When and why did you start writing for children?
I remember sitting in our little library in my small town in Georgia when I was about six, imagining a book on the shelf with my name on it. I especially loved all the books by Beatrix Potter and wanted to write about that kind of world, where hedgehogs serve you tea and do your laundry.
However, I grew up to work as an actress and singer, and in broadcasting, where I only wrote advertising copy. After my children were born, I fell in love with stories all over again. I began to work as a storyteller and wrote some of my own material. In 2002, after I was a winner in the Hot Seat on “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire” with Meredith Vieira, I could afford to get even more serious about writing for children and sold my first book in 2004.
I write for children because the stories I read as a child are the ones that thrilled me most, that stayed with me through the years, and I hope to contribute something to the canon. Plus, writing is hard work but it’s fun.
What is the most valuable advice you can give to a newly published writer?
Seek balance. Writers need to write, market their work, stay connected to family and friends, and dust occasionally, unless you can find a possum to do that.
Marketing support varies among publishers, but if you’re willing to get out there and promote your work, my advice is to craft a specific plan and then ask your publisher how you might create a partnership. Also, consider limiting marketing efforts to a specific portion of your working day so that you have the time and energy to create more stories.
More free advice: network within the industry. Attend events, meet other authors and editors, make friends. I believe it was Woody Allen who said that 80% of success is showing up. After a long, drawn-out rejection of my first submission to a publisher, I joined SCBWI in 2001, and I can attribute my publishing success to connections made at their fabulous conferences.
What is one of your favorite children’s books that you'd like to recommend?
Weslandia by Paul Fleischman, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes (Candlewick Press). It explores conformity and individuality, addresses the nature of culture, and celebrates the inventiveness and resiliency of the human spirit – all without saying so. It’s a constant inspiration, a marriage of words and images that bears reading again and again. I give it as a gift to children and adults alike.
What are you working on now?
I particularly love picture book biographies so I’m writing more of those, as well as some fiction picture books. I’ve also started a middle grade novel set in an alternative past and a philosophical YA with supernatural elements. Like I said, writing is fun!
What is your favorite dessert and why?
Congo Bars. Balance in all things is the lesson I want to learn most, and Congo Bars strike a pleasing harmony between cookie and brownie. If anybody knows why they’re called Congo Bars, I’d like to hear it. My Congo Bar recipe is under “Short Cuts” on my website.
Hester Bass is the author of So Many Houses, illustrated by Alik Arzoumanian. She lives in Owens Cross Roads, Alabama. Hester Bass is a Georgia native and has also lived in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, where Walter Anderson was from.
I enjoy reading about different authors' talents you interview. I found it interesting that Hester was a singer at one time, too. For many years, I loved to sing arias and hymns.
Posted by: Patricia Cruzan | October 15, 2009 at 08:27 PM
This is great, Tina!
Posted by: [email protected] | October 15, 2009 at 09:13 AM