In Which I Admit I May Only Be A Middle Grade Writer, And That's Okay

Remember my last post when I thought I had worked through my psychological turmoil and might actually be able to finish my contemporary romance? Well, all I have to say to that is, ha ha ha, joke's on me because I've added all of 3,000 words to that book since July. I love the idea of finishing that book, but I don't actually love that book. Maybe I'll finish it someday. It feels wrong to leave unfinished a project that's 25,000 words in. But I've given myself permission to do it. I just don't love writing outside the middle grade space, it turns out.

One of my friends in the #MGWaves is a writing craft nerd, and she offered to do an outline workshop with some of us. That gave me the impetus to dust off an idea I had almost a year ago. I even wrote a few chapters of that version of the idea, but I was trying to narrate it in the voice of Charles Dickens and, surprise surprise, that's actually really hard. I think I nailed the first chapter, but then when my critique group read the second chapter they wondered why Dickens wasn't narrating anymore. Could I have done more reading, gone through a million edits, and eventually gotten it right? Maybe. But in the end I found I just didn't have the ambition to attempt it.

So the Dickens inspired Christmas ghost story was tossed into the bin. But a skeleton of a winter ghost story with darkness and light, grief and joy, remained. So I gave it flesh. The ghost is now the MC's older sister. The first names have changed to match the theme. The family is much more fleshed out and much more flawed. Real wrong has been done to the vengeful ghosts.

Basically it's a whole lot better than the original idea. I still only have an outline (though a pretty detailed one thanks to my awesome friends) and character sketches, but it's something. 

And of course I made a new moodboard/aesthetic, because that's what I do. Here it is, in all its glory. Now let's see if I can actually make this thing into a completed manuscript. Whether that then makes it into a book is not up to me, as I have painfully learned, but finished manuscript is something I can control and I hope I can push past my hard feelings about querying the manuscript that would be "the one" for nearly two years now and get this story written. I think it has the potential to be something really beautiful. Maybe even better than Harbor Lightkeep. And that's saying a lot. Because I did not think I could beat a glucose alert fox.

In Which I Get to Meet Some Of My People

I missed writing a blog post in January, in large part because I was busy feeling sorry for myself, but I blogged twice in December, so that makes up for it, right? Right? Whatever. All six of you who regularly read these posts can rejoice over me having a new one. 😂

Remember that new idea I was excited about? Or that thread of hope I was hanging onto in December? Yeah, that new idea is currently stalled in chapter 5. So I started a rewrite of the contemporary MG I wrote almost three years ago. It also stalled in chapter 5. Since my contemporary romance is also stalled in chapter 5, it's clear this is a theme for me. Don't ask me why chapter 5 is the one that breaks me.

A couple weeks ago I had a full on meltdown at dinnertime because my son didn't want to eat the dinner I had made with him specifically in mind. I am over having kids who are picky eaters despite everything I've tried to change that and who have only gotten worse with age (they're way past preschool), but that's not what the meltdown was really about. It was really about the fact that I feel like all my years of effort in writing have gotten me nowhere. Empirically I know that's not true. I've continued to develop my craft. I've formed great relationships within the writing world. I've gotten to know the industry much better than I did three years ago. But none of that is any guarantee I'll get an agent, let alone a book deal, and in the end that is still both my dream and my goal.

My breakdown was well timed, because it happened not long before something that was planned back in October: a retreat in Nashville, Tennessee with some of the other women in the #MGWaves. In case you don't want to look back at the linked post, in brief, the Waves are a writing support and critique group that began as a group for people who had submitted middle grade books to Pitch Wars in the fall of 2020. Some of the original members left after Pitch Wards ended, and some others came in through friends. Over the years, we've developed real friendships, though most of us had never met in person.

This past weekend 14 of us rectified that with a retreat in Nashville, Tennessee. This was not a writing retreat, though a couple people did write while we were together. It was a gathering of friends who write. It was also exactly what my soul needed. I still don't know if I will every be agented or published. But even if that doesn't happen for me, I'm thankful I started the journey because it led me to an incredible group of friends.

