Video Transcript (computer generated - may contain errors)

Sara Gentry: Hi, writers, we have a real treat for you today. I am joined with Janet Fox. Welcome, Janet.

Janet Fox: Hi, everybody! I'm happy to be here.

Sara Gentry: And let me introduce you to our writers and all the wonderful things that you've done and are doing so. Janet is an award, winning author with a deep passion for the magic of storytelling. Her writing journey began at age 8, with a poem published in the town newspaper, setting the stage for a career dedicated to writing captivating tales for young readers. As a writer, Janet strives to create books that can help grow young hearts and minds. Her 12 award winning books span the spectrum of picture books through young adult in a broad variety of genres. As a mentor and a book coach for 25 years, and publishing her mission is to guide writers through the twists and turns of their creative Odyssey, turning struggles into triumphs. Janet has helped scores of writers achieve their dream of writing, revising, and, yes, publishing their children's books, and, as you can hear writers, Janet has done so many things in the world of writing and publishing. And we are gonna talk with her today about writing across all these genres that she's written across, because that is no easy feat? So perhaps maybe, could you give us a little bit of background on your career. What did you first start with when you broke into kidlit?

Janet Fox: Yeah, thanks, Sara. I started with a little nonfiction book that I wrote because my son was struggling in middle school, and it turns out he's dyslexic and Adhd. So I wrote this book in the middle of trying to write picture books, as all of us tend to start with picture book writing and this one came out a just poured out of me because I had done so much research trying to help him. And I realized, wow, there was no other book like it on the market. And so I literally put together a proposal. In a week I sent it to exactly the right publisher on my own and they bought it. And so that started. That gave me sort of a street cred. You know the way this works. I got into, you know, understanding things. So that when I finally met someone who wanted to represent me and my first actual novel, which is a YA novel. She told me that having been published by Free Spirit, was a really great platform for me to start with. So I wrote with her. I wrote 3 young adult novels. Then I moved into middle grade, because I have a real fondness for the Middle Grade language, sensibility, mindset, storytelling, and and fantasy, which is something I grew up with with an earlier books and mysteries, and Nancy Drew, and so started writing middle grade, and then have now written middle grade fiction, nonfiction. And now picture books, and so across the board.

Sara Gentry: Yeah, that's so interesting. You started with the older and moved to the younger.

Janet Fox: Yeah. The first 3 novels, and they were great for cutting me teeth on novel structure. So after writing the little nonfiction book, which is very short and totally, you know how to actually do what you need to do in middle school. Those novels were great training for me to understand how to write a novel. And it then became easier to write those middle grade stories.

Sara Gentry: I love the story of your first book because I feel like it's a perfect example. Like, when we talk to writers about writing their query letters, for instance, and making it clearer like, why are you the person to write this book.

Janet Fox: And why.

Sara Gentry: Why is now a good time for this book to be out in the world? And it feels like both of those questions were easily answered for you in that book.

Janet Fox: Yeah, that's exactly right. And I think that's a really important point that having that passion for the subject that you're writing about, whatever it is really shows up on the page. And so I was passionate about getting this information to the hands of kids because I couldn't find it. That book to give to my son, and to make it funny, and to make it accessible, and to have all of those little tips and tricks that book, by the way, is still in print. It's in 7 languages. It's sold in the hundreds of thousands of copies. So it really does pay to have that passion behind whatever project you're working on. So if you're searching for a subject, think of something that's really, really important to you that really feeds your heart.

Sara Gentry: Yeah, that's fantastic. And when you moved on to your YA, those were all novels right?

Janet Fox: Right? 3 novels. Yep. All all historical fiction.

Sara Gentry: Okay. I was just gonna ask if they were all within the same genre. And then you moved into your middle grade and are there mixed genres then within the middle grade? You mentioned fantasy, or are they…

Janet Fox: So I started my first middle grade. It’s The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle. It's a middle grade fantasy set in World War 2. And really it's kind of an homage to Narnia and to C.S. Lewis, because I loved those books growing up. And I had this vision after seeing something on the Internet that just really felt mysterious and and compelling an image of a shadowing which is a seventeenth century piece of well, it started out as a set of keys for the chateau, and then became a piece of jewelry like us, like a charm bracelet, and this one was really weird. And it just struck me. And I thought charms charmed kids. And that story grew from there, and it grew very quickly. From that sort of nascent idea. And then the second middle grade was a follow up to it the the artifact hunters, and set in the same setting, with a slight, you know, slightly different cast of characters, a different main character, and a different premise, but again a middle grade fantasy. And it. It was just so much fun writing those books. I just had a blast writing those books. So yeah. And then I went into contemporary. So you know, and now I'm back to mysteries.

