Arts & Extras: Children’s writer, poet team up for paranormal romance 'Dream Boy'

The culmination of their years of friendship and creativity, the young adult novel “Dream Boy,” gets released nationwide on July 1. Billed as a paranormal romance, the book chronicles the adventure of high school student Annabelle, who has been dreaming, as in the dreams you have when sleeping, about the perfect boyfriend — and this boy from her dreams suddenly shows up in class.

This literal dream come true has a dark side, though. Annabelle has also been dreaming about a frightening little girl in a white dress, who may also be getting ready to emerge into the real world.

The book unfolds in the New River Valley, in a fictional town called Chilton that Rosenberg said is modeled after Christiansburg.

Hill, a poet and former director of the Salem Museum and Historical Society, and Rosenberg, a children’s writer and former Roanoke Times reporter, met in the 1990s through mutual friends Cece Bell and Tom Angleberger, themselves established children’s writers. Rosenberg and Hill got to know each other better while co-running a creative writing workshop for teenagers at the YMCA in Salem.

Both had long commutes to work. Hill drove to Salem from Elliston, where she still lives, while Rosenberg commuted to Roanoke from Blacksburg. The friends would challenge each other to come up with things like haiku based on something spotted during the drive, then share the results via email.

They kept in touch and continued to pursue writing after Rosenberg moved away in 2000.

Hill’s poetry collection, “A Theory of Everything,” was the winner of the 2008 Autumn House Press poetry prize. She also co-wrote “A Town by the Name of Salem,” a pictorial history of Salem, with current Salem Museum director John Long. Hill has returned to the museum in a part-time marketing position while pursuing freelance work.

Now a freelance writer in Arlington, Rosenberg has had two picture books published, and a middle-grade novel that takes a look at the historical dangers of the coal mining industry, told from the point of view of a canary. She has two more books coming out in September, the picture book “How to Behave at a Tea Party” and the middle-grade novel “Nanny X.”

It was Hill, the poet, who came up with the idea for “Dream Boy” and sprang it on Rosenberg. The idea came to her after she watched the 1947 Ginger Rogers movie “It Had to Be You” during a bout of insomnia. It seemed to her that a recurring figure in the film was stepping out of Rogers’ dreams to speak to her. It got her thinking, “What if somebody could come from your dream? What would happen? It seems like kind of a fun book that would make a young adult novel,” she said.

Rosenberg said that fantasy fiction isn’t her cup of tea, so the two negotiated a bit before getting started. Hill wanted an element of romance, while Rosenberg advocated for humor. The resulting combination delighted Rosenberg’s agent. It’s the first young adult novel either has written.

“It was really fun for me, just because writing is so solitary,” Rosenberg said. It’s also been easier to go through with the self-promotion that pushing books requires, because she can think of it as promoting Hill’s writing rather than her own, she said.

Hill is using the name “Mary Crockett” to distinguish “Dream Boy” from her poetry.

The Salem Museum will hold a launch party for “Dream Boy” at 3 p.m. on July 12. Both writers will be present at the free event. For more information call 389-6760 or visit salemmuseum.org.

On the Arts & Extras blog

• The Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Floyd has announced the prize winners of its annual juried art show, which was judged by former Taubman Museum of Art director David Mickenberg.
• The Harrison Museum of African American Culture opens a new exhibition Sunday with a talk by Wornie Reed, director of the Race and Social Policy Research Center at Virginia Tech.

To learn more about these and other arts and culture tidbits, visit http://blogs.roanoke.com/arts.