Author Interviews

WNDMG Author Interview: Elizabeth Agyemang on her newest graphic novel “A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up”

By on September 10, 2026   /   Articles, Author Interviews, WNDMG  

WNDMG Author Interview – Elizabeth Agyemang

I’m so excited to be able to introduce you to author Elizabeth Agyemang today. Elizabeth is the author of multiple books for MG and YA readers, and today we will be discussing her newest graphic novel for middle grade readers: “A Beginner’s Guide for Leveling Up: A Graphic Novel” which comes out from Putnam/Penguin Kids on September 22, 2026.

Graphic novels are so POPULAR with kids right now! Librarians and educators- you don’t want to miss this!

About “A Beginner’s Guide for Leveling Up: A Graphic Novel:

TRON meets sixth grade in this heartfelt and fantastical graphic novel where a pixelated quest helps one girl navigate grief, friendship, and the wilds of middle school.

Sixth grade. The game just got real.

For Lexie, this year was supposed to be all about joining clubs, claiming the perfect lunch spot, and gaming after school with her best friends. But shifting friendships and the grief of losing her beloved grandfather make middle school feel more like someone switched her life to hard mode.

Then Lexie discovers a mysterious journal tucked inside her grandfather’s things. It’s filled with cryptic notes and cheat codes from an unfinished video game he was creating: Warrior’s Quest. When Lexie and her older sister, Eunice, are suddenly transported into the game’s pixelated world, the line between reality and fantasy starts to blur.

Can Lexie and her sister level up and face the monsters in the game—and in real life—or is it game over for good?

Interview with Elizabeth:

I loved getting to talk to Elizabeth about her new book and I know you will enjoy meeting her and her character Lexie as well.

 

SSS: I was fortunate to read an e-galley of this beautiful book! Tell us how you came up with an idea of this Lit-RPG graphic novel, (Lit-RPG, literature with characters in role playing/video games, is super popular on instagram right now, with “Dungeon Crawler Carl” being shared by many bookstagrammers.)

 

EA: Thanks so much for having me and for the kind words about A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up! The idea for this book came to me during a period where I had just finished working on my debut middle grade graphic novel, Fibbed. I was dealing with a lot of change at that point and navigating a familial loss.

I found myself wanting to escape back into the things I loved growing up: comics and video games! Initially the story was a way for me to blend those passions, but I soon realized that Lexi’s journey of grappling with the recent loss of her grandfather — all while trying to survive in middle school and figure out who she was—came to also be my way of wading into those questions.

I love that you describe the book as a Lit-RPG graphic novel! RPGs have always been a huge entry point for storytelling and the genre blending nature of Lit-RPGs is such an exciting aspect of that space. I loved being able to draw from my favorite elements of RPGs like character progression mechanics to explore the story in the book. One element of that is seen in how Lexie and her friends “level up” throughout the story.  

There’s also the RPG-like class archetypes that appear in how Lexie and her friends initially define themselves in the story versus who they become. For Lexie, she starts out believing herself to be one thing (a little sister, a sidekick in her friend’s stories) and realizes she has a capacity for so much more, and that sometimes it isn’t just other people putting us in a box—it’s ourselves. I also had so much fun making parody references to some of my favorite video games!

SSS: I love that! Tell us more about the character Lexie. How does she find healing and manage her grief through the story?

 

EA: Lexie is the youngest daughter in her family and really looks up to her oldest sister, Eunice. She also had a great relationship with her grandfather. But after his passing, Lexie feels like nothing in the world makes sense anymore. Her sister is being distant, she doesn’t have her grandfather anymore, and she just can’t be as excited about middle school like her best friends are. So, Lexie has to face the grief of losing her grandfather and losing her sister who is still around but feels like a stranger.