In Which I Hope My Words Are Delicious Because I Need to Eat Them Again

Remember one of my earliest posts when I talked about creating diverse characters as a White writer and came to the conclusion that it's okay to write a POV character from a marginalized identity as long as I research it carefully? Well, if you're a fellow writer reading this and you think that's an awesome idea it is not my job to stop you, but, personally, in the 8 1/2 months since I wrote that post, I have changed my opinion.

This is thanks in large part to my interactions with my writing community, the #MGWaves, which includes writers from around the world and from a variety of ethnic and racial groups. The more they shared about how they feel when someone who cannot understand their experience tries to write from that viewpoint, the more I realized that I need to leave those stories to writers who know them intimately.

What does this mean for my writing? Well, in a practical sense, it meant a huge revision of the book formerly known as Anna Ono. The character is now Anna Otto and her fear of not fitting in in her new home comes not from being a multiethnic city girl but from being an immigrant from Sweden who is half American but never expected to actually move to America.

Now you're probably asking, well, why are you any more qualified to write that? You're not an immigrant from Sweden. That is true. I did, however, live in Sweden for a year so I have personal experience with what it feels like to adjust to a new country and fear you'll never fit in. I also still have Swedish friends and know the culture well. Ultimately, as writers we all need to decide what type of viewpoint character we feel like we can write. 

I doubt I'll ever set a book in Sweden, but I think that with a combination of my own experience, research, and talking with my Swedish friends, I could write such a story accurately, especially if the story was of an American kid who moved to Sweden. I think I would have a much harder time writing a story that takes place in another European country or writing an immigrant from another European country even though my character would be White. 

I think I can write a cisgender boy accurately as well as a cisgender girl even though I have never been a cisgender boy. But, while I might someday tackle a secondary character who is a trans girl or boy or a nonbinary child, I would not attempt to write a POV character who was not cisgender for the same reasons I have decided it is not my place to write a POV character who is a person of color.

Secondary characters are different creature from POV characters, I think. It's a fine line to tread between portraying a diverse world and not having characters outside your own ethnicity there as tokens, but I do think it's possible and desirable. Anna Otto has a friend who is half Scottish and half Mexican American. He was in the original book and I did not feel I needed to change him during the revision. 

If this book is ever published, it's possible that someone might call me out on some of my choices, even though I've tried very hard to be fair and respectful. It is not possible to please everyone. However, if I am honestly trying to portray our diverse world while simultaneously not stealing the stories of writers who were ignored for far too long, I feel like I have done my level best.

Just for fun, here's an aesthetic I created for Anna Otto. When I wrote the first version of the book last spring I didn't even know what an aesthetic was.

In Which My Inbox Declares Itself a "Request Free Zone" and I Try (With Only Minimal Success) to Ignore It

 I love the community I have built with other writers, especially the #MGWaves. Since it doesn't involve going in to an office or having an official "team" in any way (at least pre-publication), having a community of writers to lean on can make this life feel less lonely. Especially since my main occupation for much of my adult life has been as a stay at home mom and I don't have another profession, finding "my people" in the writing world has been especially helpful. The Waves critique my work and help me become a better writer, they cheer me up when I have bad news, and they cheer me on when I have good news.

There's just one potential problem with being a part of a community of writers. Inevitably, some of them will end up pulling ahead of you on the writing road. When we started the Waves we had all applied with our middle grade novels to Pitch Wars in the fall of 2020. Quite a few people had gotten requests. I was not one of them. Two people ended up getting mentorships. As of this writing, one of those writers has an agent, and I don't think the other is far behind. Three others have gotten agents without the benefit of a mentorship program. Five have gotten mentorships through various other programs.

Now we're in the two week waiting period for two possible mentorship/editing opportunities: WriteMentor and RevPit. The Waves are talented writers. I will not be surprised if one or more of them win a mentee spot in each contest. I do not begrudge them those spots. However, at the same time, I find myself extremely envious that I cannot seem to even get myself in the running. Other writers, both in and outside the Waves, are getting full requests from agents and requests from contests for additional material while my inbox seems to have declared itself a request free zone.

