J. Schlenker – Weaver of Stories

J. Schlenker, a late-blooming author, lives with her husband out in the splendid center of nowhere in the Kentucky foothills of Appalachia where the only thing to disturb her writing is croaking frogs and the occasional sounds of hay being cut in the fields.

Maybe it was fitting after retiring as a weaver of textiles, operating The Loom Room for many years, and participating in art/craft shows such as the Kentucky Guild shows in Berea, the Woodland Arts Fair in Lexington, and the Kentucky Craft Market, she should turn to weaving stories in her retirement.

This author’s writing career began through coincidence, although the author doesn’t believe in the standard dictionary definition of coincidence meaning accident. She believes there are no accidents in the universe. Instead, she prefers to go with Dr. Wayne Dyer’s definition of coincidence:

In mathematics, two angles that are said to coincide fit together perfectly. The word coincidence does not describe luck or mistakes. It describes that which fits together perfectly.

It was at one of those pivotal points in life, Jerri* asked her husband what she should do next. Was it a coincidence they just happened to be cleaning out a bookcase where he found a notebook of poems she had written in high school? “Why don’t you write?” he asked.

“What would I write about?”

Nature has also been a big part of this author’s life. It was while walking out in the woods she remembered Sally. Sally Ann Barnes, 1858-1969, was born into slavery only a few miles from the author’s home. She more than likely traipsed in the same woods the author was hiking when the memory came up. Then, later that day, while listening to NPR she heard about a writing group on the internet called Gather. Her husband had heard the same story while driving home from work. “Hey, I heard about this…”

“Yes, I’ve already joined,” she replied.

So perhaps it was Sally coming through the ethereal realm saying write my story, or maybe it was written in the stars at birth. One of her most treasured possessions was a sterling silver typewriter her mother bought for her to go on a charm bracelet when the author was eleven. Eleven is a mystical number, another story saved for future writings. That typewriter is now on a necklace, worn by the author to all of her writing events.

It was during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) the author produced her first draft of the novel Jessica Lost Her Wobble. Published during December 2015, it was selected as a finalist in the William Faulkner—William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, a finalist in the 2017 Wishing Shelf Book Awards, and was awarded five stars from Readers’ Favorite.

Her second novel, The Color of Cold and Ice, received an IndiBRAG Medallion and was also a finalist in the 2018 Wishing Shelf Book Awards.

One of her short stories, “The Missing Butler,” received honorable mention in the first round of the NYC Competition. It prompted a book of short stories, The Missing Butler and Other Life Mysteries which also received five stars from Readers’ Favorites. This book includes illustrations by the author and is dedicated to her high school art teacher, Larry Carroll.

It was in 2007, when the author joined Gather and started blogging, the research into Sally’s life began. The book, Sally, a historical fiction inspired by her findings into Sally’s life, came out ten years later. It received semi-finalist in the William Faulkner—William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, 5 stars from Readers’ Favorites, and the 2018 Bronze Award from Wishing Shelf Book Awards.

Her latest novel, a fantasy, is A Peculiar School. Animals are the main characters. Even though this book has won no awards, it is J. Schlenker’s favorite. The characters—the main one, a peacock—came to her vividly while on one of her forest walks. Was it a coincidence that a cousin came by while she was writing A Peculiar School and gave her something that had belonged to Sally, a piece of Carnival glass with a peacock on it? It brought tears to the author’s eyes.

Please watch for upcoming novels: Alice Black, The Innkeeper on the Edge of Paris, Down the Rabbit Hole (the sequel to A Peculiar School) and Aiken Hall.

*Jerri decided to use the initial J rather than Jerri since it’s pronounced Jera, not Jerry. Please blame her parents for this.