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The winners of Butterfly Girl and butterfly swag bags are…

By on March 31, 2019   /   Giveaways  

Thank you all for stopping by the Mixed-Up Files and entering the Butterfly Girl giveaway. I loved learning more about Sarah and how the book came to be in her fun and inspiring interview…and I can’t wait to try the sensory writing exercise!

Here are the giveaway winners:

The winner of two signed books plus a cool butterfly swag bag for a teacher or media specialist is:

Erin Beaver

 

The winner of a signed book plus a cool butterfly swag bag is:

Carl Scott

 

Congrats to the winners! We’ll contact you soon so you can receive your prize.

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Interview with Francesco Sedita, President and Publisher of Penguin Workshop at Penguin Young Readers!

By on March 28, 2019   /   Articles, Editor / Agent Spotlight, For Writers, Publishing & Promotion, Writing  

Hello Mixed-Up Filers!

Are we in for a treat! A couple of years ago, I was fortunate enough to meet Francesco Sedita and take a workshop he was giving on humor. Besides being extremely funny, he couldn’t have been nicer.

If you don’t know him, he’s the President and Publisher of Penguin Workshop at Penguin Young Readers, and I’m thrilled to feature him in the Editor Spotlight!

 

 

JR: Hi Francesco, thanks for joining us today!

Before I even get into the publishing side, I have to say that your resume is all kinds of impressive. To start with, you had my utmost respect when I read that you used to do stand-up and interned on Saturday Night Live. Anyone who knows me, knows that humor and anything funny are always at the top of my must lists, so can you tell us what those experiences were like?

FS: Yeah, this was a majorly formative experience for me on a whole lot of levels.  The question people always ask, and we can get it out of the way, was who was on the show when I was there.  It was Mike Myers, David Spade, Adam Sandler, Jay Mohr, Tim Meadows, Julia Sweeney, Melanie Hutsell, Sarah Silverman, David Spade, Chris Farley, Ellen Cleghorne, Phil Hartman. (This is not in order of favorites at all, by the way.  And Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger hosted the Valentine’s show and Kim was one of the loveliest, kindest people I have ever met.  It’s one of my favorite memories of that time.  I once picked Courtney Love and a tiny Frances Bean up in the lobby to bring them to the show and she was incredibly kind.  And Nicole Kidman smells of elegant lilac.  And Sarah Silverman used to take me to the parties in her limo with Melanie and I felt VERY BADASS.)  It was all a terrifying dream come true.  Look, I made a lot of coffee for some pretty jazzy people, but I also did get to sit at the table and contribute a bit.  And that was really mind-blowing.  Norm MacDonald was writing there then, and he read my stuff and would talk me through my skits and I’m forever grateful.

JR: Okay, now that I heard all that, besides my respect, you have my jealousy as well! Wow, that must have been amazing! How about standup, another thing I’ve always wanted to do? 

FS: As far as standup, it’s something I have always admired and I just did it for a white-hot minute.  I really liked it.  I wasn’t out yet so it never felt true to my real humor and point of view.  I have warned my friends that I am going to text them and have them show up to the Comedy Cellar one night to try it again.  Gulp.  (Also, RuPaul accidentally outed me at a party when I was 19 and it is a story that I will tell one day very soon.  Yes, RuPaul.)

JR: Okay, now I must hear the RuPaul story! You have an open invitation to come back, if you ever want a forum to tell that on!

By the way, I practically lived at the Comedy Cellar and Cafe Wha? at around the time I’m guessing that you performed, so if that’s the place that you were back then, I might’ve seen you! Getting back to bookish things, could you tell us a little bit about your path to becoming an editor/publisher, and working for Penguin?

FS: As with many things in life, this is best done over a cocktail.  But here’s the quick version:

I was living in the East Village, I had written, directed, and produced an immersive show (take that, “Sleep No More”) that ran Off-Off Broadway for some time.  I was making no money and my parents were very generously supporting me.  But then one day, my phone rang.  My parents had been at a cocktail party at their lawyer’s house and had met Si Newhouse.

#1: I didn’t know my parents had a lawyer.  Like, why?

