By Julianne Fullerton | Reporter
With her debut novel entitled “102 Days Of Lying About Lauren” set to be published in June, Dr. Maura Jortner, senior lecturer in English, is no stranger to the highs and lows that writing a book can bring.
“102 Days of Lying About Lauren” is a middle-grade novel about a young girl named Mouse, who was abandoned at a theme park and now hides in its haunted house while pretending to be an employee. Trouble begins to rumble when her identity is on the verge of being discovered.
While this is Jortner’s first novel to be published, she said her love for writing started a long time ago when her oldest daughter asked her to tell her a story.
“I found that I couldn’t remember all the details,” Jortner said. “It was getting kind of long and complicated, so I decided to start writing it down. I suddenly thought, ‘Oh, wow, this is really fun.’
“It’s been a really long journey, but it’s been really wonderful as well,” Jortner said. “I really enjoyed writing the book, and I really enjoyed the editing process.”
Jortner’s inspiration for the book came from a trip to an amusement park. Although the original plot didn’t pan out, Jortner said she worked with her editor at Holiday House Publishing to come up with a storyline that would truly capture the reader’s imagination.
Sally Morgridge, her editor at Holiday House Publishing, said she especially noticed how clear the main character’s voice was.
“What spoke to me from the very first page is this character, who’s 12,” Morgridge said. “She’s tough and wise beyond her years. I think the character will win any person with a heart. It’s a book unlike any other.”
Morgridge said she admires Jortner for the way she handled the feedback she was given, especially throughout the long, arduous editing process.
“Maura was a tireless reviser,” Morgridge said. “I put her through more than most. I just knew that the story had so much heart coming from that character, and I wanted to make sure that the book lived up to that.”
“102 Days of Lying About Lauren” was named a Junior Library Guild Standard Selection, and Jortner said she could not be more thrilled about receiving this honor for her debut novel.
“I didn’t even know that my book was being considered for this,” Jortner said. “That was really exciting, because debut authors don’t normally get this.”
Jortner said she encourages aspiring authors to come up with a plan — something they can commit to daily — and to be persistent. For herself, this looks like committing to write a certain number of words per day because, in the writing industry, word count is more important than the number of pages.
“When I commit to writing a book, I commit to writing 1,000 words a day,” Jortner said. “Now, that sounds like a huge amount, but it’s only about four pages.”
Jortner also said she encourages aspiring authors to have thick skin and remember that criticism is given to authors with their best interests in mind.
“A writer does need to learn how to accept feedback,” Jortner said. “When people are saying something critical about something that I wrote, they’re doing that because they want the piece to be successful.”
“102 Days Of Lying About Lauren” is set to be published on June 20. Once it’s published, there are plans for a book launch to be held at the beginning of July at Fabled. To watch for news about her book launch, visit her website at maurajortner.com or follow her on Twitter @maura_jortner.
