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Author Interview with Dianne Salerni, Part II

By on July 5, 2023   /   Articles, Author Interviews  

Introduction

While doing an interview with Dianne Salerni for her newest release, The Carrefore Curse, she mentioned hitting a career snag after releasing the final book in her fantastic Eighth Day trilogy. I’m a huge fan of her work and really enjoyed the Eighth Day series so my interest was immediately piqued by her doubts about the future of her writing career at that point. I thought it would be interesting to pick Dianne’s brain for a bonus interview about her writing career and how she navigates the ups and downs of this business.

Publication list to date:

  • The Carrefour Curse(2023)
  • Jadie in Five Dimensions (2021)
  • Eleanor, Alice, & the Roosevelt Ghosts (2020)
  • THE EIGHTH DAY SERIES
    • The Eighth Day (2014)
    • The Inquisitor’s Mark (2015)
    • The Morrigan’s Curse (2016)
  • The Caged Graves (2013)
  • Very Superstitious Charity Anthology (2013)
  • We Hear the Dead (2010)

The Carrefour Curse - Salerni, Dianne K.Jadie in Five Dimensions - Salerni, Dianne K.Eleanor, Alice, and the Roosevelt Ghosts - Salerni, Dianne K.The Eighth Day - Salerni, Dianne K.The Inquisitor's Mark - Salerni, Dianne K.

History

Can you tell us your writer’s origin story? Can I safely assume there weren’t any radioactive arachnids or harrowing escapes from dying planets involved?

No spiders whatsoever and no dying planet as far as I know! Just parents and grandparents who read to me all the time so I started trying to write my own books at the age of four. (Well, I drew the pictures, anyway.) I still have my first book, The Dragon and the Girl. It looks like I cut the pages from a larger sheet of paper and assembled them with Elmer’s Glue. 

I continued to write stories throughout my childhood, carrying notebooks with me everywhere I went. This went on into high school, during which I submitted short stories to Isaac Asimov Magazine (rejected). Fiction writing tapered off in college, but I returned to the habit as a young teacher, often writing stories for my students that featured them as characters. I produced a couple of YA novels that my husband convinced me to submit to agents (rejected). In 2007, once again encouraged by my husband, I self-published a book about real-life spirit mediums Maggie and Kate Fox with iUniverse. (This was before the days of Amazon self-publishing.) The book, High Spirits, A Ghostly Tale of Rapping and Romance, caught the attention of Sourcebooks just as they were launching their YA imprint, Sourcebooks Fire. They offered for the book, and it was edited and reprinted in 2010 under the title We Hear the Dead.

I quickly realized I was way over my head signing contracts and navigating the world of publishing on my own. The ink on We Hear the Dead was barely dry before I started querying for agents.

The Journey

The reality of a writer’s life is no different from the ebbs and flows of life in general. What are a few of your most significant or valued career experiences with over a decade as a published writer under your belt? 

The most important career experience I learned was the value of a good editor. My first experience with this comes from something that’s not usually part of my bibliography. Before the publication of We Hear the Dead, I published an adult short story with a short-lived anthology series called Visions. After reading my story, titled The Necromancer, the editor said that the ending lacked the right twist and suggested alternatives:  Ending A or Ending B.

I answered that I didn’t like Ending A but thought Ending B was a fantastic idea!

His response: “Great! Now make the reader think you are going for Ending A before pulling the rug out from under them with Ending B.”

MIND. BLOWN.

Hats off to Michael Katz, the editor in question! He was the first, and every editor afterward has taught me something important about writing in general and my books specifically. In particular, I love working with my current Holiday House editor, Sally Morgridge, who always has brilliant insights into how to take my manuscripts to the next level.

If you could travel across dimensions with Jadie Martin to leave a piece of career advice to the 2010 Dianne, what would it be?

What I would tell 2010 Dianne – and anybody else embarking on the journey of publishing – is this: When an authority in the publishing world gives you devastating news that predicts the end of your writing career, don’t listen to them! I don’t mean that you should ignore the advice of editors and agents. (See the answer I gave to the last question!) I mean, if they tell you that you are a failure, they are wrong.

