Quirky Questions for Kidlit Authors: Guest Post #4 by Laura Segal Stegman - Laura Taylor Namey

Young Adult Author Laura Taylor Namey: TRIPLE CROWN

 

“I need to hang out with Jane Austen because I just want to hear exactly how she came up with this Mr. Darcy person. I want to know all about him. I want to know his origin story in her head…Give me Jane and a latte and six hours, and we're good.”

 

By Laura Segal Stegman

 

 

Click Here to Watch 

 

Check Out All Four Posts in July!

 VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

 

LAURA SEGAL STEGMAN

Hi, everyone. I'm Laura Segal Stegman, author of the Summer of L.U.C.K. trilogy, and I'm presenting four author conversations on SCBWI's blog in July.

My guest this week is Laura Taylor Namey, the New York Times and international bestselling author of a number of young adult novels featuring quirky teens learning to navigate life and love, including The Library of Lost Things and A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, which has been adapted for film. Her next book, If We Never End, is coming next year. A proud Cuban-American, she's a former teacher who says she finds herself wishing she was in London or Paris. But she's here today with us. So hi, Laura. It's a good name, yeah?

LAURA TAYLOR NAMEY

Hi, Laura. Yeah!

LS

So we're going to do a triple crown of questions, starting with, do you have any suggestions for people who'd love to write a book for young readers in your genre?

LTN

I sure do. Always, my number one tip is to read widely in the genre and age group that you want to write in, whether that's middle grade, young adult, picture books, anything like that in the age group. And then choose the genre within that age group that you love, whether it's contemporary or sci-fi, high fantasy, low fantasy, whatever you choose, and just read, read, read until you think you've read too many. And then keep reading five more books, or ten more. And then also read outside your genre, because sometimes if you're writing YA contemporary romance, if you read a horror novel, you can get some amazing ideas on how to amp up stakes or plot stakes. No pun intended there. You can take all these elements that writers do so beautifully across genres, and you can mix them into the genre that you want to do.

Study those books. Then take your top five titles that you think are wonderful and try to articulate to yourself in a notebook or document why you think they're the best. Is it because of the prose level? Is it because of the stakes? Is it because of the characterization? Or is there a certain thing that just makes it have this special sauce for you? List those things out. And then as you go forward, just write, write, write, and try to emulate those things by incorporating them into your work.

LS

That's great advice, such great suggestions. I read a lot in middle grade. But every time I've gone out of that genre, like when I read The Library of Lost Things that you wrote, I just loved it. And it did give me a lot of insight into how to articulate certain things that I hadn't thought of doing that way.

LTN

Well, thank you. Appreciate that.

LS

The next question is, if you could have coffee with any author, dead or alive, who would it be?

LTN

This is so easy. I need to hang out with Jane Austen because I just want to hear exactly how she came up with this Mr. Darcy person. I want to know all about him. I want to know his origin story in her head. I would probably talk her ear off about that. So that's just really basic and simple of me, but give me Jane and a latte and six hours, and we're good.

LS

Brilliant. That is brilliant. Okay, and to wrap things up, tell us about one of the times someone who read your work got in touch and what that meant to you.

LTN

Other than Reese Witherspoon sending me a letter about how much she loved my book?

LS

Tell us about that!

LTN

Yeah, being in Reese's Book Club, she does write a personal note to every author she picks as part of her family, which is the loveliest thing. And when you're writing your draft, and you get an email, and in the top header is her email address, something happens to you. That was one of the coolest moments ever. She told me all of the things she enjoyed. For me, being such a fan of hers when I was growing up, watching her movies, being a fan of someone who creates beautiful things… for her to say something that I created meant something to her was one of the best days of my life. So that was a really cool one. 

