Guest Post: Mima Tipper on Channeling Marilyn
Seventeen-year-old Lexa Donovan’s timid, plus-size life goes sideways when the spirit of Marilyn Monroe takes up residence in her body in this laugh-out-loud funny paranormal YA tale perfect for fans of Lisa Schroeder and Ashley Poston.
That’s from the publisher description of Mima Tipper’s new YA novel, Channeling Marilyn, featuring none other than the ghostly presence of—ta da!—Marilyn Monroe. Wish you’d thought of that, right?
The star who became an icon, who wowed generations, turns up to aid a girl whose longings are matched only by her own self-doubt. How on earth can Lexa manage to pull off a role famously played by the goddess of the silver screen herself?
Mima Tipper spools out a charming, funny storyline ahead of her engaging character. It’s replete with obstacles. There’s a crush. There’s a little bit of a triangle. There’s fear. There’s stage-fright. And then Marilyn, wouldn't you know, starts reaching beyond her role of resident mentor and coach. And under it all is a layer of loss and grieving.
Here’s Mima to give us a curious, unexpected perspective on writing this book—its dedication:
Dedicated to You: Writing the Dedication for Channeling Marilyn
by Mima Tipper
The words for my YA paranormal Channeling Marilyn’s dedication came to me quickly, and were not a surprise: “For Michael, Maggie, and all those gone too soon.” That said, I wasn’t really prepared for how actually writing this dedication would take me back through the long process of writing the book, and unlock the deepest level of the book’s meaning and importance to me.
The inspiration that led me to write Channeling Marilyn was simple and clear: I was looking through a copy of Teen Vogue with my then middle school-aged daughter when an ad caught my attention. It was maybe for a perfume or a clothing brand, and there was the model all done up like Marilyn Monroe, pin-up style. My thought was: Damn, the woman’s been dead for over fifty years, and these vultures just won’t leave her alone. We kept looking at the mag, and soon came across a pop singer styled like Marilyn. Thoughts began to percolate: What would Marilyn think of this? Like if her spirit was up there on a cloud looking down. Once I pictured Marilyn’s spirit on that cloud, writer-me was off and running.
“...with publication now in the offing, I thought I’d written a fun and poignant novel that included themes of self-image and transformation. Then I wrote my dedication...”
As I wrote the first draft, I understood that “who” Marilyn’s spirit would visit was of primary and obvious importance, and I knew immediately that her visit had to relate to girls and young women and their self-image. As I envisioned and wrote, the story took on many layers and, over the years of writing, I began thinking of my Marilyn spirit in new and deeper ways. Thoughts of Marilyn’s epic fame cleared a path to including a high school theater thread, and I came to understand that part of me wanted to go back to my own days of high school theater. More, I wanted to explore how a shy teen would push herself to come out of the backstage wings and try something new, like being onstage in a senior year play. Transformation. Yes. Young people seek ways to transform themselves—I know I did as a teen—and what better way than through theater?
After more years of revision, with publication now in the offing, I thought I’d written a fun and poignant novel that included themes of self-image and transformation. Then I wrote my dedication, and realized that part of writing the book included a very personal grief narrative.
Here’s what happened: My niece Maggie died tragically young about a year before I began writing Channeling Marilyn. Certainly, I felt the loss of her hugely, only it didn’t strike me until the much later and also super tragic loss of my young nephew Michael that somehow writing Channeling Marilyn was a way for me to process the grief of these losses. Over the many years of writing the book, I’d often told people that I wanted to give Marilyn a “different” story: one not focused on her foster-care youth, her rise to fame, or her “mysterious” death. It wasn’t until I started reading more about tragic loss and grieving, however, that I learned that writing a “different” story for the lost loved one—or for really any loss—is a tool often used in grieving. All at once I knew that processing grief had been a part of what I’d been doing all the years I’d been working on Channeling Marilyn.
None of this writing-my-grief really sank in until I was writing the dedication to the book. And with those few words, I understood that in taking time to let Channeling Marilyn steep in my brain and subconscious over so many revisions, the story reached a level of personal depth that I believe only occurs after many drafts and a whole lot of dedication.
When I asked Mima to write about this book, I was responding to the quirkiness of the idea and the wacky humor in the story. I didn't know what she’d write, so this piece came as a complete surprise. We write for many reasons, but Mima’s reflection on her novel reminds us that every one of those reasons is always personal.
