Middle Grade Ninja

Kristy Hunter and I discuss her career thus far from her education at the Columbia Publishing Course to her time as an editorial intern as well as a publicist to being mentored by Deidre Knight and becoming a successful literary agent with The Knight Agency. We talk about how she evaluates queries and submissions and her approach to working with her clients. She offers excellent advice on author voice, creating atmospheric settings, strengthening characterization, and so much more. And we can’t help chatting a little about quarantine for COVID-19 and its potential impact on publishing.

As a graduate of Vanderbilt University and The Columbia Publishing Course, Kristy Hunter began her publishing career in New York City—first as an editorial intern at Bloomsbury Children’s Books and then as a book publicist at Grove/Atlantic and Random House Children’s Books. When she moved to the agenting side of the industry, she was closely mentored by Deidre Knight, president and founder of The Knight Agency, and her first co-agented project sold at auction soon after. As an associate agent, Kristy enjoys being able to bring a unique perspective to her clients thanks to her diverse publishing background. When she’s not curled up with a fantastic book or manuscript, she can be found kickboxing or hiking with her dog and is an active member of SCBWI.

WARNING: This recording is for ADULT LISTENERS and packs profuse profanity:)

Quarantine for COVID-19 has given me the unexpected gift of perspective and free time. I always wanted to record at least one audiobook, and I always figured I'd read THE BOOK OF DAVID... someday... when I have time. To keep from crawling the walls (for now), I've checked off this bucket list item.

I may yet record the entire serial novel in a studio and have it professionally produced, but I'd for sure charge for that. Me reading only the first of five installments in this tale of terror in my office while birds chirp outside my window and the bell on my cat's collar occasionally jingles as I do terrible accents... that, I'll give you for free. But I'd encourage you to also seek out my actual audiobooks narrated by professionals.

If you'd prefer just to enjoy the story without my voice (understandable), the ebook of Chapter One of THE BOOK OF DAVID is always free to download (you could read along to spot errors I made while performing my own book).

This might be a crazy thing to do, but it was also a very fun thing to do, and it's a crazy time. I hope you're taking care of yourself, Esteemed Audience, and I hope you dig this amateur audiobook of mine. Here's some more info about THE BOOK OF DAVID:

The Walters family has just purchased the perfect home if only it weren't located in the small hick town of Harrington, Indiana, and if only it weren't haunted. David Walters is an atheist now, but his minister father taught him from a young age that Satan would one day deceive all mankind by pretending his demons were extraterrestrials. The day the Walters family moves in, they spot a flying saucer outside their new home. Things only get stranger from there. David Walters is about to learn what it means to be truly haunted, forcing him to confront his past, fight for his family, his soul, and his sanity.

This is the first of five chapters in THE BOOK OF DAVID, a serialized tale of terror from Robert Kent, author of ALL TOGETHER NOW: A ZOMBIE STORY and PIZZA DELIVERY.

WARNING

This horror story is intended for a mature audience. It's filled with adult language, situations, and themes. It's in no way appropriate for the easily offended or younger readers of BANNEKER BONES AND THE GIANT ROBOT BEES.

Joy McCullough and I talk about her transition from playwright to young adult author and how she kept focus on her long journey to publication, as well as her new middle grade novel, A FIELD GUIDE TO GETTING LOST. She shares the story of how she met her second literary agent, some advice on tending to your mental health, some tips for effectively using social media without over sharing, some tales from her time as a Pitch Wars mentor, and so much more.

Joy McCullough’s debut young adult novel Blood Water Paint (Penguin) won the Washington State and Pacific Northwest books awards, as well as honors such as the National Book Award longlist, finalist for the ALA Morris Award, a Publishers Weekly Flying Start and four starred reviews. Her debut middle grade novel, A Field Guide to Getting Lost (Simon & Schuster) releases on April 14, 2020, and is a Junior Library Guild Selection.

She writes books and plays from her home in the Seattle area, where she lives with her husband and two children. She studied theater at Northwestern University, fell in love with her husband atop a Guatemalan volcano, and now spends her days surrounded by books and kids and chocolate.

