By Melanie Jackson
msjacksonpei@gmail.com
From a very early age, Patti Larsen was immersed in a world of science fiction and fantasy literature.
While other dads were reading Dr. Seuss to their kids, Larsen’s father was reciting The Lord of the Rings to her. She was six years old.
When Larsen was 12, a friend gave her a Nancy Drew novel – her first young-adult book. She read it in two hours.
That’s when Larsen realized she wanted to be a writer.
“When I closed the cover, I just had this thought in my head: ‘I could do that.’”
She told her parents – both avid readers themselves – of her young ambition. Her mom laughed, but her dad went straight to the closet and returned with the manual typewriter Larsen’s mother had used in college.
I started writing and I wrote and wrote every day,” Larsen said. “I wrote until I was in university.”
But university professors didn’t teach Larsen the business behind being a novelist, and agents were telling her she wasn’t ready to be published.
“I stopped writing…because I had allowed myself to be stopped,” said Larsen.
A few careers – including journalism and hairdressing – and a few decades later, Larsen is now an award-winning author, with 26 books independently published in the past 16 months.
In 2011, Larsen, who currently lives in Alexandra, sold the hair salon she owned to concentrate on reigniting the spark for writing she had as a young girl.
Industry and technology had changed. Authors were now publishing their own work and controlling their own careers.
And Larsen’s career is thriving.
Larsen’s successful pursuit of her childhood dream prompted her to think about how she could help today’s generation of young, aspiring authors.
“I thought, ‘I really should be talking to kids. I should really be in the schools encouraging them to be writers,’” Larsen said.
She decided to reach out to some junior and senior high schools across the province.
A few schools got back to her and expressed interest in having her come talk to students about the creative writing process as well as independent publishing.
In May, she visited Montague Intermediate School to talk to a group of Grade 7, 8 and 9 students who were selected by the school’s English teachers based on their ability and interest in writing.
Mark Quinn, a Grade 9 teacher and librarian at the school, coordinated Larsen’s visit.
“They [the students] didn’t realize that becoming a writer was a career opportunity for them and the workshops with Patti gave them the exposure to the writing profession,” Quinn said.
Together, Quinn and Larsen discussed what kind of product could be developed as a result of the writing workshops.
They decided to have each student write a short story that would be compiled into a collection of their work.
“A short story anthology was a great choice because it gave the students endless choices over what they wanted to write about and the opportunity for them to personalize it based on their interests,” said Quinn.
Larsen said she was excited to read what the students had written.
“The story ideas were phenomenal.”
Larsen then “gently” edited each student’s story and helped them self-publish an anthology, entitled Blame it on September. It’s available online and so far there have been over 150 downloads of their work.
“Students were very excited about having something published and I have had a number of parents speak to me about what a wonderful opportunity this has been for their son or daughter,” said Quinn.
Larsen said she hopes students learned about more than just the writing and publishing process. She hopes the kids learned to believe in themselves and that writing is an internal flame that needs to be kindled.
“If there’s a spark in there, then all the other stuff can be taught.”
First appeared on The Surveyor Online - November 16, 2012
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