In 2010, a high-ranking editor at Sourcebooks told me that sales for We Hear the Dead were so bad, she didn’t think B&N would ever stock another book by me.

Also in 2010, a high-powered agent told me that the contract I’d signed for Sourcebooks contained a bottomless option clause that made it impossible for her to take me as a client. “Frankly,” she said, “I doubt any agent will take you.”

As a point of fact, B&N stocked my next 6 books. (Then they stopped stocking all midlist MG books, but that’s a different kind of problem.)

And the next agent who responded to my query offered representation. When I confessed to her about the No-Good Very Bad Option Clause, Sara Crowe – agent extraordinaire – said: “They can’t hold you to that! I can make that go away with a phone call.” And she did.

No matter how important an editor or agent is, no one has the right to imply that you should give up. Their opinion is still only an opinion.

No Writer is an Island

Who is on Team Dianne? 

As you can probably tell from my answers above, my husband is very definitely on my team. Not only is he a one-man cheerleading squad and poker/prodder when I need a little push, he actually reads my manuscripts. Depending on the project, he might read chapter by chapter as I write, or I’ll send him the whole thing when I’m finished. He’s not a writer, but he has a good ear for voice and will highlight lines where “this character wouldn’t say it like that.”

For years I have relied on Marcy Hatch, author of time-traveling western West of Paradise, as a critique partner. I send her chapters while I’m drafting, and she provides feedback and cheerleading. (I do the same for her.)

There have been many people I’ve relied on as beta readers over the years – people I ask to read the entire manuscript after it has gone through a few revisions. But one person I can always count on to accurately pinpoint the problems in a manuscript is writer Maria Mainero. For example, Jadie in Five Dimensions went through many, many drafts (and died on submission twice). For years I insisted on including, in the second half of the book, chapters with adult POVs. Beta readers kept telling me, “You have to cut those because kids don’t like adult POV.” Well, that’s a dumb reason to cut them, and it’s not true. I can think of a few best-sellers with adult POV chapters.

Then Maria came along and said, “These late-appearing adult POV chapters would be better off told by the middle-grade POV characters you’ve already introduced. And here’s why.” It was the why that convinced me. Maria was the only reader who helped me see the opportunity I’d blown for my already established POV characters by introducing new ones. It had nothing to do with them being adults. 

Are there any support groups or individuals you turn to for advice and/or support?

I’m a member of the KidLit Author Club, a group of PB, MG, and YA authors who live in the mid-Atlantic states. We support each other at author events – conferences and festivals – sometimes carpooling or referring each other to events we can’t attend ourselves. The membership is fluid, as people’s lives and goals change, but I’ve been with the group since 2012. When I retired from teaching in 2014, I worried about the fact that I would no longer have contact with “co-workers.” But as I started attending events in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York, I realized that the KidLit Authors were my new co-workers. In addition to supporting each other at events, we also do some beta reading and book blurbing for each other.

The Horizon

We all know hindsight is, or appears to be, 20/20 so how do you prepare for what comes next using the gift of experience? 

I have learned to accept that gaps in my publishing resume happen, and that’s okay. There’s a 3-year gap between my first and second book and 4 years (almost 5, really) between the last book in The Eighth Day series and Eleanor, Alice, & the Roosevelt Ghosts. Sometimes, it’s an issue of manuscripts that don’t find the right editor. Other times it’s because my productivity is down. Both of those things are okay. It doesn’t mean there won’t be a next book when the time for that next book arrives.

Do you think one book at a time or do you project several future books at a time?

I am definitely a one-book-at-a-time author. The only time I planned multiple books at once was while I was writing The Eighth Day series. Even then, I only started planning the sequels after the first book sold. I was hoping for a series, but I had no big plan ahead of time! My editor, the head of HarperCollins Children’s Books, asked me to plan for 5 books but to make sure the 3rd book had a satisfying conclusion in case they decided not to buy the last two. She assured me, though, that wouldn’t happen. Then she retired. You can guess what happened next, and I chalk that one up to another “gift of experience.”

