Jan is Jan Fields, moderator of this interview with Brenda Ferber, and Web Editor of the ICL Web Site. Green shows names or usernames of people and the questions they asked Brenda.

Jan: Hi, and welcome to tonight's special event -- a chat with guest speaker, Brenda Ferber, author of Julia's Kitchen. Welcome, Brenda -- I am so happy to have you here tonight!

Brenda: Thanks, Jan. I'm glad to be here!

Jan: So, can you tell us a bit about JULIA'S KITCHEN...sounds like reviewers are eating it up.

Brenda: Yes. It's been very exciting. I received strong reviews from Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and more. And a starred review from Kirkus, who I've been told is like the Simon Cowell of review journals.

Jan: Yeah, Kirkus hates everyone but they liked you...so JULIA'S KITCHEN is about a pretty serious situation but reviewers say it's not a glum book, how did you avoid that?

Brenda: Great question. In the book, my main character's sister and mom die in chapter one. I wanted to write a book that focused on the healing process. I wanted to take readers past the initial grief and into hope and resiliency. Does that make sense?

Jan: It sure does...sounds like it might be an eency bit of a crying book though.

Brenda: There are parts of it that are very emotional and difficult, but the story is truly about the resiliency of the human spirit. I don't know anyone who can read it without crying.

Jan: Oh...and my nose turns so red when I cry, I'll have to read it in hiding.

Brenda: Definitely!

Brenda: Good question, Wheelerclown. I would say you need to have a compelling story narrated with an authentic voice.

Jan: When you started submitting, did you get lots of "voice" comments? Good voice is so important.

Brenda: I did hear that I captured the voice of a young girl very well. The truth is, I only submitted Julia's Kitchen to one publisher. The first editor who read it bought it!

Jan: How did you find the "voice" for your main character -- is it some part of you yourself or is she totally different as a person?

Brenda: Finding Cara's voice was really about remembering what it was like to be a child. That wasn't hard for me because I kept diaries all my life, and sometimes I still feel very childlike.

Brenda: Aura, it's really a combination. I have three kids, two 11-year-olds and a 10-year old. I observe them, and I think about me as a kid. I definitely draw from my kids and their friends.

Brenda: I did not get an agent. And I still don't have one.

Brenda: Yes, Stretch. A boy and a girl.

Brenda: Mary, that's a lot of questions. Let me start with the first one. I started writing when I had three preschoolers at home. I hired a sitter so I could have three measly hours to myself once a week, and that became my writing time. As the kids got older and spent more time away from me at school, my writing time grew. It's still hard to balance it all. Even when they're at school, I still have so much to do for them. But I make writing a priority right after them! Rejection letters never bothered me. I'm a natural optimist, and I always believed rejection letters were just a part of the process. I looked at the form rejection letters as "C"s. The ones with a note scribbled on the bottom were B's. And the personal ones were A's!

Brenda: Regarding financing the mailings, I don't think it cost all that much. I targeted my submissions carefully. And the 130 rejections I received spanned a few years, so it didn't seem like too much.

Brenda: Thank you! I went to the national SCBWI conference and heard some editors speak. One of the editors was Beverly Reingold at FSG. I thought to myself that she would be the right editor for my novel, which at the time was only halfway through the first draft. I started submitting my picture book manuscripts to her, and she started sending back those "A" rejection letters. Then I entered my novel in the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Contest and it won. Right after that, Beverly bought it! Oh, I should say the reason I felt a connection to Beverly. She said the most important thing to her is "what a writer has to say." I felt I had something big to say with my book, and I wanted Beverly to be my editor. How lucky for me that it worked out!

Brenda: I do keep my rejection letters. Sometimes the suggestions or questions the editors made really helped me revise.

Brenda: wrote the novel as my assignment for ICL. And that class shows you how to start with a beginning, middle, and end, how to outline, everything. It was a very organized process.

Jan: So, can you tell us...what is the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Contest?

Brenda: It is a contest from the Association of Jewish Libraries. It is awarded to an unpublished children's book author for an outstanding manuscript that has Jewish content and universal appeal. The manuscript has to be for ages 8-11. It has a small number of entries each year. I hadn't even heard of it, but my critique partner told me about it, and I couldn't believe how perfect my manucript would be for it!

