Author Spotlight: Alyssa Londoño Author of Love…Is Everywhere

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by! Today’s Author Spotlight showcases Alyssa Londoño, the author of Love…is Everywhere. We connected through the 12×12 Picture Book Challenge and shared a memorable conversation about inspiration and representation in picture books. Check out her website to learn more about her.

I found you through 12×12 and I saw you’re also a member of SCBWI. Which one did you join first and how have they affected your writing journey?

I joined SCBWI first maybe over two years ago. When the pandemic started it was just to connect with other writers and illustrators. They offered so many online events. I live in New York and their Westchester chapter had free write sessions where you could jump online with a whole bunch of other authors and illustrators. It was time blocked out for writing. It was really cool because at the end of every writing session we’d debrief and share things.

When do you write?

Right now I’m on child care leave. I’m a teacher but I took a year off to take care of my twins. Now they’re in Pre-K so it gives me some time to myself to write and think. I joined a critique group through 12×12. So, it’s been really fun to be able to write and then send them things, get their feedback and change things. I have a lot more time now than when I first started.

Your book Love…Is Everywhere, was that the first full manuscript that you’d written or did you write in any other kind of genre first?

I have been writing my whole life just journaling mostly. Then I fleshed out the full Love…Is Everywhere story but it was completely different. When I first started it, it was more about this idea of a mother and a daughter. It was a completely different story when I first wrote it. Then once my mom got sick, it completely changed and evolved into what it is now. 

It was the first real real manuscript that felt complete. The others? I have notebooks of things I’ve written and files. But they didn’t really feel complete like this one did. This was a full beginning to end. It had a problem, a solution, it went through the whole deal. Then it completely changed. 

You mentioned the book was very much inspired by your mom. Did she ever get to see the final book?

No, unfortunately. She was going to chemo every week and I would get to write with her. But she never saw the finished product because I didn’t finish the mock-ups until after she had already passed.

I know you said in a couple other interviews that you’re working on the sequel to Love…Is Everywhere so your son is in a book too. Are you working on any other projects? Are you primarily a picture book writer? What does your writing look like today?

Primarily picture books. I’ve been a school teacher for 11 years, so I just have this love of picture books and literature especially for elementary and middle school children. I feel like picture books, especially for teachers, can be such powerful tools in the classroom to enhance learning. That’s really been my passion. With my critique group it’s been really fun and with 12×12 to be able to experiment because yes I am working on the sequel. I’ve also been playing with other picture book ideas. I just did a rhyming book which is not my forte. I never realized how many different types of picture books you could do!

How did you decide to publish your book?

The publisher is an independent publisher and for this book I felt it was really important because I wanted it to be my mom’s legacy and have so much of her in it. It was really important to me that I had as much creative control as I could. My publisher at Nico 11 Publishing was so good about knowing how I felt about the book and not wanting to change the authenticity of it. That was really really such a great experience. 

Working with him and the editor and the proofreader, they were all so good about not changing the actual validity of the story and what was there. They were just more like, ‘this sounds better but it’s up to you.’ For me, that was really important for this journey. 

Moving forward, I think it would be fun to try to query and see where I could fall in the world of publishing. 

Who do you write for?

I don’t really have a specific person. I try to think of my students in the classroom and how they would react to it. Because I am a teacher at heart I look at how this book can be used in a classroom, how it can help foster reading and writing. 

There’s something with my book that I really wanted to be apparent. It showed a diverse child and my kids could look at it and be like, ‘oh that looks like me.’ Especially because my daughter has tan skin and this wild curly hair. And you know I worked in Queens and Corona in a title one school and I know a lot of the time we didn’t have a variety or diversity of books. It was very cookie cutter especially when I first started teaching. Now there’s been a huge push and there’s been so many more books. But that was really important to me too. 

I wanted to make sure that my writing and my characters embodied this. Even the language and things that felt like different people could connect with them, not just one specific category but a whole bunch. I really try to think about kids or my students, my kids, when I’m writing.

Why do you write or what keeps you writing through all the no’s and every challenge?

I took my writing seriously once my mom got sick because it really became a way for me to cope. It helped me to grieve in a way so I felt connected on another level and could put these words out there. It was almost like a healing process for me. Since then it’s been really helpful. It’s given me a creative outlet whereas before I was just journaling or writing notes on my phone. It’s nicer to be able to have a place to put it and it gives me another sense of purpose–a separate one like Mom, writer, author.

Where can people connect with you?

My Instagram is @author.alondono.

My Instagram has my link.tree that has every single thing. 

You can also connect on Facebook or my website.

I had such a blast connecting with Alyssa. Make sure to grab your copy of Love…Is Everywhere today!

Did you enjoy this interview? Check out last week’s Author Spotlight with Kira Bigwood! Next week find out more about Kelly D Roberts!