New Voice: Brenda Maier on Making Picture Books Do Double Duty & The Little Red Fort

By Traci Sorell
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

I’m overjoyed to feature The Little Red Fort by author Brenda Maier and illustrator Sonia Sánchez (Scholastic, 2018) here on Cynsations.

This new picture book is a contemporary retelling of The Little Red Hen, featuring spunky Ruby and her three brothers who are not interested in helping her build a fort.

I love how Ruby takes matters into her own hands and figures out what needs to be done with a little help from her mother and grandmother.

School Library Journal selected the book for its February 2018 Popular Picks. Scholastic distributed it through its Book Fairs prior to the official March 27 publication date.

I agree with reviewers that it is a great read aloud and the contemporary and lively mixed media illustrations pulled me right into the action. The examples of forts kids can build in the back matter transported me right back to my own childhood.

Let’s hear from Brenda now!

What sparked the idea to write this book?

I have five children (now ages 10-18), and the inspiration for The Little Red Fort came from them. My youngest child was in a Little Red Hen phase, so every day we read that classic folktale before his nap. The Little Red Hen was just lingering in my brain.

One day during this period, I tucked him in and went to check on the other kids in the back yard. They had requisitioned some boards and lattice and worked together to construct a structure they called their ‘fort.’

Those two ideas—the classic tale and my kids’ fort endeavor—converged to become an idea: What if the hen was a girl who wanted to build a fort? The story started there.

Brenda and Traci at 2017 SCBWI L.A. Summer Conference

As an author-teacher/librarian/agent/publicist/editor, how do your various roles inform one another? 

I’m a debut author, but I’m also a teacher and a mother of five. Not surprisingly, both parenting and teaching are essential to my writing. Specifically, I hear and see things that could trigger a story idea.

As a parent, I have always looked for books that have the ability to reinforce the things I value as a parent. Would this one be good for a snuggly bedtime story? Would this one help reinforce the idea that we should be kind and generous? Does this book show that all people are important?

Some of these parent must-haves overlap with my day job, but there are differences.

Tracy Mack from Scholastic summarizes The Little Red Fort

Teachers have to be very efficient with their time, so if I can hit upon something they need to teach or address anyway, that’s a huge bonus.

What connections does this story have to the curriculum? Can I use it to kill two birds with one stone? The Little Red Fort is perfect for comparing and contrasting to the classic folktale, The Little Red Hen.

As a teacher, I know this can be done with a Venn Diagram, a paragraph, or even an essay. There is also a literacy link to multiple STEM options, including inviting the kids to collaborate, design, and build their own scale model forts.

This means this story has value for me as a teacher, because I can use it to launch a writing assignment or an interdisciplinary fort-building challenge. I try to ensure that all of my stories have something that will be important to the parent side of me and the teacher side of me.

Oklahoma SCBWI authors Kim Ventrella, Brenda Maier and Tammi Sauer

What advice do you have for beginning children’s-YA writers? 

The single best piece of advice I can give aspiring authors is to read.

• Read widely in the genre you write. 
• Join in the writing community. Write manuscripts and join critique groups with the goal of improving your manuscripts. 
• Join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and attend craft workshops and conferences. 
• Always be on the lookout for story ideas, and write them down immediately. These efforts are not optional. 
• Be not only willing, but eager to put in the work and time that will be required.

Brenda at Kansas-Missouri SCBWI Conference with Sue Gallion, Jess Townes and Tara Luebbe

What were the best and worst moments of your publishing journey?

Children’s publishing is such an emotional roller coaster. There are plenty of ‘downs.’ For me, the worst moments are when a manuscript I see a real need for gets rejected.

It’s been good for me to learn how to focus that energy on the next project instead of dwelling too much on things I may not be able to control. With each new submission, the anticipation builds again, and I’m on another one of the ‘up’ moments.

The best moments have been whenever readers expresses how important this book is to them. That’s mind blowing. I have also noticed that as I’m in the maelstrom of interviews and book events with readers—things I’ve dreamt of doing—it can be very easy to forget to stop and savor the moment.

I saw a posted photo of a firefighter in Connecticut reading The Little Red Fort aloud to a group of kids and I thought, “Wow. Somewhere far away there is a real life hero talking about how much the kids liked a book that I wrote.”

The ability to make a connection with people you’ve never met is definitely an ‘up’ moment.

Cynsational Notes

Publishers Weekly said, "Maier keeps her prose spare and preserves the rhythms and taglines of the original.... Ruby’s satisfaction is palpable, and readers won’t fail to grasp the message of self-sufficiency."

