Introducing Tales from the Trenches

Are you a newly published or prolific author and/or illustrator? Has your work appeared in book or magazine form? Have you just landed an awesome agent? We want to hear your story!

The printed Chinook has a new ongoing column called Tales from the Trenches, in which we interview authors and illustrators about their work and how they got started. If you have achieved Published and Listed membership status in SCBWI and would like to participate, please answer three of the following questions and send your responses to tfttnw@gmail.com.

We're looking for interesting stories that will inspire and inform our members. We might edit your answers for length and content, so please keep your answers brief but punchy. We look forward to hearing from you!

• Where did you get the idea for your story?


• How do your stories take shape in your head or on paper? For example, do you brainstorm organically or do you use an outline?


• How old were you when you wrote your first story? What was it about?


• Tell us about your path to publication. Did anything unusual or unexpected happen?


• Did you receive any rejection letters in the process? If so, how many? What did you do after reading them?


• Who have been your biggest coaches and cheerleaders during your career?


• Have the books you read as a child influenced your writing or artwork in your career?


• For illustrators: what is your process for illustrating someone else’s text? How do you “see” someone else’s characters?


• Have you ever been surprised by an illustration you did? Has something unexpected ever appeared in your work?


• If you are an author or illustrator who has published multiple titles, how do you manage your time so that you can continue to work on new books and promote your existing books?


• When writing a series, how do you stay true to the voice or voices of the series? How do you keep track of changing events and characters from book to book?