KidLit Alert!
Traditionally Published Children's Book Author
Lindsay Fryc
Debut MG Coming Out March 2023
Emma and the Queen of Featherstone
Good Day fellow writers, bookish people, and readers of KidLit! I am happy to introduce another debut, traditionally published author, Lindsay Fryc to Teazurs Blog! She's amazing and shares lots of great information about writing and the road to publishing her first novel. Enjoy!
Lindsay, we met on Instagram when I reached out for an interview because I saw you have a debut coming out soon. What’s that feel like to be on the verge of release?
Yes! Thank you so much for reaching out! It's so great to be able to connect with bookish friends through social media! Being on the verge of a debut book release feels incredibly surreal. I don’t think if I went back in time to tell 12-year-old me that I was publishing a middle-grade book, she would believe me! But I am so incredibly excited to get this book out into the world and am ready to just simply enjoy the moment.
What’s your book’s title, and how did it come about?
My book is entitled
Emma and the Queen of Featherstone, and I love the title because it actually has stayed the same from day one throughout the publishing process.
Whenever I come up with a title for a book, I always find myself thinking about the movie Empire Records from the 90s. In it, one character wants to start a band, and another character tells him, “The first thing you need is a name. Then you’ll know what kind of band you got.”
So I always think about the title of a book right when I start writing it because it helps me with developing the general vibe of the story. The actual title of Emma and the Queen of Featherstone is perfect because in the story, the main character Emma has grown up with these bedtime stories her dad would tell her about the Queen of Featherstone, and she gets the opportunity to compare these fables to reality. So the novel is really about hopes and dreams that we might have and how they measure up to reality, and we get to see it as we learn about Emma and the Queen of Featherstone.
How did you come up with the idea for this book?
This book started as an outlet for me when I had my eldest daughter. I wanted to dust off my old writing skills and write something for her that was fun. The story then started to take shape as I learned more about my great-grandparents and other German-speaking Russians under Soviet rule.
But the novel actually turning into a science fiction novel stemmed from something my daughter came home from preschool and asked. She had just started school and, I think, was barely there for a month. And she came up to me in her Disney princess dress and said,
“Mom, girls can’t be good at video games. Only boys are good at that, right?”
I was so shocked that this little girl was already being told she couldn’t be good at something as a girl. So after a chat about why that wasn’t true, I wrote my daughter into a tech-based sci-fi world so that she could see herself there, and so I could see her there too.
Pre-orders are so important for authors because they determine initial interest in our book and writing! Pre-orders are like a signal to publishers telling them they should publish more books by that author. So if you want to support an author and to continue to see more books from them… Pre-order!!
I also see on your Instagram feed that you also use the Emotion Thesaurus - one of my favorite writing book helpers. How has it bettered your writing?
Oh yes, the emotion thesaurus is fantastic! I love the formatting of it. It is so simplistic and easy to reference when you are trying to quickly come up with a better way to describe emotions. We have so many ways to describe emotions and the emotion thesaurus has really helped me to replace my crutch words when I’m drafting and revising.
What other great writing tools do you suggest for aspiring authors?
I love Save the Cat Writes a Novel and The Emotional Craft of Fiction.
I am a huge plotter when writing, so save the cat makes plotting the beats easier for me so I can continue to write the novel. If I don’t have those beats, it's nearly impossible for me to finish a project. Also, the Emotional Craft of Fiction is great when you are crafting emotional scenes and want them to be impactful on the reader. Those two books are must-haves for aspiring authors.
You state you are a mom of girls - well, I’m a mom of boys. What is the most fun you’ve had being a girl mom? Boys…they’re full of energy and constantly bring me strange things to look at.
Oh, I love that! Strange things to look at can be hilarious or scary, depending on what they bring.
I think the strangest thing my youngest daughter has shown us was
a squirrel tail with no squirrel attached to it!
But, I think the most fun I have with girls is simply watching them, these two sisters, and their relationship grows. I never had a sister, only an older brother, so the whole sister dynamic constantly baffles me and brings me so much joy to see. I also love seeing them randomly dancing and singing in their Disney princess dresses and then just switching to having an all-out lightsaber battle. It’s hilarious to watch, and I absolutely love it.
You have a dog who seems to want your attention when you write. How do you hold to your writing time, no matter the distractions?
This is a really tough question because we just had to say goodbye to our pup a couple weeks ago, and I am really missing the distraction right now.
I think the biggest tool for me to hold to writing time despite the distractions in life is to -
...acknowledge distractions but
still be intentional about my writing time.
Allowing myself the time to be distracted and knowing that life isn’t perfect and will have distractions helps me not be too anxious about my writing time. I also have a very great support system at home, and simply communicating my writing needs and goals for that session helps me to make use of that support and lessen distractions to get writing done.
