The Road to Publication is Full of Ruts… but why it’s worth the journey
Ginger Marcinkowski in front of the beautiful and huge brick fireplace in the reading lounge of the Fort Fairfield Public Library
Ginger was born just across the border in Fort Fairfield, and now lives in Mobile, Alabama with her husband, a retired former Chief of Police.
Ginger’s grandparents lived in Plaster Rock, and they provided her with the love and faith that is revealed in her writing.
The workshop was most interesting as Ginger shared her own journey to publication. She explained the ways and means for us to become published authors ourselves, and encouraged all of us to pursue our own writing dreams.
It was quite a lively workshop with lots of conversation about family and connections as one of the attendees and Ginger’s sister Sue, who was making the workshop tour along with Ginger, discovered that they’d been childhood playmates over 50 years ago, before Ginger and Sue’s family moved away!
The Fort Fairfield Library was a lovely place for the workshop…. it’s full of books, of course, but it is housed in an absolutely marvellous building that was built in 1913 with a $10,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie. They just don’t make buildings like this anymore!
The town fathers of the time originally planned on a downtown location for the building, but local business owners did not want to waste valuable Main Street retail space on a library, so it was ultimately erected at the top of the hill.
This, of course, turned out to be a blessing as it has been safe from flood damage over the years.
Ginger’s road to publication was full of surprises. She ended up writing a book she had not planned to write…it bubbled up out of an experience she’d had as a child.
The book is titled “Run, River Currents” and is a story of a dysfunctional family, how the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children, and how some family members finally found redemption and peace after a lifetime of pain and rage.
The book was a semi-finalist in the American Christian Fiction Writers Genesis Contest, and is a semi-finalist in the 2013 Kindle Indie Awards.
Our very own Tobique River is the river of the title, and nearly all of the action in the novel takes place in Perth and Plaster Rock.
Ginger’s personal recollections and knowledge of the area gave life to her descriptions of logging, life, and religion in Plaster Rock 60 years ago.
Ginger has just released a follow-up novella titled “The Button Legacy”, and her next book, “What Do I Know? I’m Just the Patient” will be released later this fall. As a patient herself, she has been exploring using alternative health care in her own life.
Getting published may be your own dream, and Ginger left us all feeling like it was within our reach!
You can meet Ginger online and read her blog at www.noveltravelers.com
Stephanie Kelley
