Maggie the Beagle Enlivens Book Club Meeting

Around a cloth-lined table on Saturday afternoon, six well-dressed ladies nibbled on finger sandwiches and discussed fine literature.

In their inaugural book club meeting, Chloe Burke, Lauren Davis, Kerigan Pickett, Mary Claire Finlay and Isabel Bogaert tackled the weightiest of themes - the human desire for love, friendship and safety in an often-cruel world.

Inside the meeting room of the Port Inn, the literary ladies were the very portrait of ease and refinement.
That is, until the door swung open, revealing a black and tan Beagle named Maggie.

Leaving all sense of propriety behind, they chased Maggie around the room, smiling and cooing at the energetic pup.
Maggie was not just any dog; she was the star of the book club's first selection, Maggie the Beagle with a Broken Tail.

And the club members, all Port St. Joe fourth-graders, were delighted to make her acquaintance.

Dressed in a matching red bandana, Evelyn Gilmer, the book's author, introduced Maggie to the girls.

Leading the afternoon's engaging discussion, Gilmer shared lessons in inspiration, writing and the book's theme of "brokenness."

Canine Inspiration

Gilmer, a Tallahassee first-grade teacher, took her inspiration from her real-life adoption of Maggie, whose tail is broken near the tip.

In the book, Maggie grows up on Growler's Puppy Farm, where she spends her days frolicking in monkey grass, chasing Sassy the tabby cat, and playing with the ironically named junkyard dog "Buster Beautiful."

Just how Maggie broke her tail remains a mystery, though the book offers several suggestions.

As Maggie's friends leave the farm for loving homes, Maggie struggles with deep feelings of insecurity.

Ultimately, she makes peace with her broken tail, and has faith that she, too, will find a good home.

"In Maggie's dream, her new owner would love her more than anything else in the world," writes Gilmer. "She would be loved for the beautiful little black and tan Beagle she was...Maggie Elizabeth, with a broken tail."

Gilmer showed the girls a computer slideshow of the inspiration for "Growler's Puppy Farm" - a 40-acre Marianna farm owned by John Clark.

Clark, the father-in-law of Gilmer's daughter, Tiffany, raised Maggie and countless other stray cats and puppies on his estate.

Like her illustrated doppelganger, Maggie broke her tail some time during her stay on Clark's farm.

In writing the book - her first in print - Gilmer tried to put herself in Maggie's paws.

"I just imagined what Maggie might feel with a broken tail, and realized everyone's got something broken," Gilmer told the girls.

"We're fearful people won't love us if we're broken."

"You are all authors"

Gilmer offered more than just a discussion of her book's theme. She also walked the girls through the entire process of authoring a book - from conception to publishing.

Maggie the Beagle with a Broken Tail began as a seven-page manuscript.

Though an early Gilmer effort, "Trees are Children at Heart," a metaphor-laden story written in couplet rhyme, had been rejected 16 times, Maggie the Beagle snagged a publisher immediately.

Gilmer worked with the Oklahoma-based Tate Publishing for a year before seeing her manuscript in print.

She e-mailed drafts back and forth, and received color-coded replies from her editor.

Gilmer read each of her drafts to her first grade class.
Though the tikes proved an enthusiastic audience, they did not offer much in the way of constructive criticism.
"They loved everything," said Gilmer.

To ensure the finished product reflected her vision for the book, Gilmer corresponded frequently with illustrator Melissa Griggs.

She mailed Griggs photos of Maggie and her grandchildren, who inspired the story's human characters.

When Gilmer wasn't pleased with a drawing, she let the illustrator know in no uncertain times.

"It's not cute if (Maggie's) tail's not broken, so please break the tail," read one of Gilmer's notes.

Gilmer found the publishing process both demanding and rewarding.

"It takes a whole year, a lot of deadlines, a lot of following instructions," she said.

More Maggie

Once Gilmer finished her first Maggie book, she immediately began writing three sequels.

Tate Publishing accepted all three.

Maggie the Beagle with a Broken Tail Gets a New Home and Maggie the Beagle with a Broken Tail and the Baby Sea Turtles will hit the shelves in January 2009.

The former was inspired by Maggie's first days in Gilmer's Tallahassee home.

The latter recounts Maggie's adventures with turtle hatchlings on St. George Island.

Maggie the Beagle with a Broken Tail Goes to Summer Camp, a chapter book, will be published in 2010.

The story is set on Growler's Puppy Farm, with Sassy the tabby cat assuming a more prominent role.

Gilmer said she wrote the chapter book so her youthful audience could grow with the series.

A Budding Author

On Saturday, Gilmer gave each of the girls a frosted bone-shaped cookie wrapped in a small cellophane bag.

Gilmer asked the girls to remove the bag's paw-print ribbon and keep it somewhere in a prominent place.

"I want it to remind you that you are all authors and you are illustrators," said Gilmer.

When she was the same age as the girls, Gilmer had been told by a teacher that writing was her destiny.

But she waited many years before fulfilling the promise of her youth.

Gilmer encouraged the girls not to make the same mistake.
"I don't want you to wait as long as Mrs. Gilmer did. There's a book in everybody's heart, and I want to read your books some day," she said.

Sitting in the audience, Burke took Gilmer's words to heart.

Two weeks ago, the animal lover began a story inspired by her pet caterpillars.

After a few days of writing, she introduced two protagonists, "a smart one and one that has all the questions."

Burke wrote some sparkling dialogue, with the caterpillars engaging in a philosophical discussion about growing up.

Though she hadn't yet worked out the title or the ending, she vowed to see the story through to completion.

Burke had learned a great many things about publishing during her first book club meeting.

She knew the hardest work lay ahead.

"It's going to take longer than a few days," she said.