Upcoming Agent Spotlight Interviews & Guest Posts

  • Samantha Wekstein Agent Spotlight Interview and Query Critique Giveaway on 10/16/2024
  • CoCo Freeman Agent Spotlight Interview and Query Critique Giveaway on 11/11/2024
  • Courtney Donovan Agent Spotlight Interview and Query Critique Giveaway on 11/20/2024
  • Shannon Hassan Agent Spotlight Interview and Query Critique Giveaway on 12/9/2024
  • Vicky Weber Agent Spotlight Interview and Query Critique Giveaway on 12/11/2024

Agent Spotlight & Agent Spotlight Updates

  • Agent Spotlights & Interviews have been updated through the letter "K" as of 3/28/2024 and many have been reviewed by the agents. Look for more information as I find the time to update more agent spotlights.

On Getting Historical Fiction Right: Interview With Debut Author Dionna Mann and Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings Giveaway

Happy Monday, Everyone! Today I’m thrilled to have debut author here to share about her MG historical Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings. I love the storyline and am curious to learn about the Vinegar Hill neighborhood in Charlottesville, VA, in 1935. I just reserved the book at my library.

Here’s a blurb from Goodreads:

 

Growing up in segregated 1930’s Charlottesville, ten-year-old Allie is determined to find a man for her mama to marry— but not just any man will do! Allie’s life with Mama isn’t bad, but she knows it could be better if Mama would find someone to marry. Allie’s worst enemy, her NOT-friend Gwen, has a daddy, and Allie wants someone like that—someone to fix things when they break, someone who likes to sing, and has a kind-smile. So Allie makes a plan—her super-secret Man-For-Mama plan. She has a list of candidates with a clear top choice, Mr. Johnson, who owns the antique store. Best of all, Mr. Johnson went to school with Mama, and he wants to get reacquainted! The battle’s half won, and Allie is sure that when he tries Mama’s yummy chicken and dumplings, he’ll be head over heels. But someone else is interested in Mama—Mr. Coles, Allie’s band teacher who’s also Gwen’s uncle! Mama can’t marry him—no way is Allie going to be related to Gwen. On top of it all, Allie’s best friend is moving to Chicago; Allie keeps getting in trouble; and everyone seems to think she’s jealous of Gwen, for some reason. Nothing is going how she planned, but Allie is determined to get things back on track toward the life she knows she and Mama both deserve. . . even if Mama doesn’t agree yet.

Hi, Dionna! Thanks so much for joining us.

1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer.

Thanks for inviting me! I was born in Chicago, and grew up in the suburbs. I have lived in central Virginia with my husband surrounded by the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains for more than three decades. When our three (most-talented) children were little, I really enjoyed volunteering in their classrooms. I began working as a substitute teacher then as a full-time employee. I was a high school secretary and a teacher assistant working with special education students. I clocked in nearly 25 years with the school system, but decided not to return after COVID pandemic restrictions were lifted. My favorite part about working and volunteering within the schools was being able to lead creative writing workshops. I had the kids writing skits, book reviews, poetry, and speeches. When my daughter was in fifth grade, I led a workshop where the kids wrote and illustrated their own picture book, which I submitted to a kid-writing contest sponsored by Scholastic.

Seeing those kids experience the joy of discovering that they could all be writers or poets reminded me of my own discovery when I was in school. Many of my teachers, from elementary school through high school, encouraged creative writing. When I was in eighth grade, for example, my history teacher asked us to write a story as though we had lived through the events surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbor. I decided to write a story from the point of view of a Japanese-American girl who was being relocated from her home to an internment camp. When my teacher returned my assignment, with tears in his eyes he pleaded with me to never stop writing. School experiences like that one made me believe I could be a writer someday. 

2. Where did you get the idea for Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings?

Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings began as a writing assignment I gave myself in 2011. The Moseley Writers’ Group of Charlottesville was hosting a first-pages event to be held during the Virginia Festival of the Book. Attendees could submit 100 words to be judged by a panel of authors. I chose to write a 100-word scene based on a story my mother (who grew up on the South Side of Chicago) told me about her landlord. After collecting the rent, he would throw pennies onto the street just to laugh at the Black children who’d scurry after them. My mother recalled being angry over it, and was proud to report that she never ran after the pennies. After “Pennies” was read, all the panelists (including David Baldacci!) said they’d keep reading! I decided that I should give the little girl of the scene a name, a voice, and a problem to overcome. 

