children’s literature

Debut Authors Bash – Interview with author Jodi Kendall about THE UNLIKELY STORY OF A PIG IN THE CITY

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Jodi Kendall

  1. What is your writing routine? Do you aim for a word count, to tackle a certain number of pages at a time, or do you go scene by scene? (Something else?)

I work best in the morning, so that’s generally when I schedule my writing time. When I’m first-drafting, I do like word sprints and setting word count goals to help me keep moving forward, but mostly I just time myself to stay focused. I do “pomodoros” which is a time management technique. I use the website Grooveotter.com (it’s free!) and set 25-minute sessions on the clock. I aim to do a few Pomodoros a day on my writing days (which is not every day).

  1. What was your inspiration for your book? What was the most fun and the most difficult part of getting the story just right?

THE UNLIKELY STORY OF A PIG IN THE CITY was inspired by a real life childhood experience of mine, when my brother saved a runt farm piglet from certain death. The pig’s name was Ellie and she lived in our home for an adventurous six months! (You can read more in this recent Columbus Dispatch article: http://www.dispatch.com/entertainmentlife/20171024/joe-blundo-familys-novelty-pig-inspires-novel-by-upper-arlington-native). I had a lot of fun developing Josie’s character and creating bonding moments between her and Hamlet, the mischievous pig, and the sibling relationships. I’m from a big family, and I love big family stories. The most difficult part of working on this book was going through the multiple stages of revisions. It felt a bit like narrative surgery with deleting scenes, moving events around, smoothing the narrative, eliminating unnecessary characters, figuring out how to stitch it all back together. But I actually love revision, so even though it can be a bit scary (and messy!) dissecting a manuscript in a detailed manner, there’s a point when the chaos becomes.

Jodi Kendall

  1. What are your favorite books? What authors inspire you the most?

Oh, so many! I’m passionate about nature, conservation, animal advocacy, and human-animal connections, so those stories tend to really speak to me as a reader and an author, but I’m an eclectic reader. WISHTREE by Katherine Applegate was such a beautiful story; Katherine’s very much one of my inspirations. In the middle grade space, I also loved A DOG’S WAY HOME by Bobbie Pyron, THE WILD ROBOT by Peter Brown, and PAX by Sara Pennypacker. Growing up, some of my favorite books were CHARLOTTE’S WEB and all of E.B. White’s stories, HATCHET by Gary Paulsen, MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN by Jean Craighead George, and anything by Roald Dahl and Judy Blume. I love to read YA and recent favorites are DEAR MARTIN by Nic Stone, THE HATE U GIVE by Angie Thomas, and CARAVAL by Stephanie Garber.

  1. Odd question – what TV shows do you like?

I don’t watch a lot of television, but when I do I usually prefer something that’ll make me laugh like SILICON VALLEY, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, and SNL. I’m also a huge GAME OF THRONES fan.

  1. Lastly, is there anything else we should know about you? Do you like to listen to music when writing? What book projects are on the horizon for you?

Let’s see – I’m a mom to two wonderful little kids, and I live with my family in Manhattan. As much as I love being in the Great Outdoors and around animals, I love the energy, excitement and convenience of city life too. New York City is my favorite city in the world. We spend a lot of time in the parks here (which are so wonderful!). I’m a vegan, Christian, and into weightlifting. We’re fostering our first rescue dog right now (check out Waggy Tail Rescue if you’re in NYC or LA!) and go to small venue concerts when we can (CAAMP at Mercury Lounge was amazing recently!). I do listen to music when I write, but I prefer peaceful guitar, jazz, classical, anything without lyrics. I am finishing up copyedits for book two, the sequel to THE UNLIKELY STORY OF A PIG IN THE CITY, which publishes in Fall 2018. I’m also working on a new, unrelated middle grade book proposal, which is a lot of fun! For aspiring children’s book authors, I’m a debut author featured in the 2018 Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market Edition (Writer’s Digest Books) and interviewed in the January 2018 Writer’s Digest Magazine (on newsstands now).

More info on www.jodikendall.com

THE UNLIKELY STORY OF A PIG IN THE CITY is available now wherever books are sold!

Unlikely Pig

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2014 – My Year in Books

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I haven’t updated in a while since I’ve started my new job, but I fully intend to get back in the swing of the book-based posts next month. In the meantime, here’s a list of the books I read in 2014. It isn’t a lot, but it’s more than I’d aimed for, so I’m glad about that. I’m also happy that some of the books I read have ended up being absolute favourites such as Half Bad (which will have a sequel, Half Wild, very soon), Diary of a Wimpy Kid (hilarious stuff), and The Princess Diaries which are by far some of the best contemporary YA books I’ve ever had the pleasure of holding on my Kindle.

If you’d like to take a closer look, here is the link for My Year in Books at Goodreads.

 

Happy Reading and Happy New Year!

