Writer’s Cats, Dangerous Laundry, and Just Doing The Writing with Author Cedar Pruitt

In today’s episode of Why We Write had so much fun chatting with Cedar about her writing journey and the launch of her recent picture book, Fire Flight illustrated by Chiara Fedele. 

Some of the highlights covered:

• The benefits of not doing your laundry.🧺🧺
• When giving up writing is impossible.
• How many rejections is too many? (Spoiler, we can always keep going.)
• The beauty of real life and its messiness.
• Why you may want to write outside your typical genre.
• The supportive writing community, especially kidlit and the wonderful people behind 12×12 Picture Book Challenge and Storystorm.
• How many of our mentors may not even know us but the lasting impact they can have on us through podcasts, webinars, etc.
• Cedar’s book, Fire Flight which is based on the true story of an owl and human who came together for an unbelievable moment during a wildfire.🦉🦉🦉🦉

Links Mentioned:

• FIRE FLIGHT: A Wildfire Escape (Now available)
• WHAT MARCEL FOUND: The Incredible Discovery of the Lascaux Cave Paintings Illustrated by David Litchfield (Summer 2026)
• Cedar’s website
• The 12×12 Picture Book Challenge
• The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
• Tara Lazar’s Storystorm

Book Recommendation📚: 

• Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

While listening back through this episode to edit and publish, Cedar’s enthusiasm and persistence shone through. It was impossible to not be inspired and that itch to open my own manuscripts and get to work grew. So, thank you, Cedar, for inspiring listeners with your journey of persistence and joy in writing. And thank you for inspiring me. ♥️♥️♥️

If you’re listening for inspiration, support, or encouragement, you’ve come to the right place. While talking with Cedar I was reminded of how easy it can seem to give up, walk away from writing. But nothing is ever as easy as it seems and, in fact, I’ve tried to quite writing just as Cedar has. Somehow I always come back to it, or maybe the truth is that it comes back to me.

The dictionary defines intrinsic as belonging to the essential nature or constitution of a thing.

For most of us writers, writing is intrinsic. You can’t separate it from us at any level. It’s woven through our impulses, memories, thoughts, and actions. To not write is harder than to embrace this part of ourselves and give it space to be.

As a writer diving back into the querying trenches myself, her candor about her own querying process was extremely encouraging. Early on in our lives at school we learn the difference between good and bad. And yet, so many of the things we ascribe the adjectives to are subjective in nature.

There is no such thing as good art and equally, there is no bad. (This is something I remind myself and my son of on a daily basis.)

Though it can be hard to separate ourselves from this learned system of categorization, intrinsically we know how to express ourselves. We understand our art whether that is writing, crocheting, or sculpting. And yet, it can be difficult to ignore the arbitrary rankings of good and bad especially when we’ve been staring at the same 10 words for an hour and start questioning our very understanding of the language in which we write.

So, as you listen to this episode, I welcome you to toss out those outdated ranking systems. Reach within to your writerly impulses and just do the thing, as Cedar says. We all know you can’t quite (I think most of us have tried at least once). So accept this part of yourself, give it space, and have fun!

Stay tuned for next week’s episode with author Lauren Ranalli. In the meantime, catch up on recent episodes if you haven’t had the chance, including last week’s interview with pre-published YA author Anne Hanovich. Thank you for being here!