Rob Harrell and I discuss how the launch of his newest novel, WINK, has been impacted by the quarantine for COVID-19 along with most other aspects of writing life. He shares how he met his literary agent and how they work together on his novels. We talk about his becoming a professional cartoonist with multiple syndicated strips, the upcoming movie RUMBLE based on his novel MONSTER ON THE HILL, the qualities of Hoosier men named Rob, and so much more.

Rob Harrell wrote and drew the syndicated daily comic strip Big Top through 2007 and currently creates the long-running strip Adam@Home.

Harrell wrote and illustrated the graphic novel Monster on the Hill, published by Top Shelf. The story of a town with a down-on-his-luck monster, Monster was the inspiration for the animated movie Rumble (2021) from Paramount Pictures.

Next, Harrell wrote the Life of Zarf trilogy of hybrid novels. Published by Dial Books for Young Readers, they tell the story of Zarf Belford, a troll attending middle school in a fairy tale world.

Harrell’s next book is Wink, the funny but heartfelt story of Ross Maloy, a seventh-grader dealing with a horrible diagnosis and cancer treatments – all while trying to just blend in and survive middle school.

As an illustrator, Harrell has worked with clients including Mad, Simon and Schuster, American Greetings, Time, Inc. and Volkswagen. His figurative paintings have been shown in solo shows in San Francisco, Austin and Indianapolis.

Rob lives in Zionsville, Indiana with his wife Amber and their two dogs, Cooper and Kasey.

Anne Bustard and I discuss her newest book, BLUE SKIES, and its 20-year journey from a picture book to a middle grade novel. She tells me about her life as a perpetual student, earning a BS, MLIS, PHD, and an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, as well as devising her own learning program utilizing WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL by Donald Maass. We talk about her time as an elementary school teacher and a bookstore owner, how attending a writing workshop taught by previous guest Kathi Appelt changed her life, and so much more.

Born in Hawaii, author Anne Bustard is still a beach girl at heart. If she could, she would walk by the ocean every day, wear flip-flops, and eat nothing but fresh pineapple, macadamia nuts and chocolate. Growing up, Anne took years of hula lessons and spent many happy hours wearing a facemask and breathing through a snorkel. Her small sea glass collection from childhood is one of her most treasured possessions.

Anne loves school. And she has a lot of degrees to prove it. Three came from the University of Texas at Austin (BS, MLIS, PhD). Her most recent one, and she believes her last, is an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults.

Children’s books have always been central to her life. When she taught in elementary schools and universities, she always used literature. Anne co-owned Toad Hall Children’s Bookstore in Austin, Texas, too. As a bookseller, she loved opening up new boxes of books, telling others about them and running a summer writing program for children.

Anne is the author of several works for young readers including award-winners Buddy: The Story of Buddy Holly (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers) and Anywhere but Paradise (Lerner).

In Spring 2020, her next middle grade novel, Blue Skies (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers) and RAD! her first fiction picture book, illustrated by Daniel Wiseman (Abrams Books for Young Readers) will be published.

Anne recently married her college sweetheart and divides her time between Ontario and Texas.

Anna Meriano thrills with tales of full contact quidditch, including the time she broke her pelvis, and teases her upcoming book on the subject. We primarily discuss her series LOVE SUGAR MAGIC and the release of its third installment, A MIXTURE OF MISCHIEF. She talks about eating the right cheese at the right time, which introduced her to Cake Literary. She walks me through her interview process and securing a book deal. We also chat about creating rules of magic, keeping track of a large group of characters over a series, inserting joy in diverse stories, parallel universes, and so much more.

Anna Meriano grew up in Houston, Texas, with an older brother and a younger brother but (tragically) no sisters. She graduated from Rice University with a degree in English and earned her MFA in creative writing with an emphasis in writing for children from the New School in New York. She has taught creative writing and high school English and works as a writing tutor. Anna likes reading, knitting, playing full-contact quidditch, and translating English song lyrics into Spanish and vice-versa. Her favorite baked goods are the kind that don’t fly away before you eat them.

