My daughter, Ellamae, has been a book lover all of her life. I started reading to her when she was a baby. She started going to storytime at the library when she was around one. She would peek through the book return slot at the desk and have conversations with the librarian. She's gone through the progression of books from picture to chapter to middle grade, and young adult novels. She reads. A lot.
I started writing with an eye toward publishing when Ellamae was pretty young. She's watched me write, listened to my stories, and given me feedback. I've shared some of my writing frustrations and disappointments with her. She's celebrated my victories and been my biggest fan.
I've pushed nothing on her. Just shared with her when she was interested. I figure my kids will grow up to be whatever they want to be. She's seen how hard and frustrating it can be to write. I'm sure she's also noticed how much I've enjoyed it. Whatever the reason, it seems she's made her own natural progression from reader...to writer.
Today she asked my about an idea she has for a young adult novel. It's complex. It's challenging. It's good! The more we talked about it the more the outline came together. She's come up with some amazing twists and even a marketing hook. Needless to say, I am impressed.
So, will this come to fruition? She's written 130 pages of a novel before so she has the potential. Writing is hard, even for adults who have been doing it for a long time. I think she can do it, but I look up to her for even trying. And it sure is fun to have a brainstorming partner!
As you may have observed if you care to pay attention to any of my online blathering, I do a strange assortment of things. First and foremost I am a children's book writer. That is what I always want to be doing. I work and volunteer at the library so I can be around books. But it's good to do something else. Something not book-centric. At least that's what my husband likes to tell me.
So what do I do? I ran a Cafe & Gallery this winter. We serve food. We sell art. We hold concerts. It's fun. We're only open for special events right now though because the man and I are busy with our main venture--organic garlic. Yup, we're growing garlic. Lots of it.
Garlic has a long growing cycle. We planted the bulbs last fall. No, it's not time for harvest yet, but it is time to cut scapes. Scapes, incase you don't know, are the long curled flower that grow out of the top of the garlic plant.
They're pretty, and tasty! I make a lot of pesto with them, and I just put a bunch of fresh curly scapes straight onto pizza and they were super good. Oh! And beer battered scapes! I'll have to make some of those soon too. Anyhow, we have lots of scapes. So many that I looked up how to ship them (it's easy!) and we're going to start selling this year instead of next like we planned. So..if you're interested, I have scapes for sale. $3.50/pound. Shipping in the US is between $5.35 and $11.35 depending on order size. You can email me for more info or to order them.
You wanna know something weird though? I found a tube of glitter in the garlic field the other day. Seriously. I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP. One perfectly sealed, sparkly tube of white glitter. It's good to know that my family is completely safe from vampires.
Brianne Johnson is a junior agent at the well known agency, Writers House. I would assume that as a junior agent that Brianne is still building her list, which is always a good opportunity for writers on the agent hunt!
According to her Publisher's Marketplace profile she is open to, "truly delightful" picture book texts and she also says, "The one link I have throughout the many genres I'm interested in is humor. It doesn't necessarily have to be silly humor--sometimes it's more interesting to find humor in darker settings--but I do love a story can illuminate something about humanity AND make me laugh. Life is serious enough--reading should be a joy."
Brianne has a couple of nice picture book sales by her authors (of course this is just what I can find online.) She represents Diane Murray Her first picture book, NED THE KNITTING PIRATE: A SALTY YARN will be published by Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan (Spring 2014). A note for rhymers, Diane's bio says her writing includes rhymes.
Brianne also represents Jacqueline Tourville whose book, ALBIE'S FIRST WORD, inspired by the true story of Albert Einstein's childhood is scheduled to come out with Schwartz & Wade in 2014.
Brianne Johnson accepts email queries. You can find her email address on her Publisher's Marketplace listing. And don't forget to personalize that cover letter!
This post is part of the Monster List of Picture Book Agents. If you have any changes that you think should be made to this listing, please contact me or leave them in the comments. Thanks!
In the past few weeks I have done a lot of things. I've weeded acres of garlic. I've thinned apple trees. Planted a garden. Run in a race and took first place. (It was a small race... very small. Don't be too impressed.) I've gone on long, lingering bike rides, been to the lake and had a run in with some leeches, read books in the sun. I've filled out a long, confusing application to get our farms certified organic. I've agreed to buy a rundown cabin. I've helped an art client get her social media up and running. I even dug out an old young adult novel I wrote a couple of years ago and started revisions.
One thing I haven't done? Come up with a new picture book idea. Why? Well, I like to think that my brain has been too busy doing all of these other things. On the one hand it bugs me. Why haven't I had an idea? I'm always full of ideas. On the other hand I wonder why I think I need a new idea. I have a bajillion in the filing cabinet, and many more lying around here and there. Really, I need more? Well, yeah. Of course I do! You never know when one will be great.
I do think that sometimes we picture book writers can put a lot of pressure on the idea and forget that the follow through is just as important. And honestly, for me, sometimes my ideas just need to sit a while until I figure them out. I recently finally finished a book whose concept I came up with at least a couple of years ago. I adored the concept but couldn't make it work. When I pulled the manuscript out a couple of months ago I finally figured out how the story needed to play out. It's nothing like what I had come up with at first save one major (and crazy!) plot detail. It's such a better story now and I believe it's ready to face the world.
So, I need to not worry. I know more picture book ideas will come eventually. They always do. I have plenty of other things to work on. And maybe with some focus I could even finish that YA. Now wouldn't that be something.
You know when you write a story and are really excited about it and you can't wait to finish it up so you can get it out into the world and see what happens? Well, that's me. A lot. But especially with the manuscript I've been working on lately. I want it to be done. NOW. But I know better.