#2: I didn’t know my parents went to cocktail parties.

#3: I didn’t know who Si Newhouse was.

I was really pissed.  The next day, someone from Random House HR called to set up an interview.  I went.  I had platinum hair and a nose piercing.

I wore:

#1: Sailors pants.  Real ones.

#2: A ruffled tuxedo shirt.  Like real ruffles.

# 3: Platform shoes.

The poor woman looked at me and said, “You should be in publicity!” And so I interviewed the next day at Knopf with the really lovely Paul Bogaards, who I consider one of the smartest people I’ll ever know, and he hired me.  (I didn’t wear the outfit, PS.  But the receptionist asked me to take my piercing out and I refused.)

I left a year later for grad school, freelancing at the Random House imprint to make some money.  When Bogaards found out, he sent someone to get me and told me I had to work at Knopf if I was in the building.  I returned.  He let me leave and go to classes during the day.  Then I graduated, left Knopf again, had two stupid internet jobs when everyone had them, and then wound up at Scholastic in the Reading Clubs.  My first interview there was meant to be on September 11, 2001.  So chilling and odd.  I’ll never forget that phone call.

Then the story goes that I was in Clubs for a few great years and then moved to the Trade group, where I became Creative Director and worked on Harry Potter and lots of other wonderful things, like Jeff Smith’s Bone and Goosebumps.  And then Penguin called.

JR: That’s an incredible journey, and way to hold your ground on the nose ring! 🙂 You met so many wonderful people. After all that, what was the first book you worked on?

FS: The first book I edited was when I was Creative Director at Scholastic.  It was my dear friend (and writing teacher in grad school) Ann Hood’s first middle grade novel, How I Saved My Father’s Life (And Ruined Everything Else).  Ann and I still love the parentheses on that one.  I was petrified to edit such a great writer.  She was kind and patient.

JR: What’s changed in publishing between the time you started and now?

FS: You know, sort of everything and nothing.  We will always want great voices, great, authentic points of view, and to make objects that people will hopefully hug when they turn the final page.

JR: Speaking of changes, you’re also a producer on the wonderful Netflix program The Who Was Show?, based on your great history series of the same name. I devour shows about history, and yours is done very well. What has that experience been like and how heavily involved with the show are you?

FS: Now, this is another dream come true.  It started as an “I dare you” kind of thing from my boss at the time, the great Don Weisberg.  And so I called two amazing friends from grad school and we made a short pilot: What would happen if Andy Warhol met Laura Ingalls Wilder??  We had casting calls, shot in a friend’s farm, laughed a lot and stressed a lot.  It was a dream come true.  And then Penguin sold it to Netflix!  #WHATWHAT?!?!

JR: (Since the interview, The Who Was Show was nominated for FIVE Daytime Emmy Awards! So, if anyone isn’t watching, get to it! Congrats and good luck, Francesco!)

JR:What do you enjoy the most about your job?

FS: This incredible Workshop team that I get to work with every day.  They are bold, funny, curious, daring, and committed to making magic in every title.  That’s not easy and I love them all for it.

JR: What sort of books do you look for?

FS: We are so open.  Make us feel something.  We like to laugh, I LOVE to cry, and do so at least once a day in a meeting.

JR: Are you very hands-on with your authors?

FS: Yes.  Unless the author is like “um, personal space, please” then I will stop asking you to go out for lunch and drinks.

JR: Can’t be too many authors turning down free lunches! 🙂 What’s the state of publishing right now, in particular, Middle Grade? 

FR: It’s exciting.  It’s a time to take big risks, a time to challenge ourselves to think different, to think bigger, and to strive for the ever-evolving definition of relevance and excellence.

 

JR: What advice can you give to authors?

FS: Write your face off.  And stop asking what’s going on in the marketplace.  Write what you want to write, what you need to write.  Let us people on the other side worry about the marketplace for now.  (This changes when you sell the book.  Then you gotta know.) Oh, and don’t walk around thinking you deserve anything just because you write or have an idea or have written 46 books.  I say this to myself all the time.  I will write all weekend sometimes on my personal projects and I find myself thinking things should HAPPEN because I decided to shut off The Real Housewives and commit to my craft.  Not happening, buddy.  Not happening.

