Releasing this month, Blooming Hollyhocks: Tales of Joy During Hard Times by Naomi Helen Yaeger is a work of creative nonfiction telling the story of the author’s mother growing up in a small prairie town in the 1930s and ‘40s during the Great Depression and World War II. “With faith, family, and grit, she rose from heartbreak to hope, offering a story for anyone who’s ever longed to serve, to belong, or to make a difference.” Naomi Helen Yaeger is a Duluth-based writer, reporter, and Earthkeeper. Her work has appeared in the Grand Forks Herald, the Sioux County Index-Reporter (Hull, IA), the Duluth Budgeteer, and nowadays in Duluthian, Positively Superior, and Northern Wilds. She lives in Duluth, Minnesota, where she enjoys the beauty of nature with her husband and their faithful dog. To celebrate the upcoming release, I am pleased to share this Q&A with the author. You discuss it a bit in the “Note to the Reader,” but what did your research process look like while writing Blooming Hollyhocks? Were there any surprising discoveries you made during your research? Naomi Helen Yaeger: My research involved recording my mom and uncle while asking them questions. I also verified as much as possible. She told me she had a big birthday celebration for her 12th birthday, which was on a Friday. Even though the family was Protestant (Methodist), her mom wondered what to serve because many of the Catholics had to have fish on Fridays, and half the town were observant…
Getting your writing published in a literary journal is an important way to improve your chances of getting your nonfiction (or memoir) book manuscript published. When your writing is published in a literary journal it provides a publisher with evidence you can meet professional standards and others find your work compelling. Literary journals are often considered gatekeepers to the publishing community. Which literary journals should… [Read More]
Filed Under: Creative Nonfiction, Gettysburg Review, Guernica Magazine, Healing Muse, Hippocampus, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Tin House
4 Comments
So you’ve just finished the latest offering by James Patterson, Robert Ludlum, or Pitticus Lore, and you’re wondering if it was traditionally authored, co-written, ghosted, or something else entirely. Good question. In the case of Patterson, who has put out 140 novels thus far – 15 in 2014 alone – he pays others to write the books for him. These writers don’t receive royalties, but… [Read More]
Two novels. Both are set during the Second World War and yet neither is a war story. Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See, won the Pulitizer Prize for fiction this year. Read it to gain an appreciation for what editors mean when they say “character-driven plot.” This is much more than a story about WWII. Marie-Louise is a blind 14-year-old girl… [Read More]
“There’s a long history, of women especially, saying ‘Well, I just got lucky.’ I didn’t just get lucky. I worked my f***ing a** off. And then I got lucky. And if I hadn’t worked my a** off, I wouldn’t have gotten lucky. You have to do the work. You always have to do the work.” –Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things Simply… [Read More]
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that,” Stephen King wrote in his memoir, On Writing. When I hear from aspiring authors they don’t have time to read, I think about Stephen King’s observation. The likelihood of publication plummets when a writer doesn’t read. It IS that simple. As a developmental editor… [Read More]