Living Her Dream

This column about the literary scene at the Jersey Shore will appear twice a month, covering local book-related happenings. Look here for profiles of local authors, bookstores, publishers and more. Katia Raina is a freelance journalist, a writer for young adults and a passionate reader. To find out more about her, visit her blog where she reviews books, interviews authors and talks writing at http://katiaraina.wordpress.com

As a child, Burlington County resident Keri Mikulski was a reluctant reader. Books held little excitement for her, Mikulski said, because they didn’t reflect her interests and her dreams. She wanted to become a professional athlete. Any sport would have satisfied her then, she said, though there weren’t as many opportunities for girls to play sports as there are now.

“It was either gymnastics or figure-skating for me, and I wasn’t built for either,” said Mikulski, who lives in Mount Laurel and spends her summers in Cape May, where she once lived full-time.

Mikulski 34, did not become an athlete, but a writer. As one of the main authors of the sporty “Pretty Tough” series for young adults, published by Razrobill/Penguin, she ended up living her dreams through the athletic, spunky characters of her young adult novels. Through her writing, Mikulski is giving other girls like she once was a chance to see themselves reflected on the pages of young adult literature.

“Pretty Tough books feature athletic girls that readers, [especially] girls that play sports, can relate to,” Mikulski said.

In her first book for the series, “Head Games,” a teenage basketball player is trying to live up to her father’s hopes for her athletic
career, while figuring out where her own passions lie – all this in the midst of dealing with sudden interest from boys, and rivalry with a powerful antagonist teammate.

In Mikulski’s latest book, “Stealing Bases,” published in July, the antagonist of “Head Games” gets to tell her own story. A snarky softball player, a “reformed mean girl,” is competing against the best player in California, while trying to deal with runaway emotions caused by a cheating ex-boyfriend.

All of the books in the series share roughly the same cast of characters, and are set in Malibu, California, a posh locale of
luxurious waterfront properties and celebrity dwellers. While the series’ main focus is sports, friendships and relationships, some books also deal with economic disparities and family challenges many teens face, such as parental divorce, or illness in the family.

“I love to write for teenagers,” Mikulski said. “This particular age group is experiencing a lot for the first time – first loves, first varsity game, first heartbreak. The emotions run high both in life and sports.”

A former nurse and teacher, Mikulski said both careers helped prepare her for the writing life. As a nurse, she got to interact with many kinds of people, including children of various ages. “Being a nurse really put things in perspective for me,” she said.

As a seventh-grade teacher, Mikulski got to know the tastes of the young book-buying audience. “I got to see that there was a gap in
literature,” she said. There were plenty of sports books for boys, but not for girls.

Seeing the shortage, Mikulski started working on the kinds of stories
she wished she could read – sports fiction for girls. 

 “I just kept setting little goals for myself, for example, if the magazine doesn’t’ publish my work by this date, I’m done,” Mikulski said. “I was kind of setting up ways I could fail, but somehow it would always work out.”

One of her sporty novels landed a literary agent and a publishing series contract with a small press. The Pretty Tough series was the
next big step in Mikulski’s literary career. Her next “Pretty Tough” book called “Making Waves,” about an economically disadvantaged girl training to become a lifeguard in a privileged beach club, is tentatively scheduled to be released next spring.

Just like the tough athlete characters of her books, Mikulski’s hard work and drive helps her accomplish her writing goals. She cites
goal-setting as a big part of being an athlete – and a writer. “You have to keep going in order to be good at anything that you do,” she said.

“It’s almost like training a muscle. When you go out to plate in softball, you’ll fail more times than you succeed. You need to know that, but you can’t let it stop you.”

In addition to raising her daughter and writing, Mikulski teaches writing composition at Stockton and Rowan colleges. Sometimes she also conducts creative writing workshops at the Atlantic Cape May Community College.

“I love getting out there and talking about writing,” Mikulski said. “I love sharing my passion.”