Navigational Beacons

With the saying, “That which does not kill you makes you stronger.” in mind, how does your experience affect how you evaluate your future projects and decisions? 

I have a lot of dead manuscripts on my computer. But I have come to believe in the power of resurrection. Jadie in Five Dimensions died on submission in 2015 and then again, after a round of revisions, in 2017. In the fall of 2019, my agent offered it exclusively to Sally Morgridge at Holiday House after she and I finished working on Eleanor, Alice, & the Roosevelt Ghosts. Luckily, Maria Mainero had already convinced me to rewrite those troublesome POV chapters, although I bet if she hadn’t, Sally would have given me the same advice.

My most recent book The Carrefour Curse and my next book The Tontine Caper (2025) were born out of manuscripts that I abandoned after the first draft. In both cases, the manuscripts languished in my “dead” files for 3 years before I opened them again and got back to work.

So, I guess I don’t always evaluate my projects correctly? Last fall, I closed the file on a really, really, really crappy story. But is it really trash? I don’t know. I’ll figure it out in a couple of years.

In the spirit of concerning yourself solely with controlling the things you can control, do you trust in the power of persistence + patience and in keeping to the course as a creator?

Very much so. Jadie in Five Dimensions would never have been published if I hadn’t believed in that story enough to keep revising and revising – and seeking out beta readers until an astute reader told me where I was falling down on the job. Some stories just need patience and time to slumber until I’m ready to look at them under the right lens.

Conclusion

Thank you so much for inviting me to participate in this interview, Mike! Publishing is a bumpy road, and authors are cautioned not to publicly air their woes. (I’m not supposed to tweet: 12 rejections for this manuscript! 3 editors loved the character but not the plot. 4 editors love the plot but not the character. And 5 just don’t like aliens! This was a real thing, by the way, for a manuscript that was never published. Yet.) But those rules are loosening, and I think it’s good for published authors to talk about the bumps and potholes and sinkholes so that other authors, published and pre-published, know their experiences are shared by many.

Thank you, Dianne, for being our guest once again and sharing your experiences and insights from over a decade in the publishing business. Best of luck and keep your words, especially those middle-grade words, flowing! 

If interested in more information and updates from Dianne, visit her online at https://diannesalerni.com/. Thanks for reading! 

 

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July New Releases

By on July 3, 2023   /   Articles, MUF Contributor Books, New Releases  

It’s July! Time for a summer slow down. Lucky for you, we have a nice list of new middle grades coming your way – including one from our very own
Jennifer Swanson. Happy book birthday, Jennifer!!


Spacecare: A Kid’s Guide to Surviving Space by Jennifer Swanson

Have you ever wondered how astronauts stay healthy in space? What if an astronaut gets sick on the space station? Does snot run in space? This fascinating photo-illustrated look at space and medicine explores how scientists and physicians study astronauts in space, how they help keep them safe, and what we’ve learned about the human body through space exploration. Questions from real kids and answers form from astronauts, along with photos from NASA, combine for an out-of-this-world exploration of health.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Light Comes to Shadow Mountain by Toni Buzzeo

Cora Mae Tipton is determined to light up her Appalachian community in this historical fiction novel from an award-winning author and former librarian.

It’s 1937 and the government is pushing to bring electricity to the mountains of southeastern Kentucky. It’s all Cora can think of; radios with news from around the world, machines that keep food cold, lightbulbs by which to read at night! Cora figures she can help spread the word by starting a school newspaper and convincing her neighbors to support the Rural Electrification Act.

But resistance to change isn’t easy to overcome, especially when it starts at home. Cora’s mother is a fierce opponent of electrification. She argues that protecting the landscape of the holler–the trees, the streams, the land that provides for their way of life–is their responsibility. But Cora just can’t let go of wanting more.

Lyrical, literary, and deeply heartfelt, this debut novel from an award-winning author-librarian speaks to family, friendship, and loss through the spirited perspective of a girl eager for an electrified existence, but most of all, the light of her mother’s love and acceptance.

 

 

 

 

The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn by Sally J. Pla

Neurodivergent Maudie is ready to spend an amazing summer with her dad, but will she find the courage to tell him a terrible secret about life with her mom and new stepdad? This contemporary novel by the award-winning author of The Someday Birds is a must-read for fans of Leslie Connor and Ali Standish.

