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April 11, 2008

Enter the kingdom of words

Shula Klinger was inspired by her young and intelligent students.
OLGA LIVSHIN

The Kingdom of Strange, a debut novel by the local writer Shula Klinger, introduces 14-year-old Thisbe, a quiet, unpopular schoolgirl with a head full of "crazy" hair and a mind abuzz with stories.

Thisbe stands on the threshold of adulthood. When she enters, the reader follows, navigating the strange new land together with the young heroine, over the bumpy terrains of school and family, through the labyrinth of first love and across the minefield of friendship into the realm of fiction writing.

The book starts with Thisbe's contemplations about her teachers, her parents and herself. A bookish girl, Thisbe doesn't dream of boys, bands or fashionable jeans. Instead, she dreams of becoming a novelist. She says about herself, "my brain is Story Central."

In her own secret kingdom of words, she rules unchallenged and lonely. Every day, she types new entries in her computer journal and writes in her notebook during her bus trips, but she is afraid to share her writing with anyone, until her English teacher hands out a new assignment – to evaluate the importance of audience for a writer.

Embarking on her homework with an online investigation, Thisbe learns that not everything is as it seems in life or on the Internet. She also learns that e-mail communication might not be the best way to fall in love, although it does open an entirely new repository of ideas and identities, putting new spins on the tales of Shakespeare and Ovid.

Like Ovid's Metamorphoses, Klinger's novel is a story of self-discovery, showing readers how a timid and self-conscious misfit teenager, immersed in her own fantasies in the first chapters of the book, is transformed by the end into an intelligent young woman, much more attuned to herself and the real world around her. 

Klinger's own story resembles the fictional journey of her quirky heroine. Like Thisbe, Klinger has kept journals since she could write. Growing up in England, she was very politically conscious, watching daily news with her father. At 12, she was sure she would become the best war correspondent in the world. She also wrote poetry.

As she grew up, her priorities changed. She is still keeping a journal, but she doesn't record sensational military events anymore. Instead, the odd, funny and sweet episodes of everyday life, the moments of tranquility and bursts of hilarity have found their ways into her journals. Rain falling on the roof, her baby son's contented gurgles and the antics of her dachshund occupy the pages now.

The Kingdom of Strange has sprouted like a tree from the deep roots of Klinger's journals and poems, absorbing the writer's private life, her contemplations on writing, family and her work experience. Under contract for the Vancouver distant education program, she taught creative writing to gifted teenagers and her talented apprentices sparked her own creative flow. Although her novel started out as an adult thriller, it morphed into a humorous young adult tale under the influence of her students, who became her first readers, critics and friends. Some of Klinger's former students now attend colleges, write poetry or compose music.

"They were brilliant young women, intelligent and lovely," Klinger said. "They were my inspiration and I still keep in touch with many of them. The little in-jokes scattered throughout the novel are tiny winks to these young writers."

The author's unconventional illustrations for the book have also burgeoned from her work. When Klinger decided to design a website for her writing mentorship program, she taught herself to draw in the Japanese Manga style, using the How to Draw Manga guide book. The same style guided her giggling pencil when she drew Thisbe and Thisbe's rebellious hair. In another illustration, the young heroine is swimming in a sea of words, reveling in the warm waves of nouns and adjectives. Klinger's own passion for the English language comes to the fore in the novel's light-hearted account of Thisbe's offbeat e-mail adventures.

In a way, Klinger's novel is a reflection of her personal growth as a writer and teacher. The novel takes its readers on the rollercoaster of a writer's life, simultaneously providing playful, unobtrusive instructions on handling one's own creativity. Painting a thoughtful portrait of an aspiring young novelist, the book teaches readers to treasure their imagination, to steadfastly climb out of the pits of self-doubt and to never disregard the simple pleasures of life.

"My novel is for the kids who think," Klinger said.

To know more about the writer and her work, log onto her website, shulaklinger.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer

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