III. ON A PERSONAL NOTE

Undoubtedly, you love many children’s books, both classics and contemporary. Please cite three favorites, including at least two MG/YA. What makes each unforgettable?

In my early years, I loved the Little Bear books. It’s quite possible that the relationship between Little Bear and his mother started my love of stories about familial relationships. I loved everything by Roald Dahl growing up; his books combine subversive humor and a healthy suspicion of adults with horror—what’s not to like?

More recent titles: I love When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead for its great exploration of friendships and family and for its brilliantly plotted mystery. And in YA, Simon vs. the Homo  Sapiens Agenda, for exactly the same reasons: it’s such a brilliant exploration of family and friendship, and it has so much heart and humor.

How does meeting writers at workshops (or elsewhere in person) affect you, your perspective, your work? What do you enjoy about participating in writers’ events?

It's great to meet authors because you get to hear about the different ways they work. As an agent, I often have to adapt my editorial style to accommodate what works for any given client, and meeting writers reminds me that every author works differently. It's also just inspiring to see how excited authors are about their work—that excitement really matters, and it's a huge part of why I love being an agent.

I'm particularly looking forward to the Pacific Coast Children’s Writers Workshop because it is small enough that the faculty can be much more hands-on with each participant than at a larger event—which suggests that both the authors and the faculty will get more out this intimate event. It's going to be great!

What would you like writers to know about you, the individual who scrutinizes (and may reject) their literary labor of love?

I always tell authors that agents’ tastes vary as widely as with all readers—and thank goodness for that, or else the range of stories on the market would be much more limited than what’s currently being published. For that reason, not all books will be right for my taste, but that doesn’t mean they won’t work. As writers know well, publishing is often a game of persistence: you have to keep trying until someone says, “Yes!”

This persistence doesn’t only mean continuing to query agents—it means continuing to challenge your craft and forgiving the bad days when it feels like your characters are flat, your story is uninspired, your plotting is slow. You have to allow yourself the imperfect ideas and bad sentences in order to sort through to find the good ones. Writing is a process, not a result.

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