Writer Spotlight: Patti Bumpus Richards

Another place, freelance magazine gigs, Red Line, Miranda Paul, sing me a story, and packing: author Patti Richards

Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI-MI. In this piece, meet author Patti Bumpus Richards.

I first knew I was a writer in the 7th grade. My teacher gave us an assignment (I don’t remember what it was), and I remember looking out the window and writing from what felt like another place, outside of the classroom. When I got my paper back she had written a note encouraging me to explore my gift and see how far it would take me. I’ve been exploring for more than 20 years now and loving every minute of it.

Another place. Do you still get to that place when writing?

I do! But not every time I sit down to work. It most often happens when I’m getting down an early draft of a new manuscript or when I’ve had a breakthrough during revision. When I’m intentional about having that “another place” experience, it requires quiet, comfort with where I’m working, and a deep sense of peace with urgency that the words I’m writing need to live…whether out in the world or in my computer.

After a successful education career in which she taught middle and high school language arts, social studies, public speaking and theater, Patti Richards’ inspirational connection with children simply could not be contained in the classroom. Her innate way with a story and her love of literature had long inspired her teaching. She’d written plays for her students and short stories and little snippets of this and that, but in retirement, she found she had much more to say.

Did that 7th grade teacher have any part in your career in education? Plays and short stories while you’re busy teaching?

Yes, she did! Miss Sorell had a wonderful connection to her middle school students. When I landed in a middle school classroom after first being a high school teacher, I knew I had found my sweet spot. The example she set for me all those years earlier was what I tried to emulate with my kids.

And yes, even as a busy teacher, I was always writing or working away at grading or meeting with students one-on-one to go over their revisions. I always tried to model a good work ethic to my kids, and if I gave them a writing assignment and time to do it in class (which I pretty much always did), I wanted them to see me writing too and sharing my work with them. That way no one had to feel shy about reading a crappy first draft to the group. I hope I created a safe space for my kids to share their work with me.

Patti’s insightful features on parenting, women’s health and education have been published in San Diego Parent, The Lookout, Homelife, Metro Parent and in many other print and digital publications nationwide. Patti was a Third Place Winner in the Smart Writers Amazing Story Contest in 2010 and also received the Gold Medal Award for Special Section Within a Publication (55K+ circulation), from Parenting Publications of America in 2003.

That was a whole freelance magazine writing career you carved out. What worked for you, back in the days there were still print magazines?

It all started for me when I nominated my husband for Westland’s Father of the Year Award and he won! Yes, you read that right! LOL! I had written my first picture book when my middle child was around 3, and had a request for the full manuscript, so I had already been bitten by the kid-lit bug. 

But I was also a stay-at-home mom picking up substitute teaching jobs and looking for writing gigs to bring in extra money. When I went in for the Observer interview about my husband winning Father of the Year, God whispered, “Ask the question!” 

So, at the end of the interview I asked the editor if they ever used stringers to cover local stories. She said “yes” and that she’d be in touch if/when something came up. Within a week I had my first assignment. 

From there, I started researching other local publications and found that the Metro Parent Publishing Group was taking submissions for story ideas on parenting and local resources for parents. I don’t remember what my first assignment for them was, but I developed a great relationship with the editor and worked regularly for them for several years. I did a ton of online content work for my BFF who was a magazine editor in Nashville at the time. This helped me make other connections and develop new relationships with other editors.

I think what worked for me that still works for anyone building the contract side of their writing career is what I mentioned above: developing good relationships with editors so they remember you and keep asking you to write for them. 

How do you do this? Always submit your assignments on time (early), submit the absolute best first draft of your assignment as possible (which means you’re actually submitting your fourth, fifth, or 10th draft), make your work as error free as you can, stick to your style guide like glue, and take every editorial suggestion without question. 

That last one might seem like a stretch and make some writers uncomfortable, but stay with me here. If you do everything an editor asks you to do with a, “Oh wow, I never thought of that, what a great suggestion, I love your ideas for this section, can’t believe I didn’t think of that” attitude, you will get asked back, again and again. Trust me on this!

Her first children’s story, “Fishing on the Black Volta,” was published in Boy’s Quest Magazine.

