Houlton native pens first book

Paula Young Lee, formerly of Houlton, has finished her first novel “How to be a Homeless Frenchman,” which proves to be comical and enlightening.
Lee’s father was minister of the Houlton Methodist Church for six years. She attended Houlton Elementary school before heading off to boarding school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. for high school.
    Lee put her hand to writing mostly for educational reasons instead of pleasure.
“I write constantly,” she said. “It’s for academic articles and books. The readership and expectations are totally different.”
Lee says her past writing efforts weren’t brought to fruition.
“I wrote two chick-lit type novels and threw them away because they were embarrassing,” she said. “Then, I wrote a ‘serious’ novel and my test readers hated it. It’s still shelved until I can figure out how to revise it.”
Not giving up, Lee came up with a very practical book.
“My test readers loved the draft,” she said. “So, I set out finding an agent. Surprisingly, that was pretty easy. It was everything after, that was difficult.”
“How to be a Homeless Frenchman” is based upon the real life experience of Lee’s brother-in-law, with a laughable twist readers can relate to of the humorous side of life.
“Right now, things are tough all around, and it’s difficult to find a sense of optimism when so much seems to be going wrong,” Lee said. “’How to Be a Homeless Frenchman’ starts out with war, abandonment, and insanity, but it’s a story that makes you laugh out loud, because when things get really bad, what else can you do? Human beings are funny.”
Tired of novels filled with frustration, murder and mayhem, Lee wanted her book to lift readers’ spirits.
“I wanted to write a book that was entertaining, funny and illuminating all at once,” she said. “My goal was to write a book that you’d look forward to reading, curled up in bed with a pet sleeping on your feet. A book that would put a smile on your face and give you interesting dreams.”
Lee adds her book does have a hungry raccoon, a lion tamer and a French kid who comes to the U.S. and sees life through a “slightly warped lens.”
“How to be a Homeless Frenchman” is being sold through Wellesley Books, Harvard Book Store, as well as Amazon.com and as an e-book for Kindle.
“Amazingly, it is also going to be distributed in France, and will be featured next spring at the Salon du Livre in Paris, France. This is the major international book fair in Europe, and I will be attending to do author signings,” Lee added.