Cynsations welcomes two outstanding children’s book authors, Sue Ganz-Schmitt and Maureen Charles, whose newest books are nonfiction biographies. Sue’s nonfiction picture book, Skybound!: Starring Mary Myers as Carlotta, Daredevil Aeronaut and Scientist, illustrated by Iacopo Bruno (Calkin Creek, 2024) is about a courageous and determined female aeronaut/scientist/inventor who designed and built gas balloons, and flew them solo. Maureen’s nonfiction middle grade book, Music Mavens: 15 Women of Note in the Industry, co-written with Ashley Walker (Chicago Review Press, 2022), recently came out in paperback and features extraordinary women who have worked across many music genres and turned their passion into platforms that helped uplift others.
Writing nonfiction biographies for children is a unique and challenging task. It entails keeping readers engaged with factual material so they learn more about the world and the real people in it. It also, importantly, involves presenting a kid-friendly narrative that will connect to young readers on a personal level, so they retain more.
Children’s book author Heidi E.Y. Stemple said, “Nonfiction is more than just facts….[I]t’s filled with emotion.” Sue’s and Maureen’s books are replete with emotion, and they now graciously share how they accomplished that.
From Skybound!: “The creative concoction could explode at any moment. And, oh blazes! Sometimes it did!”
How important is it to infuse emotion into kids’ nonfiction books?
Sue: I was an eager, avid reader as a kid, but I was not interested in nonfiction books on historical figures. The characters felt like big old cardboard cutouts. Nothing about them felt like they were real people—who lived, breathed, and walked the same earth as I did. They were words and pictures on a historical timeline. I was not able to connect with them. Little-me was more interested in fictional characters, who ironically felt much more real.
Donald Maas, author of The Emotional Craft of Fiction (Writer’s Digest Books, 2016) may help explain this, which can easily be applied to nonfiction:
“Ask readers what they best remember about novels and most will say the characters, but is that accurate? It’s true that characters become real to us but that is because of what they cause us to feel. Characters aren’t actually real; only our own feelings are. Emotional impact is not an extra. It’s as fundamental to a novel’s purpose and structure as its plot.”
Maureen: Emotion is as essential in nonfiction as it is in fiction. And especially if it’s Kidlit. Young readers won’t keep turning the page if a true story doesn’t have emotional impact. A character’s journey can scare, thrill, sadden, uplift, inspire, or even anger young readers, but it also better grab them and make them care.
From Music Mavens (Macy Schmidt): “Craft! They were discussing craft! Macy finally had a mentor.”
What techniques or methods did you use to add an authentic heartfelt component that would resonate with young readers?
Maureen: A desire line is the forward movement created by a character’s longing. Broadway orchestrator Macy Schmidt’s quest for a mentor was her desire line. While writing Music Mavens, Ashley and I identified what each maven most longed for and showed how that longing shaped her choices. Knowing what a subject yearned for and the impact that yearning had on her life, her music, and her career, gave us the emotional heartbeat of her story and guided us as to what was essential in biographies that are under 3,000 words.
We had the good fortune of interviewing our subjects, and we started with childhood, digging into their early loves, hates, hopes, and dreams. This allowed us to write people with lives that young readers could truly relate to. We wanted them to notice: Oh, she started there. Oh, she overcame some big obstacles. Oh, she changed her direction. Oh, she wasn’t deterred by hundreds of rejections. Oh, she’s like me.
Sue: A great way to help young readers identify with biographical figures is to intertwine emotional impact with facts. While crafting Skybound!, I searched for clues to Mary/Carlotta’s emotions and sometimes found them in her interviews or memoir and strung them into the text. For example: “Carlotta could not see the earth, sky, or balloon. It was the ‘lonesomest place’ she had ever been…She wanted out from the grip of the ghost clouds.”
But in some scenes, I knew her historical actions, yet did not know how she felt. In these cases, I guided the reader’s emotions with fun phrases and tense word choices. Here is an example from a scene where she is building balloons: “Making balloon fabric may not sound dangerous, but it was chancy. The creative concoction of boiled linseed oil and turpentine could explode at any moment. And, oh blazes! Sometimes it did!” These passages reflected how “I” felt about her bold and brave choices.
From Skybound!: “Mary…had lofty ideas! But…[p]roper ladies like Mary were simply expected to…stay tethered to their homes.”
When writing a biography, how do you find that story core—the “so what,” the feelings, the flaws, the way of seeing things that could touch a young reader’s heart?
Sue: If I am going to spend a lot of time in the world of my characters (I spent over six years researching Mary Myers), it must be love at first sight when we meet. I dig deep into historical records, museum holdings, and conversations with experts—unearthing every clue that may serve the emotional arc.
