Posts Tagged Nicole Melleby

WNDMG Wednesday – Celebrating – and Fighting for – Queer Joy

We Need Diverse MG
We Need Diverse MG Logo hands holding reading globe with stars and spirals floating around

Illustration by: Aixa Perez-Prado

WNDMG Wednesday is excited to host authors Nicole Melleby and A. J. Sass this week as they write about celebrating and fighting for queer joy. Welcome to WNDMG!

Celebrating–and Fighting for–Queer Joy

Guest Post by Nicole Melleby and A. J. Sass

When it came time for us to write this essay, it would have been all too easy for us to sit here and talk about book bans, and challenges, and how queer authors, like ourselves, are often thrust into the spotlight as a result of them. This is an important topic, without question. Because kids deserve to see themselves and their identities represented in books without bigoted pushback–because we deserved to see ourselves in books when we were kids, too, but we rarely did and we want to do our part in giving young readers this representation now, despite the repeated attempts to censor it. And we also acknowledge that these acts of censorship are hard on queer authors and their readers. It’s sad and terrible that this has been happening with increasing frequency.

It’d be all too easy for us to focus an entire essay on that.

But this is not what our novel, Camp QUILTBAG, is about. At least, not for us. Camp QUILTBAG is pure queer joy, and when we sat down to write it together, that was exactly what we felt: Joy. There was something special about sitting down with a best friend and saying, “Let’s write about these queer kids–one who is like me, and one who is like you, and let’s give them support, and love, and a place to be safe and feel comforted.” There was something special about laughing and creating together as queer authors, something so incredibly rewarding about the happiness we found while losing ourselves in developing these characters and creating these pages.

Safe Places

When it comes down to it, that’s what we believe is important. Giving an anxious, twelve-year-old who loves Laura Dern and knows she’s a lesbian but is ridiculed by her old friends at her Catholic school a place to find kids who understand her. Offering a hurt, angry, and closed-off thirteen-year-old nonbinary kid a place where e can let eir guard down, to understand what it really feels like to give and have support, to maybe even develop a crush of eir own. What was important to us was giving a trans boy a safe place to get his period for the first time, and having a friend who understands why he feels betrayed by his own body. It was important to give an autistic queer kid the room to fully embrace who she is, and to fight for what she believes in. It was giving a Jewish kid the space to have a conversation about queerness and faith with a Catholic kid. It was introducing all of these kids to one another and saying, “Hey, all of your problems aren’t going to magically go away, but look how much love and support and comfort you can find in the meantime, together.”

The queer joy is important. Realizing you can have that happiness, even when people are trying to tear that joy away, is important. Being able to look the lawmakers trying to pass these blatant attempts at censorship in the face and saying, “You may want to ban our books, you may want to create laws that take our rights away, you may want to try and take our happiness away” but telling them, and showing them, we can be happy and joyful anyway–that’s what is ultimately important. It feels especially crucial for our readers to see.

It’s important to us, anyway.

Both of us were sad, confused, sometimes angry, queer kids–even when we didn’t fully realize our identities, we knew something was different. Neither one of us had books at our disposal that reflected who we were. We didn’t have representation we could look at and say, “Hey, that character is like me!” Sometimes we didn’t even have the vocabulary to describe how we were feeling, and sometimes that made us feel very much alone. It’s hard to find joy when you don’t know how someone like you is supposed to be happy–or that you even can be. It’s hard to know what support looks like when you can’t find any examples anywhere.

Examples and Role Models

Examples and role models are so important within the queer community, which is why we’re also so grateful to be going on a book tour together to celebrate Camp QUILTBAG’s release. Two queer authors, talking about our friendship and our writing process. Two examples of living, breathing queer joy for young readers and their caregivers to see, along with a message for them: you may feel confused or alone or angry right now, but there are people out there just waiting to love and support you. There is a future for you that has every good chance of exceeding your wildest expectations. There are adults who will never stop fighting to ensure this happens. We are so honored to count ourselves among them.

And in a time when books are being banned more, and more, and more–it’s important to keep pushing back, yes, but it’s equally as important to keep talking about the fact that being queer IS joyful. That being queer is okay. It’s normal. Even more than that, being queer is wonderful. We wrote Camp QUILTBAG because we envisioned a place for kids like us to thrive–because every kid, no matter how they identify, deserves to have support and acceptance and feel joy.

((If you enjoyed this guest post, you might enjoy reading this archived WNDMG interview with Nicole Melleby.))