Maudie always looks forward to the summers she spends in California with her dad. But this year, she must keep a troubling secret about her home life–one that her mom warned her never to tell. Maudie wants to confide in her dad about her stepdad’s anger, but she’s scared.

When a wildfire strikes, Maudie and her dad are forced to evacuate to the beach town where he grew up. It’s another turbulent wave of change. But now, every morning, from their camper, Maudie can see surfers bobbing in the water. She desperately wants to learn, but could she ever be brave enough?

As Maudie navigates unfamiliar waters, she makes friends–and her autism no longer feels like the big deal her mom makes it out to be. But her secret is still threatening to sink her. Will Maudie find the strength to reveal the awful truth–and maybe even find some way to stay with Dad–before summer is over?

 

 

 

 

The Demon Sword Asperides by Sarah Jean Horwitz

A scheming demon sword and a wannabe knight band together on a (possibly wicked) quest in this fantasy, perfect for fans of Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett.

For the past two hundred years, the demon sword Asperides has led a quiet life. While his physical form has been tasked with guarding the body of an evil sorcerer, the rest of his consciousness has taken a well-earned vacation. That constant need to trick humans into wielding him (at the price of their very souls, of course) was rather draining.

Nack Furnival, on the other hand, is far from satisfied with his existence. Nack has trained since birth to be a brave and noble knight–but, unfortunately, he isn’t especially good at it. Determined to prove his worth, Nack needs a quest. And to complete that quest, he’ll need the one thing no knight can do without: a sword.

When an attempt to resurrect the evil sorcerer throws Asperides into Nack’s path, the demon sword can’t help but trick the boy into making a contract to become his new owner. And with the newly undead (and very, very angry) sorcerer on their trail, Asperides and Nack find themselves swept up in a bigger adventure than either of them bargained for: saving the world.

 

 

 

 

The Mystery of the Radcliffe Riddle by Taryn Souders

From the Edgar-nominated author of Coop Knows the Scoop comes an exciting mystery perfect for fans of From the Desk of Zoe Washington and Holes.

When Grady and his dad learn that the town oddball, Eudora “Kooky” Klinch left something for them in her will, they can only imagine what it might be. When it turns out it’s an old scrap of 300-year-old tapestry, they are bitterly disappointed. But the cloth comes with a note saying, “This is no ordinary piece of needlework. It’s a treasure map. Riddles and Clues. To the victor go the riches.” Grady’s dad dismisses it, but Grady thinks this could be the chance of a lifetime. With the help of his friends Thad, Clemmie, and the town dog Ophelia, Grady is determined to crack the clues and find the treasure.

But when someone tries to break into Grady’s house one night, and then the local antiques expert who examined the tapestry is found unconscious, Grady realizes that he’s not the only one who knows about the treasure map. There’s more at risk than he bargained for, and solving this mystery just got a lot more dangerous.

 

 

 

 

 

The Very Unfortunate Wish of Melony Yoshimura by Waka T. Brown

In this magical and chilling Coraline-esque retelling of the Japanese folktale “The Melon Princess and the Amanjaku,” one girl must save herself–and her loved ones–from a deceitful demon she befriended.

Melony Yoshimura’s parents have always been overprotective. They say it’s because a demonic spirit called the Amanjaku once preyed upon kids back in Japan, but Melony suspects it’s just a cautionary tale to keep her in line. So on her twelfth birthday, Melony takes a chance and wishes for the freedom and adventure her parents seem determined to keep her from.

As if conjured by her wish, the Amanjaku appears. At first, Melony is wary. If this creature is real, are the stories about its destructive ways also real? In no time, however, the Amanjaku woos Melony with its ability to shape-shift, grant wishes, and understand her desire for independence. But what Melony doesn’t realize is that the Amanjaku’s friendship has sinister consequences, and she quickly finds every aspect of her life controlled by the demon’s trickery–including herself.

Melony is determined to set things right, but will she be able to before the Amanjaku turns her life, her family, and her community upside down?