WWW Wednesday 23 Apr 2014 (Find out what I am reading this week)

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To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

 Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

I started reading this last week. I got through a good chunk of it, and it’s good, but I found other books that interested me more, honestly. I was put off at the beginning where sixteen year old Park says that in middle school the kids talked about seeing Aliens. The book begins in Aug 1986 and the movie came out in Jul 1986, so the reference in the timeline is a bit wonky. Of course, since I’m an Alien/Aliens geek, this drove me crazy for the first chapter. I do want to finish this one, just to say I did. It’s good and all, but I’m slowly going through it.

  The Program by Suzanne Young

I really liked this, but my Kindle Fire was starting to give me eyestrain, so I had to stop reading it for a while. I’d like to finish this one soon.

  The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

This was a paperback book I bought for my Florida holiday last September. I’m usually way too distracted on vacation to read, so I only went through one chapter. I picked it up again when I had the eyestrain, and was pleasantly surprised by it, since it’s not usually my thing. I like the whole world Clare’s made. I saw the terrible movie and liked the concepts in it, so I’m on page 200 or so now, I think.

  The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

This is the book I’ve checked out of the (digital) library three times now, trying to get it read. I love Anderson’s work, and she’s definitely one of my favorite writers. This is the book I want to finish next. She just writes remarkable characters.

What did you recently finish reading?

  The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey

I’m going to fan-girl this a bit because this is definitely one of the best books I’ve ever read. I haven’t read adult literary fiction for so long and this made me remember why I miss it so much. I saw it mentioned on Vintage Book’s Facebook page and with one quote and the mention that it was a book about ballerinas, I read the sample. Pow! The first paragraph just grabs the reader and throws them right into the main character’s world. I’m going to write a review for this because it made me even write better (in my opinion) after reading this each day. Good writing, good characters, good narration. A++ book. I even went as far as to Tweet the author and tell her how good it is – that’s how good it is.

What do you think you’ll read next?

  Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers

After watching Saving Mr. Banks (one of the saddest movies I’ve ever seen, by the way) I wanted to get back to my Children’s Lit / Middle Grade roots and read something a little more light-hearted before I jump into another MG writing project.

Happy Reading and Happy Wednesday!

Two Things Tuesdays for 4 Mar 2014

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers from Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney:

“So if you want to find somebody to blame for the way I am, I guess you’d have to start with the public education system.”

“I found out that North America will be underwater within six months, so that kind of takes the pressure off me to do well in school.”

 

Happy Reading and Happy Tuesday!

Monday Mashups for 3 Mar 2014

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Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

My Musing:

So I confess: I’ve been reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. I know they’re kid’s books, and I started reading them as part of research for my writing; but I honestly really like them. They’re actually making me snicker and tee-hee out loud. I even feel compelled to read parts of the book to my husband so he can laugh with me. I’ve not had a book do that in a long time. (What happened to fun, happy books anyway? When did everything have to be so dang serious?) Anyway, I’m sort of a slow reader, so I don’t get through books really quick unless I’m hooked. (Books like The Shining or Hunger Games.) It’s just clever and cute and really grasps the voice of a middle school boy. Anyway, I have just been getting books from the library for my Kindle to save cash (because there are plenty of slightly older books that I need to read.) However, I did stop and check out the Diary of a Wimpy Kid display at Asda that they have for World Book Day (6 March).

It’s sort of embarrassing when I mention these kinds of books and people say, “Oh my kids really like this too.” But I guess that’s good, because I know what kinds of books kids want to read and that will help me write good books for kids, and it will help me choose good books for kids at school too.

I confess: I’ve watched the movies too.

 

Happy Reading and Happy Monday!

WWW Wednesday 26 Feb 2014 (Find out what I am reading this week)

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To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

  Luxe by Anna Godbersen

This is different than what I usually read, but it seems pretty interesting despite being in 3rd person (I tend to put 3rd person POV books on the “maybe” pile.)

  Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen

I am about half way through this, but I may put it on the TBR Later pile. I really liked the story at first. It’s about friendship and dealing with death of a boyfriend. Then it got into the other issues – first the teen pregnancy thing, someone that was never remotely hinted at earlier, then it added dementia in a grandparent. However, I feel like it’s an absolutely authentic teen book, because I remember issues being important to read about in a fiction book. It opens the readers’ eyes to what some people have to go through. I like Sarah Dessen’s writing, I just don’t know if I’ll finish this anytime soon.

What did you recently finish reading?

 Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman

  Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

What do you think you’ll read next?

  The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

One of my favorite authors has a new book! I read the Kindle sample and really liked it. I don’t buy books too much these days, but I can’t wait to read this.

  Panic by Lauren Oliver

Another great author, but not sure how soon I’ll get to this.

    All American Girl and Avalon High by Meg Cabot

I’m much more likely to read one of these two next. I love Meg Cabot because her characters have such a good voice.

 

Happy Reading and Happy Wednesday!

Friday Reads for 12 Jul 2013

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It’s a week until Summer Break in the U.K., so I’ve made a list of books that will get us started on our holiday reading.

           

FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

My finds:

Happy Reading and Happy Friday!