About the Authors:

A.J. Sass

author headshot person wearing purple camp QUILTBAG tshirt

A. J. Sass (he/they) is an author whose narrative interests lie at the intersection of identity, neurodiversity, and allyship. He is the critically acclaimed author of the ALA Rainbow Book List Top 10 titles Ellen Outside the Lines, which was also a Sydney Taylor Honor Book, and Ana on the Edge, as well as the co-author of Camp QUILTBAG (with Nicole Melleby). All three books are Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selections.

A. J. is the author of the upcoming middle grade book Just Shy of Ordinary (Little, Brown, 2024), the picture book Shabbat Is … (Little, Brown, 2024), and a contributor to the This Is Our Rainbow (Knopf Books for Young Readers), Allies (DK/Penguin Random House), and On All Other Nights (Abrams, 2024) anthologies.

When he’s not writing, A. J. figure skates and travels as much as possible. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his husband and two cats who act like dogs. Visit him online at sassinsf.com and follow him @matokah on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram

Nicole Melleby

headshot of author Nicole Melleby, a brown-haired smiling woman in an outdoor setting

Photo Credit: Liz Welch

Nicole Melleby, a born-and-bread Jersey native, is the author of highly praised middle-grade books, including the Lambda Literary finalist Hurricane Season and ALA Notable Children’s book How to Become a Planet. She currently teaches at the Fairleigh Dickinson MFA Creative Writing program, and spends most of her free time roller skating. She lives with her wife and their cat, whose need for attention oddly aligns with Nicole’s writing schedule. Feel free to follow her on Twitter @NeekoMelleby.

About Camp Quiltbag

Twelve-year-old Abigail (she/her/hers) is so excited to spend her summer at Camp QUILTBAG, an inclusive retreat for queer and trans kids. She can’t wait to find a community where she can be herself—and, she hopes, admit her crush on that one hot older actress to kids who will understand. Thirteen-year-old Kai (e/em/eir)is not as excited. E just wants to hang out with eir best friend and eir parkour team. And e definitely does not want to think about the incident that left eir arm in a sling—the incident that also made Kai’s parents determined to send em somewhere e can feel like emself. After a bit of a rocky start at camp, Abigail and Kai make a pact: If Kai helps Abigail make new friends, Abigail will help Kai’s cabin with the all-camp competition. But as they navigate a summer full of crushes, queer identity exploration, and more, they learn what’s really important. Camp QUILTBAG prominently centers queer joy and community in a book that promises love and encouragement to all who turn its pages. As one of the first middle-grade books with an all-LGBTQIA+cast of characters, the enormous breadth of queer identity and experience portrayed will help young readers discover the language and encouragement needed to explore and affirm their own identities. This unapologetically warm book offers readers the delight of feeling part of a community, and the happiness and freedom that comes with being and loving themselves.

 book cover with two tweens hanging out smiling

 

Preorder Camp Quiltbag here!

 

WNDMG Wednesday Author Interview with Nicole Melleby

We Need Diverse MG Logo hands holding reading globe with stars and spirals floating around
We Need Diverse MG Logo hands holding reading globe with stars and spirals floating around

Illustration by: Aixa Perez-Prado

Welcome to WNDMG Wednesday and happy September to you all. I’m excited to share my interview with author Nicole Melleby, on her latest book: THE SCIENCE OF BEING ANGRY (Algonquin Young Readers, May 2022).

Book cover with the title The Science of Being Angry featuring a figure in the center of a re-orange circle - with two people looking on at the main figure

About the Science of Being Angry

Eleven-year-old Joey is angry. All the time. And she doesn’t understand why. She has two loving moms, a supportive older half brother, and, as a triplet, she’s never without company. Her life is good. But sometimes she loses her temper and lashes out, like the time she threw a soccer ball—hard—at a boy in gym class and bruised his collarbone. Or when jealousy made her push her (former) best friend (and crush), Layla, a little bit too roughly.

After a meltdown at Joey’s apartment building leads to her family’s eviction, Joey is desperate to figure out why she’s so mad. A new unit in science class makes her wonder if the reason is genetics. Does she lose control because of something she inherited from the donor her mothers chose?

A warm WNDMG welcome to Nicole Melleby (and welcome back to MUF!)!

A Two-Mom Household

MUF: What’s the origin story for your book?

NM: During the early days of the pandemic, I binge-watched a lot of the TV show the Fosters. It’s one of the only shows I had seen that had lesbian moms as the head of the family. It was representation I didn’t realize I was craving. And I realized that I hadn’t yet written a book with a family dynamic that could resemble the one I would have someday. So I knew then that I wanted to write a book with two moms, and tell a story about what their family might look like. I also wanted to tackle childhood anger, and with all of these things in place, Joey came to be. With Joey’s anger, and her two-mom household, it naturally developed into a story about nature vs. nurture and what makes us worthy or not of love from there.

