Middle Grade Ninja: Recent Episodes
Middle Grade Ninja
Rob Kent interviews fellow authors, editors, literary agents, and other publishing professionals to discuss the craft and business of producing middle grade and young adult novels. New episode every Saturday.
MiddleGradeNinja.com.
In the final(ish) episode of the Middle Grade Ninja podcast, Chrystal D. Giles and I discuss her practical, data-driven approach to writing fiction that led to her newest novel, NOT AN EASY WIN. It’s a great conversation to end on as we discuss all my favorite subjects, such as successful writing habits, the need for diversity of representation in fiction, how a career in finance improves a career as an author, the importance of not hiding the truth from young readers, the imminent disclosure of the reality of flying saucers, and so much more. Esteemed Audience, it’s been an honor and a privilege. Thank you so much for supporting the show. It’s enhanced my life and I hope you feel the same.
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Purchase ROB WORM'S BIRD ADVENTURE: https://amzn.to/3Jesu4U
Purchase GOODBYE TO GRANDMA: https://amzn.to/3Jk8v4A
Purchase BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Chrystal D. Giles is a champion for diversity and representation in children’s literature. Chrystal made her debut with Take Back the Block, which received multiple starred reviews, was a Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, and an NPR Best Book. Her next middle-grade novel, Not An Easy Win, which has already received multiple starred reviews will be published in February 2023. Chrystal lives outside Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband and son.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.chrystaldgiles.com/
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Tamar Rydzinski and I discuss her career in publishing, specifically her time at Sanford Greenburger Associates and the Laura Dail Literary Agency, where she became vice president and director of subrights, and now as the president and founder of Context Literary. We talk about the specifics of how she evaluates royalties from publishers, how she pitches those publishers, avoiding industry burnout, the types of projects she’s interested in, how she connects with protagonists, why books should model healthy relationships, how to make the mundane epic, and so much more.
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Purchase ROB WORM'S BIRD ADVENTURE: https://amzn.to/3Jesu4U
Purchase GOODBYE TO GRANDMA: https://amzn.to/3Jk8v4A
Purchase BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Tamar has always had a strong love for the written word. Her goal for her authors is to reach their audience wherever they are, and she is proud of helping them stay ahead of the curve. Tamar began her career at Sanford Greenburger Associates. She then joined Laura Dail Literary Agency, where she became vice president and director of subrights.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com
/https://www.contextlit.com/
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Yarrow and Carrie Cheney share the story of how they were best friends for a decade, lived together as roommates, worked as partners on multiple animation projects, and then decided to get married after their first date. We talk about their new novel, SUPERWORLD: SAVE NOAH, as well as their vast experience working on illumination studios films such as THE LORAX, THE GRINCH, DESPICABLE ME, and THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS.
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Purchase ROB WORM'S BIRD ADVENTURE: https://amzn.to/3Jesu4U
Purchase GOODBYE TO GRANDMA: https://amzn.to/3Jk8v4A
Purchase BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Yarrow and Carrie Cheney are a husband-and-wife creative team who met in 1992 when they shared an animation cubicle as freshmen at California Institute of the Arts. The two have been collaborating ever since. After years in the animation industry in Los Angeles, the Cheneys moved to Paris, where Yarrow served as production designer on films including Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2. He later co-directed The Secret Life of Pets before going on to direct The Grinch. The couple now spend their days on a hill in Ojai, California, hanging with superheroes and making each other laugh.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.yarrowcheney.com/
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Janine Le and I discuss her career in publishing from her first internship to her twelve years with the Sheldon Fogelman Agency to founding the Janine Le Agency. We talk about how she evaluates her slush pile, how she handles submissions and editorial feedback, how she evaluates potential clients, balancing darkness in children’s stories with joy, how authors can effectively market their books, traditional publication vs indie publishing, and so much more.
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GOODBYE TO GRANDMA: https://amzn.to/3Jk8v4APurchase
BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Janine Le is pleased to announce the launch of Janine Le Literary Agency, a full-service agency representing authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults. Janine brings to her new venture the classic training of over twelve years working closely with leading children's book agents, experience supporting the various career needs of children’s book luminaries and debut creators alike, and an entrepreneurial spirit to meet today's challenges.Janine was most recently Agent and Foreign Rights Manager at Sheldon Fogelman Agency, where she spent nearly twelve years negotiating contracts, bookkeeping, managing foreign rights, and otherwise supporting agency clients, while building her own client list. She was previously an intern in the children’s department at Sterling Lord Literistic and completed NYU's Summer Publishing Institute. Janine graduated summa cum laude from Bucknell University with honors in English (Creative Writing), where she interned with literary magazine West Branch. Janine enjoys the balance of creative-minded and business-minded work and loves pushing her clients to reach their projects’ potential in the developmental stages and advocating for them from submissions onward. Janine has served as faculty for events with The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and donated critiques for several charitable campaigns. She finds balance in life by adventuring with her husband, two young children, and new dog.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.janinele.com/
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Author Rob Kent reads from his new middle grade novel, GOODBYE TO GRANDMA. Purchase your copy here: https://amzn.to/3Jesu4U
About the book:
A part of her would always be with me. Always.
When 11-year-old Hailey Smith attends her grandma’s funeral, she can’t cry, no matter how hard she tries. And she tries everything.Hailey’s going to be a famous actress someday. Naturally, she gets the lead in the sixth-grade play. But she’s expected to cry in the third act.
On stage.
In front of everyone.
How can she cry for a play when she couldn’t cry at her grandma’s funeral?Goodbye to Grandma is the story of Hailey’s coming of age by coming to terms with the death of her grandmother.
Age Level: 9 and up Grade Level: 4th and up
www.MiddleGradenNinja.com
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Anthony Peckham and I discuss the differences between writing a screenplay and writing a novel, as well as the inspiration for and craft employed in his incredible debut, CHILDREN OF THE BLACK GLASS. We also talk about why making terrible things happen for your character is a form of love, working with such incredible people as James Patterson, Tobey Maguire, Matt Damon, Gary Oldman, and Bill Clinton, the advantages of not plotting, writing a character for a specific actor, a ghost story, and so much more.
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Purchase ROB WORM'S BIRD ADVENTURE: https://amzn.to/3Jesu4U
Purchase GOODBYE TO GRANDMA: https://amzn.to/3Jk8v4A
Purchase BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Anthony (Tony) Peckham is a South African–born screenwriter, surfer, and farmer who now lives on an island in the Pacific. Decades ago, while exploring a remote, high-altitude landscape with his children, he came upon a mountain made of black glass which inspired his debut novel. His other work includes Clint Eastwood’s Invictus and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. He is a Writers Guild of America Award winner and an NAACP Image Award nominee. Children of the Black Glass is his novel-writing debut.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
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David Ezra Sein and I discuss his career in picture books and now graphic novels, such as his newest, BEAKY BARNES: EGG ON THE LOOSE. We talk about adapting his INTERUPTING CHICKEN series as an Apple TV series, why I own three copies of POUCH, his childhood influences, why he walked away from a contract with Harper Collins while still in college, a UFO sighting, walking with an idea and getting to know it, puppetry, and so much more.
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Purchase ROB WORM'S BIRD ADVENTURE: https://amzn.to/3Jesu4U
Purchase GOODBYE TO GRANDMA: https://amzn.to/3Jk8v4A
Purchase BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
David Ezra Stein is the Caldecott-Honor illustrator and author of INTERRUPTING CHICKEN, DINOSAUR KISSES, I'M MY OWN DOG, and many other award-winning picture books, including LEAVES, winner of an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award. He lives in Kew Gardens, New York.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.davidezrastein.com/
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Author Rob Kent reads seven chapters from his new middle grade novel, ROB WORM'S BIRD ADVENTURE. Purchase your copy here: https://amzn.to/3Jesu4U
About the book:
With nonstop action, adventure, and humor, this thrilling tale will have 7- to 11-year-old readers wriggling on the edge of their tails!
After an early spring rain, Rob Worm’s bunch burrows to the surface to enjoy the mud. At 9-and-a-half months old (10 years in human time), Rob has been deep underground over half his life. He yearns for adventure and can’t wait to see the surface! Unfortunately, a robin can’t wait to see him.
When Rob pushes his best friend to safety, the robin scoops him up instead and carries him off to feed to her hatchling. Rob wriggles free but is dropped on the roof of a human house.
To get home to his bunch, Rob Worm is going to have to first get down, and then contend with a nest of nasty yellowjackets, fierce colonies of warring ants, a crafty spider, sizzling hot cement, and a pond filled with hungry koi, all while being pursued by a revenge-seeking robin.
www.MiddleGradenNnja.com
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Cindy Callaghan and I discuss her series, JUST ADD MAGIC, the ups and downs of publishing it, adapting it for an Amazon series, and its impact on readers around the world. We also talk about how being talented in multiple areas improves her fiction, why she plans her day the night before, what makes a good tween voice, six secrets to writing success, and so much more. As promised, here’s a link to the Muppet Show/Dirty Dancing mashup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9v6esjlZhA
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Purchase ROB WORM'S BIRD ADVENTURE: https://amzn.to/3Jesu4U
Purchase GOODBYE TO GRANDMA: https://amzn.to/3Jk8v4A
Purchase BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Cindy Callaghan is the author of the middle grade novels Lost in London, Lost in Paris, Lost in Rome, Lost in Ireland (formerly titled Lucky Me), Lost in Hollywood, the award-winning Sydney Mackenzie Knocks ’Em Dead, Just Add Magic (which is now a breakout streaming original series), and its sequel Potion Problems. She lives in Wilmington, Delaware.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://cindycallaghan.com/
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Melanie Figueroa and I discuss in depth how she built her career as an agent at ROOT LITERARY. We talk about what makes her agency different, how she uses query manager to review submissions, how she evaluates manuscripts, how she manages her time and avoids industry burnout, and how she reframes negative narrative. And she divulges information from the secret section of the Root Literary website, among other very interesting topics you won’t want to miss.
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Get your copy of BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Melanie Figueroa is a literary agent at Root Literary. She represents middle grade, YA, and adult fiction along with select nonfiction and picture book titles. What she loves most about the job is the balance of creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit. After graduating with a masters in writing and book publishing from Portland State University, she worked as an in-house editorial project manager and then as a freelance editor for several years before joining the agency in 2018. Melanie was born and raised in Southern California in a multicultural, blended family, so she has a soft spot for books that shine a spotlight on the nuances of relationships and identity. She currently lives in Southern California and can be found on Twitter and Instagram at @wellmelsbells.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.melaniefigueroa.com/
https://www.rootliterary.com/
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R. U. Ginns and I discuss his career in publishing writing for Sesame Street Magazine, 3-2-1 Contact, and The Electric Company, and his many pennames as well as his newest book, 1-2-3 SCREAM. We talk about why a giant eyeball is his preferred marketing prop, advice for a successful school visit, how, the hardest part of being a writer is staying in the chair, how Stephen King’s FIRESTARTER saved his life, the importance of interacting with readers and other authors, and so much more.
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Russell Ginns is a game designer, writer, and composer, primarily known for children's fiction, puzzles, and educational games. He is the author of more than 100 books, including Super Atomic Wombat Girl, Puzzlooies, 1-2-3 Scream! and the Samantha Spinner series. He has created or contributed to several notable software titles, including Castle Infinity, Hooked on Phonics, Reader Rabbit and Half-Life.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.123scream.com/
https://bigyellowtaxi.com/
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Lindsay Currie and I discuss all sorts of creepy, spooky, but middle-grade friendly things, such as her novels THE GIRL IN WHITE, SCRITCH SCRATCH, and IT FOUND US. We chat about her travels through various graveyards, the Alley of Death, and other horrific locations she loves to visit, as well as how to research the paranormal while setting safe personal boundaries. She relates how her religious upbringing primed her to be horror author (me too), how pantsing is a virtue in horror fiction, her struggle to write non-horror stories without being scary, her thoughts on the afterlife, and so much more.
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Buy IT FOUND US by Lindsay Currie: https://amzn.to/3YLVl6M
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Lindsay Currie is the author of spooky middle grade novels. While she's never experienced anything truly paranormal, Lindsay enjoys researching her city's forgotten history and learning about the events that shaped the many ghost legends in Chicago. When she's not reading or writing a mystery novel of her own, Lindsay can generally be found taking long walks with her family, chilling with one of her three dogs, or searching the graveyard for her next antagonist. Lindsay has three middle-grade novels out currently - THE PECULIAR INCIDENT ON SHADY STREET, SCRITCH SCRATCH, WHAT LIVES IN THE WOODS, and THE GIRL IN WHITE. Coming soon, IT FOUND US!
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.lindsaycurrie.com/
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Heather McGhee and I discuss adapting her monumental novel THE SUM OF US: HOW RACISM HURTS EVERYONE for younger readers (available February 21st). We talk about how everything we believe comes from a story we’re told, how she’s been able to find open-minded readers in a world of book banners, how she hopes young people will join with other people in their community who are different from them and take action to bring about meaningful change, how she once felt a ghost, and so much more.
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Buy THE SUM OF US (ADAPTED FOR YOUNG READERS): HOW RACISM HURTS EVERYONE by Heather McGhee: https://amzn.to/40FbAUU
Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Heather McGhee designs and advances policy solutions to inequality. The former president of the think tank Demos, McGhee drafted legislation, testified before Congress, and became a regular contributor on news shows including NBC’s Meet the Press. Now the chair of Color of Change, the nation's largest online racial justice organization, McGhee holds a BA in American Studies from Yale University and a JD from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, her twenty year-old cat and their chatty toddler.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://heathermcghee.com/
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Stephen Fraser and I discuss his lifelong love for middle grade fiction and why he rereads THE SECRET GARDEN every year. We talk about the current state of publishing, how he keeps abreast of the market, why he so frequently visits bookstores, why he moved from being an editor to being an agent, the importance of being authentic, how he can evaluate a writing sample in as little as one sentence, and so much more. This conversation was originally recorded May 5, 2022.
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Get your copy of BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Stephen Fraser joined The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency as an Agent in January 2005. He worked most recently at HarperCollins Children’s Books, where he edited such creative talents as Mary Engelbreit, Gregory Maguire, Michael Hague, Ann Rinaldi, Kathryn Lasky, Brent Hartinger, Stephen Mitchell, and Dan Gutman. He began his career at Highlights for Children and later worked at Scholastic and Simon and Schuster. A graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont, he has a Master’s degree in Children’s Literature from Simmons College in Boston. He represents both children’s and adult books in a wide range of genres.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.jdlit.com/
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James Ponti and I discuss how he travels and researches to create his CITY SPIES adventures, and the newest edition, CITY OF THE DEAD. He shares his journey from reluctant reader to an author, which involves a play about Santa being attacked by terrorists and the desire to impress a future spouse. He also shares the very personal story about how he transitioned from television production to writing novels to take care of his son and why he continues to write to honor his memory. We talk about why it’s essential to choose optimism, the importance of focusing on verbs, not nouns, and so much more.
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Buy CITY SPIES: CITY OF THE DEAD by James Ponti: https://amzn.to/3X0P45L
Buy BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
James Ponti is the New York Times Bestselling author of three Middle Grade book series: the all-new CITY SPIES, about an unlikely squad of five kids from around the world who form an elite MI6 Spy Team; The Edgar Award-winning FRAMED! series, about a pair of Sherlockian tweens who solve mysteries in Washington, D.C.; and the DEAD CITY trilogy, about a secret society that polices the undead living beneath Manhattan. He is also an Emmy-nominated television writer and producer who has worked for many networks including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, PBS, History Channel, Spike TV, and the Golf Channel. He lives with his family in Orlando, Florida.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.jamesponti.com/
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Nikki Terpilowski and I discuss how she founded Holloway Literary when she couldn’t find another agency to intern for and how she was able to make it profitable in two years because failure was not an option. We talk about her drive for success, the sorts of projects she’s looking for, why she represents what she loves rather than just what will sell, the importance of following submission directions and an appropriate word count, evaluating a business relationship with a potential agent, and so much more. This conversation was originally recorded April 26, 2022.
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Get your copy of BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
After achieving a B.A. in English and Marketing, with a minor in creative writing and a graduate degree in international relations, Nikki who has been a bookworm from way back decided she wanted to learn more about the publishing industry. She interned in the industry while working in marketing communications and then established Holloway Literary in 2011. You can find her @AWomanReading on Twitter and Instagram discussing her favorite topics: books, wine, beer & whiskey, history, travel and southern living.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://hollowayliterary.com/
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Sofia Lapuente and Jarrod Shusterman tell me about how they collaborate on a book like their newest, RETRO, while remaining a happy romantic couple as well as writing partners. We talk about how they break an idea, how they develop and choose it over other potential ideas, and how they utilize their different strengths to create art and a life they’re both happy with. We also talk about a the importance of communication, a possible ghost sighting, collaborating with author and previous guest Neal Shusterman, writing screenplays vs writing books, and so much more.
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Buy RETRO by Sofía Lapuente and Jarrod Shusterman: https://amzn.to/3kn1Yxe
Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Sofía Lapuente is an author, screenwriter, and avid world traveler who immigrated from Spain to the United States to realize her dream of storytelling. Since then, she has received a master’s degree in fine arts at UCLA, worked as a producer and casting director on an Emmy nominated show, and received coauthor credits in Gleanings, the fourth installment of the bestselling Arc of a Scythe trilogy, with her partner, Jarrod. Together, the couple writes and produces film and television under their production company Dos Lobos Entertainment.
Jarrod Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of novel Dry, which he is adapting for a major Hollywood film studio with Neal Shusterman. He is also the coauthor of the accoladed novel Roxy. His books have all received critical acclaim and multiple starred reviews. Sofi Lapuente and Jarrod are partners in every sense of the word, with love and multiculturalism as an ethos—living between Madrid, Spain, and Los Angeles, California. If they are not working, it means they’re eating. For behind-the-scenes author content and stupidly funny videos, follow them on Instagram and TikTok @SofiandJarrod.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.instagram.com/sofiandjarrod/
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Roseanne A. Brown and I talk about her newest book, SERWA BOATENG’S GUIDE TO VAMPIRE HUNTING, and her career thus far from being the youngest resident at the Jimenez-Porter Writers’ House program to becoming an editorial intern at Entangled Publishing to her current role as a bestselling author. We also have a frank discussion about race and publishing and what traditional publishing can do to improve its diversity, and an even franker discussion about Marvel vs DC and why Warner Brothers must release BATGIRL.
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Buy SERWA BOATENG’S GUIDE TO VAMPIRE HUNTING by Roseanne A Brown: https://amzn.to/3WUDObV
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Roseanne A. Brown is an immigrant from the West African nation of Ghana and a graduate of the University of Maryland, where she completed the Jimenez-Porter Writers’ House program. Her debut novel A Song of Wraiths and Ruin was an instant New York Times Bestseller, an Indie Bestseller, and received six starred reviews. She has worked with Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney among other publishers. You can visit her online at roseanneabrown.com or on Instagram or Twitter at @rosiesrambles. On the publishing side of things, she has worked as an editorial intern at Entangled Publishing. Rosie was a 2017 Pitch Wars mentee and 2018 Pitch Wars mentor. Rosie currently lives outside Washington D.C., where in her free time she can usually be found wandering the woods, making memes, or thinking about Star Wars. Rosie is represented by Quressa Robinson of Folio Literary Agency.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.roseanneabrown.com/
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It’s the fifth mega-sized Middle Grade Ninja clips show, featuring snippets from episodes 147 through 196 that aired in 2022. This episode is so stuffed with incredible content it had to be broken up into TWO PARTS Don't miss PART ONE. New episodes are scheduled to return January 14th. Until then, enjoy this compilation of clips from conversations with Zetta Elliott, Linda Epstein, Lakita Wilson, Mat Heagerty, Sam Own, Lucienne Diver, Andrew Nehring, Rachel Orr, Ally Malinenko, J. Elle, Greg van Eekhout, Patricia Nelson, Diane Magras, Meaghan Tosi, Stephanie Fretwell-Hill, Amy Christine Parker, Max Brallier, Fleur Bradley, Rose Brock, Dan Poblocki, Neal Shusterman, Jessica Craig, Kelly McWilliams, Linda Sasour, Kereen Getten, Anthony McGowen, and Susan Hawk.
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It’s the fifth mega-sized Middle Grade Ninja clips show, featuring snippets from episodes 147 through 196 that aired in 2022. This episode is so stuffed with incredible content it had to be broken up into TWO PARTS Don't miss PART TWO. New episodes are scheduled to return January 14th. Until then, enjoy this compilation of clips from conversations with Adama Bah, Salvador Gómez-Colón, Freshta Tori Jan, Tina Wells, Lane Heymont, Meera Trehan, Leslie Connor, Elana K. Arnold, Erika Lewis, Libby McNamee, Don Handfield, Joshua Malkin, Elly Swartz, Gregory Maguire, Ellen Whitfield, James Riley, Jodi Lynn Anderson, Mark Gottlieb, Maurice Broaddus, Jenna Yoon, Xiran Jay Zhao, Lindsay Eager, Kristin Ostby, Hilde Kate Lysiak, Aisha Saeed.
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Susan Hawk and I talk about her career in publishing from her job at a children’s bookstore at age 13 to being an editor, a librarian, a marketer, a library marketer, up to her current position with UPSTART CROW LITERARY AGENCY. We talk about the sorts of projects she’s interested in, how she evaluates authors and helps them to plan their careers, how she prepares manuscripts for editorial teams at publishing houses, BARRY, THE HANDMAID’S TALE, flying saucers, and so much more.
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Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Susan Hawk has worked in children’s books for over twenty-five years. Her clients include Rachael Allen, author of multiple YA novels, including A Taxonomy of Love and the forthcoming DC Icons title, Harley Quinn: Reckoning; J.M.M. Nuanez, author of the MG novel Birdie and Me; Paul Acampora, whose newest MG novel is the forthcoming In Honor of Broken Things; Sarah Lariviere, author of the YA novel Time Travel for Love and Profit; graphic novelist Rachel Elliott, author of the forthcoming The Real Riley Mayes; author-illustrator Denis Angelov, illustrator of The Big Scream; and Ruth Spiro, author of the Baby Loves Science board book series and the Made by Maxine series of picture books. Before agenting, Susan worked in the Children’s Marketing departments of Penguin Books for Young Readers, Henry Holt Books for Young Readers and North-South Books, where she managed campaigns for many books and authors including Eric Carle, Mary E Pearson, Richard Peck and Joan Bauer. She’s also been a children’s librarian and bookseller, and spent some time in Dutton Editorial, acquiring select picture book and YA projects for that list.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.upstartcrowliterary.com/
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Anthony McGowan and I discuss his writing process and how it was specifically employed in his newest, DOGS OF THE DEADLANDS, which he says is the hardest book he’s ever written. We also talk about his winding path from a once reluctant reader to a prolific writer, how he learned to write for younger readers, his time as a bouncer, a period when his spouse was a more successful author than he was, tips for characterization, the joy of writing as a hobby as opposed to a career, an author’s cricket club, and so much more.
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Buy DOGS OF THE DEADLANDS by Anthony McGowan: https://amzn.to/3ixh16I
Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Anthony McGowan is one of the most widely acclaimed young-adult authors in the UK. His books have won several major awards, and been shortlisted for many more. He has also written highly regarded adult fiction, as well as books for younger readers. He has a PhD on the history of beauty, and has taught philosophy and creative writing. He lives in London with his wife and two children.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
http://anthonymcgowan.com/
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Kereen Getten and I discuss her career in publishing and her new novel, IF YOU READ THIS. We talk about how she persevered despite the general discouragement of a lack of diversity in publishing as well as direct discouragement from a career counselor, how she met her agent online and then in person, how she deals with rejection and imposter syndrome, what it’s like to debut during a pandemic, how she plans and schedules her writing, why it’s important to sometimes take a day off, a disembodied voice that called to her, and so much more.
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Buy IF YOU READ THIS by Kereen Getten: https://amzn.to/3Fb6XsP
Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Kereen Getten grew up in Jamaica but now lives in Birmingham with her family. She has previously written short stories for multiple publications including Notts Review and Adhoc Fiction. She was nominated for Best Short Fiction 2018 and highly commended for the FAB prize. When not writing you can find her out in nature, planning her next travel adventure, or watching Netflix.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://kereengetten.com/
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One of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2017, Linda Sarsour, shares details about her life as featured in the middle grade edition of her autobiography, WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER. We talk about her work organizing the Woman’s March in 2017, the radicalizing moment that happened to her after the 911 attacks, why it’s crucial to get to know the people in your life even when you don’t agree with them, what gives her hope, and what fuels her to get up and fight, and fight, and fight. And I try to convince her to organize for UFO disclosure, so look forward to that.
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Buy WE'RE IN THIS TOGETHER by Linda Sarsour: https://amzn.to/3gwIULH
Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Linda Sarsour is an author, award-winning racial justice and civil rights activist, seasoned community organizer and mother of three. Ambitious, outspoken and independent, Linda shatters stereotypes of Muslim women while also treasuring her religious and ethnic heritage. She is a Palestinian Muslim American and a self-proclaimed “pure New Yorker, born and raised in Brooklyn!” She is the former Executive Director of the Arab American Association of New York and co-founder of the first Muslim online organizing platform, MPOWER Change. Linda has been at the forefront of major civil rights campaigns including calling for an end to unwarranted surveillance of New York’s Muslim communities and ending police policies like stop and frisk. In wake of the police murder of Mike Brown, she co-founded Muslims for Ferguson to build solidarity amongst American Muslim communities and encourage work against police brutality. She is a member of the Justice League NYC, a leading NYC force of activists, formerly incarcerated individuals, and artists working to reform the New York Police Department and the criminal justice system. Linda was the National Co-Chair of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, dubbed the largest single day protest in US history. She serves on the executive board of Women’s March, Inc. where she focuses on fundraising and direct action planning.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.lindasarsour.com/
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I tell Kelly McWilliams about a book I started to write before I discovered how very similar it is to her superior novel, AGNES AT THE END OF THE WORLD. We bond over our mutual fear of cults, including the cult of racism, and our love for Stephen King. We discuss her novel, MIRROR GIRLS, and our experiences in mixed-race families. We also talk about working with her mother, the novelist Jewell Parker Rhodes, publishing a debut novel at the age of 15, tips for structuring stories from dual perspectives, crafting empathetic villains, the dangers of religious thinking, how stories can be emotional mirrors, and so much more.
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Buy AGNES AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Kelly McWilliams: https://amzn.to/3EjRpBm
Download THE BOOK OF DAVID: CHAPTER ONE by Robert Kent for free: https://amzn.to/2X9LXOR
Or let me read it to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GOg7KXyJg8&t=5138s
Kelly is a mixed-race writer. AGNES AT THE END OF THE WORLD (2022) was a finalist for the Golden Kite Award, and MIRROR GIRLS (2022) is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. She’s written for TIME, Romper, and Bustle, among other outlets. Kelly lives in Seattle with her family.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.kellymcwilliamsauthor.com/
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Jessica Craig and I discuss her career in publishing from working as an international literary scout to becoming a literary agent to founding CRAIG LITERARY. We talk about the typical calendar in publishing and the best times to submit queries, addressing inequality and a lack of diversity, a paranormal experience, the importance of keeping your space, not getting tripped up by your doubts, and so much more.
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Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Jessica began her career in publishing more than twenty years ago in New York soon after graduating from Columbia. In 2005 she moved to Edinburgh to work at world-renowned independent publisher, Canongate Books, and later was a founding agent of United Agents in London. In 2016 she struck out on her own and founded Craig Literary in Barcelona. Craig Literary, founded by Jessica Craig in 2016, is a full-service literary agency representing diverse writers of fiction, non-fiction, and children's books. The agency grows out of Jessica Craig's 20+ years of experience as a top foreign rights agent and on her record as an effective international champion of high quality authors, from established names to outstanding debuts, and across genres in fiction and non-fiction.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.craigliterary.com/
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Neal Shusterman and I discuss eternal life, the singularity, and the meaning of death as portrayed in his series, THE ARC OF A SCYTHE, as well as the newest book, GLEANINGS. We talk about how Neal was first inspired by a teacher, why he studied theater and psychology rather than just focusing on writing, the significance of having an international experience early in life, his writing and plotting process, his work habits, how he employs sensitivity readers, the GAME CHANGER television series for Netflix, collaborating with his son, Jarrod Shusterman, the afterlife, and so much more.
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Buy GLEANINGS STORIES FROM THE ARC OF A SCYTHE by Neal Shusterman: https://amzn.to/3UhORdm
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Neal Shusterman is the New York Times best-selling author of over thirty novels for children, teens, and adults. He won the 2015 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for Challenger Deep-and his novel, Scythe, was a 2017 Michael L. Printz Honor book-and is in development with Universal Studios as a feature film. His novel, Unwind, has become part of the literary canon in many school districts across the country-and has won more than thirty domestic and international awards. He co-wrote his most recent novel, Dry, with his son Jarrod, and in addition to being on numerous award lists, Dry is currently in development with Paramount Pictures. His upcoming novel, Game Changer, is in development with Netflix as a TV series, and he is co-writing the pilot episode. Shusterman has also received awards from organizations such as the International Reading Association, and the American Library Association, and has garnered a myriad of state and local awards across the country. His talents range from film directing, to writing music and stage plays, and has even tried his hand at creating games. Shusterman has earned a reputation as a storyteller and dynamic speaker. As a speaker, he is in constant demand at schools and conferences. Degrees in both psychology and drama give him a unique approach to writing, and his novels always deal with topics that appeal to adults as well as teens, weaving true-to-life characters into sensitive and riveting issues, and binding it all together with a unique and entertaining sense of humor. Neal lives in Jacksonville, Florida, but spends much of his time travelling the world speaking, and signing books for readers.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
http://www.storyman.com/
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Happy Halloween, Esteemed Audience! Dan Poblocki and I discuss the importance of writing horror novels for children such as his newest, TALES TO KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT. We also talk about the craft of writing horror for younger readers and the fear some adults have of allowing children to think independently. Also, the subject of Dan having lived in multiple haunted houses while writing scary books comes up, so maybe listen to this conversation with the lights on.
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Buy TALES TO KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT by Dan Poblocki: https://amzn.to/3WddF8q
Buy ALL TOGETHER NOW: A ZOMBIE STORY by Robert Kent: https://amzn.to/2JjsnpH
Dan Poblocki is an American author of mystery, horror, and adventure novels for young people. He is the co-author with Neil Patrick Harris of the #1 New York Times bestselling series The Magic Misfits (writing under the pen-name Alec Azam). He's also the author of The Stone Child, The Nightmarys, and the Mysterious Four series and many more. His books, The Ghost of Graylock and The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe, were Junior Library Guild selections and made the American Library Association’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list. His work has been translated into French, Greek, Russian, German, Polish, and Farsi. Dan was born in Providence, Rhode Island. During his pre-teen years, his family moved to Basking Ridge, New Jersey, where he often looked for adventure with his best friends. Later, he graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in theater. Subsequently, he toured the United States playing ultra-challenging roles such as Ichabod Crane in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the Shoemaker in The Shoemaker and the Elves to packed houses filled with literally thousands of screaming children. (He hopes they weren’t screaming in fear.) After that, he spent many hours as a traveling bathing-suit salesperson, an audience wrangler for a popular TV game show, a temp secretary, a floral assistant, and finally, a clinical admin and systems analyst at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. (EXCITING.) All the while, he was writing stories in his spare time (MORE EXCITING), often late into the night, and then early in the mornings, before the sun came up. Dan now writes full time in Saugerties, NY where he lives with two scaredy cats in a creaky old house. He's probably working on something new this very minute!
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
http://www.danpoblocki.com/
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Rose Brock and I discuss her anthologies HOPE NATION and HOPE WINS and all the work and care that went into creating them. We talk about her own journey from a reluctant reader to a librarian to an educator and editor who works with some of the biggest names in publishing and is the cofounder of the North Texas Teen Book Festival.
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Buy HOPE WINS: https://amzn.to/3Sj22cL
Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Rose Brock, Ph.D, is a veteran educator and specialist in literature for young people who spent twenty years as a public school educator working as a language arts teacher and a school librarian. She now works as an associate professor in the Department of Library Science and Technology at Sam Houston State University. As a classroom teacher, Rose was selected by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a Mandel fellow, and as a school librarian, she was awarded the Siddie Joe Johnson Award for Outstanding Service to Youth by the Texas Library Association. She is the author of the textbook, Young Adult Literature in Action: A Librarian's Guide and editor of the middle grade anthology, Hope Wins: Inspiring Stories for Young Readers (available May 2022) and the young adult anthology, Hope Nation: Young Adult Authors Share Personal Moments of Inspiration. Hope Nation was selected for the Texas Library Association’s 2019 Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List, as well as received the following nods designations: a New York Times New and Noteworthy, 2018 Best YA Audiobook of the Year (Audiofile Magazine), the Earphones Award by the Audio Publisher’s Association, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and starred reviews from Booklist and VOYA magazine. Rose is also the cofounder of the ALA award winning North Texas Teen Book Festival, described by the Dallas Morning News as “the region's largest book-related event”. In addition to her work on NTTBF, Rose has been a tireless and advocate for using audiobooks as tools for literacy and is cofounder of the national literacy initiative Guys Listen, a part of the Guys Read literacy national program. Rose’s next professional publication, Sound Advice: An Audiobook Selection Handbook for Library Collections will be available in 2023.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.drrosebrock.com/
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Fleur Bradley and I chat about writing mysteries for younger readers, like her newest novels DAYBREAK ON RAVEN ISLAND and MIDNIGHT AT THE BARCLAY HOTEL. We have a frank discussion about burnout and bitterness for authors in traditional publishing. We also discuss specific strategies for reaching reluctant readers, marketing yourself as an author over time, marketing your books for people who won’t read them, Alfred Hitchcock, Agatha Christie, writing for children in the information age, and so much more.
