This is A Personal Touch, a chance to check in with ordinary people making an extraordinary difference in the world. I’m Rebecca Cressman and today our guest is Julie Berry an author from an extraordinary world as we take a look at the success of her book, The Amaranth Enchantment, your very first book under contract, Julie congratulations.
Thank you so much.
Q: Now I am curious, you have in your real life as a mother of four children, I am curious to see why is it you decided to write a book about a little young girl, a fifteen year old orphan whose life takes some twist and turns. Where did that storyline come from?
A: Oh it evolved in sort of a convoluted way. But orphan children are sort of the stock and trade of fairy tales and fantasies because they don’t have any pesky parents telling them not to run off and have adventures. So that was one reason why Lucinda’s orphan status mattered. But I began this story with sort of a vague sense of what I wanted to accomplish. An image of a girl having adventures and experiences with someone from a different world, a sort of a heaven-like world, and it really came together gradually from there. But I began to realize that her family background was actually very important as I wrote the book because it came about in a roundabout way.
Q: Okay when you say her family background and obviously there are only a few parts of the plot that we want to reveal since so much of it has a lot of twists and turns in the story. Lucinda Chapdelaine is your protagonist, your orphan. And her, right off the top we learn that she has lost her parents because of an accident. They were on their way back from a royal ball, correct?
A: Right.
Q: Okay. And so she finds herself alone and then in servitude with a family member, an evil aunt, and therein has her own adventures as she is trying to set herself free and learn a little bit more about herself. Why was it important for you to bring her back to her parents and find a deeper meaning in who she belonged to?
A: You know, as I said I was originally just getting rid of the parents as sort of a story device, but I began to realize as I got into Lucinda’s character that this sense of loss really defined her. And her sense of yearning for her parents became that deep connection that I could share with her. Now I still have my mother. My father passed away a few years ago, but I think that we can all somehow relate to yearning and to loss. So that really became an important thread for her. And I found as I wrote the story that these parents mattered so dearly to her. And it allowed me to really explore some of my feelings about my own parents and my own family.
Q: Well, and it is interesting because as we learn a little bit more about your life it almost seems idealist. I read that you grew up on a fifty acre farm?
A: That’s right.
Q: Surrounded by animals and chickens and rabbits and ponds full of reptiles. And just the type of environment that begs for a young child to develop an imagination and to have time to explore the world around. And yet as much as you love the outdoors, you say that you were also a bookworm; that you found also delight in the adventures in paper.
A: Well absolutely, and probably part of that is because I grew up in Western New York in the snow belt of the great lakes region. A good half of the year there was really no point of going outdoors, so I did have a wonderful environment to grow up in and putter around in and look for frogs and toads. But I did spend an awful lot of the time reading. And with LDS parents and the Stake Center a full hour away and my parents holding Stake callings, we were in the car constantly. So books were my friends during all those years of schlepping back and forth to the Stake Center two and three nights a week.
Q: Well and I’m curious too, do you see a little and you may have been asked this before, but do you see a little of yourself in Lucinda? Of maybe remembering what it was like for you to want to have adventure as a little one?
A: I always say that everything I write is autobiographical in a way. I absolutely put my own feelings and desires into Lucinda as I created her. That said, I think she is kind of cooler than I am. But I love her scrappiness. I love her feisty problem solving; I love her quick repartee and ability to stick up for herself. Perhaps she is more of what I wish I was, than what I really am, but maybe we never really can see ourselves objectively. So I love Lucinda dearly and I hope there is some of me in her, I guess I will put it that way.
Q: Well interesting too, you have four sons?
A: Right.
Q: Did your sons ask you, “Mom why are you writing about a girl instead of a boy?”
A: They never asked me that so much, but I have gotten that question from a lot of people. And my answer to them is, “I am a girl. And I am writing this book for the girl I once was and for the girls that I hope there still are today who feel like I felt and who love a good adventure story as much as I did and still do.”
Q: Well and I can hear the joy and the excitement in your voice, because this is really, I don’t want to say monumental success, but when you think about it you devoted your life, though you have pursued your education, but you have devoted yourself as a mother raising these boys and yet the dream of being a writer was in the back of your mind. You go to school, you win a scholarship award, yourself a scholarship, and find yourself writing, and only your second book actually gets picked up and published. And there will be a lot of would be writers or would be authors saying, “Wow! Her recipe for success; I wish I had that.” What do you attribute the fact that this story was snatched up so quickly?
A: You know I just feel so blessed and so fortunate. I don’t really know what to attribute it to except that I certainly felt guided and helped along the way. I made a plan and I followed that plan and everything worked so well in the pursuit of that plan. My plan began with just simply writing columns for the local newspaper. And I set that goal and accomplished it and did that for a few years. And then I returned to school and wrote all the way through school. Wrote three novels while I was there, met an agent at a conference in my final year of school. So I truly think that luck and good fortune and the help of friends along the way made a big difference. But also I would say if you have a goal that really matters to you, make a plan and work that plan. And in my case, the pieces just came together so nicely that I think that it was a team effort between my efforts and perhaps…
Q: An opportunity.
A: An opportunity exactly.
Q: Well and interesting, I would like to envision seeing yourself at your dinner table as you are writing and working on your MFA, seeing your young boys sitting at the table doing their homework as well. Are they as impassioned as you are about seeing you become a writer?
A: They are so excited about this and that has been one of the really gratifying parts of this whole adventure. Whenever a mother sets out to accomplish a goal for herself, she is likely to be riddled with some self doubt along the way as she wonders, “Am I harming my children as I take some time away from them, and as I perhaps even take some resources out of the family budget to pursue my dream? Is this going to hurt them?” And I have seen so many good things come to my children as a result of this. Their own reading ability has blossomed as I have dragged them to the library week after week and as I have filled our home with children’s books. And to see them today just running up to strangers in the store and saying, “My mom’s an author.” It is just delightful. And so I have no regrets for the time I invested having hurt them in any way, because I think this has been a gift for all of us.
Q: Well and the book is called The Amaranth Enchantment. And because it is getting so you have won awards and you are getting some critical acclaim, there is always a follow up question of okay, you have worked your enchantment in the world of Lucinda, would there be a sequel to Lucinda or would you envision your self creating an entirely new story?
A: Well I certainly hope there will be a sequel and I am putting together some thoughts on that right now. But there will be other stories as well. In fact some are already in the works. And so I will be sure to let you know when there is more to say about them.
Well congratulations Julie, and thank you so much for sharing some time with us here on A Personal Touch. The book again, The Amaranth Enchantment, brand new publication out just in the month of March, by Julie Berry. Julie, thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you Rebecca, it was a pleasure.
And I am Rebecca Cressman. We want to thank you for joining us on this week’s edition of A Personal Touch. Be sure to check your email next week to find out who else like Julie Berry is making a difference in our world with A Personal Touch.
End of interview.
