Writer Spotlight: Diane Telgen

 Encyclopedias, black belt, Monty Python, WFH, ghosts, and fart jokes: Author and long-time Michigander Diane Telgen 

Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI-MI. In this piece, meet author and long-time Michigan resident  Diane Telgen.

Diane Telgen

Diane says: FYI,  I was born in Ann Arbor and spent almost all of my next 45 years in Michigan. I served as website coordinator for SCBWI Michigan in the 2000s. 

Tell us about the young Diane who loved reading. When did the writing come in?

My mom taught reading, so I learned pretty early and was devouring classics like Little House on the Prairie by the time I started kindergarten. I couldn’t check out enough books from the library to match my appetite for reading, so my go-to material was the set of World Book encyclopedias we got from my teacher-grandfather.

You could often find me browsing entries like “dog”—so many breeds!—or “human body,” which had these amazing see-through pages that showed the various systems stacked atop each other.

But the Childcraft part of the set probably had the most influence on me. I practically wore out the spines on the first two volumes, Poems & Rhymes and Stories & Fables, the latter of which started me on my lifelong love of fairy tales and fantasy.

The other volumes covered subjects like “how things work” and “people to know.” These volumes taught me that stories about real life could be just as fascinating as those about dragons or spaceships.

Diane at age "7 or 8 (with my dog Jojo), visibly annoyed I'm being asked to stop reading to look at the camera"

I always joke that I read encyclopedias so much as a kid, that’s probably how I ended up writing them when I grew up! But I knew I wanted to write my own stories from about sixth grade onward. I’d go overboard with any English assignments involving a creative writing aspect, then finally tried a novel after college.

*Bonus Material: Random Real-Life Facts about Diane* 

Diane writes: "Despite being an absolute klutz growing up, I took up taekwondo in my thirties, became a black belt, won a national championship, and became a 4th-degree master."

You could write a book and I hope you will. But what drove you into martial arts?

I started taekwondo training back in my thirties because my son and I could take classes together and I was trying to encourage him to stay active with a sport. I ended up falling in love with its mix of structure (the patterns of forms) and creativity (combining self-defense moves), and it taught me how to fall and fail and get back up again—great lessons for an aspiring writer!

While my son quit after getting his second-degree black belt, I continued training for over fifteen years, competing nationally and eventually becoming a certified instructor and fourth-degree master. 

My cement break at my taekwondo testing for 4th-degree master in 2015

At our dojang, black belt tests involved an intense full-day examination, then several weeks of rehearsal before putting on a public demonstration. My love for the sport and my fellow students kept me going, despite bumps and bruises and the occasional dislocated toe—I even tested for fourth degree while living four hours away from the dojang!

But after I moved even further away and suffered an unrelated foot injury, I had to retire. I do have a YA manuscript based on my experiences, though!

Gale was first a man who founded a company with his name. And somewhere in suburban Detroit, Gale was a publisher who collected bio facts about authors and illustrators. You got to work there, fresh out of school. What was it like rubbing elbows with the literati?

I loved working in downtown Detroit in the Penobscot Building for Gale, compiling biographical entries and writing essays about authors. I once spent an entire month writing about Monty Python, both collectively and individually, but nothing topped getting responses from my favorite authors when I sent them their entries for review.

I’ve still saved personal letters I received from the likes of Arthur C Clarke, Isabel Allende, and R.L. Stine—the latter a fellow Python fan who said I was the first to notice he’d taken a pseudonym from a Python sketch!

Much of your published body of work is work-for-hire. The Haunted series, as well as two historically-researched titles. How would you explain work-for-hire to a novice writer? I know some WFH authors who won’t sell their books because they get no royalties. How do you square book sales if you aren’t financially rewarded for them?

Kidlit book cover collage:

Basically, work-for-hire projects happen when a publishing company or book packager comes up with an idea and then hires a writer to flesh it out. Your name is on the cover as the author, but the publisher retains the copyright and all the profits. You get paid when you turn in the manuscript, and that’s it—no royalties.

Transitioning from a publishing company employee to a freelancer doing work-for-hire felt pretty natural for me, because I was used to writing to someone else’s requirements and having them retain the copyright. 

I can make a little extra from my work-for-hire projects because the publisher of my Spooky America books sells them to me at a sizable discount; I then resell them online or at events, keeping the profit.

And my Ghostly Tales have allowed me to do school visits, where I talk about my books and especially how to do research. I love talking to kids about writing, and school visits can provide a little more income, as they do for traditionally published authors.

Your writing job in the Haunted series of books, as I understand it, was to take the stories from a previously-published adult collection and make it palatable for kid readers. How much writing versus editing was involved?

