J is also for July
Chatting to author Laura W Carter about our brand new book!
Hello friends,
How are you? Hope you’re well and happy and having a cosy day so far.
Today’s newsletter is going to be a little different.
To celebrate my brand new book What Will I Be, From A to Z publishing today with amazing author Laura W Carter and fab publishers Familius, we’re taking on the form of an interview!
I found Laura’s insight into writing our new book fascinating, so I hope you do too. So, here we go!
Anna: Hello Laura! How are you? For this month’s newsletter, I thought I’d interview YOU, because today … our brand-sparkling-new book is out! To celebrate What Will I Be, From A to Z’s publication, I thought it would be fun to have a little behind the scenes insight into you – the author – and your process.
So, lets dive in! First of all, how did the book first come about? Was there something that sparked the idea for this, what were your beginning stages for the book, and did it change a lot from start to end of the process or has it remained close to the original idea?
Laura: Thanks for inviting me, Anna, and for all the work you did to bring this book to life! Your illustrations are even better than I'd imagined, and I'm grateful that you've shared your wonderful, imaginative talent with me and the rest of the world through our books.
What Will I Be, From A to Z has a bit of a blended origin story and is actually one of the first picture books I ever wrote. The idea came to me YEARS ago, back when I first started teaching at my current school and when my now-preteen son was just a toddler. I was juggling being a mom of a little guy who was exploring and learning everything he could about this giant world while I was also getting oriented to my job teaching at a STEM magnet high school full of kids learning computer science, biomedical science, and engineering. I was blown away by them - they were learning skills for jobs that didn't even exist when I was their age!
It wasn't long before I found myself desperately wanting to write a rhyming picture book that would appeal to young kids while also incorporating many of the unique career possibilities that my teenage students were exploring as legitimate career paths. So, what started as a line or two in my head soon fleshed out into about 10 different stanzas celebrating different jobs. And, well, once I reached that point, I thought about my own son's stage and his interest in his "ABCs," so I figured I might as well expand it to 26 and incorporate the alphabet, too!
I worked on different versions of this manuscript off and on for several years before I finally sold it to Familius. And honestly, even after selling it to Familius, I still made a few tweaks to the rhyme and rhythm before I was really happy with how it read.
Overall, while the words and some of the careers changed over the years, the vision ultimately remained the same - celebrate careers and inspire kids.
Anna: For people who haven’t read the book (yet!), it’s a celebration of different jobs in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), exploring one job for each letter of the alphabet.
This ABC-style structure definitely changed the way I approached illustrating the book, because we had different character(s) for each letter, so there wasn’t a main character (and designing the main character is usually one of the first things I’ll do when I start on a new book) – even the setting wasn’t consistent – we weren’t travelling through the book, but rather visiting each letter as a new place, so I approached each page more as a stand-alone illustration in a series rather than a flowing visual narrative.
Did choosing an ABC-style structure change the way you approached the writing at all? Was it any different to how you approached A Steminist Force, or your chapter books?
Laura: Truth be told, I actually really like writing alphabet books. They're a challenge - how many things can you write about for children that start with the letter Y or X or J? Educational concept books, like A Steminist Force, are challenging, too, because they don't have a traditional story arch. They're a lot more free-form, which means you really have to think about how you want to start and end the book so that it doesn't feel boring or an information-dump. When I decided to change this concept into an alphabet book, the general structure didn't change, necessarily. My general rhythm and rhyme scheme stayed the same; the manuscript just got a lot longer! And this transition honestly helped me narrow down which jobs I should choose.
When I first wrote it, I only had 10 different jobs (most of which were STEM-oriented), and I wasn't sure why I'd chosen THOSE jobs. But when I decided to cover A-Z, I had to have one job for each letter of the alphabet, no exceptions. This gave me some concrete structure and direction and also gave me the opportunity to incorporate the arts and make it STEAM-oriented. It also made it a more marketable book, in my opinion, by blending bouncy rhymes with the alphabet in a fun, engaging way.
Anna: The ABC style of this book has been quite a conversation opener for me – I love that whenever I tell someone about the premise, their first reaction always is to try to guess what jobs are representing some of the letters. I imagine some letters must have had so many to choose from, and others must have been tricky to think of even one?
Laura: Some jobs were definitely trickier than others. Like I mentioned before, there aren't a whole lot of jobs that begin with letters like Y or J or Z. I spent hours looking up jobs on different websites and figuring out which ones were the most interesting for kids but also, more practically, which ones fit into my rhyme scheme! I had lots of options for some letters but I tried to stray away from only STEM jobs or only incorporating jobs that were already super well known to kids. Instead of using "doctor" for "D," for instance, I used "designer," which helped me incorporate the arts. But because I did want to include a few jobs in the medical field, of course, I went with "internist" for I. Some jobs, like "Java Developer," were directly inspired by my code-writing students, while others, like "Musician" and "Teacher" were inspired by my own life and interests. And (just to be honest) I chose a job or two like "Yoga Instructor" because that's pretty much all I could come up with! I'm sure there were lots that I eliminated, but those lists are buried in a notebook somewhere in my house at this point, like all my rough drafts.
Anna: You’ve written it in beautifully rhyming prose – did the fact you wanted it to rhyme direct any of the chosen STEAM careers? What is your writing process like, do you work chronologically, or do you like to flit to wherever you’re feeling drawn to each day (that’s how I work anyway!)?
