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Author Spotlight: Erin Becker + a GIVEAWAY

By on November 15, 2024   /   Articles, Author Interviews  

In today’s Author Spotlight, Sydney Dunlap chats with debut author Erin Becker about her middle-grade novel, Crushing It, an “enemies-to-first-crushes” story published by Penguin Random House and chosen as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Erin is an author and marketer living in Washington, DC. She grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, studied English and creative writing at UNC-Chapel Hill, and holds her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. When she’s not writing, you can find Erin at the gym or occasionally playing soccer (though not nearly as well as the protagonists of her novel). Learn more and connect with Erin at erinbecker.me.

All About the Book!

On the soccer field, Magic Mel is in her element. She’s ready to lead her team to victory at the city championship in her new role as captain. Off the field, however, is a totally different story. Mel can’t get a handle on her class presentation, her friend group has completely dissolved, and her ex-friend-current-teammate, Tory, is being the worst. The only place she feels like herself is in her text conversations where she shares her secret poetry with BTtoYouPlease.

Tory McNally, on the other hand, is keeping everything together, thank you very much. So what if her mom is more preoccupied with her craft projects and new husband than her, or that she’s down to one IRL friend because of annoying, overly peppy “Magic” Mel? She’s perfectly fine, and even when she maybe isn’t, she’s got NotEmilyD to text with.

As the championships loom closer, everything around Mel and Tory starts to get more and more complicated: the dynamics on the field, the rift between their friend group, and, as they connect anonymously online, maybe even their feelings for each other…

From debut author Erin Becker comes an action-packed but tender novel about first romance, identity, and learning how to be brave when it matters the most.

Scroll down for details about how enter a giveaway to win a signed copy of Crushing It.

Interview with Erin Becker

Sydney: I absolutely loved Crushing It. The characters were so real and so relatable. It’s such an honest, touching story that really hits the mark about what it’s like to be thirteen: the friendship and family struggles, crushes, challenges at school, in sports, so much going on. Can you tell me a little about the inspiration behind it?

Erin: First of all, thank you! I’ve had a lot of adult readers tell me the book really took them back to their middle school years. Sometimes I wonder if I should be thanking them or apologizing, since middle school is such an intense time.

The inspiration for this story actually came from the “Poetry Friday” tradition at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where I got my MFA. Each Friday, someone sends a poetry prompt to an all-school list serv, and the idea is that anyone who wants to can write a poem in five minutes and share it via email. That maybe sounds a little intimidating, but everyone is really supportive. I don’t remember exactly what the prompt was, but one Friday I wrote a poem about a girl who becomes soccer captain of her eighth-grade team. She’s excited to be given the captain’s key, which opens the shed where the team keeps the balls, the cones, and everything else they need for practice.

A friend replied to the poem, saying she felt like there was some potential there for a story. I agreed, and eventually, that girl turned into Mel and the poem turned into this book.

Points of View

Sydney: You do such a great job with narrating Crushing It in two points of view, from Tory’s and Mel’s, after their four-person friend group has been split in half. Their voices are very distinctive. How did you make them each sound so unique? And do you personally relate to one of them more than the other? 

Erin: First, I want to give an answer for the poetry nerds out there. Originally, Crushing It was a novel-in-verse, so everything was written as poems. Mel’s poems were roughly in iambic pentameter and kind of flowed and were easy to read, whereas Tory was more staccato and used a lot of enjambment, cutting off the lines in unexpected places and making her poems a little more difficult to “get into.” So even on a rhythm/meter level, their voices were very different right from the start.

Later, when I rewrote this as a prose novel, I felt like I knew the girls really well, so I was able to translate that difference in their voice into the new structure.

Something that’s helped me as a writer is understanding that voice isn’t just the words on the page, but also what the character notices (or doesn’t notice). For example, Tory is really hard on herself and the people around her when it comes to appearances and being organized. But Mel would be less likely to notice details like that. So the world you’re constructing for each point of view is slightly different, because they experience everything—school, their families, their friend group—in a different way.

Sports Angle

Sydney: You describe the soccer games and practices and the experience of being on the team really authentically. Do you have a sports background? What are your favorite sports now, and what were your favorite sports as a kid? 

Erin: I love sports! I played soccer and ran cross country and track and field growing up. Now, I still play soccer sometimes, but I’m getting more into the non-contact-sports world: yoga, dancing, running, walking.