Even so, I got terribly off course at one point and turned to side-writing exercises on my small whiteboard (see picture above), on which I wrote as if I were Carlotta: “I am in the air. I am of the air. Here above the candles and windswept cities there is no other way for me. I was lucky, I was graced, I was blessed…by balloons and wind and rain….” I had to stop bouncing around in the analytical part of my head, releasing myself to write more intuitively. While these exact words never ended up in the story, I tried to weave in the emotional tone.
I also run a mental simulation of myself in that character’s world, feeling my way through it. I then relate that to how I felt as a child. In Skybound!, after doing this, I knew the core of this story: dreaming of flying yet feeling earthbound. My life mirrored hers in striving to overcome other’s expectations, chasing the winds of possibility, and doubting yourself. I hope that young people can imagine themselves breaking through their own obstacles of self and societal doubt—triumphantly, with a glorious landing!
Maureen: Like Sue, I must fall in love with my subjects. I didn’t reach out for an interview with a candidate for Music Mavens until I felt a strong affinity for them. Once a maven opted in, I did even more pre-interview research before we Zoomed. I learned so much from those interviews, always gaining a richer, deeper, more nuanced context and point of view. And I didn’t stop until I had a multidimensional person to write about.
As I wrote, I had my subject’s voice and words to draw on. I played her music while writing. I looked at videos and images. And as discussed in question two above, I always discovered a desire line through which to tell her story.
From Music Mavens (Nova Wav Songwriting/Production Duo—Brittany “Chi” Coney and Denisia “Blu June” Andrews): “When Chi heard the hook she thought, ‘Oh, my God, who is that girl? Her voice is amazing.’”
How significant is word choice in creating the emotional component? Can you provide examples of words or phrases you chose to evoke certain emotions in your readers?
Maureen: How significant is word choice in creating emotional impact? Very! I’ll work on words, phrases, and rhythms until I establish the exact voice and tone I desire. When I wrote the passage you quoted, I knew I was crafting a moment of discovery. I wanted the reader in Chi Coney’s head when she first encounters Blu June Andrews. The scene needed punch, so I shortened the original quote with Chi’s approval.
Since the interviews were on Zoom, Ashley and I had the advantage of having our subjects’ voices in our heads. That made diction very accessible. We also had their music playing while we wrote. That helped with rhythm.
We were also lucky to get written permission to use lyrics by a couple of our subjects. Lyrics can bring a huge amount of emotional heft to a musician’s story, and we selected them carefully. For example, we used the refrain from one of Kate Schutt’s songs written for her dying mother: “I know you are weary / I know you are scared / There’s nothing I won’t do for you / There’s nothing I won’t bear.”
Sue: Word choices are incredibly important in writing nonfiction children’s books. As I mentioned earlier, I used word choices to help connect readers with Mary and bring her story to life for them. To illustrate, I employed action verbs to reveal Mary’s great enthusiasm for learning about aeronautics: “She flung herself into Carl’s library. Mary read…until her head spun with facts.” In describing Mary’s state as the time grew close for her flight, I utilized Mary’s own alliteration to enhance the text and paint a vivid picture of the dreary weather and Mary’s disappointment: “The day came, a misty, moisty, miserable, rainy ‘Fourth,’ dampening all my expectations of a delightful tour.”
From Skybound!: “If Mary was to capture the science and captivate a crowd, she’d need a stunning new outfit and a stage name.”
Besides word choice, were you also consciously creating a certain tone or arc, or considering how pacing might affect the emotional impact of the narrative?
Sue: Absolutely! Mary starts the flight as “earthbound Mary,” but through the story arc, she transforms into her new stage persona of Carlotta. This new name allowed her a chance to break free from the duty-heavy, restricted life of Victorian-era women. Most women needed a chaperone to simply walk down the street.
On Mary’s first flight, solo in the clouds, I opted for a heavier tone, threatening her chances of a successful flight. The tension and stakes of her making it through that moment continued as I slowed the pacing down, readying the readers for a safe landing.
Maureen: I have already covered the emotional arc (desire line), but let’s look at story structure and how it can elicit emotion. Ashley and I chose to begin each biography “in medias res.” That is to say, we jumped right into a pivotal scene from that maven’s career. The scene served to (1) point to the subject’s desire line and (2) set up a story question or even a cliffhanger. Then, we wrote chronologically. Those in media res openings allowed us to hook the reader, giving them cues as to the themes and tone of the chapter, and leave them wondering.
As for tone, we wrote across a highly diverse swath of cultural, racial, national, LGBTQ+, and musical identities, and we wrote in the third person close perspective. Each subject’s identity and intersectionality gave rise to a specific voice, diction, and tone. In addition, listening to her music and watching her perform (or in the case of rock photographer Katarina Benzova, viewing her brilliant body of work) had a huge impact on tone. For example, our chapter about Sylvia Massy, an American heavy metal music producer, is very different in voice and tone from our chapter about deeply spiritual Japanese taiko drummer Kaoly Asano.
