07 Mar MARIA MARSHALL: BLOGGER, EDITOR, AND SO MUCH MORE

I thought I’d switch things up a bit and interview one of the most prolific interviewers I know. Welcome to “Writing Outside the Lines,” Maria! You’ve done so much for the kidlit community, and it’s time people know more about YOU.

EL: Many people know you as a “Blogger Supreme,” but you do A LOT more! I’d love you to fill us in.

MM: “Blogger Supreme”? Really? I’m not sure how to respond to that. Though it is good to know that “people are talking about the blog.” Sometimes it feels like yelling into a roaring wind. And I really do want to help highlight as many amazing authors, illustrators, and great books as possible.

I live in the Pacific Northwest. Although I moved around a lot as a child, I’ve lived in the Seattle area since the early 1980s. Like everyone, I wear many hats – gardener, household engineer, chef, event coordinator, photographer, and counselor. But by far, the majority of my time is spent writing, editing, blogging, and editing some more.

In addition to critiquing & editing for my critique partners, I offer paid critiques. I’ve edited board books, picture books, and MG novels and offer a broad strokes evaluation or a deeper line edit and basic scanning of poetry. You can find this information on my website. Although I only started this critique and editing service about a year ago, it is making my accountant happy.

EL: Maria’s website is https://www.mariacmarshall.com. Don’t forget the “c”(like I did a few times).  Maria, let’s talk a little about the blog. I know you do  Perfect Picture Book Friday (#PPBF) and The Picture Book Buzz. Can you tell us about these?

MM: Although there is one blog, I do two (sometimes three) different series of posts. I started my blog – The Picture Book Buzz – in November of 2016 because I wanted to participate in Susanna Hill’s amazing Perfect Picture Book Friday (#PPBF) link-up posts. If you are not familiar with this, please visit Susanna’s blog – https://susannahill.com/2021/01/22/perfect-picture-book-friday-ellie-2/. You’ll find most Fridays throughout the year, numerous bloggers (many authors and illustrators themselves) joining together to compile a list of exciting new releases and wonderful mentor picture book texts. As well as a review, each post includes activities or extension resources for teachers or parents. It has been an amazing experience.

In addition to reviewing books for #PPBF, I enjoy reaching out to the authors and/or illustrators of the books, to post an interview about them and their current release(s). This has allowed me to connect with so many debut authors & illustrators, as well as some I’ve admired forever – like Floyd Cooper, Vanessa Brantley Newton, Jane Yolen & Heidi EY Stemple, Don Tate, and The Fan Brothers. Typing this list, I feel blessed that these, and many more, talented children’s literature creatives agreed to an interview with me.

Typically, I interview the author, illustrator, or both for a Monday post and then review their book for #PPBF on the following, you guessed it, Friday. But because so many wonderful picture books are released each year, and I have begun to get a number of inquiries about reviews from authors, their agents/booking coordinators, and publicity personnel, I’ve found I can’t fit all the ones I enjoyed into 52 weeks. So I also regularly do a combined interview/review post on most Wednesdays. (I still can’t review all the books I enjoy.) Seems I’ve had to do a few Saturday posts, just to get squeeze some in. I just looked – my next post will be my 500^th post!

A few of the Wednesday posts involve a monthly joint author interview for the STEAM Team Books group (2020 & 2021) (http://www.steamteambooks.com/steamteam-interviews.html) and seasonal reviews for other book “cooperative groups” – like the Picture Book Scribblers (’21), the Soaring 20’s, and the Notable 19’s.

I really enjoy discovering new books and creatives, studying the masters, and shining a light on our amazingly talented kidlit community. The other upside to my blogging is that it has allowed me to be a Cybils’ Judge for the picture book/board book category since 2017.

EL: Your blogs are amazing, and reading those names, I am honored that I will be among one of the authors you include. I’m even more honored that you agreed to come here!

I know you’ve been a voracious reader since you were little. How do you think that started? And what kinds of books are you drawn to now?

