A Rising Star Feature
by Melissa Minners
Barnes and Noble is a terrific bookstore. It offers me a little bit of everything, from books to magazines to coffee to choice encounters with up-and-coming authors. A couple of weeks ago, I had just such an encounter with the author of a new children’s book series about magical twin sisters. As I passed her table, I heard the author, Jennifer Troulis, discussing her book series with a mother and her two young daughters. She was so animated…so excited about her series of books designed with young girls in mind…that I just had to talk to her. Listening to how she got her beginnings as an author/artist, how she struggled to make her dreams become a reality, and her outlook on the future of her book line, I knew for certain that Jennifer Troulis was a star on the rise.
From a young age, Jennifer Troulis proved herself to be a very creative individual. Using art as her creative outlet, Jennifer enjoyed writing stories and drawing. As the years passed, Jennifer found herself exploring other forms of artistic expression such as sculpting and painting. Although she liked to write, she hadn’t really considered making a career from it. The inspiration to begin a career in writing came years later after reading picture books to her twin children, Justin and Samantha.
Inspired by a picture book about witches that she had read to the twins when they were three years old, Jennifer decided that she would try her own hand at creating a picture book for children. It couldn’t have been easy being a wife, a mother of twin children and working part-time cleaning homes and offices, but Jennifer Troulis took it all in stride, claiming that her best ideas came to her when she was at work. Six months after she had committed herself to writing, Jennifer produced a 10-page watercolor picture story entitled Recipes, Spells and Secrets – The Enchanted Book. The manuscript featured twin girls, Penelope and Priscilla Post, characters that were loosely based on her own twins. However, when Jennifer attempted to market her book to publishers, she was rejected time and time again.
Undaunted, Jennifer decided to rework her idea, keeping her main characters and some of the main ideas of the story, and expanding the tale into a 220-page chapter novel geared toward children. The resulting book, Penelope and Priscilla and the Enchanted House of Whispers took her two and a half years to write. All of the book’s illustrations, as well as the cover art, were done by Jennifer. Still, it’s one thing to write a good story, and yet another to find a publisher willing to give a new writer a chance. Jennifer truly believed in her work, feeling that young girls needed to read more books containing strong female characters that complete heroic and adventurous deeds. With that thought in mind, in June, 2005, Jennifer Troulis embarked on an adventure of her own, publishing the book herself under Twin Monkeys Press, “where the books are all about girl power.” Shortly afterward, a second book, Penelope and Priscilla and the City of the Banished was published (February, 2007).
While still working part-time cleaning homes, Jennifer somehow manages to complete all of the illustrations and cover art for her books, conduct all of the marketing, promotion and distribution for them, and still find some time to work on the third novel in the series, Penelope and Priscilla and the Curse of the Moonshadow Rose. Though she does much of this all on her own, Jennifer does have a little help from her friends. Mary Ellen Lewczyk, her mother, has helped in the editing and layout department and often accompanies Jennifer on her numerous book signing events and school visits.
Jennifer not only attends book signings and school visits to promote her book, but has found other inventive ways to market her book line. Curious as to how her main characters would look as dolls, Jennifer decided to create them from cloth. When I met Jennifer Troulis at Barnes and Noble, the cloth dolls were prominently displayed beside her books and a young girl was admiring them, pointing them out to her mother. With the help of her friend Michelle Spencer, Troulis also makes bracelets that she shrink-wraps with the books at the multimedia and printing company of yet another friend, David McCartney. The bracelets are inspired by a scene in one of her books in which Priscilla and Penelope receive magical bracelets from their grandmother.
In the future, Jennifer plans to continue to add to her Penelope and Priscilla series, creating new magical adventures for her twins. In addition, she looks forward to completing a fantasy book she began several years ago which features a boy as the main character. Jennifer hopes that some day, someone will find her books so inspiring that a movie will be created based upon her characters. Until then, Jennifer Troulis will continue to market her books to children and adults alike.
In watching her as she spoke to the children at her table in Barnes and Noble , I could see that Troulis truly loves children and believes in her product. She wants to inspire young girls to be strong, adventurous women – women who believe that there are no boundaries…that the sky is the limit. Her dedication to her writing and the life lessons taught through children’s novels filled with magic and adventure make Jennifer Troulis a Rising Star.
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