We are thrilled to interview New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman here at Kidlit in Color. Read more about his inspiration for his latest book, All Better Now and some great tips for writers. 


KLiC: What was your inspiration for All Better Now? 

NS: At a speaking event, someone commented that my darker books are often prophetic – and then they said, “Can’t you predict something happy?” Everyone laughed, but I took the challenge to heart.  But, of course, not even an exploration of happiness can be all peaches-and-cream. Our society isn’t designed to function if everyone is happy. So, what are the consequences of a virus that threatens to bring about universal happiness? Developing this idea involved exploring how absolute contentment could disrupt power dynamics and challenge fundamental human desires and motivations. 

KLiC: Please tell us about your writing process. How long did it take you to write and sell this book? 

NS: The book took over a year to write, working on and off. As with all my books, there was a lot of soul searching, questioning the world around me, and examining human nature (both the positive and negative sides). And, of course, world-building. Because, while the story begins in our world, it rapidly veers off into uncharted territory as we face the prospect of unbounded joy and contentment—which can be terrifying …

KLiC: What’s the one thing you want teens to take away from All Better Now?

NS: That there are consequences to every decision we make, good and bad. That even happiness comes with a cost, and it’s up to us to determine if the cost is worth it. (I think it is.) And that there is always more to think about because the important questions are bottomless.

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KLiC: Do you have any tips for pre-published authors?

NS: Yes.  

1. Work on your craft
2. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite! 
3. Read (and write) outside of your comfort zone
4. And (here’s the hard one) don’t trick yourself into thinking that self-publishing is actually publishing. That’s nothing but an ego-trap.There are agents, and editors there for a reason. They are highly skilled at what they do. And – hard truth – if you haven’t been able to get an agent yet, then you probably aren’t ready, and need to develop your craft.  It’s hard to accept that “you’re not there yet.” I know when I couldn’t sell my first two books, I was frustrated, and felt that the publishers and agents were all idiots. They weren’t. I just wasn’t a good enough writer yet. If self-publishing had been as easy back then as it is now, I would never have honed my skills the way I needed to. 

KLiC: What’s next for you? 

NS: I’m very excited to say that I'm working on a prequel for SCYTHE which takes place in the year humans become immortal. This also happens to be the year that the Thunderhead gains consciousness and changes life on Earth forever. The novel focuses on the original 12 Scythes (or 13 if you believe certain sources), how they met, and how they came up with the idea for the Scythedom. The book doesn't have a title yet, but I'm very excited to be working on it. I’m also working on ALL OVER NOW, the second book in the Crown Royale Duology.

KLiC: Is there anything you want readers to know about you or your book(s)?

NS: Just that the one thing you can expect is to not get what you were expecting!


Learn more about All Better Now and purchase copy here. 
 

Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty award-winning books for children, teens, and adults, including the Unwind dystology, the Skinjacker trilogy, Downsiders, and Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award. Scythe, the first book in his series Arc of a Scythe is a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. He also writes screenplays for motion pictures and television shows. Neal is the father of four, all of whom are talented writers and artists themselves. Visit Neal at StoryMan.com and Facebook.com/NealShusterman.
 

We are thrilled to interview author Gabriella Aldeman on our blog today! Read below about her latest book, Squawk of Spanish:

KLiC: What was your inspiration for Squawk of Spanish?

GA: Squawk of Spanish is inspired by my own family. I’m Panamanian American and fully
bilingual. But for my son, Spanish doesn’t come easy. Sometimes his words knot in his
throat and refuse to come out. When his grandmother visits from Panama, they speak in board games, video games, hugs, and food. Then after a while, my son’s Spanish words start
tumbling out dry and rusty. He is like Max, the main character of the story. And, like Max,
he began to learn that trying is what counts and that there’s nothing wrong with having an
accent.

In this book, I explore the issue some children face when they don’t feel comfortable
speaking their heritage language. This is a book that celebrates effort over outcome, with a
bit of squawk-out-loud humor.


KLiC: Please tell us about your writing process. How long did it take you to write and sell this book?
​
GA: The first (few) drafts of this story were titled The Parrot Who Refused to Speak
Spanish. The storyline was similar, but Lorito (the parrot) was the one to refuse to speak
Spanish and Max (the boy) was the one who cheered him on. I queried agents with this
story and got rejected quite a lot.

Finally, an author friend who read my manuscript said three magic words: “No one cares.”
But of course! Who cares if a parrot speaks Spanish or not? The manuscript was lacking
“heart” because Max needed to be the one who refused to speak his grandmother’s
language. With this, I revised madly and changed the title.

This was the biggest change as I had to rewrite the whole story. Once the book was sold,
there were a few more changes during the editing process. We added cousins and Abuela
got her own dialogue lines, which added even more depth and heart to the story.

From start to finish it took a bit over three years.