I know that if I let my story sit I will come back with fresh eyes and be able to pick out things that don't work well enough. I know that if I wait I will come up with new and better plot twists, characterization, dialogue, and all that other stuff a manuscript needs to go the distance. I know that if I send my manuscript to my critique partner she will point out all sorts of things and make great suggestions on how to improve them. I know that if I just let my brain mull things over my story will get better. And it has.
Do I want to finish this manuscript and send it to my agent to see what she thinks? You bet. But I want to send her my work when it's at its best. I want it to be as ready as it can be. I want her to fall in love with it the way I love it. And to do that I must be patient. No matter how hard it is.
I'm getting close. At least in my opinion. But I'm trying to hold out a bit longer. One thing I found that has made the waiting easier? I'm working on perfecting the pitch. Maybe I'll go work on it some more now before I get too tempted to send the manuscript off.
Update 11/7/2013 - Scott Treimel has closed to unsolicited submissions but will still be accepting submissions from conference attendees and through references. You can find out all the details by reading the new Submission Policies page.
My last post featured author Ame Dyckman and her debut picture book, BOY + BOT. Ame is represented by Scott Treimel so there's no time like now to feature Scott on the monster list! Ame had two more books forthcoming. I can see why she refers to Scott as "super agent"!
At SCBWI Hawaii, they have a bit of what Scott said regarding craft, how he agents, and what he wants to see in a query. It's from 2005 but relevant. (There are two separate paragraphs. Scroll down.)
This post is part of the Monster List of Picture Book Agents. If you have any changes that you think should be made to this listing, please contact me or leave them in the comments. Thanks!
BOY + BOT is the story of a boy and a robot who become friends. It is created by one fabulous duo, Ame Dyckman and Dan Yaccarino.
I brought this great book to school, along with a giant BOT, to share with some of my friends in first grade. And thanks to my nice friend Ame Dyckman, the kids got to interview the author and illustrator of a book, which was very exciting!
First I told the kids about BOY + BOT's illustrator and showed them a selection of books Dan has illustrated and written, along with some of the stuff he's done for television. Television is impressive, of course, but the kids really ooohed and ahhed over all of the books that Dan has done. Pretty cool.
Then I told the kids about Ame and showed them her photo. Did they love her hat with ears? Affirmative. Did they love that she has pink hair? They certainly got excited about it! Did they think it was cool that she wrote a book and they got to ask her questions? Absolutely. And they were even more amazed when I showed them on the globe that Ame (and Dan too) live all the way across the United States far away from us here in Washington.
I think we got a lot of learning done just by talking. We talked about what authors and illustrators do. How they can work anywhere. How they work together along with the publisher. What a publisher is. We even got some geography in there. And we hadn't even started the book yet! But when we did there was lots of wiggling, giggling, and excitement!
After the applause died down, and we talked about misunderstanding and friendship(which is what BOY + BOT is all about), we did some creating of our own and made Bot inspired robots! The kids really got into it and enjoyed coming up with their own robot designs. Some even made baby bots to accompany their big bots. How cool is that! And, of course, the kids came up with questions they wanted to ask Ame and Dan. They wrote them on the giant Bot!
Here is Mrs. VanWoert's first grade reading class' interview:
How did you decide what Boy + Bot were going to look like? –Skyler
Dan: I just drew what my favorite robot would look like.
How long did it take to figure out what Bot was going to look like? -Laurelii
Dan: A few days.
How did you color the pictures? –Katelyn
Dan: I used a special paint called gouache (pronounced "gwash").
What did you use to make the illustrations? –Dakota
Dan: A paint called gouache on watercolor paper.
Dan, were you good at drawing when you were seven? –Reagan
Dan: Not as good as I am now, but I drew every day, so I got better.
How did you learn to draw? –Victor
Dan: By drawing every day.
Why is Bot red? –Katey
Dan: I like red. All robots should be red.
Why do you choose to illustrate other authors books as well as your own? -Heather (Okay, I couldn't resist asking Dan and Ame each a question as well.)
Dan: It's fun.
What is your favorite color? –Kayla
Dan: All of them.
Ame: My favorite color is blue, like the sky. (And often, my hair!)
What does Boy + Bot = ? -Jasper
Ame: Best friends forever!
I like your book. Why did Bot go swimming? –Kyra
Ame: Thanks Kyra! I like you name. Why did Bot go swimming? It was hot. (Don't worry. Bot is waterproof!)
How did you think of the story? –Kylar
Ame: I love robots. And I love friendship stories. I thought, "I'll write a robot friendship story!" And once, when I rolled down a hill, I got poked by a rock. So, I wrote that in, too.
Do Boy + Bot have names? –Jasper
Ame: Bot's real name is Bot. Boy hasn't told me what his name is yet.
Does the inventor have any other inventions? –Elijah
Ame: Lots! Right now, the Inventor is working on an automatic swinging hammock. (He's been a little dizzy lately.)
Does Bot have to work for the inventor or does he just get to play? –David
Ame: Bot has chores. When his chores are done, he gets to play. Watt (the little light bulb robot) is the Inventor's helper. This makes Watt happy.
You did an Unread interview with me way back in 2009! Now that you are a published author, how have things changed for you? -Heather
Ame: Now I get to write my name in a book and not get in trouble. But what do I love best? When kids and grandparents and teachers let me know they like Boy + Bot. That's the greatest thing ever!
And mine and Ame's definite favorite question:
Did it take more than one day to make the book? -Joey
Dan: Yes, it took me about three months to make the paintings.
Ame: And Joey, if you count the whole entire process (from the day I finished the 1st draft of the text for BOY + BOT to the day it went on sale), it was about 1,225 days! Do I hope you like our book? Affirmative!
*You may have noticed a lack of kids in the photos of this post! That is because there are rules and there was no time to deal with permission slips and all that. I do have permission to show one kid, who happens to be my personal helper on all things first grade related.
