​Salutations, Jennifer! I'm delighted to have a small share in celebrating the release of your debut MG, BIRD NERD! I remember when your book was just a twinkle in your eye.

Thanks, Dionna! I remember reading some of your first chapters of MAMA'S CHICKEN & DUMPLINGS, too. We've stayed the course, haven't we?
 
We have! It was a double pleasure for me when I learned that not only would our debuts be coming out in the same year, but that we'd also have the same publisher, Holiday House Books for Young Readers. How cool is that?

Very cool. And thank you for creating our debut group, The 24/7s! You've been doing yeoman's work for our group and have been an enthusiastic supporter of our books.

It seemed like the appropriate thing to do. Okay, so down to business. Please share how your kidlit journey began.

I’d have to go way, way back for that one! Of course, like a lot of authors, I enjoyed writing as a child. Mainly poetry and the occasional short story attempt. But writing was just one of my gazillion interests, and one that I never thought I’d do as a profession. Then a little over twenty years ago, between unsatisfactory career choices, I found myself dabbling in writing again. Then I got to thinking maybe I could write for a living. So I started coming up with article ideas and fiction pieces and flooded the market with them. In 2004, I thought I’d gotten my big break when I published two stories—one suspense, one with more of a literary bent.  But the streak ended quickly, and that made me stop and focus on what it was I really wanted to write.

I thought back to my most positive reading experiences and realized they were all books I read during my tween/teen years. Then I figured, if I enjoyed reading those books so much, maybe I would enjoy writing them. That was also a time when world events were such that I wanted to write novels that gave young people hope.

From that point on I took fiction courses and workshops, joined SCBWI, wrote a bad novel, then a better one. Then a third. And my fourth is what ultimately got picked up. I’ve also published children’s short fiction and poetry along the way.

Very interesting journey! So what inspired you to write BIRD NERD? Was birding your jam as a kid?

Surprisingly, birding was not one of my gazillion interests growing up. Once I discovered it as an adult, though, I became quite an obsessed birdwatcher. Birds then began to naturally show up in my writing. In fact, I think something bird-related has appeared in every one of my novel manuscripts and in quite a bit of my poetry.

I suspect birds were off my radar as a kid because I grew up in a big city and never knew anyone who was interested in birds. This inspired me to write a novel about city kids discovering the world of birding. The novel took on many forms and initially was set in middle school and didn’t involve a competition. During my latest re-start, more than one writer friend brought up the idea of a competition. I decided to go with that and make it between city and suburban kids as a vehicle to demonstrate our commonality and to bridge differences in race, socio-economics, etc.

Sounds like a perfect combination to a winning book for middle-grade readers!

​What was the revision process like as you worked with your editor Della Farrell?

My first round was big picture stuff. The next time around, I received a more detailed chapter-by-chapter feedback. A good deal of it had to do with timeline issues, which were mainly due to some changes I’d made on my own during the first round. (Note to self: Don’t change what’s not broken!) I must admit, when I first opened Della's second editorial letter, my jaw dropped. All I could see was the work that lay ahead of me. To reach my deadline, I immediately went into advance-planning/full-planner mode.

Advance-planning/full-planner mode? Explain, please. 

At an SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Conference, author Pamela N. Harris had encouraged writers to create an electronic chart or binder to keep track of any editorial notes and suggestions you might get to improve your manuscript. Alongside each comment, she suggested you list ways you would address the suggestion. Long before I received my first editorial letter from Della, I had that virtual chart up and ready to use. I had even included things that I myself wanted to change in order to enrich the story. While waiting for my second editorial letter, I created a new binder to include things I learned from my first editorial letter. This helped me stay grounded and keep track of things.

Hooray for authors helping authors! Well, thanks so much for catching us up on your Bird Nerd journey, and allowing us to be part of your big pub day. It was fun! 

Thank you for celebrating with me!

​Jennifer Ann Richter is a former diplomat, teacher, investment representative, editorial assistant, voice captioner, and audio description writer for TV (with a few odd jobs in between). Somehow, she managed to focus long enough to get serious about her writing—a love that had always been simmering in the background. Her big break came after novel attempt number four. Jennifer’s interests are as varied as her employment history, and they often find their way into her poetry, short stories, and novels. Her debut novel, BIRD NERD, was inspired by the birding hobby she picked up as an adult. Astronomy, space travel, and her experiences living and working in Germany have also featured prominently in her writing.
Check out jenniferannrichter.com for more, including Jennifer's Bird of the Month.

So delighted to have you here today, your book launch day for LION OF THE SKY!

Happy to be here, Dionna. Thanks for inviting me!

Inquiring minds want to know. How did you find your way to becoming a kidlit author?

I have always loved to write, just for the joy of creating with words. As a child, I kept a secret diary and wrote letters to pen-pals, but what I loved most was writing poems whenever I took public transport. One day, I won a poetry competition in high school with a poem that I’d scribbled from the top deck of a moving double-decker bus and won a cash prize! I entered every writing competition I could after that and, to date, my poems have won me money, tickets to Paris, tickets to the cinema, furniture vouchers, and even a Kindle! Though I always seemed to find myself in bookstores and even asked for a typewriter for my twelfth birthday, it didn’t occur to me that writing was written in my future. Then one day, many years after I had become a high school English and Drama teacher…my 8-year-old daughter asked me a homework question...

You’ve piqued my interest! What did she ask you, and how did her question lead to you writing LION OF THE SKY, your debut MG novel-in-verse?

It was a homework question she needed help answering. Why do people migrate? I decided it was time to share with her our family's history. No matter how tragic, I believed she needed to know it.  

Share the history, please!

Sure! It began in 1947 as India became independent from British rule, the subcontinent was divided into two countries—a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. The divide left millions of Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims living in the "wrong" country. Hostilities grew. Mass killings ensued. Millions had to flee to safety, including my grandparents and parents, who survived the largest mass migration in world history.

To help my daughter understand that dark, chaotic, and tumultuous time, I took her to the library. Though we found books about the Holocaust and the World Wars, we couldn’t find one children’s book about the Partition of India. My daughter accused me of making the whole thing up. It broke my heart. For days after our library visit, I thought about the fourteen million people who lost their homes and the one million who died. I decided to write the children’s book I couldn’t find for my daughter. I joined the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and in 2017 self-published a picture book about our family’s history, GOPE AND MEERA–A MIGRATION STORY. 

That's an incredible story, a sad slice of history, one many living in the United States may know little about. It's understandable you wanted your daughter to know about it. What does she think of her family history now?

Now all three of my children feel like they’re experts on the Partition! They are very proud of their elders for the determination and resilience they showed in adapting to new cultures and languages, whilst making sacrifices so their children could thrive. My kids also feel empowered with a new understanding that adversity of all kinds can be overcome with courage and the right mindset.

True this!

(C) Tara Anand, taraanandart.com

​Though the setting of LION OF THE SKY is based on your family’s history, did you still have to do a lot of research?

Yes it did! It was years of research focusing particularly on what happened in Sindh. Unlike the provinces of Punjab and Bengal which were split in two, Sindh was given intact to the newly created nation of Pakistan, where both my maternal and paternal grandparents lived. Like my grandparents, many Sindhis were forced to leave their homeland and rebuild their lives in Hong Kong as immigrants. I dug deep into the research and unearthed many treasures. It was important for my family’s narrative to be historically accurate because it’s an inheritance worth sharing. 

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing. Why did you decide to use the novel-in-verse format for LION OF THE SKY?

I fell in love with novels-in-verse after reading INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN by Thanhha Lai. I marvel at how each poem captures a concept, scene, or feeling in a few crafted words using language that’s distilled and powerful. I also appreciate how the format uses blank space to give room for the reader’s discovery of meaning and interpretation. I knew that a novel-in-verse would be the perfect vehicle for telling the story of Raj, my main character, and as I explored this format, the seed of lION OF THE SKY was born.

It sounds like a tug-at-heart read. Despite its setting, does LION OF THE SKY include rays of hope?

Hope is at the heart of this book. It is my hope that this will be what my readers are left with.

Changing the subject a little bit, what did you enjoy about working with your Balzer + Bray editor Alessandra Balzer?

Alessandra was so enthusiastic about working with me that I couldn’t quite believe it! I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the editorial process! Alessandra is extremely organized and systematic, and each round of edits was specific, so whether I was working on big-picture edits or focusing on character, setting, or various themes, I never felt too overwhelmed. Alessandra skillfully asked exactly the right questions that helped me distill what I was trying to say. She was quick to respond with insightful comments and enthusiasm, motivating me to dig deeper and infuse nuance into my writing. Her understanding of the heart of my novel helped me enhance its emotional impact, and her ability to see the potential in every scene, pushed me to explore new creative avenues and take risks with my storytelling. Our collaborative effort has resulted in a middle-grade novel that has exceeded my wildest expectations! I learned so much from the process and am grateful for the invaluable lessons and growth it has brought to my writing journey. I am so incredibly grateful to have worked with such a brilliant and insightful editor and am truly honored to join the fantastic list of authors and titles at Harper Collins/Balzer & Bray!


To be sure! Well, thanks for sharing the story behind your story. It will no doubt inspire many young readers and shine the spotlight on a slice of history that should be learned from and not forgotten. Thanks so much for stopping in, and do keep in touch when your next novel for young readers is ready to roll off the press.


The pleasure has been all mine.

