Publish News From the Spring Fling Kidlit Community

​When Kaitlyn and I started Spring Fling Kidlit, we wanted to connect with our community. And connect we have! We both feel so lucky to be surrounded by such creative creators! We especially love it when those connections lead to publishing news!
A huge congratulations to Danna Zeiger! Her manuscript that sold to Lerner/Millbrook. Her story was one she developed during a critique she won from Spring Fling Kidlit. Check out my interview with her to hear her story!

Okay, quirky question first, if you could be any donut, what would you be and why?
 
I’m not usually a donut eater, to be honest… mostly because I’m gluten-free, so they’re hard to find! However, donuts always remind me of graduate school. We had lab meetings every week and my P.I. (principal investigator, head of the lab, and Ph.D. adviser) absolutely loved donuts! She made sure there was a big box of them at every meeting—she’s just awesome like that. As a grad student with a young child to boot, free food was very welcome. I would dive into a donut and savor the delicious treat, the opportunity to sit and chat with my labmates, and hear everyone’s progress in the last week or trouble-shoot what was going wrong.
 
So for me, I’d be a Boston cream pie donut (sooo delicious with chocolate AND cream) and to me, it would taste like scientific discovery!
 
 
What a wonderful memory! Donuts connect people too. :) Danna, would you tell us a little about your writing journey?

I’ve been writing my entire life! But living in an immigrant family hailing from the USSR, my parents cultivated my math and science skills and were not eager to encourage my clear inclinations towards creative writing. Sadly, my dad passed away a few weeks ago from the time of this interview, but I was glad I was able to reshape his view and share with him how I’ve merged my passion for science education with my love of creative writing. He told me many times that he was proud of me 😊.

As a kid, I wrote poems in multiple languages from a very young age (one of which has hung in my dad’s office for decades 😊) served as poetry and photography editors on school newspapers, and kept a tin that would explode with various pieces of my writing as soon as you pried it open.
 
I spent decades working towards my science career and was a biology professor when the pandemic hit. For many reasons, I decided to resign, start homeschooling my kids, and plunge into my lifelong dream of a writing career!
 
In October 2021, I finally wrote my very first picture book manuscript and started joining various writing groups and finding critique partners. After editing my first manuscript and workshopping it, I did the silly thing you’re not supposed to do… and queried with it! I did get several agent offers on it—my very first offer was new years eve, and it was the best NYE ever!
 
I was so new to publishing back then and had much to learn. I decided to amicably part ways with my agent and go back into the trenches—I had learned a lot about what would work best for me in an agent relationship. However, I had spent the time while agented to relax on the query end and focus on my craft. I ended up with multiple polished manuscripts I was excited to send out into the world.
 
When I went back into the trenches, I queried very seriously and was so grateful to end up with a fantastic agent quickly. Agent number 2! This is the agent who landed my debut book deal, coming out soon.
 
That agent decided to leave agenting but luckily, another agent at our agency, Gaby Cabezut, took me on as a client. It’s been wonderful to have a supportive agent who cheers me on and works as a real partner to bring my stories out into the world.
 
I am sorry to hear about your father, but I am so glad that you had that precious time with him. Thank you for sharing about your agent. I think parting ways with agents happens more than writers realize. We wish you and Gaby every success. Yay for a debut novel, what is the title of your book and when will it come out?
 
My debut picture book is called REWRITING THE RULES and it is slated for Fall 2025! When I was an undergrad, I worked in a lab at Columbia Med and one of my mentors was Dr. Kathleen Friel. We were researching the corticospinal system and the brain after spinal injury. I’ve kept in touch since then, and she is such a remarkable human. She was born with cerebral palsy and today heads her own lab developing therapies for kids with CP. I knew I had to write about her!
 
Here's the announcement! https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/95199-rights-report-week-of-june-3-2024.html
 
Also, another middle grade novel is not yet published but just won the amazing PJ Our Way Partial Author’s Incentive Award. Stay tuned 😊.
 