As a young child, Brenda Maier had a grand total of six books; consequently, she spent her summers walking to the local library to get more.

Now she spends her summers driving her own children to the local library, where you may find her in a corner with a stack of picture books. If she's not there, she's probably at a bookstore, adding to her much-larger-than-six-books collection.

Brenda lives in Oklahoma with her husband and their five children, who provide endless inspiration for more stories.

She also works with gifted children at a large, local school district.

Traci Sorell covers picture books as well as children's-YA writing, illustration, publishing and other book news from Indigenous authors and illustrators for Cynsations. She is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

Her first nonfiction picture book, We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga illustrated by Frané Lessac, will be published by Charlesbridge on Sept. 4, 2018. The story features a panorama of modern-day Cherokee cultural practices and experiences, presented through the four seasons. It conveys a universal spirit of gratitude common in many cultures.

In fall 2019, her first fiction picture book, At the Mountain’s Base, illustrated by Weshoyot Alvitre will be published by Penguin Random House’s new imprint, Kokila.

Traci is represented by Emily Mitchell of Wernick & Pratt Literary Agency.

Author-Teacher Interview: Gene Luen Yang on Writing, Teaching & the Hamline MFA Program

Lean more about Cartoonist and Teacher Gene Luen Yang.

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Welcome to Cynsations. We last spoke to Dean Mary Francoise Rockcastle about the Hamline MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults back in 2006.

When did you join the faculty? What appealed to you about teaching in a low-residency program?

I joined the faculty of the Hamline MFAC program in the summer of 2012. I visited maybe a year or two before that as a guest speaker. I was only there for a day or two, but I was immediately impressed by the sense of community.

Hamline is a community centered around stories. Everyone is there to learn, and everyone is there to teach.

The low-residency program makes for an intimate experience. This past semester, for instance, I worked with three students. Some faculty take on more, of course, but not that many more.

 When you're working at that scale, you can give a lot of individualized attention. I can get to know them as writers. I can be more invested in their stories.

What has teaching taught you about your own creative craft and process?

Laura Ruby at Hamline; cover of The Real Boy by Anne Ursu (Walden Pond)

I can give you very, very concrete answers here. This semester, one of my students wrote a critical essay on metafiction. Another wrote one about panel shapes in graphic novels. Both were thoughtful and well-researched. Both made me think differently about the project I'm currently working on.

A few semesters ago, my fellow faculty member Laura Ruby (winner of the 2016 Printz Award) gave a lecture on the objective correlative. I think about that all the time now, whenever I'm writing.

Like, all. The. Time.

And those are just a handful of examples. A community has collective wisdom, so when you're a part of a community, you get to tap into that wisdom.

In addition, preparing and delivering a lecture forces you to really wrestle with your ideas. I've always worked through plot and characterization and setting by instinct, which is kind of like walking through your own room in the dark. You know where everything is, generally speaking, but you're still going to stub your toe every now and then. Teaching plot and characterization and setting is like turning on the light.

Who else is on the faculty, and how would you describe the culture of your learning community?

I have to tell you, the Hamline faculty roster is stacked. Here's the full list of my fellow faculty members: Swati Avasthi, Kelly Barnhill, Coe Booth, Marsha Wilson Chall, Matt de la Peña, Lisa Jahn-Clough, Emily Jenkins, Ron Koertge, Nina LaCour, Mary Logue, Jacqueline Briggs Martin, Meg Medina, Claire Rudolf Murphy, Phyllis Root, Laura Ruby, Gary Schmidt, Eliot Schrefer, Sherri L. Smith, Laurel Snyder, and Anne Ursu.

Learn more about Emily Jenkins.

My co-teachers have won practically every award offered by the literary world. Plus, we have folks working in every kids' book age demographic, publishing format, and genre.

I've experienced Hamline to be a place that welcomes every kind of story. The MFAC folks are willing to grow and push and learn.

From your own experience (and those who came before), what growth and changes have you/they seen in your program?

I've seen students grow in skill, of course. They come away with better understandings of the craft itself. They learn to critique constructively. They learn to structure and revise. They learn to give from themselves through story.

And just as importantly, they learn to call themselves writers. Many of us write in isolation. Many of us are in families or friend groups that enjoy stories, but don't really see their relevance. Many of us feel embarrassed to call ourselves writers.

Being a part of a writing community, getting to discuss the minute details of what makes a story work... if you haven't yet given yourself permission to call yourself a writer, it may be because you need to join a writing community.

Could you describe a typical residency?

Residencies are about nine days long.

Kate DiCamillo teaches a master class at Hamline.