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Buy DAYBREAK ON RAVEN ISLAND by Fleur Bradley: https://amzn.to/3EKoQPE
Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Fleur Bradley is the author of the forthcoming middle-grade mystery DAYBREAK ON RAVEN ISLAND (Viking Children’s Books, Summer 2022), MIDNIGHT AT THE BARCLAY HOTEL, the middle-grade trilogy Double Vision (as F.T. Bradley), as well as the story “The Perfect Alibi” in the Mystery Writers of America’s middle-grade anthology SUPER MYSTERIOUS PUZZLERS, edited by Chris Grabenstein. She regularly does school and Skype visits, as well as librarian and educator conference talks on reaching reluctant readers and is an active member of SCBWI and MWA where she has judged for the Edgars. Originally from the Netherlands, she now lives in Colorado Springs with her husband and two daughters, and entirely too many cats.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
http://www.ftbradley.com/
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Max Brallier and I discuss the phenomenon of his series THE LAST KIDS ON EARTH, which has spawned a show on Netflix, video games, action figures, and more. We chat about the inherent darkness of a zombie apocalypse and how to navigate it in a fun story intended for younger readers as well as why it’s necessary to plan for an ending. We also talk about how Max reviewed movies for the local paper as a kid, how working in marketing for St. Martin’s Press set him up for success, moral dilemmas in videogames, CHARLIE SHEEN: VATICAN ASSASSIN WARLOCK, and so much more.
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Buy THE LAST KIDS ON EARTH by Max Brallier: https://amzn.to/3CEN9Nl
Buy ALL TOGETHER NOW: A ZOMBIE STORY by Robert Kent: https://amzn.to/2JjsnpH
Max Brallier is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty books and games, including the middle-grade series The Last Kids on Earth. Under the pen name Jack Chabert, Max is the creator and author of the Eerie Elementary series for Scholastic Books and author of the New York Times bestselling graphic novel Poptropica: Mystery of the Map. He is the creator and writer of Galactic Hot Dogs, a goofy middle-grade adventure series, and has written books for properties including LEGO, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Steven Universe, and Uncle Grandpa. Max has written for adults, including the pick-your-own-path series Can YOU Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? and an entry in the zombie anthology Nights of the Living Dead. In the olden days, Max was a game designer for the virtual world Poptropica and worked in marketing at St. Martin's Press. Max lives in New York with his wife, Alyse, and baby daughter Lila (who is a real cutie-pants).
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
http://www.maxbrallier.com/
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Amy Christine Parker and I talk about the Sunday school lessons that terrified and shaped us to write horror stories such as her newest young adult novel, FLIGHT 171. Of course, Amy did live in a haunted house when she was in the third grade, so that might also have had something to do with it. We discuss how she went from a stay-at-home parent to a professional writer in two years per an agreement with her husband, how she met her agent in a writers critique group, how she outlines her novels in such a way as to create a near first draft, how she stays fit while writing, how she watches out for serial killers, and so much more.
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Buy FLIGHT 171 by Amy Christine Parker: https://amzn.to/3SPGwgb
Buy ALL TOGETHER NOW: A ZOMBIE STORY by Robert Kent: https://amzn.to/2JjsnpH
Amy Christine Parker earned her degree in elementary education at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, and then proceeded to try out many different jobs, including collectible doll maker, fondue waitress, and inner-city schoolteacher. It wasn’t until she became a mom and began making up bedtime stories for her children that she finally realized what she was meant to do. Now Amy writes full-time from her home near Tampa, Florida, where she lives with her husband, their two daughters, and one ridiculously fat cat.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.amychristineparker.com/
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Stephanie Fretwell-Hill and I discuss her career in publishing from working in foreign rights with Walker Books to becoming an editor with Peachtree Publishers up to her current role as a literary agent with Red Fox Literary. We talk about making a living as an agent solely on commissions, submission follow-up practices for her with editors and for querying writers, the importance of industry relationships, the importance of maintaining an attitude of gratitude, the difference in editorial feedback from an editor vs an agent, increasing diversity in traditional publishing, and so much more.
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Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
STEPHANIE FRETWELL-HILL started her publishing career in 2004 at Walker Books Ltd. in London, where she sold foreign language rights. Working in a design-led company with legendary artists such as Helen Oxenbury and Lucy Cousins sparked her love of illustration, while her sales role gave her an international perspective on children’s publishing. In 2011, Stephanie moved back home to Atlanta, where she spent four years at Peachtree Publishers as an editor. During her four years there, her acquisitions received such honors as YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year, Parents’ Choice Awards, and starred reviews from major trade magazines. Stephanie joined Red Fox Literary in 2016. She represents authors and illustrators of literary fiction and narrative nonfiction picture books, middle grade, and young adult. Her clients include two-time Newbery Honoree Christina Soontornvat, Beth Anderson, Carolyn Crimi, R. W. Alley, and Archana Sreenivasan. The books she represents have won numerous awards, including Newbery Honor, Sibert Honor, the Jane Addams Book Award, the Youth Book Prize for Social Justice, YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, and many, many starred reviews. Stephanie’s tastes are eclectic, but across all genres, she looks for compelling, diverse voices and strong hooks combined with literary merit and classroom value. Most of all, she loves stories and art with the perfect mix of humor and heart. Stephanie lives in Asheville, NC with her English husband, two feisty little girls, a border collie, and 4…3…6 chickens. When she isn’t working, she can often be found hiking, sewing, playing the ukulele, or hanging out at the playground.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://redfoxliterary.com/
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Meaghan Tosi and I discuss her career as an artist from stop motion filmmaker to illustrator to graphic novelist. We talk about her new books, DWEEDY and SQUASHED, and how she first stared in a movie version of the latter. She shares details about her artist workdays, her creation process, collaborating with her father, self-publishing experiences, freelance services, ghost sightings, and so much more.
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Buy SQUASHED by Meaghan Tosi: https://amzn.to/3DyFWPJ
Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Meaghan Tosi was born and raised in New Hampshire and earned a BFA from Laguna College of Art & Design. They illustrated the middle-grade novel "Six Thousand Doughnuts" alongside author Thomas Tosi, and created the graphic novels "Dweedy: The Imagined Adventures of My Deceased Cat" and "Squashed". They are currently continuing "Dweedy" as a graphic novel series and are illustrating the next book with Thomas Tosi, "The Curse of the Crummy Mummy". They now lives with their partner Daniel and many plants in Portland, Oregon, for the art scene, extraordinary hikes, and many neighborhood cats.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.dooneypress.com/
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Diane Magras and I discuss fantasy worldbuilding, monsters, and horror in her newest middle grade novel, SECRET OF THE SHADOW BEASTS. We talk about author day jobs, why it’s important to get in the habit of finishing your story (even if it’s bad), her writing process, the power of constructive criticism and how she learned to open herself to it, Stephen King, Kurt Vonnegut, what it’s like to be an author married to a book critic, and so much more.
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Buy SECRET OF THE SHADOW BEASTS by Diane Magras: https://amzn.to/3Bcs3UK
Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Diane Magras, award-winning author of the New York Times Editors’ Choice The Mad Wolf’s Daughter, its companion novel, The Hunt for the Mad Wolf’s Daughter, and the upcoming Secret of the Shadow Beasts, grew up on Mount Desert Island in Maine, surrounded by woods, cliffs, and the sea. An unabashed fan of libraries (where she wrote her first novel as a teenager), history (especially from cultures or people who’ve rarely had their story told), and the perfect cup of tea, Diane lives in Maine with her husband and son and uses the pronouns she/her.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.dianemagras.com/
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Patricia Nelson and I discuss how she got her start in publishing and joined the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency as well as why it takes an average of around five years to make a living as a literary agent. We do a deep dive on the questions she asks through Query Manager, how she evaluates the answers, submission red flags, the future of publishing after so much recent disruption, the importance of not being an agent’s “first pancake,” and so much more.
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Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Patricia Nelson joined Marsal Lyon Literary Agency in 2014. She represents adult, young adult, and middle grade fiction, and is actively looking to add to her list. She is always especially interested in seeing novels by BIPOC, queer, and disabled authors in all genres that she represents. In general, Patricia looks for stories that hook her with a unique plot, fantastic writing and complex characters that jump off the page. On the children’s side, Patricia is open to a wide range of genres of YA and MG, with particular interest in contemporary/realistic, magical realism, mystery, science fiction and fantasy. On the adult side, she is seeking women’s fiction both upmarket and commercial, historical fiction set in the 20th century, and sexy, smart adult contemporary and historical single title romance. Patricia’s clients include NYT bestselling author Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan), National Book Award finalist and Printz Honor award winner Candice Iloh (Every Body Looking, Dutton Children’s/Penguin Random House), Printz Honor award winner Mary McCoy (Indestructible Object, Simon and Schuster Children’s), Dahlia Adler (Cool for the Summer, Wednesday Books/Macmillan), Anna Meriano (This Is How We Fly, Philomel/Penguin Random House), Alexandra Leigh Young (Idol Gossip, Walker US/Candlewick), Hayley Chewins (The Turnaway Girls, Candlewick), Margaret Dilloway (Summer of a Thousand Pies, Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins), Kristi Wientge (Honeybees and Frenemies, Simon and Schuster Children’s), Sandy Stark-McGinnis (Extraordinary Birds, Bloomsbury Children’s), bestselling women’s fiction author Loretta Nyhan (Digging In, Lake Union Publishing), bestselling romance authors Kate Bateman and Charis Michaels, and forthcoming debut authors Jen Ferguson (The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, Heartdrum/HarperCollins), Claire Forrest (Where You See Yourself, Scholastic), Juliana Goodman (The Black Girls Left Standing, Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan), Edward Underhill (Always the Almost, Wednesday Books/Macmillan), and Kirya Traber (Dutton Children’s/Penguin Random House), among others. Patricia holds a master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Southern California and a master’s degree in Gender Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to becoming an agent, she spent four years teaching literature and writing at the college level.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.prospectagency.com/
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Greg Van Eekhout and I discuss climate change, Norse mythology, and the awesomeness of dogs, all of which are on display in his newest novel, FENRIS AND MOTT. We talk about the psychology of writers, how he found the confidence to know he’ll adapt as a writer, helpful activism in the face of book bans (beyond Twitter), Whovian philosophy, writing from outlines designed for contracts, Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster, murder hornets, and more.
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Buy FENRIS AND MOTT by Greg van Eekhout: https://amzn.to/3CCIETQ
Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
Greg van Eekhout was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, in neighborhoods with hippies, criminals, working people, and movie studios. His parents were Dutch-Indonesian. Like many writers (and many people who aren’t writers, for that matter), Greg has done a number of things to put food on the table and keep a roof over his head. He has worked as an ice cream scooper (or dipper, as people who sell ice cream are sometimes called), a political fundraiser (or telemarketer), a comic book store clerk, a bookseller, a bookstore assistant manager, an educational multimedia developer, and a college teacher (of English and of multimedia development). Among other things. His next book, Fenris and Mott, comes out August, 2022. Greg has lived his entire life in the Western half of the United States. He prefers beaches to deserts. He currently lives in San Diego.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.writingandsnacks.com/
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J. Elle and I discuss her young adult fantasy novel, WINGS OF EBONY, and her new middle grade novel, A TASTE OF MAGIC. We talk about planning a series, worldbuilding, magic systems, tips for faster drafting, her time working as an intern for a literary agency, Twitter opportunities for writers, that time she wrote a book in nine days, and so much more.
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Buy A TASTE OF MAGIC by J. Elle: https://amzn.to/3QVDV3n
Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
J. Elle is a prolific Black author and advocate for marginalized voices in both publishing and her community. Her debut novel, Wings of Ebony, is book one in a YA fantasy duology about a Black girl from a poor neighborhood who learns she’s magical. Wings of Ebony is a lead title with Simon & Schuster, out February 23, 2021. Six months later Elle also sold rights, at auction, to Park Row Magic Academy, an MG contemporary magic school series about a Black girl who learns she’s a witch and fights to save her inner-city magic school with baking. A Taste of Magic is also a lead title on Bloomsbury’s 2022 list. From growing up poor to being a first-generation college student, Jess’s tenacity and passion for empowering others date back to her first career in education, teaching tweens and teens from traditionally underserved areas to fight for their dreams. More recently, as the founder of the Your Story Is Your Power, a creative writing workshop, she mentors high schoolers on the craft of writing and the importance of sharing stories from their perspective. Elle has a MA in Educational Administration and has worked as an Editorial Intern at P.S. Literary Agency and Gelfman / ICM Partners. She’s also served as a mentor for both Pitchwars and Author Mentor Match. Elle is the founder and co-host of #MondayMixer, a Twitter chat to engage writers on the platform. In her spare time, you’ll find her cooking up some dish true to her Texas and Louisiana roots, loving on her three littles, and traveling the country with her nomadic spouse.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.authorjelle.com/
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Ally Malinenko and I discuss glorious middle grade horror such as her novels GHOST GIRL and THIS APPEARING HOUSE and why it’s important for children to have access to scary stuff. We talk about the trauma of surviving cancer and living life (and writing) with NED, or “No Evidence of Disease.” We also chat about Ally’s tumultuous publishing journey, flying saucers, the after life or lack there of (naturally), and so much more.
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Ally Malinenko is a poet, novelist, and librarian living in Brooklyn, New York, where she pens her tales in a secret writing closet before dawn each day. Connect with Ally on her website at https://allymalinenko.com/ .
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
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Rachel Orr and I chat about her career in publishing from her time as a bookseller with Barnes and Noble, her time as an editor with Harper Collins, and her current role as a literary agent with Prospect Agency. We talk about her love of reading, writing, and agenting, all of which she frequently does while cooking. We also discuss the types of projects she’s looking to represent, some advice on how to answer Query Manager questions, the author/agent relationship, increasing diversity in traditional publishing, a ghostly ladder, and so much more.
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Rachel Orr represents both authors and illustrators on a wide range of projects—from picture books to YA, both fiction and non-fiction. She joined Prospect Agency in 2007, after eight years working for HarperCollins Children’s Books, and brings her editorial experience to her clients’ work. Rachel enjoys cooking Chinese food, watching “Homeland”, and taking public transportation. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two young children. You can follow her on Twitter @rachelprospect.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.prospectagency.com/
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Andrew Nehring and I discuss how he learned to improve as a reader and a writer with the aid of an inspiring teacher who helped him manage his dyslexia. And we chat about the publication of his multiple novels, including his newest, DAVID MASSIE AND THE HIDDEN UNDERWORLD. We talk about Skyrim and Elden Ring and also books, as well as tips for plotting around your antagonist, planning and writing a long series, working with Books Forward for publicity, my George R.R. Martin conspiracy theory, ghost stories, and so much more.
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Andrew M. Nehring is the author of the Corrupted Light Chronicles and David Massie. Growing up he was always a very imaginative child who would tend to get lost in these worlds he created for himself. That passion for creativity never stopped, but grew as he got older. The idea for the Corrupted Light Chronicles was born out of world he created in his head, as well as the development of the world around him. Andrew has finished his business degree from Northeastern University in the beautiful Windy City. When he is not writing, you will catch him in the ceramic’s studio, working out, or playing video games. He is now writing full time once he has finished and move on into other facets of the entertainment industry.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.andrewmnehring.com/
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Lucienne Diver and I talk about how she separates the writer part of herself from the part that’s a literary agent and why it’s important to do so. We discuss her novel, DISAPPEARED, the current state of publishing and how she’s sustained a successful career in it, what compels her to suspense fiction, ways of appreciating other writers without getting intimidated, the Knight literary agency, a haunted experience, the Salem witch trials, and so much more.
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Lucienne Diver joined TKA in 2008, after spending fifteen years at New York City’s prestigious Spectrum Literary Agency. With her sharp eye and gift for spotting original new voices, Lucienne is one of the most well-respected agents in the industry. A lifelong book addict, she graduated summa cum laude from the State University of New York at Potsdam with dual majors in English/writing and anthropology. She thus came well-equipped for her work as an agent. Over the course of her dynamic career she has sold over seven hundred titles to every major publisher, and has built a client list of more than forty authors spanning the commercial fiction genres, primarily in the areas of fantasy, science fiction, romance, romantica, suspense and young adult. Her authors have been honored with the RITA, National Readers’ Choice, Hugo, and Romantic Times Reader’s Choice Awards, and have appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. A publishing veteran, Lucienne has superb industry knowledge, numerous editor relationships, and a keen understanding of the foreign rights market. She is a member of the Association of Authors Representatives, RWA, MWA and SFWA. Lucienne Diver is the author of the Vamped young adult series—think Clueless meets Buffy—and the Latter-Day Olympians urban fantasy series, which Long and Short Reviews calls “a clever mix of Janet Evanovich and Rick Riordan”. Her favorite pull quote ever! Her short stories have appeared in the KICKING IT anthology edited by Faith Hunter and Kalayna Price (Roc Books), the STRIP-MAULED and FANGS FOR THE MAMMARIES anthologies edited by Esther Friesner (Baen Books), and Faith Hunter’s Rogue Mage anthology, TRIBULATIONS (Lore Seekers Press). Her essay “Abuse” was published in DEAR BULLY: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories (HarperCollins). Bella Rosa Books released her first two young adult suspense novels, FAULTLINES and THE COUNTDOWN CLUB, and she’s looking forward to the 2020 release from WordFire Press of her latest YA suspense, DISAPPEARED, wherein two teens struggle with the story their father tells about their mother’s disappearance versus their fears and mounting evidence. On a personal note, Lucienne lives in Florida with her husband and daughter, the two cutest dogs in the world, and enough books to some day collapse the second floor of her home into the first. She likes living dangerously.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
http://www.luciennediver.com/
https://knightagency.net/
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Mat Heagerty, Sam Owen, and I discuss the process for their collaboration on their new graphic novel, LUMBERJACKULA. We talk about scripting and paneling, how they make creative suggestions for revision without overstepping, and how publishing with a larger traditional publisher differs from a small, independent press. We also discuss how they got their start in comics, how to encourage children without pressuring them, some favorite graphic novels, a haunted storeroom, Garfield as a Dune character, and so much more.
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Mat Heagerty is a comic book writer, rad dad, and all around chipper dude living in Boise, ID. Mat’s dyslexic, and struggled a bunch in school, but now he writes rad comics like 'Lumberjackula' (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers), ‘Martian Ghost Centaur' (Oni Press ), ‘Unplugged and Unpopular' (Oni Press) and the forthcoming graphic novels... 'Jaywalker' (Oni Press 2022), and 'Indoor Kid' (Oni Press 2023). Sam Owen is a freelance comic artist and character designer with a focus on making fantasy and science-fiction art geared towards young adults and kids. He’s also the artist for Lumberjackula, a middle-grade graphic novel coming July 2022 from Simon Kids.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
http://www.matheagerty.com/
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Lakita Wilson and I discuss how winning the 2017 SCBWI Emerging Voices Award and running a popular Instagram page set her on a path for publishing success as well as the launch of her newest novel, BE REAL, MACY WEAVER. We mock James Patterson and talk about the current state of diversity in traditional publishing. She reveals her experiences with Root Literary, how teaching inspires her writing, how to write about racism in historical fiction for young readers that might just aid them in thinking critically, why that’s a good and necessary thing, her lifelong fear of dead celebrities, and so much more.
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Lakita Wilson is the author of several novels and non-fiction projects for children and young adults, including What Is Black Lives Matter?, a part of the New York Times Bestselling HQ Now series; Be Real, Macy Weaver, a coming of age middle grade friendship story; and a few other secret projects she isn’t allowed to tell you about yet. Lakita was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Prince George’s County, Maryland. A 2017 recipient of SCBWI’s Emerging Voices Award, Lakita received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is currently on faculty at Prince George’s Community College in the Education Department. Lakita lives in Prince George’s County, Maryland with her two children and Shih-Tzu.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://lakitawilson.com/
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Linda Epstein and I talk about her lifelong desire to be a writer and her journey from being a nurse to an unpaid intern for two years before becoming a literary agent and at long last arriving at the publication of her debut novel, REPAIRING THE WORLD. We also discuss the Emerald City Literary Agency, what a film and television rights agent does, how a literary agent seeks a literary agent, learning and teaching creative writing while being a literary agent, book promotion and launch strategies, grieving, empathy, self-publishing, and so much more.
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Linda Epstein lives in upstate New York. She writes fiction for children, teens, and adults, and poetry for adults. Linda has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from The New School and is also a literary agent at Emerald City Literary Agency. Her debut middle grade novel, Repairing the World (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster), will be on bookshelves in the summer of 2022. Find Linda online at lindaepsteinauthor.com, on Twitter @LindaEpstein and @lindaepsteinauthor on Instagram.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://lindaepsteinauthor.com/
https://emeraldcityliterary.com/
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Zetta Ellicott and I chat about her bestselling middle grade series, DRAGONS IN A BAG, and lessons learned writing more than 40 books for children (so far). We talk about how she envisions her success with a vision board and how she trains in puppetry, film, and other art forms to ensure she’s using all the parts of her brain. We discuss the importance of mirror books, how she learned to decentralize whiteness and decolonize her imagination, how she uses rage as fuel while remaining hopeful, why she’s going to Virginia where a book of hers has been banned, a mysterious ghost in a top hat, a possible flying saucer sighting, and so much more.
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Zetta Elliott is a Black feminist writer of poetry, plays, essays, novels, and stories for children. She was born and raised in Canada, but has lived in the US for over 25 years. She earned her PhD in American Studies from NYU in 2003; she has taught at Ohio University, Louisiana State University, Mount Holyoke College, Hunter College, Bard High School Early College, and Borough of Manhattan Community College. Her poetry has been published in New Daughters of Africa, We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, the Cave Canem anthology The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, Check the Rhyme: an Anthology of Female Poets and Emcees, and Coloring Book: an Eclectic Anthology of Fiction and Poetry by Multicultural Writers. Her novella, Plastique, was excerpted in T Dot Griots: an Anthology of Toronto’s Black Storytellers, and her plays have been staged in New York, Cleveland, and Chicago. Her essays have appeared in School Library Journal, The Huffington Post, and Publishers Weekly. Her picture book, Bird, won the Honor Award in Lee & Low Books’ New Voices Contest and the Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers. Her young adult novel, A Wish After Midnight, has been called “a revelation…vivid, violent and impressive history.” Ship of Souls was published in February 2012; it was named a Booklist Top Ten Sci-fi/Fantasy Title for Youth and was a finalist for the Phillis Wheatley Book Award. Her YA novel, The Door at the Crossroads, was a finalist in the Speculative Fiction category of the 2017 Cybils Awards, and her picture book, Melena’s Jubilee, won a 2017 Skipping Stones Honor Award. She received the Children’s Literature Association’s Article Award for her 2014 essay, “The Trouble with Magic: Conjuring the Past in New York City Parks.” She is an advocate for greater diversity and equity in publishing, and has self-published numerous illustrated books for younger readers under her own imprint, Rosetta Press; 3 were named Best of the Year by the Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature, and Benny Doesn’t Like to Be Hugged was a first-grade fiction selection for the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Dragons in a Bag, a middle grade fantasy novel, was published by Random House in 2018; the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) named it a Notable Children’s Book. Its sequel, The Dragon Thief, was named a Best Middle Grade Book of 2019 by CBC Books. Say Her Name, a young adult poetry collection, was published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in January 2020; A Place Inside of Me was published in July 2020 by FSG and was named a Notable Poetry Book by NCTE. She currently lives in Evanston, IL.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.zettaelliott.com/
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Aisha Saeed and I discuss her career and her newest middle grade novel OMAR RISING, a companion novel to AMAL UNBOUND. We chat about the difficulty she had submitting to traditional publishers and how that led her to seek out other diverse authors and the founding of WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS, which is a movement that gives us hope even when the world seems disparaging at times. We also talk about the pressure of writing about Wonder Woman in DIANA AND THE ISLAND OF NO RETURN, advocating for children in education and as a writer, Unsolved Mysteries, flying saucers, and so much more.
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Aisha Saeed is an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of books for children. Her books, including the middle grade novel Amal Unbound (Penguin), the young adult novel Yes No Maybe So (co-written with Becky Albertalli), and the anthology Once Upon Eid (co-edited with S.K. Ali) received multiple starred reviews. Amal Unbound was selected as a Global Read Aloud for 2018 and was the winner of the South Asian book award. Her picture book, Bilal Cooks Daal (Simon and Schuster) received an APALA honor. Aisha is also a founding member of the nonprofit We Need Diverse Books™. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her family. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram via @aishacs.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://aishasaeed.com/
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Hilde Lysiak and I chat about her new memoir, HILDE ON THE RECORD. As she’s just now 15 years old, presumably it’s the first of many, though she’s already led a very interesting life that’s the subject of the Apple TV series, HOME BEFORE DARK. We talk about how Hilde started her first newspaper at age 7, investigated a local murder at age 9, signed a deal for a 4-book series at age 10, won the Zenger Award for Press Freedom at age 12, and became the youngest person in U.S. history to deliver a commencement speech for the graduating class of West Virginia University’s Reed School of Media. We also discuss ghosts, naturally.
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Hilde Kate Lysiak, American journalist and founder of the Orange Street News, has been profiled by the New York Times, NBC Today and The Washington Post. She’s interviewed former First Lady Michelle Obama for The National and is the inspiration behind AppleTV+ mystery series Home Before Dark. Oh yes…and she’s only 15. Hilde has brazenly shared news stories with the world since she was only seven, and now she’s putting the spotlight on herself in a poignant, coming-of-age story Hilde on the Record: Memoir of a Kid Crime Reporter (Apr 19, 2022; Chicago Review Press). Appealing to tweens, teens and aspiring young journalists, Hilde's story may also intrigue those familiar with her father Matthew Lysiak, best known for his investigative reporting for the New York Daily News and comprehensive account of the Sandy Hook tragedy, Newtown: An American Tragedy. 2022 marks ten years since the horrific event.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://orangestreetnews.com/
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Kristin Ostby and I discuss how she grew up a reader and daughter of a librarian who went on to edit for Penguin Random House and rose to become a senior editor at Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers before becoming a literary agent with Greenhouse Literary. We talk about why she made that change, the types of projects she’s looking for, how writers and agents can make an editor’s job easier, how to grab an agent’s attention, how she evaluates authors on social media and over Zoom calls, her communication style, using humor as a crucial tool in dramatic fiction, writing for the official Mad Libs, and so much more.
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Kristin Ostby represents authors of middle grade and young adult fiction, as well as picture book author/illustrators. She is primarily seeking voicey, character-driven middle-grade as well as literary and contemporary young adult fiction. In particular, she is looking for stories with unabashedly intersectional overtones. As the daughter of a librarian and a businessperson, it’s really no wonder Kristin wound up in the book business. Kristin moved from Michigan to New York to begin her life in publishing at Penguin Random House and rose to become a senior editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. In her sixteen years as a children’s book editor, Kristin had the joy and pleasure of editing children’s book legend Tomie dePaola; New York Times bestselling authors like Stuart Gibbs (Spy School) and US soccer star Alex Morgan (The Kicks); and award-winning creators including Daniel Miyares (Float), Jessica Lawson (Nooks & Crannies), and Heather Vogel Frederick (The Mother-Daughter Book Club). She also edited the mainstay bestseller I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark by Debbie Levy and Elizabeth Baddeley. Kristin loves guiding authors and illustrators toward their best work and advocating for them in service of building successful, sustainable artistic careers. Kristin lives in Brooklyn, New York.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://kristinostbyeditorial.com/
https://www.greenhouseliterary.com/
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Lindsay Eager and I have an in-depth discussion about writing and publishing and her newest middle grade novel, THE PATRON THIEF OF BREAD. We talk about her time working as an intern for a literary agent, leaving one literary agent for another, how she wrote about a protagonist of a different ethnicity than her own in HOUR OF THE BEES (and why she’s not interested in doing it again), how she committed to writing, getting away with a lengthier wordcount in middle grade, getting over a fear of ghosts, and so much more. NOTE: During our discussion, the sound occasionally dropped out of our connection, so I’ve edited around those dead spots while preserving most of what was said.
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Buy THE PATRON THIEF OF BREAD by Lindsay Eager: https://amzn.to/3kU6Abc
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Lindsay Eagar lives in the mountains of Utah with her husband and young daughters. She has a BA in English from UVU and is now working towards her BS in History. Lindsay is a classically trained pianist and an un-classically trained rock guitarist.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
http://lindsayeagarbooks.com/
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Xiran Jay Zhao and I discuss their new middle grade novel, ZACHARY YING AND THE DRAGON EMPEROR, and the phenomenon of their YouTube channel about Chinese history and media commentary which has more than 425,000 subscribers (as of this recording).We talk about their IRON WIDOW series and its movie possibilities, how they survived the midlist, how writing is suffering, the sometimes fickle nature of parental support, what to do when your agent leaves the industry, advanced AR videogames, graduating into the job market during the pandemic, and so much more.
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Xiran Jay Zhao is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Iron Widow series. A first-gen Hui Chinese immigrant from small-town China to Vancouver, Canada, they were raised by the internet and made the inexplicable decision to leave their biochem degree in the dust to write books and make educational content instead. You can find them @XiranJayZhao on Twitter for memes, Instagram for cosplays and fancy outfits, TikTok for fun short videos, and YouTube for long videos about Chinese history and culture. Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor is their first middle grade novel.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
http://xiranjayzhao.com/
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Jenna Yoon and I discuss her journey to becoming an author and her debut middle grade novel, LIA PARK AND THE MISSING JEWEL. We talk about why representation matters, how the lack of it inspired her to create Lia Park for her daughters, a terrible experience with a teacher that stopped Jenna from writing a novel sooner, the importance of skin care, drafting a novel with a loose outline, writing while parenting during the pandemic, playing a trick on her sister that backfired, and so much more.
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Jenna Yoon studied Art History at Wellesley College and received her master’s degree in Korean art history from Ewha Womans University. She’s lived about half her life in both Korea and the United States. When she’s not writing, Jenna loves to travel, find yummy eats, play board games, and take skin care very seriously. Currently, she lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and two kids.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://linktr.ee/authorjennayoon
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My friend Maurice Broaddus and I discuss his newest novels UNFADEABLE and SWEEP OF STARS. We also chat about some of the older ones, Afrofuturism, using writing to procrastinate from writing, worldbuilding through short stories, grants for writers, writing for video games, Black Panther, British cozy mysteries, running your own writers conference, Arthurian urban fantasy, doing your job as an author for younger readers, vampire communes, and so much more.
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An accidental teacher (at the Oaks Academy Middle School), an accidental librarian (the School Library Manager which part of the IndyPL Shared System), and a purposeful community organizer (resident Afrofuturist at the Kheprw Institute), his work has appeared in Magazine of SF&F, Lightspeed Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Asimov’s, and Uncanny Magazine, with some of his stories having been collected in The Voices of Martyrs. His novels include the urban fantasy trilogy, The Knights of Breton Court, the steampunk novel, Pimp My Airship, and the middle grade detective novel series, The Usual Suspects. As an editor, he’s worked on Dark Faith, Fireside Magazine, and Apex Magazine. His gaming work includes writing for the Marvel Super-Heroes, Leverage, and Firefly role-playing games as well as working as a consultant on Watch Dogs 2.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
http://mauricebroaddus.com/
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Mark Gottlieb and I chat about how he was born into the business of books and how Maxwell Perkins’ love of editing convinced him to become an agent with TRIDENT MEDIA GROUP. We discuss his strategies for finding clients and submitting their work, his passion for making their dreams come true, why it’s important to demystify literary agencies, positioning a book for success, dealing with the frustrations of the publishing industry, hypotheticals involving Ralph Ellison, and so much more.
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Mark Gottlieb is a highly ranked literary agent, both in overall deals and other individual categories. Using that same initiative and insight for identifying talented writers, he is actively building his client list of authors. Mark Gottlieb is excited to work directly with authors, helping to manage and grow their careers with all of the unique resources that are available at book publishing’s leading literary agency, Trident Media Group. Through his work at Trident Media Group, Mark Gottlieb continues to represent numerous New York Times bestselling authors, as well as major award-winning authors, and has optioned and sold books to film and TV production companies. He previously ran the agency’s audiobook department, in addition to working in foreign rights. In his free time, Mark Gottlieb tutors free English language classes to adults from low-income immigrant families, via the Literacy Volunteers program at Family Centers, a nonprofit organization offering education, health and human services. He is actively seeking submissions in all categories and genres and looks forward to bringing new and established authors to the curious minds of their future readers.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://www.tridentmediagroup.com/
https://literaryagentmarkgottlieb.com/
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Jodi Lynn Anderson and I talk about her career as an editor for Harper Collins before becoming a bestselling author as well as her new middle grade series, THIRTEEN WITCHES. We discuss writing in a diary to help make sense of the world, gaining the confidence to write fiction through working in publishing, her lifelong fascination with ghosts, living with sequel possibilities and thinking of characters as old friends, the importance of being yourself, the importance of imagining a finished novel, hearing voices in your head, and so much more.
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Buy THIRTEEN WITCHES by Jodi Lynn Anderson: https://amzn.to/37xWObT
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Jodi Lynn Anderson is the bestselling author of several critically acclaimed books for young people, including the May Bird trilogy and My Diary from the Edge of the World. She lives with her husband, son, and daughter in Asheville, North Carolina, and holds an MFA in writing and literature from Bennington College.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
http://jodilynnanderson.com/
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James Riley and I have an in-depth discussion about his writing and plotting process for his new middle grade series, ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME. We talk about writing in fairy tale worlds and the way pop culture knowledge permeates our collective creativity. We also chat about Batman, Star Wars, Alan Moore, working for Disney, the darker side of capitalism, a letter from Piers Anthony, and so much more.