To be fair, I did come close to getting a mentorship in the Write Team Mentorship competition fairly recently. I was basically a runner up. The mentors ultimately decided another writer would be a better fit, but they requested and read my full manuscript and sent me an edit letter that was just over a page and which led me to revisions that I think have made the book even stronger. I've also gotten several "champagne rejections" for Mousecracker, in which agents have named specific things they like about the book and said my writing is very strong but said the book is not the right fit for them. However, none of them have gone on to ask for the full, so even that can feel like cold comfort when so many people I know are getting much more hopeful news.

Sometimes it's tempting to just throw in the towel and figure out what career I want to pursue that doesn't involve constant rejection. Because the fact is, even agented writers get rejected by editors and even published writers get rejected by reviewers and readers. But then I remember how much books have meant to me in my life. I remember my vision to create characters who share the invisible disabilities I know intimately so that readers who live with them can finally see someone like them as a hero in the stories they read. I remember that lots of people, some of them published writers, have told me that I'm "an excellent writer". Do all excellent writers get published? No, they don't. However, I would venture to say that most, perhaps all, excellent writers who don't get published don't reach that milestone because they gave up.

So I take a page from Anna in Frozen 2 and, to paraphrase, "Do the next writing thing". Today I sent out some queries with my shiny new revised query and pages. I also worked on putting together an initial synopsis for my WIP. I'm more of a pantser at heart, thanks in part to my ADHD, but I'm trying to get more organized so I at least have a decent idea of the path the book will follow. I'm also continually working to improve my craft by reading well written books - some of the type I would like to write and others not. As a bonus, reading well written books is also a lot of fun. Today in my reading I'm traveling to the fantasy world of Lithvas, based loosely on Lithuania, which is part of my heritage. While I don't foresee myself writing a book very similar to Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver, I do at some point want to pull on the myths and legends of my Lithuanian ancestors to create my own story.

Maybe tomorrow or next week or next month or (shudder) even next year my inbox will shake off its funk and stop being a "request free zone". In the meantime, my documents full of new ideas are waiting, there's a world of good books to be read, and I just need to "keep swimming" (yes, I'm stealing a phrase from a completely different Disney movie :)) and do the next writing thing.

In Which, to My Great Surprise, I Write a Picture Book Text

 I have always loved picture books. When my kids were prime picture book age, I read piles and piles of picture books to them. Even though they're 10 and 16 now, there are still a handful of picture books that they both appreciate- particularly if they involve squirrels in my son's case and cats in my daughter's case. We still read Christmas picture books as a family during our advent readings. Both kids still have some picture books on the bookshelves in their rooms, and I saved my favorites that they didn't want on a shelf in the dining room. I have to admit that there were some I got really tired of (I can still recite Is Your Mama Llama? from memory), but it was so sweet to see my kids begin to fall in love with stories.

People who don't know much about writing often make the grave mistake of thinking that writing picture books is really easy. "Oh, that book has under 1,000 words (most often under 500 in more recently published books)" they think, "I bet the writer whipped that story out in under and house. Easy money."

Now, if you know anything about writing, querying agents, and the path to being traditionally published, you should know that that path does not, at any point in any genre or age group involve "easy money". Writing is hard work. Writing a picture book, precisely because it's so short, is in a way even harder than writing a novel. When I write a middle grade novel, I have at least 30,000 words and sometimes more than 60,000 to introduce my characters and world and take them on a journey, whether that's primarily an interior or exterior journey. In a picture book I have 500 words to do the same thing. You are likely familiar with the writing adage "show, don't tell". That's even more important in picture books. And if you're a picture book writer only and not a writer illustrator you need to leave a lot of room for the illustrator to show the story. No big scene or character descriptions like you can get away with in a novel. Your language needs to be really sparse, but at the same time vivid and lyrical. It's a tall order.

For all these reasons, I always thought I would never in a million years attempt to write a picture book. Then I shared a funny story with the #MGwaves about a time I thought there was a dog inside a vent in the kitchen and it turned out to be an alarm from an ipad sitting in a backpack below the vent. Several of them said I should turn that story into a picture book. I laughed then I thought, "Why not try?" So I wrote a story about a little girl who was sure there was a dog in the wall of her new house. And I sent it to some friends who have been writing picture books for awhile. And they didn't hate it. Actually, they liked it, and had some great suggestions about how to improve it.