I don’t think Lexie even realizes she’s dealing with grief, because at such a young age, it can be very hard identifying what you’re actually going through. When the video game world takes over Lexie’s school, it’s only then that she and her friends realize that everything they were dealing with in real life is mirrored in the game. Lexie starts to realize that maybe if she can confront her grief through the game, then she can face it in her real life. Art for me has always been a way to grapple with life questions and topics. I wanted to use role playing games as a way to explore these themes alongside the fun adventures Lexie and her friends go on.

 

SSS: Tell us about Lexie and Eunice’s sisterhood. How does their relationship help (or hinder) them in their healing processes after their grandfather’s death?

EA: The story starts right when Lexie and Eunice are facing the first big challenge of their sisterhood. They’ve always been best friends, but now Lexie feels like she doesn’t even know her older sister anymore. Even though they are both dealing with the shared grief of losing their beloved grandfather, they are isolated from each other.

Lexie feels like Eunice is trying to make it seem like their grandfather never existed, while Eunice feels like Lexie is reopening old wounds by constantly bringing him up. As the story progresses and when the unfinished video game that their grandfather created comes to life, the two sisters begin to realize that, maybe, the way they’ve been separately dealing with their grief isn’t what they truly need. And as they are forced to face the game together, they also learn that they are stronger together—even when it comes to dealing with their individual fears.  

 

Link to order here.

Writing Process

SSS: I always like to ask authors about their writing process, but in this case, you are both author and illustrator of this beautiful book! What is it like to create a graphic novel, and is it a longer process than writing a prose novel?

EA: So, I’ve written two novels, and this is my second graphic novel and I feel like each one is a new learning experience. With prose novels, the challenge is putting the world you’re imagining into words. With graphic novels, you also have the additional challenge of drawing those worlds.

In the script, if I wanted to describe Lexie, I could use a few words to paint the picture, but that same picture can take hours to draw—and when you are drawing, you have to include details that you might not include when writing the character. Like, Lexie has a bracelet. In a novel, I’d probably mention it a few times, but in the graphic novel I have to draw the bracelet over and over again! Because of that, it’s definitely a longer process to create a graphic novel. It took me around 3 years and 11 months just sketching, inking, coloring and doing the lettering for A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up. Writing the script was a lot shorter, but even with that you have to think about the flow of the dialogue and the emotional and narrative beats of the story and later tweak that to fit the art.

When you’re drawing, you also have to think about the consistency of the art style even when your wrists are in pain or you’ve reached a point where you literally cannot physically draw the thing in your head! Overall, though, it’s really rewarding, but also incredibly challenging and the physical strain is intense. For my first graphic novel Fibbed, I drew most of the initial sketch by hand, scanned them, then inked, colored, and lettered them digitally (lettering being placing the text and bubbles). For A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up, I did most of my sketches digitally, though I did hand draw and scan some art pieces, and then I did the rest of the art digitally. So, my art process also changes depending on the needs of each book and how I want to approach them.

 

SSS: Are you a pantser or a plotter? And what helps you with finishing stories when you first start writing your drafts?

EA: Definitely a plotter! I always want to know where a story starts and finishes before I dive into it. That said, it still feels like an organic process because the characters might do or say something differently than what you plan.

 

For instance, when I first started working on A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up, I outlined it as just a fun romp with Lexie and her friends facing a video game world and trying to level up in middle school. That same core arc is there, but I got to know the characters better as I was writing and drawing the story. As a result, the book evolved, and the narrative became about what Lexie was dealing with in her personal life. That shift also impacted what the video game world of the book became too.

 

SSS: How is the process of writing YA different from writing MG?

EA: I’ve really enjoyed being able to write across different age categories. With YA, it’s always fun getting to tell stories about angsty and messy teenagers dealing with drama. With middle grade, I love the hopefulness and joy that’s really inherent in writing in this space. A young person’s relationship with their family plays such a big part in the middle grade journey, and I love weaving in the parental figures into those themes. In contrast, with YA I think teens are more focused on their friendships and their individual sense of personhood outside of their families.