Was Boy’s Quest a scouting magazine? Do you like to fish? Did you know you were a children’s writer when this piece was published?

Boys’ Quest was part of the Fun for Kidz family of print magazines that included Boys’ Quest, Hopscotch for Girls, and Fun for Kidz. In the last few years, they combined the three into just Fun for Kidz, and it is still available as a print magazine. 

The “Fishing” piece was about my husband’s years spent growing up in West Africa as a child of missionaries. His dad took the family camping on the river once each year, and the fish they caught were massive! 

A favorite old family photo is of my father-in-law and a friend holding up a fish they had caught. They had their arms stretched completely out above their heads, holding the fish between them and it was so big the tail bent and spread out at their feet. Listening to my husband talk about these fishing adventures, including hippos swimming in the river and monkeys swinging from the trees inspired the story. And yes, I do love to fish!

Did I know I was a writer for children when this was published? I’m grateful to say that I did. That doesn’t mean I haven’t questioned that along the way, but thankfully never enough to quit!

Tell us about your non-fiction books.

OIL POWER!, THE APOLLO MISSIONS, THE SPACE SHUTTLE MISSIONS and ALL ABOUT SOCIAL NETWORKING, were each work-for-hire opportunities with Red Line Editorial. Writers submit a resume and writing samples to them with areas of interest, and they keep those on file. When a project comes up that looks like it might fit the writer’s interests, they reach out with an offer, style guide, deadlines, pay, etc. You usually have a few days to consider and then get back to them, then they send you a contract to esign, and you get started. 

These books can take a few weeks up to a few months to complete, because of the research. But I really enjoy research, and I love revising, so they were fun for me. Getting to do these books was a nice resume builder that led to an opportunity to write for Capstone’s Pebble Go and Pebble Go Next online social studies websites. 

Writing pieces for them has opened a door to write a nonfiction very early reader (grades 1-2) book about Indigenous People’s Day which comes out in 2027. I’m in the middle of that right now. It’s just 150 words with an ATOS level of 2.5, so it’s been challenging, but such fun!

Your work is part of the award-winning poetry collection, THANKU: POEMS OF GRATITUDE. How much of a part? How did your poetry find this collection?

This is a great example of how SCBWI Michigan writers help each other. My dear friend and long-time writing partner, Lisa Rose, saw an email newsletter from Miranda that had an opportunity to submit a poem for her upcoming collection. She had already contracted with well-known children’s poets for most of the poems but wanted to leave one or two spaces open for new writers. 

Since Lisa knows my work so well, and how much I love writing poetry and rhyme in particular, she forwarded me the email with big letters in the subject line: YOU NEED TO DO THIS! All caps from Lisa always means I need to stop what I’m doing and see what’s up! LOL! 

So, I did. I read Miranda’s requirements for the poem, “kid-centered poem about Thankfulness, rhyming or prose.” I can’t remember the other parameters, but I think there were a few other things, deadline, wordcount, etc. So, I got to work right away.

I tried to remember something I had been thankful for when I was a kid, and I thought about getting my first pair of glasses. I had been squinting for so long because I couldn’t see the chalkboard. But I didn’t want to tell my parents, because I didn’t want to wear glasses. 

I then made a connection to Alice Through the Looking Glass and seeing things clearly, and that’s where the idea for my poem came from for “Alice Thanks the Looking Glasses.” I finished it just in time for the deadline and hit send!

A little while later she wrote back and told me how much she liked my poem…especially how kid-centric it was, and invited me to be part of the collection.

THANKU was edited by Miranda Paul. How much did you get to interact with her?

It was, and working with her was a great experience. She sent me notes about my poem and we emailed back and forth a few times until it was just right. She was very encouraging. What you see in the collection was probably my fifth or sixth draft. 

Then being part of such an amazing group of writers for the launch was incredible. And I have to admit being a little awestruck when I saw my poem alongside the work of Jane Yolen, Charles Ghinga, and other poets I admire!

There’s so much power in helping each other! I’m so grateful for Lisa, because without her forwarding me that email, I would have missed this opportunity!

The Story of MRS. NOAH

Mining For Information

So, You Want to Be a Writer?