Eeeeee! How exciting! You are definitely on your way. :) And wow, Dr. Friel is truly inspirational. I can't wait to read it. Speaking of reading, would you tell us about some of your favorite books?
 
This is so hard to answer! I can share favorites within genres. For example, my favorite nonfiction PBs: Sara Levine’s Tooth by Tooth and A Peek at Beaks; Laurie Wallmark’s Code Breaker, Spy Hunter; Shannon Stocker’s Listen, Vivian Kirkfield’s Sweet Dreams, Sarah; and Chana Stiefel’s The Tower of Life)… and honestly, I’m probably forgetting some!
 
Some of my favorite overall novels that I gladly read over and over are The Phantom Tollbooth, the Fudge books by Judy Blume and the Magic Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton.


Love those classics as well as the newer stories! I love so many of those amazing kidlit community members. So, what is your favorite thing about the kidlit community?
 
Show don’t tell, right?
As I mentioned, my dad sadly, suddenly, and too soon passed away a few weeks ago.
This community. This beautiful, heartfelt, tsunami of love and support. Multiple writing groups and multiple writing partners kept my doorstep flooded with every form of love you can imagine: a gorgeous home potted plant, trays of steaming food, food delivery certificates, donations to thoughtful places in my dad’s honor, the loveliest e-mails, constant messages of strong support and hugs vibrating through the internet stratosphere reached me from every corner of the earth. Some of these lovely people I have met in person. Some, only through Zoom—and yet, they are soul sisters. And some, I haven’t *even* met on Zoom and still. Still. Friends checked up on me constantly. Writing friends read, revised, and sent suggestions for my eulogy—the absolute hardest piece of creative writing, and one of the most important writing written in a cloud of brain fog and insomnia.
The kidlit writing community has lifted me, cheered me on, generously volunteered time and energy to help me reach my writing dreams. But in this most horrible time, the writing community wrapped me in the tightest hug—that only friends who’ve bared souls over the most vulnerable writing can really do.
When I first decided to pursue this dream, my friend knew someone who was an author of picture books. It turns out, neither she nor I really realized how big this author was getting… in a year’s time, the author would start deservedly winning all kinds of impressive awards for her beautiful books. But in the meantime, this kind person read my manuscript and wrote me a full page—single spaced—critique. I was awed. And for the first time, I learned to read a critique, look away, chew on it, and come back to it with the open mind and acceptance that comes eventually. Of course, she was right. But it was this generosity of spirit that was so surprising, and so beautiful, and so emblematic of this lovely community, for which I am beyond grateful.
 
What do you think was the hardest part about your critique that helped strengthen your manuscript?
 
I think the hardest part about writing a picture book biography is getting to the heart of the story, making it personable, and making sure it doesn’t feel textbook-y or like a Wikipedia page list of accomplishments. I was excited and honored to win first place in your Spring Fling contest in 2022 and chose a critique with the amazing Alyssa Henkin. She read a version of my manuscript and told me exactly that! She challenged me to add more personal detail and to make sure Kathleen’s personality shone. I think her advice was spot-on and that is exactly what I did!
 
What is your number one revision tip for writers?
 
This is something I struggle with… I write and revise, and then I am itching to immediately button it up and send it off! The hard truth is, my best manuscripts are the ones I’ve allowed to sit, simmer, and really benefit from time. This is very hard for me to do!!! I always have multiple projects I’m excited about and it’s hard to know when something is ready. I’m always eager to get my stories out. However, I have found that even when I think a manuscript is ready, if I put it down for a week or two and pick it back up, I can read it with new eyes and identify issues, weak points, or even have a new idea pop into my head. These are the stories that have done the best for me!

You can ask my agent, I am quite guilty of sending it off too quickly. :) Great advice. Danna, it was a pleasure to hear about your journey! Congratulations once again.

Spring Flingers! Be sure to follow Danna @home_zat or visit her at drzathome.com.