 

Across both age categories, I enjoy finding out who the characters are. I also always incorporate art into my writing process even when it comes to writing prose novels like my YA novel, Heart-shaped Lies. I usually sketch or draw my characters even before they become characters in my books. I was looking back at my early art, and I realized I’d even done a drawing of a character in 2020 that would later become Lexie. So, it all really feels full circle!

 

SSS: Any advice for fellow middle-grade authors looking to write and illustrate MG?

 

EA: My biggest advice would be to read a lot of middle grade graphic novels! There are so many incredible creators telling stories in this space and I think the most rewarding part of writing and illustrating middle grade graphic novels is being in conversation with the work of some of my favorite writers and artists.

 

Taking the time to learn the craft and understanding the process of making graphic novels felt really instrumental to my growth as an artist. I also think, just in general, it’s okay to embrace imperfection. In a time when technology is removing us from the human experience, I find myself as an artist and a writer embracing my imperfections and my artistic style. Finding your style and what makes you, “you” as a writer and illustrator is rewarding because you’re bringing your unique voice into the conversation.

 

 

SSS: I have to ask! Are you a video game player in your regular life?

 

EA: Um, yes! I love video games and always have. In fact, part of why I started writing was because of video games. Video games like Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, the Legend of Zelda, and so many more have a special place in my heart! The storytelling in role playing video games constantly inspires me to keep pushing the limits of how stories can be told.

 

Thank you Elizabeth for joining us and I know readers and librarians will enjoy your book!

 

About Elizabeth:

Elizabeth Agyemang writes and illustrates books that draw from folktales, history, and her African heritage. Her debut graphic novel, Fibbed, was a Parents.com Best Children’s Book of 2022 selection and a Chicago Public Library Best Fiction for Kids 2022 pick, and her work has been featured in Ebony, Paste, and Girls’ Life and on Time.com and OkayAfrica. When she isn’t gushing over books, Elizabeth spends her free time dissecting classic movies and TV shows.

Find her online at ElizabethAgyemang.com

 

Website: elizabethagyemang.com

INSTAGRAM: @authorelizabethagyemang

Tiktok: @authorelizabethagyemang

Newsletter: Notes from My Drafts Folder: http://eepurl.com/gOI7QD

 

 

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Interview with Author Stephanie Willing

By on September 3, 2026   /   Author Interviews  

Today, please join me in welcoming Stephanie Willing to the Mixed-Up Files Author Spotlight! Author of the gripping MG horror novel, She Came Back Different, which has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, the book follows six young dancers who enter the Stadler Ballet Conservatory and the horrors they discover once they get there. (Spoiler alert: It isn’t pretty.)

Praised by Kirkus as “An appealing blend of ballet, camaraderie, mystery, and frights,” the book is available from Viking/Penguin Random House.

She Came Back Different

MR: Congratulations on the publication of She Came Back Different, Stephanie! Can you tell readers a bit about the book?

SW: Thank you! I like to say that it’s Stepford Wives at a ballet school, with evil plants—but make it middle grade. It’s told through new students Gemma’s and Neve’s alternating POVs. Gemma has always felt too loud, too big, too much—while also never being enough. The school promises to take average girls and perfect them, and she is thrilled at the idea that she might finally be something other than who she is.

Neve has been quietly angry for years ever since she saw her older sister, Bex, go to Stadler and change from a charismatic chaos gremlin into a perfectly proper young lady. She knows something is deeply wrong at the school, and she’s determined to figure out what it is. There’s a lot of botanical horror, but the true villain is the idea that perfection is possible and it will save you.

Dance Life

MR: You were a dance major in college, and you moved to New York to study dance. How did your experience as a dancer shape your understanding of the young dancers portrayed in the book? You clearly have a strong sense of empathy toward them.