It turned out I had fun writing a whole story in one sitting. So I wrote another picture book. This one was about a little girl who conquers her fear of the dark in a unique way. And that one was well received too. That's where I've stopped for now. Those two stories still need polishing before they're ready for an agent to look at, let alone an editor, but I think it's something I can do.

I'm not sure if I'll ever query an agent with one of those picture book texts. Don't get me wrong. I believe in them and would love to see them on shelves one day, but my heart is with my middle grade books. It's more likely that I'll keep seeking representation for those and look for an agent who will also represent the picture books once they've signed me for the middle grade. Or maybe I'll go wild one day and send out a picture book query. I would need to have at least one more polished manuscript to do that, since the equivalent of asking for a full in the picture book querying world is asking for more manuscripts and at least two are expected.

Either way, it's been fun to experiment with a very different type of writing and I'm glad I took the plunge. Turns out you don't know for sure if you can write something until you actually try it.

In Which I Am the All-Powerful Overlord (Overlady?) of a New World

There's lots of advice out that there in writer-land that, in order to stop yourself from going crazy while querying agents with one manuscript (or while one manuscript is on submission after you get an agent), you should focus your attention on writing a new one. I ignored that advice for a few months after finishing MOUSECRACKER, the book I'm querying right now, but I've finally narrowed down the book I want to work on from among my many ideas.

I won't announce my tentative title since it's so tentative and not that great, but the book is in the steampunk genre, which, in case you don't know, is a subgenre of science fiction. A quick definition of steampunk is that it imagines a present or future in which, instead of the internal combustion engine having been invented, the steam age continued, and produced all kinds of amazing technology. There are nearly always airships present in steampunk (think 19th century sailing ship crossed with a blimp or hot air balloon), and technology powered by a dazzling array of metal gears. As I dug into my main character, I came up with a new aesthetic.

My WIP stars 12yo Harbor Lightkeep, who has grown up at an inn and lighthouse for airships with her twin brother, father, and grandfather. Because imagining a world powered by steam was not enough for me, I'm creating a completely different version of earth - divided into artificial climate zones and controlled by powerful empires, most of which have never existed in our world. 

I shared some of my process with my writing peeps, the #MGWaves, and one friend pointed out that I'm basically the all-powerful overlord (or maybe I should say overlady) of this world I'm creating. It turns out worldbuilding for science fiction is many steps above worldbuilding for the contemporary and contemporary fantasy books I've written so far. It's a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. I mean, really, who but a writer gets to create a brand new world? Here's a sneak peak of my first attempt to divide up the world map in a new way.

I've so far sent about 30 queries out for MOUSECRACKER, and received mostly form rejections in return, despite having changed my query letter and opening pages twice. The only slightly positive response I've gotten was from an agent who took the time to say that the story wasn't for her, but the query and pages were very strong and she was sure someone else would request. I was starting to feel discouraged about my chances of ever finding an agent. I still love and believe in that story and am far from giving up on it, but, for the moment, I'm loving my new story even more and believe it may turn out to be even better. At the very least, it's a great way to occupy my mine while I wait for news.

In Which the Newbery and the Caldecott Are Not the Only ALA Youth Media Awards

 Yesterday the American Library Association (ALA) announced their annual youth media awards during their midwinter conference. What are those you ask? I guarantee you have heard of two of them: The John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to Children Literature and The Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children.

In addition to the medals, four Newbery Honor and four Caldecott Honor books are named. The Newbery Winner for this year is When You Trap a Tiger  by Tae Keller. The Caldecott winner is We are Water Protectors illustrated by Michaela Goade. 

Notable among the Newbery honors is that writer Christina Soorntornvat won for two of her books: her fiction book A Wish in the Dark and her nonfiction book All Thirteen: The Incredible Rescue of the Thai Boys Soccer Team.