Because playing sports and being on teams has been such an important part of my life, I was really excited to write a book with a focus on sports. I’ve made some of my best friends on the soccer field, going on runs together, or at the gym. It was fun to celebrate that, and to show all the complexities that emerge on teams: the highs and lows of competition, the friendship drama. And of course, there’s the built-in narrative tension, with the clock ticking down to the championship the entire book.

Other Characters

Sydney: I love the family situations that are included in your book. Do you have a favorite secondary character? Who and why?

Erin: I guess I shouldn’t play favorites, but it’s absolutely Terrance, Tory’s older stepbrother. Every draft I wrote of the book, there was more and more Terrance. I love the unexpectedness of that brother/sister relationship. Tory and Terrance are so different, and they give each other such a hard time, but they become really important to each other as the story progresses. This was totally organic and just emerged as I was writing.

Sydney: Yes, I thought he was very interesting, and I enjoyed reading about their evolving relationship.

Thematic Elements

Sydney: Shifting gears, what do you hope readers take away from this story?

Erin: It’s okay to make mistakes, and it’s okay if things get messy sometimes. You still deserve the love, friendship, and respect of the people around you.

Sydney: Those are such important themes for young readers. 

Process

Sydney: Will you tell us a little about your writing process? Are you a plotter or pantser? Where/when do you prefer to write?

Erin: I usually write in the mornings for a couple of hours before I start my day job. I used to be a pantser, but I am coming around to the idea that plotting makes things a lot easier, at least for me. I need quiet to write, so I usually write at home in my office or at a coworking space, with noise-canceling headphones on. I wish I could live out my romantic fantasies of being that cool girl writing in the corner of a café. But every time I try it, I get totally distracted by the music!

Sydney: Same here. I can only write in total silence.

Influences

Sydney: What are some current books that have influenced you as a kidlit writer?

Erin: K.A. Holt’s Redwood and Ponytail was a big influence on Crushing It. Kwame Alexander’s Crossover and Booked as well. I absolutely love Erin Entrada Kelly and Rebecca Stead’s work. Also, I recently read The Language of Seabirds by Will Taylor, and that book and its absolutely beautiful, atmospheric feel will be staying with me for a long time. I’d love to capture something like that in a book I write one day.

Sydney: What a great list of authors and books. Can you give us some insights into what you’ll be working on next?

Nothing’s official yet, but I am working on something that—although it’s not a sequel to Crushing It—should very much appeal to the same readers!

And the Lightning Round:

Coffee or tea?

Coffee 100%. That’s also part of my morning routine: walking to get a coffee at an adorable café in my neighborhood first thing each day.

Sunrise or sunset?

Sunrise!

Favorite place to travel:

Chile. I lived there for a long time and, in my very biased opinion, there’s no better place in the world for backpacking.

Favorite dessert:

Chocolate chip cookies.

Superpower:

Yes please! 🙂

Favorite music:

My tastes range pretty widely, but lately I’ve been loving Karol G.

Favorite book from childhood:

I was a big reader of fantasy as a kid. But for this interview, it seems appropriate to mention that one of the childhood favorites I return to to this day is From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. 

I still fantasize about running away to live in a museum like Claudia. There are a lot of them here in DC so who knows, maybe I will someday?

Thanks again, Erin! It was so much fun to learn about you, your writing journey, and your amazing novel! Learn more about Erin on her website and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

For a chance to win a signed copy of Crushing It, comment on the blog!  (Giveaway ends November 22, 2024 MIDNIGHT EST.) U.S. only, please. 

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Interview with Britnee Meiser, Author of ALL MY BESTS

By on November 14, 2024   /   Articles, Author Interviews, Upper MG  

Today, Melissa Roske chats with kidlit author Britnee Meiser about her upper MG debut, All My Bests, which follows the up-and-down friendship—and burgeoning romance—of two high school freshmen, Immie Meadows and Jack Marshall, best friends since the age of seven. Hailed by Kirkus as “An emotional story that beautifully encompasses many sensitive topics,” the novel is out now from Aladdin.

Interview with Britnee Meiser

Melissa: Welcome to the Mixed-Up Files, Britnee. It’s a pleasure to have you here!

Britnee: Thanks Melissa! It’s an honor to be here.

All My Bests

Melissa: First, congratulations on the publication of All My Bests. It’s not a short book – almost 400 pages – but I gobbled it up in just a few sittings. Can you give our readers a brief summary?

