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Alma and How She Got Her Name
by Juana Martinez-Neal (Author / Illustrator)

Booktalk: If you ask her, Alma Sofia Esperanza José Pura Candela has way too many names: six! Just think of how hard it is to fit them all on the back of a little photo. How did such a small person wind up with such a large name? Alma turns to Daddy for an answer . . .

Snippet:

Guest Post by Juana Martinez-Neal

Juana Martinez-Neal is the daughter and granddaughter of painters. She started her story in Lima, Peru, and then moved to the United States. The winner of a 2018 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award for La Princesa and the Pea by Susan Middleton Elya, Juana Martinez-Neal is still writing the story of her life, with the help of her husband and three children, in Arizona.

Q. Describe your writing process.
A. A mess. An organized confusion.

I’m a visual person so images always come first. Those first images feel very much like scenes in a play, but I have to discover who I am working with in the book. So I always begin a new book by working on character sketches.

For Alma, I had 4 different versions of Alma and her dad before I settled on the characters that appear in the book that just published in April. As I drew, each one of them felt right in different ways, but not completely right. When I drew Alma as she is now, she felt real! Alma felt like she was an actual little girl!

Once I had the main characters I began to sketch a full spread and write many drafts of the manuscript. Then, I go back to sketching, editing the manuscript, and more sketching. I tend to switch between writing and drawing if I feel stuck. But if I’m really, really stuck then I stop completely and that’s when Stefanie, my literary agent, comes to the rescue. We talk on the phone about what the story and then characters and brainstorm many ideas together. Without her, Alma would have been left as an unfinished idea of a book.

Q: Tell us about your latest book.
A. My latest book is Alma and How She Got Her Name which just released on April 10 from Candlewick Press. I also wrote the Spanish edition, Alma y cómo obtuvo su nombre, which was released simultaneously.

The book is a conversation between Alma and her dad when she asks him why is her name so long. In their conversation, she is introduced to important people in her family who came before her and consequently she is named after — except for the name Alma. She is the one and only Alma, and she will get to tell her own story.

Alma is about discovering your family and finding your place in your family and in the world. It is about valuing heritage and having pride in where you come from.

It is my hope that Alma starts many conversations about names, family and countries of origin, and that these discussions help children take pride in their own names and where they come from!

Thanks for sharing your new book, Juana!

If Wendell Had a Walrus
by Lori Mortensen (Author) and Matt Phelan (Illustrator)

Booktalk: A boy named Wendell dreams of getting a pet walrus. Together, they’d ride bikes, tell jokes, and have a grand time. If only he could find one!

But looking for a walrus turns out to be its own adventure . . .

Snippet:

Guest Post by Lori Mortensen

Lori Mortensen has been a high school dance teacher, sign language interpreter, and typed oodles of stuff for attorneys, engineers, and accountants. It wasn’t until she was a stay-at-home mom that she wondered what she could write. At last count she has written over 70 books and over 350 stories and articles! Lori lives in Northern California with her family and a mega-fluffy cat named Max.

Q. Describe your writing process.
A. My writing process starts with an idea. Ideas present themselves in different ways. For my rhyming picture book Cowpoke Clyde and Dirty Dawg, I was inspired by my neighbor’s dogs that regularly escaped from their backyard and raced down the street. Moments later, my neighbors chased after them, shouting for them to come back. As I watched the lively scene unfold, an idea came to mind. What if I wrote a story about a boy chasing a dog? Once my main character turned into good ol’ Cowpoke Clyde and Dirty Dawg, the story took off just like Dirty Dawg does in my story.

Another time, I was wandering through my local thrift store when I spotted a figurine of a spotted cow sitting on a crescent moon. I stopped and thought; Wouldn’t it be fun to write a story about how the cow got there? After buying the figurine, I went home and wrote the story in rhyme to accompany the original Hey, Diddle Diddle nursery rhyme. I was thrilled when HarperCollins published it.

Sometimes a title pops into my head, as it did with Chicken Lily and Mousequerade Ball.

Once I have a kernel of an idea, I find the voice to tell the story. It’s an exciting and challenging process. Fun to see the voice of a character emerge and see where the story will take me. Frustrating when I hit a snag, lose my way, or wonder if I’ll ever get through the first draft. However, as I begin to like what’s blossoming on the page, momentum builds until I cross the first-draft finish line. Maybe this story has potential after all, I think. After I’ve polished the story to the best of my ability, I share it with my trusted critique groups. I have two–one online and one that meets in person once a month. Their fresh insights are invaluable. They point out inconsistencies and raise questions that never occurred to me. Then, the revision process begins again. I may not agree with everything they suggest, but I’m forced to reevaluate my text and its purpose in the story. Revision is a writer’s best friend.

Each story is a new adventure, a new story to tell.

Q: Tell us about your latest book.
A. The idea for If Wendell Had a Walrus began while I was reading a lot of quiet books such as And Then It’s Spring, by Julie Fogliano, and The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood. As I read these and others, and let the thoughtful voices settle in my mind, I imagined a character looking up at the clouds. Once I added “if” to the mix, an image of a walrus popped into my head and I knew it was a fun storyline I wanted to explore. Line by line, the voice of the eager boy who wanted a walrus emerged and it was exciting to figure how he would do it.

One of my favorite parts of reading or writing a book is that unexpected twist at the end. Should Cowpoke Clyde finally catch his ol’ Dirty Dawg for a bath? Should Cindy Moo jump over the moon? Should a boy who dreams of having a walrus get one? That’s the trick of course. The end needs to be surprising, yet satisfying. I knew I’d hit a home run when I came up with the unexpected, yet satisfying ending for this story. Does Wendell get a walrus? Read the book and find out!

Thanks for sharing your new book, Lori!