 

Laura Taylor Namey

As far as fans, I love to meet readers at festivals or at signings or book launches or anything like that. And I remember this one lovely gentleman at YALLFest brought a letter from his sister who couldn't come, and he stood in my line forever. He was trying to track me down just to give me this note that was handwritten in pencil. It had the cutest little pictures and all these things around it. This girl couldn't come to the festival to see me or any of her favorite authors. And she just had to tell me how much one of my books in particular meant to her and how it helped repair a relationship. And that was something that touched me so much. It was like, this is why you do this. It was so joyful. So I recorded a little video note for her and got to send that back to her. So if you're that person, thank you! That means a lot to me, and I still have it.

LS

That's beautiful! Thank you for telling both those stories. Really touching. Thank you so much! Laura’s website has all kinds of information about her wonderful books! Look for links to her site and socials in the show notes. Thanks again!

LTN

Thank you.

 

Website www.laurataylornamey.com

IG https//www.instagram.com/laura_namey/

Tiktok https//www.tiktok.com/@laurataylornamey

 

Laura Taylor Namey is the New York Times and international bestselling author of young adult fiction including Reese's Book Club pick A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow. A proud Cuban-American, she can be found hunting for vintage treasures and wishing she was in London or Paris. She lives in San Diego with her husband and two children. This former teacher writes young adult novels featuring quirky teens learning to navigate life and love. She holds a BA in Elementary Education from the University of San Diego and is the winner of the Peggy Miller Award for excellence in young adult fiction. A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow has been adapted for film.

Laura Segal Stegman is the author of Summer of L.U.C.K., Ready or Not, and The Chambered Nautilus, a middle-grade trilogy from Young Dragons Press, all with Readers' Favorite Five Star reviews. She has been a presenter/panelist at literary events including NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English), Orange County Children’s Book Festival, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ (SCBWI) SoCal Harvest Day, San Diego Writers Festival, and LitFest in the Dena. She also does school visits and such events as the STEM Teacher Summit and serves as a judge for writing competitions sponsored by Society of Young Inklings, among others. As a long-time publicity consultant, she created PR Tips for Authors, which has been presented by The Writing Barn, SCBWI, and elsewhere. Non-fiction writing credits include work in Los Angeles Times and School Library Journal’s Teen Librarian Toolbox, among others. www.LauraStegman.com

Laura Segal Stegman

 

The NEW Essential Guide to Publishing for Children 2025

The NEW Essential Guide to Publishing for Children 2025

JUST IN: The NEW Essential Guide to Publishing for Children has been released! You can access this extensive guide in your SCBWI Member Home page!

 Did you know as a Premium member, there are so many valuable resources for SCBWI Members? When I was first entering the children's publishing world, I scoured through all of the resources I could get my hands on and SCWBI conveniently had it all in the Member portal.

Thanks, girl! I owe you one!

"An exclusive resource for SCBWI Premium members, The Essential Guide is an up-to-date snapshot of the children’s book industry."

It contains a full Table of Contents covering topics such as Preparing Your Work & Submitting Your Work, The Publishing Process and Market Surveys which "offers a comprehensive catalogue of contact and query information for top traditional publishing houses..."

It has been a great guide/ checklist for me as I've worked through my own process. The way it is broken down allowed me to ask myself questions at each step. Every update, I browse through to see if there is anything new for me to learn or even to recognize the steps that I've completed and accomplished!

In preparation for my new portfolio, I am looking forward to reading the articles about "RETHINKING ILLUSTRATION “STYLES” by Laurent Linn and "PUTTING TOGETHER A PRIZE-WINNING PORTFOLIO" by Molly Idle.

"As an art director, when I’m looking for an illustrator to bring their own stories to life or to craft specific stories written by someone else, I’m looking for far more than art medium or variation of realism or book format. I’m looking for what makes that artist unique, what they have to say. How they bring themselves into the art. That is their style."

- Laurent Linn

"Bottom line—make sure that from start to finish (and all the pages in between) your portfolio showcases the best of you!"

