Deborah Hopkinson

How did you become a writer?

I’m a huge proponent of keeping your day job if you need to, but not giving up on the goal of writing full-time. My first picture book was published twenty-five years ago, but I’ve only been writing full time since 2014. Prior to that, I also worked in academic fundraising. I wrote a lotin my career—grants, speeches, press releases. All of it taught me a lot about being flexible and open to revision.  

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

I don’t usually read fiction when I’m writing fiction. And I’d have to say that my writing influences have come primarily from film. For my nonfiction, I try to pay attention to how story and context intersect. I love how Ken Burns zooms in on an individual, then backs up to provide context. And though I’ve read a ton of “craft” books, I always tend to return to Save the Catby Blake Snyder. That beat sheet has saved me several times.

When and where do you write? 

Years ago, I purchased a huge, handmade dining room table from a friend. Her ex-boyfriend had made it. Now it’s my desk. I sit under the 1970s-era dining room chandelier that was here when we purchased our house. But I can look out the back window at a bird feeder and our kitchen garden. Our two dogs keep me company. (They both appear in my forthcoming spy mystery for young readers.) My cat, Beatrix, is always creating havoc on my desk. She’s named for Beatrix Potter, about whom I wrote a picture book entitled Beatrix Potter and the Unfortunate Tale of a Borrowed Guinea Pig.

What are you working on now? 

I sometimes work on more than one thing at a time, since I write picture books, historical fiction for 8-14 year olds, and nonfiction for elementary and teen readers. I’ve written three longer nonfiction books on World War II, and am just finishing a fourth, which will come out in Spring 2020. It’s entitled Refugees and Survivors: Escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport. I have one more WWII book to go. When I’m not speaking to students in schools around the country, I’ll often work on picture books in the midst of long projects.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

I’m really not sure writer’s block is a real thing, at least for me. I slog through, no matter what. Sometimes I go off and take the dogs for a walk and let things jiggle around in my brain, and then I come back to the computer and slog through some more.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

My longtime editor Anne Schwartz once commented: “You have to want it more than sleep.” That’s especially true when you’re trying to write with young kids. 

What’s your advice to new writers?

Don’t listen to advice that doesn’t work for you. Not everyone can write every day, or set process and output goals (something that worked for me), or write before work, or all weekend long, or whatever. Each of us finds our own way to write. Find yours—and don’t give up.

Deborah Hopkinson has written more than fifty books for young readers, including picture books, middle grade historical fiction, and nonfiction. Her award-winning titles include Titanic: Voices from the Disaster, Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building, Apples to Oregon, and Courage & Defiance: Stories of Spies, Saboteurs, and Survivors in WWII Denmark. Deborah’s new books include D-Day: The World War II Invasion that Changed History, Carter Reads the Newspaper, a picture book illustrated by Don Tate, and How I Became a Spy: A Mystery of WWII London. She lives near Portland, Oregon.

Ellen Hopkins

How did you become a writer?

I became a writer the day I learned how to put a decent sentence (or maybe an indecent sentence) down on paper. I've always been drawn to words and loved that I could share my dreams and nightmares, successes and failures, hope and despair, with others. I wrote when it didn't mean a paycheck, but found my way into writing as a career through freelance journalism, then nonfiction books, and finally fiction.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

First was my mom, who read to me every day when I was very young, and had me reading chapter books before kindergarten. She loved classic lit and poetry, which is why verse speaks to me. I went to a private middle school and my 6th-8th grade English teacher, Mr. Mechling, gave us lots of interesting writing assignments and convinced me then I had a talent for words. As for authors, Stephen King, John Irving and Ken Kesey. They write very different things, but all use character to drive their stories forward. To me, character is everything.

When and where do you write?

Usually I write in my office, and I dive in as soon as the family is out the door for the day. On a good day, I write at least six hours (with too much social media distracting me). But I also write on the road. Hotel rooms are great because there are fewer distractions.

What are you working on now?

