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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 2017)
BOOKS BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN TROLL HUNTER Local author publishes otherworldly teen mystery series B y day, he’s a teacher at Thurston High School in Springfield — a “giant nerd” in his own words. But after work, Will Ritter inhabits a world where solving mysteries requires intimate knowl- edge of dragons, trolls, ghosts and fairies. Ritter is the author of the New York Times-bestselling Jack- aby series of teen mystery novels. The novels chronicle the ad- ventures of the able Abigail Rook, the heroine who is the real focus of the books, as she assists the title character, Det. R.F. Jackaby, in his explorations into the supernatural realm. The fourth and final book in the series, The Dire King, was released Aug. 22, and Ritter took some time before the start of school and a September appearance at Portland’s Rose City Comicon to talk about his books. Rook was not originally a female character, Ritter tells Eugene Weekly. The first draft of Jackaby was written with Rook as an invisible narrator. “In my head it was brilliant,” Ritter remembers. He named the character, a sort of Wat- son to Jackaby’s Sherlock Holmes, John Rook. It was a purposefully dull name, and “he was even more boring than myself.” The goal was to let the reader see through Rook’s eyes, but what Ritter found was that “when you intentionally write somebody with no character, they are not interest- ing.” The Jackaby books, set in the 19th century fictional East Coast town of New Fiddleham, have been compared to Harry Potter in their mixing of the everyday human realm with the supernatural. Ritter draws on his background in English and folklore from the University of Oregon for his mythology as well as on contemporary people and issues to give the books more depth than a straightforward mystery. In the third book, Ghostly Echoes, Lydia Lee is trans- gender, and Hatun — who appears throughout the series — is modeled on Hatoon Victoria Adkins, a mentally ill homeless woman who used to spend time around the UO bookstore and library before she was hit by a car and killed in 2005. Hatun is the only Jackaby character based fairly directly on a real, local person, Ritter says. He was working at the UO library the year the real Hatoon died. “She was always looking out for people, always trying to protect them,” Rit- ter says, and the book’s character shares that spirit. Meanwhile in book two, Beastly Bones, the brave report- er Nellie Fuller is based on famed journalist Nellie Bly. Nellie, like Lydia Lee, is one of the strong role models that Ritter gives Rook, who has only recently left her par- ents’ home, to look up to in each book. “I love getting into a series that has an arc,” Ritter says, and for Jackaby, that arc is Rook’s coming-of-age story. And, the author says, as a teacher and an adoptive father who is raising his two sons to be feminists, “I write the kinds of lessons I’d want my students to see.” Over the course of the books, Abigail Rook learns about being yourself, “all the parts of yourself,” and about help- ing others to become themselves. In The Dire King, Rook learns that “you can respect someone while still not liking them, respect while you disagree, and learn to forgive and trust even when they don’t deserve it.” Ritter’s students keep his feet on the earth even if his writing takes him to other realms in his imagination. He re- members coming back from a big convention that featured a signing line for his autograph and feeling like a rock star, then coming back to the classroom only to realize, he says self-deprecatingly, that his students would “rather use the bathroom pass and get out of class.” Ritter teaches creative writing and mythology, and he uses his own work in the classroom to teach. He knows it’s nerve-wracking to share your writing, he says. And he uses feedback from his own agent and editors — with com- ments in red ink coating the page and notes in the margins — to show that editing is “part of the process of writing.” The Dire King by Will Ritter. Algonquin Young Readers. $17.95. Available in local bookstores and online. CLASSIFIEDS ADDICTIONS COUNSELOR TRAINING PROGRAM ZEN MEDITATION and MINDFULNESS for GROUNDING & INSIGHT. Oct. 5 - Nov. 23 (8 Thursdays) From 7pm to 9pm details at www.bluecliffzen.org Serenity Lane, 52-week no cost Addiction Counselor Training To place a classified ad: CALL 541.484.0519 EMAIL classy@eugeneweekly.com WEB classifieds.eugeneweekly.com WRITE 1251 Lincoln St. Eugene, OR 97401 VISIT our office Monday-Friday 9am-5pm BULLETIN BOARD For more info, visit www.serenitylane.org, click on Employment Opportunities, then on Serenity Lane’s Counselor Training Program Opportunities. 541-284-5702. 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Potluck. Please come & celebrate! MUSIC/ENTERTAINMENT Insurance SINGERS- MISS SINGING WITH A HIGH ENER- GY CHOIR? Come sing w/ Inspirational UNINSURED? WE CAN HELP! Enrollment for Sounds, an award winning, non-profit, community choir singing joyous African- American Gospel Music. If you’re interested in this vibrant group, call Carol at 541-995- 8459 or 541-517-3770. Look us up on FB! EMPLOYMENT Help Wanted FOUND A NATIONAL PARK SERVICE SENIOR PASS Sunday Sept. 10 sidewalk of $DANCERS$ Tired of your current club! SWEET ILLUSIONS has day & night shifts Pets GREENHILL HUMANE SOCIETY Everybody Deserves a Good Home. Open Fr-Tu 11a-6p, closed We/Th 88530 Green Hill Rd 541-689- 1503 and 1st Avenue Shelter open Tu-Fr 10a-6p & Sa 10a-5:30p, closed Su/Mo 3970 W. 1st Ave 541-844-1777. green-hill. org See our Pet of the Week! SHELTER ANIMAL RESOURCE ALLIANCE S.A.R.A.’s Treasures Gift & Thrift Shop. 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Intro offer: $39 for one month of unlimited yoga. www. sweatyganeshyoga.com Springfield. You must be 21 and an Oregon resident. Competitive pay and excellent benefits. Apply online at www.livwell.com/ careers by September 19th. YOGAWESTEUGENE.COM since 1974 SWEATY GANESH YOGA HOME SERVICES SEEKING EMPLOYMENT I’M A HOLISTIC NUTRITIONIST who can teach you how to shop & cook your way off of spendy prescription meds. Amelie Rousseau, MScN at amelie.c.rousseau@ gmail.com. Business Opportunities OUR TEAM OF YOUNG LIVING ESSENTIAL OILS 8-WEEK DREAM INTERPRETATION CLASS WELLNESS Singer/Songwriters Lost & Found Charnelton between 22nd and 21st Avenues. Cannot read Signature... could be R—— Franklin??? if you think this is yours contact Jo 808-223-6993 LINE ADS: $11/3 LINES ADDITIONAL LINES: $4 DISTRIBUTORS is seeking motivated people to join in building extra income via a work- from-home business. 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