I would like to share with you the interview that was published in the Ithaca Times newspaper:
Watkins Glen Author Publishes Young
Adult Fantasy NovelBy Karen GadielIthaca Times
The eve of Eliza’s 21st birthday is
particularly magical. She’s spent the lead-up to this milestone renovating her
great-great-grandfather’s house and gardens, she’s just met her true love, and
discovered her inherited talent in witchcraft. When the clock strikes midnight,
she will come into her full powers and the battle will begin.
Watkins Glen author Brenda Crout lives in circumstances as
beautiful – and filled with hard work – as those of the heroine in her young
adult fantasy novel, Eliza. The house she and her husband built
themselves, while they both worked at full-time jobs, is perched atop a hill
overlooking the Seneca Lake valley. She is a daycare provider who writes in the
short stretches of her charges’ naptimes. Many weekends each year are spent as
helper and member of the pit-crew for Kendale, her 12-year-old son. He competes
in – and frequently wins – go-cart races in venues across the eastern and
mid-Atlantic U.S. When he’s not competing, there are racing sponsorships to
invite or thank, as well as the myriad demands of family and job.
Crout said she often talks to her daycare children about dragons
and fairies and plays imaginative games with them. Writing a book was on her
“bucket list,” so she decided to try it for her own amusement, originally
telling only her mother and best friend about her new hobby.
“I never took a writing class,” Crout said, adding that she also
doesn’t think she’s finished reading a book since high school. When she began
writing this one, “The only thing I knew was the title and I’m going to write a
book,” she said. Character names were borrowed from family and friends –
including her beloved pet Ben the Beagle, who died last summer.
While writing, she also provided hospice care in her home for
her mother-in-law, who also encouraged her and made her promise to complete the
story. After the older woman’s death, “grief made me finish it,” Crout recalls.
Then she gave it to her mother to read.
Like Eliza’s mom, Mother Nature, Crout’s mother took major
responsibility for making the magic happen. Her mother loved the story, “But
that’s because you’re my mother,” Crout objected. Unbeknownst to her daughter,
“Mother Nature” submitted the book to three publishers.
She treated the first book acceptance as a crank phone call, and
needed a lot of persuading before she took it seriously. Two more acceptances
followed, but she decided to have the book published by Tate, the company that
made the first call.
From there, things “just kind of went to town,” Crout said. “I’m
just a country girl who plays with kids all day. I am amazed. Things are kind of
exciting.”
So is the book. Just as Eliza is beginning to grow into her
magical powers, she’s given a glimpse of her long-lost father. Long believed
dead, he’s a captive of Skele-Phang, king of the demons, who offers Eliza a deal
– her hand in marriage will buy her father’s life. How can Eliza refuse?
Crout is trying a few unusual promotional ideas, like competing
in the annual cardboard boat race in Watkins Glen, paddling a homemade craft at
the foot of Seneca Lake that was, naturally, painted blue and christened
“Eliza.” Of course, they won in their class. Friends who were characters in the
story were among those at a release party. Many, photographed with costumes and
props, now have a special place in her personal “Eliza” album. The central
character, partly modeled on Crout, is apparently so convincing, several of her
closest friends asked her when she traveled to Egypt, and why didn’t they know
about such an interesting part of her life?
Crout has not yet been to Egypt –yet – though she would love to
travel more. In the meantime, she continues to write. The next story offers more
adventures to her friends and furthers the narrative left off at a tantalizing
point at the end of Eliza. And she continues to see her own life as
magical. “I appreciate every day that my bother believed in me and took things
further. If writing takes over [her work life] that would be great!”
Eliza, priced at $17.99, is available at bookstores,
and online, including from the publisher, amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.
Watkins Glen Author Publishes Young
Adult Fantasy NovelBy Karen GadielIthaca Times
The eve of Eliza’s 21st birthday is
particularly magical. She’s spent the lead-up to this milestone renovating her
great-great-grandfather’s house and gardens, she’s just met her true love, and
discovered her inherited talent in witchcraft. When the clock strikes midnight,
she will come into her full powers and the battle will begin.
Watkins Glen author Brenda Crout lives in circumstances as
beautiful – and filled with hard work – as those of the heroine in her young
adult fantasy novel, Eliza. The house she and her husband built
themselves, while they both worked at full-time jobs, is perched atop a hill
overlooking the Seneca Lake valley. She is a daycare provider who writes in the
short stretches of her charges’ naptimes. Many weekends each year are spent as
helper and member of the pit-crew for Kendale, her 12-year-old son. He competes
in – and frequently wins – go-cart races in venues across the eastern and
mid-Atlantic U.S. When he’s not competing, there are racing sponsorships to
invite or thank, as well as the myriad demands of family and job.
Crout said she often talks to her daycare children about dragons
and fairies and plays imaginative games with them. Writing a book was on her
“bucket list,” so she decided to try it for her own amusement, originally
telling only her mother and best friend about her new hobby.
“I never took a writing class,” Crout said, adding that she also
doesn’t think she’s finished reading a book since high school. When she began
writing this one, “The only thing I knew was the title and I’m going to write a
book,” she said. Character names were borrowed from family and friends –
including her beloved pet Ben the Beagle, who died last summer.
While writing, she also provided hospice care in her home for
her mother-in-law, who also encouraged her and made her promise to complete the
story. After the older woman’s death, “grief made me finish it,” Crout recalls.
Then she gave it to her mother to read.
Like Eliza’s mom, Mother Nature, Crout’s mother took major
responsibility for making the magic happen. Her mother loved the story, “But
that’s because you’re my mother,” Crout objected. Unbeknownst to her daughter,
“Mother Nature” submitted the book to three publishers.
She treated the first book acceptance as a crank phone call, and
needed a lot of persuading before she took it seriously. Two more acceptances
followed, but she decided to have the book published by Tate, the company that
made the first call.
From there, things “just kind of went to town,” Crout said. “I’m
just a country girl who plays with kids all day. I am amazed. Things are kind of
exciting.”
So is the book. Just as Eliza is beginning to grow into her
magical powers, she’s given a glimpse of her long-lost father. Long believed
dead, he’s a captive of Skele-Phang, king of the demons, who offers Eliza a deal
– her hand in marriage will buy her father’s life. How can Eliza refuse?
Crout is trying a few unusual promotional ideas, like competing
in the annual cardboard boat race in Watkins Glen, paddling a homemade craft at
the foot of Seneca Lake that was, naturally, painted blue and christened
“Eliza.” Of course, they won in their class. Friends who were characters in the
story were among those at a release party. Many, photographed with costumes and
props, now have a special place in her personal “Eliza” album. The central
character, partly modeled on Crout, is apparently so convincing, several of her
closest friends asked her when she traveled to Egypt, and why didn’t they know
about such an interesting part of her life?
Crout has not yet been to Egypt –yet – though she would love to
travel more. In the meantime, she continues to write. The next story offers more
adventures to her friends and furthers the narrative left off at a tantalizing
point at the end of Eliza. And she continues to see her own life as
magical. “I appreciate every day that my bother believed in me and took things
further. If writing takes over [her work life] that would be great!”
Eliza, priced at $17.99, is available at bookstores,
and online, including from the publisher, amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.