- Molly Idle

I made a commit at the top of this year to rethink my portfolio and give it a face lift and as I continue to chip away at the art, I am always looking for goalposts to keep me on track. The Essential Guide's constant updates of new information, directories and articles have been an amazing snapshot of the children's publishing world and is a perfect companion for each part of your publishing journey!

So don't forgot to download and pursue the NEW Essential Guide book! It is a treasure trove of wonderful information!

Quirky Questions for Kidlit Authors: Guest Post #3 by Laura Segal Stegman - Amar Shah

Middle Grade Sports Author/Graphic Novelist Amar Shah: FOURSQUARE

 

"You don't have to be the best athlete to be able to tell a sports story. My advice is to find what's emotionally at your core and expand on that. What's personal to you is going to be universal to everybody else."

 

By Laura Segal Stegman

 

Click Here to Watch

 

Check Out All Four Posts in July!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

 

LAURA SEGAL STEGMAN

Hi, everybody. I'm Laura Segal Stegman, author of the Summer of L.U.C.K. trilogy, and I'm presenting four author conversations on SCBWI's blog in July.

My guest this week is Amar Shah, middle grade author of the Play the Game basketball trilogy and the graphic memoir, Wish I Was a Baller. He's also a multiple Emmy-winning writer and producer in key roles at ESPN, Fox Sports, NFL Network, and the Orlando Magic. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, among others. And he still dreams of playing in the NBA one day. Watch for Wish I Was a Baller with a blurb from Newberry Medal winner and New Kid author Jerry Craft, and Time to Win, third in the Play the Game trilogy. They're both coming out in August.

Hello!

AMAR SHAH

Hi, Laura. How are you? It's a pleasure to meet you and see you again.

LS

Thank you. Same here. Thanks for joining me today. We're going to do four quick questions. Let's start with, what book do you wish you'd written and why?

AS

That's a fantastic question. I have to say Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie is the book that I really wish I had written or had the imagination to conjure up. As a South Asian, as an Indian American, Rushdie is in that sort of that halo of Mount Rushmore of writers that I've always looked up to. And that book, which is about the history of India and Pakistan, has got magical realism. It's got this really embedded storytelling, and what he does is both epic in its scale, and it's also intimate in its scope too. And for any writer to be able to do what he did on those pages is incredible. And I still go back to that book for inspiration in everything that I write.

LS

Wow, that sounds fantastic! Along those same lines, if you could have coffee with any author, dead or alive, who would it be?

AS

You know, it's funny. I have a photo of the writer that I've always wanted to meet and unfortunately will never get the chance to. That's going to be F. Scott Fitzgerald. I don't think any other writer has had the impact that Fitzgerald has had on me since I was in high school. In his life, and in his prose, but more importantly in the work that he put together. I mean, to write Gatsby at age twenty-seven, twenty-eight, the way he did, is amazing. I feel very lucky to have read that book at the right time. To get a chance to sit down with Fitzgerald and to pick his brain [and ask] what was inspiration to write these books. How he was inspired by so many other writers, like John Keats. Just to be able to sit down with someone like that and get his philosophy on writing – I would've been very lucky to have had                          that opportunity. But I do have his books to look back to for that inspiration for whenever I'm caught looking at that blank space on the screen.

Amar Shah

LS

I totally get that. I read Gatsby when I was young. And then I read it in the last maybe ten years, and I felt that same love for his words. The way he writes is just beautiful.

AS

With [Gatsby], I don't think there's a single book in American history that is as word-for-word perfect. I don't think there's a wasted opportunity in such succinct prose. It's still beautiful, and it still has resonance today.

LS

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Now, I have two more questions. The first one, do you have a story about a time when someone who read your work got in touch? Tell us what it meant to you.

AS

It was really fantastic when Play the Game–The Hoop Con was in the Scholastic Book Fair. Getting that sort of reach in terms of the book being in all of these different classrooms across the country, and having all of my friends who I grew up with [telling their kids], “Oh. I knew [him] growing up.” And [their kids] being able to pick up that book, and not just take a photo [with it] and send it to me, but to actually read it. For that book to resonate with them, and [for them] to see themselves in those characters – that was a terrific thrill.

