Jane Yolen's Blog

Wednesday Q & J: January 31, 2024

Q: Today’s Question comes from a reader/writer:

I’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between editing poems and editing stories recently: How do you know when a poem is done? Do you run it past a group of peers for feedback first, or is it just something you feel in your heart? When are you satisfied?

 

J: I wrote back my reply which is that I read it aloud and, if possible, have someone else who has not read it before,  read it (without rehearsal) aloud to me. And I can hear immediately what is missing or wrong.

Wednesday Q & J: December 27, 2023

Q: Last Q & J of the year. What is your New Year’s writing resolution?

 

J: New Years Resolutions

Resolution 1: Keep writing, stop complaining.

Resolution 2: Write more short stories.

Resolution 3. Help kill off AI (go lookup that battle yourself).

Resolution 4: Do more teaching of writing.

Resolution 5: Finish (or at least get back to) the three fantasy novels I have already  started.

 

Note: Happy New Year! See you in 20241

Wednesday Q & J: December 20, 2023

Q: Your first picture book published was SEE THIS LITTLE LINE. You have a book called SEE THIS LITTLE DOT coming out in 2024. Are they related? Tell us about the connection.

J: Absolutely related. But the many years between means the illustrations are not by the same person (I do not even know if that first illustrator is even alive today as we are talking about 1962!!) which makes the books VERY disimmilar. Also, I think I have learned enough over the years to make this second book much  more clever than the first–more word play and a dynamite last line.

 

 

Wednesday Q & J: December 13, 2023

Q:  People talk about work/life balance a lot these days. You don’t really do that. You work when you want… What do you consider your work/life balance?

J: First I am lucky because I LOVE my work. I rarely call it “work.”  It’s storytelling, or writing a poem or poems.

But of course it is work.  I am at the computer a good part of any day.

Actually, I get up and dressed as if going to a job, because that helps me treat it as a job. I may be working on finishing a book, or re-reading and rewriting a  manuscript, or just trying to take a new idea and turn it into something wonderful. And since a good many of my friends (and children and grandchildren) are also in the book business as writers, or illustrators or editors or agents or writing teachers, I can have it both ways. For example just a few days ago I had lunch with a friend and, as we talked, I told her an anecdote about my name and suddenly she said–there’s a picture book there. When I left to go home, I wrote the first half of it down, and sent it to her. She said, “where is the rest!!!” Which I will probably write after I get through these Q & J  questions!

 

Wednesday Q & J: December 6, 2023

Q: What are some books you are reading right now? What is in your TBR list that you are looking forward to reading?

 

J: I am reading  a Ruth Rendell mystery for fun. I am reading  the biography of children’s book author Arthur Ransome both because I love his books as a child and love them, still…. but also his back story is so interesting I think there may be a picture book  in it. On my TBR list next is a book Heidi saw and knew I’d love it, so she bought it for me. It’s called THISTLEFOOT by GlennaRose Nethercott. I love anything with a Baba Yaga theme.

Wednesday Q & J: November 29, 2023

Q: You were the second person to join SCBWI. You are still involved (even though you retired from the board). Why is this organization so important and why do you think it’s important for new writers to join?Q: It is not enough to just write a book, you need to understand how professional writers write, what is going on in the publishing world, how to find an agent, etc. There are a lot of sand traps out there. SCBWI is a place to learn the business and busy-nessess of being a professional writer. There are many places jut to learn writing. But SCBWI is the place to learn about becoming a lifelong writer and member of a thriving, always interesting, and changing community. I never get tired of SCBW, its members, its leaders (past and present) and many of my best-selling books came about from people I met at the conferences, workshops, and group meetings.Note: Want to learn more?Society  of Children’s Book Writers and Illustratorshttps://www.scbwi.org/

Wednesday Q & J: November 22, 2023

Q: To rhyme or not to rhyme? That is the question. How do you know if your book should rhyme? What advice do you give to writers who show you their rhymed manuscript?J: That is both an easy and difficult answer. The easy answer is “You know it in your bones.” The hard answer is: “the editoor’s bones may have a different response.”   The best thing is to ask yourself four things:      1.  If you think it is a well rhymed book (first question is–is it well rhymed?)      2. Does the book actually  need rhyme?      3. Does the rhyme enhance the poems or do  just blow up your ego?    And      4. Will rhymes enhance the book or take away from its story, its message, its meaning?I find this very important:  Read your poems out loud to someone. Then let them read the poems back to you.It has to be someone who likes poetry and you trust to be both a good poetry reader AND a very honest critic. I have my daughter. We have done many poetry books together. We sit at the large dining room table at my house and each read aloud THE OTHER PERSON’S POEM!!!! And boy! does that let you know very quickly if  a rhymed poem is succeeding or not!!!

Wednesday Q & J: November 15, 2023

Q: Last week you mentioned WMIG, a group for illustrators in the Western Massachusetts area (Western Mass Illustrator’s Guild). But, you aren’t an illustrator. Tell us about it and why you are still so involved.J:  OK, so there are some selfish reasons– I get to see new children’s book art before the editor’s do. I get to ooh and ahhh over the original pieces of art. What could be better for an art-lover and a children’s book lover than that?  Also, I have helped many of these artists find work, find agents, or editors or publishers. I am a part of their process even though I do not use a paint brush….ever. (I cannot even draw stick figures!!!) So, I guess, in that sense, it’s not entirely selfish.Note: Want to learn more?http://www.wmig.org/

Wednesday Q & J: November 8, 2023

Q: You cannot stop raving about how beautiful the art by Paolo Domeniconi for your new book TEA WITH AN OLD GIANT is. What’s it like when you first see art for a picture book? This one, but also, just in general?J: I am a great lover of art and artists. I began the Western Massachusetts  Illustrators Guild WMIG (go look it up!), I love to go to museums of art, and art shows. But I cannot–alas–draw. Some children’s book illustrators are my best friends. And I still cannot draw!  But I can write books that are illustrated by great artists and if I can….I will buy a piece of the original art. (Note: these days much of the art is digital so there is no such thing s an original piece.)  if you come and visit me, be warned– the walls of my house are full of children’s book art.

Smout and the Lighthouse

with John Patrick Pazdziora
Illustrated by Lyndsay Roberts Rayne
Albert Whitman & Company (September 7, 2023)
ISBN: 0807574848
ISBN-13: 978-0807574843

Smout and the Lighthouse is a story about the wonderful writer Robert Louis Stevenson as a boy. His entire family created lighthouses up and down the Scottish Coast and elsewhere. They were known as The Lighthouse Stevensons. But even as a boy, Smout (his Nanny’s pet name for him) wanted to be something different when he grew up—a writer. As he indeed became, writing Treasure Island and Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde among many other books, plus short stories, memoirs, and journalistic pieces. This book is written with Stevenson scholar, John Patrick Pazdziora,and is about Smout’s first trip to look at lighthouses with his father.

Get SMOUT AND THE LIGHTHOUSE from: