Today we’re welcoming several middle grade authors to Cynsations: Emily Deibert, Kerry Madden Lunsford, Sara F. Shacter and Jess Callans, all middle grade novelists—mostly debut authors—collectively known as the Middle Grade Escapades. Their books fall into the contemporary, realistic category and they’re all sharing a bit about their publishing journey. Next week we’ll chat with more Escapades authors who published graphic novel and fantasy books this year.
Emily Deibert
What did you discover about yourself while writing this book–for better or worse?
I think the main discovery I made about myself while writing, submitting, and eventually publishing my debut novel was my capacity for resilience in the face of rejection. Although I’ve been writing my entire life, it wasn’t until this book that I really started sharing my novels with others—I was so scared of not being good enough, or of people not liking my writing, that I mostly kept my work to myself.
But this book was such a joy to write, and when I finished the first draft, I felt like I owed it to the story to try to develop it into the best version of itself that it could be—even if that meant letting people read my messy first draft.
Although I was terrified to share my work at first, what I quickly realized was that it can be incredibly rewarding to get feedback from fellow writers. Eventually, sharing my writing—and even receiving feedback about what wasn’t working—became much easier for me to handle. I went through a similar journey when it came to sending my novel out to agents, and although I certainly faced my fair share of rejections, I realized that rejection was something I could get through. In fact (as counter-intuitive as it might seem), some of those rejections actually motivated me to keep going! It definitely helped to have a good crew of author friends in my corner during these rejections, though.
What obstacles did you overcome related to this book?
As I discussed above, the main obstacle I faced when writing this book was really myself and my own lack of confidence—it took a lot for me to work up the courage to send this book out into the world!
Aside from that, though, one big challenge I dealt with was navigating the publishing journey while also working a full-time job.
I sold my debut novel at a time when I was going through a lot of life changes—I’d just defended my PhD and moved to a new country for a post-doctoral position, and I was trying to balance being productive at this new job with going through various rounds of edits on my novel. To make things a little trickier, my job sometimes involves overnight shift work, so it was hard to maintain a regular writing schedule. This is something I’m still trying to figure out, but one thing I’ve learned is that it’s important to protect your writing time as much as you can.
Along those same lines, being in a new country meant I wasn’t necessarily near my fellow authors or readers and couldn’t easily connect with them in person. But I’m really lucky to have connected with fellow debut authors online through the Middle Grade Escapades debut group, and I’m working on building my online community as much as I can. Platforms like Discord, and even certain social media, have been invaluable for this.
And as much as I love my online communities, I was also really lucky to be able to go back home to Toronto for the launch of my novel, which we held in a hockey arena. It was so special to be able to connect with readers in person at that event—my high school hockey team even showed up to support me!
How are you holding space for joy during your debut experience?
It can be easy to get caught up in the more difficult parts of publishing a novel—things like sales, marketing, tracking your book’s performance, etc. But there’s also so much joy in this experience—for many of us, we’re achieving a dream we’ve held on to for our entire lives!—and it’s important to hold space for that part of the debut experience. too.
For me personally, I’ve gotten the most joy out of connecting with other debut authors and celebrating our wins (as well as helping each other through our losses!) together. I’ve loved being able to read my fellow debut authors’ novels and think about how my own debut fits in with this current moment in the literary landscape. It’s also been such a joy to share my own novel with my fellow debut authors—and I have to give a shoutout to my fellow Middle Grade Escapades debut author friend Stan Yan, who drew the most fantastic fan art for me after listening to my audiobook! Moments like these really remind me how exciting and rewarding the publishing journey can be.
What do you love most about middle grade?
For me, the middle grade years were some of the most challenging in my life—I was going through a lot personally, while also navigating being in middle school, dealing with changing friendships and relationships, and suddenly having a lot more freedom (as well as more responsibilities).
One thing I love about many current middle grade contemporary novels is the way that they approach tween readers honestly, treat tween readers as equals, and understand that tween readers can handle (and are going through) a lot more than adults might give them credit for.
I love how MG contemporary novels offer tween readers a chance to see characters like themselves dealing with issues like those they’re facing in the real world, and in many cases provide them with a roadmap for navigating these issues.
At the same time, I love how MG contemporary novels often give us an opportunity to imagine and work toward a better future for the next generation. A few MG contemporary novels I love from this year that do such a wonderful job of speaking honestly and authentically to tween readers are It’s All or Nothing, Vale by Andrea Beatriz Arango (Random House BYR), Kaya Morgan’s Crowning Achievement by Jill Tew (Freedom Fire), If Elephants Could Talk by Ranjeeta Raam (Hachette India), Vote for the G.O.A.T by Ali Terese (Aladdin). Plus all the wonderful books by my fellow Middle Grade Escapades authors!