 

 

 

The Bellwoods Game by Celia Krampien 

Perfect for fans of Small Spaces and Doll Bones, this spooky, highly illustrated middle grade novel follows a girl who hopes to fix her outcast status through a game in the haunted woods, only to discover that some legends shouldn’t be played with.

Everyone knows Fall Hollow is haunted. It has been ever since Abigail Snook went into the woods many years ago, never to be seen again. Since then, it’s tradition for the sixth graders at Beckett Elementary to play the Bellwoods Game on Halloween night. Three kids are chosen to go into the woods. Whoever rings the bell there wins the game and saves the town for another year, but if Abigail’s ghost captures the players first, the spirit is let loose to wreak havoc on Fall Hollow–or so the story goes.

Now that it’s Bailee’s year to play, she can finally find out what really happens. And legend has it the game’s winner gets a wish. Maybe, just maybe, if Bailee wins, she can go back to the way things used to be before her grandma got sick and everyone at school started hating her. But when the night begins, everything the kids thought they knew about the game–and each other–is challenged. One thing’s for sure: something sinister is at play…waiting for them all in the woods

 

 

 

 

There’s No Cream in Cream Soda: Facts and Folklore about Our Favorite Drink by  Kim Zachman (Author) and Peter Donnelly (Illustrator)

From soda to water to milk and juice, this refreshing follow-up to There’s No Ham in Hamburgers is full of fun facts and origin stories of some of America’s most popular drinks.

People have been inventing drinks for thousands of years. Kinda weird when you consider that humans only need two liquids to survive–water and milk–and we don’t need milk once we can eat solid foods. So, why did humans, unlike other mammals, begin concocting new beverages? It likely started with safety–boiling water to make it safer to drink, and then adding in berries or leaves or roots to make it taste better. Sometimes, it was thought that enhancing drinks made them healthier (i.e. bubbly water restored vitality). Did you know that some of the most popular sodas were created by pharmacists? Americans spend approximately $150 billion on soft drinks, coffee, and tea each year. Why? This book offers some possible answers!

 

 

 

 

The Magic Carousel by K. L. Small (Author) and Brandon Dorman (Illustrator)

THE MAGIC CAROUSEL PROMISES ONE THING: ADVENTURE!

When Russell’s eccentric, storytelling grandpa moves in with the family, Russell loses his bedroom and has to take Grandpa to the carousel in the park every day. As if he doesn’t have enough to deal with already. He’s flunking fifth grade, bullied at school, and his dad’s drinking has made him feel like a failure. Russell dreams of being a firefighter but fears he isn’t courageous enough.

Then Russell rides a carousel horse with Grandpa. Thanks to a magic brass ring, he finds himself magically transported into the past, where he faces life-and-death challenges. Each ride is a new, risky adventure. If he’s not careful, he could be trapped in one of his wild adventures forever!

 

 

 

 

 

The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things #1 by Rob Renzetti

From the creator of My Life As a Teenage Robot comes a middle-grade horror story about a horrible bag, the spine-chilling world hidden within it, and a terrifying adventure into the world of GrahBhag.

Perfect for fans of Coraline, the Spiderwick Chronicles, and Small Spaces.

When Zenith finds a strange, unsettling bag at his front door, he’s not sure where it came from or who sent it to him. He knows better than to expect his overprotective older sister Apogee to help him figure it out, because ever since she became a teenager, she’s been acting more like a parent to him than a sibling. But he certainly did not expect for a horrifying spiderlike creature to emerge from the bag, kidnap Apogee, and drag her inside to the equally horrifying and unsettling world of GrahBhag.

Zenith sets off into the bag to bring her back but soon finds a bizarre realm where malicious forests, a trio of blood-drinking mouths, and a sentient sawdust-stuffed giant are lurking within the seams. And from every corner of the world come whispers of the Great Wurm, an eldritch horror with a godlike hold over the creatures of GrahBhag, who seems to have a dark, insidious purpose for Apogee. With the help of a greedy, earwax-nibbling gargoyle, Zenith will have to save Apogee from the Great Wurm and help them both escape the horrible bag before it’s too late.