 

JR: Excellent advice. I think I was given similar when I first started, “Don’t believe your press clippings.” What was your favorite book as a child?

FS: Charlotte’s Web.  My mother read it to me many times and it’s so vivid in my head that it vibrates.

JR: I think I bawled my eyes out when I first read it. Definitely a moment I remember from childhood. And speaking of childhood, what’s one thing from your childhood that you wish could come back?

FS: Smurfs.  With me in total control.  I have some ideas for Azrael that would change the face of cat books!  And Gargamel is totally going on Queer Eye.

 

JR: Now all I can think about is Gargamel on Queer Eye. I think Jonathan is going to have his hands full with those eyebrows.

 

JR: How can people follow you on social media?

FS: I’m terrible at Twitter and a little meh on fb so find mr_francesco on Insta, where you can see my adorable cat, Alfredo!

JR: I can’t believe we didn’t include pics of Alfredo! 

JR: Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us, and the best of luck with the Daytime Emmy Awards!

 

Well, that’s it for now, my Mixed-Up friends. Dorian Cirrone says I’ve mingled with the public long enough and wants me to get back to my cubicle at Mixed-Up Files Headquarters, so until next time . . .

 

Jonathan

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Ashley Herring Blake Interview + Giveaway

By on March 28, 2019   /   Articles, Author Interviews, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, Giveaways  

I’m thrilled to welcome Ashley Herring Blake to the blog today. Ashley’s middle grade novel The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James just released this week, and she stopped by the Mixed-Up Files to tell us about it and to offer an autographed copy. (See details on the giveaway at the end of the interview.)

First, here’s a little bit about Ashley and the novel:

Ashley Herring Blake lives in Nashville, Tennessee with her husband and two sons. She is the author of the middle-grade novel and ALA Stonewall Honor book Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World as well as the young adult novels Suffer Love, How to Make a Wish, and Girl Made of Stars. Her newest middle-grade novel is The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James. You can find more about her on her website and on twitter and instagram.

 

 

Twelve-year-old Sunny St. James navigates heart surgery, reconnecting with her lost mother, first kisses, and emerging feelings for another girl in this stunning, heartfelt novel–perfect for fans of Ali Benjamin and Erin Entrada Kelly. When Sunny St. James receives a new heart, she decides to set off on a “New Life Plan”: 1) do awesome amazing things she could never do before; 2) find a new best friend; and 3) kiss a boy for the first time. Her “New Life Plan” seems to be racing forward, but when she meets her new best friend Quinn, Sunny questions whether she really wants to kiss a boy at all. With the reemergence of her mother, Sunny begins a journey to becoming the new Sunny St. James. This sweet, tender novel dares readers to find the might in their own hearts.

 

 

What was the inspiration behind the story of The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James?

Sunny started out with a few things: A motherless girl, mermaids, and the ocean. I knew I wanted to write about a girl whose mother had left her at a very young age because of alcoholism and I wanted that mother to show up again. I wanted to explore what happens when someone who’s hurt you truly does rehabilitate—what does forgiveness look like, does that relationship have a future. I also wanted to write about a different kind of family, one that is both biological and found. The heart transplant part of the story came a bit later, as I was figuring out exactly what kind of girl Sunny is. The concept, honestly, took me a bit by surprise, but once I started thinking about it, I was intrigued to explore the challenges Sunny would encounter.

 

When the novel opens, Sunny is just about to have a heart transplant. I love the thought she has later about trying to make her new heart fit into her head like it fits into her body. Also, the part about her suddenly liking butterscotch pudding. It made me wonder how much research you had to do to come up with these insights into the mind of a heart transplant recipient.

Most of the research I did about heart transplants was medical. Surgery time, recovery, medication they have to take afterward, what kind of physical activity they can do and how soon after the surgery they can do it. I did pull on some knowledge I had before starting the book, about how amputees feel phantom pain and things like that. I read some blogs by transplantees that gave me some valuable insight into the emotional aspects of having a transplant. I also did a lot of thinking about Sunny, a lot of visualization. I imagined how strange it might feel to have your most important body part taken away and replaced with someone else’s, someone who had to die in order for you to have that body part. Writing, for me, is a careful balance between accurate research and empathy. In order to develop a character the way I want, the kind of character I want to read, I have to put myself in that character’s shoes as much as possible.

