Barbara Kanninen answers just three questions…
Q. When did you start writing?
A. I started writing for children about seven years ago, when my children were little and I was spending a lot of time reading picture books to them. I loved the format, the diversity of styles and the rhythms and I was inspired by the challenge of taking great things and communicating them in simple terms.
Q. Describe your writing process.
A. Well, honestly, I seem to flail around for weeks at a time and then one day my eight-year-old son, in normal conversation, will say something that strikes me as a perfect picture book title. And then I’m off writing. I’ll draft something, then go to the library to study books on similar topics or with similar themes, then I’ll revise some more. Pretty soon, I’m e-mailing my writer friends telling them how excited I am to have a new picture book manuscript almost ready to submit. Then I send it to a few friends for critiques and end up being brought back down to earth. I revise some more and then some more and then, finally, many months later, I’ll just know it’s ready to submit. Even then, I’ve often gotten revision suggestions from editors and I’m back to revising some more. It seems to take me years to get everything I can into a story.
Of course, that’s my writing process when it works. A lot of my ideas go nowhere, or maybe they’re on an even slower track…
Q. Tell us about your latest book.
A. A Story With Pictures (Holiday House 2007) is a wacky story about an author who has no idea what’s supposed to happen in her book, which is literally the book the reader is holding. I used everything I know about writing humor for children, including slapstick comedy, some over-the-top attitude, a pinch of humiliation, and a bit of satisfying character growth. The whole process, from first draft to ultimately selling it, took two and a half years. It was more than a year before I figured out to add the duck, which turned out to be both an important character and the key to finding a great ending.
The story ties into the elementary language-arts curriculum by illustrating the concepts of character, setting and problem/solution. It got several personal rejections before it sold, with several editors telling me the story was “too academic” for the trade market. One editor, in a conference critique, told me to take out the words “author” and “illustrator” because children wouldn’t understand them! But when I got the call from Holiday House, they told me the curriculum tie-in was a plus for them. And I can tell you that it’s definitely a plus for sales.
Congratulations, Barbara!
What a fun treat, like a book within a book. This sounds like it will be great for kids. Thanks!