With a combination of dry, absurdist humor and no-holds-barred horror, Rob Renzetti has crafted a delightfully imaginative fantasy world that will hook readers as surely as it will send chills down their spines.

 

 

Don’t Trust the Cat by Kristen Tracy

WHAT IF YOU SWITCHED PLACES WITH YOUR CAT? Mean Girls meets Freaky Friday in this laugh-out-loud story about self-acceptance, learning who your friends are, and coming of age . . . as a cat.

Fifth-grader Poppy McBean likes rules and order. She’s a follower, and she’s totally okay with that. And if you judge her for that, she’s okay with that too! But after falling prey to her friends’ bullying one too many times, Poppy makes a wish to be happy–and it comes true in a very unexpected way: She wakes up in the body of her cat, Mitten Man.

Mayhem ensues as Poppy-the-girl attempts to navigate the wilds of the wilderness as a cat . . . and her free-thinking, groundbreaking kitty has had it with his owner’s timidity. He’s out to put the purr in perfectionist and take over middle school–as Poppy.

Hilarious and unexpected, Don’t Trust the Cat is a coming-of-age adventure that will keep readers cringing, cracking up, and reconsidering what it means to be a good person.

 

 

 

 

Kelcie Murphy and the Hunt for the Heart of Danu by Erika Lewis (Author) and Bess Cozby (Consultant)

Kelcie Murphy is back in another action-packed middle grade adventure, Kelcie Murphy and the Hunt for the Heart of Danu!, the second book in Erika Lewis’s magical series infused with Celtic mythology, The Academy for the Unbreakable Arts.

It’s hard having a father who’s an infamous traitor. It’s even harder having a mother who’s an omen of doom.

After a summer away, Kelcie Murphy is excited to be back at the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts. But she and her friends have barely settled in when they receive a visit from her mother–the war goddess, Nemain–with a warning of coming calamity.

The Heart of Danu, the legendary source of all light and warmth in the Lands of Summer, is going to be stolen. And only Kelcie and her mates can stop it. As they travel with the rest of the students to Summer City to take part in the glorious Ascension Ceremony, Kelcie has no time for the military parade, the lavish ball, or even to visit her father: she’s determined to protect the Heart and her new home.

But the Lands of Summer are still not a welcoming place for Kelcie. When disaster strikes, the Queen, the High Guard, and even some of her schoolmates suspect Kelcie is to blame.

As the world is plunged into darkness, Kelcie will have to decide: does she keep fighting for a place that may always see her as a traitor’s daughter, or for a future greater than the war to come.

 

I hope you found something on the list that you can’t wait to read. Please, let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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Agent Spotlight: Victoria Doherty-Munro of Writers House

By on June 30, 2023   /   Articles, Editor / Agent Spotlight  
Literary Agent Victoria Doherty Munro

Literary Agent Victoria Doherty Munro

 

Let’s give a warm Mixed-Up Files welcome to Victoria Doherty-Munro! Torie is a junior agent at Writers House, where she represents middle grade, young adult, and adult authors. She started at Writers House as an intern in 2010 and, after graduating from Wellesley College with a degree in English, was hired as the assistant to senior agent Daniel Lazar in 2012. She began building her own list in 2015.

What a treat it’s been for me to interview Torie and learn about her enthusiasm for good books, her preferences as an agent, and her many and varied interests, from Central Park to soccer fields!

SK: Tell us about your path to becoming an agent.

VDM: I majored in English in college (to the surprise of exactly no one, as that had always been my favorite subject in school) and had no idea what I wanted to do with that degree until the end of my sophomore year – I was in my favorite bookstore and was suddenly hit by the realization that there were people involved behind the scenes in bringing books to the world. I’d just never thought about it before, somehow! I started researching the industry and was lucky enough to get an internship at Writers House the following summer; I fell in love with both agenting and the company itself, and I sort of just…refused to leave? (Not really, but I was hired to assist senior agent Dan Lazar a few months after I graduated from college and promoted to junior agent a few years later.)   

SK: What are the best and worst parts of being an agent?

