love letters to storytellers #3: jenny k

This post was initially sent via Mailchimp October 1, 2021.

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I sit hunched over my computer screen, my eyes locked on the animated woman talking to a camera in front of me. I am enraptured but not quite sure what is going on. Is this person real? Imaginary? A character from long ago? Turns out, all three.

I quickly binge my way through the first six episodes of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a vlog-style web series adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. I am left hungry for more. I marvel at this unique style of show and there is a fleeting thought in the back of my mind that I could maybe do this, too. How hard could it be to write a script and then stick a lone actor in front of a stationary camera? But no. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries has a crew, a crisp camera, and access to the wallets of internet kings Hank and John Green. I couldn’t do something like that.

But my hunger for more of this show is not sated, even as more episodes are released. I scrounge the internet for more and to my surprise, find them, and suddenly find there is a genre of web series, now dubbed Literary Inspired Web series, or LIWs. There’s The Autobiography of Jane Eyre, by two twenty-something women from Vancouver. Nothing Much to Do, an adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing, by four queer women in New Zealand. Twelfth Grade or Whatever, a hilarious adaptation of Twelfth Night created by an actual teenager. These aren’t professional shows but teens or twenty-somethings writing and producing in their bedrooms. The genre grows to over a hundred shows, pretty much all made by queer young women.

I dive into fandom, spend hours on tumblr reading, writing meta, discussing, sharing gifsets, and falling in love. The creators of these beautiful, fascinating, literary shows are like me. I admire them, look up to them, want to be them and in the same breath I direct message them, share my learnings and hopes and fears, and I make friends.
One such friend was Jenny, an Oregonian who I knew as the creator of the Pollyanna web series adaptation The Glad Game and then later, Janny’s Diary, an adaptation of a book she found at a garage sale. And then Jenny was everywhere, writing, producing, and acting in a multitude of LIWs.

Jenny started out writing in fandom spaces, with Star Wars fanfiction she wrote with her brother when she was eight. She started with writing for other friends’ web series, but her real desire was to act in one. But she didn’t know anyone local so she thought she’d do it herself which is where her adaptations came in. For Jenny, The Glad Game wasn’t a serious project but something fun she could do with her friends. Jenny purposefully waited for the LIW “boom” to publish so her web series could fly under the radar and be “just one of the crowd.” Jenny told me how she struggles with imposter syndrome and sometimes doesn’t want people to look at stuff she creates because she is sensitive and often gets crushed by criticism. I was fascinated to learn this because on my side, I was just amazed at all these young women producing this amazing art, and Jenny was just one of the “famous” LIW creators that I admired. Her LIWs didn’t necessarily get the most recognition, but people definitely still watched them and loved them.

After Jenny published her web series, people in the LIW world started asking her to do things, like write or act for other shows, and along the way she made close friends – including me! I don’t remember the exact moment we connected but I know we had lots in common and we are interested in similar genres so we ended up becoming critique partners, exchanging books for each other to edit. One of Jenny’s goals for the future of her writing is to eventually publish a book, and I am excited to be hopefully involved in that, even just as a critique partner. 😊

Jenny is interested in themes of self-discovery, family, and mental health and illness, especially mental health breakdowns and having to rebuild from there, which is I think one of the biggest connecting points for us. We both experience mental illness and use our writing to process that. Jenny likes to write more straightforward, uncomplicated storylines, and is determined to write happily ever afters. Jenny is a middle school guidance counselor in real life, and often asks kids who are struggling what they have to look forward to, even if it’s something as simple as going to bed that night. She wants to give her characters an implied happy future, because with her experience of depression and anxiety it is easy to struggle with finding good in the world right now. Her writing happily ever afters shows that there is a part of herself that looks forward to something. I love this so much because a lot of times “happily ever afters” aren’t considered “artsy” enough (usually by male critics of female romance writers, but that’s another discussion), but they are so powerful.

I am so lucky to have met the kind, creative soul that is Jenny and been able to slowly get to know her through her writing over the years. She is incredibly talented. She is a writer, a singer, and an actor. She has so many projects out there I don’t even know if I can list them all! You can check her web series out, The Glad Game and Janny’s Diary. You can also check out Twincidents which she acted in, based on A Comedy of Errors, Public History (David Copperfield) which she consulted on, and Pizza, Marbles and Internet Connection which she acted in, a hilarious “The Office”-style quarantine zoom web series that spoke perfectly to my experience of working in a shitty remote job through the pandemic. You can also check out the quarantine album she wrote called empty space, which you can find on all music platforms including Spotify. You can follow her on twitter @White_Rose_Cafe, Instagram @flowersandstarlight, and on TikTok @lilljenny44.

updates

I am still occasionally doing my instagram love letters series, although it's slowed down a bit as I'm working hard on other stuff. I currently am finishing up this round of edits, which means the next step is design and illustration! I am so excited for my book to come together as a beautiful visual masterpiece. I have a strong vision, we'll see if it becomes reality. Alongside design is the fun stuff like registering for an ISBN, reading "comps" or complementary titles, which is publishing speak for books that are similar to yours that you can compare it to for marketing purposes. 

love letter # 38 to: introversion "people don't understand you and i. they don't really know you very well. shy, they call you, quiet, but that's not it..."

love letter # 41 to: riding mountain "in our language, clear lake means family..."

also this is a live reading I did at the lake of me reading my poem,  dear house of God.

Happy October!

Alyssa