You’ve been married for 14+ years - how does your hubby support you in your writing?
Yes, this year, we will have been married for 15 years! It's such a big milestone, and really I wouldn’t be a writer or an author without him. He has been an incredible support in my writing, whether needing him to distract the kids so I can get some writing done or needing a sounding board to discuss sci-fi and tech-y plot holes I have.
He is a big hard sci-fi reader, so it’s fun to talk about my writing with him. Even though his solution for pretty much every plot problem I have is just to write in a Dyson sphere, it's fun to chat about speculative fiction as it’s shaped and molded into a story. He is also an amazing provider for the family, and that is what really enables me to be able to continue to write. I couldn’t ask for a better person to share my life with, and I appreciate his support so much.
Do you have a writer’s group? What’s awesome about that?
I do have a small writer's group. We call ourselves the writer’s guild, and they are amazing! I love our group chat because it is where we give encouragement and prodding to keep writing. There are so many times when you can get frustrated or feel stuck, and having a group to push you to keep going because of their belief in you is absolutely wonderful. I recommend everyone get a writer group if even to just help you keep your sanity while writing and publishing.
If I gave you a megaphone and the whole world would listen:
What one sentence would you shout?
Be kind.
Who is your biggest cheerleader, and how has she/he supported you?
I am super blessed to have more than one big cheerleader on my team!
One of my biggest cheerleaders is probably the young 11-year-old beta reader I had for Emma and the Queen of Featherstone. She’s not 11 anymore since initially reading the novel, but she has been supportive and sweet. Her mom has constantly told me how much she talks about it and how excited she is that she got to read the novel before other kids. Her feedback after reading it is probably what really pushed me to move forward with publishing.
The second biggest cheerleader is my best friend and one of my critique partners. We have known each other since we were teenagers, and she continues to give not only me the tough news I need to hear but also the biggest cheers when I need to hear those as well! I think it’s so important for the cheerleaders in a writer’s life to be capable of both, and I am so grateful for her.
There are so many other big cheerleaders I have. I really can’t name them all! All of my friends are incredibly supportive and positive about my publishing journey, and they are the greatest to be around.
What got you interested in writing? And how long did it take for you to get to where you are now?
I was raised around reading and books.
My parents, my mother especially, really supported always having books in the house. We had so many visits to the library and bookstores that I think that alone made me want to dive into writing. The process of writing out my thoughts and feelings was so helpful to me during those difficult tween and teen years.
I had huge spurts where life got in the way of writing, and I forgot how much I loved it and needed it. But I picked writing back up around 2015, when my daughter was born. There was always something about how much writing helped me process emotions and my ever-anxious thoughts. I needed to start writing again at that point because it helped me process being a mother, and the manuscript I began is what ultimately is being published on March 7th, Emma and the Queen of Featherstone.
Where else can we read more about you? Do you blog? Do other interviews?
I have a monthly newsletter where I write about author's life, writing, and book news! You can sign up for it on my website.
Your main character is described as an anxious STEAM-loving girl - what exactly does that mean? What is she anxious about?
Anxiety just happens to be a genetic condition in my family. So I think it's kind of inevitable that, in some way, one or more of my characters openly expresses anxiety. Emma, the main character in the novel, closely mirrors my own daughter, who also has anxiety. I wanted to show how this anxious girl could still have those feelings after being met with an overwhelming and unexpected change in circumstances but show how it is possible to succeed and continue moving forward.
Who is your main character based on? Someone, you know? You?
Emma is my main character of Emma and the Queen of Featherstone. She is named after my eldest daughter, and is heavily inspired by her. Mannerisms and reactions to situations are all based on her. My main character being older than my daughter, however, does mean that I took some liberties and inserted parts of a younger me into that character.
You call out Michigan trees on your website as where your heart is rooted. I’m a tree lover myself - old Oaks are my favorite. What’s yours and why?
Oaks are so beautiful I can understand why they are your favorite! Asking me my favorite tree is like asking me to name my favorite book! It is basically impossible for me to be able to name only one. I love espalier fruit trees. I have an espalier apple tree that was a gift from my father, and it is my favorite tree in my garden. I tend to love flowering trees like magnolia, cherry, or lilac because they smell so wonderful in the spring.
When it comes to trees, a lot of times I love the practical, too. Any tree that produces something to eat is naturally going to be a favorite of mine. There is something simply amazing about watching the fruit production cycle of trees, and I love to share that with my daughters. They get so excited when they can eat something they grabbed right from our yard.
You are also a gardener - what type of gardening do you do, and what have you produced?
I am a big gardener!
I love my garden. Mostly I grow fruits and veggies. We plant tomatoes and hot peppers so my husband can make his famous spicy garden salsa. We also have raspberries that are kind of taking over. I have flowers, too, like roses, daylilies, and peonies. I love easy-to-grow flowers, so I don’t plant very many annuals. I do love sunflowers, though, and will always have some sort of sunflower in my garden.
