Jen Wixson is an author. Her self-published novel “Hens and Chickens” came out Aug. 5. She’s a farmer, raising Scottish highland cattle for beef. She’s a traveling Quaker minister and a regular fill-in at Unitarian Universalist churches in Norway and West Paris.

She’s also a former Sun Journal staff writer.

It’s quite a resume.

“Hens and Chickens” is about two women downsized from corporate America who move to the country to raise chickens and organic eggs. There’s discovery and love. It’s the first of a planned four-book series set in Sovereign, Maine.

“Two of the sermons I preached (in Norway) ended up as chapters in my book,” said Wixson. “You wouldn’t know it, though. They’re very well disguised.”

Name: Jen Wixson

Age: 56

Lives: Troy

Upside to being a minister on the move: I get to meet a lot of different people and form relationships with folks I never would have met otherwise. In addition, I get to do what I call “spot ministry.” For example, the other day I was at the 1st Universalist Church of Norway (preparing for my book’s publication party), when a woman walked in off the street looking for the minister. Now, this church is without a settled pastor, however, I’ve filled in for them off and on for 13 years. I recognized that this woman needed someone to talk with RIGHT NOW and so I stopped what I was doing; we pulled up a chair and had a heart to heart for half an hour. I think both of us felt better afterward!

Is there a downside? I’m on the road when I’m called, and then all the burden of our farm — the cows, the haying, the fencing, the gardens, the household — falls on my husband.

What’s your writing routine? I write mostly in winter and early spring when there’s not much to do around here. However, before I sit down to write I’ve already created most of the characters and plot — worked everything out in my head — during the summer and fall when I’m doing mundane stuff like canning string beans and fixing fences. In winter, I work from a one page outline and write a chapter a day. The following day or two I re-write that chapter, and then move on to the next.

Any go-to’s for writer’s block? The last novel I wrote (before “Hens and Chickens”) was nearly a decade earlier. I thought I had writer’s block. I didn’t. I just didn’t have anything to say. When you’ve got something vital to say, it will come out. Until then, I suggest seasoned writers chill out, raise chickens, have kids, get a life. However, my advice for beginning writers is quite different. Writing is a discipline that many young people haven’t learned. I suggest young people get themselves into a routine in which they write every day. Otherwise, what they have to say might start coming out sideways, like in overly crafted emails and text messages, or street graffiti.

Last book you read: “Deerbrook” by Harriet Martineau. I loved this 19th-century novel, but it’s not for the faint of heart. Martineau was known for her nonfiction sociological and religious writings, and “Deerbrook” combines a charming story with a lot of choppy theorizing.

Last book recommended to a friend: Oh, boy, that would probably be “The Peabody Sisters” by Megan Marshall. (In my opinion, the best writing of the 20th century has been by nonfiction writers.) This is a fascinating biography of Elizabeth, Mary and Sophia Peabody, the three sisters who inspired 19th-century American romanticism, including such notables as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Once I started reading about these three amazing women, I couldn’t put the book down (and it’s over 500 pages)! The footnotes are just as fascinating as the text, too.

Did journalism in any way prepare you for farming, authoring or being a Quaker minister? Writing for a regular deadline taught me a much-needed discipline that I was able to transfer to a successful freelance writing career for 15 to 20 years. In addition, I learned how to go out and meet and be comfortable with different people, people who do different things and believe different things. This is absolutely what I do in the ministry, BE with different people. Also, listening to how folks talked — taking copious notes — helped me learn how to write great dialogue. When you can hear these real-life characters talking in your head you can get it down authentically on paper. Great dialogue makes a big difference in a novel.

Farming? Well, nothing prepares anyone for farming except maybe being born on a farm (which I was, a dairy farm in Winslow). And even that falls short many a day, especially when you come home from your own wedding and see one leg of a calf sticking out the hind end of a cow — and you know you’ve got a breech birth on your hands! So much for the wedding celebration.

The only thing the four occupations have in common, I think, is that they all take true grit.

kskelton@sunjournal.com

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