Buy ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME by James Riley: https://amzn.to/37U0nZN
Download BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES for free: https://amzn.to/2XyTyG2
James Riley is the New York Times bestselling author of the HALF UPON A TIME series, the STORY THIEVES series, the REVENGE OF MAGIC series, and the new ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME series. Contrary to what previous biographies have stated, he is a) real and b) not the character Nobody from his STORY THIEVES books. Where would people even get that idea? (Spoiler: From him. He totally made it sound like he really was Nobody. He thought it’d be funny. We’re sorry.) He was born in Connecticut, where he lived for only a short time before moving to … well, quite a few states. He currently lives in Northern Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C., because that’s where his cats are. He has three of them. Other people think that’s a bit much.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://jamesrileyauthor.com/
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Ellen Whitfield and I discuss how she went from being a reader to a copyeditor to a book reviewer to a publicist with BOOKS FORWARD. We talk specifically about budget numbers for authors preparing to promote their newest launch, strategies for promoting backlists, entering awards contests, what every author should include in their email signature, working with a publisher’s in-house publicity team, and so much more.
Ellen balances her understanding of “the other side of the desk” when it comes to media pitching, with a true love of an avid bibliophile. She was part of the journalism community for more than seven years, working at respected print and online media outlets including The Dallas Morning News, The Advocate newspapers of Baton Rouge and New Orleans (where she coordinated book coverage), the Waco Tribune Herald and others.
Her experience on the editorial side of the travel, community and lifestyle sections of newspapers, along with her social and online media savviness as a popular Bookstagrammer, is to the benefit of authors across genres. She has an eye for design and a passion for detail.
Ellen provides daily mentorship to the Books Forward team and trains incoming publicists to provide expanded services to our growing and beloved Books Forward family.
A Louisiana State University graduate, Ellen lives in the Bayou State with her newspaper-executive husband, bright-and-spirited daughter (we know where she gets that from!) and an ever-growing collection of 550 books.
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Gregory Maguire and I chat about his career and why he continues to write for children when WICKED is now the fifth longest-running Broadway musical. We discuss writing about depression in animal fables such as in his newest middle grade novel, CRESS WATERCRESS, how a lack of television and a lot of writing set him up for early success, the mystery of inspiration, and so much more. And he gives a very brief sneak preview of his next book, THE WITCH OF MARACOOR.
Gregory Maguire received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University, and his B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany. He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from 1979-1985. In 1987 he co-founded Children's Literature New England. He still serves as co-director of CLNE, although that organization has announced its intention to close after its 2006 institute. The bestselling author of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Lost, Mirror Mirror, and the Wicked Years, a series that includes Wicked, Son of a Witch, and A Lion Among Men. Wicked, now a beloved classic, is the basis for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name. Maguire has lectured on art, literature, and culture both at home and abroad. He has three adopted children and is married to painter Andy Newman. He lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
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Elly Swartz and I discuss her career as an author and her newest novel, DEAR STUDENT. We talk about being an author during the pandemic, her average workday, the advantages of writing yourself letters from your characters, researching psychological issues for character creation, creating curriculum guides, learning from your rejections, a ghost story, the importance of being yourself, and so much more. If you’re watching the video version, look forward to seeing a lot of my cohost, Mabel the cat.
Elly Swartz grew up in Yardley, Pennsylvania, where she lived a happy childhood filled with laughs, family dinners, and crooked birthday cakes. She studied psychology at Boston University and received a law degree from Georgetown University School of Law. The mother of two grown sons, Elly now lives in Massachusetts with her husband. Finding Perfect was her debut novel.
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Don Handfield, Joshua Malkin, and I talk about the differences between writing screenplays and collaborating to write a graphic novel, such as their newest, UNIKORN. We talk about acting with Robert Duvall, getting around lawsuits from McDonalds for THE FOUNDER, persevering to make KNIGHTFALL, being a videogame architect, guest staring on SAVED BY THE BELL: THE NEW CLASS, a potential rift in time/between universes, ghost hunting, and so much more.
Don is the co-creator of History Channel's drama series Knightfall and produced The Founder, starring Michael Keaton, and Kill The Messenger, starring two-time Academy-Award nominated actor Jeremy Renner. Don also wrote and directed the Saturn Award-winning film Touchback starring Kurt Russell and Christine Lahti. His first comic series The Rift was produced by Steven Spielberg/Amblin Entertainment as an episode for the upcoming Apple reboot of Amazing Stories. His second series, The Mall, was optioned by Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) for development into a TV show. Don was named one of the top new faces of independent film by Filmmaker Magazine and has written screenplays or produced films for all the major studios.
Joshua has written feature projects for Sony, Warner Brothers, Cross Creek Entertainment, Universal Pictures as well as for more than a dozen production companies, both big and small. These include: an adaptation of the 80's cult franchise Beastmaster, a supernatural thriller for Australian company See Films and a “re-boot” of the franchise Buck Rogers In the 25th Century. He also wrote and produced three documentaries: two about the art of puppetry, and the other about underground comics. In 2008, his screenplay Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever completed production for Lionsgate. He is currently developing an animated family film for Intrigue Entertainment, a horror movie for Traveling Picture Show, and a TV series for showrunner Jonathan Glassner (Outer Limits, Stargate SG-1.) Joshua is a professor of screenwriting at the University of California Riverside, a story architect for the video game industry, and the proud father of twins.
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Libby McNamee and I chat about historical fiction and her novels SUZANNA’S MIDNIGHT RIDE: THE GIRL WHO WON THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, DOLLY MADISON AND THE WAR OF 1812: AMERICA’S FIRST LADY, and her upcoming book about Elizabeth Van Lew. We discuss writing about the past with empathy, distilling history into a fictional narrative, history as a context for the present, and so much more.
Libby McNamee is an author and lawyer. She loves exploring America’s many historical sites. When a descendant told her the TRUE story of Susanna Bolling from Virginia and her heroism during the Revolutionary War, Libby was determined to share it with the world. “Susanna’s Midnight Ride” is her first published novel. She is currently writing “Dolley Madison and the War of 1812: America’s First Lady.” In addition, she is a member of the American Friends of Lafayette, the American Revolution Roundtable, the Historical Novel Society, and James River Writers
Libby served as a US Army JAG Officer in Korea, Bosnia, Germany, and Washington State. A native of Boston, Libby graduated with a BA in Government/International Relations and French from Georgetown University cum laude in 1988, a JD from Catholic University Law School in 1993, a Certificate in English Law from the London School of Economics in 1999. She has lived in the Richmond, VA, since 2002.
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Erika Lewis and I discuss Irish mythology, world building in fantasy, and planning a series such as the one kicked off by her new middle grade book, KELCIE MURPHY AND THE ACADEMY FOR THE UNBREAKABLE ARTS. We talk about her collaboration with R.A. Salvatore, her approach to different types of projects from comics to novels to screenplays, the pirate Grace O’Malley, multiple ghost stories, flying saucers, and more.
Erika Lewis grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, spent summers with her grandparents in Worcester, Massachusetts, and currently lives in Los Angeles, California. With a passion for storytelling set in magical places, she spends as much time as she can traveling. When she’s not writing, she can generally be found scribbling notes in a blank book while wandering through abandoned buildings, all kinds of museums, and graveyards. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, her list of credits straddles the comics and novel space, including Game of Shadows from Macmillan’s Tor Books, Firebrand and Acursian from Legendary Comics, #Guardian from Awesome Media & Entertainment, and The 49th Key from Heavy Metal Publishing. The Color of Dragons is her debut YA, coming from HarperTeen October 19th, 2021, and Kelcie Murphy and The Academy for the Unbreakable Arts is her middle grade debut coming from Starscape/Macmillan March 1st, 2022.
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Leslie Patricelli and I discuss her career writing and illustrating board books and her recent middle grade novels in THE RIZZLERUNK CLUB series, BEST BUDS UNDER FROGS and THE BIG BAD LIES. We talk about her time designing for Microsoft, self-publishing a book in 1993, her approach to illustrating her books for older readers with ink vs painting her picture books, our mutual love for Stephen King, the difficulty of scheduling, the necessity of deadlines, ghosts walking up walls, and so much more.
Leslie Patricelli lives in the mountain town of Hailey, Idaho with her husband, Jason, her daughter Tatum, three cats and a devoted, stick-loving dog. Of the many outdoor activities she loves doing in the mountains, skiing untracked powder and mountain biking during wildflower season are at the top of the list. Her son, Beck, is living and playing music in Brooklyn, NY, and her daughter, Tia, is majoring in environmental studies at University of Washington. Her husband is a drummer, music engineer, ski instructor, and her on-request editor.
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Elana K. Arnold and I talk about the virtue of islands and plotting a mystery without knowing the ending in her newest novel, JUST HARRIET. We also discuss her series, A BOY CALLED BAT, writing about autism, questions of power, theme, the over prioritizing of plot, how to generate more ideas, making readers feel safe without patronizing them, how we all contain multitudes, author vs reader responsibilities, the random penguin slaughter of 2012, werewolves, an illegal ferret, and so much more.
Elana K. Arnold is the author of critically acclaimed and award-winning young adult novels and children’s books, including the Printz Honor winner Damsel, the National Book Award finalist What Girls Are Made Of, and Global Read Aloud selection A Boy Called Bat and its sequels. Several of her books are Junior Library Guild selections and have appeared on many best book lists, including the Amelia Bloomer Project, a catalog of feminist titles for young readers. Elana teaches in Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program and lives in Southern California with her family and menagerie of pets.
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Leslie Connor and I talk about writing your way through imposter syndrome and her process in creating her newest novel, ANYBODY HERE SEEN FRENCHIE? We discuss how she started out as an illustrator who transitioned to being an author, putting your characters through hell, problematic writing, characterization, sentence length, dialect, starting with the end of your story, writing about autism, a real-life ghost story, the importance of reading your work aloud, and so much more.
Leslie Connor is the author of several award-winning books for children, including two ALA Schneider Family Book Award winners, Waiting for Normal and The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle, which was also selected as a National Book Award finalist. Her other books include All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook, Crunch, and The Things You Kiss Goodbye. She lives in the Connecticut woods with her family and three rescue dogs.
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Meera Trehan and I discuss writing from the perspective of a mansion in her new book, THE VIEW FROM THE VERY BEST HOUSE IN TOWN. We talk about how she discovered she wanted to write, her journey to becoming a published author, which included joining the SCBWI and getting serious about her approach, as well as the wisdom of STORY by Robert McKee. We also chat about how she amicably parted ways with one literary agent and found another, tips for drafting a novel, a flying saucer story, and so much more.
Meera Trehan grew up in Virginia, outside Washington DC, where she read as much as she could, memorized poems, and ate enough cookies to earn the nickname “Monster” after the Cookie Monster. After attending the University of Virginia and Stanford Law School, she practiced public interest law for over a decade before turning to writing for children. Meera writes everything from picture books to young adult and her work has been published in various magazines. She’s an active member of SCBWI, the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, and has been a mentor for Pitch Wars and Author Mentor Match. She lives in Maryland with her family, and as of this writing, three fish. Meera is represented by Molly Ker Hawn at the Bent Agency.
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Hugh Howey returns to the show, proving reality is a simulation. We talk about his upcoming picture book CANNIBAL HAIKU as well as the WOOL and BEACON 23 television adaptations and his experiences in writers’ rooms, and touring the sets. He drops tantalizing hints about some other upcoming projects for film and television as well as his new novel, ACROSS THE SAND, and a new WOOL trilogy!!! I ask several specific craft questions about some of my favorite stories of his and we get a bit philosophical, discussing mortality, the impact of peer pressure, theories of mind, victims of belief systems, our thoughts on God, AVATAR, the nastiness of ants, and so much more.
Hugh Howey is the author of the award-winning MOLLY FYDE saga, the horror classic I, ZOMBIE, and the New York Times and USA Today bestselling WOOL series. The WOOL OMNIBUS won Kindle Book Review's 2012 Indie Book of the Year Award -- it has been as high as #1 on Amazon -- and 40 countries have picked up the work for translation. Television and film versions of WOOL, SAND, and BEACON 23 are all in development.
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Lane Heymont and I have a far-ranging discussion about books, movies, publishing, the evil of the Sackler family, the nature of forgiveness, his path from being a literary assistant to founding The Tobias Literary Agency, why it’s crucial for him to be passionate about the projects he represents, why writers should always be writing, moral clauses in book contracts, the consolidation of major publishers, being a mensch, and so much more.
Lane’s love affair with literature began at the age of eight when his grandfather offered him $5 to read and discuss the classics of literature. He began his publishing career in 2012 at The Seymour Agency and in 2016 formed The Tobias Literary Agency. With his eclectic taste and particular passion for horror, Lane is the top literary agent in the genre.
Some of Lane’s favorite reads include: FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley, THE HUNGER by Alma Katsu, SKELETONS AT THE FEAST by Chris Bohjalian, KNIGHT OF THE BLACK ROSE by James Lowder, the DRAGONLANCE CHRONICLES by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, IN COLD BLOOD BY Truman Capote, I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS by Maya Angelou, and THE DINOSAUR ARTIST by Paige Williams.
His favorite writers include Sheridan Le Fanu, Mary Shelley, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Alma Katsu, Chris Bohjalian, and Lovecraft despite his politics and gross bigotry.
Lane represents a broad range of commercial fiction and serious nonfiction. In fiction, he is open to projects broadly defined as speculative fiction. He is most interested in horror defined however one defines it. This includes select young adult projects. He prefers contemporary settings and is always looking for own voices projects by BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and other underrepresented cultures/identities in both fiction and nonfiction. In nonfiction, Lane acquires celebrity projects, science, cultural studies, history, and pop-culture.
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Tina Wells and I discuss the first book in her newest series, HONEST JUNE, as well as how she arranged for an exclusive distribution period through Target Stores. We talk about how she founded her first company at age 16 and built a successful career as a marketer before she became a writer. She shares specifics about how this has allowed her to research her demographic and incorporate reader feedback to ensure future books will resonate with tween readers. We also talk about series planning, being one of six children, the importance of authentic representation, and so much more.
Tina Wells is a business strategist, advisor, author, and the founder of RLVNT Media, a multimedia content venture serving entrepreneurs, tweens and culturists with authentic representation. Tina has been recognized by Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business, Essence’s 40 Under 40, and more. For over two decades she led Buzz Marketing Group, an agency she founded at age 16 with clients like Dell, The Oprah Winfrey Network, Kroger, Apple, P+G, Johnson & Johnson, and American Eagle that Tina connected with her network of 30,000 buzzSpotters® and 7,000 “momSpotters”, all influential millennials and passionate end-consumers. Tina is also the author of seven books, including the best-selling tween fiction series Mackenzie Blue, its new spinoff series, The Zee Files, and the marketing handbook, Chasing Youth Culture and Getting It Right. Tina’s board positions have included THINX, the United Nations Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council, The Franklin Institute and Young Entrepreneur’s Council. She has also served as the Academic Director for Wharton’s Leadership in the Business World Program at the University of Pennsylvania and is a member of the 2017 Class of Henry Crown Fellows within the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute.
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Authors Adama Bah, Salvador Gómez-Colón, Freshta Tori Jan, and I discuss their debut novels in the I, WITNESS series. In ACCUSED, Adama Bah recounts being arrested and detained by the FBI under the false accusation that she was a potential suicide bomber. In HURRICANE, Salvador writes about his experience during Hurricane Maria and raising money for Puerto Rico in the aftermath. In COURAGE, Freshta describes being persecuted in Afghanistan during a genocide. We discuss how writing about their trauma helps to put it into perspective and helps them heal.
Adama Bah’s story has been featured in Adama, a short documentary, and Patriot Acts, a book about post 9/11 injustices. This is the first time Adama’s story will be told for middle grade readers. She now lives in New York with her husband and family.
Salvador Gómez-Colón is a climate resilience advocate and the founder of Light and Hope for Puerto Rico. His work has been covered by TIME , CNN, the Guardian, and the New York Times, among others. Salvador is currently a student at Yale. He lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Freshta Tori Jan is a student at Calvin College, the founder of Sew True Products, and serves as a public speaker for marginalized groups. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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It’s the fourth mega-sized Middle Grade Ninja clips show, featuring snippets from episodes 101 through 146 that aired in 2021. This episode is so stuffed with incredible content it had to be broken up into TWO PARTS
Don't miss PART TWO.
New episodes are scheduled to return January 8th.
Until then, enjoy this compilation of clips from conversations with AUTHORS Christina Li, Caroline Gertler, Rucker Moses, Theo Gangi, Donna Galanti, Mike Johnston, Lisa Fipps, Nick Goss, Esabella Strickland, Carrie Seim, Dorothy A. Winsor, Carole Boston Weatherford, Kyle Lukoff, Luke Cunningham, David LaRochelle, Mike Wohnoutka, Alane Adams, Susan McCormick, Robert Beatty, Payal Doshi, Jasmine Warga, Erin Entrada Kelly, Ali Standish, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Melissa Hope, Alyson Gerber, Kathleen Burkinshaw, John David Anderson, Chris Negron, Sara Pennypacker, Jessica Vitalis, Rajani LaRocca, Katherine Paterson, Gayle Forman, Sarah J. Schmitt, Diana Rodriguez Wallach, Ross Carley, Karen Phillips, Mary Ann Koontz, Elizabeth A. San Miguel, Diana Catt, Tony Perona, Elizabeth Perona, David Neilsen, Michelle Jabès Corpora, Samantha M. Clark, Alda P. Dobbs, Aura Lewis, Emily Barth Isler, and Seanan McGuire, LITERARY AGENTS Saba Sulaiman, Holly McGhee, Mary C. Moore, Marie Lamba, and Becky LeJune, EDITORS Sara-Jayne Slack, Sailaja N. Joshi, Amy Maranville, and Leila Sales.
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
It’s the fourth mega-sized Middle Grade Ninja clips show, featuring snippets from episodes 101 through 146 that aired in 2021. This episode is so stuffed with incredible content it had to be broken up into TWO PARTS
Don't miss PART ONE.
New episodes are scheduled to return January 8th.
Until then, enjoy this compilation of clips from conversations with AUTHORS Christina Li, Caroline Gertler, Rucker Moses, Theo Gangi, Donna Galanti, Mike Johnston, Lisa Fipps, Nick Goss, Esabella Strickland, Carrie Seim, Dorothy A. Winsor, Carole Boston Weatherford, Kyle Lukoff, Luke Cunningham, David LaRochelle, Mike Wohnoutka, Alane Adams, Susan McCormick, Robert Beatty, Payal Doshi, Jasmine Warga, Erin Entrada Kelly, Ali Standish, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Melissa Hope, Alyson Gerber, Kathleen Burkinshaw, John David Anderson, Chris Negron, Sara Pennypacker, Jessica Vitalis, Rajani LaRocca, Katherine Paterson, Gayle Forman, Sarah J. Schmitt, Diana Rodriguez Wallach, Ross Carley, Karen Phillips, Mary Ann Koontz, Elizabeth A. San Miguel, Diana Catt, Tony Perona, Elizabeth Perona, David Neilsen, Michelle Jabès Corpora, Samantha M. Clark, Alda P. Dobbs, Aura Lewis, Emily Barth Isler, and Seanan McGuire, LITERARY AGENTS Saba Sulaiman, Holly McGhee, Mary C. Moore, Marie Lamba, and Becky LeJune, EDITORS Sara-Jayne Slack, Sailaja N. Joshi, Amy Maranville, and Leila Sales.
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Authors Seanan McGuire, Mira Grant, A. Deborah Baker, and I discuss how they’re all Seanan McGuire and how she transitions between genres and intended age groups. We discuss her years as a standup comedian and how she transitioned to an award-winning author, her love of dice and My Little Ponies, her creative process, how she plans a series and keeps continuity, our mutual love of Stephen King’s IT (the book, not the movie), why JURASSIC WORLD made her feel unwelcome to her favorite franchise, the critical importance of representation, knowing which stories are yours to tell, filking, and so much more. Oh, and she takes me on a tour of her haunted library, so don’t miss that.
Seanan McGuire was born in Martinez, California, and raised in a wide variety of locations, most of which boasted some sort of dangerous native wildlife. Despite her almost magnetic attraction to anything venomous, she somehow managed to survive long enough to acquire a typewriter, a reasonable grasp of the English language, and the desire to combine the two. The fact that she wasn't killed for using her typewriter at three o'clock in the morning is probably more impressive than her lack of death by spider-bite.
Often described as a vortex of the surreal, many of Seanan's anecdotes end with things like "and then we got the anti-venom" or "but it's okay, because it turned out the water wasn't that deep." She has yet to be defeated in a game of "Who here was bitten by the strangest thing?," and can be amused for hours by almost anything. "Almost anything" includes swamps, long walks, long walks in swamps, things that live in swamps, horror movies, strange noises, musical theater, reality TV, comic books, finding pennies on the street, and venomous reptiles. Seanan may be the only person on the planet who admits to using Kenneth Muir's Horror Films of the 1980s as a checklist.
Seanan is the author of the October Daye urban fantasies, the InCryptid urban fantasies, and several other works both stand-alone and in trilogies or duologies. In case that wasn't enough, she also writes under the pseudonym "Mira Grant." For details on her work as Mira, check out MiraGrant.com.
In her spare time, Seanan records CDs of her original filk music (see the Albums page for details). She is also a cartoonist, and draws an irregularly posted autobiographical web comic, "With Friends Like These...", as well as generating a truly ridiculous number of art cards. Surprisingly enough, she finds time to take multi-hour walks, blog regularly, watch a sickening amount of television, maintain her website, and go to pretty much any movie with the words "blood," "night," "terror," or "attack" in the title. Most people believe she doesn't sleep.
Seanan lives in an idiosyncratically designed labyrinth in the Pacific Northwest, which she shares with her cats, Alice and Thomas, a vast collection of creepy dolls and horror movies, and sufficient books to qualify her as a fire hazard. She has strongly-held and oft-expressed beliefs about the origins of the Black Death, the X-Men, and the need for chainsaws in daily life.
Years of writing blurbs for convention program books have fixed Seanan in the habit of writing all her bios in the third person, so as to sound marginally less dorky. Stress is on the "marginally." It probably doesn't help that she has so many hobbies.
Seanan was the winner of the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and her novel Feed (as Mira Grant) was named as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2010. In 2013 she became the first person ever to appear five times on the same Hugo Ballot.
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Emily Barth Isler and I discuss her childhood as an actress featured on ONE LIFE TO LIVE and elsewhere as well as performing for the Clinton White House, and how she eventually transitioned to the family business of writing, the “safe career choice.” We also talk about her new novel, AFTERMATH, how to process trauma through writing, how to take action on school shootings, how to set goals for your fiction to become a more effective author, and so much more.
Emily Barth Isler lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and their two kids. A former child actress, she performed all over the world in theatre, film, and TV. In addition to books, Emily writes about sustainable, eco-friendly beauty and skincare, and has also written web sitcoms, parenting columns, and personal essays. She has a B.A. in Film Studies from Wesleyan University, and really, really loves television. Find her at www.emilybarthisler.com
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Aura Lewis and I discuss the process of writing and illustrating her newest book, SPECTACULAR SISTERS: AMAZING STORIES OF SISTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD. We talk about how she went from being a freelance artist to working in publishing, the role her MFA played in that transition, designing the credit sequence for the Hulu Show MRS. AMERICA, the importance of focusing on your passion, choosing to be an artist every day, who we might’ve been in past lives, and so much more.
Aura Lewis is an author-illustrator and designer with an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She is inspired by fashion from around the world, playful color, vintage design and popular culture. Aura’s work is featured in books for children and adults, on television, stationery, ad campaigns, murals and editorial publications. Her publishers include Harper Collins, Hachette, Abrams, Sterling Publishing, Chronicle Books, Quarto, Scholastic and Simon and Schuster.
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Alda P. Dobbs and I discuss writing about the Mexican Revolution as well as her own family’s history in her new novel, BAREFOOT DREAMS OF PETRA LUNA, and then translating that story into a second language. We talk about how Alda gained confidence as a writer, the advice she received from Avi, how she applied for grants and became “hardheaded,” found her literary agent, sold a book and wrote another during a pandemic, and so much more. Oh, and I accuse her of back engineering flying saucers while she was in the air force:)
Alda P. Dobbs is the author of the upcoming novel Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna. She was born in a small town in northern Mexico but moved to San Antonio, Texas as a child. Alda studied physics and worked as an engineer before pursuing her love of storytelling. She’s as passionate about connecting children to their past, their communities, different cultures and nature as she is about writing. Alda lives with her husband and two children outside Houston, Texas.
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Michelle Jabès Corpora, Samantha M. Clark, and I discuss their new series AMERICAN HORSE TALES. We talk about Michelle's experience as an editor for Harper Collins, a concept developer, and a ghostwriter, as well as Samantha's experience as a journalist, a managing editor, and the regional advisor for the Austin chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. We also discuss comparisons between the Dust Bowl and the 2020 pandemic, working in Hollywood, gaining the confidence to be an author, treating writing like a job, two ghost stories, our ideal superpowers, and so much more.
Michelle Jabès Corpora is a writer, editor, community organizer, and martial artist. In addition to working in the publishing industry for more than a dozen years as an editor and concept developer, she has ghostwritten five novels in a long-running middle grade mystery series. American Horse Tales: The Dust Bowl is Michelle’s first novel under her own name. Her second novel, The Fog of War: Martha Gellhorn at the D-Day Landings (Pushkin Press), also publishes in 2021.
Samantha M. Clark loves stories about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances because if four ordinary brothers and sisters can find a magical world at the back of a wardrobe, why can’t she? Until she finds her own real-life Narnia, she writes about other ordinary children and teens who’ve stumbled into a wardrobe of their own. She grew up in different countries around the world and now lives with her husband and two funny dogs in Austin, Texas. Samantha is the regional advisor for the Austin chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and she explores wardrobes every chance she gets. Her debut novel, The Boy, the Boat, and the Beast, was lauded as “an unforgettable, life-affirming tale” by Booklist.
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David Neilsen and I discuss the advantages of traditional publishing and independent publishing and why he transitioned to a hybrid author with his newest release, LILLIAN LOVECRAFT AND THE HARMLESS HORRORS. We also talk about his time as a screenwriter, how he narrated his own audiobooks, book marketing, hosting murder mystery parties, leading ghost tours, and so much more.
David Neilsen is the author of odd, weird, supernatural, and occasionally slightly disturbing stories. He is the author of Doctor Fell and the Playground of Doom, Beyond the Doors, and Lillian Lovecraft and the Harmless Horrors. David is based next door to Sleepy Hollow, NY and also works as a professional storyteller up and down the Hudson River Valley. His one-man performances based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft have sent many screaming into the hills in search of their sanity while his education school presentations have inspired hundreds of Middle Grade-aged children.
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The Speed City Sisters in Crime return to the scene of the… podcast? Returning for their first appearance since episode 79, they’ve just released a new anthology, TRICK OR TREATS: TALES OF ALL HALLOWS EVE. I sit down with authors Ross Carley, Diana Catt, Mary Ann Koontz, Elizabeth Perona, Tony Perona, Karen Phillips, and Elizabeth A. San Miguel, to discuss writing and reading mysteries, publishing tips, flying saucers, and so much more.
Speed City Sisters in Crime is the Indiana chapter of the world-wide mystery/crime writers' association Sisters in Crime. The Speed City chapter was founded in 2005. Members of the organization are published mystery and crime authors, writers working on mysteries and thrillers, and readers and fans of the literary genre. There are currently 40+ members who live in Indiana or the Midwest. Speed City Sisters in Crime hosts monthly meetings with speakers on topics of interest to mystery and crime writing. Past speakers have included police officers, prosecutors, investigative reporters, forensic specialists, weapons experts, researchers, and publishing and media professionals. Chapter members have published 6 short story anthologies over the years with the themes that are related to Indiana or the midwest. Members of the organization have also written and produced a play, Deadbeat, which was performed at a local fringe festival and will soon be available to for others to produce. The chapter also hosts writing and other educational workshops for its membership with well-known authors and publishing professionals.
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Diana Rodriguez Wallach and I discuss cults, demonic possession, and writing YA horror in her new novel, SMALL TOWN MONSTERS. It’s a Halloween-themed episode, so we talk about Ed and Lorraine Warren, Stephen King, and that time Diana lived in a haunted house. Writing occasionally comes up as well, so we also discuss her journey through multiple literary agents, how she plots her fiction, her writing and reading habits, the importance of Latinx representation, a revelation about writing from a psychic, and so much more.
Diana Rodriguez Wallach is a multi-published author of young adult novels. Her most recent, SMALL TOWN MONSTERS, is a YA Latinx horror novel that will publish in Fall 2021 through Random House’s Underlined imprint. Additionally, Diana is the author of the Anastasia Phoenix Series (Entangled Publishing), a trilogy of young adult spy thrillers. The first book in the series, Proof of Lies, has been optioned for film and was chosen as a finalist for the 2018 International Thriller Awards for Best Young Adult Novel. Additionally, Bustle listed her as one of the “Top Nine Latinx Authors to Read for Women’s History Month 2017,” and Paste named Proof of Lies one of the “Top 10 Best Young Adult Books for March 2017.” Diana is also the author of three Latina young adult novels: Amor and Summer Secrets, Amigas and School Scandals, and Adios to All The Drama (Kensington Books). Amor and Summer Secrets placed second at the 2009 International Latino Book Awards for Best Young Adult Novel. Diana also penned a YA Greek-myth inspired short-story collection entitled Mirror, Mirror (Buzz Books). In 2011, Diana published an essay in Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories (HarperCollins), which was the only essay from the anthology selected by Scholastic to be used in its classroom materials. Diana is also featured in the anthology, Latina Authors and Their Muses (Twilight Times Books, 2015). Diana has taught as a Creative Writing Instructor for Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth since 2015, and she has led Creative Writing Workshops in inner-city schools throughout the Philadelphia region for over ten years. She previously wrote as a blogger for Quirk Books, and she currently volunteers with the nonprofit organization Mighty Writers, which promotes writing in urban communities. Diana holds a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University, and currently lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and two children.
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My friend, Sarah J. Schmitt, and I discuss her path to publishing IT’S A WONDERFUL DEATH her newest novel, WHERE THERE’S A WHISK, and why you should never give anyone else power over your art. She shares how she found her editor on Twitter, how she secured her literary agent, and how she survived the collapse of her publisher. We also chat about author income fluctuations due to the pandemic, discussing hybrid publishing with your literary agent, writing fast first drafts, being active in the local writing community, telling a story from outside your own perspective, WATERSHIP DOWN, visions of the afterlife, and so much more.
Sarah J. Schmitt is a K-8 school librarian and Youth Service Professional for Teens at a public library who, in addition to planning a variety of events, enjoys opening up the world of books to reluctant readers. She runs a teen writing program that combines Skype visits from well-known authors and screenwriters and critique group style feedback. Prior to immersing herself in the world of the written word, Sarah earned her Masters of Science in Higher Education Administration and Student Affairs from Indiana University where she worked with first year college students as they acclimated to college life. Sarah lives outside of Indianapolis with her husband, two kidlets and a cat who might actually be a secret agent. She is an active member of SCBWI, ALA and the Indiana Library Federation and is a regular participant at the Midwest Writer's Workshop.
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Gayle Forman and I discuss her career from a journalist for SEVENTEEN to a celebrated YA novelist and the launch of her first MG book, FRANKIE AND BUG. She describes the experience of having IF I STAY adapted into a film and tells an excellent ghost story. We chat about WE ARE INEVITABLE, writing to get out of poverty, how there is no promised land for writers, playlists created for her novels, her writing process, life during the pandemic, dealing with anxiety, and more. Oh, and she mentions living within a five-block radius of authors Libba Bray, R.J. Palacio, E. Lockhart, and Jacqueline Woodson.
Award-winning author and journalist Gayle Forman has written several bestselling novels for young adults, including the Just One Series, I Was Here, Where She Went and the #1 New York Times bestseller If I Stay, which has been translated into more than 40 languages and in 2014 was adapted into a major motion picture. Gayle published Leave Me, her first novel starring adults, in 2016 and her latest novel I Have Lost My Way was released in March of 2018. Gayle’s essays and nonfiction work has appeared in publications like The New York Times, Elle, The Nation and Time. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughters.
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Two-time Newberry Award winner and one of my childhood heroes, Katherine Patterson, and I discuss how she transformed from a “mediocre writer” to a Living Legend (so designated by the Library of Congress in 2000). We chat about her newest novel, BIRDIE’S BARGAIN, how Hollywood demanded a sequel to BRIDGE TO TERABETHIA, the time she kissed Robert Patrick, the importance of maintaining the feeling of childhood injustice, writing sparse descriptions, the mysteries of inspiration, the influence of THE YEARLING, the nature of God, and so, so much more, and we have a whole lot of fun doing it.
Katherine Paterson is the author of more than 30 books, including 17 novels for children and young people. She has won the Newbery Medal twice, for Bridge to Terabithia in 1978 and Jacob Have I Loved in 1981. Her book The Master Puppeteer won the National Book Award in 1977; The Great Gilly Hopkins won the National Book Award in 1979 and was also a Newbery Honor Book. For the body of her work she received the Hans Christian Anderson Medal in 1998, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2006, the NSK Neustadt Award in 2007, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (Children's Literature Legacy Award) in 2013, and the E. B. White Award in 2019. In 2000 she was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress. Paterson is a vice-president of the National Children's Book and Literary Alliance and is a member of the board of trustees for Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in Montpelier, Vermont with her dog, Pixie.
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http://katherinepaterson.com/
The audio from each episode is available as the Middle Grade Ninja Podcast on Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, itunes, Podbean, Podblaster, RadioPublic, blubrry, Listen Notes, Google Play, and many other fine locations.