Ritu Hemnani is a journalist, teacher, voice actor, motivational speaker, and a storyteller who hopes every child will discover books where they can see themselves on the pages within, and will know that their stories matter. Ritu recognizes herself as ethnically Indian, and is a British national who calls Hong Kong her home, where she lives with her husband and three children. Ritu is passionate about promoting diversity and nurturing inclusivity and empathy through writing stories that center marginalized communities and encompass universal truths. She is also passionate about spotlighting human interest articles with heart, and collaborating with local literary and charity organizations to promote literacy. Ritu is the author of the picture book, Gope and Meera--a Migration Story. Her debut historical middle-grade novel-in-verse, Lion of the Sky, is set for publication in the Spring of 2024. When not writing or teaching, Ritu delights in family game nights, strumming the strings of her guitar, and paddling through Hong Kong waters on her carrot-colored kayak. Ritu is represented by Rubin Pfeffer of Rubin Pfeffer Content, LLC. To learn more about Ritu, tune in to "An Inheritance Worth Sharing" on TEDx Talk, where she shares the seeds of her writing journey and what inspired her deep dive into her family’s history. FInd her online rituhemnani.com.

I'm excited to have you here to talk about your journey toward publication with your debut middle-grade, THINGS THAT SHIMMER!

Delighted to be here! It's truly satisfying to think back on the journey!

Awesome! To get started, tell us how you found your way to becoming a kidlit author.

Way back when I was a preschooler, my mother took me religiously to our public library to check out books and attend story time programs. She instilled in me a love of reading that has accompanied me throughout my life. As a social worker, I used books extensively with children to help them navigate divorces and deaths in their families, as well as fears and friendships.

Once I became a parent, one of my greatest joys was buying books for my own five children and introducing them to wonderful literature. Writing kidlit was just a natural extension of all of those experiences. For me personally, I had to wait until the timing was right and my youngest child was in school full-time before I could seriously try to get published. In the meantime, I took writing classes, read great award winning titles, and started to do the hard work of learning the craft.

Wow! A mom of five, and now a published author. That's an amazing accomplishment! Was THINGS THAT SHIMMER the first manuscript you had acquired by a traditional publisher?

Actually, no. I was offered my first book contract shortly after my youngest daughter started school. With raising a large family, however, there were times when I had to step away from writing for months at a time. But now my children are all grown and out in the world, I’m agented, and I just released my third picture book, and now have this exciting debut middle grade novel set to enter the world!

That's amazing. I'm sure your kids are proud! So What inspired you to write for middle-grade readers?

The summer I turned nine years old, my family was in a horrific car accident that sent reverberations throughout our family for the rest of my childhood. Back then, the understanding of trauma and its impact on individuals was still in its infancy as PTSD hadn’t even been given its name or been identified as an actual condition. As soldiers began to return from Viet Nam, there was this understanding, a recognition, that they were suffering psychological trauma due to their wartime experiences. Soon mental health professionals began to see the commonalities between war veterans and others who’d been through life threatening experiences. That was the starting point for THINGS THAT SHIMMER; two friends united by their deep understanding of what it’s like to grow up in a family dealing with trauma. But something has to pull them apart—right? That’s what makes a plot interesting!

I'm sorry to hear your family had to go through that. It must have been a real challenge for you as a child. Your characters' emotions will no doubt ring true, and your story sure to be a real heart tugger because of it.

THINGS THAT SHIMMER is the story of my heart, the idea I had on the very first night I walked into my very first class on writing for children. While it is definitely a work of fiction, emotionally it feels very true, and I hope it resonates for readers wading through the murky waters of friendships, popularity, family relationships, and identity.

Important themes to be sure.  Did you have to revise much after THINGS THAT SHIMMER was acquired by Kar-Ben Publishing? 

Actually, most of my revising work came before my manuscript was acquired. While querying agents, I got a full request from Susan Cohen, who at the time was an agent at Writers House. Susan liked what she read, but  offered me an opportunity to revise and resubmit my manuscript. Both she and her assistant provided me with very specific feedback on how to improve the project, and I spent six months doing two rounds of revisions for them. Afterward, Susan offered me representation and started submitting it to editors!  So by the time my editor, Amy Fitzgerald, read it, she didn’t have a lot of requests for big changes. Mostly we cleaned up sentences--an occasional word being replaced or eliminated.

That says a lot about having an editorial agent. I'm sure you're thrilled you got a chance to work with Susan before she retired. So now that your publication date is here, are you nervous about how kids will receive your book?

I am nervous, but I hope they will enjoy the ride as Melanie Adler navigates the world of the 1970s, while desperately wanting to be accepted by the Shimmers, the popular kids in her class.

I'm sure they will! Well, thanks for stopping by and for allowing us to share in your book launch day! 

Thanks for the invite, Dionna!

I'm super excited to be interviewing you today as your debut MG, SING IT LIKE CELIA is released from Penguin Workshop!

My pleasure! Happy to be here.

Do tell! How did you find your way to becoming a kidlit author? 

I have always known I wanted to be an author, but my love of kidlit really blossomed after my daughter was born. We spent countless hours reading and exploring our local libraries. I found myself suddenly bubbling over with picture book ideas of my own. I joined the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) in 2017 and began attending conferences and critique groups in order to learn more about both craft and the business of publishing. In 2018, I won the Andrea J. Loney Mentorship that was hosted by my region of SCBWI. That same year, I connected with my agent through #DVpit, an annual pitching event for un-agented, self-identifying historically marginalized authors and illustrators. In early 2019, after a few short rounds of revision, my agent sent my debut picture book MARIANA AND HER FAMILIA out on submission. The book quickly sold at auction, and I officially became a kidlit author!

Your first book sold at auction?! That is amazing!!! MARIANA AND HER FAMILIA went on to win some honors, yes?

It did! School Library Journal named it a Best Picture Book of 2022. Booklist gave it a starred review, and it received a Junior Library Guild Gold Star! 

Wowsie!

​So, what inspired you to write your debut middle-grade novel, SING IT LIKE CELIA? 

SING IT LIKE CELIA was inspired by both my younger sister’s experiences navigating the unexpected disappearance of her mother from her life and my own experiences growing up with parents who were divorced. In writing the book, I strived to empower children confronting similar challenges to speak up for themselves and set healthy boundaries with the people in their lives. It was also a delight to incorporate my own love of music (and, specifically, legendary salsa singer Celia Cruz) into the book. I grew up singing in choirs and playing the piano, and for a long time was an avid salsa dancer. Music was a way through for so much of my life that I felt it important to give young readers the inspiration to use their own gifts as a means of self-expression and inner strength.

Sounds like a project of the heart, to be sure! So, who acquired SING IT LIKE CELIA, and how did it get acquired? 

I had just sold another picture book, HOW TO SPEAK SPANGLISH, to Elizabeth Lee at Penguin Workshop, when my agent mentioned to her my interest in writing IP (essentially, work for hire). Elizabeth was new to the imprint and, in building her list, was extremely excited to work on contemporary MG fiction featuring marginalized voices. However, she felt it important that her authors retain copyright and receive a standard advance and royalties, so rather than IP, she offered to work with me on what she called “proactive publishing” terms. We set up a call to discuss ideas and I submitted sample pages and a detailed outline. Elizabeth and her team were so enthusiastic about the book that they offered me a two-book deal! 

A two-book deal?! This just keeps getting better and better! What was it like working with Elizabeth?

Working with Elizabeth has been absolute perfection. I could not be happier that this book was written under her direction and have thoroughly enjoyed working with her on book two!

Your experience makes publishing sound like fun! Well, thanks again for stopping by on your Book Launch Day, and for sharing your kidlit journey up to this point. We're looking forward to learning more about book 2 soon!

Happy to be here, and will do!

Welcome, Anna, and congrats on the release of your debut MG, MANI SEMILLA FINDS HER QUETZAL VOICE!

​Thanks, Dionna! Happy to be here! 

Such an exciting day! May 5, 2024, the day your debut novel for kids ages 10-14 publishes with Levine Querido! Please share what your book is about.

Absolutely! It's about a young girl who wants two things: to get her period, and to thwart her mom's plan to take her to Guatemala, a place that has always been more of a mystery than an answer. One day, she discovers secret letters between her mom and a disappeared feminist-journalist aunt, giving Mani both a lesson in Guatemalan history, but also in how to stand up to some of the injustices going on around her. While at school, Mani and her best friends, Las Nerdas, take action and speak up, demanding the right to feel safe while the administration turns a blind eye to the way they are constantly being harassed, assaulted, groped, bullied, recorded, abused, and humiliated by other students. As the story unfolds, Mani finds her voice.

Wow. Some might say that's a tough topic for young readers. What do you say?

It's true, that the topic may me "tough," but girls as young as 12 are up against tough circumstances, and they, like Mani, may be shy and need to find the courage to speak up.

True this. What inspired you to write your book MANI SEMILLA FINDS HER QUETZAL VOICE?

So many things! It all started with a question. Someone asked me if I remember the first time I got my period. All of a sudden, it came back to me. I was eleven and visiting my mother's side of the family in Guatemala City. I was standing on top of a slide in Burger King. My second cousins were taunting me for my (at the time) thick accent in Spanish. The question and memory inspired me so much that when I got home I wrote a story about a Guatemalan-American girl obsessed with getting her period and eager to enter womanhood. Over a year, it morphed from a story about periods into a story about discovering secret letters from disappeared journalist aunts, mother-daughter relationships, coming into activism, and exploring the question about what it means to be a feminist at any age. As someone who has Guatemalan, Hawaiian, German and Filipino heritage, I was also inspired to write a character whose interest in her history and heritage is more of a journey with plenty of ups and downs.

It's been said that to make a book that's full of heart and authenticity, we should write what we know, and more importantly what we feel. You certainly did that! No wonder your book has gotten so many stellar reviews!

What did you enjoy about working with your editor as you revised MANI SEMILLA FINDS HER QUETZAL VOICE?