My Spooky America books are “adapted” from Arcadia’s local ghost-story collections for adults. I brought editing skills to the project by choosing only the stories that I thought would appeal to kids—ones involving disasters, child ghosts, and the like—and excluding those that seemed too violent or confusing. I used the originals for the basic facts, then did additional research.

Finally, I wrote my version of the stories entirely from scratch, because I knew I needed to provide a lot of historical context for kids to understand who these ghosts were and where they came from. I really consider these books half-local history, half-ghostly tales—as I sign my books, Ghosts are just history trying to get your attention! 

Is this title yours: Latinas! : women of achievement / Diane Telgen, Jim Kamp, editors ; foreword by Nicholasa Mohr.  If yes, what was involved in editing and compiling this collection?

Photo of selected books from my reference book career as editor, author, or contributor:

This title was adapted for the general market from a biographical directory I edited at Gale, Notable Hispanic American Women. The work is mainly gathering suggestions for listees from an advisory board, collecting research, and assigning entries. Not super interesting work, but I did get to personally interview an Olympic diver for the project.

“Hellmuffin”?

It’s weird where ideas can come from. My first published short story, “Hellmuffin,” came from a friend’s social media post complaining about her cat: “What the hell, Muffin?” This immediately brought to mind the idea of a devil-cat, and my friend granted permission for me to steal the word.

When a fellow Vermont College of Fine Arts grad announced she was seeking stories for a YA Halloween anthology, I drew on my experiences taming feral kittens and spending time on my grandparents’ farm to flesh out the initial concept.

You lived in the U.K. for four years. This is another book, (most of your life experiences would make a good story). Do you still have a passable accent? What kind of cultural shock to you and your family?

While that chance combination of words inspired a full story, other life experiences somehow don’t spark my muse. I spent four years as an expatriate in London and it became a huge part of my identity—I was the lone American in a local community band, for instance.

It gave our whole family new perspectives through the people we met, travel all over Europe, and daily exposure to British culture, but I’m not sure that experience will ever end up in a story. But I never say never! 

Me at a sixth-grade author visit in 2023: 

“[M]y inner child is a 9 year old boy who loves fart jokes.” Have you matured innerly?

My motto has always been: “You’re only young once, but you can be immature forever!” I delighted in bringing fun facts about 19th-century sanitation into one of my Ghostly Tales books in order to explain why so many people left cities like Milwaukee and Chicago in the summer to sail to lovely, clean-smelling western Michigan.

 Angelella Editorial?

After graduating from Vermont College of Fine Arts with my MFA in writing for children and young adults, I gave up reference book work to focus on my own writing. But as I’m sure many readers will be aware, it’s hard to break into traditional publishing.

So when one of my classmates invited me to join her freelance editing company, Angelella Editorial, I thought that would be a great alternative outlet for my knowledge and experience.

Me on my magical graduation day in 2017
 with my MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts

I worked on everything from rhymed picture books to adult fantasy series, with some clients who were just starting out and needed coaching to others who were experienced indie authors who just needed copyediting. One of my picture book clients got an agent who sold the book I helped edit at auction!

I’m mostly retired from Angelella Editorial now, with one or two legacy clients I’m still coaching, because I want to devote my working hours to my own writing. I still hope to find an agent and get a traditional publishing deal, and I’ve had champagne rejections with a YA fantasy and a nonfiction picture book. I still hope those projects see the light of day someday,

What's next?

I've been a member of SCBWI since around 2000,
 attending my first conference in Greece in 2002.
Here I am at the 2017 LA conference
dressed in costume for the Silver Linings Gala.

I’m currently working on a fantasy romance for adults with the intention to indie publish if I don’t find a traditional publisher. The industry has changed so much since I attended my first SCBWI conference in 2002, but I haven’t given up my writing dream yet!

Share your social media platforms:

Goodreads: author page for Diane Telgen

BlueSky: ‪@neglet.bsky.social‬

Instagram: Diane Telgen (but it’s mainly cat pictures)

Website: dianetelgen.com

I have a Twitter/X account but I don’t use it; it just exists so no one else can take it over: @neglet_

Three SCBWI Regions and Various Ventures: Catching up with Author/Editor Diane Telgen

Diane Telgen lived in Canton, Michigan, for many years and volunteered for SCBWI-MI in numerous capacities, including webmistress. After spending a few years in Chicago, she now lives in Nashville and has ventured in several exciting new directions. We invited her back on our Mitten blog to fill us in. Let’s catch up!

You’ve been away from Michigan for how many years now? Are you involved with your new regional SCBWI chapter?

My husband and I moved to Chicago in 2013, and within a year I took over as listserv coordinator for the Illinois chapter of SCBWI. I also contributed several articles to their newsletter, the Prairie Wind. When his job took us to Nashville in 2018, I quickly made contact with the MidSouth regional advisor and she invited me to join their conference planning committee. I’ve been so lucky to land in regions with very active and welcoming SCBWI chapters!