You might be familiar with the Coretta Scott King Book Award, that is given to recognize an African American author and an African American illustrator of books for children and young adults.

The author winner this year is Jacqueline Woodson for Before the Ever After

The illustrator winner this year is Frank Morrison for R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul

I was not aware that there is a Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author award.

This year's winner is Tracy Deonne for Legendborn. This is the first of the award winners that I have read, and I agree wholeheartedly with this decision. Legendborn is a masterpiece.

I was also unaware of the Coretta Scott King - Virginia Hamilton award for Lifetime Achievement.

This year's award was given to Dorothy L. Guthrie, who is "an award-winning retired librarian, district administrator, author and school board member". Among many other accomplishments, her book Integrating African American Literature in the Library and Classroom has inspired educators to pull from the rich collection of African American literature as they teach. She also founded the first African American museum in her home of Gaston County, North Carolina.

I'd heard of the Michael L. Printz award, which is the equivalent of the Newbery for Young Adult literature, but it's definitely lesser known. This year's winner is Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story) by Daniel Nayeri. Four Printz Honor books were also named.

I was unaware of the existence of the Schneider Family Book Award, given to "books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience". There is an award given for books for young children (0-10) and one for middle grade books. 

The winner for the young children award is I Talk Like a River written by Jordan Scott and illustrated by Sydney Smith.

For middle grade, the winner is Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte. I actually have this book checked out from the library and it's sitting on the table beside me right now. I plan to start it right after I finish a Newbery medal winner from three years ago: Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly. I also found it notable that one of the honor winners was Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen by Sarah Kapit. Sarah was one of the mentors I applied to for Pitch Wars back in the fall, and I've interacted with her quite a bit on Twitter. Her book was already on my to be read list. I think it should probably move up the list now.

I really love that this award exists. While its definitely improving, there is not enough disability representation in children's books. One of my goals as a writer is to create characters who live with the disabilities I know well as the mother of children who live with invisible disabilities and a person who lives with ADHD.

Another award I have never heard of is the Alex Award for the ten best adult books that appeal to teen audiences. As the mother of a teen who consumes a lot of adults books (via audio - he's dyslexic and can read but doesn't enjoy it) I think it's cool that his award exists. I'm not familiar with any of the winners, but there are several I plan to recommend to him.

The Children's Literature Legacy Award is given to "an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children through books that demonstrate integrity and respect for all children’s lives and experiences. " I was thrilled to see that this year's winner is Mildred D. Taylor. I still remember the first time I read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry in fourth grade. It had a big impact on me, and was one of the first windows I, an upper middle class white kid from the suburbs, had into the experience of a childhood very different from mine.

There's also an award for lifetime achievement in writing for Young Adults: The Margaret A. Edwards award. This year's winner is Kekla Magoon. I've actually never heard of her, probably in part because I've never been as interested in young adult books. As a kid I skipped right from middle grade books to adult fantasy and science fiction. As an adult I ready mostly middle grade. I definitely need to read at least one of Kekla Morgan's books now, though.

And I was unaware that the ALA even gives an award for a non-American book! The Mildred L. Batchelder Award is given to "an outstanding children’s book originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States". This year's winner is Telephone Tales written by Gianni Rodari, illustrated by Valerio Vidali, and translated by Antony Shugaar. It was originally published in Italian as Favole al telefono.

The Odyssey Award is given to the best audiobook produced for children or young adults. This year's winner is Kent State, which is produced by Paul R. Gagne for Scholastic Audio. It is written by Deborah Wiles and narrated by Christopher Gebauer, Lauren Ezzo, Christina DeLaine, Johnny Heller, Roger Wayne, Korey Jackson, and David de Vries.

The Pura Belpré award is given to "a Latinx writer and illustrator whose children's books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience".

This year's illustrator award was given to ¡Vamos! Let’s Go Eat which is both written and illustrated by Raúl Gonzalez.

This year's writer award was given to Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros. This is another book that has been on my to be read list for awhile. Among the honor books is The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cuevas. This is another book that I've been meaning to read for awhile. Adrianna is very friendly on twitter, and I've interacted with her quite a bit.

