Jennifer Karin writes books under her married name Jennifer Karin Sidford. She has written three books, and is currently working on her fourth: A young adult novel about four teenagers living in Hopewell, NJ during the Lindbergh kidnapping case in 1934. She also edited Life in Newburyport,a chronicle of the city’s twentieth-century history by Jean Foley Doyle, and her humor columns have been featured in two editions of America's Funniest Humor.

Jennifer is available for interviews, appearances and book signings. Contact her at jenkarin@mac.com.

An interview with Jennifer Karin Sidford

Where do you live?

I live in Newburyport, Massachusetts, a historical town with its roots in colonial shipbuilding. We live in a 200-year-old home that was once inhabited by several sea captains. On occasion, we have witnessed ghostly behavior, albeit friendly ghostly behavior. It makes for wonderful storytelling!

Where are you from?

I grew up in Vermont. My mother instilled a love for reading very early on. We were required to read every night. We also had to bring a new vocabulary word to the dinner table. I loved receiving new books from my mom. My earliest influence, without question, was E.B. White. Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web and Trumpet of the Swan were all books my mom brought home for me. I treasured each one. E.B. White is masterful at story telling, enabling young readers to get lost in the story, not in the words.

What do you do for a living?

I’m lucky because I write for a living, whether it’s a press release, an advertisement, or my own creative writing. I cannot not write (sorry about the double negative!). Characters wake me up in the middle of the night and ideas for my next column jump into my head throughout the day. Writing gives me an adrenaline rush similar to what rock climbing does for someone else.

What is your latest book?

It is called The DreamStarter Book (Cold Tree Press;2008), a collection of fifty beginnings to help encourage family storytelling. Each “DreamStarter” is the start of an amazing journey to be completed by children. There are no color illustrations, and only a few adjectives to help set each scene. But what happens next, and what each element looks like, sounds like, or even smells like your children will design. Is there a staircase? Does it go up or down? Is it stone or wood? Is it dark and dank, or bathed in sunlight? That is entirely up to your kids and their limitless imagination.

Why did you write The DreamStarter Book?

In truth, DreamStarters began out of desperation and an inability to pull a creative thought from my brain at the end of a busy day. The day had come when my kids (three boys, ages seven to fifteen) had mastered reading, and they no longer needed me to read them chapters from their favorite books. Instead, they asked me to tell them a story. At bedtime I would begin the story, then (struggling to come up with something compelling and worthy of serious Harry Potter fans) I would ask my kids to tell me what happened next. What began as a solution to my creative drought turned into a favorite family tradition.

Soon DreamStarters made its way to the dinner table, as we found it was a great way to keep our kids engaged at the table a few precious minutes more. Even my teenager stayed to present his own plot twists!

How long have you been at work on this book?

Because I work during the day, I wrote DreamStarters while at the hockey rink, on long car rides, and on vacation. I had about sixty-five DreamStarters at the end of six months, then I whittled them down to the best fifty. Since I envision the book to become a series, I am always writing DreamStarters.

Who do you hope to reach; what do you hope to say with this book?

I hope to reach elementary school children. I hope to say, “Your mind is full of beautiful ideas. Tell me, what happens next?”

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