The Science of Being Angry

MUF: Your main character, Joey, is searching for answers about why she is the way she is – and since it’s in the title, (!!) I guess it’s no spoiler to say she’s wondering about why she’s always so angry. You’ve framed a thoroughly 21st century perspective to this age-old but also complicated question. How did you work through the challenge of exploring the science and the question itself for a middle-grade audience?

NM: I think that what it came down to for me was to show that Joey’s anger causes a lot of issues, but that Joey herself doesn’t mean to be this way. She hates that she’s this way and can’t control it. And while yes, her actions need to have consequences, I wanted to show that Joey isn’t unlovable because of it. She deserves love and she deserves to feel safe regardless of her anger issues. In her search for those answers, she ends up on an ancestry website to find out why she is the way she is, and I think having those sort of answers at her fingertips with the internet is a very 21st century middle grade thing. It’s messier when you pair the internet with any sort of soul searching, regardless of how old you are!

An Unconditional Love

MUF: I was particularly struck by a moment in the book where (no spoilers here) your main character, Joey, expresses concern that one of her mothers will want to give her up because of her anger. I think all of us have those moments where we worry that the love we get from others is conditional. Why was this scene important for the book?

NM: I wanted to show that DNA doesn’t make a family, love does, and that Joey’s anger doesn’t make her any less worthy of that love. That who she is, regardless of where her DNA came from and which parent she shares a biological connection with, doesn’t mean that any one of her family members could just walk away from her. It’s a struggle for everyone to learn how to understand one another, but at the end of the day, they are there for Joey no matter what.

These are Important Stories

MUF: At WNDMG, part of our canon is that representation matters, but in this current (loud) culture of book banning, that message sometimes gets shouted down. Have you faced challenges to your book?

NM: I have! And it’s hard, and it sucks, and it’s easy to get caught up in it in a “woe is me” kind of way. But, really, you need to use it to fuel you to keep pushing. I’m going to keep writing these stories because they’re important and these kids need them. And, well, the more books like this I publish, the less of a chance they can ban all of them, right?

MUF: Right!!!!! You never name Joey’s diagnosis – curious to know whether you were describing Oppositional Defiance Disorder?

NM: I purposely didn’t name Joey’s diagnosis because I wanted to show that it could take time to get one. Hopefully they find a good solution, but it was more about everyone understanding one another. When I was writing, I looked up a bunch of different reasons a kid like Joey could have these anger issues—Oppositional Defiance Disorder was one of them, so was ADHD, sensory issues, and a whole slew of others. I took the time to decide what Joey’s anger looked like, and realistically what it could look like, and shaped it from there. I have my own theories as to what she would be diagnosed with, but I never sat down and pin-pointed one specific thing.

((Enjoying this interview? Here’s another from the last time she visited with MUF during her 2019 debut of Hurricane Season))

Keeping Track of the Triplets

MUF: What parts of this book were hard to write?

NM: Honestly, the hardest thing was balancing triplets!!!! I originally write it as quadruplets, but it was way too many siblings and I kept losing track of one of them. So, they became triplets, and even that was a lot to keep track of! I kept forgetting who was in a scene and who wasn’t. Those poor brothers of Joey.

Valid and Worthy of Love

MUF: What resonates most for you?

NM: Getting to write about and see this particular type of family in a published book meant a lot to me.

MUF: Who did you write this book for?

NM: I wrote it for the kids of same-sex parents, for the angry kids, for the queer kids. I want them to know that I see them and that they’re valid and worthy of love.

What’s Next

MUF: What are you working on next?

NM: I have a lot to look forward to in 2023! My very first picture book, Sunny & Oswaldo, comes out from Algonquin Young Readers in Februray, and my very first co-written middle grade project, Camp QUILTBAG, written with A. J. Sass, comes out in March!

Cover illustration featuring two young people, one with an arm slung around the other, both smiling.

We Love Easter Eggs

MUF: The Wild Card question: is there anything I didn’t ask but you wish I had? Feel free to use this space for closing remarks if you like!

NM: Are there any Easter Eggs in The Science of Being Angry? Why, yes! Like every single one of my books so far, Joey and her family live in my hometown of the New Jersey shore. And, because of this, in every one of my books the characters get pizza from Timoney’s pizza (the pizzeria Pluto and her mom own in my book How to Become a Planet!) Though, unfortunately for Joey, she doesn’t get to eat the pizza so much as she’s hit in the face with it…..

