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by Christine Van Zandt
Those early, shut-in days of the pandemic fostered my upcoming picture book, MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS (Beaming Books, 2024). With everyone at home, we escaped to—I mean, we appreciated—our garden a bit more. Flowers and foliage. Bugs and birds. Bare patches calling out for some attention. So, off to the garden center where an “attracts butterflies” sign led us to buy our first milkweed plant. Why not?
Days later, we noticed our milkweed had critters crawling on it. Twenty-seven to be exact. Little caterpillars that would grow into monarch butterflies. We watched as they devoured leaves, buds, even stems. Their escapades, a fun distraction. Counting caterpillars became part of our daily routine.
Then, one morning, all were gone!
I Googled and discovered this wasn’t supposed to happen. Toxins in the milkweed plant made the caterpillars taste bad and their bold stripes warned-off predators. (Apparently no one told our local birds and raccoons.)
Without the constant crunching, the milkweed leafed out, bloomed, and a female monarch butterfly found it. The baby-factory was back in business! We learned that monarchs need milkweed—it’s the only plant their caterpillars can eat.
Once our eggs hatched, there were a lot of very hungry caterpillars. (Eric Carle knew what he was talking about.) Back to the garden center for more milkweed. Before long, some caterpillars made chrysalises, then, weeks later, launched into gorgeous butterflies reminding me of my childhood.
Growing up in northern California, winters brought magical moments of seeing coastal trees blanketed with western monarch butterflies. While the eastern monarch population that overwinters mainly in Mexico has suffered declines, the western monarch has been classified as an endangered species. In 2021, fewer than 2,000 of these butterflies were counted overwintering in California. Their numbers were once in the millions.
At-home pesticide use is a major factor. Gardeners want big blooms and perfect greenery, but spraying or applying systemic pesticides means we’re killing all kinds of insects and disrupting the food chain. Habitat destruction and climate change also take a toll.
While I watched the butterfly life cycle, I wrote about it, workshopping my manuscript with critique partners. My writing was trial and error: fiction, nonfiction, prose, verse. I read every book I could find about butterflies, and began volunteering for Xerces to gain insight into insects. Then back to revisions.
The manuscript that fluttered to the top was a rhyming poem supported by facts. Spare, lyrical text shows a mama monarch returning from overwintering. We follow one egg on its journey to becoming a butterfly. This engaging read-aloud also has STEM information and fun interactive questions to support classroom or at-home learning.
My first nonfiction picture book, A BRIEF HISTORY OF UNDERPANTS, sold to Quarto Kids unagented (via a Twitter pitch party) and published around the same time that the manuscript for MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS won several top awards through SCBWI. Soon after, I received an offer for representation from the amazing Liza Fleissig at the Liza Royce Agency.
In a whirlwind, Liza sold my manuscript to Beaming Books. Working with their Senior Acquisitions Editor, Andrea Hall, has been a dream. She understood my concern but also my hopefulness and she created a beautiful book. Here’s a first look at the gorgeous cover created by illustrator extraordinaire, Alejandra Barajas!
MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS is now available for preorder, for a February 6, 2024 release.
In closing, I’d like to give a big thank-you shout-out to Tara! I appreciate all Tara does for our industry and how her successful books have shown the world that funny female kid’s lit writers really do exist.
Images provided by Christine Van Zandt and Beaming Books.
Christine is giving away a 60-minute manuscript critique of the first 750 words of your book (adult or kid’s, fiction or nonfiction, prose or verse) or a picture book with 750 words or fewer. (No art please.)
Leave one comment below to enter. A random winner will be selected in September!
Good luck!
Christine Van Zandt is a freelance editor who loves helping other writers realize their dreams of getting their books published. A small-business owner, she founded her company, Write for Success Editing Services, in 2009.
MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS is Christine’s second nonfiction picture book. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and pets. Find out more at ChristineVanZandt.com.
by Christine Van Zandt
Hello, Storystormers!
