parmesan cheese and freshly grated pepper on my soul for the devil's enjoyment. Even when I started working mainly on features, I was so turned off by the whole experience that it was easy to walk away.

Now I'm thinking of going back. When I sent the late pitch to the editor whom I had written for before, he said to let him know if I was interested in doing any more freelance work. Besides being pretty validating (I had felt I did a good job and left on a high note and this confirmed that), the offer is tempting. Being paid to write, even adding another gig to my writing life, would ultimately be good for me. It would boost my self esteem and probably help me with time management. If I want to make a living writing, I need to take advantage of opportunities to be paid to write. The thing is, I am making a living watching Molly, so money isn't my motivation right now; the work is. So, I would potentially be taking time away from my own work to do work that pays, in addition to being otherwise employed.

Then again, I like writing features and always have. There is something pretty awesome about going to a cool event (like a play, concert or book signing) and then being paid to write about it. It's sort of the dream. Plus, all my favorite writers have some background in either newspaper or magazine writing. It can only help me as long as I set good healthy boundaries. One of these would be no more straight news stories. I lacked boundaries last time I held the newspaper gig. Since it was my first writing job and I had very little experience, I thought it my duty to say yes to every event sent my way, feeling I was lucky to have been offered the various beats. I have never given anything less than my best at any job I've ever worked and for me that included saying no very little. In the end, I had no time for my own work. Now I realize the point of being a freelance writer is to be free. I can take as much or as little work on as I want. If, in the end, they don't need me for features work or don't need me because I'm not willing to write 5-10 articles a week as I was before, then that's okay.

So, I'm thinking about it.

One of the last conversation I remember having with this former editor had him explaining to me, as best he could without going against his fiscal responsibilities at the newspaper, how to negotiate for higher pay. He said he wanted a story (a story I had that could have yielded several articles) and that I should "wave the carrot" in front of him to receive greater compensation. The whole thing made me uncomfortable. Can't you just give me what you think I deserve (and pour my drink like you hate your boss)? I did the best I could but I'm not the negotiating type. I'd have to work on that if I were to go back.

Lots of life lessons in this little freelance gig. Boundaries, fear, opportunity. Rich stuff.

Anyway, here's the article that never ran. And, let's be clear, there is definitely a little bias in this article. (Sorry Patsi.)


Local author returns 'home' for reading of new, NH-based novel



If Dan Brown is the face of current New Hampshire authors, Joyce Maynard is the heart. On Tuesday night, Maynard, a best-selling author who grew up in Durham and later raised her own family in Keene, greeted the standing-room-only crowd which showed up at the RiverRun Bookstore for a reading of her latest work, Labor Day, like she was talking to old friends as, in many cases, she was.

The evening, which included a reading followed by a question and answer period and book signing, was the last stop on Maynard’s New England book tour.

“I can’t think of a nicer way than to end it with you all,” said Maynard, who splits her time now between California and Guatemala.

The author is best known for her 1999 memoir At Home In The World and the controversy it stirred up due to her admission of an affair with famous author and notorious recluse J.D. Salinger when he was 53 and Maynard was just 18.

“I never wrote a book about J.D. Salinger. I wrote a book about me,” Maynard said of the memoir which spans her entire life, from her early struggles with an eating disorder and an alcoholic parent to adulthood and her painful divorce from the father of her three children.

Maynard said she still considers the Granite State home and credits small-town NH life with providing much creative material. This is further evidenced by the fact that Labor Day, the intriguing story of events that befall a 13-year-boy and his single-mother when a stranger comes to stay with them over a life-changing Labor Day weekend in 1987, is set in the fictitious town of Holton Mills, NH.

Maynard said it was the fear of having three driving teenagers out on the winter roads of NH that ultimately pushed her west; a worry any NH parent could understand. And Maynard, despite successes such as being first published in the New York Times Magazine at age 18, having had a novel, To Die For, made into a movie starring Nicole Kidman, and a best-selling memoir under her belt, is still a warm and relatable NH parent.