Sing Me a Story!

These are presentations you offer. You’re still a teacher, aren’t you? Sing Me a Story?

Once a teacher, always a teacher, right? I retired from full-time teaching when my oldest was 4 years old. But I continued to substitute teach and tutor privately until he finished fifth grade. My school presentations are directly connected not just to the things I’ve had published, but to other things I love. 

I’m a musician…play the piano and sing, and dabble in the guitar, organ and the mountain dulcimer. I still don’t practice like I should (sorry, Mom). But having other creative outlets feeds my writing. For example, Sing Me a Story is for very young audiences about seeing/hearing the music in rhyming and lyrical picture books and how that works together!

Painting and piano are some of the things you enjoy. What kind of painting do you do? How much fun do you have with a piano in the house?

I don’t paint as much as I used to, but I love acrylics and drawing/creating with charcoal/pastels. My daughters also love to paint, so when they lived at home, the easel in my office got lots of use. 

My entire family sings, so we love family sing-a-longs when we’re all together. And thirty minutes of playing/singing when I’m getting ready to write or have been at it for a few hours, helps center and feed my heart. It is one way I have devotions, offer my personal praise to God and thank Him for the gifts that words and music have been in my life.

The story of Mrs. Noah is apocryphal. A first-ever cruise family vacation, and you’re trying to manage the logistics of the trip for every one of your family members. How did the trip go?

It turned out well. It was a celebration for my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary, and they had a blast. I’ll never take another cruise again (unless it’s a much smaller boat)…too many people, not a big enough swimming pool, and I’m a bit claustrophobic…but I’m grateful we got to do it when we did. But wow, I was so tired when we got home, so MRS. NOAH was her story AND my story!

SNOW ANGELS (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Curious World, January 2014)

Two sisters head out into the snow to make snow angels and snow pie! But when they go to bed, the snow angel sisters come to life and have a moonlit adventure all their own. Ages 4-7.

Big name publisher, 2014. What was that experience like?

Well, the company that actually bought and published SNOW ANGELS, was called MeeGenius. It was during those years when eBooks/book apps for kids were going to be all the rage. 

At some point…I think it was a couple of years after SNOW ANGELS came out…MeeGenius was bought by HMH and came under their Curious World imprint. So, I worked with a HMH acquisitions person for a bit during the transition and it was a positive experience. 

One nice thing that did come out of it was that the person the MeeGenius authors were in contact with at HMH went on to work briefly for a similar venture through Amazon called Amazon Rapids. So, I got a chance to do a couple of work-for-hire stories for them. 

Amazon Rapids is now defunct, and although Curious World still exists, they only have a small fraction of the original stories still available. The good news is that I did get my rights back to SNOW ANGELS, so you never know what might be next for that piece.

30 years of experience writing for magazines, newspapers, websites, publishing companies and poetry journals. Ten years’ experience teaching English, creative writing and theatre.

Is there any kind of writing you haven’t done but would like to try?

You know, the two things I haven’t tried are writing YA and books for adults. I know I’m not a YA writer, so I don’t have to think about that one. But sometimes I think about writing a book for young women. 

There are so many things I’ve learned along the way about life, faith, having it all but not all at the same time, being a mom/wife/daughter/sister/friend all at the same time, body image, loving yourself and seeing yourself the way God sees you, I’d love to share them. 

I’d think of it as a love letter to my adult daughters and their friends filled with all of things I wish someone had told me when I was their age. I do lots of that with them now, but I think writing it all down (as if that’s even possible) is something that would make my heart sing. I’d feel I’d done all I could do to speak into their lives and make the journey better somehow.

I’d also like to do more conference/public speaking. As a former theatre teacher, I love teaching about the art of performance storytelling and how it informs writing and enhances author visits.

You helped found The Mitten, and conducted interviews for the Writer Spotlight. Which interviews did you most enjoy?

Wow, I’d forgotten I used to do the Writer Spotlights as well as Hugs and Hurrahs! LOL! You know, the interviews I loved the most were from the people I knew the least about. I learned something valuable from every friend I was meeting for the first time.

