Author Interview: Dusti Bowling and Holding on for Dear Life Giveaway

Happy Monday Everyone! Today I’m excited to have Dusti Bowling here to share about her new MG Holding on for Dear Life. I’m a huge fan of Dusti’s and am excited to read her new contemporary story about bull riding, which I know nothing about. 

Here’s a blurb from Goodreads:

 

Acclaimed author Dusti Bowling takes the bull by the horns in this moving novel about a boy struggling to keep his family together while facing the side effects of bull riding.

Thirteen-year-old Canyon loves bull riding, but the sport doesn't exactly love him back. His body is in constant pain and doctors have warned him about the dangers of his repeated concussions, but bull riding is the only thing he and his dad connect on ever since Canyon's mom died. Canyon is convinced winning the Junior World Bull Riding championship will be the thing to bring them together again, that once he has that shiny belt buckle all the pain will be worth it. Besides, Canyon has a secret way to help his playing the fiddle.

When Canyon is unexpectedly chosen for a music competition show, a new dream begins to form. But Dad is getting worse, and Canyon feels more pressure than ever to hold his family together--even if it means choosing to hurt himself bull riding over healing through music. Soon Canyon begins to wonder if he's holding on to all the right things, or if there are some he needs to let go of. 

Hi Dusti! Thanks so much for joining us. 

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

I’ve been a lifelong reader, but I didn’t start writing until I was about 28 years old. I’d always thought about it—how wonderful it would be to create my own stories—but I honestly never thought I could. And even if I managed to write a whole book one day, who on earth would ever want to publish it? I thought traditional publishing was an impossible goal. So I focused on other career paths, getting degrees in psychology and education, and also starting a family. I worked as a teacher for a short time before deciding to stay home to raise my kids. It was then that I realized if I never even tried to write a story, I would regret it forever and always wonder What if? It would be nine more years before Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus would be published. It wasn’t the first book I ever wrote, but it was the first book I tried wholeheartedly to have traditionally published. And it ended up being just as challenging as I expected it would be. But certainly not impossible. 

2. I’m impressed you wrote a draft of your first manuscript in one day. Where did you get the idea for Holding on for Dear Life? 

This story was inspired first and foremost by the character of Canyon and his relationship with his father. I had long wanted to write a story about a child dealing with an alcoholic parent because I grew up with two alcoholic parents, and I know countless kids are living through that right now. I wish I’d had books when I was a kid that addressed this issue so I could see that I wasn’t alone in my experience.  

Secondly, I wanted to write about rodeo because it’s so incredibly popular where I live, and there are very few middle grade books out there that have to do with rodeo. When deciding on a sport for Canyon, it was an easy choice to settle on bull riding for a couple of reasons. One: Bull riding is very exciting, of course. And two: Bull riding is extraordinarily dangerous. I’ve long been concerned about children participating in dangerous sports and the lifelong effects they’ll face—effects, it turns out, many children aren’t even aware of. 

Your Writing Process 

3. Share about your writing process once you got the idea for Holding on for Dear Life. How long did it take to finish and revise your first draft before you submitted it to your agent and publisher? 

After I got the idea for Holding on for Dear Life, I wrote up a proposal, which consisted of a pitch and the first few chapters, for my agent. She loved the idea right away, so we sent the proposal out on submission to a few publishers I was interested in working with. It had quite a bit of interest, and I ended up going with Bloomsbury to publish it. Once we had the book deal, it took me a few months to write the first draft, then several months for revisions. Usually, once I have a proposal accepted by a publisher, it’s about a year and a half to two years until publication. 

4. It’s interesting that you could start with a proposal and a few chapters and go on submission before writing your first draft. Holding on for Dear Life is about bull riding, which most of us know nothing about. What research did you do into bull riding and kids training to be bull riders for your story? 

I really enjoyed the research for this book, maybe more than for any other book I’ve written, because it mostly consisted of going to a lot of rodeos (which are always entertaining) and watching a lot of professional bull riding. For part of my research, I attended a qualifying round for the Junior World Finals that takes place in Las Vegas every year. I had the opportunity to interview several of the young bull riders and watch them ride. It was both exciting and terrifying. Several got injured, and one boy was even taken away in an ambulance toward the end of the day. It was then that I knew I needed to focus on the risks of bull riding a lot more in my story. 

5. Yes, your research sounds fun! You’ve raised the stakes for thirteen-year-old Canyon and made him make such difficult choices. Reviewers have said they couldn’t put your book down. What techniques did you use to make your story such a page-turner, which can be harder to do when telling a contemporary story?

Conflict is always what keeps your readers turning the pages, and this story simply has a ton of conflict. There’s Canyon’s relationship with his father and his father’s alcoholism, Canyon’s constant injuries and internal battles about bull riding, Canyon’s exhaustion with taking care of his little sister, Canyon’s secret desire to pour himself into fiddling, and his hesitation to fully do so because of what he thinks it will cost him—his ability to financially care for his family, bringing his dad back to who he once was, his relationship with his best friend, and his entire lifestyle really. I don’t think I could pack more conflict into one book if I wanted to. 