From Music Mavens (Vân-Ánh Vanesssa Võ): “Happiness is something you have to create for yourself….You have to find it…No one will give it to you.”
You both used direct quotes in your stories. Was this to add emotional weight? How did you select these quotes?
Maureen: The quotes we selected definitely serve to add emotional weight, but they also add authenticity and a sense of connection. Hearing directly from a subject is critical. Fortunately, we had both print and podcast interviews as well as the hours and hours of interviews that we conducted ourselves. In Vân-Ánh’s case, Ashley interviewed her for three hours! Our prescribed word count also forced us to be highly selective. Again, each subject’s emotional arc and desire line gave us a roadmap, guiding us to forego great material that didn’t serve the story.
Sue: I used quotes from Mary to give readers the flavor of her voice and to add to the weight and lightness of the moment. She wasn’t just a scientist of the skies describing the facts of her findings. She was an eloquent storyteller who made you feel like you were in her kid-leather boots. I found her words to be poetic, beautiful, and inspiring.
Here are some of Mary’s full passage quotes that led me to the shorter quotes I used in the book (the bolded sections): “I have never been so delightfully impressed with the pleasures of floating freely in space as on this occasion, except perhaps during those exquisite moments of dream-life when I have sometimes been wafted like a disembodied spirit floating onward through an eternity of sleep….” And this one: “As I drifted along in perfect peace, this gigantic specimen of natural crockery—literally ‘earthenware’—changed its hues from brick-red walls, white houses, and somber roofs, to the emerald green of the fields and forests….”
How did you balance factual information with stirring storytelling? Are there any risks in infusing too much emotion in a nonfiction book, and how do you mitigate them?
Sue: Over peppering a narrative nonfiction book with emotion can create a feeling of excessive sentimentality. As soon as a story doesn’t feel real or worthy of the emotion, it can lose our reader’s interest. In my stories, I strive for a balance of heavier moments paired with levity. A spoonful of serious medicine then a lollypop reward.
For example, at the end of Skybound!, a farmer witnesses Carlotta’s successful balloon landing. He lays into Carlotta for following her dream: “The slack-jawed farmer who found Carlotta told her that she was ‘most too young’ a girl to be trusted so far from home.” Next, I chose to lighten these emotions with some fun word imagery: “Not to be trusted? A daredevil woman—who fished alone in the sky for science? And wrestled with ghost clouds?” At this point, I return to the heavier emotions: “That farmer was right—she should go back home.” And then, I leave the reader with the lollipop. She is not giving up her dream, no matter what society says: “… a lady aeronaut, who needed to plan her next flight.”
Maureen: We were spare in naming our subjects’ emotional states, choosing to follow the golden rule: Show don’t tell. Emotional impact happens when we put ourselves in someone else’s shoes as the action unfolds. So, we relied on powerful scenes to move both our subjects and our readers from one emotional state to another.
Where we did name emotions, we had the gift of being able to check in directly with the subject and make sure we got it right. Their direct input as to word choice breathed authenticity and immediacy into our writing. What we most often found ourselves infusing into a maven’s story was her grit, passion, and love of music.
Were there times when you dug deep into your own emotions or drew on personal experiences to convey a powerful feeling or message?
Maureen: When writing about a living person, I think it’s necessary for a biographer to leave herself out of the story while at the same time connecting deeply with the subject.
That being said, in Music Mavens we wrote two especially heart-wrenching stories. One was the chapter on Native American composer and singer-songwriter Joanne Shenandoah. Ashley interviewed her and wrote a beautiful chapter. Months later, a few weeks before our first draft was due, Ashley discovered that Joanne had died. So, Ashley had to dig in and rewrite Joanne’s biography inside this new context. She read many moving tributes by friends, family, and fellow musicians. They confirmed Ashley’s experience of Joanne and shone a light on new facets of her life and contribution. Ashley let her love for Joanne and grief at her passing shape that rewrite. The result: a loving, passionate tribute to Joanne Shenandoah that exudes humanity.
The second was the biography of Kate Schutt, a singer-songwriter who had just released an album, Bright Nowhere, composed of songs she wrote about her mother’s five-year journey with cancer and eventual death. Writing this chapter was deeply personal for me because I’d recently lost my husband and had also been through cancer journeys with a number of family members and friends. I let my own experience inform me while also ensuring that the narrative reflected Kate’s choices and emotional arc.
Sue: Yes. As I dug deeply into Mary’s life, I connected her experiences and emotions to the feelings that she stirred up for me. I found them merging with my own childhood desires and struggles. I grew up in the 1960’s when women were constrained in their lives and not able to easily pursue their interests. This was almost 100 years after Mary was facing constraints in her Victorian-era society for women. I had two brothers who could do whatever they wanted while I was encouraged to act like a little proper lady. I felt stifled by the nonsensical social rules. I would have loved to be a scientist or astronaut, but had no encouragement, guidance, or role models for inspiration. How I wish I knew about Mary Myers back then! So, while writing this, I was both championing Mary Myers—a woman forgotten from the history of flight—and my young self, who also had sky-high dreams.
