Posts Tagged Author Interview

Interview with Suma Subramaniam, Author of V. MALAR – GREATEST HOST OF ALL TIME

By on November 27, 2024   /   Author Interviews, New Releases  

I had the pleasure of picking the brain of Suma Subramaniam, a seasoned author (and long time member of the Mixed-Up Files team), to discuss the release of her latest chapter book: V. MALAR – GREATEST HOST OF ALL TIME! Suma took time from her busy schedule to indulge my curiosity and wow me with her wisdom.

I’m honored to be part of her new book release tour with this inspiring and heartfelt interview. So, let’s jump on in!

A Determined Journey

Patchree: What has your publishing journey been like? Did you always plan to become a children’s author?

nov 2024 new releases

Suma: I always wanted to be an author for a long time. But children’s writing happened when I attended my first SCBWI conference in Western Washington in 2010. I met the wonderful author, Sundee Frazier at the conference. Sundee encouraged me to keep working on a manuscript that she read the first five pages of. I followed her advice and kept the dream alive. Five years later, I got accepted to the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Fast-forward to 2019, my short story was published in THE HERO NEXT DOOR (Crown Books, 2019). And now, I’m here with V. MALAR – GREATEST HOST OF ALL TIME (Candlewick Press, 2024), illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan, with several published picture books and a few more books releasing in the next few years.

Patchree: You have quite a book resume to your name, and your work truly highlights your Indian heritage. How do you think your cultural roots impact your writing?

Suma: Thank you, Patchree! Having spent more than two decades in India, I have fond memories of my growing up years. There’s still so much I do not know.  I have deep interest in history. Every book takes me along a fascinating journey during the research process. That’s why I write uplifting, lively stories about fun and feisty children of Indian descent that my little self would’ve wanted to read.

Patchree: What motivates you to write?

Arms hugging globe with a red heart on top.

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Suma: I always ask myself what my effort in writing books will amount to. Like any writer, I expect my work to influence or make an impact on many readers, and sometimes I am discouraged by the world’s indifference to children’s and young adult writing. But I hold on to the dreams I’ve had since I was a child by staying committed to the craft and the community. They sustain me through the difficult times, the struggles and disappointments that come with this profession.

Patchree: As an author, what is your wish or key takeaway for readers of your books?

Suma: I hope readers love themselves. If we can’t love ourselves, we can’t love the world. That is the key takeaway for readers from all my books.

 

Writing Your Roots

Patchree: Moving onto your latest book, V. MALAR: GREATEST HOST OF ALL TIME, who was your inspiration for your main character Malar?

Suma: The inspiration for V. MALAR: GREATEST HOST OF ALL TIME came from celebrating the harvest festival year-after-year since my childhood. Growing up in India, holidays and festivals brought me closer to my family. These celebrations not only passed on from generation to generation, but they also helped us navigate life’s joys and challenges with ease. In troubled times, we learned to recover together. Pongal is a four-day celebration in South India when crops are harvested in mid-January. It is celebrated every year in many Indian households during the Tamil month called Thai, in honor of the work farmers do. V. MALAR- GREATEST HOST OF ALL TIME is filled with moments of togetherness, joy, and empathy that begin in the family. I hope that through Malar’s eyes, all readers will access the experience of those relationships, take them to heart, and pass it on with love.

Patchree: How much of your own experiences did you include, if any, in this story?Indian Pongal Festival

Suma: Holidays and festivals are the times to gather with our families and friends, and strengthen our relationships. There is so much love underneath the traditions, celebrations, and growing up in an Indian household.

I included everything I loved about the harvest festival and the traditions of celebrating from my own family. Pongal brings families together to celebrate the blessings of good health and happiness. The first day of Pongal is called Bhogi Pongal. On this day, we clean our homes and discard old and broken items. The second day is called Thai Pongal. It is also called “Uzhavar Thirunal” which means “Farmers’ Day”. We worship the sun god and have an elaborate meal. The word “Pongal” means “to boil” in Tamil. It is also the name of the rice dish that is prepared on the second day of the festival. We make two types of pongal, sweet and savory. It is served with stew made with the season’s vegetables.

