(light music) - Hello, and welcome to "Community Connection."

I'm Shelley Irwin.

Today we put the spotlight on Michigan authors.

They say we all have a story, so welcome these authors and their stories.

Here we go, I'm glad you are here, Mari Martin.

Hello to you, Mari.

- Good morning.

- Good that you are here.

Sue Merrell.

Hi, Sue.

- Hello!

- Dr. Randal Jelks, no stranger to our airwaves.

Hello to you, Dr. Jelks.

- Hello, Shelley.

- And Dave Coverly.

You're an author, but we also find your "Speed Bump" in our daily newspapers and more.

Congratulations on your success.

- Thanks, Shelly.

- Yes.

Mari, I'd like to start with you.

This is your time to brag about your book and you.

Tell us your latest in book form.

- It's a book it's called "Come Home Alive."

And it was really birthed on the streets and roads around my house.

I, like you, Shelly, am a runner.

And I run to hear.

I wanted to hear what the Lord wants to tell me.

And that came from my father when he was battling throat cancer.

When my father was battling colon cancer, but my husband was battling throat cancer and I ran to hear.

And during that time, I really felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to write this book called "Come Home Alive."

And it's really a book about how my husband and I worked together to make it through the crisis of cancer.

And so in 2013, he was diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer, which we learned was a type of cancer that was in epidemic proportions.

And so it was very difficult for us to even acknowledge the diagnosis.

And once he was through it, we really were there.

We wanted to help others.

And so I wrote the book partially for other people going through cancer to give them hope and to give them an inspiration.

- Thank you, I'll get back to you for more.

Sue Merrell, I think I see your books behind you.

That's called good PR!

(Sue laughs) You have at least three under your belt.

Give me a synopsis of your writings.

- Well, I have a mystery series and it's "Great News Town," is the first one.

It's about a serial killer.

All three of the books take place in a fictional Chicago suburb, Jordan.

And it all happens in the newsroom.

The people in the newsroom solve the mystery.

And it's kind of like a TV series, where there's a whole team of characters working together.

And so the first one they solve is the serial killer.

And then they... And once you're off, they go back in history a few years to the disappearance of an editor.

And then the third book is just for fun.

It's "Full Moon Friday" and it's what happens on a full moon Friday the 13th when everything goes wrong.

- Wonderful.

Dr. Jelks, thank you for all that you do with the many hats you wear in West Michigan.

But yes, author hat is on as we speak.

And tell me, first of all, about that animal that you're holding.

And second (laughs) - (laughs) I'm putting him up.

- Good man.

Any animal lover's a friend of mine.

Tell me a little bit about the things you've done.

And I know you have one in the future.

- Yeah, I'm by profession, an academic.

So I'm a college and university professor.

And so writing is part of my job.

And my first book that I wrote is a history of Grand Rapids, as you know, Shelley, called "African Americans in the Furniture City: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Grand Rapids."

And that was back in...

I believe it came out in 2006.

And then I wrote a biography of the mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., a man by the name of Benjamin Mays, who was the president of the college and his mentor and who introduced him to Gandhi.

And after that, I was interested in religion, so I wrote a book about four African Americans and their own journeys to and from religion called "Faith and Struggle in the Lives of Four African Americans."

Four diverse people.

In my latest book, it's a collection of essays called "Letters to Martin: Meditations on Democracy in Black America."

So my writing is diverse and that book I'm excited about comes out in early January.

- Hm, great.

Thank you for that.

Dave Coverly, yes, I introduced you as an author, but I guess illustrator, artist and more, your latest, I know that your "Speed Bump," a 25th anniversary celebration.

So tell me how you do describe your work.

(Dave laughs) - How do I describe my work?

That's a great question, because basically what I'm doing is I am telling these tiny little stories as fast as I can in a single-panel cartoon.

So, when I went to college, I got my master's from Indiana University in Creative Writing.

And they always say in the Creative Writing classes, show, don't tell.

And I knew how to draw, so I thought, well, I just cut out the middleman.

I'll just show these ideas I'll show them.

So as far as the books go, I mean, "Speed Bump" runs in the newspaper.

It runs in about 400 papers around the world, but I've done number of picture books.

I have a chapter book series for middle grade readers and yes, the newest one is a collection of my "Speed Bump" cartoons.

I just picked my favorite "Speed Bump" cartoons over the last 25 years, which went very fast and I did some writing.

So when you're a cartoonist, a lot of times you get the question where do you get your ideas?

And so what I've done in this book is show my favorites and then explain sort of where the ideas came from.

So it's a little bit, I'm in the middle of both fields, like writing and drawing.

- Yes, yes.

