...more about Linda
By college, I had turned my writing toward advertising and marketing, using my creativity to sell the creative work of others....
That wasn’t such a bad thing.
It landed me at Vroman’s Bookstore, a large independent in Southern California, where I served as marketing director for about ten years.
What a great job! I was surrounded every day by books and authors and artists and readers. One of my responsibilities was to organize author events. I met thousands of writers and learned that most of them have their own fears. Even the most successful worry that readers won’t like their books. Even the most talented sometimes think they aren’t as good at writing as they ought to be.
Hearing this gave me courage.
While I was at Vroman’s, I also ran a summer writer’s workshop series. Every Saturday a writer, illustrator, or editor would come talk to aspiring writers about writing. Secretly, I took notes.
Their talks gave me tools for writing better stories.
Finally, when my daughter turned two and I turned 37, I got the guts to try writing fiction again. Having a child brought me back to reading the kinds of books that I most loved, books for kids. As much as I enjoy reading grown-up books, it is kids’ books that grab my heart and make me think and spin my imagination.
Reading those books gave me inspiration.
And so, when I sat down to write, the stories that spilled out were the kind I loved best, books for young readers.
Remember what I said about how I learned that not everyone is going to love every story I write? I kind of forgot that I had learned that and I had to learn it again.
I wrote a handful of picture books and submitted a few to publishers.
Some of them liked what I wrote and sent back encouraging comments. A couple sent back form letters saying No, Thank You.
But then I got a phone call from Allyn Johnston at Harcourt saying that one of my stories had struck a chord with her and that another editor, Jeannette Larson, would like to work with me to make that story even better.
I still haven’t revised that picture book to my satisfaction, but Jeannette encouraged me to send her other things. One of the things I sent was a picture book, Mouse Was Mad. Jeannette loved it and asked if Harcourt could publish it. I said yes, please do.
That book is currently being illustrated by the amazing Henry Cole and will be out in 2009.
Jeannette is also my editor for A Crooked Kind of Perfect, my middle grade novel about a girl who longs to play a glamorous grand piano but winds up with a wheeze-bag organ from the mall instead.
A Crooked Kind of Perfect will be on bookstore shelves in September 2007. If you like it — if parts of it make you laugh or cheer — I’d love to hear about it. Please use the form on my contact page to reach me.