I have been so lucky that the people who have helped bring MANI to life REALLY loved and understood her voice. My editor, Irene Vázquez at Levine Querido, helped MANI's voice to really shine. It was so clear to me that they understood Mani as a character. I NEVER had to clarify or explain something about why Mani would say this or that. They just got it. In fact, they showed me ways we could push Mani's voice and Mani-isms even further. Each round of edits got closer to the heart of the story and to Mani's voice. I had so much fun with the editing process!

No doubt the fun spilled out from the process and onto the page! As an ESL middle-school teacher, a mother of a 6-year-old and 1-year-old, and a wife, how do you juggle your responsibilities and still find time to write?

The answer to this question always changes! I am constantly trying to find how and when to write. It's day by day. Thankfully, my husband does most of the cooking, which gives me some writing time. That helps! I wrote the first draft of MANI SEMILLA FINDS HER QUETZAL VOICE from 4 to 6 a.m. every single day over the course of one year. Some people are impressed when I tell them how early I wake up to write, but I am impressed with people who are able to stay up late writing! I have not been able to be a night-writer. As a teacher and mom, that was literally the only time I had available to me. Now that I have another little one, there are days when I simply just don't get to write more than one sentence. 

What are you working on now, besides taking care of your little one, and promoting your new release?

I am working on book number two, so I am slowly getting back to my morning writing sessions, because that is my time when no one else is awake. That doesn't mean that I feel super inspired every morning. I keep telling myself that what I am working on is just a first draft and that it doesn't have to be amazing right away. I am really into running and I've heard people in the sports and running world talk about how discipline is more important than motivation. I remind myself that sometimes when the writing doesn't sound pretty!

Perspiration and pushing through accomplishes much! Well, Anna, congrats once again on your release, and for allowing me to have a small share in celebrating it's release today, and please do check back in when I can celebrate Book 2!

Thank you, Dionna! And will do!

Anna Lapera is a writer, educator and sometimes runner based in the DC area. She comes from a Guatemalan mother and Hawaiian-Filipino-German father, and was raised all over the world. She teaches by day and writes stories about girls stepping into their power in the early hours of the morning before the teaching day begins. She is a member of Las Musas, a 2022 Macondista and Kweli Journal mentee, and has received financial support from Tin House, Kweli Journal and SCBWI. When she’s not writing or teaching, you can find her visiting trails and coffee shops in DC and Maryland, where she lives with her family. MANI SEMILLA FINDS HER QUETZAL VOICE is her debut novel, Find Anna online HERE.

So nice to have you stop by on your book launch day!

Happy to be here!

Do tell. What inspired you to write The Unbeatable Lily Hong?

It would have meant the world to me to read a book like The Unbeatable Lily Hong when I was a kid! Like my main character Lily, I was a Chinese-American kid who was good at school and into nerdy fandom stuff. Another similarity that I share with Lily is that I also went to Chinese school and did competitive Chinese dance. But those things made me an outsider when I was a kid, so I wanted to write a story about a Chinese-American girl whose differences and interests make her nuanced, irresistibly fun, and unbeatable.

Sounds like a story all kids could relate to, and that you had fun writing this book!

The Unbeatable Lily Hong was so much fun to write! Drawing on my own interests while creating Lily, her friends, and her family, I got to immerse myself in Chinese mythology, school competition, debates about the best dumplings (Lily’s mom makes the best dumplings, duh). Plus, there's a tween frenemy/maybe-more-than-friends dynamic, ​which I would have loved to have read as a kid.

How did the revision process for The Unbeatable Lily Hong go? What was it like working with your editor?
​
My revision process was surprisingly smooth! I say “surprisingly” because I usually agonize over revisions, but The Unbeatable Lily Hong was just so much fun to write that it didn’t feel like it took a lot of time or energy to revise. However, when I look at my drafts, I can see a lot actually did change. 

I was fortunate enough to work with two great editors! Angela Song was my first editor for the bulk of my editing process. Then Alessandra Preziosi took over when Angela left Clarion. I found Angela’s insights to be completely spot-on, and I was happy to say that it was the same with Alex. I also had so much fun bonding with Angela over similar childhood experiences as she edited my book!

Having an amazing editor step in when an amazing editor steps out sounds like a blessing to be sure! What skill sets did they have that impressed you?

I was most impressed by how they gave feedback that made the story much stronger while still trusting me with the direction of the story. It’s not always easy to balance the author’s vision with needed developmental edits, but they both did it beautifully! I am so grateful to have worked with such brilliant and genuinely lovely editors.

We bet they were mutually pleased when working with you! I really love your cover, by the way. Were you pleased when you first saw it?

Ooh! I cannot gush enough about this amazing cover by Rebecca W. Chan. It’s so fun and vibrant. I cannot wait to see it on the shelf of my local indie, and more importantly, in the hands of young readers.

That will be the icing on the cake! Well thank you for stopping by and for sharing a little behind-the-scenes talk about The Unbeatable Lily Hong. 

​My pleasure!

Diana Ma is a Chinese American author of young adult and middle grade books who teaches at North Seattle College. Her debut young-adult novel Heiress Apparently was a 2021 Washington State Book Award finalist in the young adult literature category. Diana was also a 2019 We Need Diverse Books mentee and is a Highlights Foundation Muslim Storytellers Fellow. With a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington and an MA with a Creative Writing focus from the University of Illinois, Chicago, Diana is represented by Christa Heschke and Daniele Hunter of McIntosh and Otis. The Unbeatable Lily Hong is Diana's middle-grade debut. Find her online at dianamaauthor.com, and ​on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DianaJunYiMa.

(C) Lisa Bronson Mezoff, lisamezoff.com

Absolutely delighted to have you stop by, Lisa! Your work fills me with the happiness of sunshine after a gloomy day!

I’m so glad my work makes you smile! 

It really does! Do tell. How did you find your way into becoming a kidlit illustrator?

It was a long journey! When I graduated college, I decided that as much as I loved illustration, the freelance life was not really for me. So, I chose to pursue a career as a designer and creative director. I did lots of illustrations in the context of my corporate design work, but it wasn’t until my kids left for college that I decided to finally focus on illustrating for children. I used evenings and weekends to take online courses to help build my portfolio and started going to SCBWI conferences and engaging with the kidlit community. It’s been a huge effort to pursue a second career, but it’s so rewarding! 

SCBWI is a nurturing place for kidlit creatives! Now that you've arrived to the kidlit path, what do you love about illustrating children's books?

It’s actually a joy on multiple levels! First, I just really love to draw and paint—to imagine people and places and make them come to life. I’m also a truly passionate reader, so it’s a thrill to contribute to the world of books and use art to tell stories that are meaningful to kids. I have to say though, the biggest surprise has been how much I have enjoyed sharing my work on school visits. When Only My Dog Knows I Pick My Nose my debut picture book written by Lauren Tarshis came out, I did dozens of school visits with the author. We had conversations with kids not only about the story itself—its inspiration and meaning—but also about the creative process and our collaboration. The kids were so excited! They went on to draw their own pictures and tell their own stories. Often, teachers sent me the kids’ drawings and thank you notes later—that was amazing!

I can imagine it would be! So nice you were able to join with the author, too!

Why did you especially enjoy illustrating Only My Dog Knows I Pick My Nose that features a boy whose dog has nothing but unconditional love for his not-so-perfect human? 

Most of the time, in the children’s book industry, a publisher buys a manuscript and then chooses an illustrator—the author and illustrator rarely even meet. This book was a little different. The author and I are good friends and we collaborated on the project from the beginning. Lauren came to me with just the title (which I love!) and we worked together as the story took shape. We often went back and forth, deciding which elements of the story really needed words, and which ideas could instead be conveyed visually. I feel so lucky to have had that experience—it was so much fun to work together, and I think our partnership made the book much better than it would have been if we had we worked separately.  

You're right. An author and illustrator creating the book before it's acquired is not how it usually happens, but so cool that Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic did acquire it as a complete project! I just love the hilarity of the text and illustrations--a perfect picture-book blend!

Glad you enjoyed it! You can learn more about how I made the illustrations HERE in the blog post I wrote for Scholastic.
 
I'll check it out! Well, thanks oodles, Lisa, for stopping by and for sharing a little about yourself and your process. May Only My Dog Knows I Pick My Nose become a classic in the years to come!

Thanks, Dionna!

Lisa Bronson Mezoff loves to paint people and scenes that are filled with energy and joy. When she is not drawing and painting, Lisa is busy creating award-winning design projects as the creative director at Pappas MacDonnell, a marketing and communications agency. Besides painting, Lisa also loves to read and eat desserts. Only My Dog Knows I Pick My Nose, written by Lauren Tarshis a New York Times best-selling author, and published by Orchard Books, is Lisa's first illustrated children's book. Follow Lisa on Instagram @lisamezoff to see her latest work, and learn more about her HERE. 

Welcome to my blog, Sarah, and to Kelly's kidlit crew of clients!

Hello, Dionna! Thanks for inviting me!

My pleasure! I'm wondering, did you love illustrating and making comics as a kid?

I did! Though I was painfully shy, art was the one thing I always felt confident in. I’ve been drawing as long as I could remember, and I had a fondness for writing as well. I spent most of my day at school in the library, reading everything that I found interesting. The most memorable finds were intricately illustrated picture books by Robert Munsch, Jan Brett, Beatrix Potter and others. As a child, I would read and write little picture books for myself.

​When I grew older, I sent out a printed book to my relatives as gifts that I assembled with my home scanner, a stapler, and PowerPoint. I wrote comics as well, sometimes in collaboration with my brother who would draw the panels. Comics were harder to come by, but to this day I read my hand-me-down Archie comics and manga as much as possible.

I'm sure your family enjoyed those gifts more than store bought ones! What types of books for children would you like to create as an author/illustrator or comic book author?

