Author Stephanie Bodeen releases her second book in the young adult genre

By Randy Parks
Burns Times-Herald

After achieving award-winning success with her first young adult (YA) novel “The Compound,” Harney County author Stephanie Bodeen will celebrate the release of her second YA novel with a book-launch party at the Book Parlor in Burns at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 10.

“The Gardener” was released on Tuesday, May 25, and is the ninth book Bodeen has had published. “I learned so much writing ‘The Compound,’ I was more confident going into this book,” Bodeen said. “It’s never easy, but personally I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever written.”

Bodeen has also had seven picture books for children published, beginning with “Elizabeti’s Doll” in 1998, to her latest “A Small Brown Dog with a Wet Pink Nose,” that came out this past January.

Although she’d always dreamed of being an author, Bodeen said her writing career began in 1995 when she and her family were living in Western Minnesota. “Tim (her husband) and I had spent time in Tanzania with the Peace Corps in 1989 and 1990, and over there a lot of the kids made their own toys with whatever they could,” Bodeen said. “I woke up at 3 a.m. with an idea of ‘Rock for a Doll.’ ”

After completing the story, she sent it out and received a call back from a publishing company in New York that showed some interest. She waited a year and when she didn’t hear from them again, she re-sent the story out. “Five weeks later I got a call from a company interested. We changed the title to ‘Elizabeti’s Doll,’ it was sold in 1996 and came out in the fall of 1998.”

While Bodeen has enjoyed, and has had success, writing the picture books, she is more comfortable with the YA novels. “I’m a big sci-fi fan and these are more of my interests,” she said. “It’s more natural subject matter for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s easier.”

Bodeen’s success has not come without some rejection either. She said “The Compound” is the 10th novel she has written, and it wasn’t a matter of just sitting down and cranking it out. “In the fall of 2005, I just quit writing,” Bodeen said. “I quit for three months, and then I saw a contest for a 50,000 word novel that had to be written between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30.” It was then that she came up with the 250-page draft of “The Compound” and sent it off.

After getting feedback on the draft, Bodeen said she dumped 240 pages of it and began again. That time Feiwel and Friends, a McMillan Imprint, bought the story, and she was on her way.

Bodeen said she signed a two-novel contract, which was fulfilled with “The Gardener.”

“You have to have a really thick skin,” Bodeen said. “Writing can be very personal and when you get rejected, and you do, you’ve got to get right back out there.”

Bodeen’s synopsis for “The Gardener” was approved in 2008, and that’s when she began writing and revising the book. “When I’m working on a book, it’s probably for four or five hours a day. I get it down beginning to end, and then go back and revise. I figured out I may not be a great writer, but I am a great reviser,” she laughed.

“The Compound” has sold 30,000 to 40,000 paperback copies and 20,000 to 25,000 hardback copies, and is published in German, Dutch, Chinese, Italian and Vietnamese, as well as English. Awards include the American Library Association Quick Picks for Young Adults; Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year; and Iowa Teen Award Master List. It is also a finalist for State Reader awards in seven different states.

Bodeen has already been working on her next book, “The Raft.” “It’s the story of a lone survivor of a plane crash at sea,” she said. “It may come out in 2011, but I’m not sure.”

Mark your calendar now.