KLiC: What’s the one thing you want children to take away from your book?
​
GA: Learning a second language is hard. It can be harder when that language is our heritage language and it’s so tied to our own identity. As a matter of fact, learning anything is hard. It puts us in a very vulnerable space where we have to be courageous because we don’t know how well we’re going to do. Are we going to learn fast or slow? Will we like it? How will we perform in comparison with our peers?

As a bilingual and bicultural mom, what I want from my kids, what I want from Max, and from young readers is to realize that perfection is never the goal; perfection doesn’t even exist. What matters is to have the courage to embark on the learning journey. 

At the end of the book, we see that Max still can’t roll his Rs, his words still get stuck in his throat. But he tells us he is practicing every weekend with Abuela and Lorito to untangle those long words in Spanish. That, to me, is what counts. Trying our best is what counts. And it’s what we can control. 

KLiC: Do you have any tips for pre-published authors?
GA: Find community. We pour a lot of ourselves into our books. And it can feel very vulnerable, especially because there’s a lot of rejection involved in the publishing journey. It really makes a difference to have a community of writers who are going through a similar process. 

KLiC: What’s next for you?
GA: My next picture book doesn’t come out until 2027. It’s titled Sometimes A Dream and it’s coming out with Versify, an imprint of HarperCollins. It’s about a girl named Alma who has many dreams, and they change with the changing of the seasons. The central question she asks is: How does a dream come true? With the help of her grandfather and armed with pencils, papers, and a cozy hammock she learns just how to work hard for each one of those dreams. 

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Gabriella Aldeman is a Panamanian American author. She writes picture books in hopes that more children become readers and that all readers feel seen. She is also a professional translator of academic resources and children’s books. Gabriella holds degrees from Georgetown University and the College of William and Mary. Her books include Paula’s Patches (Free Spirit, 2023) and Squawk of Spanish (Charlesbridge, 2024). She lives in Fairfax, Virginia with her husband and two children. Please visit her at www.writebetween.com or @write_between on Twitter or Instagram.

Order a copy of Squawk of Spanish here: 
https://bookshop.org/p/books/squawk-of-spanish-gabriella-aldeman/21303064?ean=9781623543921

Illustrator full name: Romina Galotta

We are excited to have author Elba Luz on our blog today with a personal essay for us. Read about her path to publication, persistence and how it relates to her new YA, Build a Girlfriend. 

Rejection
By Elba Luz 

Rejection is inevitable in any career or stage of life, and it comes in various forms that tangle themselves in our paths. For me, the most gut-wrenching way it manifested in my life was in the literal form of rejections from agents. I started writing when I was a teenager, and only after graduating college did I snag an agent to try and sell my books. Foolishly, I thought it was the last time I’d have to deal with it, but when I failed to sell my first project, I learned I could never be rid of it—so I had to learn how to work through it.

Amelia, the main character in Build a Girlfriend, has been rejected by every partner she’s had—along with her family of women, cursed with the same bad luck. Unlike me, who often opts to eat a pile of French fries and cry while playing video games until my best friend does a life check on me, Amelia decides early on to push through her rejections. She does so by facing them head-on. With the help of her family, she decides to do an “ex-retrospective,” re-dating her exes to try to figure out what went wrong in order to become the perfect girlfriend.

You’d think that it would be too humiliating a task, going back to past relationships to dive deep into yourself and pick out flaws, but Amelia pushes through despite it all. It’s not that Amelia is without embarrassment—she feels it quite often. She’s just brave enough to continue moving forward.

For me, it was much harder. With each rejection, I grew more humiliated by my growing failures, causing me to doubt whether I should be a writer. I thought something was flawed within me. I didn’t have the skills to be on this path; therefore, I didn’t even have the right to try. Instead of realizing that even the greatest of artists did not succeed immediately, I only let myself wallow in my failures.

With the help of her family and ex, Amelia can build herself up, focus on the things she is good at, and magnify her great qualities. It’s not a shield against her rejections; nothing can block them from piercing us fully. But it’s a weapon against them—something to combat the misery rejection often brings.

Eventually, I realized that my writing and my words mattered. Even if I kept getting rejections, even if there were thousands of better artists than me, I mattered too. Just by living, you hold value. My stories had value, and so did I. So even when the hurt followed after rejection, I didn’t let it stop me from doing something I genuinely loved. Maybe I needed to take a break, eat some ice cream, and touch some grass. But as long as I came back to my writing, I became stronger than I was before. Rejection is natural, but pushing through it makes us resilient.


Elba Luz is a Puerto Rican author and a lover of stories, whether in the form of anime, manga, video games, or, of course, books. Speaking of books, she should be writing her own. Instead, you’ll probably find her replaying Final Fantasy, listening to classical music, or cuddling up with her adorable pit bull, Stormy. Learn more about Build a Girlfriend here.