Episode 19: What made you an author, and how? -with Brandy Colbert

Welcome! Join us on this episode as authors Grace Lin and Brandy Colbert answer a kid question: What made you an author, and how?

TRANSCRIPT:

Grace Lin: Hello, I'm Grace Lin children's book author and illustrator of many books, including the middle grade novel, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and the picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star. Today I'm here with Brandy Colbert, author of The Only Black Girls in Town. Hi Brandy!

Brandy Colbert: Hi Grace.

Grace Lin: How are you today?

Brandy Colbert: I'm great. How are you?

Grace Lin: Good. Are you ready for today's question?

Brandy Colbert: I am, and thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Grace Lin: Yay! Well, today's question is from a young person named Aiden, and they ask.

Aiden: What made you an author, and how?

Grace Lin: What made you an author, and how?

Brandy Colbert: That's a great question. Hi Aiden. Thank you for that. Okay, so I have been writing since I was seven years old, and I guess because I just started, I was reading a lot, so my parents always read to me when I was little before I could read myself, and then I wanted to start to read. So I would read with them, and then eventually I started reading on my own. And I really like to draw, when I was a kid, so I was also super into drawing, and I would sit in front of the TV, because it was the 1980s, and there was no restriction on our TV. And I would sit there with paper in front of me and just draw. And then after a while, I started drawing little speech bubbles out of the characters mouths, so they were having conversations. And then I was like, you know what? I would really like some more words to go with this. So I started writing little kind of descriptions of the scene along the bottom of the illustrations. And then the illustrations started getting smaller, and the words started getting bigger. More and more words. And then I realized that I actually just wanted to write books.

Grace Lin: Wow, that's cool. So was there a change from when you decided you wanted to be a writer versus an author? Or do you see a difference between that at all?

Brandy Colbert: I don't know if there was a difference, because I also had the privilege of being able to write books at school. We had a young authors fair every year, and so they would give us these blank, sort of just blank books with just white pages, a plain white cover, and we could illustrate it however we wanted to on the cover and on the inside. And we made it look like a real book and it was so much fun. And so the very first book I ever made, I have in my biography in the back it says that I want to be an author. And so I must've been about seven or eight. So I think that I always knew I wanted to share my writing with other people. That I didn't just want to write for me.

Grace Lin: Oh, that's so neat. Yeah, I think to me, I thought, I think that's the difference between a writer and an author. I think a writer, and I think authors are both obviously, but I think when you're a writer, you're just writing kind of for yourself. The difference between a writer and an author is the author takes that writing and shares it with the world. Right?

Brandy Colbert: Right.

Grace Lin: So I think for me, I always wanted to be a writer, because I loved books so much and I loved stories, and I always kind of felt like books were my friends, and I wanted to make more friends. But I think I have a funny story about what made me want to be an author though, because when I was in sixth grade, I entered this big book contest where the winner of this book contest would actually get their book published. I did not win first place, but I did win fourth place, and with fourth place, I actually won $1,000.

Brandy Colbert: What? Oh my goodness.

Grace Lin: And after I won $1,000 I was so money grubbing. I was like, "Oh my God, this is amazing. I want to be an author."

Brandy Colbert: Right.

Grace Lin: "Forever and ever," because the first time I ever thought you could make money from your work from writing, and that's really what kind of made me decide I wanted to be an author.

Brandy Colbert: Oh, that is such a funny story. Do they still run that contest? Like can we still enter?

Grace Lin: They don't. I know so many people ask me, and you know what's even funnier about that story is that the person who won first place in that book contest, and I looked it up like 10 years ago because I was so curious. I was like I only won fourth place. The person who won first place in that contest was Dav Pilkey.

Brandy Colbert: You are kidding.

Grace Lin: Yes. So when I tell this story to kids at school, I tell them that I lost a Captain Underpants.

Brandy Colbert: Right. Oh wow. Well, so I'm also curious since you also illustrate, right?

