Hi and welcome back to Tell Me What Happened,
the podcast that features folks from all walks
of life. telling us one true childhood story
and how that event, that experience, has impacted
who they are as an adult. I'm your host, Jay
Rehack, and like you, I've had my share of childhood
experiences. Some of them fun, some of them not
so great, actually. But I'd always like to think
that everything that's ever happened to me has
made me a better person. Now, people who've known
me know that's probably not true, but that's
what I like to think. Today. I have as my guest,
J .S. Poehler. J .S. is a playwright and the
author of two middle grade novels, Captain Superlative
and The Lost Things Club. I'd also like to add
that I met Jessica, which is a J .S., through
the Playground Writers Group in Chicago. It's
sort of got a national organization in various
cities, but I met her in Chicago and I believe
that's where she's based. So welcome to the show.
Jessica. Thank you so much for having me, Jay.
It is always exciting to work with other members
of the Playground Writing Pool. It is cool. You
know, it's not really part of the story, but
we both write a lot of plays, and you write short
plays. And I know one of your plays is actually
going to be done at TheatreWit in March, I believe.
Yes, March 16th. March 16th. Very cool. TheatreWit's
in Chicago. If you live in Chicago, stop by.
I forget the name of it. What's the name of it?
The play is Scheherazade's voice. Oh, yes. It's
a bedtime story. It is. It is the bedtime story
prompt. Yeah. Very cool. All right. Well, Jessica,
are you ready to tell your story? I am absolutely
ready to tell my story. All right. I'm going
to get out of the way. And at the end, I'm going
to ask you how it's impacted who you are as an
adult. But for right now, take it away, Jessica.
Well, I have a lot of Tragic stories in my childhood
past and I've decided not to tell any of them
because I feel like we need to put some Positivity
and some joy into the world So I am going to
tell you a happy story The first thing that you
need to know about me is I have always always
been in love with the theater I have always always
wanted to be involved with the theater. I have
not always wanted to be a playwright I started
very young, absolutely determined to be an actor.
I was committed to this pretty much from fourth
grade onwards. There was just nothing else. I
was very myopic about it. So I did theater classes
and I went to see plays and I did theater summer
camp. Specifically, I attended Summer on Stage,
a theater camp that was based out of Highland
Park, Illinois. I attended for four years, and
because I could not sing and was a lousy dancer,
I usually was not cast in very large, very substantial
roles. But my third year, we did a play called
Out of Orbit. which was about the planets all
being knocked out of orbit and a bunch of astronauts
having to travel from planet to planet, meeting
all sorts of strange creatures in their attempt
to solve the mystery and get everything sort
of back the way it was supposed to be. And that
year I was cast as Han Solo. Now, I grew up in
a tricky household. So the name Han Solo meant
nothing to me. I knew plenty about Captain Picard.
I knew Captain Janeway. I knew Spock. I knew
Odo. These were all my childhood friends. But
I knew nothing about Star Wars. I had seen the
Star Wars videos from time to time at the local
blockbuster, but they always kind of scared me
because the covers had Darth Vader and had a
stormtrooper and had Yoda, and they were all
just kind of creepy, freaky creatures, so I never
went near them. But since I was going to be an
actress, I knew I wanted to be the best I could
be, which meant I needed to do character research.
So I convinced my mother to take me to Blockbuster
and we rented the three original Star Wars movies
and I watched them back to back to back and absolutely
had a ball. They weren't scary, I was sure they
would be scary. These stories were fun and exciting
and funny and I love the characters including
of course Han Solo. And thanks to my research,
I felt I had a really good handle on him to really
enhance my performance in a three -minute scene
in a camp play. I reached deep and I found backstory
justifications for everything I did. Now, in
retrospect, I understand that the camp directors
just needed a three -minute fight choreography
musical number, which had a bunch of kids running
around dressed up as Star Wars characters. you
know, pretending to beat the snot out of each
other. But I decided I needed to give it justification.
Why was Han Solo fighting this particular stormtrooper?
Why did Han Solo suddenly have a lightsaber?
Why was Han Solo turning on one of his allies?
You know, the answers are really because those
are the characters I was paired up with to fight.
But I went deep. I created backstory. I created
drama. I was so proud of myself. And when it
was over, I discovered I was still thinking about
Star Wars all the time. I started thinking, you
know, what would happen if Han Solo did this?
What would happen if Luke Skywalker did that?
What would happen if this character were introduced?
What would happen if there were crossovers with
Star Trek? And thus I began my journey of becoming
a fan fiction writer. Now, I will put this out
here in case anyone from Lucasfilm is listening
in on this right now. I have never published
any Star Wars fiction of any kind. Every story
that I wrote was handwritten, but I slowly began
to develop my own quote -unquote Star Wars television
series. It took place between episodes, well,
I guess it took place roughly between when they
rescued Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt's palace
and then the rest of Return of the Jedi. And
over the course of, I'm going to say, five or
six years, I developed over a hundred episodes.