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Rajani LaRocca and I discuss the importance of finding a community of writers and how that led her to publication, as well as her newest novel, MUCH ADO ABOUT BASEBALL. We talk about the “slight fairytale” that led her to finding her literary agent, her time as a pitch wars mentor, plantsing, coordinating publicity and school visits (even during a pandemic), her Stem Women in KidLit podcast, the value of an author’s time, how doctoring makes her a better writer, and so much more.
Rajani LaRocca was born in India, raised in Kentucky, and now lives in the Boston area with her wonderful family and impossibly cute dog. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, she spends her time writing novels and picture books, practicing medicine, and baking too many sweet treats. She is also the cohost of the STEM Women in KidLit Podcast. Her middle grade debut, Midsummer’s Mayhem (Yellow Jacket/Little Bee Books), an Indian-American mashup of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and competitive baking, was an Indies Introduce selection, an Indie Next pick, a Kirkus Best Middle Grade Book of 2019, and a 2020 Massachusetts Book Award Honor title. Her middle grade novel-in-verse, Red, White, and Whole (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins, 2/201), has received multiple starred reviews and is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and a Spring 2021 Indie Next Top Ten Title. Her third middle grade novel, Much Ado About Baseball (Yellow Jacket/Little Bee Books) will publish in June 2021 and is Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Her debut picture book, Seven Golden Rings: A Tale of Music and Math (Lee & Low, 2020) is set in ancient India and introduces the basics of binary numbers. It received multiple starred reviews and is the winner of the 2021 Mathical Book Prize for grades 3-5. She is also the author of the forthcoming picture books Bracelets For Brothers (Charlesbridge, April 2021), Where Three Oceans Meet (Abrams, 2021), The Secret Code Inside You (Little Bee Books, September 2021), I’ll Go and Come Back (Candlewick, 2022), Masala Chai, Fast and Slow (Candlewick, 2023), and more. Learn more about her at www.RajaniLaRocca.com and on Twitter and Instagram @rajanilarocca.
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Jessica Vitalis and I chat about her debut novel, THE WOLF’S CURSE. And we have a detailed discussion about the six-figure, two-book deal her agent, Sara Crowe, negotiated for her. We also talk about how Erin Entrada Kelley fell in love with Jessica’s book and helped her secure that vital representation. And we chat about the time Jessica was visited by a ghost, how to write an omniscient narrator, researching to help with fantasy worldbuilding, and a lot of other great stuff you’re going to love hearing about.
Jessica Vitalis is a Columbia MBA-wielding writer specializing in middle grade literature. An American expat, she now lives in Canada with her husband and two precocious daughters. She loves traveling, sailing, and scuba diving, but when she's at home she can usually be found recording book talks for Magic in the Middle and changing the batteries in her heated socks. Her debut novel, The Wolf's Curse, will be published September 21, 2021 by Greenwillow/HarperCollins with a second book to follow.
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Becky LeJeune and I chat about how she went from being a criminal justice major while working in a Walden Books to an editor and now a literary agent with the Bond Literary Agency. We talk about how she evaluates manuscripts, why you don’t want to convince an agent to represent a genre they’re not currently selling in, advice about finding comp titles, asking why the author is the best person to tell a particular story, our mutual love for horror and haunted houses, the type of writer behavior that might scare an agent, and so, so much more in a far-ranging discussion stuffed with valuable information.
Becky LeJeune met Sandra Bond at the Denver Publishing Institute when she was a student there in 2007. After DPI, she spent 2 years working as the managing editor for a cookbook imprint, and then 5 years as an acquisitions editor at The History Press before joining Sandra at BLA in 2014. She is interested in adult and teen general fiction, horror, mystery/thriller, historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy, and cookbooks. Becky is open to queries through: https://querymanager.com/becky_lejeune
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Sara Pennypacker and I discuss tips for writing from the perspective of a fox in her long-anticipated sequel to the classic novel PAX, PAX: JOURNEY HOME. We chat about how she interviews animals and how she addresses darker subjects such as the full cost of war in children’s literature. We also talk about the novelization of SHARK TALE, how focusing on an injustice often leads to discovering a story’s theme, the critical role an author for children must play, the principal of oneness, the importance of remembering the story is boss, and so much more.
Sara Pennypacker was a painter before becoming a writer, and has two absolutely fabulous children who are now grown. She has written over twenty children's books including Pax (illustrated by Jon Klassen), Here In The Real World, the Clementine and Waylan series (both illustrated by Marla Frazee); Stuart's Cape and Stuart Goes to School (both illustrated by Martin Matje), Meet the Dullards, and others. Sara splits her time between Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Florida She divides her time between Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Florida. You can visit her online at www.sarapennypacker.com.
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Chris Negron and I discuss how he became an author, how his Parkinson’s disease makes him a better writer, and his newest book, THE LAST SUPER CHEF. We wonder if writers ever actually retire and how learning alternate titles of great works might forever change them. We chat about choosing an audiobook narrator, the Atlanta writers club, UFO disclosure, episodic storytelling, politics in fiction, the importance of trusting your reader, and so much more.
Chris Negron is the author of Dan Unmasked, his debut novel released in July, 2020, and The Last Super Chef, coming July, 2021. Both contemporary middle grade novels are published by HarperCollins. KitLitExchange.com says Dan Unmasked “broke my heart” and “needs to be on every library shelf.” Chris grew up outside Buffalo, New York and attended Yale University. His short fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals, with one piece longlisted for the Top (Very) Short Fictions of 2016 by Wigleaf.com. If you spot him in the wild, it’s probably in a comic book shop, which also explains a large portion of Dan Unmasked‘s plot. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, and his writing is represented by Alyssa Jennette at Stonesong.
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Marie Lamba and I discuss her terrible experience with her own novel that led her to become an agent with the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency for the past decade. We talk about the advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing, each of us sharing our tales. We also chat about the pandemic’s effect on publishing (and its future effects), an agent’s average workday, a ghost-adjacent story, the importance of not allowing anything to kill your joy of writing, and so much more.
Marie Lamba (www.marielamba.com) is author of the young adult novels What I Meant… (Random House), Over My Head and Drawn, and of the picture books Green Green: A Community Gardening Story (Farrar Straus Giroux), and A Day So Gray (Clarion). Her articles appear in more than 100 publications, and she's a frequent contributor to Writer’s Digest. Marie has worked as an editor, an award-winning public relations writer, a book publicist, and has taught classes on novel writing and on author promotion.
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https://www.jdlit.com/
https://marielamba.wordpress.com/
The audio from each episode is available as the Middle Grade Ninja Podcast on Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, itunes, Podbean, Podblaster, RadioPublic, blubrry, Listen Notes, Google Play, and many other fine locations.
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John David Anderson and I talk about a little bit of everything in this far-ranging conversation between two Hoosier authors who like STAR WARS and Kurt Vonnegut. We chat about Anderson’s newest novel, STOWAWAY, as well as his classic, MS. BIXBY’S LAST DAY. Also discussed: writing two novels a year, leaving your heart on the page, space pirates, communicating messages to young readers, the Grateful Dead, flying saucer disclosure potentially messing with our science fiction, the value of writing during a pandemic, mythological action figures, cloning authors in the future, and so much more.
John David Anderson is hardly ever called John David Anderson. He is called Dave by most people who know him, John by the IRS, and Mr. Anderson whenever he's inside the Matrix. He wishes he could go by J.D., but Salinger beat him to it. If he was a Star Wars character he would want to be a Jedi named Raith Starglider, but knows he would more likely be a used Bantha salesman named Bobba Twinklebeans.
A graduate of Indiana University and the University of Illinois where he majored in reading Moby Dick over and over, Dave "Twinklebeans" Anderson is now the author of several books for middle grade audiences, including Sidekicked, The Dungeoneers, Ms. Bixby's Last Day and Posted. The backs of his novels claim that he is "critically acclaimed." His son thinks he is the best writer that ever lived. His daughter thinks he's just alright. His Mom always seems to think he needs to eat more. This last bit is definitely not true.
Dave believes in the power of books to enrich young people's lives and help them to ask (and answer) deep questions while simultaneously laughing so hard they snarf soda through their noses. When he eventually grows up he wants to be Indiana Jones. Till then, he wants to be a root beer connoisseur. He lives with his wife, two kids, and vast Lego collection in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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To commemorate the 76th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Kathleen Burkinshaw and I discuss her novel, THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM. This is one of the most important conversations I’ve ever had and I’ll be thinking about it for the rest of my life. Parts of it broke my heart and may break yours as well. You will hear my most awkward, deflecting nervous laughter as this is the first time I’ve ever been moved to tears on the show. But this talk is also uplifting and will change the way you view writing. And we genuinely laugh a lot and there’s an excellent ghost story near the end, so it won’t be all solemn. Don’t miss this conversation and share it with everyone you know.
As promised, here’s a link to a YouTube video of “Who’s Minding the Nukes” from 60 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJdsIzjzVuA&t=1s
Kathleen Burkinshaw is a Japanese American author, the daughter of a Hiroshima survivor and resides in Charlotte, NC. She's a wife, mom, and owns a dog who thinks she's a kitchen ninja. In 2019 she spoke about her mother's experience in Hiroshima at the United Nations (NYC). This summer she spoke at UN worldwide virtual events as well as a Japanese American National Museum webinar with author Naomi Hirahara in honor of the 75th anniversary of atomic bombing. Kathleen has been featured on PBS, local NPR stations, Asian American magazines/newspapers, both Japanese and English programs on NHK World Japan, as well as in 2 major Japanese newspapers. She has presented to middle/high schools around the world for the past 10 years. Writing gives her an outlet for her daily struggle with chronic pain from Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. Her MG/YA historical fiction, THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM, is now a United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs Resource for Teachers and Students and has been used in classrooms around the world. The trade paperback came out in August 2020 (available wherever books are sold and through Scholastic WNDB Reading Club). THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM has been nominated for 2019 NC School Library Media Association YA book award,2019-2020 Volunteer State Book Award (Tennessee), 2018& 2016 Scholastic WNDB Reading Club selection, and Finalist for NC Sir Walter Raleigh Fiction Award, the 2018 Sakura Medal, Japan, and the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award(southeast region), Represented by Anna Olswanger, Olswanger Literary.
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Alyson Gerber and I discuss how to talk about food and diet for teens and creating sympathetic parent characters in her newest YA novel, TAKING UP SPACE. We also chat about how her ADHD is helpful to her as an author, the benefits of a background in acting, her writing workday, how wearing a back brace as a teen helped prepare her for the pandemic, how she selected her audiobook narrator, a ghost named Mary, the attractiveness of armpit hair, and more.
Alyson Gerber is the author of the critically-acclaimed, own-voices novels Braced and Focused published by Scholastic. Her third novel Taking Up Space will be in stores on May 18, 2021. She has an MFA from The New School in Writing for Children and lives in New York City with her family. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @AlysonGerber.
Braced, Focused, and Taking Up Space are all Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections. Braced received three starred reviews and has been nominated for state book awards in Oklahoma, Indiana, New Hampshire, Virginia, South Dakota, and Georgia. Focused was picked as a best book of year by The Today Show, Kirkus Reviews, and A Mighty Girl and has been nominated for state book awards in Rhode Island, Oklahoma, and Michigan. Alyson’s latest novel, Taking Up Space, based on her experience with disordered eating, will be published on May 18, 2021. Taking Up Space will help readers recognize how much they matter and see that if something negative is taking up space in their minds, even if there isn’t a name for it, they should ask for help.
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Melissa Hope and I discuss her popular YouTube channel for authors, HOPEFUL HAPPENINGS, and how it paved the way to publish her debut novel, SEA OF KINGS. We chat about how she taught herself to write, collaborating with her marine biologist husband, working with Jolly Fish Press, finding beta readers, scheduling time to read while raising three kids, music to write to, and more. Melissa also shares how she found herself represented by an untrustworthy agent and how other writers can avoid finding themselves in a similar situation. Please note, there was a slight broadcast delay when we recorded, so we occasionally interrupt each other.
Melissa Hope earned her degree in English and is passionate about sharing her knowledge to help writers improve their craft and connect with the writing community. She escaped the frostbite normalcy of Canadian winters to live in Florida with her family, bipolar cat, and growing collection of scuba gear. Visit her website www.authormelissahope.com to watch free writing tutorials.
Here are links to the soundtracks we discussed: The Grey Lady by Alexandre Desplat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDZTsLouf-E Fireworks by Nicholas Hooper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRjjq9dR7R4 Noon by Éric Serra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc6e8NOswOg Melissa’s Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7ulqYBRUUjzwoo8rwTUfxQ?si=fa18aef7bc544a48
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Nicole Kornher-Stace and I discuss classic science fiction and her new middle grade novel, JILLIAN VS PARASITE PLANET. We also talk about the importance of portraying platonic friendships and not just romantic relationships in fiction, parasites, parenting, homeschool during a pandemic, anxiety, big dumb action movies as inspiration, video games, the importance of writing the story that’s trying to chew its way out of your head, and so much more.
Nicole Kornher-Stace lives in New Paltz, NY, with her family. Her books include ARCHIVIST WASP (Small Beer Press/Big Mouth House, 2015) and LATCHKEY (Mythic Delirium, 2018), which are about a far-future postapocalyptic ghosthunter, the ghost of a near-future supersoldier, and their adventures in the underworld. She has two more books due out in 2021: FIREBREAK, forthcoming from Saga, and JILLIAN VS. PARASITE PLANET, forthcoming from Tachyon. You can find her on Twitter @wirewalking, where she is probably semicoherently yelling about board games, video games, hiking, fictional representation of strong platonic relationships, good books she’s read recently, or her cat. She is represented by Kate McKean at Morhaim Literary Agency.
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Ali Standish and I discuss her writer’s journey, which included an MFA in children's writing from Hollins University and an MPhil in Children's Literature from the University of Cambridge, as well as working in the same building as her future literary agent (and sitting in her chair). We talk about Ali’s newest novel, THE MENDING SUMMER, writing and launching a book with a new baby during a pandemic, the significance of food descriptions, virtual school visits, discussing adult subjects such as alcoholism in books for children, second book syndrome, Matt Damon, a super-creepy haunted doll house, and so much more.
Ali Standish grew up in North Carolina and graduated from Pomona College before spending several years as an educator in the Washington, D.C. public school system. She has an MFA in children's writing from Hollins University and an MPhil in Children's Literature from the University of Cambridge. She lives with her Finnish husband and rescue dogs in Raleigh, NC.
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Erin Entrada Kelly and I chat about her writing habits and how she learned to focus on what her creative spirit wants her to do. We discuss how she won a Newberry Award and immediately quit her day job, as well as her newest middle grade novel, MAYBE, MAYBE MARISOL RAINEY. We talk about how she always remembers an affinity for the characters and the story and the experience of writing it, but not necessarily the craft involved. Also discussed: the HELLO, UNIVERSE Netflix adaptation, dialogue with inanimate objects, breaking out of your writing bubble, characters achieving their goals before their author, the usefulness of third-person perspective, getting control of negative thoughts, a ghost alarm, and so much more.
Erin Entrada Kelly received the 2018 Newbery Medal for Hello, Universe, a 2021 Newbery Honor for We Dream of Space, the 2017 APALA Award for The Land of Forgotten Girls, and the 2016 Golden Kite Honor Award for Blackbird Fly, among other honors. She is also the author and illustrator of the Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey series. She is a New York Times bestseller whose work has been translated into several languages. Her fifth book, Lalani of the Distant Sea, was a finalist for the 2020 Mythopoeic Award for Children’s Fantasy. Lalani received six starred reviews and was named one of the best books of the year by the New York Public Library, The Horn Book, Booklist, BookPage, and others. All Erin’s books are Junior Library Guild Selections. In 2018, Hello, Universe and You Go First were both acquired for adaptation. Hello, Universe is being adapted by Netflix, and You Go First is being adapted for the stage. Erin has a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies and liberal arts from McNeese State University and an MFA from Rosemont College. She lives in Delaware. She teaches in the MFA programs at Hamline University and Rosemont College. She also teaches fiction with Gotham Writers Workshop. Erin is Filipina-American.
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Mary C. Moore and I discuss her career from zookeeper to literary agent with Kimberly Cameron and Associates, as well as the types of projects and clients she’s looking to represent. We talk about the difference between a large agency and a smaller one, the ways in which she evaluates manuscripts and authors, the support she provides writers both during submission to editors and after, the pandemic’s impact on publishing, a message from a cockatoo, a unicorn sighting, being a green witch, and so much more. This episode is jam-packed with publishing insight you don’t want to miss.
Always a passionate reader, Mary C. Moore made the career change to publishing in her early thirties. She graduated from Mills College, Oakland with a MFA in Creative Writing and English, dabbled in freelance editing and copy-writing, before starting an internship at Kimberley Cameron and Associates. She quickly fell in love with agenting, and dedicated two years as Kimberley’s assistant, before beginning her own client list. Her daughter was born shortly after causing a small hiatus, but she continued part time, making deals with Harper Collins, Penguin Random House, Macmillan and more.
In 2019 she officially began agenting full time, becoming an associate member of the AAR. She is eager to further build her client list in fiction, both children and adult. She reads widely and enjoys all fiction genres, but is especially seeking bookclub fiction with light speculative elements, female detective stories, whimsical middle-grade, and young adult that explores identity and culture.
She does not represent non-fiction (including memoir), picture books, or self-published novels (although she will consider your next project).
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Jasmine Warga and I discuss her newest novel, THE SHAPE OF THUNDER, as well as gun violence in schools and mental health in youth. We also talk about her process of pantsing and revising to find her stories, how storytelling rekindled her love of science, how she overcame her habit of hoping between stories, how she learned to make time for writing, astrology, a ghost story, developing healthy reading habits, and so much more.
Jasmine Warga is the author of the New York Times bestseller Other Words For Home. Other Words For Home earned multiple awards, including a John Newbery Honor, a Walter Honor for Young Readers, and a Charlotte Huck Honor. She is also the author of young adult books, My Heart and Other Black Holes and Here We Are Now, which have been translated into over twenty different languages. The Shape of Thunder, her next novel for middle grade readers, will be published in May 2021. Originally from Cincinnati, she now lives in the Chicago-area with her family.
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Sailaja N. Joshi, Amy Maranville, Payal Doshi, and I discuss Mango + Marigold Press and their newest release, REA AND THE BLOOD OF THE NECTAR. We talk about the cycle of their book from submission to acquisition, editing and revising, marketing and promotion, all the way to its launch and beyond. We discuss the importance of increasing diversity in publishing, the role of luck in an author’s career, a flying saucer story AND a ghost story, crucial advice for writers, and so much more.
Sailaja N. Joshi is a design thinker, intersectional feminist, mother to two, a bibliophile, an entrepreneur, lover of bold, modern design, diversity activist, and an aspiring dog owner. A Massachusetts native, Sailaja grew up a voracious reader. From Leo the Lop to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Amelia Bedelia, she loved every book she read. If you were to ask her today what her favorite book is, she'd likely say either the Harry Potter series OR The Tao of Pooh. It really depends on the day. She has always been interested in exploring multicultural generations and loves using those skills in new and exciting ways as the CEO and founder of Mango and Marigold Press. Mango and Marigold Press is an award-winning independent publishing house that shares the sweet and savory stories of the South Asian experience. Founded in 2014, the company has produced fourteen books across four different product categories and been featured on The Today Show, Us Weekly, People Magazine, the New York Times, the Washington Post and so much more. In 2019, the company unveiled its #1001DiverseBooks initiative. With this program, Sailaja has committed to raising the funds to donate 1001 new, diverse books to literacy nonprofits bridging the accessibility gap within Children's Literature. Community members can sponsor books for just $10 and through this program ensure that every child has access to high-quality, diverse kid's lit. The company launched the initiative with its 14th book Finding Om and reached their goal of raising funds for 1001 books in just five short days. The company's mission has expanded to not only bridging the diversity gap in children's literature but also improve the accessibility of diverse children's lit in underserved communities.
Amy Maranville is a Massachusetts-based editor with extensive experience in children's literature. In addition to her work as a senior editor for Mango + Marigold Press, Amy owns her own editing and writing company called Kraken Communications. Amy has worked with dozens of authors, many of them publishing for the first time, to bring forth their unique voices and experiences. She has also authored six picture books, two animated stories for a typing company, and has two easy reader non-fiction texts coming out next year. She lives in Somerville with her husband, two young sons, and a very sleepy basset hound named Barney.
Payal Doshi has a Masters in Creative Writing (Fiction) from The New School, New York. Having lived in the UK and US, she noticed a lack of Indian protagonists in global children’s fiction and one day wrote the opening paragraph to what would become her first children’s novel. She was born and raised in Mumbai, India, and currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her husband and three-year-old daughter. When she isn’t writing or spending time with her family, you can find her nose deep in a book with a cup of coffee or daydreaming of fantasy realms to send her characters off into. She loves the smell of old, yellowed books. Rea and the Blood of the Nectar, the first book in TheChronicles of Astranthia series is her debut middle grade novel. For more information, visit her website, www.payaldoshiauthor.com, or follow her on Instagram @payaldoshiauthor and on Twitter @payaldwrites.
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Robert Beatty and I discuss his many successes in life as a CEO and a writer, as well as his newest novel, WILLA OF DARK HOLLOW. We chat about his working with Amy Adams on the upcoming WILLA OF THE WOOD television show and the process that led to the publication of SERAFINA AND THE BLACK CLOAK. We talk about how writing is a skill and how he learned it, his 15 unpublished novels, the importance of staying bold, competitive fencing, the importance of sheer determination, assembling a publishing team, assembling robots of such quality he and his daughters were commended by President Obama at the White House, and ice cream flavors named after his characters.
Robert Beatty is the author of the #1 New York Times best selling Serafina series published by Disney Hyperion, a spooky mystery-thriller about a brave and unusual girl who lives secretly in the basement of the grand Biltmore Estate.
Serafina and the Black Cloak was a #1 New York Times best seller, has been on the list for more than 59 weeks, and won the prestigious 2016 Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize. The second book in the series, Serafina and the Twisted Staff, became a #1 New York Times best seller in the first week of its launch and earned a "Starred Review" from Kirkus Reviews, which said, "Even better than its predecessor, a sequel that delivers nonstop thrills from beginning to end." Enjoyed by both young readers and adults, the books are being taught in over a thousand classrooms nationwide.
Robert Beatty lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina with his wife and three daughters, who help create and refine his stories. He loves to explore Biltmore Estate and the darkened forest trails where his novels take place. He writes full-time now, but in his past lives, Robert was one of the early pioneers of cloud computing, the founder/CEO of Plex Systems, the co-founder of Beatty Robotics, and the chairman/CTO of Narrative Magazine. In 2007, he was named an Entrepreneur of the Year. When asked about the inspiration for his books, Robert said, "Serafina's journey grew out of my desire to write a story about an unusual and heroic young girl for my three daughters."
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Leila Sales and I talk about her career in publishing as well as her newest middle grade novel, THE CAMPAIGN. We discuss in depth how she read submissions as an editor and made her decisions about rejecting and accepting them. She shares her habits for successfully writing while being extremely busy, the pros and cons of decentralizing publishing, composing chapters that flow well, revealing the psychology of characters, allowing readers to reach their own conclusions, rules for exposition, and tons of other great tips you don’t want to miss.
Leila Sales is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels for children and young adults, including This Song Will Save Your Life and Once Was a Time. Her books have been optioned for stage and screen, selected for many state award lists, translated into a dozen languages, and received numerous starred reviews. Leila has also edited award-winning and bestselling fiction and nonfiction books for readers of all ages. Her authors have included award-winning actors Viola Davis and Bob Balaban; New York Times bestselling authors Gayle Forman, Max Brallier, and Ame Dyckman; National Book Award Finalist Elizabeth Partridge; MacArthur Fellow Xu Bing; and many more. Leila has also managed classic children’s publishing properties including Corduroy, Angelina Ballerina, Ferdinand, The Snowy Day, and others. Leila was born in Boston, Massachusetts; received her degree from the University of Chicago; and worked at Penguin Random House in New York City. She is now based in Austin, Texas, where she writes, edits, and speaks about books and publishing all over the world.
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Dr. Susan McCormick and I discuss writing about medical realities that are sometimes frightening for the middle grade audience in her new novel, THE ANTIDOTE. She shares her thoughts on how the pandemic has impacted young people and reasons for us to be optimistic about the future. We also chat about muses and the mysteries of writing, her secrets of success, a ballerina horror story, how to think about something later so you can focus, research methods, believing in ghosts, the importance of perseverance, and so much more.
Susan McCormick is an award-winning author and doctor who lives in Seattle. She graduated from Smith College and George Washington University Medical School, with additional medical training in San Francisco and Washington, DC. She served as a doctor for nine years in the US Army before moving to the Pacific Northwest and civilian practice. She is married and has two boys. She loves giant dogs and has loved Earl, an English Mastiff, and two Newfoundlands, Edward and Albert.
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Alane Adams shares the story of her transition from a successful accountant to a successful author and founder of the Rise Up Foundation. We talk about researching and writing mythology for her series, LEGENDS OF OLYMPUS, and her latest release, MEDUSA QUEST. We also discuss tips for productivity, the importance of not stopping writing for anything, author life during the pandemic, her Between the Pages virtual author talk, assembling the publicity team that makes her incredible marketing possible, the ways in which reading is a superpower, Christian Slater, the mysteries of the universe, and so much more.
Alane Adams is a children’s author, literacy advocate, and founder of the Rise Up Foundation. She is a former university professor and retired entrepreneur with a Master’s Degree in Diplomacy. As a children’s literacy advocate, Alane travels the country visiting schools to talk to kids about Reading is a Superpower. Alane is also a speaker and presenter, and has delivered keynote speeches on the writing process. Alane’s award-winning titles include the Legends of Orkney TM Norse mythology middle grade series, the Witches of Orkney prequel series, The Legends of Olympus Greek mythology middle grade series, and a series of historical fiction picture books that include The Coal Thief, The Egg Thief, The Santa Thief, and The Circus Thief. Alane’s books have won multiple awards, including SCBWI’s Spark Award for Best Picture book; Moonbeam Children Awards Gold Medal Best Juvenile Series; Benjamin Franklin Gold Winner Young Children’s Fiction; IPPY Gold Medal Winner Holiday Book; USA Best Book Awards Best Children’s Books. Her forthcoming April 2021 release is The Medusa Quest, Book 2 of the Legends of Olympus series. Alane is a proud member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the International Reading Association, The Literacy Research Association, and the California Reading Association. When she’s not writing or traveling to schools, Alane can be found hiking somewhere in the world or hanging out with her three boys.
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David LaRochelle and Mike Wohnoutka join me to discuss their collaboration from its start to how it remains successful, and their newest picture book, SEE THE CAT. We discuss the very different paths they took to publication, the difference in a writer’s workday versus an illustrator’s workday, the difference winning an award makes, school visits, professional pumpkin carving, a contest-winning supermarket run, and so much more.
David LaRochelle has been creating books for young people for over twenty-five years. His many picture book titles include The Best Pet of All, How Martha Saved Her Parents from Green Beans, and Moo! He is the recipient of the Sid Fleischman Humor Award, multiple children’s choice awards, and a three-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award.
A former elementary school teacher, David still visits many classrooms around the Midwest (and world!) each year, talking with students about books, writing, and illustrating. When he is not creating new books, he loves to read, play board games, and carve unique jack-o’-lanterns, which you can view at his website davidlarochelle.com.
Ever since Mike can remember he knew he wanted to be an artist. His dad, who worked at the Highway Department, would bring home reams of paper that had highway plans on one side and were blank on the other. He would be so excited to have all that paper to draw on and would fill each sheet with snowmobiles, baseball players, superheroes—everything he was interested in. His high school art teacher, Mr. Chase encouraged Mike to pursue art as a career. This, along with a scholarship, led him to the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. Since graduating with a B.F.A. in Illustration, Mike has illustrated over 30 books for children. He has worked with various clients including Bloomsbury Publishing, Candlewick Press, Henry Holt, Clarion Books, Disney-Hyperion Books, Holiday House, Scholastic Books, Penguin-Random House, Cricket Magazine Group, General Mills, 3M, Medtronic, and Peaceable Kingdom Press. A native of Spicer, Minnesota, Mike currently lives with his family in Minneapolis.
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Holly McGhee and I talk about her childhood in the country and how she went from selling corn out of a pickup truck to founding Pippin Properties Inc, an agency that has profoundly shaped the face of modern children’s literature. We chat about her relationship with author Kate DiCamillo both as a client and as a friend, and how it led to the creation of Holly McGhee’s new picture book, WHAT THE WORLD COULD MAKE. We also discuss ghosts, discovering hints of the mystery of the universe, a bird’s eye view of a literary agency, writing for art rather than money, the importance of focusing on your next book, the qualities of a successful author, and so much more.
Holly McGhee still carried MADELINE around in 3rd grade — until Mrs. Carrier, her school librarian, tricked her into reading longer books by giving her one with her name on it, HOLLY IN THE SNOW. After college, Holly headed straight into the book world of New York City, where she has enjoyed being a secretary, an advertising manager, a sales rep (for one month), and in the six years prior to opening the doors at Pippin, an executive editor at HarperCollins.
Now, as the President and Creative Director of Pippin she is dedicated to shepherding books that make a difference into the world. Someone once told her, “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life,” and that has proven true for her.
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Luke Cunningham and I push the boundaries of what is an appropriate podcast conversation to promote a middle grade novel such as his debut, LEO, INVENTOR EXTRAORDINAIRE. We discuss his time writing for THE TONIGHT SHOW, Pomodoro sessions, our dream pedestal arcades, working with Harper Collins Christian, the problem with rich people, writing political jokes on the fly, Pica’s Restaurant of Upper Darby, the time I got fired from a Subway sandwich shop, the time I met Jared Fogel, Leonardo da Vinci, Assassin’s Creed II, Bob Lazar, simulation theory, and so much more.
Luke X. Cunningham is an Emmy-nominated writer from Philadelphia. Previously, he spent three years as a writer for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. He developed a passion for the Renaissance while earning a history degree from Brown University. He currently lives in Los Angeles, CA, with his wife and their son, Finn. LEO: Inventor Extraordinaire is his first novel.
Luke’s list of games for a 4 person pedestal that I fully endorse: WWF Wrestlefest, NFL Blitz ‘99, Tecmo Bowl, Street Fighter series, Mortal Kombat 1-5, Golden Axe series, Marvel Vs Capcom series, NBA Jam series, Kung Fu, Punch Out, X-Men: Children Of The Atom, X-Men, beat em up, Final Fight, Gauntlet series, Tekken series, Soul Edge, Soul Calibur, TMNT, The Simpsons, Double Dragon series, Contra, Dig Dug, Commando, Choplifter, Spy Hunter , Rampage, Donkey Kong series, Pac Man series, Paperboy
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Author Kyle Lukoff tells the story of how he persisted in publishing and finally landed his dream agent, Saba Sulaiman, who joins him on the podcast. We discuss how they revised Kyle’s newest, TOO BRIGHT TO SEE, how they submitted it to editors, sold it at auction, and are now promoting it as well as selling Kyle’s future novels. We also chat about writing trans characters, the controversy surrounding Kyle’s books about them, being cautious when staying in haunted houses, the terrible truth about Roald Dahl’s THE WITCHES, and so much more.
Saba Sulaiman is an agent at Talcott Notch Literary Services, a boutique agency located in Milford, CT. She holds a BA from Wellesley College and an MA from the University of Chicago, where she studied modern Persian literature. In children’s fiction, she is building her Picture Book, Middle Grade and Young Adult lists, and is particularly (although not exclusively) interested in contemporary realistic stories. Being an immigrant who is constantly negotiating her own identity and sense of belonging in a place she now calls “home,” she is committed to highlighting more diverse voices with compelling stories to tell; stories that demonstrate the true range of perspectives that exist in this world, and address urgent and often underexplored issues in both fiction and non-fiction with veracity and heart. Follow her on Twitter @agentsaba and learn more about her at sabasulaiman.com
Kyle Lukoff writes books for kids and other people. Right now you can pre-order his debut middle grade novel TOO BRIGHT TO SEE, due out 4/20/2021! Books you can read today include A STORYTELLING OF RAVENS, WHEN AIDAN BECAME A BROTHER (which won the 2020 Stonewall Award!), the MAX AND FRIENDS series, and EXPLOSION AT THE POEM FACTORY. Kyle spent eight years as an elementary school librarian, but now he writes full time, assists in sensitivity readings and consultations, and presents on children’s and youth literature all across the country. He got hired at a bookstore when he was sixteen, which means he’s been working at the intersection of books and people for well over half his life. Kyle is represented by Saba Sulaiman at Talcott Notch. Find him on Twitter at @Shekels_Library and Facebook at fb.me/kylelukoffwrites.
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Carole Boston Weatherford and I discuss poetry, history, and race in her newest picture books BOX: HENRY BROWN MAILS HIMSELF TO FREEDOM and UNSPEAKABLE: THE TULSA RACE MASSACRE. We talk about discussing difficult history for children, how to tailor-make books for Critical Reading elementary school students, what it means to be called to poetry by The Creator, calling out Jinx the Pokémon, a spirit story, race memory, writing with agency, and so much more.
Carole Boston Weatherford grew up in an all-black neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. An only child until the age of 10, she has fond memories of riding bikes, drawing and writing, and singing and tap dancing to her dad's collection of jazz records. In the first grade, Carole recited her first poem. Throughout elementary and middle school, her artistic and literary talents were recognized and encouraged by her teachers. Carole continued writing through high school and into college, but it was only when one of her poems was published in a city magazine that she seriously considered becoming an author. For 20 years, Carole Boston Weatherford worked for the National Bar Association in Washington, DC and North Carolina. After becoming a mother, she enrolled in a master's level creative writing program at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. Although she entered the program writing poetry for adults, she graduated wanting to write historical fiction and poetry for children. Weatherford's first children's book, Juneteenth Jamboree, was published in 1995. Since then she has authored more than two dozen children's books.