Your Writing Process: Researching for a Historical Novel

3. That’s cool your mom’s story inspired this book. Your book is 208 pages. How did you tell this whole story in a relatively short book? Did you have to cut out parts of it after you wrote your first draft or did it come together as you envisioned it?

This is such a funny question for me! When I completed my first draft, I had no vision for my story. And so when Pennies was complete it was only 14,000 words. (The target for a MG novel is between 25,000 to 50,000 words.) As the rejections from agents came rolling in, I realized I needed to beef up my story. I had given my main character a voice but not a character arc. I didn’t have a narrative arc with its muddy middle and satisfying ending. Pennies was not a story. It took me at least five complete rewrites, remodels if you will, and a gazillion revisions. I wrote version after version that included entire plot changes, additions and deletions of characters, new endings, restructure of scenes, changes to motivation, new dialogue, and setting changes. Each time, the word count grew. 

4. Yes, I wasn’t expecting your answer. On your website, you provide extensive information on the history of the Vinegar Hill neighborhood in the 1930s and have a link to download your extensive bibliography. Your research is amazing! Since the neighborhood was razed in the 1960s, you had to rely on historical information and pictures from the 1930s to get the history of your story right. How did you tackle finding all the articles and other resources listed in your bibliography, and how did you know when you’d done enough research?

Thank you for noticing my bibliography. I am very proud of it! I have access to the University of Virginia’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, the Albemarle-Charlottesville Historical Society, and the Jefferson Madison Regional Library system. These institutions take great care in preserving and digitizing local African American history. I found hundreds of archival photographs and oral histories, several documentaries, historical maps, a Jefferson school yearbook, local African American newspapers, personal histories, and more in their collections. 

When it comes to “doing enough” research—is that even possible? I don’t think so. To give you an example: after discovering that the 1934 Hill’s Directory of the City of Charlottesville, Virginia, had a “C” beside those businesses owned and operated by persons of color, I compiled a list. Thirty-four of those businesses were located along West Main Street, which is where Allie sets out to find her mama a perfect fix-it man. Compiling the list and recreating a map really helped me describe my main character’s world accurately. But I really wanted to know more about each one of those 34 businesses. How long had each one been in operation? When did the business close? What was the owner’s story? What became of their children? Though I desired to jump down that research rabbit hole, I stopped myself. I didn’t need that much information to complete my story. That said, I did get lost while researching the general store opened in 1890 by George Pinkney Inge at 333 West Main Street. After all, that’s where my main character visits to buy penny candy, and it still stands today. I even uncovered a primary resource treasure when I got to visit with Mr. Inge’s great-grandson and his wife.

5. From readers’ reviews, it sounds like Allie, Jewel, and the other characters are all unique, well-rounded characters. Talk about how you developed them as characters and how the historical times played into their character development.

Honestly, I didn’t start out with character sketches like many writers do. Mainly, I relied on my imagination, and real-life relationships I had while growing up. For example, Allie’s relationship with her same-age cousin Caesar is mirrored after my friendship with my same-age cousin, David. Like Caesar is for Allie, when I was a kid, David was my voice of reason when my emotions became hard to handle. 

To get the historical details of the neighborhood right, I read and listened to oral histories of those who loved in Vinegar Hill. I read every 1936 issue of the Jeffersonian, the student newspaper of those who attended Charlottesville’s Jefferson [Colored] School, as well as every 1933 issue of The Reflector, a local African-American-run newspaper. I made up personalities for those dressed up for their Holsinger Studio portraits. I also had my editor and copy editor ask me great questions about time and place, which ensured I got the details right.

Your Journey to Publication

6. Wow! You’re so dedicated to getting the historical aspects of your story right. Kelly Dyksterhouse and Jacqui Lipton are your agents. How did they become your agents and what was your road to publication like?

In 2019, I queried Jacqui about Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings while she was an agent at Storm Literary. She liked the first pages, and requested to read the full manuscript. Ultimately, she did not offer representation because the story needed a ton of work. But she sent me a lovely personal rejection letter with editorial comments and offered me a chance to resubmit after I had revised. Later, while I was the content editor of the newsletter serving the Mid-Atlantic region of SCBWI, I ended up corresponding with her about an article she was writing for us about getting permissions to use photographs. We really enjoyed ourselves as we worked on the content. Fast forward to well into the pandemic, and I noticed Jacqui was starting her own agency called Raven Quill. (She is now at The Tobias Literary Agency.) I hadn’t revised Mama’s yet, but I decided to query her with a super-silly and fun picture book manuscript. At the very least, I figured it would make her smile during those uncertain times. She immediately reached out to me, and set up a Zoom visit with herself, Kelly, and me. We had a lot of fun chatting, and they offered me representation! We didn’t sell that fun picture book manuscript, but we had fun trying.

