Sisters, Stories, and the Art of Writing with Hannah Fouts

A middle-grade sister story in the Author Conservatory Showcase is the first step on Hannah Fouts' author journey.

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Valerie - Welcome to Bookworthy. Today we're talking with author and writing instructor Hannah Fouts about her contribution, The Sisters of Starford Point, in the Author Conservatory's Student Showcase, Voices of the Future, Volume 4, Stories of Adventure and Imagination. I had the pleasure of meeting Hannah at the Write to Publish conference in 2024, and I can't wait to hear more about her stories and her writing journey. Welcome to Bookworthy, Hannah.

Hannah - Hello, it is so great to be here. I'm so honored to be able to be here. I love listening to the podcast, so this is really fun.

Valerie - It's fun to have you. Kind of neat to see someone from a conference and to see them like this, I think. Yes. It's like seeing again, but not in person.

Hannah - Yeah, I agree. It is so fun. It's so great. That was my first writing conference. So it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it.

Valerie - It's always, always a good one. I enjoy that one a lot. I kind of want to go back, but not this year, but we'll try to go again. Well, Hannah, we start with our random question of the week. So what is a phrase or a bit of slang that you say often?

Hannah - Yes, so I was thinking over this, and I feel like my phrase changes a lot, honestly. And if you were to ask my husband this, he would probably tell you that it's not a phrase, it's like some random word that I just decided to latch onto and use over and over again. Like something kind of out of the ordinary that wouldn't be a normal vocabulary that I just picked up from a book that I read, or something. Yeah. I don't know, I can't think of a specific word, but I do, I have like a different word I use like every month that I don't even know that I do it, but he laughs at me all the time for it, so I love it.

Valerie – How about a word for this month, or a favorite word that you've read recently, or a phrase?

Hannah - Well, I've always loved the word inconspicuous. When I was a little kid, my mom would read stories to us all the time. And I was probably, she's told me this story, I don't remember it personally, but I was probably about two at the time. And we'd read a story about a polar bear trying to slide across the ground and be inconspicuous. And so I was sliding from behind the couch, and my mom was like, Hannah, what are you doing? And I was like, you can't see me, I'm trying to be inconspicuous.

Valerie - I can just imagine a cute little two-year-old boy saying, inconspicuous. Those don't match, but too fun. Well, Hannah, tell us a little bit about your short story, The Sisters of Starford Point.

Hannah - Yes, so this story is about our main character, and hold on, I had a blurb. Let me pull it up real quick. OK, so this story is written for middle-grade readers. And like he said, it's called The Sisters of Starford Point. And it's about how, after causing an accident on the docks, which lands their dad in the hospital, Olivia and her younger sister Nora have to recruit their uncle Silas to help finish the fishing trip so that they don't miss another payment and lose the fishing boat. For him to go through, the girls have to take care of his lighthouse and make sure that everything runs smoothly while he's away. But the storm on the horizon is about to cause more chaos than Olivia ever anticipated. And it may wash away any hope of restoring her shattered relationship with Nora.

Valerie - Well, what was the inspiration behind this story? It sounds very interesting.

Hannah - Yes, so my family and I, back in 2021, took a vacation to Maine, the coast of Maine. And I'm a person, I get a lot of inspiration from different travels, from my surroundings, and the settings I'm in. And oh my goodness, the coastline of Maine, we went to Acadia National Park. It was beautiful. Mean, there are lighthouses, these beautiful rocks, and fog, and oh my gosh, everything. I just knew when I was there, I had to write a story about this. And I've always been fascinated by lighthouse stories. I'm sure you've read a fair share, but I've loved them. And especially as a kid, I thought that was just like the coolest thing ever. And so I knew whenever I was getting closer to getting to my final year of author conservatory, and that we were going to be releasing this anthology, that it would be fun if I was able to write a short story that was set at a lighthouse. So those two things combined really just helped birth this story.

Valerie - Very neat. Love how just as an author, you do take in your surroundings, and it doesn't matter if you have traveled a lot or you haven't, but your experiences really feed your stories a lot. And that's, that's what makes you a good author, is to be able to take your surroundings and just use them to teach and to encourage others. Now, do you have a sister of your own with whom you had a struggling relationship?

Hannah - I have two sisters. I do have two. I have an older sister and a younger sister. And I don't know, my sisters and I have always had a great relationship. Of course, know, with any relationship you have, you have little tiffs and fights, and, you know, that's my shirt. You can't wear it, you know. Yes, yeah. So I mean things like that, but I, for Olivia specifically, her mom has passed away. And so she feels like she's trying to take on the role of being a parent for her sister. And so that's something she's struggling with, and it's kind of the catalyst for their relationship struggles. And so I'm the second oldest in my family, but I had a big family growing up. We did foster care, and so always tons of littles that needed help and that I just got the opportunity to love on. And so in some instances, there were times where I was like, oh, you there's so many things going on. I've got to, you know, step up, and I think to, in some instances, it would, you know, I would try to take on like a parent role. And then, of course, my sister's like, You're not my mom. You can't tell me what to do. And, know, like, okay, fair point. So yeah.