Weatherford says that persistence is one of the keys to her success. "I had manuscripts that had been rejected 20 times before finding a home with a publisher," she recalls. "But I keep going and I believe in what I write about." Weatherford creates the kind of books that weren't available to her as a child: ones that feature African-American protagonists. In the late 1990s Weatherford began teaching college courses in composition, creative writing, and children's and adolescent literature.
Today Carole Boston Weatherford is an associate professor at Fayetteville State University. She and her husband live in High Point, North Carolina.
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Six months after our first conversation in episode 78, editor Sara-Jayne Slack and author Dorothy A. Winsor discuss Inspired Quill’s 10th anniversary and their latest release in the Tales of Rinland series, THE TRICKSTER. We chat about life during the pandemic, the advantages of in-person events vs online book promotion, the dos and don’ts of talking about publishing in an open forum, choosing an ideal cover for a story, ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE (that one’s mostly just me), and so much more.
Sara-Jayne is a social entrepreneur, public speaker, SEO nerd and lover of all things stationery-related. She works as an SEO Project Manager by day, and manages the not-for-profit publishing house Inspired Quill by night. Sara can regularly be found discussing inbound marketing, skills development, and non-tokenistic diversity in publishing, but strives to listen at least as much as she talks. She’s also scarily comfortable talking about herself in third person, and believes that ‘To Do’ lists breed when you’re not looking.
Dorothy A. Winsor writes young adult and middle grade fantasy. Her novels include Finders Keepers (Zharmae, 2015), Deep as a Tomb (Loose Leave Publishing, 2016), The Wind Reader (Inspired Quill, 2018), and The Wysman (June, 2020). At one time, Winsor taught technical writing at Iowa State University and GMI Engineering and Management Institute (now Kettering). She then discovered that writing fiction is much more fun and has never looked back. She lives in Chicagoland.
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Carrie Seim and I discuss her newest novel, HORSE GIRL, as well as her bestselling audiobook, THE FLYING FLAMINGO SISTERS, and her performance of both. We talk about her time as a writer for Nickelodeon and a performer on INSIDE AMY SCHUMER, her audition for Saturday Night Live, how she combined her training in improvisational comedy with The Groundlings and her freelance writing career to become an ardent plotter of stories for children, an amazing tale of Area 51, the importance of deadlines, a caterpillar that might be the key to everything, and so much more.
Carrie is the creator of The Flying Flamingo Sisters, the best-selling Audible series, hailed by The New York Times as a Best Audiobook for Road Trips with Kids. She is also author of HORSE GIRL, her new comedic novel for Penguin Random House. Carrie has served as a staff writer for several Nickelodeon comedy variety shows, while her essays on awkwardness are featured in the book Mortified: Life is a Battlefield. As a journalist and essayist, she has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, The New York Post, McSweeney's, Architectural Digest, Condé Nast Traveler and NPR's UnFictional. An alum of Northwestern University and The Groundlings comedy theatre, Carrie has appeared Inside Amy Schumer. Dang it, on Inside Amy Schumer. You can hear her voice narrating audio books, animated series and commercials (where she's played everything from an evil robot to a sassy pickle). She has also appeared on E! TV, the Today Show and performed her own sketch show, Midwestern Wisdom, at the Comedy Central Stage. Her original animated web series Bad Moms in Movie History was featured on HGTV's uLive.
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Esabella Strickland is an award-winning actress, screenwriter, filmmaker, and social media influencer who’s just published her first novel, THEN AND THERE, HERE AND WHERE. And she’s 15 years old. We discuss her time as a Variety BC Youth Ambassador speaking about her anxiety, ADHD, and dyslexia, as well as her jeans pocket art. She explains how she charges toward her fears, strives to lift as she rises, and writes about young adult characters as a young adult.
Described as a "Renaissance Girl" for her multitude of talent. 15-year-old Esabella Anna Karena Strickland is a Multi Award-Winning Filmmaker, Award-Winning Writer, Award-Winning Actress, Award-Winning Media Host, Artist, and GenZ Influencer based out of Vancouver, BC. She is a young, raw talent who is a learning disability advocate and empowering figure against bullying through the arts.
Esabella starred in local indie short film's Enlightenment, Things You Take, and Arthurs Gift. She also co-wrote, co-directed and starred in the Short Film My Red Ball and The Notebook through the Young Movie Makers Program. My Red Ball handles themes of bullying, written through Esabella's own life experience, it has gone to appear in 60 International Film Festivals, winning at 10 of them.
Esabella has also made appearances on local productions of Travelers, Goodboys, and Series of Unfortunate Events. Esabella is also the youngest member and supporter of Women In TV and FIlm Vancouver.
Esabella is also an Award-Winning Filmmaker and Writer for her feature film screen adaptation of her Novel Then and There, Here and Where which has won at several film festivals for Best Script. She was also behind the camera for A Conversation with E which was made through the CineLab Filmmaking Camp this summer. A Conversation with E is already an official selection of the 2021 Cannes Short Film Festival and has won at several film festivals. This lead to her writing and producing her first Independent film called A Dialogue with Pandora this fall with the support of Actor Paul Greene.
Esabella recently joined Graisland Entertainment as a GenZ Script Consultant and is collaborating with Producer and Screenwriter Michael Grais on the next generation of Horror Films.
Esabella had the honour of co-hosting the 53rd and 54th annual Variety Show of Hearts Telethon as their Youth Ambassador and was recently invited back to host the 55th Telethon in 2021. Esabella was also an EveRiathing red carpet host to support the 2019 Joey awards. Esabella was the ambassador and host for Geektopia 2019 to help raise money for the Amanda Todd Legacy. Esabella is also the ambassador and virtual host for the 2020 Meowfest to help raise money for the Langley Animal Protection Society, and Regional Animal Protection Society.
Esabella was invited to the 2019 Adobe Summit as an Adobe insider and speaker. She was the young influencer to attend the Las Vegas event and was in the top 10 in Social Media Engagement during the week of the Summit. Many were impressed by her empathy, compassion and insight of a Genz'r
Esabella has finished co-writing her first Young Adult Novel. Then and There, Here and Where, which will be published March 2nd, 2021. The main character of the book; Orabella has a learning disability while learning to become a heroine. Esabella's goal is to have girls feel connected and empowered by Orabella. As an artist, she is a painter, drawer and a jean pocket painter for celebrities and special orders of which 10% of sales go towards local charities
Esabella has worked hard to train herself with techniques she uses to deal with both her anxiety, Adhd, and dyslexia, Through this process she's discovered what she calls her two superpowers, memorizing and a higher level of sensitivity towards others, including the characters she plays, She has also trained herself with mindfulness and grounding techniques to cope with her anxiety - something she hopes to pass onto those who she works with.
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Nick Goss and I discuss self publishing, home schooling, his bought with Covid-19, writing secular stories as a Christian, the pros and cons of social media, the importance of organizing a writing schedule, producing output that meets your personal standard, stories that are premium Nintendo good, a tale of the supernatural, and so much more. And, bonus, if you stick around to the end, I reveal a few behind-the-scenes tidbits about the podcast.
NICK GOSS has been a piano teacher, sailboat builder, private investigator, barista, and salesman. He has a collection of more books than he could possibly read in his lifetime and lives with his head firmly stuck in the clouds.
He resides in Nashville with his wife, two kids, and their labradoodle, Shelby. His host of eccentric hobbies include woodworking, sailing, fencing, ping pong, hammocking, and playing the penny whistle.
Can you imagine what his neighbors must think?
Yeah. You guessed it: he was homeschooled.
The Traveler’s League Book Series was born when he strayed from the normal bedtime routine of reading, and instead created new worlds full of funny characters, action, magic, and adventure. Since then, he has committed himself to entertaining children through writing books that make kids feel the magic of adventure and friendship. All the books in the series are available on Amazon.
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My friend Lisa Fipps and I discuss “fat girl rules,” intrinsic self worth, overcoming bullying, and writing a story in free-verse poetry. Her debut novel, STAR FISH, releases this week with starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, me, and many others. You don’t want to miss this book. Lisa and I also chat about her day job handling the marketing for a library and how that helps her market her book, her time as a reporter, her jar of positive affirmations, how she met her literary agent, the importance of networking and cultivating a writing family, a heartwarming ghost story, and so much more.
Lisa Fipps is a graduate of Ball State University, award-winning former journalist, current director of marketing for a public library (where she won the Sara Laughlin marketing award), and an author of middle-grade books. Starfish is her debut novel. She’s working on her next novel and several others. She currently lives in Indiana and lived in Texas.
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Mike Johnston and I discuss his new middle grade series, CONFESSIONS OF A DORK LORD, and the stylistic differences between his fantasy writing for adults under the super-secret penname, Michael Johnston. Also, medieval toilets. We chat about working with his illustrator, how experience as a dungeon master in Dungeons and Dragons helps with world building in fantasy, how actual architecture is surprisingly not like plotting a novel at all, collaborating with his wife, author Melissa de la Cruz, and so much more.
Michael Johnston was born in 1973 in Cleveland, Ohio. As a child and a teen he was an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy. He studied architecture and ancient history at Lehigh University and during a lecture on the history of ancient Egypt, the seed of an idea was born. He earned a master’s degree in architecture from Columbia University, graduating at the top of his class. Michael worked as an architect in New York City before moving to Los Angeles. Sparked by the change of locale, a visit to the desert, and his growing dissatisfaction with the architectural industry, he sought a way to merge his interests in architecture and history with his love of fantasy. By day he worked as an architect, but by night he wrote and researched an epic fantasy novel inspired by the history of ancient Egypt and the tragic story of King Lear. After working this way for several years, he shut down his successful architecture practice and resolved to write full time. He now lives and writes in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter. You can find Michael on twitter @mjohnstonauthor
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Donna Galanti and I discuss how she started her writing career at age 40 and exploded into it with discipline and passion. She shares what she’s learned about being productive and prolific while successfully managing social media. Also, a ghost story. We discuss her newest novel, UNICORN ISLAND, her time in the Navy, how she left her literary agent for a better fit, and a full 10-step course for writing scary stories for children.
Donna Galanti decided she was a grown up for far too long. She luckily gave that up to write children’s books. Donna Galanti is the author of the middle grade adventure Joshua and The Lightning Road, which the Midwest Book Review called, “A heart-pounding thrill ride full of unexpected twists and turns from start to finish”. She’s also the author of the follow up, Joshua and the Arrow Realm, and writes the popular Unicorn Island series for Epic!, the leading digital platform for kids 12 and under (hardcover, February 2021, Andrews McMeel).
Donna is a writing contest judge at nycmidnight.com, a member of From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors blog, and regularly presents as a guest author at schools. She also teaches writers on marketing and craft at writing conferences and through her online courses. When she’s not writing you can find her on Twitter or Facebook where she loves to share all things about outdoor adventures and children’s books. Donna has lived from England as a child, to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer where she served with Fleet Intelligence Pacific, and has had a long career in corporate marketing. Visit her at donnagalanti.com. She is represented by Liza Fleissig with the Liza Royce Agency in NYC.
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Theo Gangi and Rucker Moses, the pen name for authors Craig S. Phillips and Harold Hayes Jr., discuss their collaboration for their novel, KINGSTON AND THE MAGICIAN’S LOST AND FOUND. We talk about their writing for television, subverting the author ego, increasing suspense with a ticking clock, planning a series one book at a time, ghosts and flying saucers, why you should hold your baseball bat like an egg, how to distill one narrative voice from three authors, book marketing during a pandemic, and so much more.
Rucker Moses is the pen name of Craig S. Phillips and Harold Hayes Jr. They both hail from Atlanta and started telling stories together at the University of Georgia. Together, they've been nominated for three Emmys for writing in a children's program and have written for TV shows based on books by R. L. Stine and Christopher Pike. They also make virtual reality experiences and own a production company named SunnyBoy Entertainment. In no particular order, their favorite things to write about are ninjas, magic, space, and abandoned amusement parks. When not doing all that, they are hanging with their wonderful families at home in Los Angeles.
Theo Gangi is the author of A New Day in America and the breakout crime thriller Bang Bang. His stories have been anthologized in First Thrills, edited by Lee Child, The Greensboro Review, The Columbia Spectator and the Kratz Sampler. His articles and reviews have appeared in Buzzfeed.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, Mystery Scene Magazine, Inked Magazine and Crimespree Magazine. A graduate of Columbia University’s School of the Arts, he has taught writing at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, is the Director of the Writing Program at St. Francis College and lives in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
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Author and former children’s book editor Caroline Gertler and I discuss her debut novel, MANY POINTS OF ME. We also chat about her studies of art history, her time working for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, how she chose her literary agent, how she made the mental transition from editor to author, how she writes intuitively for children while gaining character insights from children, her distinct prose style, and so much more more.
Caroline Gertler is the author of the middle grade novel MANY POINTS OF ME (Greenwillow/HC, January 2021). A former children’s book editor, Caroline has an MA in art history, and gives tours of Old Master paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Caroline grew up in New York City and lives on the Upper West Side with her husband, two daughters, and dog, Dash—which happens to be one of her favorite forms of punctuation!
https://www.carolinegertler.com/
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Christina Li and I discuss how she began writing seriously at age 12, secured a literary agent before graduating high school, and is celebrating the publication of her debut novel, CLUES TO THE UNIVERSE, before graduating college. We also talk about researching the eighties, an author’s responsibility when writing about grief for younger readers, how joy is an act of resistance, social economics as a way of understanding people and fictional characters, the importance of Asian stories not being a monolith, and so much more.
Christina Li is a student studying Economics at Stanford University. When she is not puzzling over her stats problem set, she is daydreaming about characters and drinking too much jasmine green tea. She grew up in the Midwest but now calls California home. You can find her online at christinaliwrites.com. Clues to the Universe is her debut novel.
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It’s the third ever, ridiculously long mega-sized Middle Grade Ninja clips show, featuring snippets from episodes 60 through 100.
New episodes are scheduled to return January 30th.
Until then, enjoy this compilation of clips from conversations with AUTHORS Catherine Linka, Barbara Shoup, Kaela Noel, Sayantani DasGupta, Avi, Anna Meriano, Anne Bustard, Rob Harrell, Joy McCullough, Mitali Perkins, Carlie Sorosiak, Claire Swinarski, Josh Berk, Saundra Mitchell, Hugh Howey, Anne Nesbet, Tracy Wolff, Dorothy A. Winsor, Lillie Evans, Tony Perona, C.L. Shore, Janet E. Williams, Paula Chase, Preeti Chhibber, Annie Sullivan, MarcyKate Connolly, Laura Stegman, Daniel Kraus, Patrick Huellery, Margi Preus, Hayley Chewins, Marcella Pixley, Tonya Duncan Ellis, Victoria Bond, John Gallagher, Hena Kahn, Melissa de la Cruz, G. Neri, LITERARY AGENTS Kristy Hunter, Kiana Nguyen, Jim McCarthy, EDITORS Sarah LaPolla, Sara-Jayne Slack, Mari Kesselring, Elizabeth Law, Cheryl Klein, and PUBLIC RELATIONS EXPERT Sarah Miniaci.
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Cheryl Klein and I talk about writing and publishing and everything good in this 100th episode extravaganza. She shares her journey from growing up in a small Missouri town to becoming the continuity editor for the last three HARRY POTTER novels and the enormity of that experience. We discuss her newest book, A YEAR OF EVERYDAY WONDERS, and her advice for structuring picture books and trusting your illustrator. We also chat about Lee and Low Books, maintaining a healthy level of writer ego, why most editors don’t develop unhealthy egos, the “cheerful privilege of the white reader,” and so much more.
Cheryl Klein is the editorial director at Lee & Low Books. She is also the author of two adult books, The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults and Second Sight: An Editor's Talks on Writing, Revising, and Publishing Books for Children and Young Adults, and three picture books, Wings, Thunder Trucks, and A Year of Magical Thinking. Prior to her work at Lee and Low, she spent sixteen years at Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, where she published a wide array of acclaimed titles and served as the continuity editor for the last two books of the Harry Potter series. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and can be found online as @chavelaque.
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G. Neri and I discuss CONCRETE COWBOY, the upcoming Netflix film based on his novel GHETTO COWBOY. He explains how he creates character voices, how stories chose him, and how he translates scientists’ studies into fiction. We also talk about writing during a pandemic, looking for alligators, surviving Antarctica, renting videos from a pre-Reservoir Dogs Quentin Tarantino, working with Chick Corea, meeting Ray Bradbury, the advantage of flying under the radar, and so much more.
G. Neri is the Coretta Scott King honor-winning author of Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty and the recipient of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award for his free-verse novella, Chess Rumble. His books have been translated into multiple languages in over 25 countries. They include Tru & Nelle, Grand Theft Horse, Hello, I'm Johnny Cash, and Ghetto Cowboy, which was made into the upcoming movie, Concrete Cowboy, starring Idris Elba. In 2017, he was awarded the first of two National Science Foundation grants that sent him to Antarctica. Prior to becoming a writer, Neri was a filmmaker, an animator/illustrator, a digital media producer, and one of the creators of The Truth anti-smoking campaign. He is currently co-chair of the Antarctic Artists and Writers Collective and writes full-time while living on the Gulf Coast of Florida with his wife and daughter.
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Melissa de la Cruz and I discuss the differences between writing original stories such as her newest, NEVER AFTER: THE THIRTEENTH FAIRY, and her best-selling series THE NEW BLUE BLOODS COVEN, and writing for established intellectual property, such as THE DESCENDANTS and GOTHAM HIGH. She also shares how she built her author career by first writing for magazines, how she keeps continuity in her many series, how being married to a writer influences her writing life, how to manage a writer’s ego, how to market a book in the time of COVID-19, and so much more.
Melissa de la Cruz is the #1 New York Times, #1 Publishers Weekly and #1 IndieBound bestselling author of Isle of the Lost and Return to the Isle of the Lost as well as many critically acclaimed and award-winning novels for readers of all ages. Her books have also topped the USA TODAY, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times bestseller lists and have been published in more than twenty countries.
A former fashion and beauty editor, Melissa has written for the New York Times, Marie Claire, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Allure, the San Francisco Chronicle, McSweeney's, Teen Vogue, CosmoGirl! and Seventeen. She has also appeared as an expert on fashion, trends and fame for CNN, E! and Fox News.
Melissa grew up in Manila and moved to San Francisco with her family, where she graduated high school salutatorian from the Convent of the Sacred Heart. At Columbia University, she majored in art history and English. Today she lives in Los Angeles and Palm Springs with her husband and daughter.
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Hena Khan and I discuss her career thus far in children’s publishing and her wide range of books from IT’S RAMADAN, CURIOUS GEORGE to ZAYD SALEEM, CHASING THE DREAM to her most recent MORE TO THE STORY and the upcoming AMINA’S SONG. We discuss how she strives to create the representation in children’s literature that was lacking when she was a young reader and the importance of writing stories about Muslims rather than stories solely about being Muslim. All this and so much more await Esteemed Audience.
Hena Khan is a Pakistani-American who was born and raised in Maryland, where she still lives. She enjoys writing about her culture as well as all sorts of other subjects, from spies to space travel. She is the author of the middle grade novels Amina’s Voice, Amina’s Song, and More to the Story and picture books Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns, Under My Hijab, and It’s Ramadan, Curious George, among others.
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John Gallagher and I nerd out about comics, action figures, Batman and all the best things in life, including his new comic book-ish novel, MAX MEOW: CAT CRUSADER. We also talk about his role as art director for RANGER RICK MAGAZINE, our mutual childhood dreams of being Robin, outlining while leaving room for fun, the importance of creating fast, launching a book series during a pandemic, the importance of a meatball from space, a possible ghost story, and so much more.
John Gallagher is the art director of the NWF’s “Ranger Rick” magazine, cofounder of “Kids Love Comics” (an organization that uses graphic novels to promote literacy), and leads workshops teaching kids how to create their own comics. John lives in Virginia with his wife and their three kids. Visit him at MaxMeow.Com, on twitter @johnBGallagher, on facebook @MaxMeowCatCrusader and on instagram @johngallagher_cartoonist.
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Victoria Bond and I discuss ZORA AND ME: THE SUMMONER, the third book in her trilogy with coauthor T.R. Simon, and the collaboration that made it possible. We talk about Zora Neale Hurston, writing historical fiction, and depicting the ugly truth of America’s racist past in literature for younger readers. We also chat about zombies, money in publishing (and the lack thereof), Vicky’s time as an assistant in a literary agency, Stephen King, John Keats, actual ghost stories, and so much more.
Victoria Bond is a writer and professor. Her novel, Zora and Me, co-written with T.R. Simon, won the John Steptoe/Coretta Scott King Award for New Talent and was nominated for an Edgar Award in the category of Juvenile Fiction. Zora and Me was also a Junior Library Guild Selection, ABC New Voices Selection, SIBA Okra Award Winner, Fall Indie Next Top Ten Pick, Kirkus Best of 2010 Children's Books, Booklist 2010 Editor's Choice, The New York Public Library 2010 list of 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, the Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award, and a 2014 World Book Night U.S. pick. Victoria holds a MFA in poetry. The occasional essayist on issues both personal and pollical, she teaches first-year writing at John Jay College, The City University of New York. Victoria lives in New Jersey a short drive from where she grew up with her husband, son and their beloved pit-bull.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://victoriabondauthor.com/
The audio from each episode is available as the Middle Grade Ninja Podcast on Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, itunes, Podbean, Podblaster, RadioPublic, blubrry, Listen Notes, Google Play, and many other fine locations.
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Tonya Duncan Ellis and I discuss her SOPHIE WASHINGTON series and I convince to give away all her indie publishing and marketing secrets for free. In this Halloween-ish episode, we discuss “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors, specifics for writing a successful middle grade series, why it’s important for characters of color to star in stories about everyday kid stuff, Bigfoot, processing trauma through fiction, and so much more. And, added bonus, you can download both our books for free. Happy Halloween!
Tonya Duncan Ellis has had her nose in a book since she learned to read, so it’s no surprise that she’d one day become a writer. She is author of the Amazon best selling Sophie Washington children’s book series, a former journalist, and a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Fluent in French, Tonya loves learning about other cultures and has traveled to 49 states and 20 countries. She lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and three children.
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What don’t legendary editor Elizabeth Law and I chat about in this far-ranging conversation that only begins to scratch at the surface of her vast publishing knowledge? We discuss her interactions with literary agents, working with Stephen King, her “cameo” in GERALD’S GAME, her work for Roald Dahl, the origin story of previous guest, Dan Gutman, lessons learned from Robert McKee, and a kiss with Hamilton’s Jonathan Groff. Elizabeth Law shares incredible insights on writing dialogue, description, characterization, theme, and an overview of so much of what’s she’s learned during her distinguished career. Hear her blow my mind by telling me word count isn’t nearly as important as I think it is, and then she shares the secret of what every publisher is looking for.
Elizabeth Law is a children’s and young adult publisher and editor with over three decades of experience. In her own words: "I worked at Viking Penguin, and at Penguin’s divisions Puffin Books and Frederick Warne and Co, for 18 years, leaving to become Associate Publisher of Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers. And in 2007 I left there and became the first publisher of Egmont USA. At Egmont I got to help create a company from the ground up, which taught me, among other things, to think creatively about ways to get attention for books when you’re competing against other books' huge marketing budgets. From 2013-2017 I worked as a consultant, with writers and artists and people who just love children’s books as much as I do. I’ve kept that work up as I took a role at Holiday House Books for Young Readers as their backlist and special projects editor. I continue to acquire and work on terrific books, including the recent debut title Itch by Polly Farquhar, which has received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist."
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Marcella Pixley and I talk about her new novel TROWBRIDGE ROAD, currently on the long list for the National Book Award. We discuss the many parallels between that story set in 1983 (now considered historical fiction!), her own similar childhood and how she separated the two to create a “soul book” We also chat about editing, teaching 8th grade language arts during the time of COVID-19, launching books virtually, being visited in your dreams by the dead, flying saucers, simulation theory, and so much more.
Marcella Pixley teaches eighth grade Language Arts at the Carlisle Public Schools. Her poetry has been published in literary journals such as Prairie Schooner, Feminist Studies, Sow’s Ear Poetry Review and Poet Lore, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Ms. Pixley has written three acclaimed young adult novels: Freak, Without Tess, Ready To Fall. and most recently, Trowbridge Road. Freak received four starred reviews and was named a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, Without Tess was a Junior Library Guild Selection, Ready to Fall was named a Bank Street Best Book of the Year. Her forthcoming novel, Trowbridge Road is a Junior Library Guild Selection and has been named a Best Book of the Year by Prenille Ripp. Ms. Pixley lives in an antique farmhouse in Westford, Massachusetts with her husband and two sons. She is a graduate of Vassar College, University of Tennessee and Bread Loaf School of English.
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Hayley Chewins and I discuss her newest novel, THE SISTERS OF STRAYGARDEN PLACE, and our mutual love for the greatest singer, composer, and writing muse extraordinaire, Tori Amos. We also talk about writing intuitively, the joy of language, motivations to write, fixing common plot problems, working with her literary agent, Patricia Nelson, revising without removing your story’s heart, making writing a priority, writing what you love, and so much more.
Hayley Chewins writes books about magical girls with secrets. Her debut, The Turnaway Girls (Candlewick Press, 2018) was a Kirkus Best Book and made the 2019 Amelia Bloomer Book List. Her second novel, The Sisters of Straygarden Place, is forthcoming from Candlewick Press in September2020. Hayley lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, with her husband and a very small poodle. She is represented by Patricia Nelson at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.
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Margie Preus and I chat about the path to publishing HEART OF THE SAMURAI and being a Newberry Honor as well as the final book in her ENCHANTMENT LAKE series, THE SILVER BOX. She shares some lessons she learned from legendary writing instructor, John Gardner, and how she overcame the success of her first novel to complete SHADOW ON THE MOUNTAIN. We also talk about writing and producing children’s theater, rules for writing historical fiction, why some triumph over adversity when others are crushed by it, having a separate writing house, meeting Joe Biden, sharing a bed with a ghost, horse breaking, and so much more.
Margi Preus enjoys traveling, speaking, and visiting schools all over the world. Her books for young readers have won multiple awards, including a Newbery Honor, landed on the New York Times bestseller list, been honored as ALA/ALSC Notables, selected as an NPR Backseat Book Club pick, chosen for community reads, and translated into many languages. When not writing, she likes to ski, hike, paddle, or sit quietly with a book in her lap.
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Editor Mari Kesselring and author Patrick Hueller share with me the story of how they met, each a set of identical twins with a love of literature, and how they work together now as writers, parents, and spouses. Mari tells me about her publisher, North Star Editions, and Patrick tells me about his newest book, READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL. We also talk author submissions, editorial styles, launching books in the time of COVID-19, reaching reluctant readers, how pantsers and plotters can apparently learn to love one another, and so much more.
Mari Kesselring is an editor with experience working on many fiction and nonfiction books aimed at children and young adults. Some fiction books she’s edited have earned the following honors: YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, Junior Library Guild Selection, and ALA Rainbow List. She enjoys YA novels with compelling narratives and distinct, diverse voices. Mari is also the author of several books, including the middle-grade series, Bridget Gadget.
Patrick Hueller has an MFA from the University of Minnesota. Through various pen names, he has written several YA and MG novels. Foul, a sports-horror story written under the name Paul Hoblin, was described by Booklist as “the strongest entry yet in the Night Fall collection” and “unbearably tense.” The Beast (also as Paul Hoblin) was a School Library Journal selection. Wolf High and The Wish (as P.W. Hueller) both made SLJ’s list of “Accessible Reads for Struggling Reluctant Readers.” As himself, Patrick is the author of the STU STORIES series, which, according to award-winning author Geoff Herbach "hits on pretty much every topic I cared about when I was a kid (love, Jedis, severed legs, etc.). National Book Award finalist Charles Baxter described KIRSTEN HOWARD'S BIGGEST FAN as "beautifully written, with a concert-hall perfect pitch for adolescent speech and idiom and ways of feeling."
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Jim McCarthy and I discuss how he became a literary agent and his career in publishing so far. We chat about COVID-19 and its impact on the industry, the excitement he felt when his first client’s book took off, how he falls in love with a submission, the sorts of projects he’s interested in, how he woos a potential client, what a writer can expect when they sign with Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC, a haunted apartment, finding an agent that’s worthy of you, and so much more.
Jim McCarthy interned for Dystel, Goderich & Bourret while studying urban design at New York University. Upon graduating, Jim realized he would much rather continue working with books than make the jump (as he had originally intended) to the field of city planning. Eighteen years later, he remains at DG &B as a VP and agent. As an avid fiction reader, his interests encompass both literary and commercial works in the adult, young adult, and middle grade categories. He is particularly interested in literary fiction, underrepresented voices, fantasy, mysteries, romance, anything unusual or unexpected, and any book that makes him cry or laugh out loud. In addition to fiction he is also interested in narrative nonfiction whether it be memoir, historical, science, pop culture, or just a darn good polemic.
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Daniel Kraus and I discuss his newest book, THEY THREW US AWAY, a wonderfully dark middle grade novel written by an author of horror. We get along famously. We talk briefly about prequel possibilities for THE SHAPE OF WATER and at length about his collaboration with George Romero on THE LIVING DEAD. We also chat about plotting, the benefits of working on multiple projects at once, creating consistent rules for a fantasy world, the importance of writing without an audience, how to write dark children’s stories without being too dark, and so much more.
DANIEL KRAUS is a New York Times bestselling author. With Guillermo del Toro, he co-authored THE SHAPE OF WATER, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscar-winning film. Also with del Toro, Kraus co-authored TROLLHUNTERS, which was adapted into the Emmy-winning Netflix series. Kraus's THE DEATH AND LIFE OF ZEBULON FINCH was named one of Entertainment Weekly's Top 10 Books of the Year, and he has won two Odyssey Awards (for both ROTTERS and SCOWLER) and has been a Library Guild selection, YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, Bram Stoker finalist, and more.
His newest books are THEY THREW US AWAY and THE LIVING DEAD, a posthumous collaboration with legendary filmmaker George A. Romero. Kraus's work has been translated into over 25 languages. He lives with his wife in Chicago.
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Laura Stegman and I talk about SUMMER OF LUCK, her debut novel that took over 20 years to publish, as well her plan to promote it, and she would know. She was raised by publicists and has been one herself for more than three decades. We also discuss her journey from an actress to an author, the time she visited the set of Mary Poppins, her early influences, learning to trust the process, putting together an effective press kit, effectively targeting media outlets, and so much more.
Laura Segal Stegman is a Los Angeles-based author and arts publicist whose middle grade debut novel, Summer of L.U.C.K., will be published in September 2020 by INtense Publications, followed by a sequel in 2021. Having grown up in Southern California with parents who valued reading, she remains spellbound by kidlit. Some of her favorite middle grade novels, then and now, are The Diamond in the Window, Ellen Tebbits, All of A Kind Family, Wonder, A Patron Saint for Junior Bridesmaids, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and The Miraculous. Laura’s non-fiction credits include collaboration on the travel book Only in New York, and her feature stories have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, Westways Magazine and Christian Science Monitor, among others. A long-time publicity consultant, she owns Laura Segal Stegman Public Relations, LLC, which has represented a wide-ranging client list of businesses, arts organizations and non-profit events over the years. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of UC Irvine with a B.A. in Drama. Laura and her husband live in Los Angeles and part-time in New York City. She loves reading, L.A. Dodgers baseball, classical music and theater.
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Kiana Nguyen and I have a blast discussing our mutual love for THE LAST OF US PART II. Eventually, we get around to her role as a literary agent for Donald Maass Literary Agency as well as a park ranger. We talk about “standard” coming out stories and “girl-saves-the-world” stories and why both are better avoided. We also chat about evaluating queries and manuscripts, agent/client communication styles, quarantine for Covid 19, the future of publishing, the emotional inner lives of characters, a for-real ghost story, and so much more.
Kiana Nguyen joined Donald Maass Literary Agency in 2016, where she assisted several agents, and is now building her own client list. She is seeking YA fiction across genres, particularly those with POC and queer voices. She is also interested in Adult romance and domestic suspense thrillers.
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MarcyKate Connolly and I discuss her many bestselling “weird, creepy middle grade” novels, particularly her debut, MONSTROUS, and her transition to young adult with her newest release, TWIN DAGGERS. Despite my best efforts to turn the conversation to ghosts and flying saucers, we actually discuss quite refined topics such as Shakespeare and opera and an opera based on Shakespeare. We also chat about creating magical systems and rules in fantasy worlds, life during quarantine, turning 40, why Scrivener and Beat Sheets are a writer’s best tools, how rejection toughens a writer’s skin, and then we totally talk about flying saucers and ghosts.
MarcyKate Connolly is a New York Times Bestselling children's book author and nonprofit marketing professional living in New England with her family and a grumble of pugs. She can be lured out from her writing cave with the promise of caffeine and new books. Twin Daggers is her debut young adult novel, and she's also the author of several middle grade fantasy novels including Monstrous and Ravenous, and the Shadow Weaver series.
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Annie Sullivan and I pick up right where we left off after her previous appearance in episode 40. We talk about her soon-to-be-released YA novel CURSE OF GOLD, sequel to TOUCH OF GOLD, as well as SHARKTOPUS VS WHALEWOLF. Since I know Annie has long been an “aspiring recluse,” I’m eager to learn how she’s been enjoying quarantine for Covid-19 and how she’s promoting her new book without leaving home. We also chat about being a TIGER QUEEN in the age of Tiger King, Greek mythology, leaving Easter Eggs for readers, the time I got robbed, the Loch Ness monster, comma warfare, and so much more.