Mari, when did you know it was time to write a book?

- I think it happened really in the fall of 2016.

My husband had really worked through his cancer diagnosis.

It came at stage 4, so it was pretty late stage when he identified it.

And we were just really blessed that he was able to get through.

And like I say, 2013 was diagnosis.

2014 was treatment.

2015 was recovery.

In 2016 was rehabilitation.

And you just feel that it's time to share your story with others in hopes that you can save lives, in hopes that you can inspire caregivers and the cancer patients themselves.

So that was when it happened for me, 2016.

- Yes.

A similar question to you, Sue Merrell.

When did you know it was time to write a story and how did you find a niche of a series?

- Well, I've been a mystery series fan since reading Nancy Drew in grade school.

And so I always wanted to write a mystery series since I was a kid.

And Mark Twain said, if you wanna learn to write, write for a newspaper because that's where you learn to write.

You're doing the writing.

And so I got a degree in journalism and worked in newspapers for 40 years.

And it was originally just a plan to learn how to write so I could write a mystery series, but I got distracted and started just being a journalist.

And, so as that wound down, as it came time towards the end of my career, I decided, if I'm ever gonna write that mystery series, it's time to do it now.

And I focused on what I knew, which was working in a newsroom, and some of the stories that happened over my life inspired this, including the serial killer.

- Hm.

Dr. Jelks, does does your work require significant research, or are you starting just to write?

Yeah.

- No, no.

Well, I'm a historian by academic training, so it requires to write.

You can't be a historian without research.

Lots of people think they're writing history, but you have to do a lot of research.

But the tricky part of that is that we're also expected to be able to put it in words that people understand and that can speak to them.

In training, we're supposed to be high level researchers, but be able to write like a journalist and that's the tricky part of it.

Not every scholar can do that well.

But the ones that I admire and the ones I try to emulate do do it well.

- Hm.

You are working on your latest entitled "Letters to Martin."

At this point, here we are, September.

Where are you in that journey?

And is that something that you know an ending before you begin?

How did you create this?

- Oh, I didn't know an ending.

I was asked to come to Elmhurst College, now Elmhurst University in Elmhurst, Illinois.

And I did it.

They asked me to do a talk about Martin Luther King.

And I decided to do this as a letter.

Write and to try to figure out how to connect with students.

And I said, oh, you know what?

That's a really good idea.

Well, let me continue these other different kinds of letters taking up topics around the issues of democracy, and the constant struggle that democracy ask of us.

I mean, it's not a one-time thing.

Everybody likes to make life smooth and everything.

And I'm talking to youngsters.

And excuse me dating myself by saying youngsters, but they are innocent young adults.

And so I decided that, huh, I could write 12 essays, about 20 pages each about these different issues examining both Dr. King, emulating Dr. King's letter to the Birmingham Jail and raising contemporary questions.

So that's how it came about.

- Thank you for that.

All right, Dave, you mentioned it.

We're gonna ask you.

- Oh-oh.

- You are responsible for a cartoon every day.

How do you come up with the idea for tomorrow's cartoon?

- Yeah.

I think what I like to call it is a desperation mistaken for inspiration.

(Dr. Jelks laughs) And I know talking about- - I'm gonna copy that.

- (laughs) It's all yours.

And Sue was saying about working for a newspaper.

It actually doing a job where you have a deadline really makes you be creative.

It makes you be efficiently creative.

And so what I really like about doing these is that I don't have time to fuss.

I can't remember who said this quote, but it was "Art is never finished, it's merely abandoned."

And I feel like that's sort of part of how I get ideas and why I get ideas is because I have to get seven a week and basically I'd do 'em between Monday and Wednesday.

So I start on Monday morning.

I take a break and do a fun show.

And then I keep going on with my ideas and then I draw them on Tuesday and Wednesday.

And I have that limited time and it really focuses you.

Just a quick, quick, quick aside, but there's a great book by Mason Currey called "Daily Rituals."

I think you guys would love it.

And it just follows famous artists, like writers, Picasso, Beethoven, whatever.

And all it does is he just lays out what they did each day.

It doesn't talk about their art.

Just talks about their routine.

And I think we probably all have a routine, 'cause the inspiration doesn't come from some muse really, it's like it comes from working.

And so once you sit down in the spot that you always sit in and your brain says, okay, it's time to start writing, it's time to start drawing.

It's time to start doing whatever.

Then you do it.

I mean, you just like, it's a job and you're a pro and then you just have to do it.

And then you get, it's like muscle memory with a sport.

You sort of know how to get in that creative moment.

You find little zaps of ideas here and there.

Like I don't try and think of funny ideas.

I try and think of subject matter.

