Near-Death, Bird, good company, Harbor Springs Festival of the Book, and Covers: Author Alison Ruegg DeCamp
Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI-MI. In this piece, meet author, festival organizer and bookstore worker Alison DeCamp.
Your first book, My Near-Death Adventures (99% true!), was a “lively and folksy” story of almost 12-year-old Stan, who works at an Upper Peninsula Michigan lumber camp. How much of the story is part of your family lore? Did you have ancestors who were lumberjacks, or cooks?
There’s so much family lore running through My Near-Death Adventures, and who knows how much is actually true. My grandmother, Alice, had my Uncle Stan when she was 16 years old.
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| My grandmother is in the top left. Cora is holding my Uncle Stan |
She did, in fact, work in the lumber camps with her mother, Cora (Granny in the books) and sister as a cook to provide for her son. Growing up, my mom would tell stories about her grandmother Cora.
She adored her, but to me she sounded terrifying. She
did, however, keep an amazing scrapbook that I own. It’s almost like folk art
and was certainly the inspiration for Stan’s scrapbook.
After the book came out, Uncle Stan’s daughter, Anne, wrote me a long email asking how I knew so much about her dad. I still am not sure she bought it that I made 99% of it up.
How much research to authenticate life in a lumber camp
during the late 1800’s? Where do you find it? Who were some of the people you interviewed? Was
Stan’s uncle’s logging camp a real place, or a conglomeration of places?
I did a lot of research into lumber camps in the UP along with the language and slang that would be used. I really was scared that someone would fact check me and find me totally fraudulent and completely negate the story. I’ve since come to realize that for the most part, readers are more forgiving than that, as long as the errors aren’t completely egregious.
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| This is my Great Grandmother, Cora (Granny in the books) |
It was over a decade ago when I started writing this book and I think I got most of my information online—there’s such a wealth of good information, often via universities.
I also visited Hartwick Pines one afternoon with my Dad. I used a lot of images from the Library of Congress. I read Bruce Catton’s Waiting for the Morning Train and Lumberjack: Inside an Era in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, by William S. Crowe.
The camp where Stan lives is completely made up, informed mostly by images I pulled from the internet or photos my mom had lying around, along with descriptions I’d read.
How did you, a first-time author from upper-lower Michigan Harbor Springs, land a book contract?
In order to land a book contract I, of course, had to land an agent. That is a long and arduous process, as we all know. I queried many, many agents after narrowing them down via QueryTracker and the acknowledgement pages of authors I admired and whose writing I wanted to emulate.
Twitter back then had occasional contests and I entered one put on by Mindy McGinnis and her agent. The agent wanted to read more of my book and then offered representation.
Then I let other agents know and ended up signing with
Greenhouse Literary Agency. Sarah Davies was highly editorial, so after many
more rounds of revisions, we submitted and got an offer from Crown Random House
for three books.
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Yes, I had two books in mind, but I
also signed for a three book deal. My Near-Death Adventures: I Almost Died. Again. was in many ways easier to write because I already had
Stan’s voice. That voice really took awhile to find initially.
The publishing industry is full of highs and lows. I had a contract for 3 books: 2 Stan books and a third that never came to fruition. That actually was very disappointing and I still have that third book floating around in the back of my head.
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| Some of my early writing (lol). I also did the illustrations! |
You were one of two dozen female writers whose work was selected for the collection Funny Girl: funniest stories, ever, compiled by Betsy Bird. How was your work selected? What piece of yours did they publish?
One of the nicest parts of publishing was being asked to contribute to Funny Girl, Betsy Bird’s collection of all women writers who she felt were funny.
I submitted a story called, “Dear Grandpa:
Give Me Money,” and was so excited to have it selected. I think I have a sense
of humor that may take a minute to understand, so it was really nice to be
included in such a great lineup of women writers.
We have sent out invites to some of the other authors in the Funny Girl anthology. There are always so many factors to invite an author to the Festival, and there are just as many factors for one to accept the invite.
Timing for book releases have to align to the calendar, the
author has to be available for that weekend, sometimes religious holidays have
conflicted with the schedule, and we really try to be mindful of the diversity
of the festival authors as a whole in order to create the most inclusive,
thought-provoking, idea-driven weekend.
You've been part of the author committee for the Harbor Springs Festival of the Book since its inception. It’s celebrating its 10th anniversary in September (26-28, 2025). How has the festival changed over the years? How does one attend?
The Harbor Springs Festival of the Book has evolved from people simply showing up to attend, not knowing exactly what to expect (unlike a Beer Festival, people had a hard time conceptualizing a Book Festival) to having tickets sell out in 4 hours (not to mention this year’s Keynote selling out in 11 minutes).
I don’t think the quality has changed—I think one of the best parts of the weekend is the programming. It’s eclectic and dynamic and engages both the authors and attendees. The concept of the Festival has really stayed the same, but it’s now been honed into something really special.