SW: Ballet is not the bad guy in my book! Instead, we get Gemma discovering the way the world can fall away when you’re dancing and how movement can be a story as much as a shape or a series of steps. Getting to write about how it feels during a dance class when you nail a combination, and the joy of warm muscles moving you across a studio floor, was an absolute delight.

Of course, access to dance classes and the money to afford them are also massive privileges, something the character of Kris bitterly reflects on in one of Neve’s chapters. I grew up in a small town, and while I was lucky enough to take ballet classes a couple times a week, I didn’t have consistent dance training until I was on an academic scholarship at college.

I also drew from my own experience of feeling like I was the wrong shape, or that I didn’t have anything to offer because everyone else was so much better (in my opinion), while simultaneously wishing that I’d be picked for a solo or a starring role. It’s such a painful place, to feel like if you just worked harder, you could unlock this “perfect” version of yourself. I’m still trying to unlearn that.

All Bodies Are Beautiful

MR: She Came Back Different champions the idea that all bodies belong in the dance world, not just skinny ones. At the same time, it’s no secret that dancers’ bodies are often scrutinized, with undue emphasis placed on the necessity to be thin. From your experience, have any strides been made in the dance world to accept a range of body types?

SW: Dancers like Kayla Hamilton (TWU alum!) and other disabled and differently-bodied dancers have never let a traditional ballet body expectation stop them. My kids and I went to an incredible breakdancing performance at the New Vic Theater this year called Ill-Abilities: No Excuses, No Limits. The dancers spun, flipped, and launched themselves through jaw-dropping choreography and shared their stories of growing up disabled and making their own place in the dance world. “The dance world” isn’t an entity—it’s us, and that includes every kind of body.

Specific to ballet…

I see online is that there’s a lot more focus on anatomical placement and safer biomechanics of movement. That means fewer people are contorting themselves for the sake of a flashy dance move or “perfect” turn-out. I also see dance studios working hard to make their classes inclusive for disabled and neurodiverse kids, which is so important. Dance is for everyone.

I can’t speak directly to the experience of a young dancer now, especially in the world of ballet competitions which has become much bigger than when I was a kid. It seems like there’s an outsized emphasis on how many pirouettes you can do or how high your legs go, and while it’s great to have a goal, I can also see how that could become an unhealthy measurement of someone’s value or ability as a dancer.

Also, can I say? Adult ballet is where it’s at. The competitiveness is gone, and it’s just you and this thing you love, in the company of other people who love it too. IT’S AMAZING.

Who’s Perfect?

MR: One of the main themes in the book is perfectionism, as the ballet mistresses—or “Madames”—set unrealistic standards for the girls at the ballet conservatory. They dictate how they dress, what they eat, and even how they sleep (on their backs, to avoid wrinkles!). Can you tell us more about this? It’s super creepy.

SW: Obedient and compliant people are easier to control, right? We often need our so-called flaws—our stubbornness, our anger, our snark—to create or hold boundaries. One of the questions of the book is how culpable the Madames are. At one time, they were students full of creativity and chaotic joy too, but now they are part of the system that erases individuality in favor of docile prettiness.

In real life, so many of the enforcers of traditional femininity and the pursuit of perfection are other women. It’s a system that they feel powerful inside of, without recognizing what they’ve lost or the harm they’re passing on. While dance mistress, Madame Orange, is at the height of her power within the school, she’s still hollow, and if things continued the way they always did, she’d face the same fate as Madame Gray, an aging ballet teacher who is relegated to storage as she becomes a fully hollowed-out husk.

DIFFERENT vs. WEST OF THE SEA

MR: Speaking of creepy, your book is a departure from your debut novel, West of the Sea, which has fantastical elements but isn’t horror. What made you take the leap to horror? Are you a fan?

SW: I’m a big fan of MG horror—that’s my speed. I am the biggest scaredy-cat so I don’t usually seek out horror films to watch. And yet, every horror movie I’ve ever watched, I’ve absolutely loved. So…yes? But I’m terrified?