Britnee: All My Bests is about Immie and Jack, who’ve been best friends since childhood, navigating their freshman year of high school and all the changes that come along with it. They’re making new friends, trying new things, and learning that their feelings for each other might run deeper than they thought. But what does that mean for their friendship?

You’re right that it’s not a short book, and would you believe that it was originally even longer? My editor and I cut over fifty pages from the final draft. I’m glad the page count didn’t deter you!

Melissa: On the surface, the main characters of your novel have little in common. Immie is an introverted bookworm who’s obsessed with taxidermy butterflies and dead queens; Jack is a popular soccer player who struggles in school. Yet their similarities outweigh their differences. Can you tell us more about this unlikely pair of BFFs?

Britnee: Absolutely. I think a big part of it is that Immie and Jack have the same sense of humor––quick, dry, at times absurd––and that can bring even the unlikeliest pair together. But on a deeper level, Immie and Jack are each other’s safe space. Each offers what the other feels like they lack in life. For Jack, that’s peace and quiet. For Immie, it’s devotion and companionship. Jack’s home life (not to mention his mind) is chaos, but Immie makes him feel calm. Immie, on the other hand, is used to feeling misunderstood and overlooked, but Jack knows and loves her for exactly who she is. They have so much chemistry, which made their scenes together really fun to write.

It Takes Two

Melissa: As above, All My Bests is told from the perspectives of Immie and Jack, who have been best friends since childhood. What was the impetus behind writing a dual-POV novel? Also, what was your writing process like? Did you write Immie’s section and then Jack’s? The other way around? Or did you alternate?

Britnee: I’ll start by saying that writing dual-POV, particularly in overlapping timelines, is not for the faint of heart. Every single detail in Immie’s section had to match Jack’s section exactly, except for a few purposeful moments of miscommunication. It was tedious! And difficult! I wrote Immie’s section first, then Jack’s, then did several rounds of revisions on Immie’s section only (to iron out the details), and then did a final revision of Jack’s. Immie’s letter was the very first thing I wrote, and Jack’s letter was the last. It felt important to tell both of their stories thoroughly, as opposed to just getting the story from one side, because as the book hopefully illustrates, you never know what someone might be going through––even someone close to you.

The Sound of Music

Melissa: In addition to friendship and romance, music factors heavily into the book— particularly songs from the early aughts, as evidenced by the CDs Immie receives from her mom. What is it about the music from this time period that speaks to you personally and as an author?

Britnee: Indie music from the early aughts shaped the person, and writer, I am today. I spent my formative tween/teen years blogging to the soundtrack of my iTunes library, which was sacred to me. I feel like discovering and listening to music back then was a much more involved experience. We didn’t have Spotify or Apple Music to introduce us to new artists; we had to go out and find them on our own. For me, that meant scouring the depths of Myspace and Tumblr, looking up movie soundtracks, and religiously checking the events calendar at my local music venue––The Chameleon Club, may she rest in peace––to see who was playing. I was fourteen, the same age as Immie and Jack in the novel, when I saw my first show there, and it rewired my brain chemistry.

The Social Currency of Secrets

Melissa: Another important theme in your book is secret keeping. I’ll avoid spoilers, but let’s just say… both Immie and Jack have a lot they’re not telling each other. What were you trying to say about the nature of secrets, and about secret keeping in general?

Britnee: Secrets are social currency, especially for teens and tweens. The more you know someone’s secrets, the stronger your relationship will be–at least, in theory. I think it can be incredibly difficult to reveal your deepest secrets to the people closest to you, because you want them to think the best of you, and you don’t want to feel judged. What if telling your best friend your secret fundamentally changes your relationship? Is honesty always the best policy, or are some things better left unsaid? That’s sort of the question at the core of this novel. I wanted to explore what happens when two people who supposedly know each other very well––and take pride in that––don’t actually know as much as they thought.

The MG/YA Divide

Melissa: With a pair of high school-age protagonists and a hearty dose of romance and other PG-13 behavior (i.e., kissing, unsupervised parties, a veiled reference to drinking), All My Bests straddles the line between MG and YA. Was this your intention or something that happened organically? Also, in these scary times of book banning, have you gotten any pushback from parents and educators?

