Author Spotlight: Ariel Bernstein
Today we welcome picture book author Ariel Bernstein! She recently signed a contract for her debut picture book, I HAVE A BALLOON, from Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, coming out Fall 2017.
Tell us about your background and how you came to write
for children.
It’s probably cliché but I began to think of story ideas
while reading picture books to my children. I had no idea how to write an
actual picture book though. I wrote the wonderful Ame Dyckman an email about
how much my son loved her BOY + BOT book and at the end asked if she had any
advice for an aspiring picture book writer. She wrote back a really nice email
and recommended I join SCBWI. So of course I joined SCBWI and found helpful
websites like this one to learn from. I learned all about pacing, ‘showing’ vs.
‘telling,’ the importance of word count and much more.
Congrats! The world recently learned about your contract
for your debut picture book, I HAVE A BALLOON. Tell us about the story and its
inspiration.
Thank you! I really owe a lot to SCBWI because I thought of
the idea at their 2015 New York conference during Laura Vaccaro Seeger’s
presentation. She was talking about her book, GREEN, and I started thinking
about colors and settled on the color red. I immediately thought of a red
balloon. For some reason I thought of a frog holding the balloon. Probably
because I have two young children, I figured there’d be another frog nearby who
would really, really want to hold the balloon too.
Soon after I wrote the first
draft, I saw a ton of people on Twitter posting about Dev Petty’s I DON’T WANT
TO BE A FROG book. I panicked and thought, I can’t have a frog book too! So I
went into my kid’s rooms and looked at their stuffed animals and found an owl
and monkey. They seemed like they’d go together pretty well for a story and I think
it worked out for the best.
Has your journey to being contracted been long and
arduous, short and fortuitous, or somewhere in between? Do you have an agent?
My journey with solely writing picture books has been
relatively short. I started about a year ago and signed with my agent Mary
Cummings last April. She submitted my story and after about four months we
accepted the offer from Sylvie Frank at Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman
Books. I feel incredibly lucky that Scott Magoon signed on to illustrate the
book soon after.
Another perspective is that I’ve been writing on and off since
I was in school two decades ago. I’ve written short stories, blog posts and
even finished a novel. I feel all of that helped inform my writing skills for
picture books.
What is the hardest part about writing?
The hardest part is when I’ve worked a lot on a manuscript
and come to the conclusion it doesn’t have potential. It doesn’t mean the
writing was a waste of time, but it’s still sad to put the story away and then
feel good enough to try again.
What is the easiest part?
Writing dialogue. It’s my favorite part of writing and many
of my stories are told only in dialogue.
What projects are you working on now?
I’m working on other picture book manuscripts as well as a
chapter book series.
What advice would you give other aspiring authors?
I feel that finding good critique partners is one of the
best things about being a writer. It’s a free way to strengthen your writing
skills as well as give back when you write a critique.
The other piece of advice I’ve heard a lot and has been very
helpful is to always be working on something when you have a piece on
submission – whether to an agent or editor. It’s a great distraction from the
waiting and it also gives you hope that if what’s on submission doesn’t work
out, maybe the current project will.
What is something most people don't know about you?
When I was in sixth grade I was an extra in the movie Dead
Poets Society. In the movie, during the play of A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, I
played one of the fairies.
Very cool. Next time that movie comes on, we'll be sure to try to spot you! Where can we find you online?
I’m on Twitter @ArielBBooks and my website is
ArielBernsteinBooks.com.
Ariel Bernstein is a picture book, chapter book
and short story writer. She has been published in Scary Mommy and Atticus
Review. Her debut picture book, I HAVE A BALLOON, will be published by Simon
& Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books in Fall 2017 and will be illustrated by
Scott Magoon. Ariel is a member of SCBWI in New Jersey.
Huge congrats to Ariel on her fairly rapid path to publication! Wishing her many more successes to come!
ReplyDeleteWhat a delight to find out more about your writing journey! Thanks so much for sharing it. I loved hearing about your thought process during idea development. I can't wait to read I HAVE A BALLOON and many other publications that follow!
ReplyDeleteYes, thanks so much for sharing with us, Ariel. So fascinating to see how writer's find their ideas. And congrats on your debut book. . .looking forward to reading it!
ReplyDeleteI HAVE A BALLOON sounds delightful! I can't wait for it to be on shelves. Thanks for sharing your journey! And a big congrats :D
ReplyDeleteOwl and monkey sound like a great pair for a PB. Wait! I have an owl and monkey in one of my PBs. So, now I better dig through my boys' old stuffed animals. :)
ReplyDeleteAriel, Balloon certainly sounds like a lofty PB! (Couldn't resist.) Congrats on this first book and may it be the first of many!!
ReplyDeleteExcellent! Super! Good job! Great! I am excited for you, Ariel, Owl and Monkey and of course, the red balloon.
ReplyDeleteI am happy to call you my writerly friend.
~Suzy Leopold
I'm so excited for your Ariel!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited for your Ariel!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited for your Ariel!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's fun to hear your publishing path, Ariel.
ReplyDeleteHAVE A BALLOON sounds like it is a big lift.
So good your young readers had those stuffed animals at hand.
Many perfect red balloons to you between now + launch!
( the complete title went kerflooy above. )
ReplyDeleteAire's & Scott's book is I HAVE A BALLOON.