Happy Thursday Critters! I hope you are all doing well! Today we have an interview with author Debra Shumaker whose debut picture book, FREAKY, FUNKY FISH: ODD FACTS ABOUT FASCINATING FISH, illustrated by Claire Powell, just released this week with Running Press Kids! So exciting! I love the fun facts in this book— super interesting, illustrated with gorgeous art. A new nonfiction favorite in our house!
I’m so excited to share this book with all of you, so without further ado, please welcome Debra Shumaker!
Where do you live?
In Sterling, Virginia about 45 minutes from Washington, D.C.
When did you know you wanted to write picture books?
When my boys were little, my favorite thing to do with them was cuddle up and read books. I fell in love with picture books and decided that I wanted to learn how to write them.
Tell us about your road to publication, what did that involve for you?
It was a very long, bumpy road lined with sweat and and a few tears, LOL. I started by taking a course through the Institute of Children’s Literature in 2005 when I was pregnant with my third child. We had three boys in 3 1/2 years so I didn’t write much at first. But once the youngest started preschool I dug in. I studied craft and wrote and submitted. Got lots of rejections and joined challenges, studied craft more, and wrote new things. It was 2015 before I started getting champagne rejections and revise and resubmit requests. I didn’t sign with an agent until 2017 and we didn’t get an offer until January of 2019. All told, it was about my 15th “serious” manuscript that finally got an offer.
Can you share a bit about your process?
I’m always juggling projects. One book I’ll be in polishing and submitting mode, while I’ll be thick in revisions with another, and starting the research and/or drafting phase of another. When I get stuck or frustrated with one project, I jump to a different one. I frequently put projects that don’t seem to be working on the back burner, sometimes for weeks, sometimes for months or even years. At times I’ll pull out something from that proverbial drawer to see if there is any life in some older manuscripts. In fact, the idea for FREAKY, FUNKY FISH is, in part, due to a fiction manuscript I wrote way back in 2013.
I’m also in four critique groups and do lots of swapping with various writing friends. So while I may not write 8 hours a day, I seem to be constantly doing something writing related.
What do you do to shake the rust off or get new ideas?
Reading - both adult and kidlit. I like to write nonfiction, so reading books, newspapers, online articles, trivia questions, etc. gives me tons of ideas. I’m constantly checking out picture books from the library to get the feel for what is out there and what’s missing. I also love Tara Lazar’s StoryStorm to kick start new ideas. But really, I have so many ideas I’ll have to live to be over 100 in order to write them all!
Anything you can’t live without while you write?
It’s probably not in the “can’t live without” category, but 90% of the time when I’m writing, I play a “Classical for Studying Radio” station on Pandora. I don’t like complete quiet when writing, but yet I can’t have anything with words in the background. Outside words interfere with the “inside” words I’m trying to work with. But my laptop is something I can’t live without.
Any authors and/or illustrators who inspire you?
Oh my, SO many of them. For nature nonfiction authors, off the top of my head, I would say Melissa Stewart, Laura Purdie Salas, April Pulley Sayre, Maria Gianferrari. But so many authors inspire me in different types of picture books, I would need an entire page and too much time to list them all. I will say that the KidLit Community is bursting with inspirational and kind creators.
Dream project to work on?
I’m living my dream right now, writing all different styles of PB and finding an agent who loves my work and editors who have loved at least a few of them. Any current project I’m working on is my dream project at the moment.
Tell us about your debut book.
FREAKY, FUNKY FISH: ODD FACTS ABOUT FASCINATING FISH is a rhyming nonfiction picture book about the weird and wonderful ways some fish look or act to survive in the waters they live in—one kind of fish has a see-through head, another kind coats itself in a mucus cocoon at night, and some fish play dead to lure prey or avoid being eaten. Fascinating stuff! After reading this book, I hope kids are as amazed as I am by the natural world. While the main text is sparse, I do include back matter that goes into more detail about how and why these fish do the things they do.
Interior Art for FREAKY, FUNKY FISH: ODD FACTS ABOUT FASCINATING FISH by Debra Shumaker, Illustrated by Claire Powell
What’s up next for you?
My second picture book, TELL SOMEONE, comes out on October 1st with Albert Whitman, illustrated by Tristan Yuvienco. TELL SOMEONE encourages kids to talk about things—both the good stuff and the hard stuff.
And a companion to FREAKY, FUNKY FISH is in the works! PECULIAR PRIMATES is coming to bookshelves in Fall 2022 with Running Press Kids. From funny faces and colored butts, to flossing teeth and thumping chests, discover some peculiar ways primates look and act. Thankfully Claire Powell signed on to illustrate. I just saw the sketch of the cover. It will be another super fun book!
And last, but not least, favorite 80s movie?
When Harry Met Sally. I just rewatched it last summer and it still makes me laugh and cheer for Harry and Sally when they finally get together. That ending monologue by Billy Crystal? Um, yes. I’m a romantic at heart. :-)
Huge thank you to Debra for stopping by Critter Lit today! We are so excited about your debut!
Debra Kempf Shumaker loves weird and fascinating facts. When she isn’t reading or writing, Debra enjoys cooking, gardening, and watching Jeopardy. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, three sons, and two cats—who miss the days the youngest son had an aquarium full of fish.
FOR MORE INFORMATION about Debra or her book, visit her website or follow her on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShumakerDebra
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debrakshumaker/
ORDER THIS BOOK To order a copy of FREAKY, FUNKY FISH: ODD FACTS ABOUT FASCINATING FISH click here.
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