Though my art aligned with kidlit very well, I thought that children’s books could only be written by people with rosy childhoods. My children’s books professor in art school changed my perspective. More often than not, children are smart enough to know about the sad, scary, and unfair aspects of the world. I would love to create work that acknowledges these tough subjects with kindness and help kids understand them as my favourite childhood books have done for me.

Those types of topics are needed in this sad, scary, and unfair world. Is there anything in particular that inspires your art?

Not to be cliché, but nature is my greatest inspiration. At the onset of the Pandemic lockdown, I reevaluated my unhealthy relationship to art and took a long break. I would go on multiple walks a day with my dad who I moved back in with briefly. Being from Vancouver, British Columbia, there was no shortage of natural beauty to draw from. But aside from mountains and oceans, I found joy in the curious sights of everyday life, like the flowers that survived through an unusually warm winter, or an owl perching snugly on a stop sign.

I forced myself only to create with the old paint and coloured pencils in my childhood home. I fell back in love with making art. Most of my work features nature, especially flowers. My family was in the flower business for years and I grew up surrounded by blooms, and I worked as a florist for them occasionally. It’s great to be able to draw so many different kinds of flowers from memory!

I love flowers, too! Please describe your process.

My process really depends on the project, but recently, I really like to get as much worked out in the early stages as possible. It’s a rather structured process, which I’ve developed from a hectic schedule during school days and working full time. I start with research of course, making a board of reference photos. The Notion app has been my recent obsession for keeping track of information and files. 

In my first book, which I am currently working on, I kept a sketchbook full of all the research and sketches pertaining to the story. Then, I did a close read of the manuscript and sketched out scenes and pages. I made a template for thumbnails with the right ratio and rough text placement and filled this in using Photoshop since they get revised over and over. Working digitally saves time.

I took each thumbnail, enlarged it to make a tighter sketch, and chose a colour palette for the page. (I stole this step from my partner who is a fantastic artist. He finishes an entire painting digitally first, and then paints it on canvas.) This type of precise groundwork gives the final artwork a clean, purposeful look instead of being overworked or having to restart many times. Next, I printed out the sketch, transferred it to watercolour paper for the final mixed media painting, which I like to do completely traditionally as I love the warm look and soothing process.

Wow! Sounds like a labor intensive process, but one that pays off in the end! Last question, how did Kelly discover you and why are you glad to be represented by her?

Kelly and I actually found each other after a good friend had joined The Tobias Literary Agency as a client. He kept telling me how his agent was great to work with, so I asked him for more info. Though my friend's agent wasn’t taking on any new clients, she referred me to Kelly, her colleague at TLA.

Kelly had a great list of artists and seemed very experienced, so I reached out, and she promptly responded. She led me through the agenting process and the contract step by step. I became intrigued by the idea of being in a community of other children’s book artists. Luckily, soon after we signed, our first project that went out on submission was acquired! It’s only been a little while since we’ve worked together, but I’m excited to see where Kelly and I will go.

Kelly is awesome, and I'm excited to see where your work will go too! Well, thanks for chatting with us, Sarah, and do stop by again!

You're welcome, and I will!

 (c) Amanda Vacharat, amandavacharat.com

Welcome to my blog, Amanda! What a delight to have you here!

Thank you for inviting me.

The pleasure is all mine! Do tell. How did you find your way into the kidlit world, and why do you love it?

Oh, there are so many pathways that all led here! But, the simplest (shortest) one is that I encountered M.T. Anderson’s YA Novel FEED, and it opened my eyes to the opportunities there are in kidlit to be weird and genre-less and playful, even if darkly so. I love that it gives us (the authors) that freedom to write for readers that don’t have formed expectations of what literature should or shouldn’t look like yet. We get to show them how expansive that definition could be. 

FEED also helped me see that kidlit can focus on asking questions rather than giving answers. Because you are engaging with readers who are encountering concepts and themes, often for the first time, they are open to questioning the ideas behind them, and perhaps come up with their own thoughts and opinions in response. I like to think I’m creating those types of books—the kind that asks the reader questions, and asks the reader to ask questions—but even if not, I’m glad I get to try.

​Very intriguing reply! It's so cool that you enjoy writing books for young readers that include dashes of science, plus technology, along with a helping of whimsy. Why is that combination a good fit for you as a writer? 

Ah, well, thanks for thinking it’s cool! I have a science and tech background, and I’m a programmer for my day job, so tech stuff is rather constantly on my mind. But science and tech can get a bit serious (*cough*, AI), and I think when you get too serious in storytelling, you can lose people; they will check out before they understand. Perhaps that assumption is wrong, but to me, it seems as if when stories get too serious, the audience starts to become more restricted to the people who already agree or understand. I don’t know. Maybe I just like making things a little playfully weird!

Can you give us an example, please, of something whimsical you're working on?

​An example: I’m currently revising a YA novel about government-led psychiatric experimentation, which has some borderline silly and unrealistic locations and settings. And often my illustrations have cute animals doing silly things with industrial or technological props. Actually, I’ve been wondering lately whether “whimsical” is the right word for this kind of story; if instead I should be saying “absurdity.” But there’s overlap there, right? Both are breaks from logic or reality, a sense of being off kilter, though with slightly different overtones.

It sounds like your books will be wonderfully weird, absurdly abstract, and fantastical fictional yarns that young adults will love to read!

Haha! Thanks, I think.

  (c) Amanda Vacharat, amandavacharat.com

So how would you say your characters speak to the younger you?
 
On the simplest level, I’m writing books which feature characters who have one Asian parent, and characters who are autistic, whether or not they are labeled as such. There weren’t characters like this in books or movies growing up, and we’ve come a long way with representation, but we aren’t there yet. Having books with these characters would have helped validate my own ways of thinking and existing, and I hope seeing characters like this will resonate with others still missing themselves in current media.

On a more complex level, many of my characters are a little hopelessly in love with the world. They also tend to want to restore relationships and find their place with friends or family. I’ve been told that desire is quintessentially middle grade (and not YA), but I disagree, partially because of my own experience as a teen, and even adult. And so I’ve stubbornly kept on with it. 

Those are themes that resonate with folks of all ages, I think. As an illustrator, what are your favorite subjects to draw, and why.

Oh dear, illustrating. Even though at the very start of this journey, I wanted to be an illustrator, I’ve gotten totally derailed by writing (see answer number 1.) I’m just now getting back into illustrating, and at the very beginning of defining what types of subjects I want to focus on. What’s remained consistent for me is I love drawing almost any types of animals. I’ve always loved animals. Almost all creatures. Except stink bugs.

I'm with you on the stink bugs! Anything else you like to draw?

I once had an art director question why so many of my illustrations feature children who are afraid. So, I guess I like drawing terrified kids? I’m not sure what this says about me.

Haha! Not sure about that one. Last questions: What medium do you enjoy using in your art? And what's your process like?

My go-to medium used to be pencil with scanned wallpaper and photographs, which I would paint over digitally. That process was extremely time consuming, so lately I’ve been playing around with what I can manage digitally to recreate the same sort of look.

Well, Amanda. This has proved to be a most interesting interview, and I foresee some very unique illustrated young-adult novels on the horizon--those inside a genre created by you!

Perhaps so!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Pop in anytime!

Will do!

(c) Heather Brockman Lee, heatherbrockmanlee.com

Welcome, Heather! So excited to have you here to talk about the making of your gorgeous picture book, A Poem Grows Inside You, written by Kattie Hawes!

Thanks for the invite!

Your illustrations inside A Poem Grows Inside You are so colorful and full of joy! I just LOVE them! Will you please share a little about the book's illustration-journey?

Of course! Every book has a story, the story that happens before the story. Actually several stories because everyone involved in making a book has their own story for how they came to be part of it. My story for this book begins with--it was the first time a traditional publisher offered me a picture book to illustrate. This was HUGE! Something I had been working towards for a few years, and the theme and manuscript and publisher were all so appealing to me, I could not have been happier.

That is huge! But wait a minute, if A Poem Grows Inside You, which was published by The Innovative Press in October 2022, was your first book with a traditional publisher, what about Hattie Hates Hugs? Wasn't it published by Beaming Books in April 2022?

Interesting, right? That timing situation came about because, for one thing, publishing can be like that; but in my case, it happened because of the pandemic. Let me explain.

I got the offer for A Poem Grows Inside You in March of 2020...

Yup. I remember standing outside the elementary school while my dog and I waited to walk my daughter home from school, I had just gotten off the phone with my agent, and was looking forward to spring break with my kids…. which ended up lasting a year and a half. Because of those Uncertain Times. (Remember when every sentence started with “In these uncertain times”?) The Innovation Press decided to delay the book for a year, which made perfect sense as absolutely no one knew what was coming at us. 

How well Uncertain Times, all caps, fits the Pandemic. Was it hard to wait for the publishing train for A Poem Grows Inside You to get back on track?

It was hard to wait, but also everything was hard and I was very busy doing things like buying too much spaghetti squash because what if the stores ran out of spaghetti squash. And it gave me a long time to think, and to experiment with different mediums. And without that time, I doubt I would have discovered the process I used for this book. ​Above is an early style guide I made once I decided on a medium, to show the publisher the technique I had in mind and the character design. We made a few tweaks, including the color of the raincoat. 

I notice your thumbnails in the above image. Is that how you start the illustration process for a picture book?

For me, everything starts with thumbnails, which is probably the hardest part of the process--lots of talking to myself and tugging on my hair and making cups of tea I never finish. But once they are done, I feel like I have a roadmap to follow. I get lost really easily, so I love maps. ​Now, for that technique I mentioned. I really don’t know if I would have discovered this without the pandemic keeping us all at home and giving me so much time to experiment. I would trade not knowing this for COVID never having happened, but here we are.

What's the technique? Do tell!