I did get a message from a dad whose daughter was at a school where I spoke. My story resonated so much with her that she wanted to become a full-time writer. In high school, she was wavering. And then, all of a sudden, I helped inspire that.

Being able to be able to talk to students, being able to engage with teachers and have that impact, has been amazing. You never know who you're going to be able to touch with your story, especially people that don't necessarily see themselves on the page all the time.

LS

Wow, that's very impactful. I love that story. Thank you for sharing that. Okay, to wrap things up, do you have any suggestions for people who are interested in writing middle grade novels or graphic novels or any kind of books for young readers?

AS

I've been very lucky that I've been able to write in both the prose format and also in the graphic novel format, and I think both are incredibly accessible for young readers. My niche is in sports, and what I love about sports is that it's never about sports. It's about everything else. And sports is simply a metaphor for what's going on.

For writers, if they're looking to get into the world of sports, there's so much now at their disposal and so many different sports, so many things in life and in middle school. You don't have to be the best athlete to be able to tell a sports story. So, my advice is to find what's emotionally at your core and expand on that. What's personal to you is going to be universal to everybody else.

LS

Wonderful! Thank you so much for being here. Amar's website has all kinds of information about his incredibly rich background. It has pieces he's written and lots more. Look for links to his site and socials in the show notes. Thanks again.

AS

Laura, thanks again. I appreciate it.

  

WEBSITE: amarshahwrites.com

IG: https://www.instagram.com/amarshahism/

X/Twitter: https://x.com/amarshahism

 

Amar Shah is the author of the Play the Game basketball trilogy and the graphic memoir Wish I Was a Baller. A multiple Emmy-winning writer and producer, Amar has held key roles at ESPN, Fox Sports, NFL Network, and the Orlando Magic. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Orlando Sentinel, SLAM, and the Washington Post. Amar lives with his family in Orlando, Florida, where he still dreams of playing in the NBA one day. Visit him online at amarshahwrites.com.

Laura Segal Stegman is the author of Summer of L.U.C.K., Ready or Not, and The Chambered Nautilus, a middle-grade trilogy from Young Dragons Press, all with Readers' Favorite Five Star reviews. She has been a presenter/panelist at literary events including NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English), Orange County Children’s Book Festival, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ (SCBWI) SoCal Harvest Day, San Diego Writers Festival, and LitFest in the Dena. She also does school visits and such events as the STEM Teacher Summit and serves as a judge for writing competitions sponsored by Society of Young Inklings, among others. As a long-time publicity consultant, she created PR Tips for Authors, which has been presented by The Writing Barn, SCBWI, and elsewhere. Non-fiction writing credits include work in Los Angeles Times and School Library Journal’s Teen Librarian Toolbox, among others. www.LauraStegman.com

Laura Segal Stegman

 

SCBWI 2025 Virtual Conference: Illustrator Intensive

I know that once I get into the groove of a conference, the creative energy starts to flow and circulate. My mind starts to wonder (in the best way) as you are writing down all of those incredible and invaluable notes, you begin to wonder how to apply them to your process.

Well, my illustrator friends, look no further! On Sunday, August 3rd, you can sign up for an Illustrator's Intensive, hosted and run by incredible artists, authors and art directors, where three successful illustrators will reveal their processes!

Clockwise from top left: Cece Bell (Author/Illustrator), Pat Cummings (Author/Illustrator), Cecilia Yung (Art Director, Illustrator), Zachariah OHora (Author/Illustrator), Laurent Linn (Art Director, Illustrator), Debbie Ridpath Ohi (Author/Illustrator)

This conference's intensive will be focused on:

FUNNY DRAWERS: The Serious Art of Visual Humor

Humor is powerful. Funny books have an uncanny way of finding their way into our hearts and onto best selling lists. Deployed strategically, comedy also creates a safe space to broach sensitive topics, discuss scary emotions, and introduce unfamiliar concepts. In children’s books, it’s a playful and effective way to introduce windows and mirrors that may change hearts and minds. Levity provides the honey that helps “the medicine go down.”