Avi and I discuss his career publishing more than 80 books since 1970, winning more awards than I can list, including the Newberry AND two Newberry honors. He tries to convince me writing is just a job and walks me through his process of writing intuitively. He talks candidly about his dysgraphia and gives excellent advice for writing historical fiction, including specifics about language and layering research in narrative. He even reads part of a brand new book he’s currently writing, premiering the passage for the first time anywhere exclusively on the Middle Grade Ninja podcast. Oh, and he tells me about the time he saw a ghost.

Avi is part of a family of writers extending back into the 19th century. Born in 1937 and raised in New York City, Avi was educated in local schools, before going to the Midwest and then back to NYC to complete his education. Starting out as a playwright--while working for many years as a librarian--he began writing books for young people when the first of his kids came along.

His first book was Things That Sometimes Happen, published in 1970, and recently reissued. Since then he has published seventy books. Winner of many awards, including the 2003 Newbery award for Crispin: the Cross of Lead (Hyperion), two Newbery Honors, two Horn Book awards, and an O'Dell award, as well as many children's choice awards, he frequently travels to schools around the country to talk to his readers.

Among his most popular books are Crispin: The Cross of Lead, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Nothing but the Truth, the Poppy books, Midnight Magic, and The Fighting Ground.

In 2008 he published The Seer of Shadows (HarperCollins), A Beginning a Muddle and an End (Harcourt), Hard Gold (Hyperion) and Not Seeing is Believing, a one-act play in the collection, Acting Out (Simon and Schuster). Crispin: the End of Time, the third in the Newbery Award-winning series, was published in 2010. City of Orphans was released in 2011, receiving a number of starred reviews. Learn more at Avi-writer.com. Follow Avi on Facebook, facebook.com/avi.writer, where he shares an inside look at his writing process.

Avi lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife and family.

Sayantani DasGupta and I discuss her series, KIRANMALA AND THE KINGDOM BEYOND, celebrating the release of its third installment, THE CHAOS CURSE. She shares information about being involved with WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS. We discuss the importance of representation and how a lack of mirrors can give the misguided impression of a monster, not unlike a vampire. We chat about narrating her own audiobooks, using humor and absurdity to make observations about the world in middle grade fiction, plotting vs pantsing, writing while cooking, in-depth editing, the qualities of a great writers critique group, the glory of knowledge, and so much more.

Sayantani DasGupta is the New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed, Bengali folktale and string theory-inspired KIRANMALA AND THE KINGDOM BEYOND books, the first of which—THE SERPENT'S SECRET—was a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, a Booklist Best Middle Grade Novel of the 21st Century, and an EB White Read Aloud Honor Book. Sayantani is a pediatrician by training, but now teaches at Columbia University. When she’s not writing or reading, Sayantani spends time watching cooking shows with her trilingual children and protecting her black Labrador retriever Khushi from the many things that scare him, including plastic bags. She is a team member of WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS, and can be found online at sayantanidasgupta.com and on Twitter at @sayantani16.

Kaela Noel and I discuss in detail how she trained to become an author, found a literary agent, rewrote her book until it was salable, and is now celebrating the release of her debut novel. We talk about worldbuilding and the pigeon research required to add authenticity to COO, as well as creating compelling characters in the story and the surety of being age 10. I ask her thrilling questions about the design and print layout of her book. We agree that both libraries and flying saucers are important and awesome.

Kaela Noel was born in San Francisco and raised in New Jersey. She now lives in Brooklyn, New York where she works as a proofreader and editor. Coo is her first novel.

My friend Barbara Shoup returns to the podcast to share lessons from her writing life and her new book about writing, A COMMOTION IN YOUR HEART. She talks candidly about struggling with depression, finding joy in writing even when it doesn’t lead to great fame and fortune, and the challenge of bringing forth something as ethereal as a story using only language. We chat about author estate planning, learning from writers you don’t like personally, ethically basing characters on real people, the cruelest editor rejection ever, and so much more.

Barbara Shoup is the author of eight novels for adults and young adults, most recently An American Tune and Looking for Jack Kerouac, and the co-author of Novel Ideas: Contemporary Authors Share the Creative Process. Her short fiction, poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared in numerous small magazines, as well as in The Writer and the New York Times travel section. The recipient of the PEN Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Working Writer Fellowship and grants from the Indiana Arts Commission, she is the Writer-in-Residence at the Indiana Writers Center and a faculty member at Art Workshop International.