Laura: Thank you, Anna! Those are great questions. Most of my rhyming picture books have started with one rhythmic line that I can't get out of my head, and because it rarely ever ends up in the opening or closing stanzas, I have to build the book forward and backward from that one line. The good news is that once I decide on the rhyme scheme and the concept, though, the words usually pour out. I go into a zone and write and write and write until I have to make myself step away and get some space. The rough draft is never perfect, but I rarely edit words in specific stanzas until I can get everything out of my head that's been floating up there.
Once that first draft is down, my editing and revision processes are much more free-flowing and all about perfecting the rhyme scheme and rhythm, because both are important. I'll jump all over the manuscript, sometimes for months, and in this case for years!
Anna: When I first read your text – much like when I first read A Steminist Force – I was really excited by it. It’s the kind of topic I’m really into – on a personal level too because when I was growing up, I read a lot of books that suggested that ‘boys were better than girls’ and that – as a girl – career paths were limited (Famous Five, I’m looking at you in particular). Times are changing a lot now, but I’m always excited about being a part of that change. I assume from your books that this is something you’re passionate about too, I was wondering if you wanted to share a little about feeling drawn towards writing books promoting inclusivity and breaking down gender boundaries for children?
Laura: My passion for this has a lot to do with my own upbringing. I have two older brothers, and my parents always expected the same of all of us - work hard, learn as much as you can, and challenge yourself. My parents expected all three of us to go to college, major in something worthwhile, and find a career that would financially support us and mentally fulfil us as much as possible. So, in my head as a child, there was never a thought that my gender would somehow be a barrier because education and career goals were so normalized in my upbringing.
It wasn't until I was well into high school and even college that I realized that not everyone viewed education or careers in the same light and that there had been systemic barriers to keep some people out of different areas of the workforce. I honestly think that revelation had a lot to do with my decision to change my major from chemistry to education, specifically to teach history. I knew I was more than capable of majoring in a scientific field and going into pharmaceuticals or something like that, but I decided I wanted to spend my life teaching and inspiring the next generation of young people that they could do what seemed impossible for people like them only a generation or two prior. And I wanted them to also know I'd help them as much as I could along the way.
This life goal of mine definitely bleeds over into my children's books. I love highlighting unsung pioneers and telling their stories, whether in the classroom or through my writing.
Anna: And lastly - although I have always loved drawing, when I was a kid I was dead set on becoming a farmer like Sophie by Dick King Smith; what did you want to be when you grew up when you were the age to read this book?
Laura: I love that you wanted to be a farmer, Anna, and I think you'd be great at it! We need more farmers! As for me, I certainly went through the veterinarian and astronaut phase, like many kids. But if I'm being totally honest, I think I always wanted to teach and write.
I distinctly remember when I was in third grade, my Dad brought home a giant whiteboard from his office and stored it in our garage. In the afternoons after school, I would take my stuffed animals out to the garage, line them up, and "teach" them how to do my third-grade mathematics using this giant board and some expo markers. I also remember writing my first short story in fourth grade after reading Julie of the Wolves for class.
As I got older, I began to write lots of poems and stories, and I really fell deeply in love with writing when I entered high school. When I graduated high school, though, I didn't think teaching or writing were practical career paths, so I initially started college as a chemistry major because of my love of math. But it wasn't long before I realized my heart wasn't in it, and I changed my major to history and signed up for graduate school for secondary education, even if it meant much lower pay in the future. The idea of spending my life working with teenagers AND telling stories for a living as a history teacher became my ultimate goal once again, and it's a dream I've lived ever since.
It's now been 30+ years since I taught math to those stuffed animals. While my students these days are a lot louder and more mischievous than my stuffed animals were, they're also WAY more creative, funny, and fun to work with, even on the tough days. It's been a full-circle ride for me, and I'm grateful to do what I get to do every day.
Anna: Thank you so much for sharing so much with us today Laura, I’ve loved hearing about your writing process, seeing you live your dream so successfully and peeking into your world!
Laura: Thank you, Anna!
Check out Laura’s website and instagram!
Did that newsletter not fill up your What Will I Be From A-Z cup enough? Look no further! My May newsletter was all about creating the cover, and my June one looked into drawing the internal illustrations!
Of course, the news this month is that our book is out!
Order your copy now in the US here, or pre-order it in the UK for release on July 31st here - or in any good bookshops!
✱ I had an absolute BLAST last month on a road trip through the US, from New Orleans to Houston to Austin to Dallas to Hot Springs to Bentonville to Chicago. See a whole bunch of pics of my trip on my instagram!
✱ I’m on a massive rhubarb kick at the moment, I can’t get enough of it. Right now, my favourite rhubarb snack is Bonne Maman Yoghurt Rhubarb. Have you had it? Delicious. Let me know if you have any favourite rhubarb things.
✺ Next month, I’m looking forward to sunny summer days, frozen snacks and meeting friends for a cold drink!
Ok, that’s all from me. Have a sunny day!
Hugs, Anna x
It was really great to hear about the processes behind making the book, thanks so much both for such an interesting newsletter! I also LOVED Sophie's Tom, though I was more into feeding stray cats because of it, rather than wanting to be a farmer. I did want to be: a tiger conservationist, a baker (so I could eat all the bread), a sweet shop owner (ditto) or an astronomer! Congratulations both on the US publication!!