Among the numerous tal ented writers gracing the rooms of James B. Hunt Li brary April 3-6 will be The New York Times Bestselling Author Karen Joy Fowler. Known for the book and movie adaption The Jane Austen Book Club, Fowler has written six novels and three short story collections. According to Fowler’s, her success came later in life, after she remembered her childhood ambition of be ing a writer.

“When I was lit t le, I thought I would be a writer, and I lost track of that ambi tion along the way,” Fowler said. “I went to school, got a couple of degrees I have never been able to use and had a couple of kids. When I was 30, I asked myself again what I wanted out of life and remembered that when I was little I had wanted to be a writer, and that still sounded pretty good.”

Writers often have habits and methods included in their creative process, accord ing to Fowler. She said she be lieves great writers have those habits, but thinks her habits are appalling.

“I truly believe real writers write at the same time every day, they are very disciplined and have daily goals that they do their best to meet,” Fowler said. “I am not that kind of person and am not that kind of writer; I wish I were. I write in fits and starts. I’ll write for a period, I’ll write every day and then I won’t. It’s not very efficient. I do a lot of teaching and a lot of ‘do as I say not what I do.’ Everyday I wake up and think that’s what I’m going to be like from now.

When she’s not writing, Fowler said she teaches as piring writers some of the wisdom she has gained.

“I do a lot of workshops and teach a lot in the summer,” Fowler said. “It is pretty much impossible for me to teach and write at the same time, but I like doing both and try to find a balance between the two.”

Fowler attributes much of her success with The Jane Austen Book Club to perfect timing. She shared that in the writing process, the book is being worked on long before and after it is written, mak ing it hard to gage if the book will have tremendous success when it is released to the pub lic.

In reference to The Jane Austen Book Club, Fowler said, “That book came out right at the height of the book club movement, and there were a lot of book clubs. I just thought it would be fun to read a book about a book club in their book club.”

Fowler also believes the “Jane Austen frenzy” helped boost her book to the Top 25 of The New York Times Best seller list. She recalls learning about her success when she was on a book tour.

“I was at a tour event in Denver, Colo. that was not very well attended and the weather conditions were snowy and awful,” Fowler said. “I was feeling a little bit discouraged. I went back to my hotel and found a bottle of champagne and note tell ing me I was on the list. It was a position I never thought I would find myself in. ”

The surprise continued when she was approached to have The Jane Austen Book Club made into a movie.

“Several of my books have been optioned for the mov ies, and I think that is true for a lot of writers,” Fowler said. “Usually what happens is somebody options your book, pays you quite a small sum of money and talks to you very passionately about the vision of what the movie will be and how much they love your book.”

Often nothing comes from a book being optioned be cause the production team cannot find the resources to make the film before the timeline of the option runs out, according to Fowler.

“That was the model I was used to and that’s the model we were all functioning un der, so to move forward from the option to the movie, I could not have been more surprised,” Fowler said.

During the film adaption, Fowler was writing another novel and did not work on the production. She said she believes she made the best decision for the production team and herself, and when she saw the film she found it delightful.

Fowler’s biggest piece of advice for new and growing writers is to find one’s indi vidual voice and purpose.

“You are going to get a lot of feedback all your life from people who like or do not like what you have done and you do not want to be knocked off your course by feedback that is not relevant or useful to you,” Fowler said. “I think that the clearer you are about what you are trying to do, the easier it will be to figure out what reactions are helpful to you and what kind of reac tions are not.”

Fowler’s latest book We Are All Completely Beside Our selves debuted on The New York Time’s Bestseller List at #19, when it was released in paperback. Fowler plans on speaking about the themes of the novel at the NC Liter ary Festival when she speaks alongside Therese Anne Fowler from 11:30-12:30pm in the Hunt Auditorium. Fowler’s novels can be found on Amazon.com and in sev eral bookstores.