To answer your question, how did Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings find its way to publication: Kelly, who is a very editorial agent, read it, and offered quite a few suggestions to help me get it ready to submit to editors. Her comments were similar to Jacqui’s. But in fact I had given up on the manuscript, and was focusing on doing research for a nonfiction picture book project instead. 

I had forgotten that while I was unagented I had sent Mama’s to Margaret Ferguson right after she moved to Holiday House in 2017. Unbeknownst to me, my manuscript had been plucked from the Holiday House’s slush pile and was sitting on Margaret’s desk throughout the pandemic. When Margaret returned to her office after COVID-19 restrictions lifted, she began reading my manuscript and saw promise. She reached out to me via email, asking if it had already been acquired. When I said it hadn’t, she said she was interested in reading it through. I let her know I now had agents, and a few months later, she said she wanted to acquire the manuscript, though I had to agree to work on that thing called plot. Of course, I became willing to revise—again—and Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings found its home with an extraordinaire editor and her fantabulous publishing house!

7. You’ve also had about 16 books-for-hire published. Tell us how you got into writing work-for-hire books and how the experience helped you after you got your publishing contract for Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings.

My first work-for-hire project was a nonfiction book about orcas published with Scholastic in 2019. I got that assignment because an SCBWI friend of the pen referred me to the acquiring editor. Also in 2019, I attended an SCBWI webinar with Carol Hinz at Lerner. Afterward, I sent her writing samples. She passed my information on, and I ended up writing four NF titles for them. My projects with Capstone and Little, Brown came through my agents. A local educational publisher reached out after she got my name from one of her writers, another one of my SCBWI friends of the pen. I’ve written three biographies for them. Yet another acquiring WFH editor reached out through my website after she read my nonfiction piece about a whale-snot-collecting drone in Spider.

Did my WFH projects help me after Mama’s was acquired? I’d have to say yes! With WFH, you have to outline the narrative and character arcs in your fictional stories before you start writing. Working with my editors at this outline stage helped me understand much about what makes a story work for the reader.

Promoting Your Book

8. Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings was released on August 6, 2024. How have you been promoting it? What future plans do you have for marketing your book?

To create buzz, I sent in my good news to my region of SCBWI and to the Children’s Book Guild of DC. I also sent out an email preorder campaign using Constant Contact. To advertise my book launch, I sent out 250 postcards and put up flyers at Starbucks, schools, and local libraries. (Sadly, many of my postcards were not delivered.) Upcoming, I have two other author events planned for two different cities—Richmond and Reston. Next up will be figuring out how to have a successful school visit. 

9. What advice do you have for other writers on developing a marketing plan and a social media platform?

Haha! You’re asking the wrong person about that. I’m not on social media. But I will say I highly recommend using Canva to design and print your marketing materials, which look great on your website or blog. The platform is super easy to use, and produces very professional looking stuff.

10. Thanks for the Canva tip. What are you working on now?

Catching my breath! No seriously, catching my breath.

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Dionna. 

You’re more than welcome! It’s an honor to be here!

You can find Dionna at https://www.dionnalmann.com/, and blogging all things kidlit at https://www.dionnalmann.com/interviews-blog-parties--more.

Giveaway Details

Dionna’s publisher is generously offering a hardback of Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by October 5th. If your email is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog and/or follow me on Twitter or Dionna on her social media sites, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This book giveaway is U.S.

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday is hosted by Greg Pattridge. You can find the participating blogs on his blog.

Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops

Wednesday, September 25th I have an agent spotlight interview with Amy Thrall Flynn and a query critique giveaway

Tuesday, October 1st I’m participating in the Scaredy Cat Giveaway Hop

Wednesday, October 2nd I have a guest post by author Tracy Bilen and a giveaway of her YA thriller Thirty Seconds at a Time and my IWSG post

Saturday, October 5th I’m participating in the Howl-O-Ween Giveaway Hop

Monday, October 7th I have an agent spotlight interview with Leslie Zampetti and a query critique giveaway

Monday, October 14th I have an interview with debut author Adrian So and a giveaway of his MG chapter book The Groundworld Heroes. He’s only 14 years old and a debut author so please stop by and leave him a comment to support him in accomplishing such a big goal at such a young age.