VDM: The best part is always the moment I get to tell a client that they’re going to be published! And I love the feeling I get when I’m reading a manuscript, either a new client project or a submission, and I can start to see things really coming together.

 The worst part is rejections, for sure. It really is a privilege when authors choose to submit their work to me for consideration and having to pass is never a good feeling, but I try to keep in mind that they deserve an agent who is head-over-heels in love with their work and that if that isn’t me then I’m not the right fit. And on the flip side, it’s never fun to get a rejection from an editor on a project that I’ve submitted on behalf of a client – I love those books so much, too, that getting passes can sting a little!

SK: What do you look for in a query?

VDM: An interesting premise and something that grabs my attention in the opening pages.

 SK: What are the top reasons you pass on a submission?

VDM: This is kind of hard to answer! Often there’s just something about a submission that doesn’t quite feel like a fit for me, or something that I know isn’t working but that I don’t feel I have the editorial vision to address.

 I will say, though, that recently I’ve been passing a lot due to pacing issues – either the story starts off too fast and I can’t get oriented in it or it feels like it’s taking too long to get to the heart of the plot.

SK: What do you love most about middle-grade novels?

VDM: I love that they can tackle big topics with humor and heart, in a way that makes things accessible for kids as they figure out themselves and the world around them! I also think these books can be so special because they’re often the ones that make kids into readers – one of my closest friends teaches 6th grade Language Arts and I always love hearing stories about that moment when one of her students finds *the* book that opens up the whole world of reading to them.

 SK: Which middle-grade book(s) influenced you most as a child?

VDM: How much time do you have?! I could list a million…but in the interest of brevity, I’ll say that The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was a constant favorite (so I got a kick out of the name of this website) as were Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and all its sequels by Mildred D. Taylor and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (I actually went to a book event of hers when I was in college and got her to sign my incredibly bedraggled 15-year-old copy). And my brothers and I still have several inside jokes stemming from our love of A Series of Unfortunate Events, though it’s been years since any of us have read those books.

 I was also absolutely obsessed with Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix for years and almost lost my mind when I saw the news that she’d written a sequel! 

 SK: What are some of your favorite current middle-grade novels?

VDM: Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega, Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston by Esme Symes-Smith, The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, Front Desk by Kelly Yang, Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga, and The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste all come to mind! And obviously I will be reading Falling Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix as soon as possible.

SK: Which genres/themes/subjects are you drawn to?

VDM: I tend to be most drawn to contemporary, speculative, and fantasy – and am really loving that horror is having a moment in middle grade right now! And I’m particularly interested in seeing projects from marginalized authors whose voices and perspectives haven’t historically been represented in publishing.

 SK: What advice do you have for authors who would like to send you a query?

VDM: I’m not sure I have any specific advice, other than…please do send me a query if you think we might be a good fit! I’m actively building my list of clients and would be thrilled to find another middle grade project (or two! or more!) to fall in love with.

 SK: What are your favorite things to do that have nothing to do with being an agent?

VDM: I love soccer (playing it sometimes, watching it always), trying new recipes, going to the theater, and finding new corners of Central Park to explore. I’m also sort of getting into baking, though I’m still in the phase where it kind of stresses me out…but I’m getting better!

SK: Please tell us a little about your agency.

VDM: Writers House was founded in 1973 with a vision for a new kind of literary agency, one that would combine a passion for managing a writer’s career with an integrated understanding of how storytelling works. With this two-pronged philosophy, Writers House has played a critical role in developing the careers of hundreds of novelists and non-fiction authors. We believe in offering our clients not only our expertise in negotiating contracts, but in contributing to all phases of the editorial and publishing processes. Our goal is to maximize the value of our clients’ work by providing hands-on editorial and marketing advice, as well as leading the way in branding, licensing, and selling film/TV, foreign, audio, dramatic and serial rights. 

SK: It’s been so great getting to know you, Torie. I’m sure a lot of our readers are going to be interested in connecting with you. Where can authors learn more about you? 

The best place right now is probably on Twitter, @toriedm! I tweet out specific #MSWL asks there and also post my to-read piles periodically so authors can get a sense of my taste.

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