I would like to welcome author Jerri Garretson from Ravenstone Press to Fallen Angel Reviews. Thank you, Jerri, for taking the time to sit down and answer a few questions for us.

For those who may not be familiar Jerri and her books, you can find out more at her website at www.ravenstonepress.com.

To start this interview off, why don’t you tell us a little about how you graduated from being and avid reader to an author?

Before I started school, I wanted to go badly, so I could learn to read. In those days, they didn't teach reading in kindergarten and I was mightily disappointed. I loved my wonderful first grade teacher, Miss Margaret Rose, because she taught me to read. I loved the world of stories from the beginning.

Before I could write them, I was playing out story scenarios with my friends, or "acting" them out alone playing all the parts. It was a very natural progression to start writing them down to share with others. I started writing as a child, but I didn't think of writing books until much later. First I wrote feature articles for newspapers and children's magazines.

I might have started writing books sooner if I hadn't been busy doing a lot of other things. It took me a long time to realize that what I really wanted to do was go back to what I loved as a child -- making up stories, drawing pictures, and doing research -- which is also why I became a librarian. That's a wonderful career to combine an interest in books, playing research detective, and ferreting out an incredible variety of information for people -- and it also provides a tremendous amount of interesting material for writing.

You write a lot of children’s books, can you tell us a little about your books?

I write stories for all ages. I got started writing the books I've done for Ravenstone Press because as a children's librarian people (teachers, parents, kids) kept asking me for Kansas stories for kids and there were very few. I thought that was a niche I could fill, and I began writing them with Johnny Kaw - The Pioneer Spirit of Kansas, a tall tale about a giant character who shaped the land and trails of Kansas.

I've written three Kansas tall tales. The other two are Kansas Katie - A Sunflower Tale and Twister Twyla - The Kansas Cowgirl. I had a lot of fun writing them, and discovered that although I wrote them for children, adults enjoy them, too, and see things on a different level.

I've also done a middle grade novel, Imagicat, about a boy who finds an invisible, talking cat in his room, a nonfiction book of thirteen stories about my grandmother's childhood on the prairie, and my most popular book, The Secret of Whispering Springs, which is a mystery and ghost story for young adults. That book brings me fan mail that I really enjoy, from a fifteen year-old football player in California to a 92 year-old great grandmother here in Kansas.

As a children's librarian, I read a lot of children's and young adult books, so it's a genre that comes naturally to me. I am no longer a children's librarian. Now I work for a university library but I will always have children's literature in my heart.

I noticed in 2005 you published your first adult fiction, can you tell us what inspired you to write a novel for adults?

I haven't written a novel for adults, though The Secret of Whispering Springs is read by many adults. I wrote fiction for adults from time to time but hadn't tried to publish it until the four stories I contributed to Trespassing Time - Ghost Stories From the Prairie. I wrote a strange story called Fireball Faye and was trying to figure out where it belonged. It seemed to call for more. After writing The Secret of Whispering Springs, I was fascinated with ghost stories and the response to them and came up with the idea of doing an anthology.

Faye needed companion pieces. I proposed to three of my author friends, Barb Baldwin, Linda Madl and Sheri McGathy, that they submit ghost stories for possible inclusion in an anthology. It became a collaborative project we all enjoyed immensely. I wrote three more stories for the book and found writing horror stories for adults an absorbing new challenge.

Do you find it easier to write children’s books or adult books?

I haven't found that one or the other is easier to write. Each has its own challenges, but in both cases, it's important to be a good storyteller. An adult audience will bear with you longer if you don't get right into the story, or if you go off into longer descriptive passages than children will. You'd better grab their interest on the first page or you aren't likely to keep them reading.

In current children's literature, you can write about just about any subject as long as it is in an age appropriate way. Some children's novels are as long as some adult novels, but most are considerably shorter. That doesn't mean they are easier to write, just more compact. I love children's books, from picture books through young adult novels. There are some authors who only write for one audience or the other, but there are also a fair number who write for both children and adults. I'm delighted to be among them.

Out of all your stories, do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?

