We are so excited to have Meghan join us today to tell us about her journey to becoming a picture book author! She has graciously offered to give away a picture book biography critique (up to 1,000 words) to one lucky winner! Please comment below to enter.
Meghan P. Browne is working towards her MFA at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her debut picture book, Indelible Ann will be released June 22, 2021. Meghan lives on and runs a farm in South Austin, Texas, called the Honey Browne Farm. Visit her on Instagram and Twitter at @meghanpbrowne or www.meghanpbrowne.com
Welcome, Meghan!
Stef, thank you so much for inviting me to “chat” with your readers about picture book biographies.
I stumbled upon this form accidentally in 2018, but it has been a fun (and important!) part of my writing and publishing journey. After taking my first-ever class in writing for children at The Writing Barn, I was eager to keep my creative momentum high. I signed up for a picture book weekend intensive that was months away, only I didn’t realize I’d accidentally signed up for the Picture Book Biography intensive. Whoops.
Rather than ask for a refund, I decided to try my hand at biography. When I couldn’t decide whom to write about, I went back to my roots: What was I interested in reading about as a kid? What kinds of nonfiction stories excited me?
Rewind Time
When I was young, I desperately wanted to be a pilot.
Meghan (L) and cousin Seána wearing their grandfather’s leather flight caps for a game of cards
Meghan and Dorothy Smith Lucas, April 2018
When it came time for a semester-long research project in eighth grade, my grandmother suggested I interview her friend, Dorothy Lucas, who flew for the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in World War II. My mom drove me to a town two hours away so that I could interview Mrs. Lucas in 1998. Fast forward two decades to the year of the accidental biography intensive, and I decided I needed to interview Dorothy again. At the time, Dorothy was a spirited 96 years old, and we got to catch up at her home in San Antonio.
I continued my research all summer, and my first picture book biography manuscript, The Brave Life of Dorothy Lucas, was born. The work sold to Tamar Brazis at Viking, whom I met that fall at The Writing Barn, and illustrator Brooke Smart has been brought to illustrate. That book is due out in Spring 2022, and I cannot wait for Mrs. Lucas to hold it in her hands. She’ll be 99 years old when it is released.
Dorothy Smith Lucas, WASP
So, what are you passionate about?
I firmly believe that any story, written from a place of passion, is viable for publication. There are many folks who believe that picture book biography has had its heyday, the market is saturated, and that biography is not selling right now. I think there is some truth to that – of course editors with one or more biographies on their list will be searching for other kinds of stories. However, there are still so many interesting life stories yet to be told. Writers and illustrators from underrepresented communities telling #ownvoices stories are especially needed in the kidlit landscape. Also, lives of lesser-known history makers continue to beg to be told. True creative passion about any subject, no matter how niche, can make for irresistible storytelling.
Finding the Story Portal
When I’m brainstorming story ideas, I try to get back into the head of my younger self and the more playful side of my adult brain to figure out which elements of a story are the most exciting and memorable for my intended audience. When I was researching Dorothy Lucas’s life, I found myself on Ancestry.com looking at her high school yearbook. Next to her portrait, teenage Dorothy had listed “pineapple ice cream, learning to dive, and being a jitterbug” as a few of her favorite things.
Dorothy Smith Lucas’s high school yearbook photo, courtesy of Ancestry.com
I just knew those details had to make it into the story. My agent, Alyssa Eisner Henkin told me later that the pineapple ice cream bit was one of the most delicious mid-century Americana details in the manuscript for her. One of my favorite parts of writing non-fiction is the treasure hunt of finding the kid-centric details of a subject’s life that can act as a story portal for a child reader.
Indelible Ann cover by illustrator, Carlynn Whitt
Gather up your Awkwardness!
In working on my debut picture book, Indelible Ann: The Larger-than-life Story of Governor Ann Richards, my editor Ann Kelley at Random House Studio and I were hoping to get a jacket blurb from a few power-hitting women in the world of politics and pop culture. I felt extremely self-conscious about asking anyone with a very busy and important schedule to read my work and do me the huge favor of offering a public endorsement. I managed to gather up my awkwardness anyway and send out those requests. I didn’t always get the response I was hoping for, but I was able to secure one extraordinarily kind and important blurb for my efforts.
This act of feeling nervous and awkward but moving forward anyway has been an important practice in my journey as a writer. It doesn’t ever seem to get easier, but it has helped me land incredible interviews (see image below), and perhaps more importantly, it’s allowed me to share my work with people who have helped me make my writing better.
Meghan beekeeping on the rooftops of Paris after gathering up her awkwardness to interview the Notre Dame beekeepers for The Bees of Notre Dame (Illustrated by E.B. Goodale), due out Fall 2023 from Random House Studio.
I hope you’re feeling excited to try your hand at writing picture book biography. Be sure to return to your childhood brain, find your passion, get your hands dirty in the research, and buckle up for some out-of-comfort-zone adventures.
Be great! I’m rooting for you!
Thank you, Meghan! You can preorder her book here! And remember to write a comment below to enter to win a manuscript critique! Good luck!