SE Michigan as a Shop Talk area doesn’t exist for SCBWI-MI anymore. But you had a stellar group of kidlit talent in that group, back in the day. Your group had some memorable meet ups (now I see why Shop Talks works better). What are some of your favorite memories?

Oh, my goodness…we had some wonderful Shop Talks! We met at the historic Spicer Farmhouse at Heritage Park in Farmington Hills, and what an amazing venue for creative souls. 

We had so many great speakers—Lisa Wheeler, Nancy Shaw, Shutta Crum, Ruth McNally Barshaw, Rhonda Gowler Green, Kelly Dipuccio (those names just jumped out of my memory)—we had agents and editors, volunteers who researched topics to share with the group, we used SCBWI video master classes, hosted panel discussions, and our most popular thing, critique days. I was co-chair with Jennifer Rumberger and then with Kris Munroe, and what a blessing they both were to work with!

Another project I’m focused on right now is about helping kids talk about difficult subjects. It’s called “The Elephant in the Room.” It’s my hope that this one finds its way to the right publishing home soon once I start submitting, because it’s so needed.

I’m also playing around with a fractured fairy tale called, “A Needle in a Haystack.” It’s a western/cowgirl-themed version of the “Princess and the Pea,” and I’m having tons of fun with it!

Anything come of Elephant or Haystack?

Not yet. I’ve set both aside for a while as other things I want to say, characters that need to speak, rise to the surface. I’ve learned over the years that some stories are as much about therapy for the writer and taking time to play with words as they are about publication.

You moved your office to a bedroom. Is that still your workspace? How has it changed over the years?

Not her workspace

Ha! Well, I have an absolutely beautiful office/creative space. When I moved out of the corner of the dining room, my youngest had come home from Calvin University because of COVID, my middle child had just graduated from Calvin as was starting her first teaching job that suddenly became virtual, and my husband was working from home because of shutdown. So, the girls had desks in their rooms, Gene was working from the dining room table, and I was in my office. 

As things began to open up again, my RA started to flare and I found myself working from my recliner in our family room more than from my office. My office then became the staging area for two weddings, the spare bedroom complete with camp bed, and the place to hide and wrap Christmas presents. 

I’m happy to say that my RA is back under control, my office is sparkling clean, I have a new monitor that allows me to have two versions of my novel on the screen while revising, and some pictures of my precious grandbabies…we now have three. But where am I writing from most of the time (right now even)? From my recliner by the fire place in our family room! LOL!

Ida Pluck’s Cluck?

Oh, my goodness, my dear IDA PLUCK! Her story won first place in the Detroit Writing Room awards a few years ago, and an updated version of the story took 8th place in the Writer’s Digest Awards in 2023. She is one of my favorite characters, and I’m trying my best to sell her story. She deserves to be heard! 

Ida Pluck is a duck who wants to cluck instead of quack. But no matter how hard she tries, she cannot talk chicken! When auditions for the yearly Cluck Cabaret come around, she decides that auditioning for the show is the best way to win the friendship and approval of the barnyard biddies. While waiting in line, she is overcome by the tune and beat of the music and starts quacking. The chickens, who are desperate for an alto voice to complete their Classical Cluck Quartet, hear her voice and decide they’ll take a chance on her after all. 

And for the rest, maybe you’ll get to read her tale someday! This one is actively on submission, and I’d like to thank the amazing Lisa Wheeler for challenging me to turn this story on its head and see it in a completely different way. If you are ever in need of a top-shelf critique and Lisa Wheeler is open, do it!

What’s next for Patti Richards?

Well, between submitting, revising and writing new stories, being Grammar to my three grandkids who all live in Grand Rapids, becoming a caregiver to my aging parents and being available to my adult children and my friends whenever they need me, Gene and I are determined to travel more. We have our sights set on the British Countryside sometime in 2026, but God’s plans are always better than ours, so we’ll have to wait and see.

And, I’m gearing up for a book release in the Spring of 2027 with The Little Press/Bless This Press! It’s called THEN GOD WHISPERED: A LITTLE CREATION STORY. But you’ll have to wait to hear more about that next year! Oh, and I fully intend to keep listening for God whispers that turn into ideas that become stories. I hope what I’ve shared here inspires you to do the same.


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