There's also a Pura Belpré award for a young adult book. This year's winner is Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez.

The Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award is given to a producer of excellent digital media for an early learner audience.

This year's winner is "The Imagine Neighborhood", which is produced by Committee for Children.

The Stonewall Book Award - Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award is given to excellent children's a young adult books that embody the LGBT+ experience. This year's winner is  We Are Little Feminists: Families, which is written by Archaa Shrivastav, designed by Lindsey Blakely and published by Little Feminist.

The Theodor Suess Giesel award is given to the most distinguished book for early readers. This year's winner is See the Cat: Three Stories About a Dog. I don't pay much attention to early readers these days since it's not what I write and my kids are well past that stage, but this book sounds like something both my kids would have enjoyed.

The William C. Morris award is given to a debut author writing for teens. This year's winner is If These Wings Could Fly by Kyrie McCauley. Four finalists for this award were also named.

Also in the young adult realm is the YALSA award for excellence in nonfiction for young adults. This year's winner is The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh by Candace Fleming. There were four finalists for this award. It's notable that among them is Christina Soontornvat's All Thirteen, which also won a Newbery Honor. 

Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature "promotes Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage and is awarded based on literary and artistic merit. The award offers three youth categories including Picture Book, Children’s Literature and Youth Literature.  The award is administered by the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), an affiliate of the American Library Association."

This year's picture book winner is Paper Son: The Inspiring Story of Tyrus Wong, Immigrant and Artist written by Julie Leung and illustrated by Chris Sasaki.  The children's literature winner is When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller. As you may remember, this book is also the Newbery Medal winner. The Youth Literature winner is This Light Between Us by Andrew Fukuda.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Sydney Taylor book award which "is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience. Presented since 1968 by the Association of Jewish Libraries, an affiliate of the American Library Association, the award encourages the publication and widespread use of quality Judaic literature".

This award has both gold and silver medalists. The gold medalist picture book is Welcoming Elijah: A Passover Tale with a Tail, written by Lesléa Newman and illustrated by Susan Gal. The middle grade gold medalist is Turtle Boy by M. Evan Wolkenstein. The young adult gold medalist is Dancing at the Pity Party, which is both written and illustrated by Tyler Feder.

The silver medal winners in the picture book category are I Am the Tree of Life: My Jewish Yoga Book by Mychal Copeland and illustrated by André Ceolin along with Miriam at the River by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Khoa Le.  The silver medal winners in the middle grade category are No Vacancy by Tziporah Cohen, Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack, and Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman. In the young adult category the silver medalist is They Went Left by Monica Hesse.

I was most excited see Sofiya's win, since she's very interactive on Twitter and she did a zoom call with the #MGWaves. This makes two of her books that have won a Sydney Taylor book award medal.

It could be tempting as a writer pursuing publication to look at all of these awards and think "Oh, this is hopeless. I'm never going to win one of these awards. I may as well give up now." I think that's exactly the wrong attitude, however. First of all, there are a ton of good books that are adored by readers and never win any awards. Sure, it would be amazing if one of my books won an award someday, but my main goal is to get my books into the hands of young readers, especially young readers with invisible disabilities who often don't see kids like them in books.

My other takeaway is that I've realized in the year I've been interacting with the #WritingCommunity on Twitter that these award winning authors are, above all, just people. People with a lot of talent who write amazing books, but still people. As a child I put writers in general and writers of award winning books in particular up on pedestals. It turns out writers are normal people who lead normal lives and spend parts of those normal lives working hard at the writing craft and writing excellent books. They don't live in gilded towers. They live down on earth with the rest of us. I know that Sofiya Pasternack loves goats. I know that Christina Soontornvat has a 5th grader whose teacher streamed the ALA awards live. If you're an aspiring author, don't be afraid to reach out to these writers both with praise for their books and with questions. They're people just like you, I promise.

In completely non ALA related news, and partly just so this blog entry can feature a picture, the MGWaves now have a logo! Check it out below!