Last year, I planted these chocolate red sunflowers, and they were stunning when they caught the sunlight. Every year I try to plant something a little different. Still figuring out what grows the best since we moved into our most recent house, and I love the learning process behind seeing what will grow.
The cover of your debut MG book - Emma and the Queen of FEATHERSTONE, is so beautiful and mesmerizing. How did it come about? Were you involved in choosing it?
Thank you, I absolutely love my cover! The cover designer, Sanja, at Orange Blossom Publishing is amazing. Her Instagram handle is @blacklady_design, and she is so incredibly talented. She had designed seven different covers, based off of a general cover form I completed, that I could choose from, and they were all so different and wonderful in their own way. But this one we ended up with felt the most representative of the tone of the novel, and I was so happy to be included in the process of creating the cover, only suggesting minor tweaks to the final cover.
Cover artists are amazing with
what they can do!
One of the things I didn’t realize at the time of selecting it was how much it reminded me of my favorite painting by Van Gogh. I have always had some version of Starry Night on my walls ever since I was a young girl. Now, every single time I look at my cover, I am reminded of that painting, and I think it makes this novel so much more special to me.
What’s the story of how you got your book noticed and chosen to be published by Orange Blossom Publishing?
I think for any author to get published, they have to become publishing stalkers on some level. There is so much research involved in querying a novel. So that’s what I did. I researched a ton.
One thing I felt was very important in writing this novel was authentic female representation in a sci-fi world.
The only downside I found when researching the publishing industry was that there are very few women at management levels and even fewer in marginalized groups. But then I came across this article in Publisher’s Weekly that talked about women making strides by starting smaller presses. It was the first time I considered submitting my novel to a small press.
I found Orange Blossom Publishing during a Twitter pitch contest and researched a ton about this newer press. When I found out they accepted un-agented submissions, I repurposed my query letter and focused on the aspects that I thought would interest Orange Blossom. The publisher was focused on women’s fiction and children’s literature, and so that was the focus of my initial submission.
I focused on the layers of the middle-grade novel that showed this girl as she navigates a science fiction world. After that submission, I got a full request, and then about a month after that, Arielle at Orange Blossom asked to contact me to discuss the future of the novel. After even more research and interviews with authors who had published with Orange Blossom, I decided to move forward with them to publish Emma and the Queen of Featherstone.
How would you classify your book? Sci-fi? Magical? Futuristic?
Emma and the Queen of Featherstone is definitely a not-too-distant future science fiction novel with hints of fantasy. Some people refer to this as science fantasy because the tech discussed is speculative.
What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I have ever gotten is the admonition to turn off the editor side of your brain when drafting. Sometimes my perfectionist self wants everything to come out perfectly the first time, and the reality is that it never does, and that can hinder progress in a manuscript. So I have to actively tell myself to not edit when I’m drafting. Otherwise, finishing the draft just will not happen.
There is an exoplanet that was discovered in 2008 called HAT-P-7b in the Cygnus constellation. On the night side of this planet, there is a high precipitation of corundum (the crystalline form of Aluminium Oxide) found in the atmosphere. So scientists have hypothesized that it actually rains rubies and sapphires, and because of its violent storms, it spreads these planet-wide. This planet is very much what I think Featherstone in my novel would look like, and I would love to go there to see for myself!
Where can fans meet you in person next? Are any events coming up?
Are you a member of SCBWI?
Yes, I am an SCBWI member. I love the resources that membership provides, as well as the community. I hope to really make more use out of it post covid in the coming months and years. There have been many virtual shop talks and other very informative programs that I think every author can benefit from.
Emma and the Queen of Featherstone is perfect for readers who want to read a whimsical sci-fi adventure story with a multi-faceted girl main character and friends who fully support her.
Sometimes I feel sci-fi can be portrayed solely as “gritty” because space is a vacuum, and a lot is still unknown about it, and that makes sense! But with this novel, I really wanted to show the adventurous side of space and theoretical modes of travel. I wanted to create a middle-grade novel that was curious and fun and showed a girl who was very capable of handling herself in this new world. Those are the vibes I am hoping readers come away with when they read this novel.
Coffee, sunlight, and a planned adventure!
Wow, Lindsay Fryc! What a great, fun, and informative interview. Thank you for answering with such enthusiasm. I hope the readers out there find your book and enjoy the SPACE out of it!
If you want to connect with Lindsay, check out her links:
And if you'd like to be interviewed, please reach out. I love supporting writers, agents, publishers, and bookish people of all sorts!
Write~on
Loved hearing about the story behind the story!
ReplyDeleteLoved hearing about the story behind the story!
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