And then I try and riff off of that.

And that makes it a lot easier.

So I have notebooks full of just things that don't make any sense to anyone else (laughs) but they work for me.

So it's work.

It's just really just sitting down and working at it.

- So the idea's there and then you draw, right?

- Yes.

I don't start with the drawing, I start with...

I think because my background is...

Cartoon, honestly, cartoon is 90% writing.

The idea isn't by far the most important part of any cartoon.

A great drawing can't save a bad idea, but a great idea can save a bad drawing.

And so it's... (all laughing) And I should know, I've done a lot of bad drawings.

So it's really just if you get the nugget of the idea of what you want to say, 'cause it's all...

I mean, like just listening to all of you, it's like we're all talking about connecting with other people.

And so you're trying to come up with an idea that you think other people would appreciate or say like, oh, I see myself or I see my neighbor or whatever.

And so then you find these things that we all have in common.

And then, so yeah, I've never taken any art classes, but I have just enough ability to draw to sort of get the ideas across.

And I think that's plenty.

Like it just you don't have to draw gossip or anything.

- 25th anniversary celebration.

Something's working with your latest work.

Mari, how did the publishing process begin?

You have a book.

Did you hire an editor?

Did you self-publish?

How do we make the book happen?

- I did self-publish.

I got the idea to write it in 2016 and I probably wrote half of it in 2016.

I wrote the ending first.

I really wrote the call to action, because that was what was really important to me.

And I tested it out with my husband's doctor, the doctor who identified his cancer.

And he said, "This is good.

You should keep going."

And I have a full-time job.

I'm a communications consultant.

I do corporate training and development work, so this is not anything that I can just sit down and write.

And so in 2019, I got a call from the self-publishing company, that I had initiated a conversation with back in 2016.

And that, I think, was really the focal point.

I think she helped me to turn the corner and to say get back to it.

I write at three o'clock in the morning.

So I write for about half hours.

And I think she was the one who really, really did it.

So I published with a self-publishing company with a Christian self-publishing company called WestBow Press.

And I have found them to be very, very helpful along the way.

They provided the editor to the book, which I really appreciated.

I really needed that.

And they've really been with me the whole entire step of the way and I appreciate it.

- Sue Merrell, writing your series.

Did you just write and the ideas came to you?

Did you know this was gonna be a series?

Tell me more and then a followup and I may follow up with, I mean, how important... Oftentimes, I'll go to amazon.com to prepare for an interview.

Is that a good thing?

Sue?

- Sure.

You mean you're reading the reviews that you hear, that you see from other people on amazon.com?

Amazon is a good way to sell books.

There's nothing wrong with selling on Amazon.

And, in fact, publishing through Amazon is not a bad deal either.

I tried the traditional route, I got a New York agent.

We tried New York publishers.

It was just this long, tedious, drawn out process.

And eventually I said this is never going to happen, like seven years into it.

And so then I self-published.

And for me, coming from a publishing background, that meant I hired an editor to do my editing.

I hired a book designer.

I hired the individuals that I thought I needed to do a good job.

And then just did a print on-demand publishing.

So that works good for me.

- Did it feel good to get that first book in your hand with your- - Well.

(laughs) Yeah, it did!

It did!

And then the thing is, is though that there is so much to do after that.

There is entering contests.

There is doing book signings.

There's advertising.

There's so much to do afterwards.

And then you think, well, gee, if I'm gonna write a series, I can't be spending all my time doing this stuff.

I need to be writing the next book, so (laughs) - Only 24 hours in a day, right?

- You know, right.

(Shelley laughs) - Dr. Jelks, would you follow up on that?

Obviously, a bit more on your publishing, might be a little different.

Plus the importance of getting the word out.

- Well, I mean, first of all, my first three books are with academic publishers, which is a little bit different animal.

But you have a vetting process, so you have to write a proposal and send in chapters.

And then the acquisition editor will send it out for review by peers and say this is good, this is good, this is good.

We like this, we don't like this.

And then you go back to the process of rewriting editorial board for university publisher has to vote on whether to publish your material.

So that's a real vetting process.

Like Sue, my last book, I have a literary agent for this last book.

And of course, it took me forever to find a literary agent.

I mean, I got more rejections from them, but then I found a wonderful person who was very interested in what I was doing.

She was able to sell it to Chicago Review Press out of Chicago, a small or independent press.

But it took some time.

Definitely, the literary agent route is they have to pitch your book in a different way.

Of course, trade publishers wanna believe that they can make money off of your book.

That's why they're in the business of that.

In case of editors, you have an editor with university press books, but I've always found it really important to find an editor that I work with who knows nothing about what I'm writing about, but can give me great insight.

