Until Tomorrow, Mr. Marsworth by Sheila O'Connor

Until Tomorrow, Mr. Marsworth by Sheila O

Like Reenie Kelly’s grandmother, my grandmother had a little house at the top of Gardner Hill, a house with an attic bedroom where her three boys once slept. This was the place where my father was born and raised, and my O’Connor relatives all lived. Lake Liberty is an imagined town, but it was inspired by the “old town” section of Wayzata back in the 1960’s. Is Lake Liberty a real town in Minnesota? Is there a real town that inspired the setting? I have great faith in young people’s ability to read between the lines.

You have to trust the reader to read between the lines, and I did. Beyond that, there was the literal passage of time because life continued while letters were waiting to be written and answered.Īlso, in the letter, there is as much unsaid as said, and it’s that withholding of information that gives the letter its power. The scene is really a method of narrative execution, and I had to have a narrator-Reenie Kelly-for whom that method would read naturally.

The challenge with the novel, regardless of audience, is the need to show rather than tell, and the primary device for showing is the scene. So my dream to write an epistolary novel was formed young.ĭescribe some of the challenges of writing an epistolary novel for children. It was an epistolary novel written in 1912 for “college girls,” and while I was a good eight years from college, and a long way from 1912, I was a great fan of the form. Marsworth came from a book I read in fourth grade called Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster. I think my real inspiration for Until Tomorrow, Mr. Well, here we’re visiting another childhood literary influence. What was your inspiration for the story about Reenie Kelly and Mr. Mostly I wanted a life of great adventures like Betsy, Tacy and Tib lived. I wanted my own best friends, my own Big Hill where we could meet for picnics. I vividly remember imagining those characters’ lives, and wishing I could live the story with them. My mother read those novels to me before I could read, and I know those books were the start of my love affair with the novel form. What were your favorite books as a child? Why?Īs a young child, my favorite books were the Betsy-Tacy books by Maude Hart Lovelace. Marsworth, a finalist for this year’s Midwest Independent Booksellers Choice Award. Earlier this summer I visited with Sheila about her latest novel for children and young adults, Until Tomorrow, Mr. My first published novel for middle graders, Tango: The Tale of an Island Dog was the result of a life-changing collaboration with this amazing teacher and writer. While enrolled in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Hamline University from 2001 to 2007, I not only had the opportunity to take multiple classes in fiction with Sheila O’Connor, but I also had her as my thesis advisor.

Until Tomorrow, Mr. Marsworth by Sheila O'Connor