If this were a first novel
Waterford author Beth Turley celebrates publication of ‘If This Were a Story’
If you’re four years old, the “long-term career path” is maybe one of those things you don’t focus on too heartily. More important? Counting the days till Halloween or remembering the names of all of Santa’s reindeer — or maybe mastering the alphabet.
But even as a kid Beth Turley saw a bigger picture.
“I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was in kindergarten,” Turley says. More than that, she realized writing about the experiences and feelings of young persons was important. “I was an obsessive reader, and I was drawn to books and stories that made me feel understood. (As I got older), I naturally gravitated toward the contemporary middle-grade and young adult genres, and when I decided to pursue writing in college, I knew I wanted to focus on writing stories that acknowledged the hard parts of growing up.”
Turley, 26, is a 2010 graduate of Waterford High School with a bachelor’s degree in professional writing and a master’s in creative writing, both from Western Connecticut State University.
And now, Turley is celebrating the publication of her debut children’s novel, “If This Were a Story.” It hit bookstores Aug. 28 as the first of a two-book deal with the prestigious Simon & Schuster house, and Turley appears at 5 p.m. Friday in Mystic’s Bank Square Books to discuss and sign copies of the book.
“If This Were a Story” is a first-person account of introspective fifth-grader Hannah as she experiences what is turning out to be a not-so-great fall semester. The arguments her mom and dad have seem to be escalating and render her largely invisible. Her best friend Courtney is distancing herself from Hannah with a hurtful degree of meanness. And even the spelling bees at which she excels are diminished because someone is leaving “Nobody likes Hannah” notes all over school.
Though her remaining friend Ryan is still loyal, he can only help so much as the bullying intensifies. Hannah seeks solace from a literary connection to Ambrose, the young protagonist in John Barth’s “Lost in the Funhouse,” but it’s a grown-up’s postmodern short story with linguistic twists and plot gymnastics and she’s not sure how to literally take it all. The school’s counselor is of little help with the bullying and, with nowhere else to turn, Hannah begins to get sympathy from inanimate objects — a stuffed animal, a penny, a stop sign — when they start to speak to her with comfort and encouragement.
Are the voices the product of Hannah’s imagination — a sort of psychological security blanket? — or is she perhaps living out the literary tricks of “Lost in the Funhouse”? Or, worse: Is Hannah drifting into mental illness?
“If This Were a Story” is aimed at the 9- to 12-year-old age group, but it’s not an accident that Turley’s story and prose style could certainly appeal to much older readers.
“My goal was to make the language accessible to kids and adult readers, but to also consciously use description and symbolism in a way that could reveal more layers if the reader wanted to look a little further,” Turley says. “I’ve always liked writing that pushed the boundaries between realism and fabulism and had a literary tone and deeper meaning. So that’s what I aimed for with ‘Story.’”
It’s a fascinating idea, particularly as “Lost in the Funhouse” is by any definition an experimental and complex tale wherein Ambrose is literally and figuratively stuck in the titular amusement ride.
“I read the story in college and it stuck with me, but it didn’t spark the idea for ‘If This Were a Story,’” Turley explains. “I set out to write a book about an incredibly introspective character who feels things deeply but can’t fully articulate those feelings to others. It was about halfway through the writing process that Ambrose came to mind, and I started to consider how I could have Hannah’s journey parallel his.”
But while a recurring Barth theme is pretty distinctive and works compellingly in “If This Were a Story,” it makes one wonder if Turley was a bit concerned about whether it might be a bit too much. To her delight, her agent and editor were not only supportive, but pushed to expand on Ambrose’s role in the book.
In fact, Turley’s agent, Zoe Sandler at the elite ICM Partners agency, says, “That sophistication is not unusual within children’s literature, but I do think it’s what helps books that pull it off attract a crossover audience. I also think it serves as a reminder that the best children’s authors don’t underestimate what their readers can handle — both in terms of the craft of their writing, and the subject matters their books
explore.
“Whether Beth’s intended readers know they’re encountering metafiction or magical realism within the span of her novel’s pages doesn’t take away from the impact the story will have on them. But it does mean those readers may have a whole other appreciation for the book when they return to it at a later age. And that’s the dream trajectory for any author.”
Sandler is clearly a committed advocate for Turley’s work. Even now, though her novel is on bookshelves, the idea that Turley even HAS an agent — much less a twobook deal — still freaks the writer out.
“Querying (to get an agent) is so difficult,’” Turley says, voicing a concern shared by thousands of would-be authors trying to get to the next level on the staircase to publication. “Putting creative work out into the world and facing rejection is a certain kind of painful.”
An earlier manuscript didn’t get any attention, but Turley fought off desperation and the impluse to give up. When she wasn’t at her day job in the proposals office at Sonalysts, she came up with the idea for “If This Were a Story” and wrote the whole manuscript in one month. Shortly thereafter, she was offered representation by Sandler. The feeling, she says, was indescribable.
“As a writer, I should probably be able to put how it felt into words, but I can’t. I cried, I called my parents, I sat around and tried to convince myself it was really happening. (It’s) an absolute dream come true and I’m so grateful.”
Turley is well along in the revisions process for her second middle-grade novel, which will be published in 2019. “I’m so glad I didn’t give up — even when it felt impossible to keep trying.”