 

This novel and your previous middle grade novel, Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World, both deal with girls who have crushes on other girls. Why do you feel it’s important that there be more books like this for middle grade readers?

Simply put, these books are important because there are kids who need them. Millions of kids are questioning their identity, are already sure of their queer identity, or are just curious about thoughts and feelings they’re having that they’re just not quite sure what to do with. We’ve all heard stories about people who didn’t come out until their twenties, thirties, but who always had these feelings about their sexual identity that they didn’t feel safe divulging, didn’t have the vocabulary to talk about it, or some combination of the two. Stories like Ivy and Sunny give kids a safe place to wonder. They give them a sense that they are not alone. They help them see they are worthy of time, of attention, of a conversation, of love. We need more books like these because kids need more books like these.

 

Sunny’s mother, an alcoholic who left Sunny with a friend several years before the novel opens, suddenly shows up in her life after the heart transplant. Was it difficult writing a character who abandoned her child?

It was actually. I’m a mother myself and I had to really reach to find reasons why I would ever leave my kids. Lena, Sunny’s mother, truly believed it was the best thing for Sunny and indeed, it might’ve been, but it’s still hard to justify a mother leaving her child and for eight years. Lena was an interesting character to write, which is why I wanted to write about this situation. There’s not an easy solution for Sunny and Lena and I wanted to show that, that life is messy, motherhood and childhood is messy, forgiveness is messy. Kate, Sunny’s guardian, made it a little easier to write. Through writing Lena’s story, I knew all the while that Sunny was deeply loved and cared for, so that was a little bit of comfort. Not every child has that, however, and we can’t forget those kids either.

 

You write both middle grade novels and young adult novels, can you talk a bit about the difference between the two?

It’s been interesting writing both these past couple of years. I don’t shy away from difficult topics in middle grade. In fact, I could easily see the same issue and topics from Ivy and Sunny in a young adult novel. I think the difference is simply the language I use to express these topics and situations and the lens through which I’m viewing them. A twelve year old’s understanding of an alcoholic mother is much different than a seventeen year old’s, which I wrote about in my young adult novel How to Make a Wish. I have to think about things like vocabulary, maturity, and emotional/physical/psychological development. Another difference is how I approach sexuality. In YA, I explored sex a lot more. In MG, it’s more about sexuality as identity rather than the actual act of making out and having sex. In writing YA or MG, it’s all about my target audience and that’s who I have to think about while writing.

 

One of the things I loved about the novel is how well your words get the reader to feel the emotions of the characters. Do you have any tips for writers on how to do this?

That is a great question and I wish I had a quick and easy tip. I have many flaws as a writer, but I do think I do emotions pretty well and the only thing I can think that contributes to that semi-competent execution is really knowing your character. Ruminate on them. Picture yourself in their shoes. Think about how you would feel it that were you. Know their needs, wants, and end goal before you start writing. Those may change, for sure, but one thing that drove Sunny throughout the book was her desire for a best friend, to kiss someone, and to do amazing things she never got to do when she was sick. Knowing she wanted those three simple things helped me understand how she would react in certain situations. I also needed to know her backstory. I like to think about backstory as the ghost. What is haunting that character? What do they carry on their back? So it’s not everything they’ve ever seen and done. It’s what haunts them. And for Sunny that was her mother leaving her when she was four, which as I dug deeper into that, meant she questioned whether or not she was lovable and worth the trouble. This was further developed with her issues with her former best friend. So you can see how knowing, solidly, just a few things about my character opened up a large emotional landscape for the novel.

Thanks so much, Ashley, for these great answers and for taking the time out to visit the blog.

To be the lucky winner of a copy of The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James, leave a comment below. I’ll choose a winner at random on Sunday at midnight and announce it on Monday. (U.S. only please.)

 

 

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