Author Spotlight: Marsha Diane Arnold Author of Armando’s Island

It’s time for another Author Spotlight! There’s been a bit of a lag over the past couple weeks due to Murphy’s Law, moving internationally, moving intercontinentally, and adjusting my plans and expectations. More on that in the future, today is about Marsha Diane Arnold, the author of over 20 books which have sold over a million copies! 

Needless to say, I was a little starstruck speaking with Marsha and thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. I hope you enjoy the excerpt of our interview below and then go dig deeper on her website which has her books, activities to go along with them, and selected columns from her time writing an award-winning column “Homegrown Treasures.”

I’ve always loved reading and books and I grew up very poor but my grandmother and my mother always seem to have a quarter here or there for one of those Little Golden Books. Then I went to Kansas State University and I studied English Literature and I really think that’s a great foundation for writing but after that I never thought about writing myself personally. I always thought of writers as some kind of gods in the sky that just came down and gave you this wonderful book.

But when I was a stay-at-home mom and my children were very young I started writing the “Homegrown Treasures” column and that was in 1985, a very long time ago. It was very popular. I wrote it every week and it won the Best Local Columnist award from the California newspaper Association several times. 

To give you an idea of what it was, one of the judges said, “She finds a universe in her backyard.” I love that and that’s what I really try to do I think in all my work, but that encouraged me. So then I started playing around with picture books which I loved and it took me 10 years. In 1995 my first picture book came out but the column helped me understand discipline and structure and writing. 

No, I’m totally focused on children’s picture books now. I would like to do a chapter book. I’ve tried that. I’ve tried starting a novel but I usually get about three to four chapters in and that’s it for me. But the column–it’s interesting that you say that.

Yes, it was for the parents, however, I had quite a few parents share with me that when the newspaper came out they brought the family together and they all read it together. So it was the children, the parents, and the grandparents. I love that because I really think that the best writing is for everyone. And I like to think that about my picture books too but picture books have changed so dramatically since my first book came out in 1995.

Back then it could easily be over a thousand words, 1500 words for your picture book and now they want 500 or less. There are differences and reasons why a book might be shorter or longer but my book Heart of a Tiger (illustrated by Jamichael Henterly) was loved by all ages. The Pumpkin Runner (illustrated by Brad Sneed), adults bought that one for other adults. So, I think the best books are for everyone. 

From the very beginning, I’ve been involved in that community and before I started writing children’s books I knew I was mostly interested in picture books. I studied them, read almost everything in the library then. 

I read everything about how to write the picture books, all about the business of picture books, all in relation to traditional publishing and that was back in the 1980s. So, really self-publishing wasn’t around then and I was getting my information from the library rather than online. But I knew that one of the big organizations was the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. I joined that right away. I went to conferences when I could. I started my own critique group and there were usually about six of us that would meet every month, share our stories, try to improve them and support each other.

We were all at the beginning of our careers and at one point I remember David Schwartz saying to me, “I was just talking to my editor and she referred to us as that famous Sebastopol writing group.” And that was kind of fun because just about everyone went on to write children’s books and be published. And some very successfully. 

So, I’ve always been involved and I do manuscript consultations now. And I’m always surprised at the new writers who haven’t done as much research as I think they should have done and they don’t even know about SCBWI because most all authors in traditional publishing are members of SCBWI and now SCBWI has a great support for self-published authors as well. So, yes I’m involved.

I don’t have a particular reader in mind. Who I write for are the children. And I focus on those magical years from birth to seven really. We’re generally writing three to four, seven to eight but that is when the foundation is built for their trust in the world and for their ability to thrive and for their sense of being loved and appreciated. So, that’s who I’m writing for. That’s always who I wrote for. 

I noticed more and more that writers seem to want to write to have their name in print and it was never about that for me. It’s such an honor and a responsibility to write for children and it worries me a little when I see that not happening as much as it did in the beginning of my career.

I think yeah and I suppose in a way you are writing for yourself because you’re writing what your values are and what you think is important but yes. You want to be responsible to your readers.

Why do I write? I don’t know what else I could do, honestly.

My newest book is Armando’s Island illustrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert. I might mention that this manuscript was written over 20 years ago.

At that time I was with Penguin Dial and I had one editor and she did all of my first books. She did not think this would sell well. So it sat for a long time but my husband always loved this story and I loved it. 

I pulled it out once and I decided what could I do? I did not change the words although my editor had me add just a little bit more. What I did though was I added some back matter for each of the animals. I don’t think that’s what sold it. It’s just different editors, different times and I had two publishing houses interested in this book and I went with Creative Editions for a couple of reasons. 

They do absolutely beautiful illustrations. It begins “Beneath a canopy of trees flowing like a green ocean in an ancient forest lived Armando. Each morning he awakened to the smell of the Earth, the sounds and songs of treetops, the taste of just picked berries.”

He loves the Earth and he loves the animals and when it starts to be destroyed he will not sell his tiny piece of land so all the animals come to him and it becomes an island. 

It’s available on Amazon right now where you can see a couple more of the beautiful illustrations and you can pre-order or follow me. It is coming out August 8th. It’s on Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and the independent places. If you want to look at all my books  and see some activity guides–I don’t have one for Armando’s Island yet but I will–and find out more about me, that’s on my website.

Thank you again to Marsha, I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy of Armando’s Island and binge her backlist. I’ve already read Lights Out illustrated by Susan Reagan which I highly recommend!

Next week I’ll share my talk with Leslie Barnard Booth, author of A Stone is A Story illustrated by Marc Martin and One Day This Tree Will Fall illustrated by Stephanie Fizer Coleman.
Make sure you’re caught up on these Author Spotlights and check out my last interview with author Stephanie M. Wildman.