Most mornings, we break into small groups to critique student work. In the afternoons, we have lectures about the residency's topic.

Topics go through a five-residency cycle: point-of-view, setting, plot, character, theme.

Faculty will sometimes lead workshops focusing on a specific skill.

 Gary Schmidt has done one on writing a great opening chapter. Swati Avasthi taught one on manipulating time.

I've done a workshop on writing a graphic novel script.

How about a typical advisor-advisee semester of writing and study?

At the end of the residency, students are assigned a faculty advisor. Each student meets with their advisor to talk over goals and figure out a game plan. Then, over the course of a semester, the student turns in four packets, typically one a month. Packets usually contain forty pages of writing.

Based on the previously-discussed goals, faculty will go over the packet and write a response letter. Some faculty also do phone calls. I usually have an email exchange in addition to the response letter. My relationship with my students is a bit like my editor's relationship with me.

What do you like best about teaching at Hamline?

I love being a part of the Hamline community. I know I'm there to teach, but I feel like I learn so much.

I love hearing how other writers working in other formats and genres approach their craft. I love seeing my students grow in their storytelling prowess. I love seeing them grow in their confidence.

What would you say to a prospective children's-YA writer who is considering graduate study?

Find yourself a writing community. Hamline isn't right for everyone. Low-residency programs in general aren't right for everyone. However, if you haven't been able to find a community that suits your needs, or if anything I've said up to this point strikes a chord, check us out.

More personally, what was your own apprenticeship like?

I found a community. Early on, I fell in with a group of other comic book creators. We were all in our twenties. We were all at the start of our careers. We were all living in the Bay Area.

For years, we met once a week to write and draw together, and to look over each other's work.

I never went to an MFA program, so I consider that experience my MFA program equivalent. Almost everyone in that group has now been published in one form or another.

Do you have any particular insights to share for those interested in creating graphic-format literature?

Read lots of comics.

Read lots of everything, but especially comics.

Read all of Scott McCloud's craft books: Understanding Comics (1993), Reinventing Comics (2000), and Making Comics (2006)(all William Morrow).

Work through Jessica Abel and Matt Madden's Drawing Words and Writing Pictures (First Second, 2008).

After that, give it a go. There are no rules to making comics.

You can write a script or go straight to thumbnail sketches. You can use just about any drawing implement you want to make your pictures. Pick a strategy and a set of tools – don't worry about whether they're the right choices because you're not going to know until you've given them a try – and go.

What do you wish you had done differently? What choices were especially fruitful?

I am so, so fortunate to have had the journey I've had. I'm not sure I would have done anything differently, for fear of jinxing the whole thing.

I've just been incredibly blessed.

My most fruitful choice was joining that group of cartoonists when I was starting out. I got my first publisher through that group. Once one of us got connected, we would introduce everyone else.

What new or recent release of yours should we be sure to read?

I hope you'll check out Secret Coders (First Second, 2017-), the middle grade graphic novel series I'm doing with my friend Mike Holmes. Mike and I are blending a mystery story with coding lessons. The fifth and sixth volumes come out this year.

I also hope you'll check out the New Super-Man monthly comic series from DC Comics. I'm writing and Brent Peeples is doing the pencils.

We're telling the story of a brand-new character in the DC Universe: Kenan Kong, a seventeen year old Chinese kid who inherits Clark Kent's powers and becomes the Super-Man of China.

What about that project sparked your imagination? What did it teach you in terms of craft and process?

Secret Coders is my first explicitly educational project. I was a high school computer science teacher for 17 years, so I've always been interested in education. Mike and I wanted to figure out how to use comics to teach.

I've done some things well and some things not so well. There are a few instances when I let the educational aspect overwhelm the narrative aspect. I think balance is key. Balance is always key.

What was it like, being a National Ambassador for Young People's Literature? Is there a moment that stands out in your memory?

Serving as National Ambassador for Young People's Literature was perhaps the biggest honor of my life. I loved meeting Dr. Carla Hayden for the first time at the National Book Festival. I loved meeting young readers, young authors, and young cartoonists. I don't care what anyone says about videogames or YouTube or whatever. Kids today love books. Kids today are absolutely hungry for stories, and they love getting their stories through the pages of a good book.

What do you hope for the children's-YA creative community, looking into the future?

I hope for diversity in every sense of the word. I hope people from every corner of our society will tell their stories, and I hope they find folks who will listen to their stories. I hope authors will try out different publishing formats and genres. Heck, I hope authors invent new publishing formats and genres! I hope our world will be guided and nourished by good stories.