This is a wonderful opportunity to dive deeper into process, and really begin to see how it all those "notes" together!

For schedule, faculty bios and sign up for the Illustrator's Intensive HERE

Quirky Questions for Kidlit Authors: Guest Post #2 by Laura Segal Stegman - Jonathan Roth

Author/Illustrator Jonathan Roth: TRIPLE PLAY

 

“Just follow your heart and write the story that comes out of you.”

 

By Laura Segal Stegman

 Click Here to Watch

 

Check Out All Four Posts in July!

 

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

This interview and the transcript have been edited for length and clarity.

 

LAURA SEGAL STEGMAN

Hi, everybody. I'm Laura Segal Stegman, author of the Summer of Luck trilogy, and I'm presenting four author conversations on SCBWI's blog in July.

My guest this week is incredibly talented author and illustrator Jonathan Roth, whose STEAM-themed works for kids include chapter books, graphic novels, and the true story, Almost Underwear, How a Piece of Cloth Travelled from Kitty Hawk to the Moon and Mars, which I just loved. It's a Kirkus Best Picture Book of 2024. He also teaches art to elementary school students, and he's working on Book 4 of Rover and Speck, his graphic novel series.

Hi Jonathan. So this is really an opportunity to get to know you a little. We're going to do a triple play of questions, and the first one is: what book do you wish you'd written and why?”

JONATHAN ROTH

It’s a hard question, because there's so many great books! But I was thinking of influences. My first series, Beep and Bob, has a little kid who goes to space school, and he's scared. In the back of my mind when I was writing it, I was thinking about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which imprinted on me when I was in high school. And it was meaningful that way. So of course I was thinking that I wanted to do a kid’s version. I wanted something irreverent, and funny, and strange, and space-based, and all that. I mean, not exactly. It's not at all like that, but that was my thinking at the time.

Then, after it came out, I realized that what had really imprinted on me came from further back, and that Beep, my little alien, was actually Snoopy. And that Bob, the little boy with a lot of anxiety, was kind of like Charlie Brown. So Peanuts -- that's what I started reading before I could probably even read. And for a long time, I wanted to be a cartoonist. I do graphic novels, but I'd say that if I could have anything like Peanuts, it’s probably the apex of the kind of things I'm trying to create.

LS

Well, that's cool. That's really great. Now, since you're a teacher, I'd love to hear your suggestions for people who are interested in writing chapter books or graphic novels or any kind other books for young readers. Do you have any thoughts on that?

JR

Of course, how long do we have? [chuckles] If I just had to give a couple of quick suggestions, number one is, “Go read.” Go to your bookstore, Barnes and Noble or your local indie. Read as many current kids’ books as you can, especially in your genre. If you're into picture books, read one hundred picture books. And the reason why I say “current” is there are a lot of people I've met who want to write picture books. They remember all their favorites and the classics and everything. And that's okay, but you really need a sense of what's going on today to see what's happening. Not so you can copy anything, or write to a trend, but because it's just good to know. Let's say you want to write a TV show, and the most recent TV shows you saw were “ER” and “MASH” and “I Love Lucy.” They're all classics, and I can't tell you that's not going to work, but if you haven't seen a TV show in the last twenty years, could you write and sell one to Netflix now? It's the same with kids’ books. Read a lot of current stuff. 

Jonathan Roth

The other thing I'd say is don't write to any trends. Just follow your heart and write the story that comes out of you, or the subject, or whatever you're interested in. Because they can tell if you're faking it. Just give yourself permission to write what you want to write. And that's the best we can do.

