I've gotten to know my guest today through a thriving writers' networking group near my home. Her presence is like her writing: calm, thoughtful, and insightful. Joan will be launching her third book in the E.T. Madigan YA series later this month and I wanted to give you a chance to meet her and get to know her work. -cjh
A Strong YA Protagonist
by
Joan Wright Mularz
I write YA mysteries because, as a teacher of middle and high
school students, I felt that I had a pretty good understanding of the issues
teens face, especially females. Growing up in a generation that had
gender-specific expectations, I wanted the opposite — a strong, smart and
capable girl who follows her interests unhindered by gender bias. I also wanted
her to be a positive role model for showing girls that they can be assertive,
active, curious, adventurous and still feminine. My main character for three
books, Ellen Theodora Madigan, loves science and nature, is energetic and fit,
solves mysteries and gets crushes on boys. Finally, I wanted her name to honor
my two grandmothers who were each strong in different ways. Ellen is for my
Nana who raised six children alone after her husband walked out and Madigan is
for my Grandma who emigrated to the States from Ireland on her own at the age
of sixteen.
Each book stands alone even though the protagonist is the same. The main difference is that, while keeping focused on her mystery solving, she matures from a preteen in Italy who thinks boys are kind of annoying or, at best, helpful, to celebrating her 16th birthday in Maine and finding her first boyfriend who supports her in her quests.
For me, the main reason that I wanted a main female character who wasn't hindered by expectations that were gender specific, is because I've always believed that women can excel in any area they choose to pursue. For me, it's kind of personal. I had to assert myself to get an education like my brothers because my parents were of the generation who believed a woman's place was to devote herself to raising children. It wasn't until I finished graduate school and won some awards for teaching that my dad admitted that I had done a good job! With my own kids, I made sure that both my daughter and my son had equal opportunities to grow.
Each book stands alone even though the protagonist is the same. The main difference is that, while keeping focused on her mystery solving, she matures from a preteen in Italy who thinks boys are kind of annoying or, at best, helpful, to celebrating her 16th birthday in Maine and finding her first boyfriend who supports her in her quests.
For me, the main reason that I wanted a main female character who wasn't hindered by expectations that were gender specific, is because I've always believed that women can excel in any area they choose to pursue. For me, it's kind of personal. I had to assert myself to get an education like my brothers because my parents were of the generation who believed a woman's place was to devote herself to raising children. It wasn't until I finished graduate school and won some awards for teaching that my dad admitted that I had done a good job! With my own kids, I made sure that both my daughter and my son had equal opportunities to grow.
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| Arco Felice on via Domitziana, near Cuma, Italy |
In the first mystery, set in southern Italy, Ellen ages from 12-14. She is focused on specimen collecting and exploring and is excited about the ancient ruins and underground places of her new home. When her prophetic dreams suggest that the nearby Cuma hillside has a mystery waiting to be solved, her curiosity is activated. A combination of events involving a strange inscription on a pet collar, an otherworldly pig and witnessing the purported murder of a local farmer, drive her to seek answers. In the process, she climbs a steep rock face, stays cool dealing with a wounded man, asks good questions, is persistent, is pursued by kidnappers, keeps a promise despite freaky circumstances, obtains the assistance of a local Italian family and gets NATO personnel to mobilize.
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| Marienplatz in Munich, Germany |
The third mystery transports 15-year-old Ellen to western Maine
where a Native American story told by her grandfather plus some dreams about
the early Abenaki residents alert her to the possibility of another mystery.
For a while she is distracted by her compassion for a friendless girl at school
and by some strange encounters with loons in the various ponds and rivers. Her
perceptiveness, curiosity, and thirst for history lead her to seek answers to
her questions and solutions to the problems of others.
BOOK THREE-LAUNCHES THIS MONTH!:
Ellen Theodora Madigan sees past events in her
dreams and has the smarts to solve the mysteries they hint at. At age fifteen,
she moves to Rangeley, Maine after spending much of her life living near her
dad’s archaeological dig sites in other countries. She and her family spend her
dad’s sabbatical year at her grandparents’ lake house. She befriends a loner
girl at school, starts having dreams about the first inhabitants of the area,
Abenaki Native Americans, and keeps encountering loons that she feels are
trying to communicate. With the help of her first boyfriend, she solves the
three mysteries: Why is the girl so alone? What are the dreams and the loons
telling her? and Why did the Abenaki leave?
Kirkus Reviews Says: "A winsome tale of a girl whose paranormal gift is only one of the traits that makes her exceptional."
BIO:
Joan Wright Mularz is a YA mystery
author and sometime author and illustrator of picture books. Her short story, The Souk, won honorable mention in the
Bethlehem Writers Roundtable 2017 Short Story Award Competition.
Two and a half years living in Italy became the inspiration for her first E. T. Madigan mystery, Upheavals at Cuma. Six years in Germany led to the writing of the second mystery, White Flutters in Munich. Her picture book, What I Like About My Friends, celebrates the diversity she found through both teaching and travel and another, Island Times, celebrates the multiplication and diversity of animal and plant life found on islands.
She has also written curriculums and educational grants. When not traveling, she divides her time between a small town in Massachusetts and a small town in the western hills of Maine, inspiration for her alliterative alphabet book, Down West — the Other Maine and for her third E.T. Madigan mystery, Maine Roots Run Deep, due out in late November 2017.
Two and a half years living in Italy became the inspiration for her first E. T. Madigan mystery, Upheavals at Cuma. Six years in Germany led to the writing of the second mystery, White Flutters in Munich. Her picture book, What I Like About My Friends, celebrates the diversity she found through both teaching and travel and another, Island Times, celebrates the multiplication and diversity of animal and plant life found on islands.
She has also written curriculums and educational grants. When not traveling, she divides her time between a small town in Massachusetts and a small town in the western hills of Maine, inspiration for her alliterative alphabet book, Down West — the Other Maine and for her third E.T. Madigan mystery, Maine Roots Run Deep, due out in late November 2017.