Kerry Madden-Lunsford
What did you discover about yourself while writing this book–for better or worse?
I relearned yet again the lesson of “the best laid plans…” I could also include a slew of Werewolf Hamlet (Charlesbridge Moves) rejections from a decade ago, but I’ll spare us all. At first glimmer of inspiration, I imagined writing a lark of a book—a romp, something akin to Diary of a Wimpy Kid meets Dear Mr. Henshaw. I had visions of it being a pure diary, and then I wrote it as a sprawling novel over and over and over.
I always had the kid’s voice—he was Jack Gettlefinger and then he became Angus Jack Gettlefinger, but the plot eluded me. I discovered again (and again) that plot is not a strength of mine, and Werewolf Hamlet racked up so many rejections, but I discovered I could more grateful than I ever imagined for rejections.
The book I submitted so long ago resembles little of the published book today. In earlier versions, I wrote a lighter, sillier story, and in the new version, I wrote the story I never wanted to write, but what a privilege to get to write it.
What obstacles did you overcome related to this book?
Werewolf Hamlet is my ninth book, so I’ve been around this rodeo for a while. I knew I wanted only Karen Boss, because of the most beautiful rejection she wrote, encouraging me to keep trying with this story.
My agent, Marie Lamba, offered to submit the book widely and thought it would be a good idea, but I knew I wanted Karen Boss at Charlesbridge. I was thrilled to have the book become part of Eileen Robinson’s new imprint, Charlesbridge Moves.
I also learned that Charlesbridge keeps books in print, and every single book I’ve written has gone out of print, so that meant something. I also typically received the “going out of print” notifications at profoundly difficult times, through no fault of the messenger.
With Offsides (William Morrow, 1996), I was pregnant with our third child and broke, so I thought it was the end of the world after all the Hollywood hoopla and Diana Keaton attached to direct and years of pitching versions of the story as a film or TV series. I knew when Diane Keaton sent me a standard-size chocolate football that it was more of a consolation prize than the coveted film or series I wanted for Offsides.
Decades later, the very same afternoon when I heard my picture book, Ernestine’s Milky Way, illustrated by Emily Sutton, (Schwartz & Wade, 2019), was going out of print, I had just received a call that my unhoused adult son, who struggles with mental illness and addiction, had been kidnapped. It was a scam and not true, but I experienced a terrifying few days looking for him, so the going out of print message for “Ernestine” was muted and not the grief it would been in normal circumstances.
Because I am a fulltime creative writing professor writing other books and teaching, I knew I didn’t have the bandwidth to do my DIY book tours of the past where I did school and library visits up and down every Smoky Mountain holler and in the cities, too, so I hired Blue Slip Media, who specialize in marketing children’s books.
Barbara and Sarah of Blue Slip Media saved me and together, we set up the book tour in cities where I knew people at indie bookstores, and they also sent Werewolf Hamlet to bloggers and PW and did things I would not have thought of doing.
We sold out of the first printing of Werewolf Hamlet within a month, and it’s going into paperback and will be an audiobook, so I’m so grateful to them. We also raised $500.00 for NAMI – the National Alliance on Mental Illness, at the book launch by increasing the cost of the ticket by a few dollars and having student actors read the brothers.
How are you holding space for joy during this experience?
Werewolf Hamlet is a love letter to my children and to the city of Los Angeles where we raised them. My last MG novel was Jessie’s Mountain published in 2008, part of the Maggie Valley Trilogy of Gentle’s Holler and Louisiana’s Song (Viking). My Up Close Harper Lee book for teens was published in 2009. I had picture books published in 2013 and 2019, but it had been a long time between middle grade novels, and I was teaching a lot and watching my students’ novels and books come into the world, which also gave me great joy.
But holding space for joy during the debut? Living with a child’s mental illness and addiction stole so much of my joy, but when I began to lose myself in the world of writing Werewolf Hamlet and remember what I loved to do—write books for kids, I found my joy again. And along the way, my other two adult children learned they could be free to do what they loved and dreamed of doing and becoming.
My son is still unhoused on the streets of Los Angeles, but his two siblings came to the book launch last February, and afterwards, Lucy, my daughter, said, “Mom, I was so scared to hear the book read because it’s all so close and I miss him, but when I heard the actors read the words, it became their story too. And I realized—it’s all just words and stories of kids, just kids, so it was healing.”
My youngest, Bo, said, “Yeah, we’re all Angus, and we want our brother back.”
Ram Dass has a quote called, “We’re all just walking each other home.” I took the long way home to write this book, and going on the road and talking to kids was the greatest joy of all – I didn’t hold back, and they shared their stories, too.