I called them episodes that featured the cast
of Star Wars, along with some of my own original
characters. and I very detailed wrote out the
episodes and then I wrote an episode guide and
the episode guide came with trivia about each
episode such as this is the first appearance
of this character or this episode referenced
this previous encounter. I just got completely
obsessed with writing my own stories and that
naturally became sort of the gateway drug I needed
to start discovering and contributing to fan
fiction forums online and this i moved out of
star wars and other cannons you know there is.
Terrible terrible legend of zelda fan fiction
out there. Because of me and from there i gradually
started to write original stories when i was
in college i discovered playwriting and basically
said goodbye to acting and never looked back.
And since then, I have been developing story
after story, and none of this would have happened
if I hadn't been cast as Han Solo in a camp play,
if I hadn't been so determined to be appropriately
researched for the role, if my mother hadn't
taken me to Blockbuster. So although I still
remain a Trekkie to this day, I credit Star Wars
with turning me into the writer that I am and
the writer that I hope to be. And Jay? That is
my story. That's a great story in the sense that
there's definitely a beginning to that writing
career that's very clear. I have a daughter who
was heavy into Harry Potter fan fiction. She's
a bit of a writer herself. And so I understand
where it came from. But I was going to ask you
my follow up question, which is always the same,
which is, you know, how has it impacted your
life as an adult? But you've sort of already
explained that. But maybe take a minute and just.
break down the books that you actually have written
that are published versus, I mean, I understand
that I don't think Lucasfilm is going to come
after you, but like you said, you didn't actually
publish those hundred series that you wrote.
So maybe just tell us a little bit about your
career now, unless there's something else you
want to tell us about how it's impacted your
life. Well, I will first say if Lucasfilm is
listening, I would love to develop a TV series
with you. And I already have the beginnings of
a series Bible in my head. So please, please
reach out. The stories that I have published,
I have two published stories and several more
that my agent is currently shopping around. My
firstborn is Captain Superlative, which came
out in 2018. And that is a middle grade story.
It's sort of an adaptation of Don Quixote for
tween age girls. It's about a seventh grader
who shows up in middle school one day. dressed
up as a superhero, declare she's a superhero
and starts going around performing random acts
of kindness and standing up to bullies. And then
my second born, my poor pandemic baby from 2021
is The Lost Things Club, which is set in a Chicago
neighborhood and sort of deals with how kids
sort out trauma after surviving a school shooting
and how they use theater and puppetry and imagination
and storytelling to address their emotions and
sort of come out of the horrible malaise that
has fallen over them after such a terrible event.
And both books, you know, were largely inspired
by things that I have witnessed kids today going
through. You know, back in the day, my biggest
concern was playing Han Solo correctly. Now kids
have to deal with trauma beyond anything that
I, and I was bullied. I was definitely bullied
as a kid, but what's happening to kids today
is so much more extreme. Yeah. I mean, I'm sorry
that you were bullied, but I'm glad that as a
consequence, you're writing novels or books that
in some ways may assist other people in understanding
that that's not right or whatever else. I was
a school teacher for 36 years, so I have a sense
of what kids go through, a sense. My childhood
was definitely easier than what I think these
kids have today. But the fact that you're writing
these things, do you think that your childhood
experiences have impacted your writing directly?
I mean, you think that what I'm saying, like,
besides Han Solo, I'm talking about, yeah, being
bullied, I guess. I'm sorry, but... I'm sorry
that happened to you, but did that impact your
writing, you think? Oh, absolutely, and both
consciously and unconsciously. You know, I had
one particular kid who picked on me all throughout
my childhood, and I didn't realize until well
after the fact that I had written her into Captain
Superlative that she was the bully. I just thought
I was writing an original, brand new character.
But looking back, I realized, oh no, no, that's
definitely my trauma speaking there. Wow. Well,
Jessica, thank you very much for sharing your
story. I look forward to reading some of your
work, actually. I've not read Captain Superlative,
or I forget the last, the other one's called
though. The Lost Things Club. The Lost Things
Club. But I will definitely, are they available
on Amazon or somewhere that I can get them? They
are available at Amazon. Any independent bookstore.
You can also get them at the Chicago Public Library.
Oh, I love that. I'm a big fan of women and children.
books, which is around the corner. I'm going
to ask them. Oh, I love women and children and
first they're the best. So I'll ask them if they
got it and I'll get out and get the first one
anyway and maybe get the second one too. But
I like to read one at a time, so we shall see.
But very cool. So what's what's what's the next
book you're working on? Do you have any another
book that you're working on or just working with
the plays these days? I am chronically working
on a book right now. My agent is trying to shop
around a young adult coming of age story about
a girl. who goes on a very dramatic road trip
with her father. We haven't quite found anyone
who wants to read it yet, but it is early days.
Very impressive. Well, thank you for coming on
the show, Jessica. Thank you for having me, Jay.
All right. Well, that's our show. Thank you.
Thank you again to J .S. Puller, the author.
I'd also like to thank our sponsor. Sidelining
Publishing, publishers of quality books and publishers
currently of 10x10 Black Hole Chess. A game that
pawn E4 does not work. You cannot use that as
your opening. Check out blackholechess .com for
more information about the game. So until next
time, this is Jay Rehack asking you all to please
stay safe out there and try not to hurt anybody.