Welcome,
Michelle Caffrey!
Michelle,
you write both fiction and non-fiction for different age ranges. What’s that
like, switching between reality and what might be?
Writing fiction frees my imagination. Narrative non-fiction has the same elements of plot and character that a novel has, along with respect for the facts and for the people involved. I spent two and a half years researching before writing Bring Jade Home. For hundreds of hours, I interviewed everyone with a connection to finding the dog lost for 44 days in Yellowstone. I used Facebook and emails to get people’s stories, and read books about Yellowstone Park, particularly its history and grizzles and wolves. I researched Australian shepherds, lost dogs and how to find them, pet safety while traveling, and dog agility contests. It was an incredible learning experience.
Tell us
about Jade, and your motives for writing your adult and children-focused books
about her.
I met Laura Gillice, when she was a guest aboard our barge “Imagine” in France in 2001. We became friends and stayed in close contact. In 2015, she and her friend, David Sowers, were traveling in Yellowstone National Park with their two young Australian shepherds when they were involved in a horrific head-on crash. Seriously injured David and Laura were ambulanced away, and when the rangers went to take the dogs from the wrecked SUV, David’s fifteen-month-old dog, Jade, ran from her damaged carrier into the wild.
Jade was
lost in Yellowstone for 44 days, and returned safely, after hundreds of people
searched for her. Laura had admired my memoir Just Imagine and asked if I would
like to write their story. I was excited by the opportunity to tell the true
story of the miraculous Australian Shepherd puppy who faced starvation, rugged
terrain, and grizzlies, coyotes, and wolf packs. It was the story of a
lifetime, so of course, I said “Yes!”
My
publisher, Farcountry Press, specializes in National Park-related books including
the best-selling picture book series Who Pooped in the Park? I wanted to tell Jade’s story from her point
of view and used a combination of educated guesses and imagination to write it.
Farcountry had the talented Steph Lehmann illustrate Jade—Lost in Yellowstone. It received the Creative Child Magazine 2020 Book of the Year Award and is the recipient of the Dog Writer’s Association First Place Award for Children’s Early Reader 2020. I recently
completed a young reader chapter book for the 8-12-year-old reading level in
the series.
Talk about how setting
is important to your intriguing mystery Dairyland series. Can you share
anything about the third book?
My husband and I have lived in the Lake Geneva area on and off since 1983. Originally from “Chicagoland,” southeastern Wisconsin has always been my “happy place.” For the ten years we had our barge “Imagine,” we spent summers in France and winters in our RV traveling the country. Dairyland Acres RV Park is a compilation of campgrounds we experienced, set in the mythical small town of Eureka, Wisconsin. Campgrounds and homeports have a commonality: Everyone is a nomad, and both are microcosms of small close-knit communities—with the closeness having both pros and cons. If you find a small town confining, try living cheek to jowl with your neighbor’s RV or boat and you’ll learn little is private!
What’s
your writing and marketing schedule/strategy like?
Writing fiction frees my imagination. Narrative non-fiction has the same elements of plot and character that a novel has, along with respect for the facts and for the people involved. I spent two and a half years researching before writing Bring Jade Home. For hundreds of hours, I interviewed everyone with a connection to finding the dog lost for 44 days in Yellowstone. I used Facebook and emails to get people’s stories, and read books about Yellowstone Park, particularly its history and grizzles and wolves. I researched Australian shepherds, lost dogs and how to find them, pet safety while traveling, and dog agility contests. It was an incredible learning experience.
I met Laura Gillice, when she was a guest aboard our barge “Imagine” in France in 2001. We became friends and stayed in close contact. In 2015, she and her friend, David Sowers, were traveling in Yellowstone National Park with their two young Australian shepherds when they were involved in a horrific head-on crash. Seriously injured David and Laura were ambulanced away, and when the rangers went to take the dogs from the wrecked SUV, David’s fifteen-month-old dog, Jade, ran from her damaged carrier into the wild.
My husband and I have lived in the Lake Geneva area on and off since 1983. Originally from “Chicagoland,” southeastern Wisconsin has always been my “happy place.” For the ten years we had our barge “Imagine,” we spent summers in France and winters in our RV traveling the country. Dairyland Acres RV Park is a compilation of campgrounds we experienced, set in the mythical small town of Eureka, Wisconsin. Campgrounds and homeports have a commonality: Everyone is a nomad, and both are microcosms of small close-knit communities—with the closeness having both pros and cons. If you find a small town confining, try living cheek to jowl with your neighbor’s RV or boat and you’ll learn little is private!
I do every
podcast, radio, written and TV interview my publisher lines up for me. I
reached out to friends via email and am active on social media. I like Facebook, but also use Instagram and
YouTube. I contacted my local libraries in Lake Geneva and Delavan and made
presentations and during the pandemic, virtual visits.
I view
book signings and events like Lake Geneva’s Beachfront Authorfest as
promotional investments rather than big sales opportunities. I have attended
other author’s book signings and found that the personal impression an author
makes can create loyalty or lose fans.
And speaking of fans, I really have fun meeting younger people who are reading!
I just finished Anthony Bourdain’s World Travel, and started Beneath the Flames by Gregory Lee Renz, a fellow WWA member, and loving it.
I'll have to check out Bourdain, and can say I loved Renz's story too! Thank you, Michelle.
About Michelle:
After
years in the software industry, my husband Paul and I abandoned our successful
careers and bought a converted 1906 Dutch barge, Imagine. We established a boat
charter business, Barge and Breakfast, and cruised the European waterways for
ten adventure-filled years. I wrote and indie published Just Imagine: A New
Life on an Old Boat, the true story of our first-year adventures—and
misadventures—as we journeyed from Holland to Burgundy, France.
I’ve written two of my three-novel Dairyland Series. I recently completed Sconnie, which was a finalist in the RWA SWFL Joyce Henderson contest in the Romantic Suspense category.
Bring Jade Home: The True Story of a Dog Lost in Yellowstone, published by Farcountry Press, was my first narrative non-fiction book. My picture book, Jade—Lost in Yellowstone, received the Creative Child Magazine 2020 Book of the Year Award and is the recipient of the Dog Writer’s Association First Place Award for Children’s Early Reader 2020. I recently completed a young reader chapter book for the 8-12-year-old reading level in the series.
I am a member of RWA, the Wisconsin Writer’s Association, former attendee of the Writer’s Institute of the UW, and take part annually in Lake Geneva Library’s Authorfest by the Beach.
My husband Paul and I currently live in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. When not on the water, I enjoy reading and am addicted to knitting. Both of us love to cook, especially French food.