It starts with sanded paper--the kind usually used for pastels. I am not a pastel artist, so I can’t even remember where I got it. It’s literally sandpaper, very fine white sand glued to a paper backing. When I painted on it with acrylic gouache, it would behave like watercolor or gouache depending on how much water I added, and going over that with colored pencils created a rich, bold line and a texture I fell in love with.

It is a gorgeous technique! 

So once you got the thumbnails sketched out, the character designed, and the technique chosen, how did you begin putting the book all together?

Some books start with the cover, and with others the cover comes last. It all depends on the publisher and their marketing schedules. This book came cover-first, and I decided to paint the background and character separately so things could be tweaked and nudged in photoshop. I have done this for all my book covers so far. You really get the benefit and security of working in layers while still using traditional media. ​Above are a few more process-images.

Did you enjoy illustrating Katey Howe's lyrical words?

I really loved painting this book! Katey’s words are just wonderful and I would find her phrases repeating in my head as I painted various spreads. And the Innovation Press has been such a fantastic publisher to work with, with great taste in books I might add!

The making of beautiful picture books like A Poem Grows Inside You is a collaborative effort to be sure! And now it's out in the world!

It's wonderful. and I hope many creatives, young and old alike, will enjoy reading it and sharing it with others as much as I did illustrating it!

I'm sure they will!

​There's something wonderful inside you. It's waiting for the rhythm of the rainfall, the courage of the sun. It's there in the dark, ready to root, to grow, to sprout, to bloom. Written by Katey Howes, illustrated by Heather Brockman Lee, and published by The Innovation Press, A Poem Grows Inside You is sure to encourage creatives of all ages to nurture their talents and boldly share them with the world. 

Purchase your copy today!

©2023 Subi Bosa, subibosa.net. Used with permission from Lerner Publishing Group, 

​So glad you stopped by! Do tell, how did you find your way into becoming a work-for-hire author for kids?

I kind of stumbled into becoming a WFH author. As a freelance writer, I was always looking for new work/clients and in late 2018, I saw on Twitter a call by Capstone for authors of color to work on children’s books. I reached out and got started with a six-book series on extreme sports, and things just took off from there. 

That's cool! What do you love about working with your editors when developing a new series like the ones you've done for Capstone, and now, your latest Bo at the Buzz books being published by Lerner?

The editors that I’ve worked with have been great because they’ve always given me the latitude to come up with my own ideas or inclusions. This was true in the Bo series as well. The idea for the Bo series was developed by the librarian Cecily Lewis, who created the Read Woke program and book line. They had a skeleton of what they wanted to do with the series but left it up to me to flesh out the characters and come up with the storylines. You kind of have a whole world to play with, so it was fun to put our hero into these different situations. 

Do tell a little more about your hero, Bo, and the challenges he overcomes.

The great thing about Bo is that he’s just a regular kid, living life in the city with his friends and grandpa. One of the ideas around the series was to showcase the idea of “Black joy,” meaning that these characters weren’t constantly dealing with serious trauma or life-altering drama. That’s not the only way that we can present Black youth, you know? Bo is like any other kid--he’s enjoying life while also learning some valuable lessons as he deals with issues that a lot of children can identify with. 

I totally get that! Did you have fun bringing Bo's adventures to life throughout your first six books?

I did have fun writing these Bo books because the themes are universal. Who hasn’t worried about public speaking or writing a poem? Who hasn’t discovered that maybe you’re not as good as you thought at one thing but find your path down another road? Who hasn’t told a small lie that isn’t quite so small? Bo’s a curious kid, and fortunately, he’s got a lot of voices in his life from the unique customers who come to his grandfather’s barber shop, The Buzz. 

Love that setting!

©2023 Subi Bosa, subibosa.net. Used with permission from Lerner Publishing Group, ​

From one WFH author to another, I must ask: How did you juggle writing SIX titles for the Bo at the Buzz series, all releasing in 2023!? (And don't you also have other upcoming projects being released this year by Lerner and Capstone as well?)

That’s a good question! I think for the Bo series, we had gone through a process of outlining the books and coming up with some solid storylines, so once those were set, it was easy to write them. As far as my other books, I guess I consider myself to be a fast writer, so once I get into a groove, I’m able to really get productive. I consider that a remnant of my time as a newspaper reporter when I had to produce accurate, informative copy on a tight deadline.  

Handy ability when deadlines are looming! So, when you received your Bo at the Buzz author copies, what did you love about the final product? Anything about Subi Bosa's illustrations make you smile? 

I thought the final product was great! I love the barber pole alongside the spine of the book! And Subi’s artwork is both colorful and warm. I thought he did a fantastic job of bringing Bo, his friends, and Pop-Pop to life. As someone who can’t draw a lick, I’m always amazed at the awesome work the illustrators do for my books. 

Me too! So why do you hope all kinds of kids learning to read will pick up these books and tag along with Bo as he navigates his young world?

My belief is that reading should be fun, and I hope that all kids see these books and realize these are not only fun stories but also ones that feel familiar and relatable to their own lives in some way. I’m really excited that Bo is out in the world and I hope kids have as much fun reading the books as I did writing them. 

I'm sure they will! Well, thanks so much Elliott for stopping by. Looking forward to seeing many more of your books on the shelves. They're always a delight to read.

No problem. Happy to be here!

Before signing off, I'd like to encourage everyone to learn more about Bo at the Buzz and to purchase copies, suitable for any classroom with early readers, HERE.

​(c) Yaroslava Apollonova, odnatamyara.com

How did you find your way to becoming a kidlit creator?

I’ve always been keen to illustrate children books. Book sections at stores have always been my favorite places--spending hours by! I've been drawing and illustrating literally half my life, since I was 12-years-old. (I'm 24 now.) Also, when I was 12, my sister was born, which was very inspiring to me. I wanted her to hold a book that I had illustrated! Though she’s 13 now, and not interested in picture books anymore--yet still! 

I'm sure your sister will find it pretty cool when she does hold your first traditionally published picture book! So what do you love about writing and illustrating for young readers?

I really enjoy drawing kids, cute things, and fun scenes with lots of objects, basically all those things are portrayed in picture books, so if one niche fits everything I love, then why not, right?

Makes sense to me! I notice, your illustrative style hints of geometric shapes. What about that style attracts you? Would you call it cubism?

All my artistic life I've loved experimenting and challenging myself, so geometry and forms have been something that keeps my brain working, if I can say so. Actually, I think what really had a huge influence on me was taking geometry in school. It was my favorite class. (I was a “know-it-all" annoying student back then. (HaHa!))

I love simplifying things, adding shapes and pushing forms.

I wouldn’t name my style "cubism" or anything else. To me, my style doesn’t seem to fit into those “artistic” styles represented in art galleries and museums. I would actually love to see more work by contemporary artists in galleries and solo exhibitions!

What types of books would you like to work on?

I would love to work on recipe and cook books! I looove baking, if not drawing I’d definitely be a cook or baker. Haha! That’s always been my dream to illustrate my own recipe book! 
Besides that I’d love to work on any exciting project with interesting narrative story about friendship, parenthood, mental health, or childhood, in general. (I especially love stories with deep physiology meanings.)

How did you and Kelly find each other and why are you glad?

​I was looking for an agent for months, had so many declines, even started thinking something is wrong with my art. Originally, I had queried a different agent at Tobias Literary. Though she didn't offer me representation, she was kind enough to forward my inquiry to Kelly! Kelly was the only one who believed in me! She even seemed happy to sign the contract with me!

So far we have had great conversations. I can ask her anything that bothers me, and we've already begun working on very nice project that I’m very excited about! Working with Kelly feels like a win win for both a us!

​What do you love about creating art for children’s books?

I am asked this question quite often. Honestly, it’s the magic of it. I am very much drawn to fairytales and traditional storybook concepts, as who wouldn’t want an excuse to immerse themselves in a world where rabbits run around with pocket watches, or where crocodiles tick, or where partially clothed bears eat honey at every mealtime! The world can feel a bit devoid of magic and imagination at times and so it’s great to escape into an illustrated story and pretend like that’s the norm for a while. 

So true, this! Anything else you love about being a member of the kidlit industry?

I also love how there is so much variety in children’s book illustration with so many amazing artists to learn and be inspired from. I am always working to improve my illustration skills and my story-telling abilities and to have such a wealth of expertise and skill available to draw upon is quite inspirational. You can’t help wanting to get better at what you do when you see how much amazing work others have achieved!

Children’s book illustrators are generally a really good bunch of people too!

That does seem to be a general rule! So, why do you love drawing animals?

I’ve been blessed with a wonderful career working very closely with animals of all species. I’ve worked in a veterinarian clinic, in animal hospitals, and at wildlife parks. I've raised both kittens and kangaroos (separately of course), health-checked an array of animals from puppies to polar bears, assisted in theatre with canine hip replacements, anaesthetized sea turtles, nebulized snakes and rescued orphaned seal pups from freezing cold beaches. And I’ve spent hour upon hour monitoring and recording the various physiological and psychological parameters of animal patients. All this work with animals has given me a fairly unique insight into animals and their behaviors. As a veterinary nurse, for example, it’s your job to observe animals to determine if they are sad, apprehensive, happy and/or content. Animal characterization is now second nature to me.

Besides, I love animals, all animals, and I love capturing their individual personalities in my illustrations, and if that’s whilst they drink a cup of hot cocoa in a forest clearing with their woodland pals--then all the better!

What kinds of books do you hope to write and/or illustrate?

I love a classic storybook. It doesn’t have to be an old classic just one that exudes quality and a heartfelt message. A book which you pick up and from just the title and that first glimpse of art on the cover you know that its going to be exceptional. Any book where each turn of the page feels like a real treat is one to be treasured I think. I have lots of books like that on my bookshelf and they make me smile each and every time I pull one of them down to admire. I aspire to one day create a book like that. One I can be really proud of and hopefully that others will love as much as I do.
 