LS

Yeah, that's really great advice. When I started writing middle grade books, I was remembering my middle grade books from childhood, and I had to be given that advice too, to read current books. And now I love reading [kidlit]. There's so much in middle grade, picture books, and young adult, all kinds of things. There weren't those kinds of subjects when I was growing up. So it's really [helpful] to hear that advice.

JR

Yeah, I talk to kids about not only Peanuts but reading comic books. That's how I learned to read. But what kids have now, like graphic novels – the range is so much greater than when we were kids.

LS

Yeah, I read [one of your Rover and Speck graphic novels], and I read Pearl [by Sherri L. Smith, author, Christine Norrie, illustrator]. I never thought I would be into graphic novels, just like I thought I wouldn't be into novels in verse. But once I started reading them, I was amazed at how much good stuff there is out there.

To wrap things up, I'm going to ask you to tell us about one of the times that someone who read your work got in touch and what that meant to you.

JR

One really meaningful thing happened with my book Almost Underwear, which is a true story about how the Wright brothers went to a Dayton department store in 1903 and bought some muslin, which became the wing cloth that covered their airplane. Years later [1969], Neil Armstrong took a piece of the original Wright brothers’ [muslin] to the moon. And then, just a few years ago, another little piece went up to Mars on Ingenuity.

One of my early readers, a teacher I know, told me she’d teared up a little. (That's happened to a few other people too.) Her father was an aviator, and her son is a commercial pilot, and she let me know that people like her father and son may act very stoic, but they have big hearts, and that [they understood that] this book is essentially about commemoration. How Neil Armstrong was such a good steward of being the first person to walk on the moon that he carefully chose a part of the first airplane to show that he stood on the Wright brother's shoulders. Like we all stand on each other's shoulders, no matter what we're trying to accomplish. This teacher said my book really got to the spirit of that kind of commemoration. She said you can have a big ego, or you can just recognize what came before you. So I was kind of touched to hear that she was touched.

LS

That's lovely. I felt the same way reading that book, and I highly recommend it. Almost Underwear. It’s a provocative title!

JR

I found in my research that the kind of muslin [the Wright brothers used], just one little throwaway sentence, was commonly used to make ladies’ undergarments at the time. There's my hook! This could have been underwear, and instead it went to Mars. So there we go.

LS

That's awesome. Thank you so much. Jonathan's website has activity kits, interviews with authors, and a lot more, and you can look for links to his site and socials in the show notes. Thank you again, Jonathan.

JR

Thank you so much for interviewing me. Bye-bye.

  

WEBSITE: www.jonathan-roth.com

IG: https://www.instagram.com/jonrothbooks

FB: Jonathan Roth Facebook

 

Jonathan Roth is an Earth-bound but space loving author-illustrator of fun, STEAM-themed books for kids including the chapter book series Beep and Bob (Aladdin/S&S), the graphic novel series Rover and Speck (Kids Can Press), and the amazing true story Almost Underwear: How a Piece of Cloth Traveled from Kitty Hawk to the Moon and Mars (Christy Ottaviano Books/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), which is a Kirkus Best Picture Book of 2024. He also teaches art to elementary students in Maryland.

Laura Segal Stegman is the author of Summer of L.U.C.K., Ready or Not, and The Chambered Nautilus, a middle-grade trilogy from Young Dragons Press, all with Readers' Favorite Five Star reviews. She has been a presenter/panelist at literary events including NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English), Orange County Children’s Book Festival, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ (SCBWI) SoCal Harvest Day, San Diego Writers Festival, and LitFest in the Dena. She also does school visits and such events as the STEM Teacher Summit and serves as a judge for writing competitions sponsored by Society of Young Inklings, among others. As a long-time publicity consultant, she created PR Tips for Authors, which has been presented by The Writing Barn, SCBWI, and elsewhere. Non-fiction writing credits include work in Los Angeles Times and School Library Journal’s Teen Librarian Toolbox, among others. www.LauraStegman.com

Laura Segal Stegman