The biggest shift toward writing horror came from my critique group, made up of me, my husband (he writes creative nonfiction), and two of our dearest friends from theater. We started workshopping each other in 2017 and we’re still going strong.

One of those friends is the horror supernova, Nat Cassidy. So I’ve had the gruesome pleasure of workshopping his horror novels at every stage, and that didn’t just give me a stronger stomach for viscera and gore, but made me really grow to appreciate the importance of experiencing fear in a safe way—and the stomach-churning chills along the way.  Then I read Ally Malinenko’s This Disappearing House, which is the number one middle-grade book I always recommend, and I became a MG horror superfan.

Bloodsucking Vines!

MR: While we’re on the subject of horror, I would be remiss not to mention the bloodthirsty vines that suck out the girls’ personalities, rendering them shells of their former selves—like the Stepford Wives but in tutus. Please tell us more.

SW: In the world of the book, the vines are hungry and semi-ambulatory. They grow in and through the walls of the school and they can’t be seen until it’s too late. The native forests around the school block the vines from escaping further into the landscape, and Gemma’s contact with the trees and their fungus network is what gives her the ability to see the vines from the beginning. The vines are drawn toward noise, chaos, individuality—and then they eat the souls’ creative essence down to the roots.

One reason they flourish so well at the ballet school is that the dancers are always in an act of creation, so even the most hollowed-out students still have creative growth for the vines to eat at the end of the day. One way to avoid the vines’ notice is to act as if you’ve already been consumed, i.e., sweet, demure, literally in step with the other girls at the school.  This defense mechanism looks a lot like the result of being consumed—much like the way girls learn early to smile and people-please as a way of staying safe in social situations.

Early in the drafting process, Nat pointed out that the vines had a #MeToo vibe, and once I saw what I was really writing about, I went all in on the gothic elements of questioning reality. Did this really happen, or is she imagining it? If someone warns of a dancer that no one else can see, do the other girls believe her? If a girl broke the rules and got attacked, does she get blamed, or the institution that lets a predator lurk in its shadows?

Stephanie Says

MR: In addition to writing books for young readers, you are an audiobook narrator. How does this influence you as a writer, and vice-versa?

SW: As a narrator who writes, I always carry the knowledge that I’m bringing someone’s precious and hard-fought book baby to life. I want to take very good care of the author and honor their vision, their story, and the characters as they wrote them.

As a writer who narrates, I’m very aware of vocal descriptors. Authors sometimes get very fantastical in their descriptions like, “His voice was the sound of the sea over crushed glass,” and as a narrator I just stare and think, How am I going to do that??? So when I wrote Gemma as having a distinct accent from my part of Texas, I was internally groaning as I thought about how I’d have to perform that and keep it consistent across her chapters. (Curious about Stephanie’s narration style? Check it out here.)

MR: What is your writing process like? Do you have a specific routine? Also, are you a plotter or a pantser?

SW: I’m a plantser! I love a good outline—I think of it as daydreaming on paper—but I don’t stick to it rigidly. And I wish I had a routine. Maybe when my kids are older! I prefer to write at coffee shops (fewer interruptions, no chores tugging at my metaphorical sleeve), but I would never finish a book if I waited until I was at a café to get started.

At home, I’ve tried to trick my brain into thinking I’m at a coffee shop by making my writing space a high narrow bar against the wall with a comfortable stool and my back to the room. (It only sort of works.)

Regardless, the writing process usually looks like me with earbuds, listening to a playlist of cinematic music that I’ve listened to so many times I don’t hear it anymore, and drinking a lot of coffee.

Up Next

MR: What projects are you working on now, Stephanie?

SW: Inside every writer there are two wolves… kidding, but I do have at least two projects pulling me in different directions. One is a Southern gothic fantasy, a sort of a grown-up and darker take on magic-users and mythic beings in the same world as West of the Sea. But I’m also working on a cozier romantic fantasy for adults. My kids (eight and five) want me to write something for them, so I’ve also got a younger chapter book in mind. We’ll see!

