Bestselling author Linda Gruenberg chatted with Digital Journal’s Markos Papadatos about her children’s book “Hummer.”
Children’s book author and artist Linda Gruenberg is a horse lover at heart. She has done every possible thing you can do with horses, including having them mow the lawn, drive single and double, rake the hayfield with a horse-drawn rake, swim, jump logs and ditches, vault, stand in the saddle to pick apples—you get the point.
It’s only fitting that her lifelong passion led her to write “Hummer,” a heartwarming middle-grade novel about a forlorn girl whose life is changed by an Arabian horse and its owner.
As Linda conveys, if you have horses, neighbor kids eventually show up, and she loves getting a child up on a horse and seeing their eyes light up. She even formed a vaulting club in order to teach kids how to safely ride her horses. Linda enjoys sharing her love of horses with children.
Linda likes starting out a book concept by asking, “What if…?” and churning that question in her mind until it turns into a story. She believes that strong and memorable characters are so integral to a great story, and she can hear her characters’ voices sometimes, propelling her into deep characterization. It’s during these times that she even enjoys the company of her characters. She hopes that her story’s characters allow her readers to step into someone else’s shoes for a while and help them see the world from a different perspective and build empathy.
When Linda isn’t writing uplifting stories of self-discovery for middle-graders, she enjoys painting watercolors of horses, carving, restoring horse-drawn vehicles, building hitching posts, and any other horse-related project. She also plays the hammered dulcimer, a percussion stringed instrument dating to 900 A.D.
Linda is an American enjoying life in Lapland, Sweden, after living in Northern Michigan for many years. She and her partner have two horses along with a family of hares and some wild reindeer who sometimes frolic in their yard.
Originally published thirty years ago by Houghton-Mifflin, Hummer was nominated for the prestigious Mark Twain Book Award and the Golden Sowers Award. Linda’s newly revised and relaunched edition, published by Kenda Press, features charming new pencil illustrations and a fresh cover design.
‘Hummer’ recently became a bestseller, which is an amazing and well-deserved feat, what was that like for you as an author?
I guess one word would be “validated.” Another is just happy. I like the thought of Hummer reaching an audience. The book is something like a paper airplane that I folded myself and I want to set it sailing over the world just for fun. Yes, for validation. I wrote this book and people read it and some even love it…what more can an author ask for?
Hummer is a rather iconic book and has really captured the attention of readers and review[er]s. Can you tell us what inspired you to write ‘Hummer’?
When I was a horse-crazy thirteen-year-old, an old man named Riley really did permanently lend me a beautiful black Arabian mare. You have to understand, I grew up on a horse farm and it’s not like I needed a horse, but Riley had gotten too old to care for her anymore. I will never forget our first ride, bringing her home. Roxie’s neck was arched in front of me and she blew and snorted with every stride. She danced all the way, but she was smooth as silk and elastic in my hands with the kind of contained power and beauty you have to feel to believe.
By the time we were home, I was in love.
Riley turned up every day to watch me ride. He brought me horse show fliers and competitive trail ride bulletins. He would stand on the outside of any arena where I was showing her, talking to strangers and gesturing to Roxie to see what they thought. He would criticize her just to hear them argue and rave over what a beautiful horse she was.
When Riley died, I was17. I wanted to write about Riley and Roxie, but when I wrote in first person about myself, I found out I wasn’t a sympathetic character. Ironically, I was too happy. I didn’t have any reasons to need the horse or the old man, either one, no matter how much I loved them or how much I missed Riley.
As I struggled with the question of how to tell my story, I thought of a little scrawny girl who rode my school bus. Rumor had it that her father slept in the barn and her mother never came out of the house. I thought, now there’s somebody who needed an old man and a horse to love her. Although maybe I had no right to re-imagine someone else’s life, I couldn’t help it. I began writing. I gave her a nickname I loved. In my imagination, I gave her the beautiful horse and the old man. Then I set the wheels spinning to see what would happen. And that began the story of Hummer. When you did the final read-through for ‘Hummer’ what was your favorite part of the story and why?
I loved Hummer’s voice. I was charmed by her innocence and childish silliness of telling lies and misunderstanding how she could make friends in the world. As you know, this is Hummer’s 30th-Anniversary Edition, and somehow I had actually not re-read it in all those 30 years. It had been so long since I read the book that I had forgotten what happens. I’m not sure about my favorite part, but I know for sure the most shocking part. When the crisis of the book came, my heart raced because I couldn’t imagine I had been so cruel that I could have let that thing happen to Hummer. I had to read as fast as I could to see how things were going to turn out. I couldn’t stop turning pages. I got caught in my own book.
A good story is all about the setting, the descriptiveness, and the raw energy that captivates, all coming together to have the reader turning the pages effortlessly. Your book includes all of them and more, what is one of the keys that you find is critical when getting into the writing zone?
Often it just takes the right sentence to get me started on a writing streak. For instance, I remember writing the sentence, “Leona stank.” What a short, strong and unexpected sentence. From there the story flowed. Any time I get stuck, it’s about finding one surprising sentence—surprising even myself. It could be a bit of dialog, like Riley exclaiming to Hummer, “If you’re going to ride, the one thing you gotta be able to do is fall.” I figure, if I’m not surprised and entertained by my own sentences, my audience isn’t going to be either. So I seek the surprise or the twist that makes me laugh, and it pulls me into the story to keep the words flowing.
You are gifted when it comes to creating characters that draw readers into the story and keep them intrigued throughout. What do you feel is one of the keys to creating such wonderful characters?
Isn’t it all about voice? I get a feel for my characters’ voices in my head, and then I love hearing them speak. Maybe it’s also about loving them and knowing their good and bad sides. Like Hummer, she is always spontaneously lying. But she does it for the right (if silly) reasons. She wants people to like her. She’s always trying to figure out how to impress, and it doesn’t occur to her that people could like her just because she’s who she is. She never lies to hurt anybody. Old Man Riley, on the other hand, has that gruff voice that doesn’t want to be seen as too soft. And Hummer’s mother Leona, she lives in her own little shell of her own world. Her focus is always on the inside of herself and Hummer has a hard time breaking all the way through to her. Maybe letting their weaknesses define them helps make them real.
‘Hummer’ has been so successful; do you have another book you can tell us about?
I would love to tell you about my next children’s novel, titled Blazes & Brimstone. This is the one playing around in my head these days.
Lyle and his siblings Maggie & Rudy are living on the cusp of the future in the New World. Their step-mom is American and their dad is Dutch, like most everyone else Holland, Michigan, where the Dutch immigrants have settled. Now, the fall of 1871, smoke has been blowing through the town for days. Contained forest fires are not so much contained anymore. Worst of all, their step-mom is about to have a baby, their horses are separated because the filly is being weaned, and all the Hell-and-Brimstone the preacher always preached seems to be surrounding their city. When the fire breaks, they almost make their escape.
Lyle, Maggie & Rudy are on the back of the surrey and headed safely out of town when they hear a whinny—a desperate cry of a filly from inside the livery stable. Lyle jumps from the back of the surrey. He hears Maggie and Rudy land behind him, and their adventure of rescuing horses and escaping the fire begins.
The horses will not be their only rescue. And it could be the children need rescuing themselves.
“Hummer” by Linda Gruenberg is available on Amazon.