Britnee: It was definitely intentional. YA is getting more mature, prioritizing older teens and “spice,” and a lot of middle grade veers younger. There seems to be a lack of contemporary stories geared toward tweens and young teens who don’t want super mature themes but have also aged out of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I wanted to write about ninth grade in a way that felt true to the experience, so including certain PG-13 behavior was inevitable. Book-banning puritans might want to pretend that fourteen-year-olds aren’t kissing each other, or that they’ve never even heard of alcohol, but they would be wrong. I haven’t gotten any pushback yet, but if it happens, I’ll be ready to fight against censorship and defend kids’ rights to access stories that might make them feel seen and understood.

Witches of Peculiar

Melissa: Although All My Bests is your MG debut, you’re also the author of the popular chapter book series, Witches of Peculiar, written under the pseudonym Luna Graves. First, can you tell us a bit about the series? And second, what prompted your decision not to use a pseudonym this time?

Britnee: Witches of Peculiar follows the (mis)adventures of eleven-year-old twin witches Bella and Donna Maleficent as they navigate their first year at Y.I.K.E.S.S.S. (Yvette I. Koffin’s Exceptional School for Supernatural Students). They live in Peculiar, Pennsylvania, where their suburban monster community hides in plain sight––a tricky situation for Bella and Dee, who don’t quite have a handle on their witchcraft yet. The series is such a blast to write! It’s equal parts spooky and silly, and I love leaning into the little details that make the world come alive. For example, Bella and Dee’s vampire friend Charlie wears “sunscream,” a special, ultra-powerful sunscreen that allows vampires to walk in the sun. I chose to write Witches under a pseudonym because I wanted it to exist in its own universe, like Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Age Is Just a Number

Melissa: I read in your bio that you graduated college in 2017 and published your first children’s novel just five years later. What’s it like to have experienced publishing success at such a young age? (I’m not asking out of jealousy, I swear! 🙂)

Britnee: This question is really validating for me, because, thanks to social media, I see people getting book deals at 20, 21, 22, and I feel like I, at 29, am late to the game! So it’s a nice reminder that everybody’s timeline is different, especially in publishing. Whenever I want to compare myself, all I have to do is think about the stuff I was writing in college––more specifically, how much I thought I knew about writing and life––and I remember how glad I am most of it never saw the light of day. I’m growing and learning all the time, and I’m grateful for the experiences that led me here, because they have undoubtedly shaped the kind of stories I want to tell.

Britnee’s Writing Life

Melissa: What does your writing routine look like, Britnee? Do you have any particular rituals?

Britnee: Strangely enough, my process is different for every book I write. All My Bests was mostly written between the hours of 7 p.m. and 2 a.m., when everyone around me was asleep. I had a detailed, chapter-by-chapter outline that I worked from, but I ended up scrapping a lot of it as I moved from draft to draft. Also, I had the show Modern Family on in the background a lot of the time, because it’s my comfort show, and I need to write to noise!

In general, when I’m working on a deadline (either one from my publisher or one I set for myself), I calculate approximately how many pages I’ll need to write per day to meet the deadline, and I mostly stick to it. As far as rituals go, I start every day with a long walk, because I have a dog, and she demands it. I usually listen to an audiobook while I walk, which helps clear my mind.

Melissa: What are you working on now? Enquiring Mixed-Up minds want to know!

Britnee: I’m in the middle of edits for my next upper-MG novel, Jane Stays Dreaming. I’ve been saying it’s a bit like if the protagonist in Jane Austen’s Emma was a fifteen-year-old girl on Tumblr in the early 2010s. It’s fun, it’s full of complicated relationship dynamics, and it will be out next fall from Aladdin!

Lightning Round!

And finally, no MUF interview is complete without a lightning round, so…

Preferred writing snack? Seltzer water and kettle chips. Hal’s sea salt and cracked pepper is a recent favorite.

Coffee or tea? To quote Lorelai Gilmore: coffee coffee coffee!

Favorite band from the early aughts? Death Cab for Cutie. Emo forever ❤️

Zombie apocalypse: Yea or nay? Nay. I am realistic about my chances of survival.

Superpower? Controlling plants and manipulating nature, like Layla from Sky High.

Favorite place on earth? Sag Harbor, New York, especially in the winter.

If you were stranded on a desert island with only three things, what would they be? My dog; Memory & Dream by Charles de Lint; and a magic microwave that produces the perfect bowl of mac and cheese whenever I opened it.

MR: Thank you for chatting with us, Britnee—and congratulations on the publication of All My Bests. I’m sure Mixed-Up readers will enjoy it as much as I did!

Britnee: Thanks so much Melissa! I had a blast, and I really appreciate you asking such thoughtful questions.