MM: I was an only child until I was about 3 years old. My mother and grandparents read to me all the time and I loved “reading” to them, as do many young kids. When my brother came along, I even taught him to read. I read whenever I wasn’t outside creating imaginative adventures. I know we had a number of Little Golden Books – The Poky Little Puppy was definitely one. I read so many books, but some of my favorite books were The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley, Ladd a Dog by Albert Payson Terhune, Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery, A Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and then The Pern series and The Talent series by Anne McCaffrey and ALL of Tamora Pierce’s books.

As I raised my kids, we read tons of books together. After the millionth, obligatory read of Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (which, along with portions of the Canterbury Tales, seem etched into my brain), we graduated to Tacky the Penguin and A Porcupine Named Fluffy by Helen Lester, all of Jan Brett’s books, The Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne, Half Magic by Edgar Eager and so many others. Culminating in the Harry Potter series. That was the last one I remember us reading as a family.

I usually have a book at the table, one in my study, one in the car, and one by my bed. Currently, besides the picture books I read for my interviews/reviews or as mentor texts, I’ve always been drawn to mysteries and science fiction/fantasy. I currently love Elizabethan Mysteries, Sherlock Holmes (the Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King and numerous other spin-offs), Anne McCafffey’s Dragons of Pern and  To Ride Pegasus series, Tamora Pierce’s Alana, Kel, and Circle of Magic series, Susan Elia MacNeal’s Maggie Hope series, and David Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpenter novels (hard to resist dogs, mysteries, & a cool lawyer 😊). I like books I can fall into and forget anything else exists. I think this escape was what drew me to books as a child.

EL: I’m impressed with how you’ve woven your creativity throughout the many things you’ve done in your life. I think it’s especially interesting that you continued to write stories (not just briefs) through law school! Do you practice law now?

MM: I stopped practicing law, except for a couple of limited instances, when my kids were born. Somehow, a lack of sleep (up every 2 hours) and rational, reasoned thought were at odds. Though I’ve maintained my license and training. I regularly participate as an American Bar Association Moot Court Brief Judge.

EL: So you are a lawyer, a writer, and blogger and…a POET! I appreciate that you can write different types with varying tones. Can you tell us a little about your poetry?

MM: I enjoyed studying poetry during college – Shakespeare, Chaucer, even Beowulf. And a few more recent poets as well. I’ve always loved Robert Frost and Shel Silverstein (how’s that for variety! 😊). When I first started writing for children, I discovered Renee LaTulippe’s The Lyrical Language Lab and Today’s Little Ditty (TDLD) blog run by Michelle Heidenrich Barnes. These two amazing poets renewed my interest in poetry.

TDLD offered monthly interviews with poets and challenges to create a poem in a chosen form (Abecedarian Poem) or on a chosen subject (like an Epitaph Poem). At year’s end, a number of the poems were chosen for publication in The Best of Today’s Little Ditty Anthologies, 2017-2018, 2016, & 2014-2015. I am humbled and honored to have four poems included in these books and be alongside some truly talented and amazing poets, including our own – Ellen Leventhal (whose poem “Epitaph for a Librarian” is in the anthology, too.)

Looking through the poems I’ve shared on my website, almost all of them involve nature and are accompanied by photos that I’ve taken.

EL: Oh, yes! Maria is a photographer too!

LEAF

Leaf is a changing word.
So crisp and colorful in fall,
as I dash and descend
into crackling mountains.
Deep, strong green in summer,
as I dodge the blazing sun.
But best of all,
is the softness of spring,
stroking my face
as I read among suspended clouds
of pink flowers.

© 2015 Maria Marshall. All rights reserved.

EL: Your photography is gorgeous. I love your nature pictures. Can you tell us a bit about how you are drawn to nature and how you use it to connect with kids?

MM: Nature and photography – I think that defines my life these days. My house is in a suburban development about 500 feet above sea level. I back up onto a Regional Wildlife Park and have two Native Growth Protection Areas on two sides of my yard. As a result, I’ve gotten the privilege to watch black bears, coyotes, bobcats, fox, cougars (yep – seen two), deer, raccoons, opossums, red & grey squirrels, a ferret, a martin, and tons of birds (including a pheasant, owls, & hawks) examine or pass through my yard for the past 20+ years. In fact, two days ago, we had a pack of five coyotes wander through.