Valerie - I love that I have some friends who are part of our family, or friends of our family, who do foster care. And it is very interesting to watch, you know, new kids come into their home and for them to be, you know, kind of grafted in for a little while and how all the siblings kind of take them on as they just treat them like another sibling, which has its positives and negatives.

Hannah - Yeah, it is, yeah. It is such a good ministry opportunity just to be able to love on the kids and their families, too, in some instances.

Valerie - Very true. Now, what kind of message do you hope to communicate with your story?

Hannah - Yeah, so I would say the message that I want to communicate is really just kind of what I was talking about where, especially as older siblings, that there is a time and place for leading and leading by example, but there's a fine line between that and taking on things that aren't yours to take on. And that's something that I've always been, I'm always like some would call it a control freak, I don't know. You know, or I like to, yeah, I like helping people and I like, you know, doing all those sorts of things. But there is something to be said, especially as a kid, where it's okay to just be a kid, and it's okay to not feel like you have to do all the different things and be the one to make sure that you don't rock the boat and do all this stuff. You know, like it's okay to make mistakes and it's okay to just be an older sister and to not feel like you have to take on more than you should.

Valerie - And with this anthology, was there a basic theme that you guys all had to write off of, or what were the, I guess, the similarities between the stories, if there are any?

Hannah - Yeah, when we kind of started, we started with the idea of, we're all gonna choose similar themes. And so the theme that I initially had chosen was the sisters' theme, and it was gonna be a sisters' anthology. And then really, we're kind of learning as we go. And so it kind of morphed and changed a bit to allow for all the students who needed to graduate and push out these anthologies. I would say the thread that kind of connects all the stories is kind of like it says in the title, that a lot of them deal with adventure, and they deal with

Imagination, which is something that I've always just been such a big, I have such an overactive imagination. It's a little crazy. Mean, I could tell you some stories, but yeah, I think adventure and imagination definitely is a great theme, kind of running through all of the different stories. And they all definitely have their unique spin on them. All of the authors in this anthology have their unique voice and message. And it's just been such an honor to be able to be in this anthology with them. Yeah, they're all such, not just aside from the fact that they're incredible authors, they're just incredible, incredible people. So it really has been such an honor to be able to be in this book with them.

Valerie - Very fun, and this was your class at the Author Conservatory, correct? So you kind of all came together, you were going through the classes and putting this together. So, tell us a little bit about the Author Conservatory.

Hannah - So the Author Conservatory is a college alternative program for writers who are serious about writing and want to become published authors. I heard that Brett Harris and Kara Swanson are the co-founders. They're also so incredible. Really, yeah, incredible authors, incredible people, just wonderful character. And yeah, I love them so much. But yeah, so with the author, it's not only training you about writing, because that's something that they kind of noticed about a lot of different colleges. If you go to like learn to study English or creative writing, they'll teach you, you you can learn how to write well, but a lot of them, you know, you don't, you may not learn as much about the publishing industry, how to write a query letter, how to pitch a book, how to write a book proposal and how to approach a writing.

Career, sustainably so that you don't end up burning out and feeling like the only way for me to support myself is to crank out books that maybe I'm not super proud of, but I need money and so I'm gonna have to keep cranking them out. And so yeah, just teaching this new sort of business model for authors, authorpreneurs is what we say sometimes. So yeah, it was something I was excited about going out of high school. I heard about it, but I didn't think I was gonna get accepted, so I wasn't even gonna try. And my parents were like, Hannah, you should. What's the worst that could happen? So I applied, and I got on a call with them, and I remember them telling me that I was accepted, and I was just like, my gosh, so excited. So yeah, it's been an incredible, incredible couple of years.

Valerie - I love with what Brett and Kara have done is not just, you know, teaching you writing, which they do and do an amazing job at, but also teaching you the business side of writing, because that is the hardest part of wanting to write is you do have to be a business person too. And so to be an entrepreneur, or entrepreneur, as you said, and to think about it in a business sense is not usually how writing is approached. It's like, I'm going to write. Thus, I shall get published. Thus, I shall make millions of dollars in movies and all the wonderful dreams that we have.

Hannah - Gosh, I know. I remember when that vowel was popped. Was devastated.

Valerie - But it's a good boat to be caught early rather than later, and to be like, okay, we got to look at this differently. And I love that the author's conservatory is doing that for young writers because there is a large space for young people to write and write well, and to encourage the generation below them and spur that community on. And so it's neat to see what they've accomplished with that. Now, when are you going to graduate?

Hannah - Yes, so I've already finished all of my assignments. I'm done, but I will be officially walking at a ceremony that they're going to be having in September. So very excited about that.

Valerie - That was very exciting. Too fun. Now, what are you up to?

