WRITE Club hosted its second author chat on Friday Dec. 8 during Cardinal Hour with AP Language and Creative Writing teacher Jennifer Blessington, who recently released her newest book, “Down Came the Rain.”
Quite a few of the author chat’s attendees were Blessington’s students who enjoyed the opportunity to see their teacher in a new light. WRITE Club’s event coordinator and junior Claire Bradford said that was one of the aspects of the author chat that most stood out to her.
“It was very nice just hearing her talk and just seeing her light up when talking about writing, especially because she’s my English teacher,” Bradford said. “It’s really great to see your English teacher talk about writing when you’re [also] very passionate about writing and I think the club members were also very engaged.”
Blessington kicked off the author chat with a quick summary of her previous six books in release order. She discussed her writing process for each book and how she became an established writer.
“[She] started from the beginning and talked a little bit about her childhood [and] how she got into writing,” Bradford said. “She went on to talk about her books and she gave a brief rundown of each one, which was super interesting. I loved that [and] I’m going to read all of them.”
WRITE Club Vice President and sophomore David Fang appreciated getting more in-depth details about Blessington’s writing, editing and publishing process
“I definitely learned a lot about the writing process and about how Mrs. Blessington has used her experiences from her childhood and adolescence to shape her writing,” Fang said. “That was definitely very motivational for me because I’ve been trying to get back into writing. And it’s great to see how I can use life as an inspiration for my writing.”
Blessington went in-depth on how she researched her historical fiction book “Bad Girls Never Say Die” and talked about her early forays in the writing world in the form of contest submissions and journal entries, emphasizing the importance of being able to write for yourself first and others second. WRITE Club member and junior Ellen Yin said the author chat gave her valuable information and takeaways about how to improve her writing process.
“I learned that Mrs. Blessington wrote [many] more books than I thought,” Yin said. “I was also reminded that writing has to come from the heart and that it shouldn’t pander to readers more than it does yourself. It was very helpful in so many ways and made me think about how I could improve my own writing. I loved the introductions and summaries of the books. I definitely have more things on my to-read list now.”
Bradford encourages students to try out author talks and take advantage of the opportunity to “sit down with an author who wrote a real book, got it published and is now talking to students for free about their writing process.”
To keep up with WRITE Club, which meets in Room 1704, follow @bellaire_write_club or join its Remind @bhswrite22.