At the moment I'm revising the 2019 YA, SANCTUARY HIGHWAY. It's near future, and paints a not-quite-dystopian picture of the United States of America, which has been declared a Nation of Evangelical Whites. A group of young people must first escape the NEW hierarchy, then form an underground network to thwart it.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

Of course, though it's a temporary problem. I step away from my computer and do something physical--work in the garden or run with my dog. When I work my body, that creative space in my brain unlocks itself. Best alternative: the hot tub. Something about all those bubbles.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

To write the stories that scare me, without thought to censorship, either self-imposed, or from the outside. To write fearlessly and honestly.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Spend a lot of time on craft. Once, an editor might have seen a spark somewhere and taken the time to fan it into flames, regardless of story structure or pacing or even details like grammar. Those days are no longer. Not with so many excellent writers submitting. Don't shortchange yourself by sending off work that isn't your best.

Ellen Hopkins is a former journalist and the award-winning author of twenty nonfiction books for young readers, fourteen bestselling young adult novels, and four novels for adult readers. She lives near Carson City NV with her extended family, an exceptional German shepherd, a lazy rescue cat, and two ponds (not pounds) of koi.

Janet Evanovich

How did you become a writer?

I was always the kid who could draw and I majored in studio art in college. Truth is I was never a big reader and never wrote as a kid but I always had an outrageous imagination. I was a master at living in fantasyland. Halfway through college I developed a rash from the pigment in paint and that was the end of Janet the Artist. I started writing in my twenties but wasn’t published until I was in my forties. I was a slow learner.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

Carl Barks (Uncle Scrooge comics), Robert B. Parker (Spenser), Nora Roberts (love her early romances), I Love Lucy, Moonlighting television show are some that immediately come to mind.

When and where do you write?

I write seven days a week in my upstairs office with my dog, Ollie, who sits patiently on the sofa waiting for me to take him for a walk.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on Plum 26. Can’t believe I’ve written this many Plums. It seems like yesterday that I created Stephanie.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

I'm happy to say that I have never had that problem. I suffer from writer’s snacking.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Don’t save anything for the next book. Put all the good stuff in the one you’re writing.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Try to write every day. Get over chapter one and move on. If every agent in New York tells you your work sucks, it probably does. That doesn’t mean your next one will suck. Have a glass of wine and some birthday cake and start over.

Bio: [From my website]: When I was a kid I spent a lot of time in LaLa Land. LaLa Land is like an out-of-body experience -- while your mouth is eating lunch your mind is conversing with Captain Kirk. Sometimes I'd pretend to sing opera. My mother would send me to the grocery store down the street, and off I'd go, caterwauling at the top of my lungs. Before the opera thing I went through a horse stage where I galloped everywhere and made holes in my Aunt Lena's lawn with my hooves. Aunt Lena was a good egg. She understood that the realities of daily existence were lost in the shadows of my looney imagination. After graduation from South River High School, I spent four years in the Douglass College art department, honing my ability to wear torn Levis, learning to transfer cerebral excitement to primed canvas. Painting beat the heck out of digging holes in lawns, but it never felt exactly right. It was frustrating at best, excruciating at worst. My audience was too small. Communication was too obscure. I developed a rash from pigment.

Somewhere down the line I started writing stories. The first story was about the pornographic adventures of a fairy who lived in a second rate fairy forest in Pennsylvania. The second story was about...well never mind, you get the picture.

I sent my weird stories out to editors and agents and collected rejection letters in a big cardboard box. When the box was full I burned the whole damn thing, crammed myself into pantyhose and went to work for a temp agency.

Four months into my less than stellar secretarial career, I got a call from an editor offering to buy my last mailed (and heretofore forgotten) manuscript. It was a romance written for the now defunct Second Chance at Love line, and I was paid a staggering $2,000.

With my head reeling from all this money, I plunged into writing romance novels full time, saying good-by, good riddance to pantyhose and office politics. I wrote series romance for the next five years, mostly for Bantam Loveswept. It was a rewarding experience, but after twelve romance novels I ran out of sexual positions and decided to move into the mystery genre.

I spent two years retooling -- drinking beer with law enforcement types, learning to shoot, practicing cussing. At the end of those years I created Stephanie Plum. I wouldn't go so far as to say Stephanie is an autobiographical character, but I will admit to knowing where she lives.

It turns out I'm a really boring workaholic with no hobbies or special interests. My favorite exercise is shopping and my drug of choice is Cheeze Doodles.

I read comic books and I only watch happy movies. I motivate myself to write by spending my money before I make it. And when I grow up I want to be just like Grandma Mazur.