Today I have the pleasure of sharing part of my conversation with Candelaria Norma Silva the author of Stacey Became A Frog One Day and other titles. Please enjoy this excerpt of our interview covering persistence, creativity, and children’s literature!
I want to jump in and talk about Stacey Became A Frog One Day. So, Stacey Became A Frog One Day, was that the first manuscript you completed?
No. I’ve been writing manuscripts for years and years and years. And years ago when I was actually pregnant with my first daughter and then two years later pregnant with my son, I got stories accepted in a magazine that was called Ebony Jr. So, if you’ve ever heard of Ebony magazine which is for Black Americans, they used to have a publication for kids. This was before personal computers and all that.
I sent the manuscript through the mail and they accepted it and they published it. In fact, it’s on my website now. So, I had those two stories published. I had a story published in a children’s reader called The Dictapedia, another you sent in your manuscript. They did a call in the newspaper. I answered it and I got it accepted. Then I had children and got sort of waylaid for a while. Ideas would come to me and I’d write them down.
I can’t remember exactly when, but I went back and forth with Little Brown with a manuscript three times and they ultimately didn’t publish it. It hurt me so bad that I just sort of took a break.
I was a publisher of literary annuals in the Roxbury Community of Boston and published youth ones and adult ones. So, I had some adult poetry and adult short stories published. The biggest part of Boston is called Dorchester and I published some things in dot to dot.
Then about two months before the pandemic hit, in one of my jobs I coordinated a grant program and a woman came in, her daughter was taking piano classes that the grant program funded.
She said, “May I show you something?” And pulled out this manuscript of a book that she had published. She said, “I self-published this.” I said, “Oh, self-publishing.” And I looked at it and I said, “It looks really nice.” She said, “I can help you do that. I’m a project manager.”
We went back and forth and finally set it up. I hired her to be my project manager and she helped with all the parts of self-publishing. Getting an editor, finding an illustrator, getting the ISBN numbers.
If you look on my website, I have sales sheets which have all the information. And I did reading guides which are also for parents to download. Most of my work was funding public programs at a library. Since that stopped, I had the time. And so I said, “Okay, well let me just invest in myself.” Now I’ve published three in a row, one in 2020, one in 2021, and one in 2022 about the same girl.
But most of my manuscripts are not about the same girl. I have two about boys and another one that’s about a family.
You’ve written across genres for adults and children. Are you focusing more on children’s literature now?
I’m an avid reader. I read anywhere from one to three books a week. I still read a lot of children’s literature. They are the books that I was, I read, I discovered as a child myself, that I read to my children, I’ve read to my grandchildren. So, I love reading and I wanted to do things that focused on joy.
Most of my children’s stuff is joyful, my adult stuff not so much. So, I thought, what would be the thing that I want to leave behind? The children’s books are the ones that were important for me to leave.
–My imagination can’t be corralled and that’s why it’s hard sometimes when you go to some of the workshops and conferences, people almost become formulaic. Even though the characters and the settings can be very different, there’s a formula.
Also, my children’s picture books are meant to be read aloud and that’s from somebody who’s experienced reading aloud to children. I’ve done a lot of appearances in person at local libraries and on Zoom. I know how to engage children. I know how to read children. That’s when I become an actress.
Sometimes some of the guidelines, to me, are not as fluid and joyful and playful as the interaction with the child could be so I try to write a book that a parent can have fun with as well as a child.
I know you mentioned a couple times having roadblocks like those no’s those yes but and then it doesn’t come out. When you hit those obstacles, what keeps you going?
I would say that there were years when I didn’t. Nothing kept me going to write. But in the last. I’d say, really 10 years–10 good years, well maybe 20. I published the Roxbury literary and we had an anonymous submission process so I submitted things that a committee was voting on whether it could get in there.
Luckily, both times my pieces were accepted. I don’t know what I would have done if they had rejected my piece! I tried to do something that I could be a part of but what I think keeps you going is this is an urge that I have. I like books that are joyful. I like books that all children can pick up and love. And I like to show books that reflect neighborhoods and reflect different things. So, it comes back to doing it.
I read somewhere, one woman who was a–I think–a romance writer, but she would get up. If she only has 15 minutes a day to write, she’d get up before her kids and everything and she’d write.
Then I read Walter Mosley had a book this year. You write your novel and there are enough people who’ve given the same advice, write every day. Read something you’ve written every day, even if you’re not writing anything new. Just read a piece of yours. Just do something that says “I’m a writer.”
That I started claiming that I wanted to be a writer rather than it being a secret. I think now that I’ve claimed it, it’s easier to keep up with it.
I also will say that even though I really enjoyed self-publishing my own books and I might do it again, there’s been something about being in the creative writing classes with people that you don’t know who’s going to be there until the first day. There are people from all ages, all backgrounds, sometimes very different countries, certainly different parts of this country. And somebody who’s never met you liked your book or says,”You know, I’m an elementary teacher and kids will really relate to this.”
It just makes you feel not isolated because I think most writers, we have lots of times when we’re isolated. Just like I felt when I was a young mother.
I’ve got one more question for you. If you could give many many years ago Candelaria, before you sent out your first submission one tiny piece of advice, what would you give her?
Persist. Persist, it’s your dream and until you reach your goal you can’t stop. So, persist and look everywhere for help, look everywhere for encouragement, look at you know take advantage of everything that exists because things are going to change in ways that you don’t know.
Where can we find your books and find you online?
Candelaria Norma Silva is my author’s website. You can buy all my books from me. You can buy them from Amazon. You can buy them on on IngramSpark which is a distributor that bookshop.org a lot of independent booksellers use.
My adult website is Candelariasilva.com and that’s where my consulting and all my blog stuff is.
It was such an honor to talk with Candelaria, and I feel like even with a whole day we would never run out of things to talk about!
Stay tuned for next week’s interview with Christine Marie Layton the author of Light Speaks!
