Writer Spotlight: Amanda Esch-Cormier

 Public love ballads, Nashville, doulas, an illustrator in Istanbul, and moving to frigid Michigan: Amanda Esch-Cormier

 Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI-MI. In this piece, meet musician, doula and author Amanda Esch-Cormier.

What do you remember about your early life? Who or what got you writing?

My mother really got me into books. I have very vivid memories of reading with her and time spent at the library. I think she still has remnants of little stories I wrote as a kid. I know that I really enjoyed it but music is really what got me writing as a child. I would sit in my room and rewind cassettes over and over again and write down lyrics just to study them. I started writing my own lyrics probably around 11 or 12 years old.

 

Your biography says you wrote poems and songs as a “tween” and performed them around town? Tell us about Tween Amanda.

Tween Amanda was a very passionate kid, for better or worse. I sometime cringe at the love ballads I wrote and sang in public back then. Ha! I had journals full of half written songs everywhere in my room. But I was also really into sports and musicals and sang competitively around the state.

 

You taught songwriting in Nashville, in Grand Ole Opry territory. Were you influenced and intimidated to practice the art in the shadow of so many greats? 

YES! I can’t emphasize that enough. Moving to Nashville at 21 was one of my greatest adventures but although I learned so much through those years, I do really think working around some of the best in the business right away was paralyzing for my own creativity. Which was a bit ironic because most of our songwriting class sessions started with the sentiment of “write anything, even if it’s bad!” But I had a hard time taking that advice myself.

 

You became a teacher for students with special needs. How and why did you decide to teach that challenging subset of pupils? 

When I was in high school, one of my classes my junior and senior year was to volunteer in an elementary school music classroom each day. One of the classes was a special education classroom and I fell in love with the work. Even when I first moved to Nashville, I was always the person on staff at the museum called to give tours for groups with disabilities and I was regularly finding ways to advocate for how we could provide more inclusive services. So when my husband was offered a job in New York, we moved there for three years while he worked and I went back to school to get my masters in Special Education. I’ve also come to learn in adulthood that I am neurodiverse myself, so I’m sure I had a sense of empathy from a young age for others who saw the world in a different way.

 

What is a “doula”?

The technical definition is a trained professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to a mother before, during and shortly after childbirth to help her achieve the healthiest, most satisfying experience possible.  

I was the first woman in my circle of friends to have a child and I’m generally an open book so during the entire pregnancy and afterward, I was teaching all of my friends everything I was going through. When the next friend in the group got pregnant, she asked if I’d consider becoming a doula to support her and I didn’t think twice. I love having an opportunity to support other people through a really vulnerable time that the world doesn’t really prepare you for.   You can learn more here: https://www.dona.org/what-is-a-doula/

 

 

You wrote and published a picture book, “Wild and Beautiful.” What was your inspiration? 

The inspiration for Wild and Beautiful was my daughters. It started as a short poem I wrote for them and then grew from there. I wanted them to see a book where both the mom and child dreams of what their life could hold. In so many books the mom is just a blank character and although I agree with most people that the child needs to be the center of children’s lit, children, especially little girls also see how adult women are perceived in media and if that woman doesn’t have depth or thoughts and feelings of her own, she might not know she can also dream and be those things past her childhood.

 

Can you get a little “into the weeds” about the publishing challenges for your debut book?

Self publishing is no joke. I thought since I had created websites, marketing strategies, and lots of social media in the past that I’d have a good handle on it but I was not prepared for the amount of time it would take. Wild and Beautiful had a lot of technical issues with Ingram Spark too, so that probably added about 2-3 months of work I just could not have predicted. I’m learning more every day about the process but I also wasn’t willing to let this manuscript be changed by a publishing house so I’m happy I went the self publishing route.

 

Your illustrator, Naya Kirenchenko, lives in Istanbul. How did you find her, and how did you work with her? 

I found her on Fiverr and we mainly worked through there and chatted a lot on Instagram. She was really, really great to work with. I think she has a few new ones coming out soon. You can find her at @naya.illustrates on instagram for her next one.

 

Your book was featured in MaiStoryBook, a YouTube interactive Read-Aloud. How did that come to be? Did you get a positive response from viewers? 

I just reached out to her and asked and sent her a copy. I actually haven’t gotten any feedback from this route.

 

You moved from Nashville to central Michigan. What are the pros and cons so far?

IT IS SO COLD! Haha! We moved in October and although I was technically prepared it has been very hard to deal with the cold and lack of sun. It’s sunny almost everyday in Nashville and we spent hours outside even in the winter so it’s been a major adjustment. My kids are still not sold on it either. We moved to be closer to our families though so that has been nice so far. We still haven’t seen many because of everyone’s varying comfort level with covid but hopefully this summer we will get to see more people. I do love to go out and meet new people though and moving to a new place always forces you out of your comfort zone to find a new community so although its a lonely process, I do enjoy it.

 

How did you find the Lansing Area Shop Talks? 

The SCBWI-Michigan Instagram page. I think I had actually just followed and saw them post about the Lansing one the day before it happened and I made sure I could make it out. The Midsouth region hadn’t had any since Covid started so I was excited at the opportunity to meet other writers.

 

What is your current Work In Progress? What are you excited about for 2022?

I have 3 PBs I’m currently sending out to agents and I’m planning out a MG novel. I also joined 12x12 so I’m hoping that inspires me to start many more PB manuscripts.

I’m excited to dig deeper into the community here. Hoping to get more opportunities to meet and collaborate with others.

 

You can follow Amanda here:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/amandaeschcormier

Facebook: www.facebook.com/amandaeschcormier

Twitter: www.twitter.com/amandamcormier