I was at a book festival not that long ago, and I watched a wonderful author’s lovely presentation, but she said something I found really funny. She said she hated hurting her characters, and it bothered her so terribly to do anything bad to them. I sat in the audience giggling when she said that. I, on the other hand, put my characters through more strife than any one person should ever be able to handle, even bringing my characters to the brink of death at times. And you know what? It doesn’t even bother me to do it! Because I know the whole time everything will end up okay for them, and these are the things that keep my readers turning the pages—because they need to know that everything will turn out okay, and I try to never let my readers down as far as that’s concerned. It might not be all perfect peaches and cream in the end, but they will always be left with hope—hope that if the characters in these books can get through these terrible things, then they can get through whatever’s going on in their lives as well. 

Your Journey to Publication 

6. Your agent is Shannon Hassan. How did she become your agent, and how did you get your first publishing contract for Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, your first book? 

I wrote Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus during NaNoWriMo in 2014. It was quite a short book and a simple story about two quirky kids becoming friends. The first eighty or so agents I queried thought it was too simple. Too quiet. So I rewrote it to try to make a bit more exciting. I would send out about another twenty queries before Shannon would become my agent, though. Then Shannon had me do some light revisions on the story before sending it out to about a dozen publishers. One editor at a Big Five publisher really liked it and asked if I would do a rewrite. I did that rewrite and she rejected the book anyway. Then Shannon sent the rewritten version out to six more publishers, including Sterling Publishing (now Union Square). Nearly two years after I’d written that first draft, Union Square made an offer for it. I always tell people this book was a breath away from never being published, and that’s really true. 

7. Since your first book was published in 2017, you’ve published approximately 12 other books. Your books are Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections and have been named best books of the year by the Chicago Public Library, Kirkus, Bank Street College of Education, A Mighty Girl, and Shelf Awareness. They’ve also been nominated for over 50 state awards. Share about how you grew your career as an author and the keys to your success. 

I think authors focus far too much on online promotion when the best thing they can do to grow their career is just focus on writing. I credit a lot of my success with wonderful committees placing my books on those coveted state lists. A lot of schools use those lists for their own reading lists, Battle of the Books competitions, and when making author visit requests. But the only way to get on those lists is to write the very best books you possibly can! That’s why I really do stand by the advice that working on your craft, rather than promotion, is the best way to spend your time if you want to grow your career. Putting out books regularly is important to maintain your readership as well. 

Promoting Your Book 

8. That’s great advice. I saw on your website that you held a book release party, did school visits, and went on a book tour to celebrate the release of Holding on for Dear Life. How were all these events organized? 

Most of these events were organized by my publisher Bloomsbury. However, I also take school visit requests all year long and do a lot events that I organize myself when invited. 

9. How has your book marketing approach changed over the years? What advice do you have for other authors trying to promote their books? 

I started out very enthusiastic about trying to market and promote my books, mostly through trying to build a strong social media presence. I focused heavily on Twitter throughout the years, built a wonderful following of educators on there, and then a ton of people left because of political reasons and the whole thing kind of fell apart. Now I feel like there’s no longer good visibility on there and a lot of people I’d connected with are gone. The whole situation left me feeling extremely frustrated and weary of social media—I’d put all this time and effort into building this platform only to have it ripped out from under me for reasons I have absolutely no control over. I feel more and more all the time that so much happens in publishing that I have no control over, and my social media posts probably don’t make that great of a difference. Now I may post on X and Instagram every now and then, but it no longer brings me joy so my posts are infrequent. Now I’m trying to keep my focus on writing and doing school visits as those requests come in. I get quite a few school visit requests and love connecting with readers personally in that way. Those are the things that bring me joy. 

10. Your advice on social media is very reassuring. What are you working on now? 

So many things! I have my new series, Sir Edmund of the Wild West, beginning early next year. There will be two books told from the perspective of a service dog who thinks he’s British. Then I have my first young adult book, Aquaphobia, scheduled to release next fall. I’m also working on another middle grade book with the same publisher for Holding on for Dear Life. But maybe the thing I’m most excited about is the graphic novel version of Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus! Charlotte Blocker is doing the illustrations, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with how it’s all turning out. Sorry to say that isn’t scheduled to release until 2027, though. 

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Dusti. You can find Dusti at: 

www.dustibowling.com 

Giveaway Details

Dusti is generously offering an ARC Holding on for Dear Life of 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 November 8th. If I do not have your email (I can no longer get it from 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 other social media sites and/or follow me on Twitter or Bluesky or follow Dusti 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, October 29th I have an agent spotlight interview with Renee Runge and a query critique giveaway 

Saturday, November 1st, I’m participating in the Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop 

Wednesday, November 5th, I have an interview with Pamela N. Harris and a giveaway of her YA Through Our Teeth and my IWSG post 

Monday, November 10th, I have a guest post by Darlene P. Compos and a giveaway of her MG The Center of the Earth 

Wednesday, November 12th, I have an agent spotlight interview with Mara Cobb and a query critique giveaway 

Sunday, November 16th, I’m participating in the In All Things Give Thanks Giveaway Hop 

Monday, November 17th, I have a guest post by Mike Steel and a giveaway of his MG Not Lucille 

Wednesday, November 19th, I have an agent spotlight interview with Carter Hasegawa and a query critique giveaway 

Monday, November 24th, I have a guest post by R.M. Romero and a giveaway of her MG The Tear Collector 

I hope to see you on Saturday!