Lightning Round!

Yellow graphic lightning bolt

MR: No MUF interview is complete without a lightning round, so…

Preferred writing snack? Does coffee count?  I don’t tend to eat while writing at home—my fingers feel gross on the keyboard otherwise–but if I’m at a café, I love having a blueberry scone or a fresh croissant. 

Coffee or tea? Coffee every time, in every lifetime.

Zombie apocalypse: Yea or nay? I love a funny zombie apocalypse.

Favorite ballet? Giselle. Give me all the vengeful female spirits dancing in the woods!

Superpower? The ability to speak any language after hearing it once. A  very long time ago, I wrote X-Men fanfiction about myself as a character with this ability.

Favorite place on earth? Can I pick two? On my back deck watching my flowers and their pollinators while my kids careen around nearby. And walking the streets of NYC on a perfect autumn day with an iced coffee in my hand on my way to meet up with a friend.

You’re packing a dance bag with six items only. What are they? These days all I need is a water bottle and my ballet slippers, but back when I was training seriously I also would’ve had my pointe shoes (Chacott or Russian Pointe), gel toe pads, Harmonie knitwear, and an elastic theraband for stretching.

MR: Thank you for chatting with me, Stephanie—and congratulations on the publication of She Came Back Different!

Bio

Stephanie Willing is an author, audiobook narrator, and a lifelong dancer. She has a BA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University and an MFA in Writing for Young People from Lesley University. She lives with her husband, two kids, two cats, and a goldfish in New Jersey. When she’s not writing or recording, you can find her reading, making snacks for her kids, or working in her butterfly garden in the backyard. Learn more about Stephanie on her website and follow her on Instagram.

MELISSA ROSKE is a writer of middle-grade fiction. Before spending her days with imaginary people, she interviewed real ones as a journalist in Europe. In London she landed a job as an advice columnist for Just Seventeen magazine. Upon returning to her native New York, Melissa contributed to several books and magazines, selected jokes for Reader’s Digest, and received certification as a life coach. In addition to her debut novel Kat Greene Comes Clean, Melissa contributed to the Jewish middle-grade anthology, Coming of Age: 13 B’Nai Mitzvah Stories. Learn more about Melissa on her Website and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

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Author Interview with Jamie Sumner on Wish You Well

By on August 31, 2026   /   Articles, Author Interviews  

Interview with Middle Grade Author Jamie Sumner

Wish You Well by Jamie Sumner book cover

Karen Reeder: Thank you for joining us today. Can you tell us a little bit about Wish You Well?

Jamie Sumner: Absolutely. I’m Jamie Sumner, and I write middle grade novels. Some are in verse, some are in prose, and I have a graphic novel adaptation of my first book coming out in about a year, which I’m really excited about. That’s been a lot like working on a script—hard and amazing.
Wish You Well is written in prose, but the premise is anything but traditional. Three kids meet at a hospital picnic. If you’ve been lucky enough not to spend much time in hospitals, you may not know about these picnics, but hospitals sometimes hold annual events for families and kids dealing with chronic illnesses, or for children who spent a long time in the NICU. Nurses and families come together, check in on one another, and celebrate how everyone is doing. The main character, Violet, is thirteen, and she absolutely does not want to go. She’s slowly going blind because of macular degeneration, and she doesn’t want to be reminded of it. She just wants to be a normal kid, so the picnic feels like this huge red flag highlighting her illness that she doesn’t want to talk about. So the day of the picnic, she’s in a bad mood. While she’s there, she witnesses a kid choking on a hot dog. Luckily, he’s surrounded by nurses who perform the Heimlich and save him. That’s how she meets Wyatt, who’s had a heart transplant, and Noor, whose mother is the nurse who rescued him.
Wyatt becomes the instigator of their friendship—or really, their scheme. Violet complains about how the wish foundation keeps trying to get her to apply for a wish, but she says that’s for babies. I don’t want to do that. Wyatt and Noor tell her they get those wish foundation things too.
Wyatt points out that they would each get three wishes, so he comes up with this grand idea: they pool their wishes and have one epic year filled with three huge adventures. The catch is that they have to pretend to be best friends, even though they just met. Violet and Noor aren’t exactly warm-and-fuzzy personalities, so Wyatt is the one who tries to bring everyone together. It’s a little like The Breakfast Club: three very different kids are stuck in this scenario and they team up and have to pull it off.