Hannah - So right now, I am continuing to write. Just got an edit letter back from one of my final conservatory projects. So, another thing they teach you is how to have a thick skin. And yeah, I'm sure you've gotten a few painful edit letters in your time. Yeah, just a couple. They're not always fun, yes. My gosh, yeah. So I've been working on that.

Valerie - Red is not my favorite color.

Hannah - I'm also an instructor for an online program called Kids Write Novels, where I'm kind of getting to pass the baton to these middle school kids who love writing. And what I get to do is I get to teach them English over the school year, and then they write a book, and then at the end of the book, we help them self-publish on Amazon. So it's a lot of fun.

Valerie - What kind of future authors are headed towards the author conservatory, in a sense? Very neat. Now, so you're teaching English, and kind of, so is it more of a self-paced learning homeschool system?

Hannah - Yes, homeschool curriculum. Yes. Since it's a home school curriculum, it's able to be, know, people can be flexible with it. Some of the students are, you know, they have a schedule, I guess. I can't think of the right word, but we have a schedule that we'll give out. Some of the students, you know, they'll follow it to a T. Some of them kind of go off and do their own thing based on, you know, maybe they're really busy this semester. And then their parents are like, okay, now we're going to kick it into high gear or, you know, just whatever.

Valerie -It has that flexibility that sometimes we writers need.

Hannah - Yes. My goodness. Writer's block. It's something we talk about a lot.

Valerie - I bet, I bet. Now, kind of as you were walking through this program, what was kind of one of the biggest takeaways you had from the program? I know I'm kind of throwing that one at you, surprise, sorry.

Hannah - I'm working on compiling. We do like takeaway posts, and so I'm working on writing my like four-year-long takeaway post.

Okay, okay. I would say that my main takeaway out of the hundreds and hundreds that I could say is something that I probably wouldn't have thought would be great when I was first starting the Author Conservatory. And that is something that they talk about all the time is that the name of the game in the writing and publishing game is to stay in the game until you win the game. And so, writing a book, publishing a book, it's a marathon, it's not a sprint. And that's something that I really had to change my mindset on going into it because I'm such a, I'm go-getter, I like to get things done, and if things are taking too long, I move on to the next thing. So, you know, early on in my dream of being an author, it looked like I'll write a chapter of this book and I'm gonna start the next book and write, you know.

So really being able to slow down and learn, okay, it's okay if I don't have a bajillion books published by the time I'm like 25 or something, that's okay. That's not normal. And in some senses, it's better I would say in many cases, it's better to slow down and to take the time to think through the words you're writing, to think through the projects that you're working on and the ways that you are going to be talking about them, pitching them to people, and to not be discouraged when you do get those rejection letters or you do get the red tape or the red underlines of this all needs to be cut. Horrible. Yeah, I think that's something that has really helped me. And I think if I hadn't attended Author and kind of really learned those lessons and had the support groups that I do and the friendships that I've made through it, I don't think I would have kept on going. I think I would have given up because it was taking too long.

Valerie - It is kind of hard to imagine. Think, you know, writing is you just write a book and you get it published. It's, but it can be years before an idea that you worked on for four years becomes something. So it's, like you said, a long game. So, well, Hannah, what is your favorite book?

Hannah - I have so many. I have so, so many. I would say some of my favorite books would probably be Anne of Green Gables, A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus. I love that book. And a classic one, all the Penderwick series gets me every time. I love the Penderwicks.

Valerie - That is a really sweet series, something we recently discovered with my kids, and it's been a lot of fun to read through. Again, a very adventurous and imaginative, right?

Hannah - It is. Love all their stuff. Yeah, yes. I love it.

Valerie - Too fun. Well, what can we expect next from you, Hannah?

Hannah - Yes, so I have a couple of books that are in the works. I'm going to be pitching one of my books to some agents. I'm in kind of the process of that. So I don't want to give away too much about that, but exciting things, yes. All the stories and books that I write are stories that spark imagination and protect innocence. That's really what I want to do with the stories that I'm writing. And so, stay tuned for those. I do have a free short story that's gonna be coming out soon to all of my email list subscribers. Yeah, that one's gonna be a lot of fun over there too.

Valerie -Very neat. Well, where can people get on that list in order to get it exactly perfect?

Hannah - Yes. Great segue, right? Yes. So you can sign up for my email list. I have a link specifically to sign up for it. I also have a website where you can sign up, as well as an Instagram account. And all of my Instagram is @hannahfoutsauthor. My website is www.hannahfoutsauthor.com. So, yep.

Valerie - Kind of easy to find. Just type in Hannah Fouts and you'll get there. Too fun. We'll ensure that those links are included in the descriptions as well, so people can find you easily. Well, Hannah, thank you so much for joining us today.

Hannah - Yes, thank you so much for having me. It's been such a pleasure.

Valerie -It's been fun to see you again. And thank you for joining Hannah and me on this episode of the Bookworthy Podcast. Check the show notes for any books or links that we discussed, and let us know in the comments if you have a favorite phrase or slang that is unique to you. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review so we can discover more great books together.

Happy reading!