Look and Listen

Biography

My debut novel, “The Secret Thief,” actually began in my sophomore year of high school, when I decided to become a writer. Unlike most writers, I wasn’t much of a reader because of problems I had with reading comprehension. But once I decided to be a writer, I started to read, in order to learn about writing. Up until my sophomore year of high school, I’d mainly read Agatha Christie novels. So, I started my study of literature with something light--“Anna Karenina.” I majored in English at Mount Holyoke College, where the demands of literature courses prompted me to train myself to read and comprehend what I was reading. I became an avid reader and received high honors for my thesis, a two-act play titled “Grandmother’s Flower Garden.” The play was produced at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as part of a drama festival. After college, I worked for a couple of years as a reporter for the Southbridge Evening News, one of the smallest daily newspapers in Massachusetts, before becoming a writer and editor in the University Communications Office at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. I am now director of University Communications at Clark. Driven by my dream to become a novelist, I enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt. I wrote “The Secret Thief” as my master’s thesis and earned my MFA in January 2004. Behler Publications accepted “The Secret Thief” for publication after approximately 70 rejections—far fewer rejections than I thought it would take to break into the publishing industry. I tell my students and the members of the writing group I run that if they’re trying to get published and are sick of getting rejected, chin up. I’m proof it can happen. The best advice about writing and publishing that I received and that I can offer aspiring writers is—Persistence is everything. Visit www.judithjaeger.com to read more about “The Secret Thief” and learn more about me.

Inspiration

Can Batman and Hello Kitty coexist? In my world they do. In fact, it's my hope that Hello Kitty and Batman can one day join forces. Just imagine what we could achieve! Batman and Hello Kitty are two of my favorite characters--Hello Kitty because my mom and dad bought me Hello Kitty stuff when I was a kid and I just loved it. All those cute, extra-small colored pencils, erasers, travel kits and purses. I'm so happy it's all coming back. I've dragged out all my old Hello Kitty stuff and feel licensed to buy more. You can't get cuter or sunnier or happier than Hello Kitty. I love Batman because of his darkness, his actions motivated by great pain, anger and vengeance. He helps people, but he also hurts people. It's that gray area in Batman that fascinates me and his countless fans, because it's so human. We all have that gray area in us. These are the two sides to everything in life--the darkness and the light, the Batman and the Hello Kitty. One cannot exist without the other. They are the roots of all human motivation. And they are what attracts us to stories, because stories--novels, movies, plays, short stories--illustrate for us how humans can move from a place of pain and anger, to a place of peace and love, how we can endure the darkness to emerge, stronger and more whole, in the light. Stories let us experience this transformation, preparing us for a time when we will have to undergo it ourselves. I write my fiction from the place where Batman and Hello Kitty meet. In my novels, you'll find a lot of darkness and a lot of humor, sinister characters and genuinely nice ones, pain and love, sadness and, in the end, great joy. My specific influences include: Joseph Campbell, comparative mythology scholar and author of many books on the subject. Campbell was made widely popular through a PBS series with Bill Moyers called The Power of Myth. The PBS series was a long interview with Campbell that introduced audiences to archetypes--the symbols and stories that are repeated in cultures throughout the world. Creation myths, for example, are almost the same in religions around the world. Archetypes are what make stories such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Star Wars (parts one-six) so broadly appealing. The archetypal nature of the stories touch on the most basic aspects of the human experience, shared by all human beings no matter your specific experience. Campbell also coined the phrase "Follow your bliss," meaning do what you love, which is the motto at our house. Eric Darton and Neil Landau, my faculty advisers at Goddard College, MFA in Creative Writing Program. Both Darton and Landau are gifted writers--Darton in fiction and criticism and Landau in fiction, screenwriting and playwriting. During my first two semesters at Goddard, Darton pressed me to consider such key questions as "who is this narrator, and what is the narrator's relationship to the story?" and "why is this story being told?" He also taught me to write broadly, which for me means not including every single movement of a character going from the kitchen table to the kitchen sink. During my second two semesters at Goddard, Landau showed me just how fun and interesting character development can be. He gave me the all-important tools to help me create characters that are worth following through a whole novel. Darton and Landau have had a profound impact on my writing and will forever shape my work. Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club, Choke, Survivor, Lullaby, Diary, Stranger than Fiction and other works. Neil Landau, my second advisor at Goddard College, first suggested I read Palahniuk. It has proven to be one of the best recommendations I ever received. Palahniuk's novels are so outrageous--in premise, language, characters, you name it--that most of the time I read his books with my mouth hanging open in shock and surprise. That's why I read him, though, for the shock and surprise. I'm a very cautious writer, and reading Palahniuk helps me "write toward my edge" as Landau would say. Palahniuk is also just a really good writer. But I don't recommend him to everybody. His books are not for the faint of heart. Peruse his books before reading one--and don't say I didn't warn you. Comic books and superheroes, specifically Batman and Spiderman. I didn't grow up reading comic books and I don't consider myself a serious comic-book buff, but I am fascinated by comic books and superheroes. Comic books and graphic novels interest me because of the use of images to help tell a story and the use of dramatic structure in comic books. The combination of the two make them just one small step away from a screenplay--as Hollywood has also noticed. Superheroes interested me because they employ archetypes so well. For instance, there is an archetypal story of the child's search for the father. Then you look at Batman, Spiderman and Superman (the ones I know the most about), and they are all orphans. Even Lex Luthor, Superman's nemesis, is an orphan in a way--his mother dead and his father absent from his life. Superheroes are a great way to study modern translations of archetypes and mythology.