Sara Gentry: Yes. Well, I'm gonna put a plug for your book, the contemporary middle grade, Carry Me Home. It's a beautiful book. It's actually one of my favorites in middle grade. I think it's so well done. So as you are moving from genre to genre and age category to age category, did your agents or your editors that you were working with like, did anybody have input on these decisions you were making? Or were you writing the books that you wanted to write at the time you wanted to write them?

Janet Fox: That's a great question, because that gets to another thing that I think writers should hear, and that is that my first agent signed me on the basis of the novel that she saw, Faithful, which was my first novel, and then she pitched it and got a 2 book deal for me. And then, as I was finishing book Number 2 in that Forgiven, my editor approached me and said, or approached my agent and said it like a third book said in 1920, maybe because it was popular at the time. And so I wrote that book. My agent at the time wanted me to continue writing those young adult romantic historical romances, and I was tired of them, and I mean, maybe you can tell already that I kind of follow my heart in a big way when I'm writing, and if I'm not really engaged in the story. I can't write it. It just isn't happening. So I started writing The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle and my agent did not like it. She didn't get it. We parted company, which was very difficult for me, because it felt like I was starting over, but within 2 months, I signed with the agent of my dreams, the person that I had wanted to sign with when I very first started out, but she didn't sign me. So the moral of the story is twofold. One is that many, many writers, in fact, I don't think I know a writer who hasn't had at least 2 agents. In other words, it's very common for you to have an agent and then part company and then find someone else. So it's not unusual. So that's something that happens. And the second thing is, you have to be true to yourself above everything else. And so when I parted company with my agent. It was a real, you know. My, I'm out there again all by myself. But I believed in this book so much. I knew that this book was gonna be the, you know, a great book, and it wasn't. I mean, it's my most popular book, other than the little get organized book. It's sold earned out and sold many, many, many thousands of copies, and won awards, and so on. So I'm really glad that I just went forward with that. And I think that it's good for writers to know that this does happen, and to follow your passions above everything else.

Sara Gentry: No, that's beautiful, and I feel like we need to give you a round of applause for the bravery, because I mean, you can talk about it now and be like it all turned out for the best, but I'm sure it had to be a bit terrifying at the time that you're going through it, because you really are putting yourself out on a ledge again, and that's kudos to you for for being brave.

Janet Fox: Thanks. Thanks. Yeah. And agents. My agent is a very hands-on agent. She has a lot of input into what I write and after I finished the Artifact Hunters, I sent her 4 ideas, and I said, “What do you think of these 4 ideas, and and which we should pursue next?” And she, you know, helped me choose the next path, and then then I wrote Carry Me Home, which I wrote in like 5Â min, which has never happened to me before. And that book came because I'd been thinking about the problem of homelessness. As for maybe 5, 7 years, and it just festered inside me, and I had to get it out. So I wrote that book really fast and sent it to her, and she loved it right away, which was nice.

Sara Gentry: Yeah.

Janet Fox: But she does have input on the next project, and she will say, No, I don't think that's gonna work, or, Yeah, yeah, go for it right now we're going back and forth on another picture book,which is just to tell you how hard picture books are. I started it in November, and we're still going back and forth.

Sara Gentry: Yeah. Well, now that you have this perspective of having written so many different types of books, do you mind if I ask what you enjoy about each kind. What do you enjoy about picture books? Let's say.

Janet Fox: Great question. I love that picture books are a marriage of poetry and story, because picture books have to have a story arc. They have to. But it's incredibly tiny. So the problem in a picture book might be so tiny, tiny to you and me, but monstrously large to a young child, and that's what you have to find the heart of that problem and be able to put it into a story form. And then you have to actually make it poetry by using very spare fiction and syntax. It's not a lot of words. I try to keep my picture books under 500 words which is tiny, tiny. So again, you're you're marrying 2 different things, which is the story form and poetry. And so that's what makes picture books so hard is getting exactly the right words, and not one word more or not not missing that word. The way you say that story has to be so succinct. So that's, you know, my feeling about picture books that they're really hard to write. Yeah.

Sara Gentry: What about middle Grade? What have you enjoyed about writing middle grade?

Janet Fox: I love middle grade, because I just feel like that's where I'm emotionally stuck, you know. We all get stuck somewhere in our childhood in a way. I was a really awkward preteen just felt really out of touch with my peers. Felt like I couldn't, you know, I wasn't the kid at the popular lunch table. I had nerdy friends. We used to sing, “I'm in with the out crowd.” That was our. That was our theme song. And once I sort of realize that that's a place where I was wrestling with all of those changes that happened to the middle Grade kid. I really feel like I got that. I feel like I resonate with that. When I go talk to kids and school visits. I let them know that that's the kind of kid I was, and not to feel left out. Because, you know, it's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay. So that's what I love about writing middle grade that I can get right into that twist and pull and turn and questions and and and the nascent, you know, romantic interest. If they're there. And also mysteries and fantasy. That's when your imagination really can explode, and can really play with all of those elements in a story.

