Listen along as The Story Seeds Podcast host Betsy Bird chats with Veera Hiranandani (author of the Newbery Honor-winning book THE NIGHT DIARY). They go behind the scenes and talk about what it was like to grow 10 year old Willa’s story seed into the short story "Under the Maple Tree" for Episode 2 “From Homeschool to Public School."

In this bonus episode, Veera also shares writing tips, including the importance of drawing inspiration from your own experiences and naming your characters. Plus, she talks about her writing life and tells us the cool story of her journey to becoming a published children's book author. 

Books and Media mentioned in this episode: The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani. Dora the Explorer. Spongebob Squarepants. Blue's Clues. 

Call to Action

Kids: Call The Story Seeds Hotline at 646-389-5153, email us at [email protected], or visit our website to submit your story ideas. You can also join The Story Seeds Society, our kids listeners club! 

Get our Imagination Lab: Experiments in Creativity activity book! It pairs perfectly with the podcast and features tons of episode-inspired prompts and projects! Order your copy here!

Grownups: Visit www.storyseedspodcast.com for subscription links, to sign up for our newsletter, and to download our printable activity e-zines for your kids (or the  kid in you!). You can also follow us on Instagram @storyseedspod, on Twitter @litsafarimedia, and on Facebook @literarysafari. 

This episode is also available on YouTube. Subscribe here. 

Show credits:  Matt Boynton and Ania Grzesik of Ultraviolet Audio for the sound mixing, design, and score of our bonus episode. Theme music is composed and performed by Andrew VanWyngarden. And, our host is Betsy Bird. 

The Story Seeds Podcast is a creation and production of Literary Safari www.literarysafari.com