Annie Sullivan is a Young Adult author from Indianapolis, Indiana. Her work has been featured in Curly Red Stories and Punchnels. She loves fairytales, everything Jane Austen, and traveling and exploring new cultures. When she’s not off on her own adventures, she’s teaching classes at the Indiana Writers Center and working as the Copy Specialist at John Wiley and Sons, Inc. publishing company, having also worked there in Editorial and Publicity roles. You can follow her adventures on Twitter and Instagram (@annsulliva).
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Preeti Chhibber, host of the Desi Geek Girls podcast, and I geek out over the things we love while discussing her wonderfully geeky new books AVENGERS ASSEMBLY: ORIENTATION, STAR WARS THE CLONE WARS: STORIES OF LIGHT AND DARK, and A JEDI, YOU WILL BE. She shares how working her side hustle talking about stuff she loved online while working a day job in children’s publishing led to her writing PETER AND NED’S ULTIMATE TRAVEL JOURNAL, interviewing the cast of SPIDERMAN: FAR FROM HOME, and a rewarding career. But mostly we talk nerdy about what characters from different fandoms would make for great stories and what superpower would be best to have.
Called “Spider-Man super fan and author” by Publishers Weekly, Preeti Chhibber is a YA author, speaker, and freelance writer. She works as a publishing professional. She has written for SYFY, BookRiot, BookRiot Comics, The Nerds of Color, and The Mary Sue, among others. Her short story, "Girls Who Twirl and Other Dangers" was published in the anthology A Thousand Beginnings and Endings (HarperCollins, 2018). Her first book, Spider-Man: Far From Home: Peter and Ned’s Ultimate Travel Journal was released in June 2019. You can find her co-hosting the podcasts Desi Geek Girls and Strong Female Characters (SYFYWire). She’s appeared on several panels at New York Comic Con, San Diego Comic Con, and on screen on the SYFY Network. Honestly, you probably recognize her from one of several BuzzFeed “look at these tweets” twitter lists. She usually spends her time reading a ridiculous amount of Young Adult but is also ready to jump into most fandoms at a moment’s notice.
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Paula Chase and I chat about her novels SO DONE and DOUGH BOYS and what makes them upper middle grade instead of young adult. She discusses founding The Brown Bookshelf with Varian Johnson, the importance of representation in literature, and how we should focus less on Black pain and more on Black joy. We also talk about her writing practices as a committed pantser, how she fell backward into being an author, writing in the voice of teenagers, refusing to “just shut up” on social media, meeting Flavor Flav at a Waffle House, an actual ghost story, and so much more.
They say if you want something done, ask the busiest person in the room. They'll grab your task, throw it on the fire of their To-Do list and keep on burning. Paula Chase did that with teen lit and her debut novel, So Not The Drama. Concerned that YA was no more diverse than it had been in her teen years, Chase began writing contemporary fiction revolved around characters of color. Proclaiming her work, hip lit, a nod to the impact hip hop has had on mainstream culture, Chase's five-book series helped Kensington Books launch its YA line. Her critically acclaimed Middle Grade debut, So Done is among the growing number of books for readers "lost in the middle" of MG and YA. The married mother of two is also a co-founder of the award-winning blog, The Brown Bookshelf, a site designed to push awareness of the myriad of African American voices writing for young readers.
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Sarah Miniaci and I discuss her career in publicity from running a literary magazine to her work with many notable authors at Smith Publicity. She explains giving in order to get, get lists, top gets, longest lead gets, and never forgets. We chat about raising your author profile, establishing publicity goals, measuring your success, reader targeting, tearing down discoverability myths, and a chalk-changing, vacuum-knocking ghost.
Having worked in a variety of roles in fields that include education, entertainment, fine arts and publishing throughout the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, since 2011 Sarah Miniaci has brought a broad range of knowledge and experience to her work at Smith Publicity, where she serves as Director, Literary Strategy. An avid and genre-spanning reader, Sarah also serves on the board of Diaspora Dialogues, a charitable organization working to change the face of Canadian literature which supports diverse emerging writers in turning their craft into a career through mentorship, professional development, and opportunities to present and publish their work. She continues to be energized by designing and executing publicity campaigns for debut and veteran authors alike.
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Mystery writers Lillie Evans, Tony Perona, C.L. Shore, and Janet E. Williams are all prominent members of the Speed City Sisters in Crime, which has just released its newest anthology, MURDER 20/20. We chat about how the stories in the anthology were selected, the benefits of belonging to an organization for writers, such as the Sisters in Crime, the ins and outs of writing short and long mysteries, and much, much more. We also have an extended chat about flying saucers and ghosts you won’t want to miss.
Speed City Sisters in Crime is the Indiana chapter of the world-wide mystery/crime writers' association Sisters in Crime. The Speed City chapter was founded in 2005.
Members of the organization are published mystery and crime authors, writers working on mysteries and thrillers, and readers and fans of the literary genre. There are currently 40+ members who live in Indiana or the Midwest.
Speed City Sisters in Crime hosts monthly meetings with speakers on topics of interest to mystery and crime writing. Past speakers have included police officers, prosecutors, investigative reporters, forensic specialists, weapons experts, researchers, and publishing and media professionals.
Chapter members have published 6 short story anthologies over the years with the themes that are related to Indiana or the midwest. Members of the organization have also written and produced a play, Deadbeat, which was performed at a local fringe festival and will soon be available to for others to produce.
The chapter also hosts writing and other educational workshops for its membership with well-known authors and publishing professionals.
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In a Middle Grade Ninja first, editor Sara-Jayne Slack AND author Dorothy A. Winsor discuss Inspired Quill’s latest release, THE WYSMAN, how they came to work together, and the ins and outs of their professional author/editor collaboration. We also chat about publishing contracts, book marketing, working with authors rather than above them, self publishing vs publishing with a small press, Armageddon, spilling tea, and so much more.
And here's the link to that online course Sara-Jayne mentioned: https://sjslack.teachable.com/p/casual-to-committed
Esteemed Listeners can use this coupon code so they can get it for $47 (rather than $147) - IQSCHOLAR
Sara-Jayne is a social entrepreneur, public speaker, SEO nerd and lover of all things stationery-related. She works as an SEO Project Manager by day, and manages the not-for-profit publishing house Inspired Quill by night. Sara can regularly be found discussing inbound marketing, skills development, and non-tokenistic diversity in publishing, but strives to listen at least as much as she talks. She’s also scarily comfortable talking about herself in third person, and believes that ‘To Do’ lists breed when you’re not looking.
Dorothy A. Winsor writes young adult and middle grade fantasy. Her novels include Finders Keepers (Zharmae, 2015), Deep as a Tomb (Loose Leave Publishing, 2016), The Wind Reader (Inspired Quill, 2018), and The Wysman (June, 2020). At one time, Winsor taught technical writing at Iowa State University and GMI Engineering and Management Institute (now Kettering). She then discovered that writing fiction is much more fun and has never looked back. She lives in Chicagoland.
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Tracy Wolff and I discuss her new young adult paranormal romance novel CRAVE, which has already been optioned as a film and a video game. We admit to being book hoarders and Tracy explains her highly unusual (and also highly successful) process for writing a novel. We also talk about how she was able to become a full-time author, saving stories from life for fiction, various magical creatures, defending Texas against wild coyotes, Nora Roberts, writing fast, the terror of being attacked and violently murdered on an open Alaskan tundra, how she chose her literary agent, and so much more.
Tracy Wolff is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of sixty-four novels that run the gamut from young adult action adventures to new adult romance and from women’s fiction to erotica. A long-time lover of vampires, dragons and all things that go bump in the night, Tracy loves nothing more than combining her affection for paranormal creatures with her love of writing tortured heroes and kick-butt heroines.
When she’s not writing (which is a rare occurrence), she can be found trying out new recipes, offering make-up tips online, wandering comic book/gaming stores with her sons, and watching movies or plotting stories with her besties. A one time English professor, she now writes full-time from her home in Austin, Texas, which she shares with her family.
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Anne Nesbit tells the tale of how she met and secured her editor under bizarre, high-stakes circumstances. She shares some excellent insight about writing historical fiction for children, including her newest middle grade novel, DARING DARLEEN, QUEEN OF THE SCREEN. She also discusses her writing habits both before and during quarantine for COVID-19, her passion for silent film and cinema history, her concern about evil goblins, her fear that plotting is an illusion, and much, much more.
Anne Nesbet writes books for kids and watches a lot of silent films. She lives near San Francisco with her husband, several daughters, and one irrepressible dog. She is an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Her books include The Cabinet of Earths (HarperCollins 2012), A Box of Gargoyles (HarperCollins 2013), The Wrinkled Crown (HarperCollins 2015), Cloud and Wallfish (Candlewick 2016), The Orphan Band of Springdale (Candlewick 2018), and Daring Darleen, Queen of the Screen (Candlewick 2020).
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Hugh Howey, author of the mega successful perennial novel WOOL, which everyone loves and wants to hear more about, and I discuss one of MY most favorite books, I, ZOMBIE. But we also talk about WOOL, because of course we do, it’s great, and Hugh hints at what we might expect from an upcoming television adaptation. We chat about how he finally wrote beyond the first chapters of manuscripts after 20 years of stopping, self publishing (naturally), his belief in maximum efficiency with all tasks, dealing with enormous success (his), simulation theory, flying saucers, our fundamental lack of free will, STAR WARS, authors retaining control of their IP, the future of publishing after COVID-19, and so much more. I joke that this is the last episode of the podcast, which of course isn't true (I love it too much), but this would be a great episode to go out on.
Hugh Howey is the author of the award-winning MOLLY FYDE saga, the horror classic I, ZOMBIE, and the New York Times and USA Today bestselling WOOL series. The WOOL OMNIBUS won Kindle Book Review's 2012 Indie Book of the Year Award -- it has been as high as #1 on Amazon -- and 40 countries have picked up the work for translation. Television and film versions of WOOL, SAND, and BEACON 23 are all in development.
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Authors Josh Berk and Saundra Mitchell tell the terrifying tale of how they collaborated to write CAMP MURDERFACE. We talk about how they met, tips for working on a project with another author, the importance of being dumpster rat-y, finding time to write (even while sleeping), being a phone psychic, launching a book during the quarantine for COVID-19, an actual ghost story, and so much more.
Saundra Mitchell has been a phone psychic, a car salesperson, a denture-deliverer and a layout waxer. She’s dodged trains, endured basic training, and hitchhiked from Montana to California. The author of nearly twenty books for tweens and teens, Mitchell’s work includes SHADOWED SUMMER, THE VESPERTINE series, ALL THE THINGS WE DO IN THE DARK, a novel forthcoming from HarperTEEN and the forthcoming CAMP MURDERFACE series with Josh Berk. She is the editor of three anthologies for teens, DEFY THE DARK, ALL OUT and OUT NOW. She always picks truth; dares are too easy.
Josh Berk is the author of the teen novels THE DARK DAYS OF HAMBURGER HALPIN (named a best book for teens of 2010 by Kirkus Reviews and Amazon.com) and GUY LANGMAN: CRIME SCENE PROSCRASTINATOR (2012) as well as the middle grade mysteries STRIKE THREE YOU'RE DEAD and SAY IT AIN'T SO.
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Claire Swinarski and I discuss Wisconsin badgers, Nancy Drew, Star Wars, and parking lot brawls. We also make time to chat about her new book, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, her amazing podcast MAKING A MIDDLE GRADE, her success as a freelance writer, time management, advocating for your author career, the importance of her spiritual faith in her writing, and so much more.
Claire Swinarski is the author of multiple books, including What Happens Next (coming in 2020 from HarperCollins) and Girl, Arise: A Catholic Feminist’s Invitation to Live Boldly, Love Your Faith, and Change the World. She’s also the founder of the Catholic Feminist Podcast, a top-ranked spirituality podcast with half a million downloads that discusses the intersection between faith and women’s issues. She has degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her writing has been featured in The Washington Post, Seventeen, Milwaukee Magazine, and many other publications. She lives just outside of Milwaukee, WI with her husband and two kids.
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Sarah LaPola shares her thoughts on editing, writing, and publishing based on more than a decade of experience as a literary agent. We discuss her freelance editorial services and query consultations, as well as the business of being an author in the time of COVID-19. And we do a deep dive on perfecting a novel’s opening, how to fix its lagging middle, writing proactive characters with a life beyond the page, avoiding stereotypes and clichés, enhancing a story’s theme without becoming preachy, and so much more.
Sarah LaPolla is a former literary agent with over a decade of experience in the publishing industry. Starting in the foreign rights department at Curtis Brown, Ltd. in 2008, she became an agent there in 2010. Most recently, she was a literary agent at Bradford Literary Agency, where she continued to work with talented MG, YA, and Adult fiction writers.
Sarah received her MFA in Creative Writing (Nonfiction) from The New School in 2008, and has a BA in Creative Writing from Ithaca College. In 2020, she started Next Chapter Editorial and Consulting, and regularly teaches writing workshops and offers consulting services through Inked Voices, Manuscript Academy, and various writing programs and conferences.
Editorial areas of expertise include the following markets/genres: Young Adult fiction (all genres); Middle Grade fiction (all genres); Adult (Literary Fiction; Science Fiction; Low/Contemporary Fantasy; Paranormal/Supernatural; Horror; Upmarket/Contemporary fiction; Mystery/Suspense; Memoir/Essay.
Sarah would not be the best match for non-fiction (with the exception of memoir), category romance or erotica, children's books (younger than MG), high/epic fantasy, or religious/spiritual books.
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Could mankind one day communicate directly with prairie dogs? If so, what will we talk about and will they appreciate their depiction in INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL? Carlie Sorosiak and I discuss this and many other issues, including keeping academia and writing in perspective, imagining the perspective of animals, dystopian fiction in the time of COVID-19, the importance of not making assumptions about people based on appearance, her book, I, COSMO, and so much more.
Carlie Sorosiak grew up in North Carolina and holds two master's degrees: one in English from the University of Oxford and another in creative writing and publishing from City, University of London. Her life goals include traveling to all seven continents and fostering many polydactyl cats. She currently splits her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, hoping to gain an accent like Madonna's. Visit her online at www.carliesorosiak.com.
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Mitali Perkins and I chat about her classic novel, RICKSHAW GIRL, its uncertain and difficult path to publication, its steady rise to prominence, and the new film based upon it. We also talk about the ups and downs of her career writing for children, cultural differences and code switching, the benefits of rereading favorite books, the benefits of arranged marriages, my discomfort with Nicholas Spark’s emotionality, flying saucers, Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and more. Note: This was recorded before the quarantine for COVID-19, so we don’t discuss it.
Mitali Perkins has written many novels for young readers, including You Bring the Distant Near (nominated for the National Book Award) Rickshaw Girl (a NYPL best 100 Book for children in the past 100 years, film adaptation coming in 2020), Bamboo People (an ALA Top 10 YA novel), and Tiger Boy, which won the South Asia Book Award for Younger Readers. She currently writes and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Kristy Hunter and I discuss her career thus far from her education at the Columbia Publishing Course to her time as an editorial intern as well as a publicist to being mentored by Deidre Knight and becoming a successful literary agent with The Knight Agency. We talk about how she evaluates queries and submissions and her approach to working with her clients. She offers excellent advice on author voice, creating atmospheric settings, strengthening characterization, and so much more. And we can’t help chatting a little about quarantine for COVID-19 and its potential impact on publishing.
As a graduate of Vanderbilt University and The Columbia Publishing Course, Kristy Hunter began her publishing career in New York City—first as an editorial intern at Bloomsbury Children’s Books and then as a book publicist at Grove/Atlantic and Random House Children’s Books. When she moved to the agenting side of the industry, she was closely mentored by Deidre Knight, president and founder of The Knight Agency, and her first co-agented project sold at auction soon after. As an associate agent, Kristy enjoys being able to bring a unique perspective to her clients thanks to her diverse publishing background. When she’s not curled up with a fantastic book or manuscript, she can be found kickboxing or hiking with her dog and is an active member of SCBWI.
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WARNING: This recording is for ADULT LISTENERS and packs profuse profanity:)
Quarantine for COVID-19 has given me the unexpected gift of perspective and free time. I always wanted to record at least one audiobook, and I always figured I'd read THE BOOK OF DAVID... someday... when I have time. To keep from crawling the walls (for now), I've checked off this bucket list item.
I may yet record the entire serial novel in a studio and have it professionally produced, but I'd for sure charge for that. Me reading only the first of five installments in this tale of terror in my office while birds chirp outside my window and the bell on my cat's collar occasionally jingles as I do terrible accents... that, I'll give you for free. But I'd encourage you to also seek out my actual audiobooks narrated by professionals.
If you'd prefer just to enjoy the story without my voice (understandable), the ebook of Chapter One of THE BOOK OF DAVID is always free to download (you could read along to spot errors I made while performing my own book).
This might be a crazy thing to do, but it was also a very fun thing to do, and it's a crazy time. I hope you're taking care of yourself, Esteemed Audience, and I hope you dig this amateur audiobook of mine. Here's some more info about THE BOOK OF DAVID:
The Walters family has just purchased the perfect home if only it weren't located in the small hick town of Harrington, Indiana, and if only it weren't haunted. David Walters is an atheist now, but his minister father taught him from a young age that Satan would one day deceive all mankind by pretending his demons were extraterrestrials. The day the Walters family moves in, they spot a flying saucer outside their new home. Things only get stranger from there. David Walters is about to learn what it means to be truly haunted, forcing him to confront his past, fight for his family, his soul, and his sanity.
This is the first of five chapters in THE BOOK OF DAVID, a serialized tale of terror from Robert Kent, author of ALL TOGETHER NOW: A ZOMBIE STORY and PIZZA DELIVERY.
WARNING
This horror story is intended for a mature audience. It's filled with adult language, situations, and themes. It's in no way appropriate for the easily offended or younger readers of BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES.
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Joy McCullough and I talk about her transition from playwright to young adult author and how she kept focus on her long journey to publication, as well as her new middle grade novel, A FIELD GUIDE TO GETTING LOST. She shares the story of how she met her second literary agent, some advice on tending to your mental health, some tips for effectively using social media without over sharing, some tales from her time as a Pitch Wars mentor, and so much more.
Joy McCullough’s debut young adult novel Blood Water Paint (Penguin) won the Washington State and Pacific Northwest books awards, as well as honors such as the National Book Award longlist, finalist for the ALA Morris Award, a Publishers Weekly Flying Start and four starred reviews. Her debut middle grade novel, A Field Guide to Getting Lost (Simon & Schuster) releases on April 14, 2020, and is a Junior Library Guild Selection.
She writes books and plays from her home in the Seattle area, where she lives with her husband and two children. She studied theater at Northwestern University, fell in love with her husband atop a Guatemalan volcano, and now spends her days surrounded by books and kids and chocolate.
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Rob Harrell and I discuss how the launch of his newest novel, WINK, has been impacted by the quarantine for COVID-19 along with most other aspects of writing life. He shares how he met his literary agent and how they work together on his novels. We talk about his becoming a professional cartoonist with multiple syndicated strips, the upcoming movie RUMBLE based on his novel MONSTER ON THE HILL, the qualities of Hoosier men named Rob, and so much more.
Rob Harrell wrote and drew the syndicated daily comic strip Big Top through 2007 and currently creates the long-running strip Adam@Home.
Harrell wrote and illustrated the graphic novel Monster on the Hill, published by Top Shelf. The story of a town with a down-on-his-luck monster, Monster was the inspiration for the animated movie Rumble (2021) from Paramount Pictures.
Next, Harrell wrote the Life of Zarf trilogy of hybrid novels. Published by Dial Books for Young Readers, they tell the story of Zarf Belford, a troll attending middle school in a fairy tale world.
Harrell’s next book is Wink, the funny but heartfelt story of Ross Maloy, a seventh-grader dealing with a horrible diagnosis and cancer treatments – all while trying to just blend in and survive middle school.
As an illustrator, Harrell has worked with clients including Mad, Simon and Schuster, American Greetings, Time, Inc. and Volkswagen. His figurative paintings have been shown in solo shows in San Francisco, Austin and Indianapolis.
Rob lives in Zionsville, Indiana with his wife Amber and their two dogs, Cooper and Kasey.
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Anne Bustard and I discuss her newest book, BLUE SKIES, and its 20-year journey from a picture book to a middle grade novel. She tells me about her life as a perpetual student, earning a BS, MLIS, PHD, and an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, as well as devising her own learning program utilizing WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL by Donald Maass. We talk about her time as an elementary school teacher and a bookstore owner, how attending a writing workshop taught by previous guest Kathi Appelt changed her life, and so much more.
Born in Hawaii, author Anne Bustard is still a beach girl at heart. If she could, she would walk by the ocean every day, wear flip-flops, and eat nothing but fresh pineapple, macadamia nuts and chocolate. Growing up, Anne took years of hula lessons and spent many happy hours wearing a facemask and breathing through a snorkel. Her small sea glass collection from childhood is one of her most treasured possessions.
Anne loves school. And she has a lot of degrees to prove it. Three came from the University of Texas at Austin (BS, MLIS, PhD). Her most recent one, and she believes her last, is an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults.
Children’s books have always been central to her life. When she taught in elementary schools and universities, she always used literature. Anne co-owned Toad Hall Children’s Bookstore in Austin, Texas, too. As a bookseller, she loved opening up new boxes of books, telling others about them and running a summer writing program for children.
Anne is the author of several works for young readers including award-winners Buddy: The Story of Buddy Holly (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers) and Anywhere but Paradise (Lerner).
In Spring 2020, her next middle grade novel, Blue Skies (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers) and RAD! her first fiction picture book, illustrated by Daniel Wiseman (Abrams Books for Young Readers) will be published.
Anne recently married her college sweetheart and divides her time between Ontario and Texas.
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Anna Meriano thrills with tales of full contact quidditch, including the time she broke her pelvis, and teases her upcoming book on the subject. We primarily discuss her series LOVE SUGAR MAGIC and the release of its third installment, A MIXTURE OF MISCHIEF. She talks about eating the right cheese at the right time, which introduced her to Cake Literary. She walks me through her interview process and securing a book deal. We also chat about creating rules of magic, keeping track of a large group of characters over a series, inserting joy in diverse stories, parallel universes, and so much more.
Anna Meriano grew up in Houston, Texas, with an older brother and a younger brother but (tragically) no sisters. She graduated from Rice University with a degree in English and earned her MFA in creative writing with an emphasis in writing for children from the New School in New York. She has taught creative writing and high school English and works as a writing tutor. Anna likes reading, knitting, playing full-contact quidditch, and translating English song lyrics into Spanish and vice-versa. Her favorite baked goods are the kind that don’t fly away before you eat them.
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Avi and I discuss his career publishing more than 80 books since 1970, winning more awards than I can list, including the Newberry AND two Newberry honors. He tries to convince me writing is just a job and walks me through his process of writing intuitively. He talks candidly about his dysgraphia and gives excellent advice for writing historical fiction, including specifics about language and layering research in narrative. He even reads part of a brand new book he’s currently writing, premiering the passage for the first time anywhere exclusively on the Middle Grade Ninja podcast. Oh, and he tells me about the time he saw a ghost.
Avi is part of a family of writers extending back into the 19th century. Born in 1937 and raised in New York City, Avi was educated in local schools, before going to the Midwest and then back to NYC to complete his education. Starting out as a playwright--while working for many years as a librarian--he began writing books for young people when the first of his kids came along.
His first book was Things That Sometimes Happen, published in 1970, and recently reissued. Since then he has published seventy books. Winner of many awards, including the 2003 Newbery award for Crispin: the Cross of Lead (Hyperion), two Newbery Honors, two Horn Book awards, and an O'Dell award, as well as many children's choice awards, he frequently travels to schools around the country to talk to his readers.
Among his most popular books are Crispin: The Cross of Lead, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Nothing but the Truth, the Poppy books, Midnight Magic, and The Fighting Ground.
In 2008 he published The Seer of Shadows (HarperCollins), A Beginning a Muddle and an End (Harcourt), Hard Gold (Hyperion) and Not Seeing is Believing, a one-act play in the collection, Acting Out (Simon and Schuster). Crispin: the End of Time, the third in the Newbery Award-winning series, was published in 2010. City of Orphans was released in 2011, receiving a number of starred reviews. Learn more at Avi-writer.com. Follow Avi on Facebook, facebook.com/avi.writer, where he shares an inside look at his writing process.
Avi lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife and family.
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Sayantani DasGupta and I discuss her series, KIRANMALA AND THE KINGDOM BEYOND, celebrating the release of its third installment, THE CHAOS CURSE. She shares information about being involved with WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS. We discuss the importance of representation and how a lack of mirrors can give the misguided impression of a monster, not unlike a vampire. We chat about narrating her own audiobooks, using humor and absurdity to make observations about the world in middle grade fiction, plotting vs pantsing, writing while cooking, in-depth editing, the qualities of a great writers critique group, the glory of knowledge, and so much more.
Sayantani DasGupta is the New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed, Bengali folktale and string theory-inspired KIRANMALA AND THE KINGDOM BEYOND books, the first of which—THE SERPENT'S SECRET—was a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, a Booklist Best Middle Grade Novel of the 21st Century, and an EB White Read Aloud Honor Book. Sayantani is a pediatrician by training, but now teaches at Columbia University. When she’s not writing or reading, Sayantani spends time watching cooking shows with her trilingual children and protecting her black Labrador retriever Khushi from the many things that scare him, including plastic bags. She is a team member of WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS, and can be found online at sayantanidasgupta.com and on Twitter at @sayantani16.
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Kaela Noel and I discuss in detail how she trained to become an author, found a literary agent, rewrote her book until it was salable, and is now celebrating the release of her debut novel. We talk about worldbuilding and the pigeon research required to add authenticity to COO, as well as creating compelling characters in the story and the surety of being age 10. I ask her thrilling questions about the design and print layout of her book. We agree that both libraries and flying saucers are important and awesome.
Kaela Noel was born in San Francisco and raised in New Jersey. She now lives in Brooklyn, New York where she works as a proofreader and editor. Coo is her first novel.
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My friend Barbara Shoup returns to the podcast to share lessons from her writing life and her new book about writing, A COMMOTION IN YOUR HEART. She talks candidly about struggling with depression, finding joy in writing even when it doesn’t lead to great fame and fortune, and the challenge of bringing forth something as ethereal as a story using only language. We chat about author estate planning, learning from writers you don’t like personally, ethically basing characters on real people, the cruelest editor rejection ever, and so much more.
Barbara Shoup is the author of eight novels for adults and young adults, most recently An American Tune and Looking for Jack Kerouac, and the co-author of Novel Ideas: Contemporary Authors Share the Creative Process. Her short fiction, poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared in numerous small magazines, as well as in The Writer and the New York Times travel section. The recipient of the PEN Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Working Writer Fellowship and grants from the Indiana Arts Commission, she is the Writer-in-Residence at the Indiana Writers Center and a faculty member at Art Workshop International.
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Catherine Linka and I discuss the art world and teen homelessness as both are featured in her new novel, WHAT I WANT YOU TO SEE. Catherine shares how she became an author through first being a bookseller, which led her to query only two literary agents, both of whom offered representation. We chat about crucial tips for writing young adult novels, mentoring other authors, writer critique groups, the magical moment a character comes to life, practical book marketing, and so much more.
Catherine Linka has been immersed in books her whole life, most recently as a writer and bookseller. She’s the author of the young adult novel WHAT I WANT YOU TO SEE as well as the dystopian duology A GIRL CALLED FEARLESS and A GIRL UNDONE. Catherine lives in Southern California and watches hawks and hummingbirds when she should be writing.
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Jillian Boehme shares tales of being Authoress Anon and running one of the best author resource websites of all time, MISS SNARK’S FIRST VICTIM. We chat about her new novel, STORMRISE, how being a musician influences being a writer, how faith in God can aid the journey to publication, worldbuilding and language in fantasy novels, and so much more in a delightful conversation between long-time… people who blog and like each other’s blogs? Blog-leagues? Blog buddies? Whatever, enjoy the show.
Jillian Boehme is known to the online writing community as Authoress, hostess of Miss Snark's First Victim, a blog for aspiring authors.
In real life, she holds a degree in Music Education, sings with the Nashville Symphony Chorus, and homeschools her remaining youngster-at-home.
She's still crazy in love with her husband of more than thirty years and is happy to be surrounded by family and friends amid the rolling knolls of Middle Tennessee.
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Allison Hellegers and I discuss her twenty-plus years of experience in publishing as a literary scout and a foreign rights director, as well as her newest role as a literary agent. We talk about the types of projects she’s looking to represent and the ways she envisions serving authors over the course of their careers. This is another enjoyable conversation packed with insights about the publishing industry.
Alli first fell for books as a way to escape her two brothers, who were obsessed with football (think 'Friday Night Lights' in Ohio). So, Alice in Wonderland, Tuck Everlasting, The Diary of Anne Frank and anything by Judy Blume or Lois Duncan were her refuge, but Alli didn't discover books as a career until after college at UW-Madison, where she received her degrees in Journalism and Women's Studies. She also spent a semester abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris and was thrilled when her jobs as Literary Scout and Foreign Rights Manager would take her back to France (among other countries). Alli also volunteered with the non-profit Girls Write Now, and empowering teen girls became one of the biggest drivers in her career. After working with the YA packager, Alloy Entertainment, Alli spent the last 10 years as Foreign Rights Director with Rights People. She also co-agents picture books, middle-grade and young adult novels on behalf of foreign publishers and agencies (international, British, and Australian) to represent authors in North America. Therefore, her taste leans towards books that have film/TV and/or translation appeal and take the reader on a journey. Alli loves nature, music and spending time with her friends, husband, young son (a new reader!), and her rescue mutt in Brooklyn.
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Jennifer Voigt Kaplan and I discuss her award-winning debut novel, CRUSHING THE RED FLOWERS, set in 1938 Germany. We examine research techniques for writing historical middle grade fiction, including interviewing members of an author’s own family, and the importance of taking emotional breaks when focusing on grim subject matter. We also talk about writing contests, setting up a book launch, building an author website, challenging young readers to think for themselves, and more.
Jennifer Voigt Kaplan is an award-winning author of children’s fiction. Her debut children’s novel, Crushing the Red Flowers, was recognized in six literary contests before its publication, including earning a Letter of Merit for the SCBWI Work-in-Progress Grant and winning the middle-grade category of Publishers Weekly Booklife Prize for Fiction. Jennifer was born in Germany, raised in Philadelphia, and now resides in the New York City area. She holds degrees from the Wharton School of Business in marketing and from the London School of Economics in social psychology.
Outside of writing, Jennifer founded The Public Arts Council, her town’s first organization dedicated to public arts. When she’s not inventing people in her head, she’s painting murals on underpasses, wishing she had more time to watch sci-fi movies, and arguing that there should be no limit on the number of garden gnomes that are considered socially acceptable. She lives with her husband, three children, and a cheeky beta-fish named Bubbles, who thinks it’s hilarious to play dead.
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Shauna Holyoak and I discuss her KAZU JONES series with tips for writing middle grade mysteries, rewriting a story until it's right, and writing about a protagonist that's a different race than her author. Shauna tells the tale of how she landed her agent, previous guest Carrie Pestritto, and how she started her literary career after becoming a parent by writing a regular column. We also chat about book marketing, school visits, actively working to transition from a pantser to a plotter, and so much more.
Shauna has been telling stories long before she could ride a bike, and some of them are even true! She writes for kids and teens and thinks it’s kinda the best job ever. KAZU JONES AND THE DENVER DOGNAPPERS is her debut novel, and it was released by Disney-Hyperion in April, 2019! She lives in Idaho Falls, ID with her husband, six of their seven children, and two naughty dogs.
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Erin Bow shares stories about winning the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award with her debut novel, working at the CERN laboratory, being a science writer for the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and having just won the Governor General’s Award. I impress her with my knowledge of RICK AND MORTY and TINY TOONS. We have a wonderful conversation about writing for spite, transhumanism, her writing shed, a creepy cabin story, a fear of squandering talent, the joy of winning awards, and so much more.
Erin Bow is a former physicist who currently writes speculative fiction young adult novels. She studied particle physics in college, eventually working at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. She then decided to leave science in order to concentrate on her love of writing. Originally from Nebraska, Bow came to Canada in 1997. She is the author of the YA novels Plain Kate, The Scorpion Rules, The Swan Riders and Sorrow's Knot. Plain Kate won the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award in 2011. Bow has also written poetry under her maiden name Erin Noteboom.
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It’s the second ever Middle Grade Ninja clips show, featuring snippets from episodes 31 through 59, including never-before-heard clips from shows that haven't yet aired.
New episodes are scheduled to return January 11.
Until then, enjoy this compilation of clips from conversations with AUTHORS Kate Hannigan, Allan Woodrow, Laura Martin, Sharon M. Draper, Dan Gutman, Thomas Taylor, Annie Sullivan, John Claude Bemis,Gregg Millman, Francesca Zappia, Alicia D. Williams, Nancy Richardson Fischer, Shamim Sarif, Mira Bartók, Mariama J. Lockington, Angie Karcher, Lance Rubin, Stefani Deoul, Shauna Holyoak, Jennifer Voigt Kaplan, Jillian Boehme, LITERARY AGENTS Jennifer Mattson, Carrie Pestritto, Christa Heschke, Alison Hellegers, EDITORS Molly Cusick, Lauren Smulski, and PUBLIC RELATIONS EXPERT Claire McKinney.
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Lauren Smulski reveals candid details about her career in NYC publishing, including salary specifics, as she rose from assistant editor to an editor with Harlequin Teen. We discuss her new role as a freelance editor, the types of services she’s offering, and the ways writers should go about evaluating editors. We also chat about the indie publishing revolution, the need for traditional publishing to decentralize, and piñata cakes. Lauren offers many tips for world building, writing dialogue, building emotional depth, and so much more.
