Former Saratogian reporter pens debut novel
BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. » Former Saratogian reporter Cari Scribner is now an author with the upcoming release of her debut novel “A Girl Like You.”
After writing features and reporting news for The Saratogian for decades, the Ballston Spa-based writer has turned to fiction.
“A Girl Like You,” a rom-com about a 50-something divorced woman venturing into online dating, is being released on Tuesday, Feb. 9, after which it will be available at Northshire Bookstore in downtown Saratoga Springs and on Amazon.
A recent Publishers Weekly review of the novel said: “Fans of women’s fiction will want to take a look.”
Over the past five years, Scribner has worked on getting her short fiction published in literary journals, while looking for an agent for the completed novel.
“I queried over 100 agents and was turned down by all of them,” she said in a press release. “So, I changed my query letter and contacted them all again. But I refused to throw in the towel.”
Scribner connected with Mindbuck Media in Portland, Ore. last winter. Shortly after, the publicity firm branched out into publishing, launching Circuit Breaker Books. Its creators accepted “A Girl Like You” as their first publication.
“Simultaneously, as things happen in life, I got another offer from a well-known publisher, but decided to go with Circuit Breaker because of their enthusiasm for this project,” Scribner said in the release. “After that, everything fell into place.”
Does art imitate life? Scribner remains mum on that question, but did share that she is a divorced mom of three grown children.
“I had a goal of sharing the funny, odd, frustrating scenario of a middle-aged woman dating,” Scribner continued. “This is a novel in which the main characters aren’t 20-year olds. I think novels like this are too few and far between.”
Scribner believes her experience at The Saratogian has helped in her career as a writer. “It takes confidence to be a reporter and walk into a room of strangers and talk to them. That confidence has carried over to my fiction writing. I know I have my own unique voice and can tell stories in ways no one else can,” she said. “What’s more, I can write on tight deadlines and meticulously edit copy!”
After majoring in journalism at The College of St. Rose in Albany, Scribner started as a stringer at The Saratogian more than 20 years ago, then covered her hometown of Ballston Spa for about 15 years.
This was her dream job, said Scribner, who recalls learning from former editor Barbara Lombardo and working in close quarters where the reporters’ chairs often bumped into each other at the old newsroom in downtown Saratoga Springs.
Scribner considers herself fortunate to have covered many different events over the years, from fireworks displays in Congress Park to school board meetings and elections to tomato growing contests at the Saratoga County Fair. “I was once assigned to rate sundaes at all the local ice cream shops; that was a great summer,” she said, noting that she also covered the Town of Malta at a time of explosive growth with Global Foundries on the horizon.
Scribner’s children, who were small at the time, used to admire her on the job. “Sometimes I brought my kids along and they scribbled in notebooks pretending they were news reporters too,” she said.
Throughout her career, Scribner has gained some other admirers as well, some through her work with the New York State Writers Institute, where she studied the art of fiction.
Paul Grondahl, director of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany, said the institute has a
long and proud legacy of nurturing writing talent by offering free community writing workshops in a variety of genres.
Scribner was accepted into several New York State Writers Institute workshops during the last two decades.
“For more than 25 years, aspiring authors have credited Writers Institute workshops and the acclaimed writers who teach them with helping them hone their writing craft and becoming published authors,” Grondahl said in the release. “Our writing workshop alumni also express gratitude for the support they received by the strong sense of community that developed and how they built lasting professional and personal connections.”
Grondahl wishes Scribner all the best with the novel. “It is heartening to know that Cari Scribner brought the literary skills she learned in Writers Institute workshops to bear in her debut novel, A Girl Like You,” he continued. “We are pleased to have played a role in her growth as a writer.”
Scribner had an early workshop with local fiction writer Douglas Glover, who also supports her latest endeavor. “Cari Scribner was a student of mine at the New York State Writers Institute in Albany. She was a lively, intelligent young writer with an exceptional flair for prose narrative that was unusual in a student,” Glover said in the release. “I knew it was only a matter of time before her first book would appear.”
Additionally, Scribner was in both fiction and memoir workshops with author James Lasdun.
“I’ve had a great number of talented writers in my workshops whose work saw its inception in class,” Lasdun said in the release. “In my writing workshops, Cari had already developed her own voice. I am pleased to see her releasing a debut novel.”
As she anticipates the release of her first novel, Scribner is already at work on a sequel titled “A Place Like This.”