What do you love most about middle grade?
Middle grade was the age market that made me a writer. I have lived in thirteen states as the daughter of a college football coach, and in each new football town, my mother would get us our library cards, and we could check out as many books as we wanted.
I remember reading the biography of Helen Keller–a chapter book. Then I discovered Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Sara Crewe, and A Little Princess (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905), and I read them over and over again, acting out key scenes with my siblings. I always played the evil Miss Minchin or later, Mr. Brocklehurst when I saw the film, Jane Eyre (I didn’t read the book until later).
But middle grade books formed as a writer. I devoured all of Jean Little’s books–Brothers Far from Home (Scholastic, 2003), Mine for Keeps (Penguin, 1962), One to Grow On (Penguin, 1969), and many others. I loved the book Follow My Leader [by James B. Garfield (Penguin, 1994)] about a boy blinded by a firecracker, and he gets a guide dog named Leader. I read Richard Peck’s Don’t Look and It Won’t Hurt (Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1972) when I was still reading Beverly Cleary, and all the Katie John (HarperCollins, 1960) books by Mary Calhoun. I loved Marilyn Sachs’ Amy and Laura books (Doubleday, 1964-1966) about the sisters and Mary Stolz’s Leap Before You Look (Dell, 1973).
I wept over Lois Lowry’s A Summer to Die (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1977), and I read it aloud to my little sister. I read every single Judy Blume book, and I found Anne of Green Gables when I walked into a house, a football coach’s home, that had a real library where you could walk into the room and shut the door and sit in a giant reading chair and read without interruption. I grew up in a house with few books with titles like Dare to Discipline [by James Dobson, (Tyndale House, 1970)] and How to Win Friends and Influence People [by Dale Carnegie, (Simon & Schuster, 1936).
I also remember reading a book called Ready-Made Family by Frances Salomon Murphy (Crowell, 1953) about a girl named Hedwig, and I loved Hedwig beyond reason. I felt like these middle grade authors–Mary Stolz, Jean Little, Mary Calhoun, Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Marilyn Sachs, Richard Peck, and so many more…I felt seen by these authors who understand the aching loneliness of childhood.
Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Harper & Brothers, 1943) wasn’t middle grade, but I was in the seventh grade when I read it, and it changed my life. I still think about these authors and these books that made me a writer, and I never thought of being a writer growing up. I was just a reader, escaping into stories that made me feel less alone in the world.
Sara F. Shacter
What did you discover about yourself while writing this book—for better or worse?
I am a dog with a bone.
I worked on my novel for six years, got an agent, and went on submission. So exciting!
Then the feedback came in: the emotional stakes weren’t high enough, and there wasn’t enough of a marketing hook. I spent months thinking, talking to my agent and getting advice from an editor-at-large. Finally, I figured out how to fix the issues…and doing so required deleting half of the book and rewriting from the beginning.
I had two reactions: abject despair and steely determination. Happily the latter won out. Once I saw how much better my book could be, I couldn’t help but move forward. Otherwise I’d have been wasting six years’ worth of work.
What obstacles did you overcome related to this book?
Several times, I hovered on the precipice of good news only to fall off the edge. I was expecting an offer of representation from an agent, but she ended up passing…as did everyone else at her agency. Oof.
My eventual agent had some personal life stressors that ended up limiting her ability to represent me and we had to part ways. Oof. Just as we parted ways, my picture book, which had come out right before COVID, was put out of print because sales didn’t rebound post-pandemic. Oof.
I had times when I had to stop working and just sulk for a while. But if there’s anything I’ve learned in publishing, it’s that there’s always another way forward…though it may look different than what you first envisioned. I sold my novel myself to a smaller independent press and bought the remaindered copies of my picture book. Now I’m my own cottage industry!
How are you holding space for joy during your debut experience?
At a conference, I heard an agent say it’s remarkably rare when a manuscript sells. Every book is a small miracle. I try to hold this fact in the forefront of my mind. No matter how complex the debut experience or how many times imposter syndrome rears its ugly head, I work to recenter myself.
The existence of my book is sort of miraculous! So here’s to a big launch party! Here’s to rereading nice posts! Here’s to sharing my story at school visits! I have to add that my publisher, Regal House Publishing, is also delightful. They are ridiculously supportive and responsive.
What do you love most about middle grade?
The heart and the hope. For the most part, I stopped reading fiction for adults years ago. Middle grade speaks to how I want the world to be. Not that tough topics aren’t covered in middle grade, but the enduring message is generally that kindness wins, perseverance is rewarded, and the Golden Rule still matters.
