Granny Franny, Julie Andrews, 'Frog on a Dime,' and Acme anvils: Vicky Lorencen finds non-fiction on her quest to write a MG novel
Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI-MI. In this piece, meet blogger, doodler and pre-published (for now) writer Vicky Lorencen.
When did you know you were a writer?
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| Early edition of Vicky |
I’ve known I wanted to write children’s books since I
was a little girl, like five. Not just a writer, but a writer of that specific genre
(even though I didn’t know that word back then). But why?
I blame
it on a certain book: Childcraft, Volume Two, Storytelling and Poems, copyright
1949. It was part of a 14-volume set my Granny Franny originally purchased for
my mom and her sister when they were little girls. Volume Two included poetry
by Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg,
among many others, and a stunning variety of illustrations by exceptional
artists.
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| Page from Childcraft, 1949 |
My
mom kept the set intact in the hall closet of my childhood home for years, but
somehow that precious Volume Two vamoosed to WhoKnowsWhere. Over the years, I
thought about Volume Two. It may sound silly, but I longed to see those images
of Miss T. dining with her grandparents, an elephant on the telephone, the
dancing potatoes, the tiny black kitten curled on the blue rug. And I wanted to
read those poems again. Those amazing poems. The combination of art and
rhythmic words was like an incantation. So powerful. So magical.
I’m
sure that book is the reason I loved making cards as a kid. I drew an
“illustration” for the outside and wrote a poem for the inside. Voila! A mini
book!
I’m
happy to report I finally found Volume Two online and it is now lives at my
house. Sure enough, seeing it again takes me to the same place of contentment
and delight that made me want to write for children, even while I was a child
myself.
You’ve been a magazine editor, freelance newspaper reporter, feature
writer, copywriter and college-level writing instructor. Whew! Can you describe
a memory from one of those jobs?
Besides writing courses, I taught a class designed for students in need
of extra help to get their reading skills up to college speed. I’ll never
forget a student, a dad in his 40s, who made a point of telling me he’d
finished reading the novel he’d selected for class. “It was the first novel I’ve
ever read,” he said. “That wasn’t too bad.”
I imagined dominos (that looked like books!) in a line so long, I
couldn’t see the end. Helping a dad discover reading for fun was the first
domino to tip. Let’s say he keeps reading, his kids see him reading and want to
read with him, they ask for more books and grow up to be book lovers . . . tip-tip-tip . . . Yes!
You won the Shutta Crum scholarship? What do you remember most about
your trip to the “Big Apple”?
I remember feeling overwhelmed. Visiting Winnie the Pooh in New York public
library, falling in love with Grand Central Station, spending time with
SCBWI-MI friends and making new ones, eating mashed potatoes out of a martini
glass, and of course, meeting editors and hearing from top shelf authors like
Jane Yolen and Mo Willems.
I’ll be honest, the “authors” I was least anxious to
hear were Julie Andrews and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton. Don’t get me
wrong. I think Julie Andrews is brilliant as a singer and actress, but I
assumed she was writing children’s books on a lark and capitalizing on her
celebrity. (Wrong, Vicky!)
Julie and Emma (like we’re on a first name basis,
ha) actually made a point of saying how they work hard to make sure their books
are the best they can be and not rely on Julie’s name. The more they shared, it
was obvious they were legit and had a real admiration for children’s
literature.
I’ll always be grateful to Shutta for making that whole experience
possible. She’s a gem.
What WIP are you currently most excited about?
Right now, I’m working on two non-fiction projects. My comfy place is
contemporary middle grade fiction, but then, I tripped over a couple of NF
ideas demanding to be explored. I am so grateful for the non-fiction workshop
hosted by SCBWI-MI in 2020 (just before “you know what” invaded!) I learned how
to write a proposal, how to track sources and was exposed to the many ways to
approach non-fiction.
You like to doodle in pen, creating paisley patterns. A form of relaxation, or focus, or just fooling around with pen and paper?I discovered, entirely by accident, doodling helps me focus. Distracting
my brain with doodling allows me to truly focus. Go figure! I might look like
I’m bored and tuned out, but the reality is, I am more engaged. Without
doodling, my overactive imagination gland goes into overdrive and distraction
takes over. The trick for me is to doodle without any plan in mind. Just let it
flow. Then I can focus. That’s normal, right?
You’re best known for your blog “Frog on a Dime,” which has been going
strong for coming up on ten years. To what do you attribute its longevity?
Darcy Pattison presented at an SCBWI-MI conference eons ago, and she
stressed the importance of establishing an online presence with a web site or a
blog. I don’t have any published books to promote, so I decided I could start a
blog that would be a source of encouragement, especially to pre-published
writers like me. The need for encouragement is as strong as ever, so I that’s
why I’m still at it. Plus, I’m certifiably stubborn. And that helps.
You’ve been pursuing publication for a long time. What keeps you going?
On a Saturday morning in January of 2022, I stumbled on this quote from
Mary Oliver: “The most regretful people on earth are those
who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive
and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”
That flaaaaattened me. We’re talking steamroller followed by one of
those Acme anvils. My poor husband. I was crying too hard to explain myself.
Wow. When I finally got it together, I tried to express how painful Mary
Oliver’s words were for me. For as much time as I’ve invested in my writing, it
always needs more time than I can give. I’m never going to get there.
But by the end of that day, after I bought more Kleenex, I
figured I could be miserable because I’m not published yet, or I can quit and be
miserable wondering what would have happened if I’d kept trying just one more
year. I chose the former because it has an ounce of hope left in it. The latter
would be relentless torture.
In August of 2022, I got some unexpected encouragement. That’s all I
want to say about that right now, but let’s just say, I may be glad I kept
going.
Follow Vicky here:
Facebook.com/Vicky.Lorencen
@VickyLorencen (on Twitter)
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