I’ve been wanting to give away a copy of Noah Noasaurus, by Elaine Kiely Kearns since before it came out. So, I’m reposting my interview with Elaine and adding a picture book giveaway! If you don’t already know Elaine, you’re in for a treat. And if you already know Elaine, then I don’t have to tell you that. Do I?

Myrna: What is your background?

Elaine: I am a certified elementary school teacher in New York.

Myrna: What made you want to start writing picture books?

Elaine: I have always wanted to write children’s books, but I didn’t think that it was a practical way to make a living. When my kids were born, I fell in love with them, and I just knew it was what I wanted to do with my life.

Myrna: How long have you been writing? 

Elaine: I have been writing seriously (as in, churning drafts) for about seven years.

Myrna: You helped found KidLit411, a wonderfully supportive and informative web-site and community for children’s writers. What made you see a need for it?

Elaine: My critique group, the Penguin Posse (Shout out to Sylvia Liu, Renee LaTulippe, Teresa Robeson, Victoria Warneck, and Yvonne Mes!) and I would make a list of all of the really great writing links that we found, and we would share them with each other. When the list got long, Sylvia and I thought that maybe our other writing friends would like to see the links too, so we decided to create a website. We went old school on the name. “411” means “information,” and so we married the two, and KidLit411.com was born.

Myrna: Have you ever felt frustrated by trying to get a picture book right?

Elaine: YES! ALL. THE. TIME. A picture book is like a piece of music. When it’s done right, it just flows. Getting it to that point can be extremely frustrating at times.

Myrna: When and why did you take Arree Chung’s Making Picture Book Stories and Dummies?

Elaine: I took Arree’s inaugural class in October of 2016. I am a huge fan of Arree’s work, and when he announced that he was going to teach a class, I signed up right away.

Myrna: I took the class the term after you did, and it was amazing. Since then, he’s split it into two classes: Crafting Picture Book Stories and Making Picture Book Dummies. How did taking Arree’s class change the way you write picture books?

Elaine: At the time I took Arree’s class, I had just written a brand new draft about a dinosaur that I thought had a decent hook. So I decided to work on that one. Arree’s class was incredible because it forced me to make a physical dummy of the book. That was new for me. As a writer, I didn’t think about creating dummies of my drafts. I thought that was something for illustrators. By making the dummy, however, I could see exactly how my manuscript was working, and where it wasn’t working. Arree’s class worked for me because it was the perfect balance of craft discussion and creation. In teaching, I will often present material in various forms for a deeper understanding to my students. Arree’s methodology is similar, and for me, it just worked.

Full disclosure: I was initially tempted to SKIP the dummy portion of the class, but I am so happy that I did not. I create dummies for every manuscript I write now!

Myrna: Could you tell us about your book deal with Albert Whitman?

Elaine: My agent, Linda Epstein of the Emerald City Literary Agency, submitted my picture book, Noah Noasaurus to Jonathan Westmark in July of 2017, and we had an offer within two weeks. It has been absolutely wonderful working with Jonathan. He understood my vision for Noah and has chosen the perfect illustrator, Colin Jack, to bring him to life. I hope I get the opportunity to work with Jon again.