| Welcome to the Cooperstown Crier |
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|
1-24-2008 By MICHELLE MILLER Staff Writer ``The Monsters of Templeton,’’ which is part ghost story and part historical fiction, in which monsters tell the story of a young woman who returns home to find out who her real father is, will go on sale Feb. 5. Groff, 29, grew up a block away from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and said her book is really a love-letter to Cooperstown, and she hopes it will be read in that light. ``I’m mostly nervous about the reception the book will have in Cooperstown, ‘’ said Groff in an e-mail. ``My Templeton is an obviously fictional version of my hometown, but I tried hard to encapsulate the town in the way that I saw it. Since vision is so necessarily subjective, there will be people who won’t agree with my representation.’’ Groff says her book, published by Voice (an imprint of Hyperion) will be available anywhere books are sold such as Barnes and Noble, Borders, Amazon, Powell’s and locally at Augur’s Book Store. The novel can be pre-ordered at Amazon for $16.45; otherwise, the book will be sold for $24.95, according to Groff. Groff, who resides in Gainesville, Fla. with her husband and dog Cooper, says she is very, very eager to see her book in stores. She says it has been a product of more than four years of hard work, so it will be a relief to see the book ``finally launched’’ and in the world. Groff says she was inspired to write ``The Monsters of Templeton’’ when living in California about five years ago. She said she was feeling desperately homesick for her hometown and thought it would be ``lovely’’ to write a book where her town was itself a main character so that she could live in Cooperstown for a few hours a day. Groff says she will be having a ``huge’’ launch party Feb. 9 during the Winter Carnival and is inviting all of Cooperstown to come. The festivities will begin with a book signing at Augur’s Book Store from 5 to 6:30 p.m., and the party will be at Templeton Hall (located at 63 Pioneer St.) from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. ``It’s an expression of my gratitude for the people of Cooperstown, who have made the town as vibrant and beautiful and compelling as it is — and to thank them for letting me borrow the town for my book,’’ said Groff via e-mail. Groff’s father Gerald (who goes by Jerry) says he and his wife Jeanine are looking forward to seeing their friends and community members at the book signing and party. ``We are excited and happy for Lauren,’’ said Jerry, who says as his daughter got older, books really became an inspiration to her. He says his daughter has always had a creative desire, and that is why she is destined to write books. According to Groff’s e-mail, the final book had nothing to do with the first draft she wrote, or the second, or even the third. She says all the pieces for her novel finally came together with the fourth draft. By that time, Groff had just finished her MFA in fiction from the University of Madison-Wisconsin, which she says was an incredible apprenticeship that taught her many things she needed to know in order to finish her novel. Groff’s novel was praised by novelist Stephen King, who wrote a cover blurb that says, ‘’I was sorry to see this rich and wonderful novel came to an end.’’ ‘’The sense of sadness I feel at the approaching end of The Monsters of Templeton’ isn’t just because the story’s going to be over; when you read a good one — and this is a very good one — those feelings are deepened by the realization that you probably won’t tie into anything that much fun again for a long time,” wrote King in Entertainment Weekly. Groff says she was amazed at how gracious, generous and kind King was to blurb a book of a ‘’young nobody’’ whom he had never met. ‘’He’s frankly in a position where he could do anything he wanted to, and the mere fact that he paid attention to the book and even talked about it in Entertainment Weekly blew my mind,’’ said Groff via e-mail. Groff says she has never read much of King’s work because she does not write fantasy or horror and ``The Monster of Templeton’’ is literary fiction. However, Groff says she believes King is a fascinating writer. ``His book, ‘On Writing,’ is an incredible guide for a new writer,’’ said Groff via e-mail. ‘’And ‘Lisey’s Story’ was a lovely literary novel that had little to do with horror or fantasy. He is a master storytell er whose name is huge in the business, and it’s an honor to have his enthusiastic support.’’ King is not the only one creating a ‘’buzz’’ about Groff’s novel. American fiction writer Lorrie Moore says, “‘The Monsters of Templeton’ is a bold and beautiful hybrid of a book ... Lauren Groff is an exciting young novelist, gifted with an elegant prose style and a narrative ambition as deep and as serious as the human mysteries she sets out to explore.’’ Author Lauren Belfer says, ‘’In ‘The Monsters of Templeton’ Lauren Groff has crafted a multilayered story that is boldly inventive and surprising, by turns wistful, elegiac, and sweeping.’’ Groff’s father Jerry says his daughter is also getting a ‘’great’’ international audience. Rights to Groff’s novel have not only been sold to the United States, they have also been sold to Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Holland and the United Kingdom. Groff says she has always loved to write, which she says stemmed directly from her passion to read. “I was always a pretty shy little girl,áand though I was also a tomboy, I spent most of my time in my room, reading,’’ said Groff in her e-mail. Groff says she wrote for years and years privately, never letting anyone see any of her work. She says the first ‘’serious’’ short story she wrote was in Mrs. (Dutchy) Lewis’s class while attending Cooperstown Middle School. ‘’It was a very sad story about a horse,’’ said Groff, who said Mrs. (Jan) Kerr was also an enormous influence to her in high school. Groff says she started taking creative writing classes in college and had her first story published while in college. She said she felt breathless when the piece came out, but not because she thought it was any good. ‘’I was breathless with shame, I think,’’ said Groff in her e-mail. ‘’That taught me to not try to publish any pieces until I was sure they were absolutely ready.’’ Groff says it took a few more years after her first story was published before she had another story published. Groff graduated from Amherst College and has an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her short stories have appeared in a number of journals, including The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, Five Points, and in the anthology Best American Short Stories 2007. She was awarded the Axton Fellowship in Fiction at the University of Louisville, and has had residencies and fellowships at Yaddo and the Vermont Studio Center. Groff is the daughter of Gerald and Jeannine Groff, who reside in a house they built on Otsego Lake. Groff also has a brother, Adam, and a sister, Sarah. Adam is a medical resident in New Hampshire with an MBA in business and Sarah is a professional triathlete trying to make the Olympics. To learn more about Groff and her work go to laurengroff. com. |
Copyright 2007, Cooperstown Crier, Cooperstown, NY All rights reserved