Brenda: Robinb, I didn't really consider how far to push the envelope. I just told the story as honestly as I could. The truth is that these terrible things do happen, and kids know that! The story was actually inspired by a real fire in my neigborhood when I lived in Austin, Texas. A father and son died in the fire. Two years earlier, the mom had died in a car crash. Now there were two brothers that had survived all this tragedy. couldn't get them out of my head. And soon I started thinking, "What if that had been me as a child?"

Brenda: I think so. You can go to their website for more information. Let me see what the url is...Okay. www.jewishlibraries.org. I think the bible story would have to be from a Jewish point of view.

Brenda: Joyous, it was incredibly helpful. I had always wanted to write a novel, but I was too scared. ICL's advanced class took me step by step through the process.

Brenda: Not yet. I'm still hoping. I've gotten very close. I even had an editor from a big house CALL me to reject me! That's like an A+ rejection! The most common comment I received about my pb manuscripts was that "it's just not right for our list." I don't know what that means, exactly. I guess it's that the manuscript didn't blow them away.

Jan: So...did a rejection call come as a bit of a shock?

Brenda: Jan, I think the first thing he said was, "I'm not calling with good news." He basically loved the manuscript. I had done a revision for him. But they had just bought a similar manuscript and couldn't take mine. He thought I'd have no problem selling it elsewhere, but that hasn't been the case. Oh well!

Jan: Oh...those kinds of rejections sort of feel good and REALLY REALLY hurt.

Brenda: Yep!

Brenda: They are very very different. Since I clearly haven't mastered the picture book yet, I prefer the novel. But also, I should say that I love writing novels more because I love kids who read novels. That is such an awesome age!

Brenda: Aura, Be patient. You can't possibly devote as much time to your writing as you'd probably like right now. But if you can find a few set hours each week, you can take tiny steps toward your goal. You could hire a young neighbor to come play with your kids while you're writing. You won't have to pay her much because you'll still be home. Plus, you could be grooming her for a real baby-sitting job as she gets older.

Brenda: Hi Gonewest. Yes. I'm working on a novel set at a sleepaway camp. And I'm sending it to Beverly this month. Yikes! I still have a lot of work to do on it.

Brenda: It was a pretty major revision based on one sentence he said. He said something about the manuscript being a take off on the gingerbread boy story. I hadn't even thought about that. But once he planted that seed, I ran with it. It helped give my story focus and structure. And I think it's pretty hilarious! Even though I don't normally like those kinds of stories, it worked well with what I was doing.

Brenda: Amoi, I read the things I loved as a child. And I read the new books that were getting great reviews. I read picture books and novels. I didn't read much non-fiction, though.

Brenda: Well, if they ask for a revision, I do it! If it's just a nice rejection letter, I send out another manuscript to that editor right away and I thank them for the thoughtful comments.

Brenda: I loved everything Judy Blume wrote, especially BLUBBER. I also loved a book called BEAT THE TURTLE DRUM by Constance Greene. That book dealt with the death of a sister. My sister and I were so close. Best friends, really. And I read the book out loud to her a couple times. This was a novel, mind you! The book allowed me the opportunity to deal with my biggest fear in a safe way.

Jan: I want to slip in a quick announcement because we're getting a lot of questions in the que relating to this. Brenda isn't going to know all the classes at ICL, what they cost, and what they focus on -- but you can get that information by emailing these folks -- informationservices@institutechildrenslit.com -- they know everything about the courses and are happy to share that information with you.

Brenda: When I was writing picture book manuscripts, I had six or seven that were making the rounds. I usually sent out one manuscript to 5 publishers at a time. When I got it back from a publisher, I would send it to another place and I would maybe send that editor a different manuscript. Now that I'm really focused on writing novels, it's different because it's a much longer process. Now I'm just hoping FSG will want to publish my next novel!

Brenda: It took me about two years.

Brenda: I have written two stories for Ladybug magazine. The first one was "A Cheer for Charlie" in the June issue. The next one will be in the September issue. It's called "The One with the Freckle." I actually wrote it for the first ICL class I took and I sold that story when my youngest was in kindergarten. He will be in fifth grade in the fall. So I've waited a long time to see it in print!

