Jeri Studebaker

Author Name: Jeri Studebaker
Book: Breaking the Mother Goose Code: How a Fairy Tale Character Fooled the World for 300 Years
Where Can You Find Her? Facebook, Website
Top Writing Tip: Write about things you’re passionate about.

Welcome Jeri, thank you so much for talking to us!

When and why did you begin writing?  

When I was five I drew a cartoon about a girl getting her hair cut too short.  I remember the frustration of trying to write something people would want to read, and feeling I’d failed miserably.

When did I realize I was Pagan?  

I’m not sure.  I read When God Was a Woman when it first came out, and that ended whatever lingering spiritual connection I had with Christianity.  I remember being furious that Christians had hidden from me a giant body of information about hundreds of goddesses that people actually used to worship.  

What main life experience led to this book? 

Writing my first book, Switching to Goddess.  In Switching I wrote about my suspicion that Mother Goose was a goddess in disguise.  I did a workshop on the topic at a local Pagan gathering, and it generated a lot of excitement.  So I began digging around for further evidence that Mother Goose was indeed a kind of Halloween costume hiding an outlawed deity. 

How long does it take you to write a book?  

For the two I’ve had published, a year. 

Tell us a bit about your book. 

Breaking the Mother Goose Code presents evidence that Mother Goose was actually the ancient European Great Goddess in disguise, and that her fairy tales and nursery rhymes contain secret, coded messages about the mind and soul of this Goddess, about the way she wants us to live our lives.  

Is this your first published piece or have you been published before? 

My previous book is Switching to Goddess: Humanity’s Ticket to the Future. 

How important are reviews of your work, do you read them?  

I scour the internet for every review I can find.  Reviews increase book sales, so I like to post them on my author’s FB page.  Also I think all writers possess a strong desire for feedback about their writing -- especially, of course, the positive, but the negative too helps you improve your writing.  

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you most like a writing retreat?  

It depends on what I’m writing.  When I’m working on my Portland, Maine, Native American manuscript, I spend a lot of time roaming around Greater Portland, which is where I live.  So my home is the perfect place to write this manuscript, since the river that provided food and transportation for my subjects lies a mile south of my house.  

For Breaking the Mother Goose Code, I wish I could have lived in an Alpine village in perhaps Western Austria, where people still practice ancient rituals connected to the goddess Holda/Perchta, who I believe was a major prototype for Mother Goose.  Another Mother-Goose prototype is the Greco-Roman Aphrodite/Venus, worshiped right across the Alps from Western Austria.  At some point after the fall of the Roman Empire, Holda/Perchta and Aphrodite/Venus merged in the minds of Medieval Europeans into one and the same deity.          

What are your future plans for writing?

I’m working on a book about female fairy tale characters, another about the original Native Americans who lived in Portland, Maine, and a fantasy novel about ancient Minoans. 

***

Thank you again for giving us a glimpse into your passion and process, Jeri. We wish you all the best with your future projects!