Wednesday, October 16th I have an agent spotlight interview with Samantha Wekstein and a query critique giveaway

Wednesday, October 16th I’m participating in the Silly Pumpkin Giveaway Hop

Monday, October 28th I have a guest post by author Abbi Lee and a giveaway of her MG Ghost Town Treasure Hunt

I hope to see you on Wednesday!

 

 

Lucky 13: 13 Tips On Becoming a Stronger Writer by Author Carol Lynch Williams

Happy Wednesday, Everyone! Today I’m excited to have author Carol Lynch Williams here to share her tips on becoming a stronger writer. Carol is also the co-founder of Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers, www.WIFYR.com, which will be having an online fall conference. Carol shares some info about it and a link to register if you’re interested in her post. 

Now here’s Carol! 

 

 

There are lots of things you can do to make your stories stronger and it doesn't take that much effort. 

Lucky Thirteen—Thirteen Tips to Help You Become a Better Writer

Learn to write. People who dash off a story without thought, practice, or effort, clog the market place. You might have a fantastic idea but if you don't know how to write, you're not going to get the attention you could. So learn the craft. Lots of today’s suggestions can help you improve as a writer.

Come to conferences where professionals speak, listen to what they say, use their advice to help you become an expert. And what do you know! This October 24, 25, and 26, Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers is running a workshop with some amazing teachers including editors Joy Peskin and Jill Davis. Agents Stephen Fraser and Amy Jameson will also be in attendance. This 12-hour online intensive will talk about everything from plotting to voice. You can check out the lineup here: https://www.wifyr.com/online-intensive-workshop-2024

Read like crazy. William Faulkner said to read everything you can get your hands on and I almost agree with him 100%. I think you should read the very best books. Bad or weak writing is easy writing and it’s easy to imitate. Make sure the books you read are well-told and well-written. You can learn the craft of writing by reading excellent writers like MT Anderson, Tim Wynne-Jones, Ann Dee Ellis, Martine Levitt, Holly Black--the list goes on and on. 

Write what you know. When I say this, I don't mean you mustn’t write anything you don't know about. Research can make an event live and breathe for you.

When you write what you know (because of experience or research), you put your heart on the page. This connects your character with your reader. They’ll understand what you're saying because you have been there, done that.

Exercise: Take 30 minutes to brainstorm all the things you would love to write. These could be things you want to explore--ideas for books of nonfiction--or things you already know. As you jot down your ideas, write your connection-your heart-and why this idea means something to you.

Show don’t tell. Let's be honest. You can't show everything that happens in a novel. There just isn't time. But it’s important to let your character be a participant in the novel and not a newscaster. Your main character should not tell the reader the story. They should experience the story. Showing important scenes is crucial to the forward movement of the story.

Setting and sense of place. Have you ever read a book and you're not quite sure where you are in time and place? That’s often because the author hasn’t established the setting. We don't need pages and pages of description to let a reader know where they are in our book of fiction. But once we have set up where the book takes place and where our main character is, we must remind the reader. This is when sense of place becomes important. Use all five senses –sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch--to remind the reader where they are. 

There are novels that are written specifically for setting. When you're writing for kids, though, don’t go overboard setting up place. If your main character is in a desert, let us know what they see and feel in that desert. Once you've done that, remind the reader where they are two or three times a page. Yes, every page! They can talk about the heat of the sun. Or how thick the sand is to walk through. Or how it's hard to grow a garden in the desert. This will keep your reader grounded in place.

Exercise:

List ten places you have lived. Give details. Think about the way it felt to be outside, in your bedroom, at school. Use the five senses when describing these places.

For me, emotion is the most important part of a novel. It goes back to writing what you know. If you understand a specific event then you can put the emotion of that event on the page. What is it like to lose someone you love? What is it like to break up with someone you thought you would be with forever? What is it like to laugh so hard you can't breathe? What is it like to be mortified? We’ve all felt these things.

As a writer you do all the work that a camera in a film does. You capture dialogue, place, and emotion. Always ask yourself,  “What does this character feel?”

This means you have to mine the emotion they experience, not to be a surface level writer. Instead, dive into the heart of the event, into the heart of the character. When you do, you connect with the reader.

Exercise: Every day for one month, allow yourself to experience an emotional event from the past. Write about this experience. Put every word, emotion, and etc that deals with this emotional experience on the page. Remember, that later, editing is your best friend. But right now you are just learning how to mine your emotions so that you can write a stronger, richer character.