I suspect that I'm like many other authors whose characters seem real to them. This question is akin to the one I almost always get when I do author presentations in schools, asking which is my favorite book. I have a hard time choosing either a favorite character or a favorite book, because I like them all or I wouldn't have written them.

However, if I had to choose a favorite, it would be Annie in The Secret of Whispering Springs. She is the ghost of a fourteen-year-old girl who has been dead over a hundred years, yearning desperately to communicate with someone and find out her family's dark secret. It intriguing to write about a ghost who was lonely, jealous, and who had to save modern-day humans if she was ever going to complete her quest.

Are you currently working on any new projects? If so can you tell us what to be expecting?

Right now my big project is moving two households to Florida -- ours and my mother's, as well as my company, Ravenstone Press. Since I am still working as a librarian (until June 14) and running my business, there is precious little time to write. It seems to be a time for marketing and for storing up ideas. Ideas often need awhile to sort of "percolate" around in the brain until they are ready to be written. I'm not sure which of the ideas that I'm considering now will be first, but I am virtually certain it will be another ghost story. Barb, Linda and Sheri want to do another anthology of ghost stories. I would enjoy working on stories for that, too.

I've been seeing a number of discussions on the Yahoo groups about Happily-Ever-After. Do you feel that HEA is necessary for you?

No, I don't think that Happily-Ever-After fits every story. Certain kinds of stories virtually require HEA, but many don't, and it would be false to try to tack that onto them. Some stories naturally have a tragic end, or some other kind of ending that fits with them, and you'd lose the emotional impact of the story by compromising that. I think there is room for all kinds of stories, and many readers like variety.

In the four stories I wrote for Trespassing Time, two definitely did not have a happy ending, one had an ending in which the main character escaped a horrible fate, but no one lived HEA, and in one, Faye's story, it might have been an HEA ending for her, but probably not for Willie.

The ending should grow naturally out of the story and the ending should be satisfying to the reader, whether HEA or not.

I noticed on your website you mention and list events where you share your work with local libraries, classrooms and local organizations. I feel this is a great way for you to make headway for audiences you might not be able to otherwise. Do you have any events that are coming up that our readers can visit?

I've just completed a marathon of events this spring, visiting public and private schools, bookstores and public libraries. I love doing these programs, though they do involve a lot of preparation and travel. Right now, I'm taking a breather, partly to move, and partly because invitations to do programs usually come during the school or academic year.

So, unfortunately, I can't give you any information about upcoming events that your readers could visit. I could just encourage them to get a copy of Trespassing Time and enjoy the wide variety of ghost stories in it.

Can you tell us a little about Ravenstone, why you started it and what we can expect from Ravenstone in the near future?

I started Ravenstone Press in 1997 as a niche publisher for books set in Kansas or the Great Plains to fill that need I saw as a librarian. As a very small press, I've published seven books and I've been most fortunate that they've been well-received. In the near future, I'll be moving the business to Florida and reevaluating the focus.

The first thing I've done is to create an audio version of the three Kansas Tall Tales on CD. I'd like to create audiobooks from the others as well and an ebook of Izzie - Growing Up on the Plains in the 1880s, the book about my grandmother's childhood. What I'll publish next in a traditional book format will probably be a novel-length ghost story for YAs or adults.

Do you have any advice for others who want to write children’s novels or adult fiction?

If you want to write for children, read children's books voraciously, join SCBWI, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and read Children's Writers' and Illustrators' Market (book published by Writer's Digest Books annually). Join a critique group, which is helpful whether you're writing for children or adults. Just be sure the group you join is a good one that is able to be of real assistance.

Know your markets and your readers. Know children and what they like to read. Don't write trite or preachy stories, but at the same time, don't go far out on the fringes just for the sake of being different. Have a very thick skin and don't give up when the rejection slips start coming in.

Is there anything else you would like to add to this interview?

Ask a good children's or youth librarian for suggestions about great books to read, and if you decide you want to be a publisher, go in with your eyes open, do your homework, and learn how to work in a niche market and be a good businesswoman.

Thank you, Jerri, for answering these questions for us. I want to wish you a wonderful success!

Interviewed by: JoAnn