By Danny Contreras
Journalist and debutant fiction author Susan Schoenberger stopped by Central Connecticut State University on Tuesday to provide the campus with a reading of her first novel, A Watershed Year.
The story, which is about a woman who recently lost her best friend and secret admirer, Harlan, to cancer, has been released to great acclamation from the writing community.
Schoenberger is a journalist who has written for many national newspapers and magazines throughout her writing career. She currently is editor for the West Hartford Patch.com website.
According to Schoenberger A Watershed Year took over two years to finish. It was first submitted as a one-shot essay, which later became the book’s first chapter, to a competition which she emerged victorious.
The book, which is for sale at the CCSU bookstore for a discount, used her skills as a journalist to drive the story forward.
“I researched everything in regards to the character I created,” said Schoenberger in regards to characterization.
Moments later, Schoenberger added that she thought in the mindset of a patient when writing.
“I did my research on cancer with an oncologist,” said the author. “I asked him questions that helped me along the way, for example, what would be things that a dying 30-year-old would do?”
“I even researched a cane store to see what it was like to own a cane and how the character would interact with it,” said Schoenberger.
Schoenberger, who got a degree in English from Dartmouth College, also gave advice to young and aspiring authors.
“You will be rejected over and over,” said Schoenberger. “I was rejected 40 times before someone published it.”
The novel features a low amount of dialogue.
“I’m an eavesdropper,” said Schoenberger. “And this helped see how people transmitted thoughts to one another, but I am not that good at dialogue.”
Schoenberger promised students that the literary world is not that cruel and that getting published means a lot of editing and the destruction of beloved lines which would all just benefit the manuscript.
She cautioned young writers about rejection that they will inevitably face.
“Like I said, it takes the strong willed to submit manuscript,” said Schoenberger. “I was denied publication by 40 editors.”
Schoenberger concluded that the best way to write characters is by describing and not telling.
“Description is the one thing where you show something that cannot be told,” said Schoenberger.
A Watershed Year was released in March.