From the moment she learned how to read, Lauren brought books with her everywhere. She flew through story after story while curled up with fuzzy blankets, while lying in hammocks, while at the beach with her toes in the sand, even while her parents scolded her for hiding yet another book under the table at dinner. But it wasn’t until her junior year at Ithaca College, where she studied journalism and English, that Lauren realized making books was an actual job.
After earning her master’s degree in publishing from Pace University, Lauren went on to intern at Dorchester Publishing and freelance for Skyhorse Publishing before landing her first job as an editorial assistant at Harlequin. There, she worked her way up the ladder to become an associate editor for Inkyard Press, specializing in stories for young adults, ranging from epic fantasy, science fiction, and thrillers to contemporary, historical, and nonfiction. Her books have been New York Times bestsellers, Indie Next Picks, award-winners, and received multiple starred reviews.
With nearly a decade of editorial experience under her belt, Lauren has now made the shift into a career as a freelance editor, so she can spend more time working directly with authors to nurture their writing and bring their stories to the next level. She is thrilled to be able to do this from her home in eastern Connecticut, where she lives with her husband, her daughter, and her Shakespearean cat, Tybalt. In her spare time, she loves to invent new cupcake recipes, play lots of board games, and relax by the fire pit in her backyard.
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Stefani Deoul and I enjoy a far-ranging conversation about the creative process across multiple mediums. We talk about her career as a film and television producer as well as a young adult novelist. You can be sure I ask her about Stephen King television adaptations, such as her productions of HAVEN and THE DEAD ZONE. We also talk about SAY HER NAME, the third book in Sid Rubin Silicon Alley Adventure series, which leads to a discussion of research tips for authors, writing the language of teenage characters, giving and receiving revision notes, and so much more.
Stefani Deoul is the author of the award-winning novels, ON A LARP, and ZERO SUM GAME, books one and two of her YA Mystery series, the Sid Rubin Silicon Alley Adventures. Book three, SAY HER NAME, releases December 10th. Other works include her first novel, the women's literary fiction, THE CAROUSEL, as well as numerous publications, including pieces for Curve magazine, Outdoor Delaware and Letters from CAMP Rehoboth. In addition, Stefani has penned short stories and several film/television treatments.
As a television producer her resume includes series such as HAVEN for the SyFy Network, THE DEAD ZONE and BRAVE NEW GIRL, DRESDEN FILES and MISSING.
Along with producing five seasons of Haven, based on the Stephen King story THE COLORADO KID, Stefani finally succumbed to the allure of acting, “starring” as the off camera, and uncredited, radio dispatcher, Laverne.
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Lance Rubin and I talk about his background as an actor and improvisational comedian and what that experience brings to his new young adult novel, CRYING LAUGHING. We discuss the new Snapchat series based on his book, DENTON LITTLE’S DEATHDATE, as well as his recording of his own audiobook. And we make time to palaver about politics, flying saucers, writing about grief, and THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY.
Lance Rubin is the writer of the DENTON LITTLE books (now a Snapchat original series) and CRYING LAUGHING. He also co-wrote THE LOST CAUSES OF BLEAK CREEK with Rhett and Link and the Off-Broadway musical BROADWAY BOUNTY HUNTER with Joe Iconis and Jason SweetTooth Williams.
Lance loves Harry Potter, the Knicks, Elizabeth Warren, Pod Save America, and Back to the Future. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Katie Schorr and their young kids. Learn more at lancerubin.com and follow him on twitter/instagram @lancerubinparty.
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Angie Karcher and I talk quite a bit about writers conferences, specifically how to get the most out of them and things writers shouldn’t do when attending one. Who better to discuss conferences with than the Indiana Regional Advisor for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators who also hosts her own writers conference? We also discuss rhyming picture books and writing about local Hoosier history, including the infamous Grey Lady ghost of Willard Library.
Angie Karcher is a former Kindergarten teacher, Developmental Therapist and children’s author of WHERE THE RIVER GRINS 2012, M.T. Publishing, THE LEGENDARY R.A. COWBOY JONES 2014 M.T. Publishing and SANTA’S GIFT 2017 M.T. Publishing.
Her poetry is included in AN INDIANA TRIBUTE BICENTENNIAL ANTHOLOGY, compiled by Byron Buckley 2017. She has two upcoming titles: SIDELINE SLUGGER, M.T. Publishing, May 2018 and THE SIGNATURE SHIP, M.T. Publishing, October 2018.
Angie is the creator of Rhyme Revolution. This annual event held in April, is a writing challenge on her blog for children’s authors. She has a passion for writing rhyming picture books and poetry and encourages educators and parents to read rhyme frequently to children. Rhyme encourages language development and fosters a love of reading.
Angie is the founder of The Rhyme Revolution Conference, held first in New York City in December 2015 and next in New Harmony, Indiana, October 2018. This conference supports and encourages children’s writers to use proper picture book writing techniques, as well as applying perfect meter and rhyme.
Angie also founded and hosts The Best in Rhyme Award, announced annually in February in New York City, NY, naming the best rhyming picture book and several honor books each year.
Her most recent endeavor is hosting Ms. Angie’s Craft Corner for KidLitTV. This will be a monthly recorded segment where she shares simple crafts for kids, teachers, parents and librarians that accompany her favorite picture books.
Angie frequently presents at schools, libraries, bookstores and writing conferences. She is the Indiana SCBWI Regional Advisor and lives in Evansville, Indiana with her husband and four teenage children. Her beloved beagle Gracie and Miniature Dachshund Lucy are her constant assistants.
Angie is represented by Victoria Selvaggio with Storm Literary Agency.
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Mariama J. Lockington and I discuss transracial adoption and other issues raised in her phenomenal debut novel, FOR BLACK GIRLS LIKE ME. She relates how she went from a reluctant reader to a poet, competing in slam poetry competitions, and went on to earn two MFA’s and become an author and writing teacher. We talk about critique groups and school visits and all things writing in the 50th episode of Middle Grade Ninja.
Mariama J. Lockington is an author, nonprofit educator, and transracial adoptee who calls many places home. Her debut middle grade novel FOR BLACK GIRLS LIKE ME is out now from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux Books for Young Readers. FOR BLACK GIRLS LIKE ME is a Junior Library Guild Selection, and has earned four starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, BookPage, School Library Journal, and Booklist. Mariama is also the author of the poetry chapbook THE LUCKY DAUGHTER (Damaged Goods Press, 2017).
Mariama has edited and contributed to many youth-centered book projects including: Be Honest and Other Advice from Students Across the Country (2011, The New Press), Growing Our Hearts and Brains: Poems on love, technology, and success (2014, 826NYC), Chicken Makes the Ice Cream Taste Better: Stories on Food and Community, (2015, 826NYC), and her co-authored lesson plan “The Science of Superpowers” is included in STEM to Story: Enthralling and Effective Lesson Plans for grades 5th-8th (2015, Jossey-Bass). She is a Bread Loaf Scholar, Voices of Our Nation Arts Alumni, a Literary Death Match Champion, and she earned her Masters in Education from Lesley University and her MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.
Mariama lives in Lexington, KY with her partner and her dapple-haired dachshund, Henry. When she is not writing or teaching, you’ll find Mariama singing karaoke, cooking new recipes, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or re-reading her favorite book, SULA by Toni Morrison.
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Mira Bartók and I discuss her novel, THE WONDERLING, its inception, the incredible circumstances that led to its sale at auction and a movie deal before it was fully written, how Kate Winslet nearly narrated its audiobook, its upcoming sequel, and more. Mira explains her life as a “compulsive creator.” She’s a musician, an artist, an award-winning author, and she shares her wisdom about all of it in a delightful conversation you won’t want to miss.
Mira Bartók is an artist and writer, and the creator of The Wonderling: Songcatcher, the first book in an illustrated middle-grade fantasy series (Candlewick Press 2017). The Wonderling will also be a movie, directed by award-winning British director, Stephen Daldry (The Crown, Billy Elliot, The Reader, etc.), and produced by Working Title Films and Fox2000. Mira is also the author of THE MEMORY PALACE, a New York Times bestselling memoir and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography. She has written numerous books on ancient and indigenous cultures for children (The Ancient and Living Stencil Series), and her writing for adults has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, noted in The Best American Essays series and has appeared in many literary journals, magazines and anthologies. She lives in Western Massachusetts with her musician/producer husband Doug Plavin and their little dog Sadie.
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Christa Heschke and I chat about her journey from an intern to a seasoned literary agent, her thoughts on contract negotiation and enforcement, her financial advice for authors, her tips for gaining literary representation, her possible close encounter, brainstorming book ideas, a haunted shovel, and so much more. Get ready to learn a lot about writing and publishing and to enjoy another excellent conversation.
Christa Heschke graduated from Binghamton University with a major in English and a minor in Anthropology. She started in publishing as an intern at both Writers House and Sterling Lord Literistic, where she fell in love with the agency side of publishing. Christa has been at McIntosh and Otis, Inc. in the Children’s Literature Department since 2009 where she is actively acquiring for all age groups in children’s.
For YA, she is especially interested in contemporary, thriller/mystery, fantasy and horror. She looks for a compelling voice and a strong hook that will set a YA novel apart in the flooded market. She is open to all types of middle grade and especially enjoys adventure, mystery, and magical realism. For both YA and MG, she is interested in unique settings and cultural influences, interesting structure, complicated romances, diverse characters, sister or friendship-centric stories, and stories that feature artists of any kind. In picture books she is drawn to cute, funny stories (as opposed to sweet and quiet) that will grab kids as well as the occasional nonfiction biography on a subject whose story has yet to be told.
Christa is not looking for any Adult fiction or non-fiction, paranormal or dystopian at this time.
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Shamim Sarif and I talk about her career directing films and writing novels, the differences and similarities between the two, and her approach to both. We also discuss her new young adult action novel, THE ATHENA PROTOCOL, and its emphasis on strong female characters. She gives some absolutely amazing advice about public speaking, having presented multiple Ted Talks. All this and a whole lot more in another incredible episode that’s not to be missed.
Born in the UK, Shamim is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and director.
Her newest book, The Athena Protocol, is an all-female contemporary action thriller.
Her debut novel, The World Unseen was inspired by her family’s South African Indian heritage. The book won a Betty Trask award and the Pendleton May First Novel award.
Shamim has adapted and directed the films of all three of her novels including, most recently, Despite the Falling Snow. The book was published by Headline in the UK and St Martin’s Press in the US. The movie stars Rebecca Ferguson and Charles Dance in a story of love and betrayal in cold war Russia. Her films have won 47 awards internationally.
An accomplished speaker, Shamim has spoken at TED events worldwide, at the INK Conference in India and DLD in Munich. Corporate speaking events have included Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Citibank and Disney.
Shamim lives in London with her wife, Hanan, and their two sons.
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Nancy Richardson Fischer and I discuss her fascinating career from her first job writing for Barnum and Bailey Circus to her time with Lucas Film, during which she wrote a trilogy in the STAR WARS: JUNIOR JEDI KNIGHTS series. We chat about surviving in the Amazon like the characters in her new young adult novel, THE SPEED OF FALLING OBJECTS. We also talk kite surfing, zombies, Stephen King, my fear of bees, self publishing, strategies for working with an editor, and so much more.
Nancy Richardson Fischer is the author of the young adult novel, WHEN ELEPHANTS FLY (HarperCollins/Inkyard Press). Fischer has authored multiple sport autobiographies and Star Wars books for LucasFilm. Her new novel, THE SPEED OF FALLING OBJECTS, was published by HarperCollins/Inkyard Press on October 1st, 2019.
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Alicia D. Williams and I talk about colorism and adolescent cruelty, which she explores brilliantly in her novel, GENESIS BEGINS AGAIN. She also takes us through her journey to become a writer, from her time as a stand-up comedian to an actress to a flight attendant and a whole lot of interesting stops along the way. We have a long chat about creating compelling characters and the differences in approaches to writing to reach a common goal.
What's there to know about Alicia D? Well, that depends on who you ask.
If you ask kindergartners, they'd tell you:
- She likes chunky guacamole.
- She likes shiny things.
- She tells good stories.
If you ask her middle schoolers, they'd surely say:
- She gets us.
- She makes us laugh with all her jokes.
- She is Da BOMB.
While all of these may be true, there are a few more points to add... Alicia D. is a teacher in Charlotte, NC. She is the proud mother of a brilliant college student. Her love for education stems from conducting school residencies as a Master Teaching Artist of arts-integration. Alicia D infuses her love for drama, movement, and storytelling to inspire students to write.
Did we say drama? Why yes, Alicia graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. She's performed in commercials, off-off Broadway, and even Charlotte's very own children's theater.
And like other great storytellers, she made the leap into writing--and well, her story continues. Alicia D loves laughing, traveling, and Wonder Woman.
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Prepare yourself, Esteemed Audience, for this spooky first episode of October that features real ghost stories. Fellow Hoosier Francesca Zappia and I talk about our mutual love of writing horror stories set in Indiana, such as her newest, NOW ENTERING ADAMSVILLE. We discuss fictional world-building and organizing the creative life and all the things you expect us to chat about on this show. But then Chessie reveals that she lives in a haunted house and I can't stop asking questions about her paranormal experiences.
Francesca Zappia is the award-winning author of Made You Up, Eliza and Her Monsters, and the serialized novel The Children of Hypnos. She is represented by Louise Fury of the Bent Agency. She graduated from the University of Indianapolis with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, and currently lives in Indiana. She spends her free time drawing, playing video games, and baking.
She looks mean, but she's actually a ball of floof on the inside.
You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @ChessieZappia, on Goodreads, and on Pinterest. She also sells her artwork at her Society6 shop.
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Carrie Pestritto and I chat about all kinds of fun stuff like Ancient Aliens and simulation theory. At times this episode basically becomes "The Middle Grade Ninja Experience." Not to worry, Esteemed Audience, we also talk about books and publishing and how to get a literary agent's attention; all the things you tune in regularly to hear about. Carrie Pestritto walks us through everything from evaluating a query and a manuscript to finding a book deal to building your author platform, planning your writing career, and beyond.
Carrie Pestritto worked at Writers House and Prospect Agency before becoming part of the LDLA team. She earned her BA in English, cum laude, from Amherst College in 2009, also spending a year studying abroad at St. Catherine's College, Oxford University.
As an agent, she loves the thrill of finding new authors with strong, unique voices and working closely with her clients. Carrie always strives to help create books that will introduce readers to new worlds and is drawn in by relatable characters, meticulous world-building, and unusual, compelling premises.
Find her on Twitter at @literarycarrie.
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Gregg Millman and I talk about his time in Hollywood as a screenwriter and advertising expert, as well as his time working for MSNBC. He gives several practical tips for pursuing a screenwriting career from his time as an assistant on shows such as BOSTON LEGAL to working with Nicolodean on movies such as ONE CRAZY CRUISE. And naturally, we discuss his new middle grade fantasy novel THE KANDY KINGDOM SAGA, which he wrote in collaboration with his nine-year-old son.
Gregg Millman is a Screenwriter and Middle Grade Novelist, who's created movies, TV shows and novels for kids, including a Nickelodeon movie, ONE CRAZY CRUISE. His new fantasy novel, THE KANDY KINGDOM SAGA, is the first in a series about the adventures of two kids in a magical world of candy torn apart by war between the Sweet Treats and Sour Powers.
Gregg started writing for MSNBC, but realized writing for kids was much more fun. So he moved out to La La Land, where he took his lifelong love of John Hughes teen movies and put it to good use: creating all sorts of kid content, from angsty teen TV soaps to silly Nick movies to post-apocalyptic YA sci-fi series. Gregg has now landed in the alternate dimension of The Kandy Kingdom, where he plans to reside while he completes the book.
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John Claude Bemis and I talk about a little bit of everything: art, music, elementary education, and, of course, literature. He gives a preview of his class on revision in the second half of our conversation that every writer should hear and shares some fantastic tips for creating a great first draft. We also talk a lot about Pinocchio and his unique twist on the classic tale in his Davinci-Punk series OUT OF ABATON, focusing on the first book, THE WOODEN PRINCE.
An inspiring speaker and entertaining performer, John Claude Bemis is the author of THE WOODEN PRINCE, LORD OF MONSTERS, THE CLOCKWORK DARK trilogy, THE PRINCE WHO FELL FROM THE SKY, and FLORA AND THE RUNAWAY ROOSTER. He received the Excellence in Teaching Award from UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Education for his work in the schools as an author-educator and served as North Carolina’s Piedmont Laureate. John lives with his wife and daughter in Hillsborough, NC.
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What don't Annie Sullivan and I talk about in this extensive episode? We discuss her new novel, TIGER QUEEN, of course, but we also talk about her travels to all seven continents and her cage-diving with great white sharks, which leads to our mutual love for bad shark movies. We discuss teaching at the Indiana Writers Center, Professor Dan Barden of Butler University, and all things Hoosier author. The second half of this episode is an in-depth discussion of book marketing through social media you won't want to miss as Annie Sullivan shares specific details about how to grow your author platform.
Annie Sullivan is a Young Adult author from Indianapolis, Indiana. Her work has been featured in Curly Red Stories and Punchnels. She loves fairytales, everything Jane Austen, and traveling and exploring new cultures. When she’s not off on her own adventures, she’s teaching classes at the Indiana Writers Center and working as the Copy Specialist at John Wiley and Sons, Inc. publishing company, having also worked there in Editorial and Publicity roles. You can follow her adventures on Twitter and Instagram (@annsulliva).
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Claire McKinney and I have an in-depth, though brief conversation about marketing middle grade novels. We talk about her work with both independently and traditionally published authors and the differences in promoting the two. She shares some direct strategies for social media campaigns, cost-per-click sites, and getting reviews. And she lends her thoughts on evaluating the effectiveness of marketing.
Claire McKinney has been working in public relations for over 20 years. She has appeared on the Today show and CSPAN as an expert on publishing and she travels regularly to speak to authors and audiences about PR and social media marketing. Authors she has worked with include Della Reese, Toni Morrison, Madeleine Albright, Walter Mosley, Robert Dallek, Rick Moody, George Pelecanos, Plum Sykes, Noam Chomski, Richard North Patterson, and Kristin Gore.
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Thomas Taylor and I discuss his new novel, MALAMANDER, and writing creepy, atmospheric monster stories for children. We also talk quite a lot about ghosts, flying saucers, and the parts of being a writer that strike us as being a bit magical. And yes, I ask him about designing the UK cover for HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, but we talk far more about how being an artist influences his writing and vice versa. And, as a bonus, we talk about designing comics.
Thomas Taylor is a children's writer and illustrator. He studied at Anglia Ruskin University and attended the Norwich School of Art and Design. Then he spent three years at art school in Cambridge. After finishing his education he found his first job at Heffer’s Children’s Bookshop.
He has written and illustrated several picture books, starting with George and Sophie's Museum Adventure in 1999, and has two novels, Haunters and Dan of the Dead. The first one was published in May, 2012 by The Chicken House and the last one was published on 1 June 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. Dan of the Dead sequel named Dan and the Caverns of Bone was issued in June, 2013. The book The Pets You Get with his illustrations won the Stockport Schools’ Book Award in 2013 (early years category) and also the Oldham Brilliant Books Award. He also painted the cover art for the first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
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Dan Gutman and I have an in-depth chat about his classic series, MY WEIRD SCHOOL, as I attempt to gain the secret to writing humor for kids. We talk about how he conceives of an idea, his process for planning and drafting it, the many revisions it undergoes, and his strategies for book promotion. He gives some amazing advice for school visits and marketing using social media. We also talk about Harry Houdini, Dick Cheney, and a whole lot more in a far-ranging discussion. You're going to learn a lot. I know I did.
Dan Gutman may be weird, but he is also beloved by kids, parents, and teachers across the country. His books include the My Weird School series (more than 10 million copies sold), the Baseball Card Adventures (more than 1.5 million copies sold) and the New York Times bestselling The Genius Files. We also publish his spoofy picture book, CASEY BACK AT BAT, and one of Dan’s favorites, JOHNNY HANGTIME. Dan lives in New York City (a very weird place), with his weird wife, Nina, and their two weird children, Sam and Emma. You can visit him on Facebook or at his weird website.
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Sharon M. Draper allows us to live vicariously through her with her story of writing TEARS OF A TIGER during study hall periods as an English teacher, which went on to win the Coretta Scott King Author Honor and launch the career of a literary legend. She assures me that visiting the White House never gets boring, even after the sixth time. She also shares her thoughts on education, which are well worth hearing as she was named a National Teacher of the Year. This was one of most incredible and enjoyable conversations I've ever had. Unfortunately, large parts of our talk were lost due to technical difficulties. We conducted this interview by phone out of necessity, which is why there's no video, and I used new recording software for the first and last time. But I learned a lot and you'll learn almost as much. Don't miss this amazing episode!
Sharon Draper is a two-time Coretta Scott King Award-winning author, most recently for Copper Sun, and previously for Forged by Fire. She's also the recipient of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Author Award for New Talent for Tears of a Tiger and the Coretta Scott King Author Honor for The Battle of Jericho and November Blues. Her other books include Romiette and Julio, Darkness Before Dawn, and Double Dutch. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she taught high school English for twenty-five years. She's a popular conference speaker, addressing educational and literary groups both nationally and internationally.
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My friend Laura Martin, our first ever guest, becomes our first ever return guest. In her second episode, she and I discuss Big Foot, The Lochness Monster, flying saucers (naturally), and all of my favorite things, which can be found in her new cryptid-themed book, HOAX FOR HIRE. We chat about our critiquing and revision process as we're both members of the YA Cannibals writing group and have critiqued each others novels. Laura also shares some excellent marketing tips and gives us a preview of her next book, GLITCH. This is another wonderful episode with one of my most favorite people.
Laura Martin believes in chasing dreams, and she brought that philosophy to her classroom for six years as a seventh-grade English teacher. She is the author of the Edge of Extinction series. When she isn’t writing stories about dinosaurs and underground civilizations, she can be found in the Indianapolis area with her dashing husband Josh, her two adorable kids London and Lincoln, and two opinionated bulldogs.
http://www.middlegradeninja.com/
https://lauramartinbooks.com/
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Allan Woodrow and I talk about overcoming fear and self doubt in writing as well as his newest novel, THE CURSE OF THE WEREPENGUIN. We discuss how writing every day without fail has led him to publish thirty books in ten years. He shares practical tips to start or jump start your writing career, advice on school visits, and marketing methods gleamed from a career in professional advertising.
When growing up in the Midwest, Allan Woodrow always wanted to be an author. His teachers told him to write about what he knew, but he didn't know very much. He still doesn't know all that much, but got tired of waiting and decided to start writing anyway.
Allan is an author of middle-grade books including The Curse of the Werepenguin, the Liberty Falls Elementary series (Class Dismissed, Unschooled and Field Tripped), The Pet War and The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless. Allan also writes under various secret pen names including "Fowler DeWitt" (the Mumpley Middle School mystery books).
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Kate Hannigan and I discuss her newest novel CAPE and the 2016 Golden Kite award winner, THE DETECTIVE'S ASSISTANT. We do a deep dive on writing and researching historical fiction. Kate gives some outstanding advice for authors doing school visits and a lot of tips for being a more productive writer. She also shares a real-life object lesson on the importance of being nice in an industry as small as publishing. We chat about superheroes and women in history and just generally have a blast talking about writing.
Chicago author Kate Hannigan writes fiction and non-fiction for young readers. A former newspaper journalist, she loves listening to people's stories and digging deep into research. Her middle-grade historical fiction "The Detective's Assistant" (Little, Brown) received the 2016 Golden Kite Award for best middle-grade novel and was a California Young Reader Medal nominee. Inspired by the exploits of America's first female detective, Kate Warne, it features nail-biting suspense and exhilarating thrills - along with history around Abraham Lincoln and pre-Civil War America.
Kate is also the author of the picture book biography "A Lady Has the Floor: Belva Lockwood Speaks Out for Women's Rights" (Boyds Mills Press), which received four starred reviews, named a Chicago Public Library "Best of the Best" selection, Bank Street College pick for July, A Mighty Girl Best of 2018 Book, Amelia Bloomer Project pick, and a Junior Library Guild Selection. And her three-book cooking caper series "Cupcake Cousins" (Disney/Hyperion) for early middle-grade readers was named to the Illinois READS state list and Chicago Public Library's "Best of the Best" lists.
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Molly Cusick and I discuss editing, both in her current role as an editor with Sourcebooks and as a successful literary agent for eight years. She walks us through her approach to revising a manuscript and eventually creating a novel with in-depth insights about each revision pass and editorial letter. She offers advice on how to keep plotting on track, how to tighten pacing, and so much more.
Molly Cusick is an Editor at Sourcebooks in New York City, where she acquires Young Adult, Middle Grade, and picture book projects. Previously an agent for eight years, Molly represented authors including Julie Murphy (#1 New York Times bestselling author of DUMPLIN’), Natalie C. Parker (SEAFIRE), Troy Howell (WHALE IN A FISHBOWL), Jeramey Kraatz (the Space Runners series), Kayla Cagan (PIPER PERISH), and Paula Garner (STARWORLD). She works with all genres, prioritizing humor, heart, and immersive worlds. Follow her on Twitter @molly_cusick
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Literary Agent Jennifer Mattson and I discus her career in publishing from her time as an editor with Dutton to her time as a professional book reviewer up to her last decade spent as an agent with Andrea Brown Literary Agency, and a lot of other book-related jobs as well. We talk about specific habits of successful writers, how many books authors should be reading, and developing an author's voice. We also chat about hooking an agent's attention with a query and a writing sample, advice on how to find a literary agent, and so much more.
In the picture book arena, Jennifer is interested in authors, illustrators, and author-illustrators who bring a distinctive, well-developed point of view to their work. In longer fiction, her interests are wide-ranging, but she always has a soft spot for middle grade about resilient kids sorting out the messiness of life. In middle grade and YA both, her heart beats faster for richly imagined, mind-bending fantasies that depart from typical quests (portals entered by protagonists who fulfill prophecies don't tend to be for her). The most dogeared books in her childhood library tended to be fantasy adventures, survival stories, and sprawling, atmospheric tales with Dickensian twists and satisfying puzzles. She gravitates to all of the above, but contemporary realistic fiction can work for her too, especially if it's voice-driven and carefully structured. In all categories, she is especially delighted to see queries in her inbox from kid-lit creators underrepresented in mainstream publishing.
Fiction that Jennifer represents includes Katy Loutzenhiser’s contemporary-realistic YA debut, IF YOU’RE OUT THERE (Balzer and Bray/HarperCollins) and Kate Hannigan’s historical middle grade novel, THE DETECTIVE'S ASSISTANT (Little, Brown/Hachette), which won the 2016 Golden Kite Award for Middle Grade Fiction, received two starred reviews, was a Booklist Editor's Choice, and appeared on the 2016 Amelia Bloomer List. Picture books she represents include noted poet Linda Ashman's lyrical ode to the rhythms of the natural world, ALL WE KNOW (HarperCollins), and her nearly wordless celebration of optimism, RAIN! (Houghton/HMH); and Kim Norman's three Arctic Companion books that cleverly spin off favorite preschool songs, TEN ON THE SLED, IF IT’S SNOWY AND YOU KNOW IT, and SHE’LL BE COMIN’ UP THE MOUNTAIN (all Sterling). Artists she represents include Geisel Honor winning author-illustrator Paul Meisel, who has illustrated or written a total of more than 70 books for young readers; J.R. Krause, author-illustrator of DRAGON NIGHT (Putnam), an Indie Next selection; Rob Polivka, illustrator of GOD BLESS AMERICA (Hyperion) and co-author and illustrator of A DREAM OF FLIGHT: ALBERTO SANTOS-DUMONT’S RACE AROUND THE EIFFEL TOWER (FSG/Macmillan); and former Google doodler Katy Wu, illustrator of several picture book biographies, including Laurie Wallmark's GRACE HOPPER: QUEEN OF COMPUTER CODE and HEDY LAMARR’S DOUBLE LIFE (both Sterling).
Prior to joining ABLA, Jennifer spent time as an editor at Dutton Children's Books and as a Books for Youth staff reviewer at Booklist magazine. Jennifer is based in Chicago and enjoys speaking at SCBWI and other writers' conferences in Chicagoland and farther afield. She is also in the midst of a personal mission to read through the oeuvre of Anthony Trollope. Follow her on Twitter (@jannmatt).
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It’s the first ever Middle Grade Ninja clips show, featuring snippets from each of the podcast’s first 30 episodes. This is the perfect place for new listeners to start.
New episodes are scheduled to return August 13th.
Until then, enjoy this compilation of clips from conversations with AUTHORS Laura Martin, Barabra Shoup, Jeff Norton, Darby Karchut, Susan Kaye Quinn, Jacqueline West, Daniel Kenney, Tommy Greenwald, Steven K Smith, Lamar Giles, Kathi Appelt, Padma Venkatraman, Jessica Lawson, Daniel José Older, Dustin Brady, Amber Smith, Marie Miranda Cruz,M.G. Hennessey, Debbie Dadey, LITERARY AGENTS John Cusick, Jennifer March Soloway, Holly Root, Elana Roth Parker, John Rudolph, Molly O'Neill, EDITORS Mary Kole, Amy Tipton, Alison S. Weiss, Diana M. Pho, and PUBLIC RELATIONS EXPERT Megan Beatie.
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Debbie Dadey and I discuss her nearly 30-year career publishing over 160 children's books, from her classic debut, VAMPIRES DON'T WEAR POLKA DOTS, to her newest series, MERMAID TALES. She shares how she and coauthor Marsha Thornton Jones agreed to collaborate on THE ADVENTURES OF THE BAILEY SCHOOL KIDS while working out, passing the story back and forth like a hot potato, which went on to sell over 34 million copies and became one of the top three bestselling series in Scholastic's history. She also provides many tips on how to write for children, advice on publishing contracts, critique groups, generating story ideas, creating compelling outlines, planning series, and so much more. This episode is packed with information every writer needs to hear and is not to be missed.
Debbie Dadey taught first grade before becoming a librarian. It was while teaching that she first realized how much she wanted to write a book for reluctant readers. Her first book, Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots, with fellow teacher Marcia Thornton Jones, was the result of a very bad day. In fact, Marcia and Debbie joked that if they were vampire teachers all the kids would pay attention to them! Since then, Debbie and Marcia have collaborated on more than 125 books with sales of over forty-seven million copies. Debbie has sold 166 books and is enjoying writing the Mermaid Tales series for Simon and Schuster. She has had a great time channeling her inner girl (and inner mermaid) with the adventures of Shelly, Echo, Kiki and Pearl. In each book, the mergirls deal with kid issues, as well as learning things about the ocean in school. Debbie grew up in Kentucky, but has lived all over the country with her family. She currently lives in Sevierville, TN with her husband and two dogs. She loves it when her three children visit and enjoys visiting schools all over the world. She hopes you'll like her on Facebook.com/debbiedadey or visit www.debbiedadey.com.
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M.G. Hennessey and I discuss her new middle grade novel THE ECHO PARK CASTAWAYS and her previous book, THE OTHER BOY, as well as the state of the American foster care system. Also, STAR WARS and flying saucers. M.G. shares her experience with multiple literary agents and gives a whole lot of excellent writing advice. And to top it off, I introduce a contest to give away three free books for those who subscribe to my YouTube channel before August 15, 2019
M.G. Hennessey loves Star Wars, the San Francisco Giants, strawberry ice cream, and dancing. She mentors teens at the Lifeworks program/LA LGBT Center and volunteers as a CASA with L.A. foster kids. She's also the dean of Camp Transcend Family Camp, and an organizer of the Gender Odyssey LA conference. A supporter of the Transgender Law Center, Gender Spectrum. and the Human Rights Campaign, she lives in Los Angeles with her family. She/Her
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Diana M. Pho and I chat about her career in publishing from her time as an international marketing assistant with Hachette to her eight years and counting as an editor with Tor Books. She walks me through the process of selecting a submission, building a presentation for it to convince her house to publish the book, and the process of actually editing and shaping the project. She also gives me some tidbits on what's happening with Robert Jordan's WHEEL OF TIME series and its next installment. This is another wonderful episode packed with quality content and you'll want to listen to it at least twice.
Diana M. Pho is a two-time Hugo-nominated editor at Tor Books and Tor.com Publishing, though she’s worked in the publishing industry under various hats for the past decade. She’s also an academic scholar, activist, performer, and general rabble-rouser elsewhere. Her talented list includes Robyn Bennis, Alex Bledsoe, P. Djeli Clark, Marie Cruz, Lara Elena Donnelly, Thoraiya Dyer, A. J. Hartley, Margaret Killjoy, Kari Maaren, and Prentis Rollins; she also works with the best-selling The Wheel of Time® series and George R. R. Martin’s Wild Cards universe. Books she has edited have gone on to win the Thriller Award (Steeplejack, for Best YA), the Ditmar Award (Crossroads of Canopy, for Best Novel) and to become finalists for the Nebula, Lambda Literary Award, Shirley Jackson Award, and Andre Norton Award for Young Adult.
In the steampunk community, she is best-known for running Beyond Victoriana, an award-winning, US-based blog on multicultural steampunk. She has published numerous articles on science fiction and its community. She has been interviewed for many media outlets about fandom, including CBS’s Inside Edition, MSN.com, BBC America, the Travel Channel, HGTV, and the Science Channel.
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BeyondVictoriana.com
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Marie Miranda Cruz and I talk about her journey to write and publish her first novel, EVERLASTING NORA, including how she got her literary agent and her experience working with editor Diana Pho and even how she got the initial idea that sparked her story. We chat about the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and the impact it had on her as well as her deep commitment to diversity in children's literature. And we talk about communities and the importance of creating a strong community of writers in your life. This is another wonderful episode that's not to be missed.
