By Avonlea Cummings
Hometown Weekly Reporter
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but words transport you into a whole different reality. Words create brush strokes of vibrant colors enriched into your mind as it flows from page to page throughout a novel as a reader illustrates a magnificent piece of art that can be hung in the Louvre.
Someone’s favorite novel can be a different language that pinpoints just how the reader is feeling, these masterpieces of art are so phenomenal that sometimes a reader wishes to be able to meet or speak with the author one day. For many, their favorite author is Jenna Evans Welch.
Luckily, the Needham Public Library made this wish come to life for Needham residents to speak with well-known Young Adult author Jenna Evans Welch. In collaboration with the Ashland Public Library, those from Needham were able to access a Zoom link that directly brought them to a webinar where they could virtually ask Welch their most pressing questions.
Jenna Evans Welch is a worldwide known Young Adult author, releasing her first novel “Love and Gelato” in 2016, Welch has been creating abroad love stories for thousands to enjoy for the past seven years. Welch has since released two other novels in her “Love and” series, “Love and Luck and Love and Olives”. The pristine author hopped on a Zoom Question and Answer webinar with the Ashland Public Library to discuss her newest novel “Spells for Lost Things”. Welch shared her writing process and inspiration dating back to while she was still in high school and leaping to her inspiration now presently while writing her first dual-perspective novel.
Whether it was from across the world in Brazil, across the country in California, or right here close to home in Massachusetts, thousands of fans gathered to listen and ask questions to their favorite author. With grace and humble actions, Welch answered each one of the questions asked throughout the hour-long Zoom meeting. Some questions regarding her typical writing routines, writer’s block, advice for those who wish to become authors one day, and even how she feels about the success of her books around the world.
“Honestly, I’m so grateful. I’m a big dreamer and thinker having a large viewership outside of the U.S. was never something I even thought of. I never imagined that happening, it feels so special to me to be a part of other people’s lives who I’ve never met. I really relied on books as a child especially, throughout a time period when I was lonely, and books were the thing that stuck with me. I had all these writers’ thoughts and ideas with me, and it’s something I still carry with me today. They formed my worldview, so the thought of being that person to someone else is really the most special thing to me,” reflected Welch.
Want a summer getaway right in your home? Be sure to check out Jenna Evans Welch’s novels in the Needham Public Library and online!