Make Your Words Work. Every word needs to drive toward the climax of the novel. Anything that is extra, filled with fluff, or is an aside, etc. etc.? It’s time to get rid of it. Structurally, you want to get in, get out, and get it over with. 

Spend your words like money. My mom was a writer. She never published a novel, but she wrote like crazy. Often, in her classroom, she would tell her creative writing students to spend their words like money. Imagine you're paying five dollars for every word you put on the page. If you're writing a 40,000 word novel, that means you would pay $200,000 to write the book. Save ‘money’ and your story, but cutting the extra words.

Don’t be preachy. Just tell your story. If there’s a lesson to learn, it’ll come out. I knew someone who wanted to save the world with her writing. She wept when she told me her goal. And I couldn't discount that she really believed what she was saying. But few want to feel like they are learning something when they’re reading fiction.

Kids read for a number of reasons. One of them is to experience something they would never experience on their own and to see a main character survive and do well. No lessons are needed. 

Subhint: Your truth will come out. Write your heart. Make the reader care and do it in as few words as possible. My Book of Life by Angel is a book that does just this.

Ask yourself questions as you write.

Why is this happening?

Why is my character doing this?

Why is this story headed in this direction?

Why am I the best person to write this book?

Ask:

Why do I want to be a writer?

How important is this to me?

What matters most to me when I write?

Keep asking yourself questions through the whole novel.  

       What does my character want? 

       What does she want more than anything?          

       What will she do if? 

       What is the hardest thing for her to lose?


Subhint-Torture your character. It’s your job to make hard things happen. This way your character can change, grow, and prepare to meet the climax of the novel.

Watch your language. Use ‘ly’ words sparingly. :D I'm not talking about words like family, fly, and early but those dreaded adverbs. Often the description is weak. So what can you do instead? The key is to use stronger verbs. ‘He ran quickly’ could be ‘He raced.’ ‘She whispered softly.’ Whispering is soft, isn't it? When I go through my manuscript, I find I can lose almost every single ‘ly’ word

Subhint—The following words can, almost always, be pulled from the text. 

·       Was-ing words can go from two words to one. (I was running = I ran)

·       Start and began —I started to cry = I cried. Just let the action happen.            

·       Words like “that, well, um, just” 

·       I wondered and I thought, especially in a first person manuscript.

·       Sit down, stand up-Unless this is an unusual place, when we sit, we sit down and when we stand, we stand up.

Tags are the ‘he said, she said’ of a sentence. A tag’s job is to let the reader know who’s speaking. Don't use your tag to say somebody spoke quietly. Let your writing do that work instead. Don't use your tag to say someone barked as it is almost impossible for a person to truly bark out words – unless your main character is a dog. They don’t hiss a sentence and they don’t guffaw a sentence. ‘You know what I’m saying here,” she said happily.

 Subhint: Let the scene around your character help set the stage. Let your writing--those perfectly crafted sentences--do the hard work.

Make time for what you love. Some writers won't allow themselves the opportunity to write until after they have done every other chore/job they have in a day. I've been like this, too, for the last five years with my full-time job.

This means I'm not giving my best time to what I love to do most. That’s changing for me now. For the next few weeks I’m renewing an old habit I had: writing first thing in the morning.

On October 12, 2024 we have a free online event with a class on writing every day. www.wifyr.com/wifyrwrimo

 My friend Scott Rhoades has written every day for more than six years. I’m six years behind and I won’t catch up, but I’ll be writing again and what’s better than that?

Carol Lynch Williams is the author of more than 30 books for young readers including WaitingMessenger, and The Chosen One.  She teaches creative writing at a local university and is a mentor. Carol is also the co-founder of Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers, www.WIFYR.comThe best part of her life are her five daughters and her incredible Baby Bubs.

Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops

Monday, September 23rd I have an interview with debut author Dionna Mann and a giveaway of her MG Mama's Chicken and Dumplings

Wednesday, September 25th I have an agent spotlight interview with Amy Thrall Flynn and a query critique giveaway

Tuesday, October 1st I’m participating in the Scaredy Cat Giveaway Hop

Wednesday, October 2nd I have a guest post by author Tracy Bilen and a giveaway of her YA thriller Whisper and my IWSG post

Saturday, October 5th I’m participating in the Howl-O-Ween Giveaway Hop

Monday, October 7th I have an agent spotlight interview with Leslie Zampetti and a query critique giveaway

I hope to see you on Monday!