Jan: I never get tired of hearing about ICL assignments that sold.

Brenda: It makes the tuition worth it!

Brenda: I did want to say, though, regarding selling pieces written for ICL, I think it's vital to be in a critique group in addition to taking the ICL courses. My critique group helped me in ways ICL couldn't. ICL really gave me the nuts and bolts. But my critique group held me to incredibly high standards. They made me dig deeper and go further that I would have on my own.

Brenda: Unfortunately, I think that's pretty normal. At least for the Bug magazines. But it was worth it just to be able to say in my cover letters that I had a story forthcoming in Ladybug. When I sold it, they told me it would be 3 or 4 years before it was actually published. After four years, I did check on the status. But they assured me that at Carus they print EVERYTHING they buy. I have a friend who sold a story to Highlights, and it took nine years for it to come out! But one of my critique partners sold a story to Cricket and had it published within a year. So you never know! My story "The One with the Freckle" is a starting school story, so it has to come out in September. So let's say they have five starting school stories. That would explain why it took a while to get to mine.

Brenda: Wow! I'm so glad everyone is interested in this. I found my critique group through my local SCBWI chapter. Originally, there were two of us. We kept trying to find more people to join us, but the chemistry wasn't perfect, and we wanted it to be just right. We were very patient and selective in who we invited into our group. Now there are four of us, and it's a fantastic group!!! We meet every other week. But we e-mail our manuscripts to each other first. And we critique them at home... Then, at our meeting, someone reads someone else's ms aloud. It's always good to hear your work read by someone else. We discuss each manuscript for about 45 minutes. We have a rule that the writer needs to remain quiet during the critique. But sometimes we break that rule. We have another rule that comments and criticisms should be voiced as questions. That rule gets broken too.

Brenda: Dragonlady, I don't know much about poetry. I do love the lyrical quality of good prose, and I try to incorporate that in my writing.

Brenda: I think it's a great idea if you have the right chemistry.

Brenda: My publisher sent out hundreds of advanced copies of my novel. I didn't have anything to do with getting the reviews, other than writing the book!

Brenda: I don't know exact prices. I think the SCBWI conferences are great. Though I only went to that one national one. I like to go to whatever is local. If you add in the cost of transportation, it can be prohibitive. When you are looking for a conference, you should think about what you want and need. Do you want to have time to write? Do you want to network? Do you want to meet a certain editor or agent? Once you know what you want, you can make wise decisions.

Brenda: I went to the national one with a friend, so it wasn't too scary. And in fact, it was incredibly inspiring. I felt like a real writer. I had wonderful conversations with some amazing authors and illustrators. I remember Betsy Lewin (illustrator of Click Clack Moo) saying to me, "I can see you have the fire in your belly you'll need to succeed." It was such a rush! And she was right.

Brenda: I like to remember that I'm writing to a PERSON!!! I try to be personable and professional. I try to find out what kind of letter that specific editor likes. I definitely tailor each cover and query letter to the specific editor.

Brenda: Well, it doesn't have to be exactly the same. In our group, one person is writing a young adult historical fantasy. Another is writing picture books and mg novels...Another is writing chapter books and ya. And then there's me. I think as long as you're all writing children's lit, you're good to go. Although, if someone in our group wanted me to critique poetry, I might not be able to help them so much.

Brenda: You can do a lot of research on the web. You can go to conferences. You can see which books the editor has worked on. When I heard Beverly speak at SCBWI, she gave us a list of books she had edited. I read a bunch of them and LOVED them. That helped me figure her out. The SCBWI website has a resource that lists specific books and their editors. It's in the For Members Only section. Maybe under Publications?

Brenda: I kept on reading. And I kept on writing. And eventually I took the advanced ICL course.

Brenda: I talked to firefighters about ways a fire could start and what exactly would happen to the house and all the things in the house. I also talked to a rabbi and read a lot about the Jewish mourning rituals. And I spent a lot of time talking to a good friend of mine who lost her mom to cancer while I was writing the book. Oh, also, one of my critique partners is a social worker, and she was very helpful in making sure I got the emotional aspect right.