To quote Thomas Edison: “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” The inspiration for my underpants manuscript happened during an idea-brainstorming session I forced my family to have with me. My (then) third-grader had the lightbulb moment, “Kids love underwear!” So true, but was I the right person to write an underwear book? Since I’m so meticulously methodical, I generated a list of random questions and checked them off in my mind:
- Q. Was I an expert on underwear?
- A. Of course! An almost-lifelong expert at that.
- Q. If, maybe, I needed to uncover more information, did I have the resources?
- A. The library’s my best friend! The staff knows my name. (Really, they do.)
- Q. Was I passionate about this topic?
- A. YES! Underwear is fun and it saves our buns.
After those two minutes of inspiration, I moved on to perspiration and in the subsequent months many bars of chocolate were consumed.
I found published picture books similar to my idea, read and analyzed them. Deciding that my vision differed enough that it may find room in the marketplace, I charged forward like a knight in quilted underpants and . . . wrote the first draft!
It took 235 days from the first draft until I connected with a publisher. Here’s a glimpse at that time period:
- Read the manuscript aloud to myself. Revised.
- Thought it’d be easy finding and verifying kid-friendly facts. Discovered I was wrong.
- Reminded myself that my job needed my time. Tried to stop thinking about underwear.
- Checked out fifty pounds of reference books. Found five-and-a-half relevant facts.
Panicked.Refocused when libraries closed, at-home school began, and everyone was home (Every. Day. All. Day. Long.).- Read my manuscript to my family and got their feedback. Revised.
- Had family members read it to me. Revised.
- Read to the cat, because no one else would listen. Realized the cat only wanted to type with his tail. Let the cat revise.
- Bought reference books. Bought more reference books.
- Added foldout tables so I could dig out my keyboard, mouse, and the cat.
- Workshopped with my main critique group. Revised.
- Workshopped with other critique partners, then (guess what?), revised!
- Repeated until no one could stand this story anymore—because of how awesome it had become.
- Put the manuscript out there for the world. Logged when/where/how/why I sent it.
- Started over and wrote the next book.
So you see, it’s simple. Inspiration + perspiration = publication. Sometimes. I’ve written plenty of manuscripts that haven’t connected with the right publisher at the right moment. In the book industry, a story may also need the element of luck/timing.
In the 129 days since my underwear book found its publisher I’ve repeated many of the above steps as the book’s length increased from 32 to 48 pages and went through various renditions.
Am I finished? I don’t think “finished” happens.
My focus has shifted to the pre-order campaign, product- and self-promotion. Because of the pandemic, resilient, innovative authors are having successful book rollouts virtually and through social media. Since I work as a literary editor, I’ve been giving away manuscript critiques via opportunities like Storystorm, and monthly on Twitter. (So follow me already, @ChristineVZ.)
Today and every day in January, take time to create and write down a new story idea. You never know when a thought or statement will be THE ONE that you streeeetch into a published picture book.
Happy Storystorming evermore,
Christine
Credit: Marlena Van Zandt
Christine is a freelance editor, writer, and owner of Write for Success Editing Services. To uncover underwear facts, take a peek at her nonfiction picture book, A BRIEF HISTORY OF UNDERPANTS (April 2021, becker&mayer! kids). She’s the editor behind the SCBWI’s “Ask an Editor” column (Kite Tales blog) and contributes interviews. She also reviews children’s books for Good Reads with Ronna.
To find or follow Christine: website, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram.
Christine is giving away a first-1,000-words critique of one story (children’s/adult, fiction/nonfiction, any genre). For shorter pieces, such as picture book/short story/magazine article, one item of 1,000 words or fewer will be critiqued. If you have something that’s not listed, rub a magic lantern and make your wish—or just ask Christine.
Leave one comment below to enter.
You’re eligible to win if you’re a registered Storystorm participant and you have commented once below.
Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) 