Today, I am excited to welcome to Cynsations Alison Green Myers, author of the middle grade novel This Way to Happy (Dutton Books for Young Readers, 2025), and Alexandra Villasante, author of the young adult novel Fireblooms (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2025), to share their sophomore novel journeys.
As an author what was your artistic approach to book two, and how did it compare to your debut?
Alison Green Myers: Thanks for this opportunity to chat about our books, our friendship, and a little about our work lives–outside of writing for kids and teens. Your first question really gets into it—“the second book.” (Which, let’s be real, is like the eleventh manuscript, and second published book…) I had the idea for This Way to Happy when A Bird will Soar (Dutton Books for Young Readers, 2021) sold to Andrew Karre.
But, it was just that: an idea, so when Andrew asked, “What else are you working on?” I talked about a book set on an amusement park or a carnival and a creek involved and crossing over it as some kind of thing about grief. (Or some version of this not-very-cool pitch.)
I mean, to be fair, the book became a book set on an amusement park about grief and crossing over a creek… so… Cool or uncool the book never wandered too far from that initial idea. The writing process was tricky because I had a lot of ideas coming at once and because of work, the state of the world, and other things–there was not too much time to work on the book itself—so I had stacks of journals, and screenshots from my phone, voice memos, and the like.
With the launch of A Bird will Soar, my mental health really struggled and my physical health, too (not all related to the book launch, of course). This mental and physical space wasn’t a place from which I could create a book that was for kids was going to have enough hope—something I think middle grade readers deserve.
By the time I turned in my draft for This Way to Happy, I was in rough shape, and so was the novel. My editor, as kind as ever, asked for my “satellite documents”… of course he couldn’t mean my journals & screenshots & ramblings… Of course, he did mean all of that.
I joked that he was digging through my junk drawers. He’s just that kind of editor. He wanted to see the kind of story that I meant to tell, not what I had turned in. And through several long conversations with him, the true voice and vision of the book came together. It was a slow process. One that involved a lot of late nights and texts to friends saying, “I can’t do this!” I even snuck a dear friend into the narrative so that I was talking to them while writing the book: See the character Alex with the purple hair… And with that, let me turn this over to Alex with the purple hair.
Alex Villasante: I love being even a partial inspiration for a very cool character, and I love This Way to Happy so much. It’s a beautiful story that invites folks to expand what it means to be family and the ways you can get at least on the road to happy!
I agree with Alison; publishing book two is hard…the sophomore book, the expectations, the fear that you’ve somehow missed the mark. After all, your first book has ooodles (a technical term) of time to develop. Book two is on a deadline. Having said all that, Fireblooms was published six years after my debut, The Grief Keeper (Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Random House, 2019).
This was due to a combination of upheaval in the publishing world, the pandemic and personal circumstances. I wondered if anyone would be interested in hearing from me again after that long. (I know this is a very relatable fear!) But I’m also really proud of Fireblooms because I challenged myself as a writer.
Fireblooms has a dual point of view—a first for me—and I needed to make sure both POVs had distinct, engaging voices. I wrote deeply about difficult families, bringing those relationships to the foreground. And I pushed myself to write a story where trying to figure out who’s right, wrong, who is redeemable and who can’t be forgiven is not easy, or clear…just like life.
Also, and this is embarrassing, but ultimately something I’m proud of…. I’m not a poet, like at all, but I had to write poetry for my main character, Lu to write. They (unlike me) have a poet’s heart, and a lot of how they see the world is in poetic fragments and imagery.
In the first draft of Fireblooms, my editor Stacey Barney, made the comment that Lu’s poetry (my poetry) was sort of ‘meh’ and maybe we should give Lu a different passion. Wow, what a blow that was! But I insisted that Lu was a poet and that I would work harder so that their words would match the image I had of them as a teen who processes the world through their powerful words. So I got better, with the help of real poetic writers like Alison and NoNieqa Ramos. And, luckily, Lu’s poetry got a lot better!