The third day is called Maatu Pongal. We honor our cattle and seek blessings for a good harvesting season. The fourth day is called Kaanum Pongal. It is also known as “Thiruvalluvar Dhinam” because we celebrate the eminent Tamil poet, Thiruvalluvar on this day.

Patchree: Your book does a wonderful job of touching on the idea of “culture shock” children of the diaspora experience when visiting their native lands. How important was this theme for you?

Suma: Thank you! As I wrote about Malar, it was important to have her believe in the strength of her extended family even though she and her cousins lived in different countries. The relationship snapshots in the story show that the expectations of both parenting and being raised as a child can feel like you’re being pulled in different directions sometimes. These are the universal experiences faced by families all over the world.  Malar’s book is more than just a story about holiday festivities. It’s a story about diaspora when cousins from opposite hemispheres meet, relishing family time, practicing gratitude, recognizing the value of what one has, being present, and even living a sustainable lifestyle while combatting climate change. There are some valuable SEL and STEM lessons to be learned here about seeing things from another person’s perspective and how ordinary people in different parts of the world choose to live responsibly.

Patchree: It’s clear that V. Malar is a planned chapter book series, what can readers look forward to with this series?

Suma: Readers can look forward to more hilarious adventures with Malar. In book-2, Malar is all set to become the greatest ranger of all time in South India’s Western Ghats where she will explore what it takes to become a nature conservationist and a wildlife advocate.

In book-3, Malar’s first visit to the US to see her cousins coincides with Diwali and Halloween. She prepares to become the greatest hallowali of all time.

Woman holding a notebook and writing while standing alone in front of a window

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From An Author’s POV

Patchree: What do you do if, or when, you get into a writing slump? How do you pull yourself out from a stint of writer’s block?

Suma: I travel every few months to take my mind away from writing. If I’m not traveling, I do things that fill my well in other ways. I read, knit, volunteer, go for long walks, and tire my legs out. Other than that, I visit my local indie bookstore, the library, cook, and host dinner with friends and family.

Patchree: Last but not least, what is your number one piece of advice for aspiring writers or perhaps something you’ve learned that you wish you knew before becoming a published author?

Suma: Writing is a lonely creative pursuit and also a business.  With the connections you build in the industry, you can go a long way, not only to improve your creative work, but also find your way through it. Agents and editors like working with writers who are invested in making books for children in the long term. Having a portfolio of projects gives the industry an added layer of reinforcement that your work is good, and that you are putting the effort to make the writing better with every project.

 

More about Suma:

Author PhotoSuma Subramaniam is the author of several children’s books based on STEM and STEAM topics as well as India and Indian heritage. She earned her MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her poems have been published in the Young People’s Poetry edition of Poetry Magazine from Poetry Foundation. When she’s not writing, she’s volunteering and blogging about children’s books. Suma lives in Washington State with her husband and a dog who will do anything for Indian sweets and snacks. Find her online at sumasubramaniam.com.

 

 

 

 

 

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STEM Tuesday — Human Body– Author Interview

By on November 26, 2024   /   Human Body, STEM Tuesday  

I’m delighted to welcome Rachel Poliquin to the STEM Tuesday blog today. She has written a fabulous book about the body, but there’s a really cool twist. You’ll see…

Rachel Poliquin author

The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers book

“Kids and adult alike will love poring over the different sections of this book and will delight in informing their friends and family members of the facts they’ve learned.”—School Library Journal ★

A perfect book for engaging kids in STEM: This illustrated tour of our “leftover” body parts (like the appendix, or even goosebumps) introduces readers age 7-11 to the bizarre and fascinating science of evolution.

Welcome to the weirdest museum you’ll ever explore—the one inside your body.

