Where do you find the inspiration for your writing?
Everywhere! Paying attention to what’s going on around me. From other books, for new things I’ve learned, from asking questions like, “What if….”
What were your favourite books when you were a kid? As a young reader, did you see yourself in the books you read?
I was a voracious reader from the moment I learned to read when I was 5. I read absolutely everything—I was one of those kids who would even read the details on the back of a cereal box while eating breakfast. There were so many books I loved it would be impossible to list them all, but I was (and still am) partial to stories about regular kids who find themselves in a magical world. Narnia. All of the books by Edward Eager. I adored The Borrowers. A Wrinkle in Time.
I tended to see myself in all the books I read because I imagined myself into the worlds I read about, both real (like Switzerland in Heidi) and imagined (like Neverland in Peter Pan). It was super exciting to read the books by E.L. Konigsberg, especially From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. The kids in those books were contemporaries, not kids from another time, and that was fun and different—most books I’d read before were written before my time, naturally. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret was the all-time best, though. Margaret was exactly my age, from a similar background, and was going through the exact same struggles I was, at the exact same time. That was AMAZING.
What’s the most surprising thing you have learned when creating your books?
That writing is not something you do by yourself. I work with other writers, editors, artists—an entire team!—to create a book.
What is a challenge you have faced as a writer?
Writing is hard. It never gets any easier—each book is just as hard to write as all the rest. That’s a good thing because it means you’re not doing the exact same thing over and over again. Learning and getting better with each new book/challenge. But still, the number one challenge is learning how to cope with rejection, failure, and frustration. You wouldn’t believe the rude things people say to creators, sometimes thoughtlessly, sometimes straight up meanly (“Are you still writing your little books?” “When are you going to write a ‘real’ book?”).
Getting an offer from a publisher for a book publisher can take literally YEARS, with dozens of rejections along the way. Being able to keep going anyway, to not give up, and to not take the rejections personally is a skill I’ve had to develop.
What advice do you have for kids who are interested in writing?
Reading is the best preparation for writing. You absorb most of what you need to learn when you turn the pages of both very good and very bad books.
Do stuff. Experience everything you can, firsthand. You can’t be a good writer without something to write about. So quit scrolling and get out there. Try fencing, or rock climbing, or jewelry making, or….
And learn basic math, money and business skills. A lot of talented writers never make a go of it because they don’t understand the business side of book publishing. And make no mistake, writing and publishing of all sorts IS a business.