When adding emotion to nonfiction work, do you outline the emotional journey beforehand or does it evolve as you write?
Sue: I have not outlined an emotional journey for my nonfiction (or fictional) picture books. I intuitively write, knowing that I have to feel the arc of the character transformation as they struggle, succeed, and change. This works for me when writing a picture book, but as I am beginning to delve into longer form works, I’m considering mapping out the emotional journey chapter by chapter to make sure I am hitting the notes and creating the thread of tension that makes a reader keep turning the pages through to the end.
Maureen: I outline the chronology and let my way-too-long first drafts show me the whole story. Then I revise. If I stay open to discovery, the emotional journey will reveal itself and guide my revisions. It is also invaluable to have other eyes on my work. At times, Ashley saw a piece of the puzzle that had been hidden from my view, a key piece that crystallized the emotional arc.
What writing projects are next for you?
Maureen: Nonfiction children’s books have a special place in my heart, and thus I have continued to compose in that genre. My favorite subjects are music and musicians, and in that vein, I’ve written two music-themed picture books that I am about to send out on submission. But I also have a middle-grade novel in progress. Writing kids’ fiction is fun and allows me to create emotional resonance in new and creative ways.
Sue: My very next project is taking this project further. I am working with a production company to develop Mary Myers’ story into a streaming series or movie pitch for the studios. I’ve been developing pitches for my other books as animated projects, but this will be my first live action series pitch. After that, I am going to return to another project I started while in graduate school at Vermont College of Fine Arts. It’s a middle grade fantasy novel involving magic, called Twice Cursed. To deepen my knowledge of the history of magic, I’m taking a class through Oxford University on The Practice of Magic in the Middle Ages. It’s been amazing and new ideas are popping like Pop Rocks! I can’t wait to jump back into that story world. There’s something so fun about creating your own fantastical worlds and living in them for a few years while you write.
Cynsational Notes
Sue Ganz-Schmitt holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and a Bachelor of Science in Business/Marketing from San Diego State University. She has won more than a dozen awards for her books, which include Skybound!: Starring Mary Myers as Carlotta, Daredevil Aeronaut and Scientist, illustrated by Iacopo Bruno (Calkin Creek, 2024), That Monster on the Block, illustrated by Luke Flowers (Two Lions, 2020), Now I’m a Bird, illustrated by Renia Metallinou (Albert Whitman & Company, 2020), Planet Kindergarten:100 Days in Orbit, illustrated by Shane Prigmore (Chronicle Books, 2016), Planet Kindergarten, illustrated by Shane Prigmore (Chronicle Books,2014), The Princess and the Peanut: A Royally Allergic Fairytale, illustrated by Micah Chambers-Goldberg (Wild Indigo, 2011), and Even Superheroes Get Diabetes, illustrated by Micah Chambers-Goldberg (Dog Ear Publishing, LLC/Wild Indigo, 2007). Sue is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and co-founded their Emerging Voices Award. She has served as a NASA Social Media correspondent, as a volunteer for The Planetary Society, and as a space advocate representing the Space Exploration Alliance to Congress. She has also written and produced a STEAM video featured by The Planetary Society (The Galaxy Girls Save Pluto).
Maureen Charles holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA in Communications Disorders and Spanish Language and Literature from Marquette University. She has worked as a writer, editor, instructor, and writing coach for 14+ years. She co-wrote Music Mavens: 15 Women of Note in the Industry with Ashley Walker (Chicago Review Press, 2022)(Hardcover). She volunteers as a writer and content developer for young audiences at the Foundation for Climate Restoration and the United Nations Foundation GIRL UP Academy, and has also volunteered as a children’s writing instructor for active older adults at Wise and Healthy Aging. In addition to her writing pursuits, Maureen serves as Board Chair for the international NGO AidStillRequired, and is a co-founder/principal of Love of Aging. She sings, plays guitar and ukulele, and was married for 24 years to Emmy-winning arranger, orchestrator, and composer of television and film music Jon Charles.
Gail Vannelli retired as an attorney and now writes primarily middle-grade and YA fiction. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she received several scholarships, including the Holy Smokes Scholarship. She also holds a Post-MFA Certificate in the Teaching of Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She has won several Writer’s Digest awards for her fiction. Her recent work has appeared in Lunch Ticket Literary Magazine, where she has held the positions of lead editor, assistant editor, interviewer, and blogger, and in Cynsations, where she is an industry news reporter and writer. She is the founder of Kids Story Studio, a free kids story writing class.