About My Books
Author DJ Geribo talks about her books in more detail, providing insights into her creative process for each of her books.
The main character in this book is the House itself, who introduces us to each of the guests who made their way to Deep Lake House over the decades. Generations have made their way to the House and like all of my writing, the characters bring with them feelings of hope, sadness, love, disappointment, misunderstanding, breaking up, and making up. The stories span decades with the House sharing the pain and love it has felt for each and every character.
As for my inspiration, this book came about when my husband mentioned something to me that I found interesting (I, unfortunately, do not remember what it is now) but I completely misinterpreted what he said and when I described to him what I was going to write, he was surprised since it wasn't what he was thinking, but thought my idea would make a great collection of stories. As with all of my writing, Deep Lake House became a work of passion. Some who have read it have shared that a couple of the stories have brought out such strong emotions in them that they have cried over the misfortune of the characters. I believe this is what many authors would love to know about the stories they are sharing with the world.
The inspiration for The Mart started with people I knew when I worked at a job when I was 17 and 18 years old. All of the stories in Friends, Lovers, and Other Strangers are based loosely on the characters I worked with. Of course, I used a lot of my own creative license. The two people in the novel, A Madness Most Discreet, Bitsy and Lewis, are completely made up and characters I created when I saw a young man working at a Walmart and a young woman working at Ocean State Job Lots. I just brought them together and built the story around them. Inspiration for stories often come from people I meet in my life or someone I knew in my past. A story just starts forming. I call it my muse giving me directions.
The people in the stories are those who I knew would never write their own story but still they were stories that needed to be told. Coming from a less than privileged life, a life many people cannot relate to since they possibly never wanted for anything in life, these are people who simply through birth, were never given any advantages and had to work hard for what they had. They work, they fall in love, they have a family. Generation after generation just barely making ends meet. Often sad stories, but stories I believe needed to be told.
This collection of stories featuring each of my parents is very dear to me. These are the stories that were my life as a child growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. My memories are those of so many others who grew up in the same decades. My mother’s stories: collecting green stamps, her insecurity about her front teeth, her mother, learning to drive, making out so many Christmas cards and the letters she wrote with them to family back home in Utah, and watching Westerns which reminded her of her childhood. My dad’s stories: coloring Easter eggs inspired by the Ukrainian eggs using a pin and melted beeswax, smoking cigarettes and sometimes a pipe, working at the Post Office, doing crossword puzzles and collecting stamps, and spending too much time at the local barroom. I also share their final stories where each suffered slow deaths from cancer; my dad at 59 and my mom at 75. Stories that are etched in my memories and that fill me with sadness as well as joy to have lived during this time.
Each story has found its way into this book at different times in my life. One story came to me while driving on the back roads near my house. I glanced in a yard and saw a double-wide mobile home with a ramp obviously for someone who used a wheelchair. The story something just tells itself and I take a few notes to remind me where I want to go with it. Other stories in this collection were based on observations I’ve made either of the elderly living on their own after a spouse has passed, or someone I knew many years ago who comforted herself with alcohol. I understood when I met her mother who struck me as a cold woman with no love to give her daughter. Other stories tell how life changes even when you have perfect plans. And other stories came about when I thought about someone accepting the life they chose years before but still have a lot of life to live so give up comfort for adventure. I even have a section of flash fiction based on the people who live “Alone Together” in an apartment building, coming and going but never meeting.
My favorite compliment for this book was a woman who was standing in line at a local store with this book in hand and when my husband asked if she would like the author to sign it for her, came over to me and told me that a friend had bought my book and love it so much she had to get her own copy. Those kinds of compliments, unsolicited, are the best.
Based on a true story, JoJo Scurry, after his capture in a have-a-heart trap and driven a mile away from the only home he has ever known, finds his way back. But not without confronting and out-smarting a snake and a cat who are looking for a tasty mouse for dinner. Illustrations and story by DJ Geribo
A non-fiction account of the time DJ’s Pomeranian, Kameko, was diagnosed with a devastating disease, IMHA, and the journey DJ, her husband, Jim, and Meko went on to heal their little dog. After a week in the hospital, blood transfusions, paying thousands of dollars, and giving her a slew of medicine that ultimately got Meko back on the road to health, DJ never gave up on the dog that her regular vet called ‘the Miracle Dog’.
Combining both of DJs loves of writing and painting, this hardcover book is a mystery as well as a learning tool, teaching the young about the basics of art. What happened to Green? Follow along as the other art supplies follow Eddie Easel to the end when they discover what happened to one of the primary colors, Green. "My nephew’s girls were obsessed with the book and had to hear the story nightly". Illustrations and story by DJ Geribo
My first novel, the inspiration came to me when over the years when my husband and I with our Pomeranians walked a 2-mile trek around the block. Like most of New Hampshire, we have flat surfaces and rises and hills which gives us a variety of terrain and a good workout for both of us and our dogs. On this walk when we reached a peak in the road before the decline, when you looked out at the trees where the road began to rise up again, you saw a house. Over the years, it began to look like it was sitting at the top of the cluster of trees in the distance. Again and again, I would point out ‘the house at the top of the trees’ until a story began to form.
The story involved a young girl, pre-teen, and her younger brother and they day they learned that their bikes could take them up to the house at the top of the trees where a whole other world existed. Part fantasy part real-life, the brother and sister, Nat and Devon, find themselves in a world where they were given unconditional love, along with the other children who made their ways to this world. But do they want to stay or return to a single mom who works hard to give her children a few special treats in life while sacrificing the time that they don’t get enough of but would prefer?
This is the first story in a series that I am currently working on. The next book in this series is “The Castle at the Bottom of the Sea”.