Do you have a daily writing habit? And how do you stay grounded in the value of this work during challenging times?
Alex Villasante: In addition to working for Boyds Mills, I’m also the co-founder of the Latinx Kidlit Book Festival and the Latinx Storytellers Conference, and oh yeah, I’m doing school visits and promoting my books!
That means that I don’t always have time for daily writing. I try to carve out times in the mornings or on weekends, but again, that doesn’t always work out. What works for me is keeping my mind on my story. Meaning, it’s always percolating away in the back of my brain, even if I haven’t written a word in a while. Washing dishes, in the shower, going for walks, stuck in traffic, these are all times in daily life when I visit my story world and check in on how it’s doing. Where have I left my main character? What are they worried about?
I liken it to checking in on a witch’s cauldron that’s bubbling away in my mind. I uncover the lid and peek inside. Sometimes, the things that have developed while my conscious mind is elsewhere are really surprising!
I have an arts background so, in addition to my witch-adjacent story brewing, I do a lot of visual and drawing exercises to keep my work in progress rolling along. If I get stuck in a scene, I’ll draw a map of the story location or a portrait of the main character. Or, I’ll start a Pinterest board of images that remind me of the look and feel of the story. Not necessarily the aesthetic mood boards that you see on Instagram; this is more of a visual guide post for how I’m feeling about the work in progress and where I think the story might go.
Another way I’ve been able to keep my creativity flowing despite difficult times is that I’ve discovered writing short. I’ve contributed to five YA short story anthologies in the last five years and each one has given me a push into a new genre and allowed me to experiment.
Cynsations Notes
Alison Green Myers is a passionate educator, novelist, and speaker. As the program director at Boyds Mills, Alison supports storytellers throughout their careers. Alison is the author of the Schneider Family Award-winning A Bird Will Soar, and the Junior Library Guild recognized This Way to Happy. A National Writing Project fellow and Bethel Woods’ teaching artist, Alison is always happy in the company of curious kids! Alison lives in the woods of Pennsylvania with two extraordinary humans and their two dear dogs.
Alexandra Villasante has always loved telling stories—though not always with words. She has a BFA in Painting and an MA in Combined Media (that’s art school speak for making work out of anything). Born in New Jersey to immigrant parents, Alex has the privilege of dreaming in both English and Spanish.
Her latest novel, Fireblooms, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and praise from Kirkus Reviews and Booklist. It was selected as one of NPR’s Books We Love 2025. Alex’s debut YA novel, The Grief Keeper, was a Fall 2019 Junior Library Guild Gold Selection and winner of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Children’s Literature/Young Adult Fiction. She’s a contributor several young adult short story anthologies including, Our Shadows Have Claws, Relit: 16 Latinx Remixes of Classic Stories and We Mostly Come Out at Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters Angels and Other Creatures. Alex is a co-founder of the Latinx Kidlit Book Festival and of the LKBF Latinx Storytellers Conference. When she’s not writing, planning or painting, Alex works for Boyds Mills.
Mitu Malhotra holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. A finalist for the 2024 Lee & Low New Visions Award and the winner of the 2021 Katherine Paterson Prize for Literature for Young Adults and Children, Mitu has won scholarships from the Highlights Foundation, Tin House, and a writing residency at the Djerassi Program. Her short story “Toxins” is part of ELA curriculum.
Her writing has appeared in Hunger Mountain, Thin Air Magazine and elsewhere. In previous avatars, Mitu was a textile and fashion designer, and she has taught in India, the Middle East and the U.S. Mitu is an active member of CBIG: Children’s Book Illustrators Group, NYC and NJ SCBWI. She currently interns with Cynthia Leitich Smith (author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint of HarperCollins) and interviews authors for the blog Cynsations and reviews books for Kirkus Reviews. In September 2025, her banner design was selected by the Kidlit 411 Blog website.