KR: I love the unlikely friendship, the attitude, and the grumpiness. Your voice pulled me in immediately. I kept thinking, I need more books like this. Do you have an unlikely friendship in your own life?

Jamie Sumner author photoJS: Actually, I had… no one has asked me that question yet, that’s interesting. And it comes full circle. So, one of my best friends now, who I never would have guessed we would become close friends, was actually my son’s nurse in the NICU. So, my son Charlie has cerebral palsy, and he is 14 now. And, he was in the NICU for about 10 to 12 weeks when he was first born, and he ended up coming home with a trach, he had oxygen, he later got a G-tube, many surgeries, lots of stuff going on when he was a baby. And it’s really important, if you know, you know, like, to request someone who you think is good to be their primary nurse, the nurse that is… if they’re on call, they’re gonna be asigned to your baby. So, I ended up requesting Mary and she just seemed very cool under pressure, she and Charlie, like, meshed. Even though he was, you know, 3 weeks, 4 weeks old. This means every day when I’m there, she’s there.

So, we became friends, and then her husband who is also a nurse who works at the Veteran Hospital and he and my husband and Mary… we all became friends. They would come over and Mary would babysit Charlie when I went back to work as a teacher. You can’t do better than the primary NICU nurse taking care of your kid when your go back to work. I threw her a baby shower when she had her first baby, so… it’s so funny how that happens, and it’s kind of like friendships born out of…necessity? Really more, situation or circumstance. Mary and I, we actually texted last night, so we’re still best friends.

KR: That is so great. I love it. You’ve talked briefly about this, can you tell us more about how the setting for Wish You Well is something personal for you?

JS: It’s very personal, but I also think it’s universal. If you’re the parent of a child who’s spent time in the hospital—or if you’re part of the sandwich generation and have a parent who’s frequently in the hospital—you’ll understand it. After Charlie came home from the NICU, he continued seeing lots of specialists. He had surgeries, seizures, tests, sleep studies, and more ambulance rides than I ever wanted to experience.
We live in Nashville, so Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital became this place we knew intimately. I know the smell. I know where the good snacks are. I even know when the cafeteria locks the cold-drink doors because they won’t sell them between these two hours. We spent so much time there, and they were so good to us. I really wanted to tell a story set in that world because it’s something you can’t imagine if you haven’t been in it. When you’ve been through it, you recognize all these little details and think, Oh, yeah. I know that. I wanted readers who have lived through it to feel seen, but I also wanted people who haven’t experienced it to understand that world better and develop more empathy for children—and really anyone—who has had to spend a lot of time in hospitals dealing with chronic illness.

KR: Yes. It’s so important to build empathy.
I have to tell you, I was completely hooked by this story. I cried while reading and could hardly keep going, but had to find out the ending. That seems to be a theme in your writing. I’ve read several of your books, and they all carry these really big emotional themes. What draws you to writing that way?

