Our Co-authoring Adventure

August 9, 2021 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

By Penny Koepsel and Claire Matturro

We—an attorney/author and a psychologist—were strangers when we decided to write a novel about teen students in a boarding school who are gaslighted into being labeled “the crazy girls, the ones who lie.” Inspired by a true story, Wayward Girls (Red Adept Publishing Aug. 10, 2021), tumbled out of our subconscious like a shared experience as we became friends and co-authors.

While we didn’t know each other before beginning the project, we both had a wonderful English teacher in high school who knew us. He recognized in us kindred spirits who both loved creative writing.

Penny: Claire and I attended the same girls boarding school in Florida, albeit a few years apart. Jesse Mercer was our English professor, a source of support and encouragement. Writing was my passion– Jesse stoked that flame of creativity. We lost contact for decades, but I never forgot him and thanked him in my PhD Dissertation. I located Jesse in 2005 and emailed him. We stayed in communication in emails, phone calls, and cards. I mailed him a copy of my dissertation; he sent me copies of books he authored. During one conversation he mentioned Claire and suggested I contact her. I contacted her and the rest is history. He never knew the impact he made. Sadly, Jesse passed away several years ago.

Claire: Jesse was wonderfully encouraging and flamboyant in a way we adored. I am terribly sad that he passed before he could read Wayward Girls, and maybe see some of himself in one of its heroes.

Penny and I both attended an all-class reunion of the boarding school, and shared stories of our hijinks at the school. Jesse should have been at the school’s reunion, but failing health kept him away.

Speaking of that reunion, Penny, tell us just a bit about the Texas story you shared there which sparked much of the plot of Wayward Girls.

Penny: Wayward Girls is a work of fiction, but some of the events were loosely based on actual events experienced by students at private schools, wilderness schools, boot camps and other facilities. They were sent there by parents, guardians, or the courts.

Two years after graduating from the boarding school in Florida, I read a local newspaper article about the death of a female student in a Texas wilderness school. A school psychologist was arrested, and there are documented accounts of the death and subsequent legal proceedings. I still scommunicate with a former student who attended the same school when the student died. She shared some of the horrors they experienced. I visited the isolated area where the school was located, walked around the area, closed my eyes, and felt the hair raise on the nape of my neck as I imagined the horror the students felt.

Flashback to the reunion. Claire and I drove to it together, sharing our thoughts and discussing ideas for the story. The first night of the reunion, over a couple glasses of wine, we shared our ideas with former students, and decided to write a book about the death of the wilderness school student. We chose a setting similar to that of the boarding school we attended, and our creative juices began flowing. Even though it had no name at that point in time – Wayward Girls was in its infancy.

Claire:

Once I heard that Texas tale, we knew where to take the plot of Wayward Girls. Though we discussed plot nuances thousands of times, we never wavered on the main story line: teen girls trapped in a boarding school, targeted by a predator, and no one believed them—until it was too late.

One of the first things we did was figure out how we would divide the work. Since we had two main characters—Jude and Camille–we decided to divide the writing by character. Penny would write the chapters from Camille’s point of view, and I would write those in Jude’s voice. Then we would edit each other’s chapters. As such, Jude is “my” character, and Camille is Penny’s.

This original division fell away because once we fully understood each other’s character, we could write in either voice. Ultimately the resulting book is an amalgam. Yet certain parts remain distinctly either Penny/Camille or Claire/Jude. For example, the chapter where the teens hold a sit-in protest over the expulsion of a student is very much Penny’s chapter, just as the scene where the adult Jude has a PTSD episode when they break into the abandoned school is very much my chapter.

A third character, Wanda Ann, a scholarship student whose wild stories masked a truth that threatened to destroy them all, is a product of our collective imagination. We both seemed to channel Wanda Ann, who was the catalyst to the ultimate fiery climate of the book.

Penny:

This is my first novel-length work of fiction, so I have no point of reference. I have authored and/or co-authored research-based articles and a dissertation. Wayward Girls was written from the points of view of Camille and Jude – their descriptions, personalities, strengths and weaknesses loosely based on ours.

Conclusion: in writing Wayward Girls, we began as strangers, but like Camille and Jude, we ended up friends. We learned to agree to disagree, accept constructive criticism, and respect each other’s advice and recommendations. It was a growing, learning, bonding, and life-long positive experience.

—

Claire Hamner Matturro has been a newspaper reporter in Alabama, a lawyer in Florida, and a writing teacher at Florida State University and University of Oregon.

Penny Hagner Koepsel is a psychologist who’s experiences and career are often reflected in her fiction, as she continues to be a voice for those less fortunate.

https://www.pennyhagnerkoepsel.com/

http://www.clairematturro.com/

WAYWARD GIRLS

When late-night phone calls summon Jude Coleridge and Camille Prescott back to the Talbot Hall School for Girls, painful memories bombard them. Though estranged for years, both bear the physical and emotional scars from their youth.

At the boarding school, they were branded “the crazy girls, the ones who lie” and became unlikely best friends. They soon formed a trio with a new student, Wanda Ann, who pulled them into her bewildering relationship with the school psychologist, Dr. Hedstrom. But Wanda Ann’s wild stories masked a truth that threatened to engulf them all.

As teens, the girls could only rely on each other as they moved toward an unfathomable, fiery danger. Now, in the crumbling halls of Talbot, hours before the building’s demolition, they must grant forgiveness, to themselves and others, if they are to move forward.

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