I also love a good rhyming text as I feel the melody of rhyme can really add to the magical feel I am always looking for in a picture book. I like books that create a feeling of atmosphere, and those centered around a specific idea or event. I’m a fanatic for winter holidays and so festive books with all of their fairy-lit imagery are instant winners with me, and of course, I'm sold with anything with woodland animals in a forest setting!

How did you and Kelly find each other?

Kelly and I found each other through Instagram. Kelly came across an illustration of mine that caught her eye, which in turn directed her to my Instagram account and then to my website and portfolio page. She reached out to me shortly thereafter and we started chatting about representation and author-illustrated work. I liked Kelly from the offset and felt a great sense of confidence in her knowledge and love of children's writing and picture books. Joining her team at Tobias Literary felt like a very natural thing to do and I am grateful that our paths crossed when they did!

Thanks so much, Caroline, for sharing a little bit about your kidlit journey so far. I can't wait to hold one of your illustrated books in my hand!

It's been a delight to be here!

Caroline McPherson is a British-Australian illustrator whose love of animals, nature and classical picture books shines through her illustrative works, as she combines both analog and digital mediums to create her distinctively soft and textured style. Pastel, crayon and hand rendered textures are her favorite tools and charming animal characters and little round birds her favorite subject matter. When not scribbling away at her desk, Caroline can often be found in the rainforest near her home, looking for pademelons and collecting interesting textures for future art projects. Find Caroline and examples of her joyful work on Instagram  and on her website at eiderduckillustration.com. She is represented by Kelly Dyksterhouse of The Tobias Literary Agency.  

Welcome, Andrea! Thanks so much for stopping by! I really enjoyed hearing you read from your middle-grade novel-in-verse IVELIZ EXPLAINS IT ALL during your recent book launch. I see voicing audio books in your future!

Haha! Thanks! I do love to bring my characters to life that way.

I could tell. So, what inspired you to write IVELIZ EXPLAINS IT ALL, and why did you choose the novel-in-verse format?

I wanted to write a book that dealt with mental health in the Latinx community, because I think the shame and stigma associated with therapy & meds for kids is a huge problem that the pandemic has made even worse. I wanted to write it in verse because I'm used to working with students reading below grade level, and I wanted them to be able to access the story too. 

What did you love about working with your editor, and why do you believe the editorial process helped make your book a stronger one?

I picked my editor because she truly championed my book from the start. I could tell she deeply understood the story I was trying to tell. Additionally, her ideas for making the story better aligned with how I saw the book improving. I also think it's helpful to get other eyes on my writing, because sometimes while I'm writing I'm thinking about things that I don't necessarily put on the page. And so having my editor tell me what she needed more of allowed me to zero in on the sections of my book that needed to be fleshed out. 

The editor-author partnership can be a wonderful one that produces wonderful books! While I'm sure you're proud of the starred review your book has received from Kirkus, what type of reviews do you value even more, and why?

I love hearing about actual kids reading the book! Someone posted a review talking about how their kid made notes in the margins because they loved IVELIZ so much and it honestly made my whole day. I wrote the book for middle schoolers and so it's their opinions that matter to me the most. 

That's totally understandable! I hear you have another middle-grade novel-in-verse on the way. Please tell us more! What's it about, and how is it similar or different from IVELIZ?

I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say yet, but it's called THE DISTANCE BETWEEN YOU AND HOME and it's about a Puerto Rican sixth-grade girl who has to go live with her aunt, who she's never really had a relationship with before. It's a quieter book than IVELIZ, but I think it definitely shares themes of family dynamics, friendship, and mental health. It doesn't come out until next fall, but hopefully I'll be able to share a cover come early 2023. 

Wow! That sounds like a great read, too! I'm already looking forward to it being released!

Thanks, Dionna! I really enjoyed writing it, and I've enjoyed being here.

Thank YOU for coming by and to share a little bit about your kidlit journey. I won't be surprised if IVELIZ will soon be included on many 2022 best books of the year lists!

PUBLISHERS' BLURB:
Seventh grade is going to be Iveliz’s year. She’s going to make a new friend, help her abuela Mimi get settled after moving from Puerto Rico, and she is not going to get into any more trouble at school. 

Except... is that what happens? Of course not. Because no matter how hard Iveliz tries, sometimes people say things that just make her so mad. And worse, Mimi keeps saying Iveliz’s medicine is unnecessary—even though it helps Iveliz feel less sad. But how do you explain your feelings to others when you’re not even sure what’s going on yourself?

Powerful and compassionate, Andrea Beatriz Arango’s debut with inside art by Alyssa Bermudez, navigates mental health, finding your voice, and discovering that those who really love you will stay by your side.

​Andrea, born and raised in Puerto Rico, is a former public school teacher with almost a decade of teaching experience under her belt. She now writes the types of children’s books she wishes her students had more access to. She balances her life in Virginia with trips home to see her family, and eats lots of tostones de pana. More about Andrea HERE.

​​Welcome, HB, to my blog, and to Kelly Dyksterhouse's list of clients! Do tell. How did you find your way into the kidlit industry?

Well, like most kidlit authors, I'm sure, I started my love with the genre when I was a kid myself! I was an only child, and books like Harriet the Spy, Bunnicula, and The Celery Stalks at Midnight made me feel less alone. I kind of put off writing novels for decades (I get scared when I really wanna succeed at something).

Fast forward to when I was an adult. We had a foster child we hoped to adopt, but he got sent back to live with his parents after we'd had him almost a year. I felt a great deal of loss and pain. I decided to channel my emotions by writing a middle grade novel about what he'd be like when he got older.

To hone my kidlit writing skills, I attended a Media Bistro kidlit workshop in NYC. And eventually--like, another decade later--I went back to school to get my MFA in creative writing. While my MFA focused on creative nonfiction, I never lost my true love: writing kidlit.

I wanted to write books like the ones I first fell in love with. So, I wrote more, got involved with SCBWI, and learned everything I could. And here I am now, crossing my fingers as I ready my work for the kidlit universe.

Very interesting journey! So how did you come to snag your agent (and mine), Kelly Dyksterhouse of Tobias Literary?

In the past, I found QueryTracker to be a GREAT resource for finding agents to query, as is SCBWI. I had written the novel about my former foster child, queried it, but didn’t get any offers of representation. I wrote a second novel about a girl growing up on a military base in Naples, Italy, queried it, and, while waiting for the results of that query, wrote another novel. It’s about a boy who opens his door one day to find Death standing on his front porch. They say the best way to distract yourself from waiting for query news is to start writing a new novel, so that's what I did! I eventually received an offer of rep for the novel about the little girl, and it went out on sub.

Then my family and I moved to Okinawa. I wanted to immerse myself further into the world of publishing, so I started working as an assistant literary agent at The Tobias Literary Agency with Natascha Morris.  It soon became apparent that my own agent relationship wasn't working for me, so we ended on good terms and I began thinking about querying again--this time leading with the novel about the little boy and Death. I really believed (and still do!) that it's the best thing I've written to date.

When thinking about who to query, I was unsure if it was okay for me to approach anyone about representation at Tobias, since I was working there. So, I began thinking about who outside of the agency I could query. I was sad, because I wanted to query Kelly again; I had actually queried her back in 2020 (when she was still at Raven Quill and I wasn't yet working with Tobias) with the book that landed me my first agent. I just knew that she would be perfect for my newest book--the Death book--which is a Southern gothic, contemporary MG. But since she was now an agent at Tobias, I sent her the manuscript just to ask if she knew any agents outside of our agency that might be a good fit for me. But rather than direct me to someone else, Kelly replied that she LOVED the manuscript and asked if she could represent me! Of course, I said yes, and I AM SO HAPPY SHE IS MY AGENT!

I totally get it! Kelly is an amazing advocate for her clients' work! What types of books do you hope to write in the future and what are you working on now?

Middle grade has my heart. I really enjoy writing grounded contemporaries with a touch of magic. And right now, I'm revising the novel I snagged Kelly with, getting it ready to sub to editors. I've also got an idea for new MG contemporary in which a little girl has to deal with the trauma of losing her foster brother. A full circle moment for me, for sure.

Sounds like your kidlit journey is off to a great start! Thanks again for stopping by, and do keep us in the loop when your first book is acquired.

Thanks for having me! It’s been fun.

© Cynthia Cliff, cynthiacliff.com

Cynthia, welcome! I am super excited about having a share in launching your beautiful new picture book THE WILD GARDEN that came out today! As you know, I've been a fan of your work ever since I discovered it on the Mid-Atlantic SCBWI's Illustrator Gallery. And I must tell you that when I read THE WILD GARDEN, I fell in love not only with your illustrations, but also with the sweet ode your words sing in honor of all that is beautiful and bountiful growing and living in wild, open spaces. Thanks so much for stopping by!

​No, thank you, Dionna! I'm delighted to be here! 
 
The honor is all mine! So, why did you decide to create a story that celebrates that which grows and lives in wild open spaces?

I think that I actually “wrote” this story when I was a child. I loved the wild places that surrounded my rural childhood home. I spent hours and hours outside exploring those places—the woodlands, meadows, and waterways. It was a magical place and time that made a big impression on me. The elders in my family would take us out to forage for edible plants and fruits like sassafras for tea. There were wild asparagus in the early spring, all kinds of wild berries for pies in the summer, and nuts in the fall that my mother would bake into a cake for Christmas. Being out in nature was always like a treasure hunt for the delightful, the delicious, and the curious. So, when tasked by Prestel to develop a garden themed story, The Wild Garden narrative developed organically as I mined my childhood memories.