JS: You mentioned voice, and I think voice is the thing that comes to me first in a story. I start with the character’s attitude, their vibe, who they are. I don’t really plot everything out in advance. I spend a lot of time getting to know my characters, and then I figure out the major plot points. Sometimes I abandon those, too. I let the characters lead me. Because my books are middle grade and because of the situations I put my characters in, they’re certainly adventure stories, but the emotional journey is always the bigger journey for me. That’s the part that makes you care, that makes you tear up, and that makes you not want to put the book down. Those are also the books I love to read. Sometimes you want a book that’s mostly plot, and that’s great. But other times you want to be pulled in and actually feel something. Those are the kinds of books I tend to write because my characters feel very real to me. I hear them. I get to know them. And I’m a pretty emotional person, so that probably plays a part in it, too.

KR: I’ve thought a lot about voice while reading this book, especially with Violet. Then Noor has such a distinct personality and Wyatt has that lovable quality that brings everyone together. When you’re first developing a character, how do you find their voice?

JS: Usually it starts with a line of dialogue. I’ll hear something in my head, and it’s very clearly something that this character would say. That becomes the thread I follow. Voice can also come through music. Sometimes I make a playlist for a character. That song or playlist captures the character’s vibe, and if I ever lose the voice while I’m writing—especially if I’ve gotten too caught up in the plot—I can listen to the music and find my way back.
For Violet, the voice was very early-Alanis-Morissette. She’s angry, but she doesn’t always know why, so when people get too close to her, she takes it out on them. But underneath all of that, she’s kind and she really needs love. That’s where Violet came from.

KR: I love that.
What would you wish for?

JS: Oh, gosh. That’s such a great question. I can’t believe I’ve never asked myself that while writing this book. I’d combine two things, because apparently that’s what you’re allowed to do with a wish. I’ve never been able to go on a writing retreat because of Charlie’s situation. I don’t like to be away from him for more than a night or two. And I also have twins in seventh grade. But I’d love to go abroad—specifically to Italy—and do a writing retreat that also includes a cooking class. I love the idea of writing while also cooking, getting to use your hands, eating great food, and being immersed in the Italian countryside. Wouldn’t that be incredible?

KR: Absolutely. You’re immersing yourself in all the senses and emotions, which would probably create an amazing story, too.

JS: Exactly. And the wish would have to include knowing that Charlie was okay. Otherwise I’d just be worrying the whole time, and I couldn’t really let myself relax and write.

KR: Let’s do a lightning round.
Favorite writing snack?

JS: Trail mix—specifically the California kind with dried banana chips.

KR: What do you do right before you sit down to write?

JS: Go for a run. It clears my head, and that’s usually when I figure out what’s coming next in the chapter.

KR: Your book is divided into summer, fall, winter, and spring. Best thing about summer?

JS: The kids are out of school and we have no schedule. It’s incredible.

KR: Best thing about fall?

JS: Everything pumpkin. I know it’s a cliché, but I can’t help it, I love it. I love baking with pumpkin. And its… fresh starts.

KR: Best thing about winter?

JS: Is there anything? Okay, fun snow days. Where you get to wing it. Those are fun. I usually bake bread on snow days, because I’m at home with them, and I can check in on my rise, see how its going.

KR: Nice. And spring?

JS: When you first hear the birds again in the morning. Those early spring sounds make it a little easier to get out of bed.

KR: Favorite vacation spot?

JS: Colorado. I love it, I love the mountains.

KR: Best reading spot?

JS: My bed. Oh, no! What am I even saying? We built a screen in porch, and there is a couch that is my… I write on it, I live on it, I nap on it, it’s the best.

KR: Favorite holiday?

JS: Christmas has almost too much pressure to make it perfect. So I told my husband this past year I really liked the 4th of July, because it was chill, and it was outside, and it was grilling, and…Fireworks. So that may be my current new favorite.

KR: Hobby when not writing.

JS: Baking, yes, that’s my favorite.

KR: Alright, well, I love it! Thank you for joining us today. Before we go, can you tell us… you alluded to the graphic novel, but what is next for author Jamie Sumner?

JS: Next! Oh my goodness, it’s called Space Race, it’s coming out in the spring, and it’s a novel in verse.Author Jamie Sumner with books she wrote

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