First Ballet

Sometimes I walk into an interview situation. Such was the case a few months back when I walked into a bookstore where Deanna Caswell was promoting her storybook/picture book for children, First Ballet (Disney-Hyperion). After chatting with Caswell for a bit, she told me about her children’s book (written by Caswell, illustrated by Elizabeth Matthews), which captures a child’s first trip to the theater. Before starting the email interview, a bit of Caswell’s bio:

“…she is privileged to share her diverse experiences and love of learning through children’s books, newspaper and book articles, and posts for Little House in the Suburbs (under the pseudonym Ivory) while caring for three kids, four red-headed chickens and two miniature goats.

Deanna’s first book, FIRST BALLET (Hyperion) arrived October 6, 2009.  Her second book, TRAIN TRIP (Hyperion) arrives Fall 2010.  She can also be found in the 2009 and 2010 Children’s Writers Market.” It was a pleasure to discuss the challenges of getting published and her work in general.

Tim O’Shea: Along the road to writing First Ballet, you had several attempts at other manuscripts. To be exact, as you detail: “From February 2005 (when I started writing) to April 2007 (when I got my first sale), I wrote 30 manuscripts and had 150 rejections.”

Did you ever feel like losing track of the number of rejections to ease the sting?

Deanna Caswell: Over 100 submissions in two years is a lot to keep track of, but my crit partner and I were submitting as precisely and as often as possible. We didn’t want to send the same manuscript to the same publisher twice! That meant that we had to have spreadsheets (or handwritten notebook paper lists in her case. HA!) We had a record whether we really wanted to know the count or not.

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