And luckily with Chicago Review Press, I worked with a young editor who's a millennial and this is the exact who I was trying to target my book to.

So she could ask me questions 'cause I'm a Boomer!

(laughs) And she could ask me questions.

And it's like so I could relate to a different generation.

So it really worked out this last time, having a millennial ask me like, well, what does this exactly mean?

And in my world, maybe you all would've gotten it, but it was really greatly helpful that she was young to ask me all those questions.

- Hm, nice.

We're somewhat down to our final comments, as I wanna make sure we get the word out on each of you.

A question for you, Dave.

If you would end with, again, how we find out more about you.

But how did you go from a comic strip to I want a book or two?

- Yeah.

I mean, I think it was kind of a natural step, because I'm cranking out material every day.

And so just I see these book compilations of other people's cartoons in bookstores.

And I think a lot of kids come to comics not through the paper anymore.

They come through the books.

And so it was very important for me to collect these.

In some sense, it was just to reach another audience, obviously.

But also just because like from a vanity standpoint, you wanna have 'em collected so like someday when you're 95 and you're doddering around your studio, you're like, ah, I remember when I drew that.

I still have that here.

(laughs) So it just is a very natural progression for me.

- Wonderful.

Take it to a hundred.

I bet you can live there.

(Dave laughs) Dave, where do we find out more about your works?

- I've got a website.

It's speedbump.com.

And there's pretty much anything you can (chuckles) not want to know about me there.

If you go to gocomics/speedbump, you can read my cartoon every day for free.

I don't know how that's a good business model, but it works, so- - We wanna still support Dave, so let's do both.

- Right, thank you.

- Thank you, Dave.

Keep up the good work.

Mari Martin, what do you leave us with?

- You can look at my website on the book.

It's called comehomealivebook.com.

And that was kind of interesting, because there's a website about come home alive, which is about ammunitions and mercenaries and all of those things.

- Oh, yeah.

- Comehomealivebook.com.

Obviously, you can buy it online.

Amazon, Target, Barnes & Noble.

It's located in bookstores at Readers World in Holland, at Barnes & Noble, and then through the publisher, WestBow Press.

- Great.

Thank you to you.

Sue Merrell, I know you have an event coming up early October, if you wanted to share that with your contact info.

- It's true.

Sure.

Well, you can always find my books at suemerrellbooks.com and Amazon and local bookstores.

And especially on October 2nd, there is a Trail of Michigan Authors at Barnes & Noble in Muskegon.

And that will feature 40 Michigan authors, so it's a good opportunity to find no matter whether you're looking for a cookbook or a children's book or a mystery.

It's a good place to go.

- So an author in Kent is not always a lonely profession, right?

You do get out and- (Sue laughs) - That's true.

There's a lot of us!

- And rub elbows with others.

Will there be another series in your life, Sue?

- You know, it's funny that you should ask.

After I retired, I discovered that there are a lot of...

There's a world of exciting 60 and 70 somethings out there and they're not depicted fairly.

And so I've decided, I've written a book which I haven't sold yet, but about a 60 something who has a good life.

And I think these are the kinds of people that the 60 somethings wanna read about, so that's the route I'm going to next.

- Well, get her published and we'll talk about it.

(all laughing) Yeah.

What do you leave us with, Dr. Randal Jelks?

- Yes, yeah.

You can find information on my books at randalmauricejelks.com.

My whole entire name, randalmauricejelks.com.

And of course, I started my career working in independent bookstore, so I'm gonna push independent bookstores.

And I have a relationship from Schuler Books & Music, to Bricks & Mortar, and wearelitgr.com.

I believe in independent bookstores.

Having started my career in Ann Arbor at Borders bookshop when it was the grandam of bookshops there.

So I believe in independent bookstore.

Nothing against Amazon, but- (Dave laughs) All of the audiences that have been able to establish it come through those independent bookstores.

They've given me time to speak and sign and other things, so I'm pro independent bookstore.

- Yes, and we are so lucky, obviously, to have those choices here in our own backyard.

I guess, I'll just ask one final question.

Do you recommend one aspiring author write every day, Dr. Jelks?

- Oh, I absolutely do.

I try to write 120 words a day.

And people say, "Well, that's not that much."

But some days, it's a hardest act to get 120 words out of yourself.

And then some days you feel like you'll write forever.

- Wonderful.

- But then when you go back and read it, then it goes oh, I don't know what I was talking about.

- We know the answer from all of you.

(Dr. Jelks laughs) Thank you very much.

- Thank you!

- Enjoy the stay, guys.

And thank you for watching- - Thank you.

- "Community Connection."

Yeah, you're welcome.

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