 

In Which I Find My Community - The #MGwaves

2020 will go down in the history books as a year full of the word “unprecedented”, won’t it? Well, in the year of an unprecedented global pandemic, I experienced unprecedented success in my journey as a writer. No, I didn’t get an agent or sign a book contract. What I did do is make a decision to take my writing seriously, complete two manuscripts, and get connected with other writers.

Right about the time I decided I’d maybe queried my contemporary manuscript to death I was reminded of Pitch Wars, and I figured, “What the heck, it can’t hurt to submit. Maybe a mentor will choose me and I’ll be able to fix whatever it is that’s stopping me from getting requests.” Spoiler alert: I wasn’t chosen. I didn’t even get a full request from any mentors. What I did get, however, was an amazing community of fellow writers. It started as a support group of middle grade writers to cheer each other on during Pitch Wars. Some people had gotten requests. Some hadn’t. Two ended up getting mentee spots. Since Pitch Wars the group has evolved into a more general writing group. We share resources, read each other’s work, share book recommendations, cheer each others’ successes (so far, three members have gotten agents since Pitch Wars ended and one has gotten an SCBWI mentorship!) and commiserate when we get rejections. The group features members from around the globe, and we’re able to be open and honest with each other and bounce ideas and questions off each other on topics that can be hard to address in the general writing world. We call ourselves the #MGwaves.

We’re doing a blog hop to get to know each other better. I’ll start with myself.

I’m Beth. I grew up in west Michigan, but have spent most of my adult life in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, but only started taking my writing seriously about a year ago. I’ve since finished two middle grade novels - a contemporary and a contemporary fantasy. The second one is my true love and the one I’m querying now. I’m also honing in on ideas to take the setting and characters from my contemporary and drop them into a contemporary fantasy story. It turns out I'm better at writing contemporary fantasy than straight contemporary. Just for fun, here's an aesthetic for that hypothetical story.

I always aim to include characters who share the challenges I know intimately - type 1 diabetes (as the parent of a T1D), ADHD (as both an ADHDer and the parent of one), and dyslexia (and the wife and mother of dyslexics). The book I’m querying is THE MOUSECRACKER. It features a boy dancer with type 1 diabetes, two stuck up talking mice, and a version of the beloved Nutcracker story in which the hero is the villain. Here’s the pitch:

Prepare to rethink the Nutcracker. Twelve year old dance William is about to be schooled by a mouse, and traveling to the Kingdom of Sweets as a diabetic is just the beginning - throw in an evil prince, a kidnapped girl, and a possible war.

Here's an aesthetic for THE MOUSECRACKER.

Favorite Advice or Resource:

I’m a plantser, or, as I saw recently on Twitter, a discovery writer. Unlike a plotter, I don’t know exactly where a story is going to go when I start it, but, unlike a true pantser (someone who flies by the seat of their pants), I have a general framework for what will happen when I start. However, I always discover something new along the way. When I started THE MOUSECRACKER I thought William would only travel to the Kingdom of Sweets with one mouse. Then another mouse pushed her way into the story. I don’t really like following other peoples’ advice about how to write and structure a story, but I’ve found two resources that I don’t hate : Story Genius  by Lisa Cron and Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody. These books can help me build a general framework and let me check the pace of my story without making me feel stifled.

When you’re ready to query your book, I recommend checking out the Query Shark Blog. This is a great resource for learning what does and what does not work in a query letter. If you want even more guidance, I also recommend Kathy Ver Eecke. She offers several different paid classes to help you find the perfect agent and write the perfect query, as well as an occasional free seminar on query writing as a tease to convince you to buy her other services (which I’ve never done, but which writers I know recommend).

Favorite MG Books:

This is super hard to narrow down, because I've been reading MG since the 1980's and I love so many books devotedly. I'll start with my favorite series that I discovered this year: The Love, Sugar, Magic series by Anna Meriano. Pictured below is the second of the (so far) three books in the series.

The series introduces Leonora (Leo) Logrono, a Mexican American girl from a small town in Texas who learns that the women in her family don't just run a bakery - they are, in fact, brujas concineras - witches of the kitchen would be a good way to say this in English. I love fun stories about witches (spooky stories not so much), Mexican culture (the two degrees I have and don't use are in Spanish), and baked goods (I mean, who doesn't), so this series is a perfect meld of all the things I love. I shared it with my nine year old, who attend a Spanish immersion school and shares my love for the Spanish speaking world, and I think she loved it even more than I did.

