One Stitch at a Time

Gennifer Albin

Gennifer Albin wrote Crewel on a dare from her mother-in-law.

Okay, not a dare maybe, but rather a gentle urging on a regular basis. When Gennifer Albin's daughter was eight weeks old, her mother-in-law called. She said, "I was thinking, you always talk about writing books, and I'm going to ask you every time I see you how your book is coming." Albin met her "ridiculously supportive" husband in high school, so she's known her mother-in-law a very long time. "She knew I'd take it as a challenge," Albin told me in an interview. So Albin went to the library every day and in 70-minute intervals (that’s how long she was allowed to use the computer before getting booted off for other patrons), she wrote Crewel.

Embroidering the Earth's Mantle

The inspiration for her story is an image from an alterpiece, Embroidering the Earth's Mantle by Remedios Varo, in which women embroider in a tower removed from the rest of society. This idea that the fabric of a world, the elements of a tapestry, the phases of a story may be stitched together, one strand at a time, 70 minutes per session, is a powerful one to take into the New Year. 

Albin also used the tools of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, which is November). But don't wait until November to start! Use the tools today.