Grace Lin: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brandy Colbert: So when did those two things, writing and illustrating, sort of form at the same time for you?

Grace Lin: They did mainly because that book contest I entered was like you wrote and illustrated your book. So that's why I think it was something that I always wanted to do both. But you said you started with illustrating too, and that got smaller and smaller. Have you found any interest in coming back to that?

Brandy Colbert: No, I mean in my mind, yes. I think there's always a part of me that will love that. I still like to, I guess just sketch little things nothing better than stick figures, and I don't find myself sketching a lot, but I really, really respect illustration so much, and I've always really loved cartoons and just animation. So I think there's a part of my brain that just maybe is more of a fan and knows that part isn't it for me. But I feel really grateful that it got me into writing.

Grace Lin: Ah, so was there a step when you went from writing to being an author? Like that first step of being published?

Brandy Colbert: Yes, that was a long haul, because I sort of stepped away from it because I didn't know that you could actually go to school to study writing. So I went to school for journalism once I graduated from high school. So I studied journalism in college, because I thought, well I could still write if I become a journalist, but it won't be creative writing, and I could still work on my creative writing on my own time. And then when I was about 25 I decided, you know what, I love writing, I love books. I still want to try to get published. So then I did the big search for a literary agent, and that took a really long time. I had to write four books before I signed with a literary agent who said, "Hey, I can take this book and try to sell it to publishers." So that took about five or six years from the time I decided that I wanted to be published until the time that I got a book contract. So it was definitely a long haul, but it feels worth it. It feels like everything worked out like it should.

Grace Lin: Wow. So you would say in some ways you could say perseverance made you an author, right?

Brandy Colbert: Yes, absolutely. And also just reading so much. If I'm not reading, I don't really feel like writing, and I know that that's something some other authors go through. Do you feel like that Grace?

Grace Lin: Yeah, I think that I always kind of need books around me.

Brandy Colbert: Yes, they're still my friends. Definitely.

Grace Lin: So I guess books, perseverance, and loving writing made us both authors.

Brandy Colbert: Yes, that's perfect.

Grace Lin: Thank you so much, Aiden for your great question, and thank you Brandy for answering it.

Brandy Colbert: Thank you so much for having me. This was so fun.

Grace Lin: Thanks. Bye.

Brandy Colbert: Bye.

Grace Lin: And now we'll close this episode with a kid book review.

Today’s BOOK REVIEW comes from Nia! She’s going to tell us about Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez.

The book I would like to talk about is Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez. This book is about a boy named Sal and a girl named Gabi. Gabi's brother is very sick and they try to help Gabi's brother get better. Sal is a magician. Sometimes he poses Dead Mama out from another university and it causes lots of trouble. I like this book because I think truly funny and it has a lot of humor in it, like when Sal has a dead chicken in Yasmany's locker. It's also serious, like when Yasmany gets in trouble for trying to beat up Sal. I think you would enjoy this book.

Thank you Nia!

More about today’s author:

Brandy Colbert is the award-winning author of several books for children and teens, including The Only Black Girls in Town, The Revolution of Birdie Randolph, Stonewall Book Award winner Little & Lion, and the forthcoming The Voting Booth. She is co-writer of Misty Copeland's Life in Motion young readers edition, and her short fiction and essays have been published in a variety of critically acclaimed anthologies for young people. Her books have been chosen as Junior Library Guild selections, and have appeared on many best of lists, including the American Library Association's Best Fiction for Young Adults and Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. She is on faculty at Hamline University's MFA program in writing for children, and lives in Los Angeles.

Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and her picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio , a video essayist for PBS NewsHour (here & here), and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf. She is the co-host of the podcast Book Friends Forever, a kidlit podcast about friendship and publishing (geared for adults). Find her facebook,  instagram , twitter ( @pacylin) or sign up for her author newsletter HERE.

Special thanks to the High Five Books & Art Always Bookstore, Ms. Carleton’s 2nd grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews.