An Inspirational Publishing Journey, Inciting Excitement, and Opening Doors with Author Jessica Stremer

I’d like to introduce you to author Jessica Stremer for today’s episode! I’ve known Jessica since the very beginning of my kidlit journey. She was part of one of my first critique groups back in 2020. She quite literally helped shape my manuscript for my published picture book and many others. 

I had the joy of seeing many of the manuscripts she brought for critiques become published books out in the world including GREAT CARRIER REEF (a NY Public Library Best Book of the Year and JLG Gold Standard selection), LIGHTS OUT: A Movement to Help Migrating Birds, and FIRE ESCAPE: How Animals and Plants Survive Wildfires (a JLG Gold Standard selection).

Jessica is an award winning author and actively encouraging presence in the kidlit world. I hope you enjoy today’s interview and feel a spark of inspiration and excitement to fuel your own journey.

Some Highlights:

• Several things you didn’t know about wildfires and how they differ from mega fires.
• The scary experience of starting in one genre and moving into another.
• The many ways community has fueled her writing journey.
• Book clubs with her kids.

Why write: “You never know who’s going to read the book and the impact it will have on them.” 

Final words of advice: “Find ways to make opportunities for yourself and be gracious.”

Rarely do we see an author’s journey from the very start. While Jessica had been writing for a while in the kidlit world before I met her, I feel lucky to be one of the witnesses of her success. When we first met she was newly agented and prepublished. Now she has 3 award winning books out in the world and 3 more scheduled to publish over the next year.

Success is not an overnight endeavor.

And yet, when we see others in the literary world around us winning awards, getting multi-book deals, and signing agents and other contracts, it’s hard to remember this.

Change happens slowly.

We do not write a book all at once. We write it one word, one letter at a time.

I am so grateful to Jessica for coming on the show and sharing some of her encouragement with us. It was her encouragement at the beginning of my kidlit journey that played a part in getting me to where I am today. It was fun reminiscing with her about some of those early manuscripts and recognizing how far we’ve both come.

While everyone’s journey is different, which she mentions in the episode, we are all on a path somewhere. Some of us may have more twists and turns and brambles to hack away, but we’re all moving forward one step at a time–changing from where we started to where we are going to be next.

Links Mentioned🔗:

Jessica’s website

Jessica Stremer on Threads, Twitter, and Instagram 

Books& Company–go here for signed copies! Here’s their Instagram

FIRE ESCAPE: HOW ANIMALS AND PLANTS SURVIVE WILDFIRES by Jessica Stremer illustrated by Michael Garland on Amazon, Bookshop, and Barnes and Noble

LIGHTS OUT: A MOVEMENT TO HELP MIGRATING BIRDS by Jessica Stremer illustrated by Bonnie Pang on Amazon, Bookshop, and Barnes and Noble

Also stay tuned for Jessica’s upcoming 2025 picture books including: PLIGHT OF THE PELICANS (available for preorder here); WONDERFULLY WILD; and TRAPPED IN THE TARPIT.

Book Recommendations📚📚:

THE GOLDEN DOOR (The Three Doors Series #1) by Emily Rodda

THE SWIFTS: A DICTIONARY OF SCOUNDRELS (The Swifts #1) by Beth Lincoln illustrated by Claire Powell

THE CARREFOUR CURSE by Dianne K. Salerni

THE LAW OF BIRTHDAYS by Brenna Jeanerret illustrated by Marina Kondrakhina

Thank you, Jessica, for taking the time to talk with me. And thank you, listeners, for listening! Up next week we have author Diana I Kline. In the meantime, catch up on past episodes like this one with Laura Bower about story seeds or the one about self publishing myths with Lauren Ranalli.