In this episode, I chat with Heidi Stemple about her writing practice, the rules and skills needed to write children's books, having a celebrity writing mother (Jane Yolen), and keeping the writing business in the family!
Heidi Stemple didn’t want to be a writer when she grew up. In fact, after she graduated from college, she became a probation officer in Florida. It wasn’t until she was 28 years old that she gave in and joined the family business, publishing her first short story in a book called Famous Writers and Their Kids Write Spooky Stories. The famous writer was her mom, author Jane Yolen. Since then, she has published more than thirty-five books and numerous short stories and poems, mostly for children.
Heidi lives and writes on a big old farm in Massachusetts that she shares with one very large cat who lives inside, and a dozen deer, a family of bears, three coyotes, two bobcats, a gray fox, tons of birds, and some very fat groundhogs who live outside. Once a year she calls owls for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count.
The Life And Crimes Of Hoodie Rosen, Isaac Blum
A Time to Dance, Padma Venkatraman
All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto, George M. Johnson