Williamstown Woman Pens Two-Part 'Tell-All' Memoir
 Williamstown resident Jennifer Holey is releasing the second part of her two-part memoir this month and will be reading from the book at Water Street Books on Thursday, Jan. 22. |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The first book in Williamstown resident Jennifer Holey's two-part memoir was, in her own words, "innocent."
"My purpose was to start a conversation," Holey said about the May 2014 release of "Cinderella, The Church, and a Crazy Lady: Once Upon a Twist," self-published through the Northshire Bookstore's Shires Press under her pen name, Jenna F. Hill.
The book is described as "a saga of self discovery through defining dramatic moments, life-changing choices, and real-world redemption." It focuses on Holey's childhood growing up with fanatic Evangelical Christians and her love of fairy tales that made her believe in happy endings, even if her own life was not heading in that direction.
"This memoir is a two-part series that accounts a little girl's journey to hell and back again. As a result of her journey, she is wide awake and ready to change the world for the better," the series' online description also reads.
"I clung to my fairy tales," Holey said, recalling moving around and dealing with abuse as a child, entering troubled relationships as an adult, serving in the Army as a nurse and eventually ending up in a stable relationship with her husband, Gordon, and living in Williamstown with him and their young son. "I know there's a happily-ever-after."
But that doesn't come without pain, heartache, bad choices and redemption — and that's the crux of part two of the memoir. The second book — which Holey will read from at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22, at Water Street Books in Williamstown — is "the real deal."
"It's a tell-all," Holey said, emphasizing that everything in both books really did happen to her. "The story is juicy enough as it is. I don't need to make anything up."
Sharing the good, the bad and the ugly of her life was cathartic in many ways, Holey said.
"Your subconscious just needs to get this out," she said, especially in regard to her relationship with the religious fanaticism she grew up with. "Every single one of my chapter titles is a Bible verse. It's almost impossible for me to think any other way."
Both books deal with her troubled family relationships, from her father to her mother to her four younger sisters. Because the books reveal many family secrets, she did seek her mother's approval before publishing them publicly. Her mother was supportive, she said.
"'You write it, and you help people with your story,'" she recalls her mother telling her. As for her father, he has passed away, so she said she prayed about what to do for a long time but came to her own conclusion. "If my dad was alive ... I know with all my heart he would have said, 'Well done, Jenny.' "
Both books also deal with the stereotypical female experience that her youthful obsession with fairy tales encouraged. Helping young women find their own voice and inner strength is another goal of hers through sharing her life in the memoir, which she calls "a true coming-of-age story." While the book is not meant for audiences under the age of 17, Holey said she hopes young women will read it and see how the choices they make affect their path in life.
"It's for them," she said. "Take it or leave it."
Writing a memoir is not where she had envisioned herself, but Holey has plans to write some children's books and perhaps even turn these two books into a screenplay. That's because she believes in the the main takeaway from the second book, which includes a surprise revelation, a secret that Holey has not shared publicly before.
That takeaway? "One mistake doesn't define your whole life." You have two choices when you make a mistake, she said: Wallow in it or get past it. She chose the second path.
"I've definitely forgiven myself and moved on," she said.
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