I consider myself very blessed, especially through last year, to have been able to watch all of these animals, birds (even a covey of quail), a few months, butterflies, salamanders, and frogs visit, hunt, eat, and raise their young in and around my yard.

I’ve taken pictures since my grandfather gave me a tiny, rectangular Kodak camera. I’ve always enjoyed taking pictures in my yard, at my zoo, on my hikes and travels, or simply of my kids and cats. Sometimes, I even capture amazing images. One of my photographs of a hummingbird was even posted by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology on their Feeder Watch site. This is a citizen science project, one of many  – Project Feeder Watch, Great Backyard Bird Count, the Seattle Urban Carnivore Project, and the Stream Team (counting returning Salmon & other fish each Fall) – which I participate in each year.

I also enjoy gardening (collecting numerous varieties of heathers and heaths, hellebore, rhododendrons, and bulbs), hiking, skiing, and being on the water, so it’s no wonder that the PNW and nature infuses my photography, poems, and writing.

The initial way I connected kids to nature was as a girl Scout leader for over twelve years. My troop and I explored nature (hiking, camping, and observing) and brought nature projects to other (often younger) troops. It is telling that their various award projects all involved nature to some degree. I want to continue to share my joy and fascination with nature in my stories, poems, and photography (Instagram @mariamarshall_).

EL: This sounds lovely!  We’ve all had a tough year.  Do you feel that it affected you and your creativity at all? Many people feel like their creativity was zapped, and others feel it actually increased. Any thoughts?

I think, for me, it was a mixture. My blog exploded with interviews. I joined the STEAMTuesday Books, as the monthly interviewer, doing joint interviews/reviews of authors with STEAM board, picture, MG & YA books. Interviewing amazing creatives like Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann, Margery Cuyler, Suzanne Slade, and Caron Levis, in addition to many friends and writing heroes, kept me thinking, creative, and inspired.

Although 2020 brought many up and downs, I did manage to complete 13 rough drafts (some very rough) through Julie Hedlund’s 12×12 Picture Book Challenge. This challenge was SO helpful in giving me a deadline to aim for and an incentive to work on some ideas I’d had floating about for a while. Having regular deadlines or submission expectations in multiple critique groups also helped me stay marginally motivated when things just got too much.

Initially, as Covid hit, I was energized. I took advantage of ALL the webinars, classes, hangouts, and workshops that Highlights, SCBWI, the Writing Barn, individuals, and SCBWI Regions offered. Initially, in honesty, I found myself booked for two such offerings each day throughout the week. It was like being a kid in a chocolate factory and being told I could sample anything I wanted! And I LOVE chocolate. It was nice to “meet” others, hear other voices, learn and connect. I even got to “attend” the Summer Conference (something that’s been on my bucket list for years) without having to break the bank to do so.

For me, the weight of Covid & the draining of inspiration – or maybe just increasing weariness – hit in October. Likely, a combination of the continued isolation and the holidays surrounded by losses that couldn’t be escaped in riotous family gatherings. I credit Tara Lazar’s StoryStorm Challenge in January with getting me back to writing, creating, and thinking – as well as my patient and amazing critique partners.

EL: Such insightful answers! And now, it’s GIVEAWAY TIME! I’ve learned a lot about Maria today, but one thing I’ve known for a long time is that she is a master at critiques.  One lucky winner will receive a picture book critique from Maria. Just comment on this post and you’ll be in the running. Let me know that you follow this blog, or that you signed up for it, and you’ll get another chance. And if you tell me that you’ve shared it, you get THREE chances to win.  GOOD LUCK!

Thank you so much for stopping by and giving us a glimpse into your very busy  life. Now when our readers read one of your blogposts, they will know how many other wonderful things you do. Thanks!

MM: Thank you Ellen for inviting me to your blog and asking some very thought provoking questions.

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