Did you know your amazing, incredible body is a walking, talking museum of evolution? In The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers, tour guides Wisdom Tooth and Disappearing Kidney lead readers through a wacky museum dedicated to vestigial structures: body parts that were essential to our ancestors but are no longer useful to us—even though they’re still hanging around.

Engaging, hilarious, and a visual treat, The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers is a place you’ll want to visit again and again.

 

Welcome to STEM Tuesday, Rachel. We are delighted to chat with you! 

JS: How did you get the idea to write this awesome book?

RQ: An editor at Greystone actually pitched me the idea. Vestigial organs for kids? It sounded perfectly quirky, and of course I said yes.

JS: Did you have fun researching this?  

RQ: When I began writing the book, I knew nothing about evolution beyond the basics. I had no idea where to begin! But there is nothing I like more than knowing absolutely nothing about a subject. Once I decided to write the book as a museum of human evolution, I had to do a very deep dive to figure out which creatures were the first or last to have a particular trait so they could be part of the exhibits. I became a little obsessed with an evolution podcast called Common Descent. I’d listen to it for hours while I walked around my neighbourhood.

But this book will always have a special place in my heart.  I was finishing writing in March and April of 2020, just at the beginning of Covid when the world had shut up tight and no one knew what was happening.  I was reaching out to academics and researchers around the world—Belgium, New York, Japan, Mexico—to help me understand the science, and of course we talked about the situation in their countries and how they were coping. It helped me feel very connected in a time of isolation.

 

JS: What is your favorite “Odd Body Part”?

RQ: That a hard one!  I’m not sure.  Of course I love Disappearing Kidney, but I also really love all the theories about why humans lost their fur. Fur isn’t preserved in the same way bones are, so no one really knows. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE how Clayton illustrated the Survivor Hair theories as movie posters. These still crack me up everything time.

JS: What would you like readers to get out of this book?

RQ: Obviously, I’d love them to have a better understand of evolution and how all living creatures are connected. But I also tried to highlight that science and our understanding of the world is not all set and done. Scientific theories are constantly in motion and scientists are constantly discovering new things and thinking about the world in new ways—in other words, there is plenty of room for young scientists to make their mark.

JS: How would you like teachers/librarians to use this book?

RQ: The details of the science aren’t as important for kids to remember as the big picture, and I would love teachers to get really creative and maybe even incorporate the book into an art project.  Clayton has so many different sorts of museum displays in the book, which could be the basis of all sorts of kooky projects. All the bits and pieces in Museum Storage are all vestigial organs that didn’t make it into the book. I would love to see how kids would turn those into exhibits!

JS: Can you give any tips to writers who want to break into nonfiction children’s books?

RQ: I think I’ve been successful as a non-fiction writer because I write about things no one else has written about or things people assume are uninteresting or boring. I truly believe everything is fascinating, if only you look at it the right way.  I also think the best non-fiction books create worlds that are just as compelling and magical as fictional worlds. I really struggle with the “non-fiction” title, actually.  We all know what fiction is: imagination, fantastic worlds, cool characters, illustrations, fun.  So what that does make “non-fiction”?  I try to blur that divide in my books and build worlds for my readers to step into, which I really hope will ignite their curiosity and imagination about the world around them. Also, never underestimate kids!  They are so much smarter than we were!

JS: What are you working on now? 

RQ: We are just finishing up a follow-up to Museum of Odd Body Leftovers. It’s called The Gland Factory: A Tour of Your Body’s Goops, Juices, and Hormones. I was lucky enough work with Clayton Hanmer again and the same amazing team at Greystone Books. Clayton did such a knock-out job on this one. I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy.

That sounds AMAZING! Congrats on the new book and I can’t wait to see it! 

Be sure to check out Rachel’s other works at her website https://www.rachelpoliquin.com/

And see her latest books below!

The Strangest Thing in the Sea book I am Wind book

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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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