All About Britnee

Britnee Meiser is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York. Her chapter book series, WITCHES OF PECULIAR, is published under a pseudonym by Simon & Schuster/Aladdin. The series has been featured in Forbes, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal. Previously, Britnee’s work has been featured in i-D Magazine, shop TODAY, and The Wild Honey Pie, among other publications. Britnee is a 2017 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in Fiction Writing and Communication. She also holds a publishing certificate from NYU. Learn more about Britnee on her website and find her on Instagram, Tiktok, and Twitter.

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Interview with Emily Jenkins, Author of ALL THE BEST DOGS

By on November 4, 2024   /   Articles, Author Interviews  

A big welcome to Emily Jenkins, who visits From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors to talk about her brand-new, dog-centric middle grade novel ALL THE BEST DOGS. FYI: Emily is also E. Lockhart, author of the#1 New York Times Bestselling YA novel, WE WERE LIARS.

Mixed-Up Files: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us at MUF, Emily! Please introduce yourself.

ALL THE BEST DOGS by Emily Jenkins coverEmily Jenkins: I write funny middle-grade, sometimes with a touch of magic and nearly always with talking animals. Or toys. Or even towels and washing machines. I co-wrote the Upside-Down Magic series, wrote the Toys Go Out series, and have written a bunch of other books for elementary-aged readers, including Harry Versus the First One Hundred Days of School and the fairy tale collection Brave Red, Smart Frog.

MUF: What inspired you to write ALL THE BEST DOGS? And do you think about our dog friends differently now than before you wrote this?

EJ: The dogs in the book puke and get lost and make friends and have temper tantrums. There is a puppy that fits in a teacup and even an imposter dog. Also, a hamster. This is a book of joy. The kids I know want books that offer happiness, comedy, consolation, and hope. ALL THE BEST DOGS is that kind of story.

I can’t really say I think about dogs differently after writing the book, though — I have always believed they have a lot going on in their tiny noggins. In the story, I give a lot of kid problems to dogs. There are foster dogs, super lonely dogs, dogs who overate and feel sick to their stomach, dogs who quarrel with their siblings, a dog who has lost a leg. They are funny characters with real problems. Some kids will know these problems. For others they’ll be new.

MUF: What’s your writing process like these days?

EJ: I wrote All the Best Dogs on spec as an early chapter book, just because I loved the idea of intersecting stories of kids and dogs at a local dog run. My editor felt the themes were better for older readers and encouraged me to age it up. She suggested Konigsburg’s A View from Saturday as a model — which helped me a lot. All four dog owners in my book are sixth graders — and their very sixth-grade problems at school all bleed out into what happens on the weekend when they run into each other at the dog run. It was a big revision!

Author Emily Jenkins

MUF: Tell us about working with Manuel Preitano as your illustrator and what he brought to ALL THE BEST DOGS.

EJ: Manuel is an utter delight and one of my favorite people that I’ve never met. We do all our work over email, since he lives in Italy! He is very good at drawing funny dogs.

MUF: Speaking of collaboration, what is it like to co-write the UPSIDE-DOWN MAGIC series? How did that come about and how does the process work when you’re one of three authors?

EJ: Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle and I had so much fun on Upside-Down Magic. They are two of the most hilarious writers I know, and they made me laugh all the time. That’s why we did eight books in the series! We did different books with different processes, to keep it entertaining for ourselves. Lauren has the wildest imagination, Sarah is the best at structure, and I am the one who likes revising the best, so I often did the last pass on any given book.

MUF: Tell us about a few of your favorite dogs in your own life.

EJ: I write about dogs because I feel like they’re so expressive. And truthful. A dog’s feelings are on the surface, whereas human characters are often hiding what they truly feel. Also, dogs make me laugh. But the truth is (shhhhhh!) I live with cats. Blizzard is a beauty and a tyrant and scared of thunderstorms. He is the subject of my recent picture book, The Kitten Story. Clementine is a bonkers calico who sleeps in a basket and likes green beans.

MUF: If you have anything else to add, please feel free to share it here!

EJ: The sixth graders in All the Best Dogs are facing some tough things — moving in with an aunt after a family crisis, serious anxiety, a friendship breakup, a parent out of work, and just being misunderstood. Each of them starts the story feeling very alone, but their dogs help them find the joy that’s available to all of us every day. In the end, the dogs bring the people together.

You can find teacher’s guides, school activities, and other fun stuff on Emily’s website, EmilyJenkins.com.

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