Brenda: I don't think so. The only thing that changed was that I found the courage to write the novel I always wanted to write. Seriously, since about fourth grade, I wanted to be like Judy Blume. But I didn't think it was truly possible. I decided that nobody but me could stop me from writing the best novel I was capable of. When you look at it like that, you just have to give it your best shot. As beginners, we feel the publishers have all the control. It can be frustrating. But the truth is, you have all the control regarding the writing! Just write and revise, and make it as good as you possibly can. Then the publishing will come.

Jan: What is it about Judy Blume's books that caused that close connection for you?

Brenda: I felt that Judy knew me. She wrote about girls just like me. When I was growing up, the one thing I wanted so badly and didn't have was an older sister...Judy's books filled that void for me.

Brenda: Books about writing? Let's see what's on my shelf... 45 MASTER CHARACTERS... TAKE JOY... Hmmm... there are more, but I can't find them. I guess I took a lot of them out of the library. I know I liked THE FOREST FOR THE TREES.

Jan: My other favorite is PICTURE WRITING by Anastasia Suen, have you read that one? I love what she says about showing and scene.

Brenda: Yes. That's a great one, too. Though I admit, I like to read fiction more than non-fiction. I find I can learn just as much from reading a great novel. I like to re-read and really think about how the author crafted it.

Brenda: I did submit the first ten pages to someone. And she was helpful. But she told me even though it was well written, it might be hard to sell because there are so many stories about death. But every story has already been written. You just need to take your own unique angle and run with it.

Brenda: Well, if the material is telling you it's a novel, it might really be a novel. Maybe that's what you should be writing.

Brenda: I took the first course, which was magazine writing, and the second course, which was book writing.

Brenda: Everything I write comes from real life plus imagination.

Brenda: I don't know. So far I haven't found any.

Jan: janfields So, have you done any book signings yet? If so, what was that like?

Brenda: I have done some book signings. They were very thrilling. But I have to say, the school visits have been my favorite part!

Jan: Ahhh...have you done many? How do you make those school connections?

Brenda: I started out at my neighborhood schools. Then I met some librarians at something else, and I made nice connections with them. One thing leads to another. I hope to do lots more this school year. They are really fun, and they pay well, too!

Jan: Did you start off doing them for free...and if so, how to you make that touchy step to "paid visits?"

Brenda: I never did them for free. But I charged a very low amount when I first started. I actually did some visits before my book came out. Now my fees are higher, but they're still low compared to more experienced authors.

Jan: So, who sets up your book signings -- you or the publisher?

Brenda: I have to do that on my own. I made a brochure, and I created a website, and I'm trying to get the word out that I'm available. I'm planning to mail the brochures eventually. But I'm not exactly sure. So far, I've just handed them out at different book signings. I don't know who to send them to or when to send them. So I find it's better to make individual connections.

Brenda: Regarding signings, I don't have any gimmicks. It's hard because it's a novel, not a picture book. And it's kind of serious, too.

Brenda: Now, at school visits, When I talk to the younger kids, I read them my Ladybug stories, and the kids act them out. I use PowerPoint for all my presentations, and the kids really like that. I show pictures of me... really ugly school pix... from my childhood. That always gets a laugh. And I explain the whole writing and publishing process. With older kids, I take a lot of questions from the audience. And I try to keep the groups small so we can have great conversations.

Brenda: I went to IRA (International Reading Association) this spring. And I went to ALA when it was in Chicago. I actually got to meet Judy Blume then! It was the most amazing night! She was lovely.

Brenda: I do keep an idea file on my computer. I write whichever story is calling out to me the loudest.

Brenda: www.brendaferber.com

Jan: Thank you so much for joining us tonight. You did so well...there were a lot of questions.

Brenda: Well, you're welcome! It was so much fun. Thank you for having me! And I hope they will be persistent. Can I end with my favorite quote from Walt Disney? It goes like this: Think about the person you want to be. Believe in yourself based on the thinking you've done... Dream big dreams based on your belief in yourself... Dare to make your dreams come true... Think, Believe, Dream, Dare, Become the person you know you can be.

Jan: Oh, that's wonderful...thank you for sharing. And for everything. And we're all going to rush out and read JULIA'S KITCHEN!

Brenda: Yay!

Jan: Thank you, everyone, for coming out tonight...and I'll see you all...Tuesday for afternoon forum!!