HOLLAND — As the calendar turns from October to November, Herrick District Library is kicking off National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) with a series of events centered around West Michigan authors.
Local authors are invited to an “I Wrote a Novel — Now What?” virtual panel discussion beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1.
The event includes a panel of authors — Jen Ferguson, Elisa A. Bonnin, Lora Senf and Charlene Thomas — and will be moderated by local author and librarian Lindsay S. Zrull.
Zrull — whose book “Goth Girl, Queen of the Universe” was published this past July — said it’s a culmination of years of hard work and dedication.
Zrull, originally from Kalamazoo, spent time in the foster care system and moved around a lot growing up, she said, spending time across the area and out of state. Eventually, she returned and graduated from Greenville High School.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
From there, she headed to the state of New York and received a degree in Women’s History before attending the University of Michigan for librarian education.
Zrull said her writing career largely started with writing in a journal before she moved to writing manuscripts.
Zrull wanted to write a young adult novel with a character in foster care, so she could provide a realistic portrayal of the experience.
“The reason I decided to be a writer was because I loved to read growing up, but I hated all the books I came across that had to do with foster care,” she said. “There weren’t many of them and I could tell, as someone who had spent time in foster care, that the books were not written by people who had experience with the foster care system.”
The original plan was to write a memoir sharing her personal experience, but Zrull began writing fiction manuscripts instead — all of which were inspired by her time in foster care.
Over the course of her writing career, Zrull said she’s written five full manuscripts.
“It took me writing five whole books before I found an agent and a publisher,” she said. “Whenever people say that they’ve written a book and ask how to get published, I tell them to keep writing. If you really want to be a good writer and you want to make sure you have stories out there, you can’t stop with just one and put all your eggs in one basket.
“Starting with my first manuscript, it took me 15 years to get published.”
Zrull said the point is to keep writing — and reading books similar to what you’re trying to write.
“You have to be educated in the area you’re writing in, in order to write something of quality,” Zrull said. “You need to know what’s been done so you don’t do the same thing. You can learn from the best if you just read. You don’t have to go to a fancy school and get a degree to publish a book. You just have to do the work.”
A lot has transpired since Zrull found out she was going to be published. She and her husband were living in Boston at the time, where she worked in an academic library. They found out she was pregnant and moved to Holland four months ago, where she started her job as a librarian at HDL.
Zrull said working at HDL has been a nice change — allowing her to have conversations with local readers and writers and develop relationships with the community.
And while life has gotten busier between work and family, Zrull said she continues to push to achieve her goals.
“I like writing because I have stories to tell but it’s also kind of meditative for me and helps me work out thoughts and conflicts within my own mind,” she said. “I have two other books that I’m working on right now but I’m not sure which one will come out first.”
Zrull is also looking forward to uniting local writers across West Michigan through upcoming events at the library.
“There are so many writers in the Holland area,” Zrull said. “When I moved here, so many people talked about all the writers in this general area. I had no idea, but now that I live here and I know that everyone is around, I just want to start finding ways to bring everyone together so we can learn from each other.”
Subscribe:Learn more about our latest subscription offers!
HDL is offering a series of events throughout November to celebrate National Novel Writing Month, including a series of write-in events and workshops from 5-8 p.m. Nov. 8, 15, 22 and 29. The events will give local authors the ability to get feedback on their writing and hear from others like them.
“The first step of getting published is sharing your work and it’s probably one of the scariest parts,” Zrull said. “At these workshops, we can work through it together as a group and help everyone get better at writing.”
Learn more at herrickdl.org.
— Austin Metz is a former Holland Sentinel reporter.