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| These are actual clippings from Cora’s scrapbook |
The energy in town during that weekend is so good—it feels creative and electric and even though we work so hard that weekend that by Saturday afternoon our eyes are burning and we feel a little drunk, it’s really just a gift to be a part of it.
I would encourage anyone to attend. Held in downtown Harbor Springs, part of the charm is that the town is the festival venue. It is always held the last full weekend of September, but tickets go on sale in July and, as I’ve said, they go quickly.
General registration is the meat and potatoes of the Festival granting ticket holders access to panels Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Those tickets range around $25 for the entire weekend.
Keynote tickets are separate as are cookbook events and those can sell out within minutes. I would encourage anyone who is remotely interested to sign up for the Festival newsletter where you’ll get up-to-the-minute info so you won’t miss out. www.hsfotb.org
The festival invites dozens of artists every year. In the past three years you’ve invited Francisco X. Stork, Mark Crilley, M.T. Anderson, Vera Brosgol, Patrick Ness, and Rainbow Rowell. This year alone you’ve invited Travis Jonker, Brianne Farley, and Rebecca Stead. (And those are just the ones I recognized.) How does the author committee choose their authors? How does an author get invited?
The Author Committee meets throughout the year to compile a list of potential authors. Two of us on the committee work at the bookstore, Between the Covers, so we’re constantly throwing out suggestions since we’re surrounded by books all day.
Some invites go to authors we’ve invited in prior years who couldn’t make it but who still meet this year’s criteria and have indicated that they are interested in attending. Others have been submitted by publicists or we’ve reached out to them personally or through their publicist.
Sometimes authors submit themselves. As I mentioned, we really
try to keep diversity in mind both in genre and the authors themselves. The
more voices, the better the ideas and discussions.
When Ruth was invited, we spent the weekend at a local
resident’s home. Is that still an option?
Yes, local residents still offer their homes to attendees and I think many of the writers are surprised at what a nice experience that is.
Our first year we had Craig Johnson and Amor Towles, which is really incredible, if you think about it. This was right when A Gentleman in Moscow came out and he really hadn’t gotten extremely popular yet.
It’s always fun when we have authors attend the festival and then win the Newbery, for example, or get short listed for the Booker. Malcolm Gladwell was great, but it was during Covid so it was a bit wasted. Honestly, there are too many to list.
And there are always surprises: last year Elyse Graham, who wrote Book and Dagger, was a fan favorite across the board, but I’d venture to say not many attendees were familiar with her prior to the Festival.
Arshay Cooper was also much beloved and will be back
in May for One Bay One Book to talk about his new book, Let Me Be Real with You: Inspiring Lessons on Living a Life of Service.
I worked at the first iteration of Between the Covers back in 1994ish. I was teaching in Pellston and worked at the bookstore in the summer. I loved it because unlike trying to convince middle schoolers what to read, people actually listened to me in the bookstore.
When Katie Boeckl bought the store in 2014 she asked if I wanted a job and I’ve been there ever since. Katie really is a gift to this town. The bookstore was in a basement that people found charming but that was actually hazardous to work in. We’re talking flooding and frostbite.
She moved it to its Main Street location the following year and has really made it a bedrock of the community.
Katie helped develop
the Harbor Springs Festival of the Book, has spearheaded a drive to get a new
book into the hands of every kid from pre-K to 8th grade in our school district
so they have something to read over the summer, hand picks all of the books in
the store, and we all just try to remind people how important it is to read an
actual book sold at an actual bookstore. We’ve also just set up our
website: harborspringsbookstore.com (and
we ship for free!).
Is that still true? Or 99% true? What are you writing now?
I’ll admit that my publishing journey hasn’t always been easy. I was let go by both my publisher and agent quite a while ago and it’s hard not to take that personally. I know I’m not the only one this has happened to, and I also know that perseverance pays off.
That being said, I
have ideas floating around in the back of my head, some of which I’ve just
started to explore a little more. It’s always beneficial for me to have
something I’m working on, that way when I wake up at 4am I don’t just worry about
what’s happening in the world today (although I do that as well), but I can
switch my brain to thinking about my characters and story instead.
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it wasn’t even a full letter, just some lines, but I was terribly excited.) |
Edited to add:
Our trip to Tanzania was exceptional—saw so many animals (some I didn’t even know existed, like the caracal), met really great people, swam with a couple whale sharks, made really wonderful memories with my family, and also realized how important it is to remain engaged in our civil society.
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| Tanzania |
That part wasn’t anything I was seeking out or looking for, to be honest, but we were in Tanzania during elections which turned out to be corrupt--there was rioting which later was revealed to leading to mass graves of the protestors, the international airport was closed, the government turned off the internet and data leaving us unsure of when or if we would be able to fly home.
The State Department issued a shelter in place. It was a lot and we were all super thankful when our plane took off from Dar Es Salaam to Amsterdam. Looking back, it was an incredible experience all around and, like travel tends to do, opened all of our eyes and increased our empathy.
Alison's social media:
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