Did you name the village of your story Mirren after the Village of Mürren in Switzerland?
 
Is there a Mürren in Switzerland? I had no idea. My Mirren is a totally made-up place. The name just popped into my head. I liked the sound of it. It is a lyrical word. I liked that it almost sounded like mirror. I thought that was useful in the story as the two settings in the book—the wild place and the community garden—share many similarities. In the book I bounce between the two places and compare them to each other. I tried out other names for the village but kept coming back to Mirren.

​Your color palette in THE WILD GARDEN reminds me of redbuds dressed up for Spring! Why did you choose it for this story?
 
I first started by developing a color palette for my main characters to make sure they would stand out against all the greenery in the story. I do have a palette that I tend to use, which felt right—colors that are bright but a bit earthly as well, so I leaned into those inclinations. Nature is colorful and I wanted the book to be colorful too.

Do you, like your main character Jilly, have your own wild place to explore? If so, what do you love about it and how does it inspire or inform your kidlit work?  

These days I do have a favorite local place to hike and go there as often as I can. It is a very large public space that has both grand vistas and small, intimate woody spaces. I enjoy that mix. In my life I’ve been lucky enough to spend time in many amazing wild places, but my very favorite place to hike is in northern Maine along the coast. In that place, the earthy, mossy, and dreamy woodlands run alongside a granite strewn shoreline, which makes these trails full of magic and wonder--a perfect mix of restfulness and energy. When you look closely, you can find tiny flowers, lichens, and all kinds of little creatures every step of the way. This is the kind of place where I like to recharge, explore, and draw. It’s a place that feeds the soul and inspires, which is important for everyone, and especially for creative people.

As you worked with your Prestel Junior editor Doris Kutschbach going from original submitted manuscript to the finished proof, what about the process surprised you, and/or did you enjoy the most?

I guess what surprised me the most was how incredibly hard it is to write a picture book story for children! The general public has no idea. It’s like catching lightening in a bottle, at least that's how it was for me. There were many, many drafts. Doris was so helpful, she offered encouragement and wise advice. For me the most enjoyable part of the process was making the artwork, of course. 
 
Why do you hope kids will enjoy reading your book? Is there a theme or lesson you'd like for them to carry away?

I think the main lesson is about understanding why the wild landscape is important. Those wildflowers, nuts, berries, and mushrooms are food for wild creatures. It is their garden, in a sense. And those little saplings, rocky hillsides, and mossy ponds are their homes. Often, when children are outside, they might not take the time to look around and think about that connection. On another level, a second lesson might be about speaking up to protect what you value and to not be afraid to do so. But it's my hope that the biggest lesson learned will come through kids enjoying and discovering wild places just like Jilly, my main character, does. I hope my book will encourage children everywhere to experience the richness and excitement found in nature, if they take the time to look. 

Wonderful lessons, indeed! Well, thanks so much, Cynthia, for allowing me to shine a spotlight on THE WILD GARDEN and on you today--your Book Launch Day! (WOOT!) Can't wait to read about Jilly's next adventure.

Thanks for having me!

©Cynthia Cliff, cynthiacliff.com

Thanks so much for stopping by, Doris! All the way from Munich, Germany! Hope your trip went well. HAHA!

The smoothest trip ever! I'm delighted, of course, to talk about The Wild Garden, Cynthia's latest picture book with Prestel Junior. 

The delight is all mine! So, when you received Cynthia's submission for THE WILD GARDEN , why did you want to acquire it?
 
I had worked with Cynthia on her first book Pie for Breakfast, which has been published by Prestel Junior in both English and German. For me, it was such a pleasure to work with Cynthia, and I really loved the result of our collaboration, so I knew that I wanted to work with her again. I guess that the idea to make a book about gardening and nature came from me! I believe that a mindful, respectful handling of nature is extremely important for the future of our planet and our children. Saving our planet is such a strong message of our time. Cynthia was excited about the idea. She came up with a range of proposals based around that topic and we developed the book from there.

 What do you love about Cynthia's illustrations found in THE WILD GARDEN?
 
Above everything else I love her fine sense of color and color combinations. How she uses tones, shades, accents and contrasts. Her images are not just colorful. There is a beautiful underlying harmony that ties the illustrations throughout the book together. I also love the attention to detail in her pictures. Each detail tells a little story and children can discover so much. Cynthia seems to understand really well how children view the world.

I adore Cynthia's color palette too! ​What do you love about the story's characters--Jilly, Bleu and Grandpa--and their love for wild, open spaces?
 
Jilly and her grandfather know their beloved wilderness very well. The story really shows the joy they feel when they're there. It's very nice that they find a clever way to share this joy and love of nature with the other townspeople and bring about a positive change in the way other people think. Their protest is peaceful, friendly and full of empathy--important things in our aggressive times!

So true! Do you have your own wild open space you enjoy? If so, describe what you love about it and what kinds of things you like to 'gather' there.
 
I am fortunate enough to have my own garden! It has old fruit trees and it is a bit overgrown, which means many animals feel comfortable there: insects, hedgehogs, squirrels, toads, newts and birds. My family and I enjoy the garden very much and look forward to fresh organic apples, plums, pears, berries, tomatoes and vegetables. The garden was a great gift, especially during the lockdown. Nature can really ground us and give us a sense of calm in stressful times.

I agree! Why do you hope children everywhere will read this book?
 
I hope that the book will encourage children all over the world to have fun discovering nature, learn mindfulness and understand the importance of protecting our planet. Every child, no matter how small, can make a difference. The book can also help children learn about peaceful communication--which can be applied in so many aspects of life!

I couldn't agree more, Doris. WOW! I have really enjoyed your visit. Thanks so much for allowing me to share in launching THE WILD GARDEN. Or should I say Danke! May it have many more printings!

​Doris Kutschbach wears many kidlit hats. Besides being a program manager and editorial director at Prestel Junior, she's an art historian who has written several children's books about art, including Art Detective: Spot the Difference. Doris is a passionate amateur gardener who lives with her family in Munich, Germany. You can find Doris's books HERE.

​​Filled with charmingly rustic illustrations of people, plants and animals, THE WILD GARDEN, written and illustrated by Cynthia Cliff and published on May 3, 2022, by Prestel Junior, is about community and biodiversity introduces children to the variety of ways things can grow and flourish in nature. Purchase your copy today, HERE!

Salutations, Wendy & Madelyn! So excited to have you stop by!

We're happy to be here!

I've always wanted to know more about coauthoring books, so thank you for sharing with me how you worked together to write THIS IS JUST A TEST and NOT YOUR ALL-AMERICAN GIRL.

Delighted!

Wendy, I'd like to pick your brain first. 

Shoot!

How did you and Madelyn meet and who came up with the idea that you'd be able to write a book together?

I met Madelyn at the Mid-Atlantic SCBWI conference, back when it was at a church in Arlington and you had to help put away chairs at the end! My first image of Madelyn was her holding an enormous bag of recycling to take home, which, if you know Madelyn, is perfectly fitting. Her books, like TAKE CARE and ONE SMALL HOP, have really strong environmental themes.

As it turned out, I ended up joining a writing group that Madelyn belonged to, and then, as another coincidence, Madelyn and I ended up with the same agent. It seemed like we were destined to be friends. We were starting our writing journeys at the same time, our kids were around the same age, and we both were terrible at playing tennis, so we could play together without anyone feeling bad. 

I started campaigning to write together after I found out that Madelyn had written a book with another friend. I remember thinking, “Huh, you can do that? You can get paid to hang out and write? How do we get in on that?!” 

Very interesting! After coauthoring THIS IS JUST A TEST with Madelyn, why were you excited about working together on your second book, NOT YOUR ALL-AMERICAN GIRL?

When you’re starting a story, you have to make so many decisions, it’s kind of exhausting, right? You have to figure out your character, where they live, what’s going to happen, who their family is, etc. One of the nice things about going back to the same world is that you’ve already gotten a lot of that figured out, so you can focus more on what’s going to happen next. I loved THIS IS JUST A TEST, the way it came together and the way the prose just bounced, so I was excited to return to that world of defined characters (and it’s in the ’80s, so there’s an unmistakable vibe).

I’ll also tell you that when we write together, my goal is to make Madelyn laugh. Not that she’s a hard sell, but Madelyn has really good taste, so if she laughs out loud, I know it’s a keeper. 

Making a friend laugh is a cool thing! What did you enjoy about doing events together, both in-person and virtual ones? 

After working together for so many years, we’ve really developed a comfortable patter together where we can kind of sense when to jump in or throttle back. We didn’t have a joint book come out this year, but we each had a book come out on the same day (again! coincidence!) so we had an online event with One More Page Books. This was one of my favorite events to date because we talked about each other’s books (a distinct improvement over talking about your own book), and then Madelyn had this brilliant idea that we should prepare trivia questions based on the topics in each other’s books, sort of like Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. The audience really loved it. It was kind of a quirky detour from the usual book event, and more than that, you could see we were cracking each other up with these oddball questions. 

It’s not important who got more questions correct. The point is everyone had fun. Okay, fine, it was Madelyn. There will be a rematch. 

Haha! I'm sorry I missed that.

Time to pick your brain, Madelyn!

Pick away!

Two authors writing a story with one voice and from one character’s POV sounds hard! Did you and Wendy have to spend loads of time outlining each stage of the plot?

You know that age-old question: Are you a plotter or a pantser? For this one, Wendy and I were both “pantsers” so there wasn’t so much outlining. Or, you know, any. We did do some brainstorming. Lots and lots of brainstorming. We took turns writing chapters, but as we wrote, the other person would edit the previous chapter and then move the story forward. Then the next person would come in and edit the edits. Honestly, by the time the book was finished, I feel like we both touched every sentence. Each of us added layers. With each edit, we went deeper into our character and the story. It worked that way with humor, too. With each edit, the other person made it funnier. It was story building in the truest sense.