Sara Gentry: And round us out here with YA. What did you enjoy about writing a YA?

Janet Fox: Well, I'm writing a YA right now, and I'm finding that other element of high intensity romance. When you fall in love that first time and really fall head over heels. There is nothing like it, I mean, it's just so intense, just takes over your whole being. So I'm writing that story now with some fantasy elements, and I'm really getting fun with it. It's just letting it go. I don't even care if this one sells, I'm just having so much fun playing with the concept and writing it and again, it's all about that other bridge into adulthood. So, stepping away from the who am I? It's who am I in relation to everybody else around me? And and can I define myself in this relationship that I want so badly? Or do I need to figure something else out that makes me even, you know more holy who I am. So it's just another step in that progression now.

Sara Gentry: Awesome. So, I know we have some writers in the audience here who are also writing across genre, or are interested in making the leap from one category to another category. Do you have any tips for those writers, and what to do?

Janet Fox: Well, I just again I go back to write what you're passionate about. Go back to writing something that really speaks to you that resonates with you. Don't worry about the genre. I mean, I tell this to my students all the time. Do not worry about your word, Count. Do not worry about your genre. Get the characters and the story elements and start to pull them together, and then you'll discover what your genre really is. I mean, I almost don't know. Sometimes when I'm starting a story where it's gonna fit in that audience age range, I have an idea. But until I start writing it. Then I say, Oh, yeah, this has to be a YA, because I want this to be a romance. So I know that that's the audience and I'm writing for, and then and then I'm comfortable with it. When I was writing Carry Me Home, I knew that it had to be middle grade because I just had a feeling for this character and it turned out to be on the younger end of middle grade. And so I tailored it in that fashion. Really short chapters. A simplified voice and language. And not a lot of complexity, a really straightforward story with some backstory elements. So I think if you, if you're passionate about your idea, that's what you should do. That's what you should write. Don't try to write to a genre. Don't try to write to what's popular out there, because, frankly, even if you did 5 min from now it won't be popular. It won't be what everybody is reading. It won't be what publishers want. So write what you want to write when you want to write it and trust your heart as opposed to looking at, you know, the marketing landscape, which you know, who knows what to do with that.

Sara Gentry: It's so true, and especially, I mean, we know publishing takes a long time, but especially the kidlet market, seems to be even slower, especially if illustrations are involved, and you might get a book picked up today that won't appear in print 3 years from now. 

Janet Fox: No, that's right. I sold Wintergarden. I wrote Wintergarden, which is my picture book. I wrote that during Covid at the beginning stages of Covid. When we were in Lockdown, in response to not having a garden, I could play in, and having just this this little windowsill garden and it came out in November. So you know, because it takes that long. But yeah, you can't make the market or publishing. Do what you want to do. It has to be from you, from what you're passionate about.

Sara Gentry: I love it. Well, writers, we'll have Janet's books featured in the book fair for KidLit Summer Camp, but we also want to make sure that people can connect with you. So what is the best way for writers to connect with you?

Janet Fox: The easiest thing is to go to my website, which is janetsfox.com. Pretty simple. And so Janet's Fox, and on that website, you'll find everything that I have and can do. I teach classes. I have independent courses. I have courses from the very beginner stage all the way through to what I'm calling Fox’s Den, which is a mentorship program. And that's that's a small group program in which I interact heavily with my students. We meet twice a month for 2 hours each time. They send me things and I critique them. They work with each other. So that's the high intensity part of it. And then I have all the independent courses as well from everything from picture book writing to character, to plot to a whole raft of introductory and upper level courses. 

Sara Gentry: Lovely, and the Fox’s Den is KidLit writers, right?

Janet Fox: Yes, it's all kidlit writers. Yup, picture books through young adult. And I have the whole range of students. 

Sara Gentry: Yes, wonderful. So yes, writers definitely find Janet on her website, and she'll have links to all the things that might be interesting to you, and we will also link to Janet’s site so you can find it easily. And, Janet, I just wanna thank you again for your time. And for this fabulous conversation.

Janet Fox: Thank you, Sara. It's so great to be here. Thanks.

Sara Gentry: Alright, writers! Thanks for joining us, and we will catch you next time. Bye.

Janet Fox: Bye.