NORTHAMPTON — Since she was a little girl, Seana Lamothe has dreamed of being a published author. Now, that dream has become a reality, as the first picture book in her two-book deal is out and available for sale.
“I always wanted to be a writer,” said Lamothe, 44. “I never thought it would happen.”
Lamothe, a mother of a 13-year-old daughter, lives in Leeds and works at Hilltown Cooperative Charter Public School, where she serves as the school’s theater specialist.
Her two-book deal is with the indie publishing house The Three Little Sisters.
“It’s totally a dream come true,” Lamothe said.
She said she was encouraged to reach out to The Three Little Sisters by a friend who was published by them. Lamothe did so and she said the publishing house liked her stories.
“She’s been amazing,” said Larisa Hunter, president of The Three Little Sisters. “She’s such a lovely person to work with.”
Lamothe’s first book is “Maisie and The Clootie Tree,” and it came out in December.
It tells the story of a girl whose mother develops breast cancer and goes to live with her grandmother. Her grandmother tells her stories about Scottish history and legends, including about clootie trees, trees near sacred wells that are decorated with rags and came to be associated with wishes. As a result, the girl decides to make a clootie tree for her mother.
The book’s illustrator, Megan Afon Walker, has family from Wales and heard stories similar to the ones the grandmother tells growing up.
Hunter said The Three Little Sisters specializes in nonfiction, and that “Maisie and the Clootie Tree,” is the first picture book it has published. However, publishing work on Celtic mythology/folklore is important to the company, she said.
“It was just the right fit,” Hunter said of Lamothe’s book.
As for her children’s book tackling a subject as serious as cancer, Lamothe said that “things are scarier to children when they don’t have facts.”
She noted how two of her aunts developed breast cancer when she was growing up, and how not knowing what was going on made the experience scary for her.
Lamothe’s other book, set to come out later this year, is “Stand Up and Wave.”
It tells the story of Ellen Mary Mockler, a Titanic survivor who one of her aunts knew.
Mockler was on the last lifeboat off the Titanic, Lamothe said, and her name was listed among those who died. Her family didn’t believe this though, and they went down to St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York with their parish priest, where survivors were being held.
“Ellie Mockler, if you be here, stand up and wave,” the priest called out.
Mockler did just that, and her sister fainted.
Mockler became a nun and went by the name Sister Mary Patricia. The sister took a liking to Lamothe’s aunt, Patricia Mary Walsh, and gave her a necklace that her father gave her before she went on the Titanic.
The necklace has a knot in it, Lamothe said, which Mockler’s father said he would untie when they met again. However, both of Mockler’s parents died before this could happen.
“Stand Up and Wave” was also illustrated by Walker.
Lamothe grew up in a triple-decker in Worcester near Kelley Square, and she said that her mother taking her to the library and letting her check out as many books as she wanted changed her life.
“It introduced me to other worlds,” she said.
In honor of her mother, Lamothe writes under the name Seana Walsh.
Lamothe ended up going to a prep school for high school on a scholarship, which she credited to being well-read and her ability to write. She said that she’s wanted to be a writer “since fourth grade when I got my very first creative writing assignment.”
She recalled writing a story about kids going to battle monsters in a cave, although her teacher was not very impressed.
“She gave me a C,” she said.
Lamothe is currently working on another pair of picture books, one about local abolitionist David Ruggles and another on a survivor story from the Mill River Flood. She said she would love to see her books in libraries.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.