Whoa! That required a lot of mental muscle and discipline! I reckon, like with exercising, having someone by your side to sweat it out with helps with motivation and staying the course.

For sure!

After coauthoring THIS IS JUST A TEST with Wendy, why were you excited about working together on your second book, NOT YOUR ALL-AMERICAN GIRL?
 
I was excited to get back into that world, of course, and I was also excited to get more time hanging out with Wendy. When we wrote together, we worked on a lot more than just our writing; we worked on our lives. We figured out what to eat for dinner (chicken and dumplings, carnitas), how best to help our kids, how to deal with certain situations without losing it. We need to work on something else because I miss having her voice in my ear every day.

That's so sweet! (I LOVE chicken and dumplings, BTW!) How would you compare the coauthoring experience to writing solo? What part of it do you like better? 

They say you should write books only you can write; as coauthors, we wrote books we could only write together. As a solo writer, it can be a pretty lonely experience, so it was lovely to be able to share my brain. Writing with a partner, it was easier to break through writer’s block because there was someone who had ideas when I was out. We could also talk through things to move our character ahead. There was just less being stuck. And of course, the copy was cleaner because we had both been over it so many times. Also, it’s much easier to promote a book if you’re promoting the work of a friend. I was less self-conscious about saying, “Please read this!” And I’m also so chicken when it comes to reviews. I made Wendy read them first.

So what's NOT YOUR ALL-AMERICAN GIRL about?

It's about Lauren, who is Jewish and Chinese, and used to being the side dish alongside Tara, her best friend. But after Lauren’s audition for her school’s “All-American” musical goes extraordinarily well, Lauren wonders if it’s her turn to be the star. Lauren’s hopes are dashed when the director tells her she doesn’t look the part to play the lead. And who is cast instead? It’s blonde-haired, blue-eyed Tara! Lauren can't bring herself to sing anymore, jeopardizing her role in the ensemble and her friendship with Tara. But with the help of a button-making business, the music of Patsy Cline, and her two bickering grandmothers, Lauren just might find her voice again. 

Considering your backgrounds, I can see why you and Wendy were the perfect coauthors to tell Lauren's story! Well, as fun as it's been, I reckon it's time to go. Thank you both for being here. It was great fun learning about your process. And do let us know when Book 3 comes out!

Our pleasure, and will do!

​To learn more about NOT YOUR ALL-AMERICAN GIRL, a middle-grade full of heart and hilarity that explores what it truly means to be all-American, check out these reviews: HERE, HERE and HERE.

​Wendy Shang is the author of several books for children, including The Great Wall of Lucy Wu, which won the Asian Pacific American Librarian Association Award for Children’s Literature. Wendy's latest picture book illustrated by Lorian Tu is entitled  The Rice in the Pot Goes Round and Round, released this past fall by Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic, Learn more about Wendy at wendyshang.com.

Madelyn Rosenberg is the author of a dozen books for children, including One Small Hop, a Junior Library Guild selection, and Cyclops of Central Park, a picture book about seeing the world that came out just when the pandemic began and we couldn’t. You can find Madelyn online at squealermusic.com.

Hi, Tom! I am superdy-dooperdy delighted to have you here on my blog! Thanks oodles for stopping by!

You're welcome, Dionna. Happy to be here!

I must confess, while being present during one of your author visits, I was absolutely amazed at your ability to fill the room with electric-fun! The kids were soooo excited to engage with you (and your character drawings). It was obvious to me that you love doing school visits!

You're right. I absolutely love doing school visits! 

Any advice for us kidlit creators who might be hesitant about doing school visits, or who are afraid of boring the kids to tears?

First, I'd say, don't view doing school visits as an obligation. View them as an unmatched opportunity of getting energized by kids! I recommend doing them even for authors who are just getting started. View your visit as a chance to just talk to kids about books, writer's block, or whatever else the kids want to talk about. If you're not ready for a whole gym-full, try talking to a single class or even a small book club. 

​What message do you try to get across to the kids while doing a visit?

I don't think educating is my purpose at all. My job is to energize everybody—to read, to write, to draw. The kids don't need to remember anything I said as long as they remember that I have a great time making stories and they can, too.

Since the Pandemic, have you missed doing in-person school visits? How have virtual visits worked out for you?
​
I do miss the in-school visits, but I don't miss the travel and hassles that can go with it. It can be absolutely exhausting, especially at schools with bad microphones. I do not miss the bad microphones! But I totally miss the direct connection with the kids.

Virtual visits have their technology problems, too. But now that EVERYBODY knows how to use Zoom, it's a lot different than the days when I might be the first Skype visit a school had ever had. Also, I can do so many more visits in one day! I think my record is twelve in one day! But six is a much better number. Meanwhile, four in-person visits in one day are too many.

Twelve Zoom visits in a single day? That’s incredible! What works for you when doing an in-school visit? What doesn't?

I don't think the hard sell works. Don't try to be a commercial for your book. Instead, be a champion of reading in general!

Something that works great is this: “I love to write books, but I also love to READ books. I'm looking for a new one to read, can anybody tell me about their favorite book?”
 
Using a white board, you can either make a list or make a mash-up drawing with characters from each book. I tell kids I'm going to take the list to the library so I know what to check out. They are SO excited to tell me what to read next. (And, of course, it's a lot of fun to pretend I've never heard of the books or that I've misunderstood the title.)

Tom, it’s been so fun having you here! Thank you so much for sharing some school-visit tips, and please, do tell your talented wife CeCe Bell I said “Hi!” and congrats on El Deafo becoming a cartoon series! 

It’s been my pleasure! And will do.

Tom Angleberger is an author-illustrator with more than thirty books to his name. His Origami Yoda series is so deliciously packed full of fun that kids have gobbled them up by the millions. (Thankfully, the books don’t reciprocate.) His pen of choice is the Pilot G2 gel roller, 1.0 for everyday doodling, and the .7 for illustrating Origami Yoda. Tom gets inspiration from Star Wars, Fumiaki Kawahata, Daniel Pinkwater, and his own social disasters. Tom’s superpowers include Asperger’s and making a room full of preteens roar with laughter during school visits. His latest books include titles in his Geronimo Stilton and DJ Funkyfoot graphic novel series and in his Didi Dodo, Future Spy chapter book series set in the Flytrap Files universe. HIs graphic novel Two-Headed Chicken will be released this year by Walker Books US. His latest kidlit news (and how to fold an origami Yoda) can be found at origamiyoda.com.

Welcome, Collen, to my blog! I'm so excited to introduce everyone to you, Kelly Dyksterhouse's newest Kidlit Raven!

Thanks, Dionna, for having me here. Being part of Raven Quill Literary is a dream come true!

It's a great welcoming place, for sure. So tell me, how did you find your way into becoming a kidlit author-illustrator?

I've always been an artist. I tried everything to share my art with the world, from making bags and purses, home décor, murals, etc. One day my husband was watching the news and they had a segment on Jan Brett. He said, "Hey, you should do that." Until that moment I didn't even think of a children's book illustrator as a job. About a month later, I received a mailing for classes at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where I would occasionally take classes. They were offering a Children's Book Illustration class and I thought it was so serendipitous. From the first class I was hooked. I have never tried to do anything with my art other than children's books since that moment in 2006/2007.

Serendipitous, indeed! What happened next?

As for the writing part, it naturally evolved after learning to tell a story visually. I started taking classes at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. They offer lots of classes about writing for children and now (silver lining to COVID) you can take them online! I joined a critique group online and then a local group formed from one of the Loft classes. We still meet once a week and Lindsey McDivitt and Cynthia Surissi are both members. Our critique group is amazing and so helpful, keeping me motivated to generate new material. 

Learning from and being supported by others is truly a part of the kidlit journey! 

Yes it is!

​(c) Colleen Muske, colleenmuske.com

​What do you love about producing work with children in mind?

I will try and not sound like a sap when I say this, but it is truly the best thing! Children are so imaginative and observant. They love to learn new things, as do I. It's such a challenge to write for children, you can't be lazy, they notice everything. I really love the thought of one of my books connecting with a child and making them feel something. I love trying to tell a story in 500 words (or less). It's so hard. Also, I've learned my stories have to have heart and a sense of hope, even for a tough subject, or they just won't work for young readers. 

How is being an illustrator of children's stories especially fun for you?
 
Whether I am illustrating my story or someone else's, adding a visual backstory for kids is a lot of fun. I have to push beyond where I am comfortable to keep up with their imaginations. I love finding details in a book where every time you read it you discover new things in the illustration, and I think kids love that too. 

I agree! So how did you and Kelly find each other, and why are you glad?

I've been working on Kelly for a while! Cynthia first suggested I submit to Kelly after I parted ways with my first agent. I was getting really nice rejections, but could never get over the getting-acquired road bump. I really needed an agent to find the right home for my stories. When Kelly mentioned she was looking for an author/illustrator, Cynthia reminded her I was both (Isn't Cynthia the best!!!). I feel so lucky to have a friend who is such a great cheerleader for my work. This time I sent Kelly a couple of dummy books and it worked! YAY!!! 

Congrats! Kelly is great!

To be honest, I'd been watching Kelly do her thing as an agent for years. Since she represents two people in my critique group, I saw her feedback and suggestions frequently. She always has such insightful, helpful things to say about a manuscript. I've been impressed with her for a long time! I knew I needed someone editorial, organized, and someone who could make a plan for my career. Kelly is all of those things and more. And she is sooooooo nice!

You're right about that! Well, thanks for stopping by. And do let us know when your work is finally acquired!

Will do, and thanks for having me!!