Learn more about Mary Hershey.
Can you describe the best experience you’ve had working with an editor?
I’ve had the prodigious privilege of working with Wendy Lamb at Random House on my last three novels, all with excruciatingly long titles (Writing Tip #1: Be careful what you start): My Big Sister Is So Bossy She Says You Can’t Read This Book (2005),
Learn about Barbara O’Connor.
When and where do you write? Why does that time and space work for you?
I’m a morning person all the way. I love the early morning and am always freshest and most creative then.
Honestly, I don’t think I could write at night if I had to.
Learn about Bruce Hale.
Could you describe the best experience you’ve had working with an editor?
Working with Michael Stearns, first at Harcourt, then at HarperCollins, has been my best editorial experience so far.
(So it’s all the more disappointing that he’s quit editing for agentry.)
Maybe you never forget the editor who first opens the door and ushers you into that club of published authors.
Learn about David Lubar.
What do you love most about your creative life? Why?
I love solving problems. And, really, that’s the main job of a fiction writer. We solve our characters’ problems.
We have the added pleasure of giving them the problems in the first place.
What is the one craft book that you refer to again and again?
Learn more about Susan Patron and her latest book, Lucky Breaks, illustrated by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum/ginee seo, 2009).
How do you psyche yourself up to write and to keep writing?
When I was eight, I had to keep my little sister captive in the bathtub every night until she got clean.
Anita Silvey‘s latest book is Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children’s Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life (Roaring Brook, 2009).
So far, what’s the most fun you’ve ever had working on a book? Why?
I know that many authors suffer from the “my newest baby is my favorite baby”
Learn about Mahtab Narsimhan, and read her blog.
How do you psyche yourself up to write and to keep writing?
I set a reward before I start writing and will allow myself that reward only if I finish the quota for the day.
Normally that entails surfing the Net or writing a nice long e-mail to a friend;
Learn more about Debby Dahl Edwardson.
What do you love most about your creative life? Why?
What I love most about writing is that wonderful alchemy that turns words on a page into complete worlds, places that become so real we can smell the trees and hear the voices.
I especially like it when a character jumps right off the page and says or does something that takes me,
Continue Reading Craft, Career & Cheer: Debby Dahl Edwardson »
Learn more about Nikki Grimes and her recent releases, Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel and Rich: A Dyamonde Daniel Book, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (both G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2009) and Voices of Christmas, illustrated by Eric Velasquez (Zonderkidz, 2009).
How do you define professional success?
Learn about Alan Cumyn.
So far, what’s the most fun you’ve ever had working on a book? Why?
I have to say that working on this latest book, Dear Sylvia (Groundwood, 2008)(excerpt), was the most fun.
I often struggle to find the right voice for a particular project,