My second great discovery this year, actually over the last few years, is the books in the Rick Riordan Presents imprint. I never really thought about it as a kid, but, growing up, nearly all the characters in the books I read and loved looked like me. I mean, sometimes they were boys, and I was super jealous of Anne Shirley's red hair, but they were pretty much all white and most often middle class like me. I fell in love with Rick Riordan's takes on popular mythology and appreciated his introduction of diverse character as the books progressed, but I wanted to learn about stories from even more parts of the world - not just the ones that influence Western culture. My wish was granted when the Rick Riordan Presents imprint was started. I have loved every single book I've read from this imprint. I've introduced them to my daughter and she loves them too. I love that she's growing up reading books with characters who look not only like her, but like all sorts of kids from all sorts of cultures and places. A small selection of these books are pictured below. I'm particularly drawn to those featuring the many cultures of the Spanish speaking world, but they're all great. If you or your kids love magic and adventure you can't go wrong with any book from this imprint.

I could go on, but I'll spare you the many more pages. Sometime soon I'll post about my favorite books from my childhood.

Check out the other MGwaves’ posts to learn about them, what they write, and the awesome resources and books they recommend.

Malia Maunakea

Anushi Mehta

Thushanthi Ponweera

Jennifer Mattern

Susan Leigh Needham

Maureen Mirabito

T.C. Kemper

Sabrina Vienneau

Rebecca Chaney

Kathryn Faye

In Which I Extol the Value of Connecting with Other Writers

 Whether writing is your full time profession, your side gig, or the hobby your pursue in your few snippets of spare time that you really wish you had more time for, it can be a very lonely pursuit. Your actual creating takes place when you're alone in your office, or on the bed or couch with your laptop, or wherever you create. A rare writer might make use of some kind of community office space, but, as a general rule, there's no office filled with people to go into when you're a writer.

That's why it's so important to connect with other writers. Where would I find these writers, you ask? Why, social media, of course. Social media can be a minefield for a writer. There's conflicting advice all over the place, there are published writers making you feel like you'll never be as good as they are, there are all kinds of shiny, fun things to distract you from actually, you know, writing. However, it can also be a gold mine for meeting other writers you connect with. In my experience, the best way to do that is participate in contests, pitch events, and other writing an pitching opportunities available.

I met my first writing friends a year ago when I signed up for a workshop with Kathy Ver Eecke from getabookdeal101.com about perfecting the perfect pitch for a twitter pitch party. I didn't even end up pitching a book that month. I decided my manuscript wasn't ready. However, what did happen was that another woman who writes book for kids asked if any other children's writers would be open to forming a critique group over Facebook. I said I was interested, and, through that group, met three other writers who have been invaluable companions along the path, serving sometimes as beta readers and sometimes as more in depth critique partners. One has since moved to writing for adults, but we still have a lot to give each other.

My second, and even more amazing, find, happened when I applied to Pitch Wars this year. Pitch Wars pairs up writers with mentors who work with them to perfect their manuscript over a few months and ends with an agent showcase. Many, many times more people apply than are accepted for memberships, but there's a lot of buzz about it on Twitter during the application process, and it's pretty easy to spot other writers who are participating in your genre. I was invited into a message group of writers who had submitted middle grade manuscripts, and it was there that I really feel I found "my people". We've since moved most of our conversations over the Slack, but it remains an amazing, diverse group of people with whom I can be totally honest about issues of writing, questions about how to fairly portray characters who are different from me, and more.

Sometimes, as an aspiring published writer, it's easy to get jealous of the social media relationships you observe between published writers. This isn't always true, but often those relationships developed when the writers were going through the query trenches together. If you look around, you too can find writers in whatever stage you're in and band together to support each other. The #mgwaves have formed a bond, so I'm sorry to say you can't jump in with us, but you can find your own group of waves to catch. They might even cheer you on when you buy an ornament to represent your latest book.