Fitting then, that Labor Day was conceived and born at the MacDowell Colony, an artist residency program, located in Peterborough, NH. Having taken six weeks of the two-month residency to write another as yet unpublished memoir, Maynard was not sure how she would spend the last 12 days of the program. Not wanting to waste the opportunity and such an ideal writing environment, the author explained how she said a prayer for a story to come, went to bed, and woke up with the voice of Henry, Labor Day’s 13-year-old narrator, in her head as well as the idea for the story. She finished the novel in 10 days.

“I wrote it fast because I couldn't wait to see how the story was going to turn out,” Maynard said, adding that the book was a gift New Hampshire gave to her.

Though Adele, the narrator’s mother in the novel, and Maynard have similarities including, as the author explained, being a single parent in a small NH town, a mother of sons, an incurable romantic, and someone who does not always follow the rules, Maynard said the character is not a self-portrait. A comfort to hear considering the novel is based around Adele’s decision to house an escaped convict over the long holiday weekend. Maynard also explained that though the premise may sound like a thriller of the blood and guts variety, it is actually more of a love story.

“It’s probably the most hopeful book I ever wrote,” she said.

Someone with less tenacity than Maynard might have lost her own hope when it came time to get the Labor Day published. Despite having five novels and four nonfiction works to her credit, Maynard had difficulty getting the publishing world to take on this latest work.

Maynard said “the literary world was not waiting with bated breath” for her next book since in the 10 years since At Home In The World came out, Maynard wrote two novels which were unable to garner encouraging sales figures. The question of whether these poor sales had to do with the quality of the work or the huge backlash she received in response to At Home In The World is something the author herself seems unsure of, though she expressed pride in both works of fiction as well as her memoir.

Many criticized the author for writing her account of what seemed a painful and emotionally abusive relationship with Salinger, whose writing and iconic status is somewhat revered in the literary world. There was more than one head shaking in Maynard’s audience when the writer told the story of getting up to speak at a literary event and having the entire front row of famous male authors walk out.

But the author said it was her daughter’s turning 18, the same age she was when her affair with Salinger began, which compelled her to break the silence she had maintained at her own expense out of misguided sense of obligation. She wanted to speak to the subjects of secret-keeping and shame and the responses and letters she received from readers afterwards affirmed this goal. Though she admits it made her career decidedly harder.

“It was pretty widely condemned,” Maynard said of her memoir. “My name was mud in certain circles.”

This, in addition to the weak sales figures from her last two novels led to rejection when she initially sought publication for Labor Day. After being advised to do so by someone who liked the novel but feared that Maynard’s name would get in the way, the author was pushed to submit the novel to publishers anonymously. Maynard admitted that it was hard advice to hear at age 54, having been writing and building professional credibility since the age of 18, though it ultimately proved to be an extremely validating experience.

“It actually became a very hot property,” Maynard said, explaining how a gossip column in a New York City paper was abuzz with news about a new and mysterious young male author to whom they were giving credit for Labor Day.

Maynard said at some point a rumor was circulating that actor James Franco had written this new novel that everyone was talking about. She said that it came as a surprise to many when she turned out to be the writer behind the voice of her young male narrator.

“But it was too late. They admitted that they liked it,” Maynard laughingly said, adding that she ended up being paid more for Labor Day than any of her previous works.

The novel, which was released in late July, has already been optioned for the movies. Oscar nominated Director Jason Reitman, known for mega-hit “Juno” and the soon-to-be released “Up In The Air” starring George Clooney, has already taken on the project of writing the screenplay and directing a big-screen version of Labor Day.

This must be particularly gratifying for Maynard who took the long way to this success and whose character was attacked along the way as a cost for her honesty and personal and artistic integrity.

“I don’t mind telling you that it came out of some sort of dark times,” Maynard said of her novel.

As At Home in the World recounts and Maynard reiterated during the book discussion, in telling her truth, she has moved into the light. Seeing Maynard’s comfort and lightheartedness with the audience at the reading, there seemed to be no trace of that darkness or the shame she held onto most of her life.

As the author read from a segment of Labor Day dealing with 13-year-old Henry’s discomfort with certain anatomical conversations with his mother, the crowd erupted in laughter.

“I’m so glad you laugh,” she told the audience, to whom she was visibly endeared. “Some crowds don’t understand.”

Indeed, Maynard knows something about being misunderstood.