Jess Callans
What did you discover about yourself while writing this book—for better or worse?
I learned that I am capable of some pretty amazing things. I started drafting this book while pregnant with my third kid, did my Pitch Wars mentorship with a newborn, revised it with my agent and editor throughout my fourth pregnancy, all while I was a stay-at-home parent getting an MFA.
I’m not sure I would have considered myself capable of that degree of work. The process also helped me come to terms with the in-between of my own gender identity, and realizing I’ll be talking about this book with potential readers helped guide me toward the necessity of my own transition, which I’d put off during my ~9 years of making a family.
What obstacles did you overcome related to this book?
Politically, this is not the world I thought I would release my book into. I envisioned a much softer landing, but instead I’m getting emails from folks letting me know that their local library board is keeping my book out of the system because it’s “sexually explicit,” or whatever excuse they use to ban books about people they don’t understand.
It’s added an extra layer of anxiety across the entire process, though, especially as we trend toward becoming a nation that may very well criminalize writing about these topics for kids.
How are you holding space for joy during your debut experience?
I am spending so much time with friends and in queer spaces, really indulging in the community and depth of conversation you get when you’re surrounded by that kind of love! Being able to attend events with authors I adore, whose work means the world to me, brings me so much joy.
What do you love most about middle grade?
I love queer kidlit because it offers such a dynamic space for a dynamic range of readers. It offers cis-het kids and adults a space to see their own struggles with identity or gender against social expectations validated or develop a better understanding of a community they’re too distant from to get to know organically. It gives queer kids a place to explore identity and normalize the experiences they’re having, and hopefully it gives them a drive to grow into an amazing queer adult and tell their own stories. But I can’t understate the healing I’ve experienced as a queer adult reading queer middle grade and YA titles. It’s been invaluable, and I highly recommend that anyone hesitant to “regress” toward children’s books toss their worries aside and indulge in these deep, beautiful, demanding stories. It’s so worth it.
Cynsational Notes
You can find the latest MG Escapades news on their website and Instagram. Watch for our second post focusing on the group’s fantasy novelists next week.
Emily Deibert is the author of the middle grade contemporary novel Bea Mullins Takes a Shot. She spent most of her life in Toronto, Canada, but now lives in La Serena, Chile, where she writes childrens books by day and works as an astronomer by night. In her spare time, Emily enjoys playing ice hockey—but like her novel’s protagonist, she’s not very good at it.
Kerry Madden-Lunsford is the author of Werewolf Hamlet, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, and recipient of a starred review from Booklist, published by Charlesbridge Moves in 2025. Werewolf Hamlet has gone into a second printing and is going to be a paperback and an audiobook.
Kerry’s picture book Ernestine’s Milky Way was the Alabama State Book of 2019. She also wrote the Maggie Valley Trilogy, which includes Gentle’s Holler, Louisiana’s Song, and Jessie’s Mountain. Gentle’s Holler received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews and was the State Book of North Carolina in 2007. Her biography, Up Close Harper Lee, was one Booklist’s Ten Top Biographies for Youth in 2009.
Her first novel, Offsides, was a New York Public Library Pick for the Teen Age in 1997 and was optioned for a series by Diane Keaton and Jim Henson Productions. For several years, she directed the creative writing program at UAB, where she is still a professor, and she taught in Antioch University’s MFA program in Los Angeles for a decade. Kerry is the mother of three adult children, and a grandmother, and she now lives full-time in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, Kiffen, and beloved dachshunds, Olive and Wilbur.
Sara F. Schacter‘s debut middle grade novel, Georgia Watson and the 99 Percent Campaign, is everything Sara loves—a heartfelt friendship tale, a scientific exploration, and a call for compassion. Sara also writes picture books, as well as magazine articles and educational nonfiction for kids. A former classroom teacher, she currently tutors kindergarteners through high schoolers. Sara is a passionate volunteer and works to turn the tide on climate change and political polarization.
Jess Callans is a queer children’s author and wanna-be-illustrator with an MFA from Rosemont College. He lives outside of Philly with his partner and four amazing kids, where they collectively bake, garden, and tirelessly pursue the human experience.
Gayleen Rabakukk holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is currently a student in the Library Science Master’s program at the University of North Texas. She also has an undergraduate degree in Journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma. She has published numerous newspaper and magazine articles, and two regional interest books for adults. She is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.
She is a member of Lago Vista’s Friends of the Library and also leads a book club for young readers at the library. She teaches creative writing workshops and is a bookseller at Paper Bark Birch Books in Cedar Park, Texas. She loves inspiring curiosity in young readers through stories of hope and adventure. Follow her on Instagram and Bluesky.