Marie Miranda Cruz was born in the Philippines. She spent most of her formative years moving between her hometown, Cavite City, and several cities in the United States while her father served in the United States Navy. When her dad retired, she moved back to the Philippines where she completed both high school and college. The first holiday she experienced in the Philippines was All Saints Day. It was this experience that inspired her to write her first novel, EVERLASTING NORA.
Marie now lives in Los Angeles with her family and a tank of fighting fish. When she isn’t writing books for kids, she may be analyzing chromosomes in a genetics lab, reading a good book, or knitting ponchos and fingerless gloves.
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Author Amber Smith and I discuss her newest novel, SOMETHING LIKE GRAVITY. We talk about where she got her idea originally, her process for writing it, and the techniques she employed in telling her story. We also talk about her journey of writing and publishing her first novel, THE WAY I USED TO BE, from the frustrations of rewriting it to the joys of it becoming an award winning New York Times Bestseller. She shares her tips for writing a romantic story, for building suspense, and for writing about characters respectfully without exploiting them. WARNING: We briefly discuss sexual assault as depicted in Amber's books, so discretion should be exercised for younger members of Esteemed Audience.
Amber Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of the young adult novels, The Way I Used to Be, The Last to Let Go, and Something Like Gravity. Her debut, The Way I Used to Be (2016), was selected for the American Library Association’s Amelia Bloomer List of Feminist Literature and Texas Library Association’s TAYSHAS List, it was named a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, and nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in YA Fiction, Connecticut’s Nutmeg Book Award, and Indiana’s Eliot Rosewater Award. Her second novel, The Last to Let Go (2018), received starred reviews from Booklist and VOYA, and was named a most-anticipated book by B and N Teen Blog, Elite Daily, and Bookish. Her next novel, Something Like Gravity, will be released June 18th, 2019 from Simon and Schuster.
Amber grew up in Buffalo, New York and now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her partner and their ever-growing family of rescued dogs and cats. Fueled by a lifelong passion for the arts, story, and creative expression, Amber graduated from art school with a BFA in Painting and went on to earn her master’s degree in Art History. When she’s not writing she’s usually reading, but can also be found in her studio making art or freelancing as an art consultant. She has also written on the topics of art history and modern and contemporary art.
An advocate for increased awareness of gendered violence, including sexual assault and domestic or intimate partner abuse, as well as LGBTQ equality, she writes in the hope that her books can help to foster change and spark dialogue surrounding these issues.
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AmberSmithAuthor.com
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Molly O'Neill and I discuss her career in publishing from her start in marketing with Clarion Books to her time as an editor with Harper Collins to her current role as a literary agent with Root Literary. She shares the experience of discovering and editing DIVERGENT (and I reveal an embarrassing encounter I had with Veronica Roth). We talk about the relationship between authors and editors and how to keep it from going off kilter, the truth about rejection, and some practical tips for writing the dreaded synopsis. As a special bonus, we're treated to a live reading of ROBERT PATTINSON: ETERNALLY YOURS from one of its coauthors. This episode is packed with insight into the world of publishing and you'll want to listen to it multiple times through.
Molly O'Neill is a literary agent with Root Literary. For the past sixteen years, she has held various roles inside the publishing industry: previously, she was an Editor at HarperCollins Children's Books, where she acquired Veronica Roth's juggernaut Divergent series, among many other fantastic projects; the Head of Editorial at Storybird, a publishing/tech start-up; a member of the School and Library Marketing departments at both HarperCollins and Clarion Books; and an Agent at Waxman Leavell Literary Agency.
Molly loves the creative process and early-stage project development, is invigorated by business strategy and entrepreneurial thinking, and is fascinated by the intersections of art, commerce, creativity, and innovation. Molly is especially passionate about the people behind books, and takes pride in discovering and evangelizing talented authors and illustrators, expanding the global reach of their work, and finding new ways to build connections and community among creators, readers, stories, and their champions. She hunts for new talent and speaks about the importance of books for young people at a variety of conferences for writers, illustrators, and educators around the world each year, and is on the faculty of the Columbia Publishing Course, where she helps train new generations of publishing professionals.
Molly is an alum of Marquette University, an erstwhile Texan, and a current dweller of Brooklyn, NY. She is drawn to authors and artists who constantly challenge themselves, who are adept at communicating with their audiences, who are creative and flexible thinkers, and who have as much enthusiasm for their readers as for their own successes. Wit, strong writing, vivid settings, a passion for craft, or a well-timed reaction gif will always catch her eye.
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MollyOneillBooks.com
RootLiterary.com
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Author Dustin Brady and I discuss his experiences publishing both independently and traditionally for the middle grade market. We talk at length about his series TRAPPED IN A VIDEO GAME and the LEILA AND NUGGET MYSTERIES. We do a deep dive on his extensive experience as an Amazon seller and their AMS marketing platform. He gives a lot of practical, no-nonsense advice about cover design, book description, and all aspects of creating a quality book that's marketable. We also talk about school visits and his love for reaching reluctant readers. This is an episode you'll want to listen to multiple times through (and take notes).
Dustin Brady writes funny, action-packed books for kids. Although he regularly gets locked out of his own accounts for forgetting passwords, Dustin still remembers the Super Mario Bros. 3 Game Genie code for infinite lives. It’s SLXPLOVS. Dustin lives in Cleveland, Ohio, with his wife, kids, and a small dog named Nugget.
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DustinBradyBooks.com
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Literary Agent John Rudolph and I discuss his career in publishing from his start as a reluctant reader in childhood to becoming an editor to his current role as a literary agent with Dystel, Goderich and Bourret LLC. He offers a ton of great advice about how to evaluate an agent and how to engage one professionally and demystifies the role of an agent. We chat about diversity in publishing, the indie publishing revolution, and so much more. This is another topnotch episode packed end-to-end with quality information to help authors improve their craft. Don't miss it!
John Rudolph joined Dystel, Goderich and Bourret LLC in 2010 after twelve years as an acquiring children’s book editor. He began his career at Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers as an Editorial Assistant and then moved to the G. P. Putnam’s Sons imprint of the Penguin Young Readers Group, where he eventually served as Executive Editor on a wide range of young adult, middle-grade, nonfiction, and picture book titles. He graduated from Amherst College with a double major in Classics and Music. While John’s list started out as mostly children’s books, it has evolved to the point where it is now half adult, half children’s authors —and he’s looking to maintain that balance. On the children’s side, John is keenly interested in middle-grade and young adult fiction and would love to find the next great picture book author/illustrator. For adults, he is actively looking for narrative nonfiction, especially in music, sports, history, popular science, “big think”, performing arts, health, business, memoir, military history, and humor. He is also interested in commercial fiction, but is very selective in what he takes on.
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Dystel.com
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Daniel José Older and I chat about his bestselling young adult series SHADOWSHAPER CYPHER and his new middle grade series, DACTYL HILL SQUAD. And STAR WARS, of course, including what it was like to get to read the SOLO script early. Daniel José Older shares information about his process, marketing tips, and how to present an authentic version of yourself to the world. And his adorable dogs make cameo appearances. This conversation was an absolute treat and it's not to be missed.
Daniel José Older is the New York Times bestselling author of the Middle Grade historical fantasy series Dactyl Hill Squad, the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series, Star Wars: Last Shot, and the award winning Young Adult series the Shadowshaper Cypher, which won the International Latino Book Award and was shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize in Young Readers' Literature, the Andre Norton Award, the Locus, the Mythopoeic Award, and named one of Esquire's 80 Books Every Person Should Read. You can find his thoughts on writing, read dispatches from his decade-long career as an NYC paramedic and hear his music at http://danieljoseolder.net/, on youtube and @djolder on twitter.
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DanielJoseOlder.net
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Author Rob Kent reads three chapters from his new middle grade novel, BANNEKER BONES AND THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE.
About the book:
Eleven-year-old cousins Banneker Bones and Ellicott Skullworth are back in their second adventure. Picking up where BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES left off, our heroes are soaring through the air on jet packs, as they do, when they spot a half man, half alligator that’s all terrifying. Naturally, they follow the alligator person deep into the sewers and are nearly eaten for their trouble.
Worse, no one believes the boys were attacked. Not the kids at school, not their parents, not even Banneker’s faithful robot butler. Banneker and Ellicott must prove the existence of alligator people to both vindicate themselves and once again save Latimer City from certain destruction.
For as Banneker warns TV reporter Chip Lieberman, "I don't want to alarm your viewers, Chip, but we may all die. This is the start of the alligator people apocalypse!"
BANNEKER BONES AND THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE is a humorous, science fiction adventure for readers of all ages written in the spirit of a comic book.
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Jessica Lawson and I chat about writing and the strange quirks of being a writer. We discuss each of her books, where she gets her ideas, and her best writing practices. She doesn't sing a song about lost socks, alas, but she does talk about her editorial process and her best tips for successful school visits. Jessica and I have been online friends for years and it was a pleasure to finally have a conversation in person. I learned a lot and you will as well.
Jessica Lawson enjoys living in Pennsylvania, where she and her family spend weekend hours hanging at the local orchard, pretending to be on Top Chef Junior, building with magnet blocks, making up new holidays, and reading plenty of books. She likes pizza. A lot.
She is the author of The Actual and Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher, a book that Publishers Weekly called “a delightfully clever debut” in a starred review, and Nooks and Crannies, a Junior Library Guild Selection and recipient of three starred reviews. Her 3rd book, Waiting for Augusta, won the Colorado Book Award for Juvenile Fiction, and was also a Junior Library Guild Selection. Of her latest book, Under the Bottle Bridge, School Library Journal says: "Beautifully written, with vivid characters, this exploration of family and friendship shines from the first page."
She fell in love with storytelling at an early age, and is a sucker for Roald Dahl, Maurice Sendak, Linda Sue Park, RL LaFevers, Charles Dickens, Karen Cushman, Barbara Park, Amy Tan, Maryrose Wood, Barbara Cooney, Anne Ursu, Christopher Paul Curtis, Gail Carson Levine, Rita Williams-Garcia, Arnold Lobel, Isabel Allende, Sharon Creech, Eva Ibbotson, Shannon Hale, Maeve Binchy and many, many, many other wonderful authors and illustrators.
She writes middle grade fiction, lots of to-do lists, and songs about lost socks.
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Literary Agent Elana Roth Parker and I discuss her career as an editor and a literary agent (and a few other jobs). We talk about how authors should evaluate agents as well as how she evaluates potential clients, including what one author did to rule themselves out during a potential offer call. Bonus: you'll get to hear about a possible close encounter. This is a wonderfully informative conversation with a seasoned expert you don't want to miss.
Elana Roth Parker is a Detroit-based creative type of the word variety.
Elana has a few college degrees that explain where she came from and where she is now: one in English literature from Barnard College and one in Bible from the Jewish Theological Seminary.
The magic happened when she lucked into her dream internship at Nickelodeon Magazine—a career in children's content was born. Book publishing followed, and over the next 15 years Elana went from editor to agent, with some stops in marketing and content strategy along the way. A literary agent for 10+ years, she currently represents children's book authors and illustrators at Laura Dail Literary Agency.
After 17 years in New York City, Elana and her creative director husband relocated to her native Michigan, where she now drives around their two sons in a minivan.
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Elana.me
Ldlainc.com
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Editor Alison S. Weiss and I discuss her career in publishing and her editing expertise. We cover a little bit of everything from how she got her start in the business to recommendations for those who want to establish careers in publishing. We go through the services she provides to writers and her tips for tightening pacing, creating non-stereotypical characters, making your prose read like music, finding the right ratio between dialogue and action in a scene, and whole lot of other great stuff. This is a highly informative episode you'll want to listen to more than once.
Alison S. Weiss has been in publishing for more than ten years. She currently is an editorial consultant at Alison Weiss Editorial. Prior to that, she was Editorial Director at Sky Pony Press, where she works on picture books through YA including William C. Morris Finalist, Devils Within by S.F. Henson, the Project Droid series by New York Times bestselling Nancy Krulik and Amanda Burwasser, illustrated by Mike Moran, and the popular Timekeeper trilogy by Tara Sim. In 2016 she was named Publishers Weekly Star Watch Honoree. She’s been trying to live up to the title ever since. Find information about her services at alisonweisseditorial.com and follow her on Twitter @alioop7.
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AlisonWeissEditorial.com
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Literary Agent Holly Root and I discuss her career in publishing from working in the mail room, to making a name for herself as an agent, to now running her own agency. She also takes us through the cycle of a published manuscript from the time it starts out as a query in her inbox, to the time she negotiates its contract, to guiding its author through launch and onto their next book and the rest of their career. And she makes a JURASSIC PARK reference, so you know she's awesome. Prepare to learn a lot about publishing and to be inspired.
Holly Root began her publishing career as an editor in her hometown of Nashville, TN. Prior to joining the Waxman Literary Agency in 2007, she worked at the William Morris Agency and Trident Media Group. Holly has launched over two dozen New York Times bestsellers before founding Root Literary in 2017. The agency's clients benefit from its agents' proven skills in identifying talent, negotiating advantageous deals, and advocating for its books all the way from submission to publication. They offer their clients broad-based industry insights as well as individualized strategic thinking to empower each author to define and pursue their own unique path to success.
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RootLiterary.com
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Padma Venkatraman and I discuss her new middle grade novel, THE BRIDGE HOME. We discuss everything from her childhood in India to her becoming an oceanographer and now an award-winning author. We also discuss religion, spirituality, writing about them for the middle grade market, and, of course, flying saucers. This episode is filled from end to end with fascinating insights about writing and storytelling, as well advice for living.
Padma Venkatraman is the author of 4 novels: THE BRIDGE HOME, A TIME TO DANCE, ISLAND'S END and CLIMBING THE STAIRS, all of which were released to multiple starred reviews (for a total of seventeen stars so far). Her latest, THE BRIDGE HOME, was released this February to five starred reviews (in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, School Library Journal and School Library Connection), won an Audiophile Magazine Earphone Award, and is the 2019 middle grade Global Read Aloud. Her previous three young adult novels have won several awards (South Asia Book Award, Paterson Prize, Boston Authors Club Julia Ward Howe, Rhode Island Book of the Year etc.) and received numerous honors (including the ALA Notable, ALA BBYA, Kirkus BBYA, Booklist Editor’s Choice, NYPL Top 25 and Bank Street Best Books).
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PadmaVenkatraman.com
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Public relations expert Megan Beatie and I discuss book marketing for middle grade novels, young adult novels, and picture books. She shares her history navigating the publishing industry in the start of her career in 1996 all the way to the present, gives an overview of all the things she does for her authors, and provides numerous invaluable tips for book promotion and working with publicists. This is an invaluable conversation for anyone interested in marketing a book.
Megan Beatie is a veteran book publicist with more than two decades of experience. She has executed the publicity campaigns for books in nearly every conceivable genre including literary fiction, mysteries&thrillers,science fiction, fantasy, graphic novels, young adult and children’s books, as well as nonfiction covering the topics of pop culture, film, entertainment, health, lifestyle, parenting, and relationships.
Some of the esteemed writers she has represented over the course of her career include Marcia Clark, Dr. David Agus, Dr. Nina Shapiro, John Lahr, Barry Eisler, Lee Goldberg, Seth Greenland, Leslie S. Klinger, Attica Locke, John Connolly, Chris Farnsworth, and many others. She has a specialty in children’s book publicity and has worked on picture books, middle grade books and young adult books by authors including Becky Albertalli, Adam Silvera, IbiZoboi, Elana K. Arnold, Maureen Johnson, Melissa de la Cruz, Margaret Stohl, Amber Smith, Alexandra Monir, and many more.
The fifth generation of a farming family from Southern California’s Ventura County, Megan lives and works in Los Angeles. Visit her company’s website at www.meganbeatie.com and follow on Facebook @MeganBeatieCommunications, Instagram @mubeatie, and Twitter @mbeatie.
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Kathi Appelt and I discuss her first young adult novel, ANGEL THIEVES, as well as her many wonderful picture books and middle grade novels. She reveals her writing and research process and is very candid about the highs and lows of her publishing career, from the runaway success of THE UNDERNEATH to the tale of the picture book that took 17 years to finally be published. We also discuss religion and politics and are generally impolite, as authors ought to be. We even say a naughty word apiece, so look forward to that and more in this amazing episode packed with outstanding advice for writers from a master of the craft.
Kathi Appelt is the author of the Newbery Honoree, National Book Award finalist, PEN USA Literary Award-winning, and bestselling The Underneath as well as the National Book Award finalist The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, Keeper, and many picture books including Counting Crows. She has two grown children and lives in College Station, Texas, with her husband.
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Lamar Giles and I discuss his newest middle grade adventure novel, THE LAST LAST-DAY-OF-SUMMER, his young adult thrillers, and our mutual love for Stephen King. We also talk about the founding of We Need Diverse Books, his transition from self published author to traditionally published author (and the advantages of each publishing model), and also Stephen King. We actually talk about Stephen King a lot. If you'd like to support We Need Diverse Books, head to: https://diversebooks.org/our-programs/ And to apply for the grant Lamar mentioned, head to: https://diversebooks.org/our-programs/walter-grant/ And to read my open (love) letter to Stephen King, head to: http://www.middlegradeninja.com/2016/10/ninja-stuff-open-letter-to-stephen-king.html
Lamar Giles is a well published author and a founding member of We Need Diverse Books. Lamar has two novels forthcoming in 2019: his debut middle grade fantasy THE LAST LAST-DAY-OF-SUMMER (Versify / HMH) and his fourth YA thriller SPIN (Scholastic).
Lamar Giles is a two-time Edgar Award finalist in the YA category, for his debut YA thriller FAKE ID (HarperCollins, 2014), and his second YA thriller, ENDANGERED (HarperCollins, 2015). His third YA thriller, OVERTURNED (Scholastic, 2017) received this glowing New York Times review, and was named a Kirkus Best Book of 2017. You can see the book trailer for OVERTURNED here. FAKE ID has been optioned by Sony Pictures (not yet announced).
Lamar is a contributor to the YA anthology THREE SIDES OF A HEART (HarperCollins, 2017), the editor of the forthcoming We Need Diverse Books YA short story anthology FRESH INK (Random House 2018), a contributor to the forthcoming YA anthology BLACK ENOUGH: STORIES OF BEING YOUNG & BLACK IN AMERICA (HarperCollins / Balzer and Bray 2019), and a contributor to a forthcoming We Need Diverse Books middle grade anthology.
MiddleGradeNinja.com
lamargiles.com
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Author Steven K. Smith and I discuss indie publishing for the middle grade market and his advice for writers. We talk about his series THE VIRGINIA MYSTERIES and how utilizing local landmarks and history helped him build a network of educators and bookstore owners to help him market his books. Steven and I both have a background in sales, so we discuss how that's extremely helpful for authors. And we get into the nitty gritty on Amazon ads and other subjects specifically helpful for indie publishers. Another episode that's not to be missed!
Steven K. Smith writes the middle grade series The Virginia Mysteries, adventures with a twist of history, and Brother Wars.
Sign up for Steven's Reader's List to be notified of new books and events at: http://eepurl.com/bmgO8T
Steven lives in Richmond, Virginia, with his wife and three sons. Born and raised in rural northwestern New Jersey, he moved to Virginia in 2011 and quickly fell in love with its history and charm. Visit his website at www.stevenksmith.net. He also writes contemporary fiction for grownups as Steven Sawyer.
When he's not writing, Steven enjoys coaching his boys in sports, hiking, kayaking, naps, and taking away his kids' screen time. Some of his favorite children's books include Where the Red Fern Grows, Rascal, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Bridge to Terabithia, and the Chronicles of Narnia series.
The Virginia Mysteries - Adventures with a twist of history Book 1 - Summer of the Woods Book 2 - Mystery on Church Hill Book 3 - Ghosts of Belle Isle Book 4 - Secret of the Staircase Book 5 - Midnight at the Mansion Book 6 - Shadows at Jamestown Book 7 - Spies at Mount Vernon
Brother Wars Brother Wars: Cabin Eleven Brother Wars: The Big Apple
Parenting Non-Fiction Splashing in the Deep End: Adventures Raising Boys
MiddleGradeNinja.com
myboys3.com
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Literary Agent Jennifer March Soloway and I discuss the types of projects she's looking for, how she evaluates queries and writing samples, and the sorts of services she provides to her clients. She demonstrates her vast knowledge of the market and why she would be an ideal literary agent to represent authors, and throws out plenty of fabulous tips for writers. This is an episode you'll want to listen to a few times and take notes.
Jennifer March Soloway represents authors and illustrators of picture book, middle grade, and YA stories, and is actively building her list. Although she specializes in children’s literature, she also represents adult fiction, both literary and commercial, particularly crime and psychological suspense projects.
For picture books, she is drawn to a wide range of stories from silly to sweet, but she always appreciates a strong dose of humor and some kind of surprise at the end. When it comes to middle grade, she likes all kinds of genres, including adventures, mysteries, spooky-but-not-too-scary ghost stories, humor, realistic contemporary, and fantasy.
YA is Jennifer’s sweet spot. She is a suspense junkie. She adores action-packed thrillers full of unexpected twists. Throw in a dash of romance and she’s hooked! She's a huge fan of psychological horror that blurs the lines between the real and the imagined. But as much as she loves a good thriller, she finds her favorite novels are literary stories about ordinary teens, especially those focused on family, relationships, sexuality, mental illness, or recovery. In such stories, she is particularly drawn to a close, confiding first-person narrative. Regardless of genre, she is actively seeking fresh new voices and perspectives underrepresented in literature.
That’s her wish list, but the truth is an author might have something she has never considered before, and it might be absolutely perfect for her. She is open to any good story that is well written with a strong, authentic voice. Surprise her!
Prior to joining ABLA, Jennifer worked in marketing and public relations in a variety of industries, including financial services, health care, and toys. She has an MFA in English and Creative Writing from Mills College and was a fellow at the San Francisco Writer’s Grotto in 2012. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, their two sons, and an English bulldog.
Jennifer regularly presents at writing conferences all over the country, including the San Francisco Writers Conference, the Atlanta Writers Conference, and regional SCBWI conferences.
For her latest conference schedule, craft tips and more, follow Jennifer on Twitter (@marchsoloway).
MiddleGradeNinja.com
andreabrownlit.com
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Author Tommy Greenwald and I discuss his career in publishing and his advice for writers. We do a deep dive on his process from having his initial idea to planning the story to planning a series and working with his editors and illustrators to produce a final book. He gives several invaluable insights into marketing and targeting his fiction. We also talk about his experience writing and advertising musicals as well as writing about sports.
Tommy Greenwald is the author of many books for children, including the CRIMEBITERS! series, about a group of friends and a (possibly) superhero crime-fighting vampire dog, and the CHARLIE JOE JACKSON books, a middle-grade series about the most reluctant reader ever born. His most recent book is GAME CHANGER, about the pleasures and perils of youth sports.
Tommy is also the Co-Founder of Spotco Advertising, a theatrical and entertainment advertising agency in New York City, and the lyricist and co-bookwriter (with Andrew Lippa) of JOHN and JEN, a 1995 musical which was revived off-Broadway in 2015.
MiddleGradeNinja.com
TommyGreenwald.com
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Author Daniel Kenney and I discuss his career in publishing and his advice for writers. We go to some weird places with our mutual love of flying saucers and even discuss whether or not the moon landing was faked (probably not, but maybe). And I read a selection from BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES. My apologies for coughing and sniffling as I'm getting over a nasty bought of the flu.
Daniel Kenney is the co-author of the hit detective series, The Math Inspectors and the author/illustrator behind the hugely successful Big Life of Remi Muldoon series. He writes funny books for smart kids and his titles include The Beef Jerky Gang, Pirate Ninja, and Katie Plumb and The Pendleton Gang.
Daniel and his wife live in Omaha, Nebraska with zero cats, zero dogs, one gecko, two very lost toads, and a large shoe full of kids. When those kids aren't driving him nuts, Daniel is busy with his other passion, traveling the world by jet pack.
MiddleGradeNinja.com
Facebook.com/AuthorDanielKenney
Twitter.com/danielkenney
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Literary Agent and author John Cusick and I discuss his career in publishing and his advice for writers. We talk about diversity in publishing, his tips for landing an agent, and many other great things you won't want to miss. Here is a link to John's video "A Pretty Much Foolproof Silver Bullet Query Opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27VHP... And as promised, here's a link to my post about diversity in traditional publishing: http://www.middlegradeninja.com/2015/03/ninja-stuff-on-heartbreak-and-diversity_27.html
John Cusick (@johnmcusick) is a VP and literary agent with Folio Jr. / Folio Literary Management. He represents a diverse list of bestselling and award-winning creators of picture books, middle-grade, and young adult novels. He is also the author of Girl Parts and Cherry Money Baby (Candlewick Press), and co-editor of the YouTube series Agent Brain/ Writer Brain.
www.middlegradeninja.com
johnmcusick.wordpress.com
foliolit.com
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Editor and former literary agent Amy Tipton and I discuss her career in publishing and her approach to editing. We chat about her time representing Courtney Summers, Amy Reed, and many other famous YA authors and I thank her for a crucial note she gave me when I was revising Banneker Bones and the Giant Robot Bees. She shares her philosophy of revision, the new services she's offering through Feral Girl Books, the most common mistakes writers make, and much, much more.
In her own words:
I graduated from Naropa University with a B.A. in Writing and Literature and received my MFA from New College of California in Writing. I have been working in the publishing industry for 13 years and started freelance editing in 2018. Prior to that, I was a literary agent at Signature Literary Agency since 2009. (I first stepped into the role of literary agent at Peter Rubie Literary Agency, now FinePrint Literary Management, in 2007.) I started out as an assistant and office manager at several agencies including JCA Literary Agency, Diana Finch Literary Agency, Gina Maccoby Literary Agency, and Liza Dawson Associates, as a book scout for Aram Fox, Inc., and as a freelance editor for Lauren Weisberger (author of The Devil Wears Prada). My years of experience culling books from the slush pile give me confidence I can help you too!
(Not just a service for those looking for an agent … Maybe you already have an agent but they are less editorial-minded and you are going on sub or got an RR from an editor … Maybe you’re self-publishing … Whatever the situation, consider me your professional CP! )
www.middlegradeninja.com
amy-tipton.com
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NYT Bestselling author Jacqueline West and I discuss her career in publishing as well as her approach to writing and her background as a performer and English teacher. She shares many tips for how to write successfully and gives recommended resources for aspiring authors. I also read a small selection from Banneker Bones and the Giant Robot Bees.
Jacqueline West is the author of the NYT-bestselling middle grade series The Books of Elsewhere, the YA novel Dreamers Often Lie, and the new middle grade fantasy The Collectors.
She is also the author of two poetry collections, Cherma and Candle and Pins: Poems on Superstitions, and her poetry and short fiction appear in a variety of publications.
She lives in Red Wing, Minnesota, with her family.
www.middlegradeninja.com
jacquelinewest.com
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Author and indie publishing expert Susan Kaye Quinn and I discuss her career in publishing as well as her approach to writing and editing. She shares many tips for how to be successful as an indie author. You'll want to revisit this episode a few times and take notes because Susan has more knowledge than could ever be packed into a single episode. Note: a few crucial seconds have been removed from this conversation to protect the identity of Susan's pen name.
Susan Kaye Quinn is a rocket scientist turned speculative fiction author who now uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. She writes young adult science fiction, with side trips into adult future-noir and sweet royal romance. Her bestselling novels and short stories have been optioned for Virtual Reality, translated into German, and featured in several anthologies.
Susan grew up in California, got a bunch of engineering degrees (Aerospace, Mechanical, and Environmental), and worked everywhere from NASA to NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research). She has designed aircraft engines, studied global warming, and held elected office (as a school board member). Now that she writes novels, her business card says “Author and Rocket Scientist,” but she spends most of her time inventing her stories, petting her cats, and rescuing her Roomba from evil socks.
Susan writes full-time from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. She is a member of SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) and is represented by Sarah Hershmann at Hershmann Rights Management.
www.middlegradeninja.com
susankayequinn.com
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Editor and former literary agent Mary Kole and I discuss her career in publishing and her approach to editing. She shares many tips for how to create memorable characters, how to improve a story's pacing, how best to market a book, and all sorts of other invaluable advice for writers. You'll want to revisit this episode a few times and take notes as it's packed with great content. And do not forget to check out KidLit.com, MaryKole.com, and purchase your copy of Mary's excellent book on craft, Writing Irresistible Kidlit.
As promised in the show, here is the text of the kind rejection I recieved from Mary back in 2010: "Thank you so much for the opportunity to read BANNEKER BONES. Unfortunately, this is a pass for me. The writing here is good and the premise is fun and interesting but I'm having a hard time imagining how to pitch or sell this in today's market. The voice just isn't 100% there for me, and it really has to shine for me to take something on. You've obviously a very skilled writer and I know I'll be kicking myself, but I'm not connecting to the material enough to be the best advocate for it in the marketplace, and you deserve nothing less. I'm sure another agent will feel differently and I look forward to reading about your many successes. You're plugged in and getting there, I can tell, but you're not quite there yet."
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Author Darby Karchut and I discuss her new middle grade novel, Del Toro Moon, as well as her advice for writers and thoughts and writing and publishing in general. We also chat a bit about our mutual love for author Mike Mullin. Late in the show, there are some slight technical issues with the video, but the audio is continuous and this was an amazing conversation I really enjoyed.
Darby Karchut is a multi-award winning author, dreamer, and compulsive dawn greeter. A proud native of New Mexico, she now lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, where she runs in blizzards and bikes in lightning storms. When not dodging death by Colorado, Darby is busy at her writing desk. Her books include the best selling middle grade series: THE ADVENTURES OF FINN MacCULLEN. Best thing ever: her YA debut novel, GRIFFIN RISING, has been optioned for film. Her latest book is DEL TORO MOON from Owl Hollow Press. Visit the author at www.darbykarchut.com
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I chat with fellow genre writers Maurice Broaddus, Sandy James, and Tony Perona during the Genre Writing Panel at the Indy Author Fair held Saturday, October 14, 2017 at Central Library in Indianapolis.
Maurice Broaddus is the author of the Knights of Breton Court trilogy, and the upcoming middle grade novel, The Usual Suspects. He has published dozens of short stories, essays, novellas and articles. He founded the Phoenix Arts Initiative, which encourages use of the arts for at-risk youth to express themselves. He teaches at the Indiana Writers Center.
Sandy James has published numerous romance novels with Forever Yours and Carina Press, and is the recipient of two HOLT Medallions for excellence in that genre. Her indie-published romance novels have been Amazon #1 Bestsellers. She lives in suburban Indianapolis.
Tony Perona is the author of the Nick Bertetto mystery series (SECOND ADVENT, ANGELS WHISPER, and SAINTLY REMAINS), the standalone thriller THE FINAL MAYAN PROPHECY, and co-editor and contributor to the anthologies RACING CAN BE MURDER and HOOSIER HOOPS & HIJINKS. Tony is a member of Mystery Writers of America and has served the organization as a member of the Board of Directors and as Treasurer. He is also a member of Sisters-in-Crime.
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Author Jeff Norton and I discuss his new middle grade novel, Alienated, as well as his philosophy on writing and his advice for writers. Naturally, we also discussed our mutual love for zombies and the series Choose Your Own Adventure. And I got him on the record about his feelings regarding UFOs and alien abduction. You don't want to miss this episode!
Jeff Norton is a London based writer-producer, author of the award-winning 'MetaWars' series from Hachette, 'Memoirs of a Neurotic Zombie' series from Faber, and the new YA thriller 'Keeping The Beat' with co-author Marie Powell and published by KCP Loft.
A reluctant reader as an adolescent, Jeff created the futuristic world of 'MetaWars' to rival the most exciting video games and to challenge readers with big ideas. His aim was to write "a video game you can read."
Originally from Canada, Jeff began his career in advertising, worked in the movie business in Hollywood where he produced the critically acclaimed interactive film 'Choose Your Own Adventure,' and upon moving to the U.K., managed the literary estate of Enid Blyton, Britain's best-loved author. He now writes full time, with a focus on creating big, immersive worlds.
Jeff is also a producer and director in multiple media. He lives London with his wife and two young sons.
jeffnorton.com
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Barbara Shoup, one of my most favorite writers and the executive director of the Indiana Writers Center, joined me for this second episode. We had a fantastic discussion about writing, young adult novels, the Indiana Writers Center, and our love of being Hoosiers. This is one of my favorite conversations I've had with a fellow writer.
Barbara Shoup is the author eight novels, including Night Watch, Wish You Were Here, Stranded in Harmony, Faithful Women, Vermeer's Daughter, Everything You Want, An American Tune, and Looking for Jack Kerouac, as well as the co-author of Novel Ideas: Contemporary Authors Share the Creative Process and Story Matters.
Her young adult novels, Wish You Were Here and Stranded in Harmonywere selected as American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults. Vermeer's Daughter was a School Library Journal Best Adult Book for Young Adults. She was the recipient of the 2006 PEN Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Working Writer Fellowship.
She lives in Indianapolis, where she is the Executive Director of the Indiana Writers Center.
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Laura Martin, my friend and author of THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION series discusses her newest middle grade novel, FLOAT. She also shares intimate details into her writing process and her writer's journey thus far and provides unique insight to inspire authors at all stages in their career. Our discussion of the edited "skinny dipping" scene from Float alone is well worth your time. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this discussion between two middle grade authors about writing, publishing, and life.
Laura Martin believes in chasing dreams, and she brought that philosophy to her classroom for six years as a seventh-grade English teacher. She is the author of the Edge of Extinction series. When she isn’t writing stories about dinosaurs and underground civilizations, she can be found in the Indianapolis area with her dashing husband Josh, her two adorable kids London and Lincoln, and two opinionated bulldogs. You can visit her online at www.lauramartinbooks.com.
Her latest, Float, released on May 29th, 2018
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