Dream weaver
December 04, 2014
Mary Crockett Hill '91 co-authors young-adult novel.
From time to time, Roanoke College magazine has included news about alumni who have had books published. But in the past year, the number seemed to swell, as did the variety in literary style and genre. Mary Crockett Hill '91 is one of several alumni whose recently released books represent that diversity.
"I've always been obsessed with dreams," says Mary Crockett Hill '91 about the genesis of her new young-adult novel "Dream Boy."
"It seems a strange thing to me that we go to sleep at night and tell ourselves stories, and the stories we tell say some interesting things about ourselves," says Hill, who co-authored the book with Madelyn Rosenberg, a Northern Virginia-based former newspaper reporter and journalism professor. "I thought it would be kind of cool to explore the idea of questioning what is and isn't real in our dreams."
Hill, a former writing teacher at Roanoke College, is an award-winning poet who has also written a history of Salem and served as director of the Salem Museum, but this is her first published novel. "It was a bit of a stretch to go from poetry to novels," she acknowledges. She found herself thinking about language differently, and had to remind herself that in prose, "the story is the thing." "Dream Boy," a young-adult novel, was published by Sourcebooks and released on July 1.
The book's plot is described by WinterHaven Books, a YA book blog, with this: "Annabelle Manning feels like she's doing time at her high school in Chilton, Va. She has her friends at her lunchtime table of nobodies. What she doesn't have are possibilities. Or a date for Homecoming. Things get more interesting at night, when she spends time with the boy of her dreams. But the blue-eyed boy with the fairytale smile is just that - a dream. Until the Friday afternoon he walks into her chemistry class."
The idea of someone in a dream coming to life struck Hill as "a fun way to look at questions of dreams vs. reality." The subject seemed a natural fit for a young-adult novel.
"I love young people," Hill explains. "They are in a really interesting part of their lives. Teens are very alive - maybe it's just the hormones. They are full of ideas, rebellion, and humor, and are always questioning things. They're also very smart."
It was also natural for Hill to turn to Rosenberg as co-author, as the two met 15 years ago while co-teaching a creative-writing class for teens.
The two began without a plan or outline - "just a general sense of a story arc, a character, and a situation," Hill says - and gradually reshaped the material through
extensive editing. "It was interesting to see something that was built out of not only my own imagination but hers as well. It was a conversation through writing."
Of the many writing classes that Hill taught at Roanoke, she believes that her best preparation for co-writing "Dream Boy" and getting it published was a class she taught on the art and craft of the best seller. Hill says she learned a lot about the publishing business while teaching that class and was able to put her learning to good use in finding a publisher for "Dream Boy."
Despite the macabre nature of its plot, and its tagline of "If dreams can come true, so can nightmares," Hill admits that the book is "just ultimately really a fun story."
- James Shell '79