 

About Nicole Melleby

headshot of author Nicole Melleby, a brown-haired smiling woman in an outdoor setting

Photo Credit: Liz Welch

Nicole Melleby, a New Jersey native, is the author of highly praised middle-grade books, including the Lambda Literary finalist Hurricane Season and ALA Notable book How to Become a Planet. She lives with her wife and their cat, whose need for attention oddly aligns with Nicole’s writing schedule. Visit her online at nicolemelleby.com and @LadyMelleby on Twitter.

To buy Nicole’s Books:

Workman Publishers

Bookshop.org

 

 

Agent Spotlight: Ashley Herring Blake


Today I’m thrilled to interview the amazing and energetic Ashley Herring Blake. You may remember reading about her here previously when she talked about being an author of middle-grade novels.

Recently, Ashley became an agent at the Rees Literary Agency, and I was delighted to speak to her about her new venture.

To learn more about Ashley, her books, and her new position as an agent, visit her at her website: http://www.ashleyherringblake.com

 

 

 

Dorian: You’ve been a prolific writer of middle-grade novels such as Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea (published in May of this year), Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World, and The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James. You’ve also written for young adults, and I noticed you have an adult romance coming out next year. What made you want to add agenting into your busy schedule?

Ashley: That’s an excellent question! I’m also a teacher for my day job, and last year, I was really wanting to think about how I could move my whole career into publishing. I’ve always been a big reader, and I love helping bring stories to life. My own agent has been so integral in my life—a support, an advocate, a pseudo-therapist—and I wanted to be that for other authors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorian: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and the Rees Literary Agency?

Ashley: Rees Agency has been around since the 1980s. They represent nonfiction and fiction, everything from literary to the very commercial, kid’s books, and romance. I’ve been with them as an author since 2014, so I knew joining them professionally as an agent was a smart move—I’m comfortable with them and I know they take care of their authors.

 

Click on this link for an archived interview with Ashley.

 

Dorian: Sounds great! How did you decide to specialize in the field of literature for children and teens?

Ashley: I actually didn’t! While I do rep middle grade and YA, I have more clients right now who write adult. I’m most interested in romance and contemporary fiction for all ages (sweet crushes for the MG set), and am really looking for queer stories more than anything right now.

 

Dorian: What was your favorite middle-grade book as a child?

Ashley: Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn. Something about that book wrapped itself around my heart and squeezed tight! While my love for the story didn’t translate into me writing ghost stories, I’ll always adore that book.

 

Dorian: I remember enjoying that book, too! What are some of your favorite middle-grade books now?

Ashley: There’s so much great middle grade out there right now. I love anything by Kacen Callender, Nicole Melleby, Kathryn Ormsbee, Karen Strong, Akemi Dawn Bowman, Erin Entrada Kelly, A. J. Sass, and more.

 

 

Dorian: I know our writers who are readers will want to know: What would you like to see in your submission box?

Ashley: As I mentioned above, I’m mostly looking for queer stories right now, mostly in the realistic fiction realm. I’m looking for MG, YA, and adult, and I’m a sucker for messy characters, super voicey writing, and a smidge (or a lot) of romance.

 

Dorian: Can you tell us about a special interest, hobby, or obsession you have that isn’t listed in your bio or wish list?

Ashley: I’m very into planners. I don’t create my own like bullet journalers, but the one I do use, I make look pretty with colors and washi tape and use it as part planner, part journal. When the mood hits me right and I’m not annoyed at all the frizz and effort, I’m into curly hair care as well. I’ve had curly hair since adolescence and am just now starting to really understand how to take care of it.

 

Writing and Query Tips

Dorian: What are two of your best writing tips?

Ashley: Write a lot and read a lot. That’s really the crux of it. You have to be willing to write badly, a lot, in order to get better. And reading widely will teach you what good writing is. It’ll also teach you what good writing isn’t. 🙂

 

Dorian: How about putting your agenting hat on now, and telling us your two best tips for querying?

Ashley: Keep your query letter about the book. The agent doesn’t need to know why you wrote a book or the themes they may find therein. That won’t make them want to read further. Stick to the book’s character and plot—what do they want, why can’t they have it, and what do they plan on doing about it? Secondly, follow the agent’s sub guidelines. I know we’re all busy and it’s been a wild couple of years, but that’s a basic professional courtesy, and one which, if not followed, is a red flag in my opinion.

 

Dorian: That’s great advice. Thank you! How can writers query you?

Ashley: They can query me at this link: https://querymanager.com/query/ashleyblake

I ONLY take queries through query manager. 🙂

 

Dorian: How can people follow you on social media?

Ashley: My handle is ashleyhblake on both Twitter and Instagram.

Thanks so much for taking the time out to talk to us today. Best of luck with your writing and agenting!