You graduated from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2017. How has your degree guided and shaped your writing career?

Before VCFA I was confident in my skills as a writer, but working with the faculty helped me become a better storyteller—I learned so much about structure, character building, and revision that it ramped up my ability to fully develop an idea into a complete story. My critique partners noticed a big difference! Plus, all the writer friends I made there have become a lifeline.

Tell us about your work with Angelella Editorial.

Former Simon & Schuster editor Kate Angelella is one of those good writer friends I made at VCFA. When she decided to expand her freelance editing business, she invited me to join the staff. Through AE I’ve done everything from helping polish verse in picture books to developing chapter books and novels to copy editing adult works for indie publication. I love working with clients to make their writing shine!

I recently read Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA. Tell us about your involvement in this project and how it came about.

I served as slush queen, then managing editor, of the Foreshadow online serial anthology. I’d met Nova Ren Suma in a VCFA workshop, and when she and coeditor-in-chief Emily X. R. Pan announced plans for a new outlet for YA short stories, I wanted to help out. I coordinated the reading of some 1000 submissions to find the 20 or so that we published along with stories we solicited from more established writers. As managing editor, I kept our editorial process on schedule so we could release three stories each month. I loved seeing those 13 New Voices stories published in the print anthology, along with Emily and Nova’s wise words about craft. It’s both a lovely collection to read and a useful resource for writers.

Congrats on your recent and upcoming books! Tell us about them.

Nova Ren Suma knew the editor of the new Arcadia Children’s Books imprint, and she thought I might be a good match for their first series, “Spooky America.” She put me in touch, and my background—MFA in writing for kids plus experience writing historical nonfiction—proved just right. For The Ghostly Tales of Michigan’s West Coast and The Ghostly Tales of Pittsburgh (both 2020), I took a collection Arcadia had previously published for adults and chose the best stories for a young audience. Then I completely rewrote them to suit a kid’s sensibility. I had so much fun that I took on another volume in the series. It’s tentatively titled The Ghostly Tales of Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses and will come out later this year. I loved sneaking fun facts about my home state into the ghost stories!

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

I’ve been a member of SCBWI for more than twenty years, and only recently made it to PAL status. It took a combination of hard work, persistence, and being open to trying new things. SCBWI always has something to offer, whether it’s a business webinar or just the simple gift of connection. You never know who might have something to teach you, so don’t be afraid to participate!

You can order autographed copies of Diane’s Ghostly Tales books from her website; find out more about her editorial services here. 

Coming up on the Mitten Blog:

A new kidlit podcast, a Writer Spotlight with a behind the scenes look at virtual conference planning, SCBWI Winter Conference takeaways, children's books in the classroom, writing action scenes, and another round of Hugs and Hurrahs! 

Coming up this spring:

Registration is now open for the SCBWI-MI spring conference! An all virtual weekend event for you to attend when it suits YOU. Intensives, workshops, socials, plus a limited number of manuscript critiques and portfolio reviews. Don't delay, register today! Discounted fee for SCBWI members and scholarships available.

https://michigan.scbwi.org/2020/05/01/spring-conference-2021/

Back to School: MFA Week, Day Three

Welcome to Day Three of our special Back to School: MFA Week! Six SCBWI-MI members (representing three different MFA programs) answer a question a day for seven days. It's everything you ever wanted to know about getting your MFA.

Just joining us? Go here to read the first and the second post in our MFA series.

Team MFA: Jennifer (Jay) Whistler, Diane Telgen, Anita Pazner, Erin Brown Conroy, Rebecca Grabill, and Katie Van Ark.

What's it like to spend a semester in your program?

Jay: VCFA is a low-residency program. For eleven days each in January and July, students live on campus. Days usually start around 8:00 a.m. and end around 10:00 p.m. with lectures, readings, workshop intensives, special guest presentations, poetry readings, and more. During this time, you also meet with your advisor to work out a semester plan for your writing (both creative and academic) and reading.

Once back home, you send in what are called packets once a month for five months. Packets include approximately 40-50 pages of creative pages, 10 pages of critical/academic writing, an annotated bibliography of the month’s reading (usually 10-12 books plus 1-2 books on craft), and a letter that summarizes your progress for the month, including successes, struggles, and questions. Generally, you receive feedback within a few days, and you start all over. I spend about 30 hours per week on my packets, but I am also a slow reader and an even slower writer. Some people spend less time, some more.

VCFA students from Michigan: Katie Van Ark, Diane Telgren, Marty Graham, Jay Whistler, Anita Pazner and Tina Vivian

Diane: At VCFA you also write a critical thesis of 25-plus pages in your third semester, while in your fourth and final semester you leave critical work behind and focus on your creative thesis. The program recommends you devote 25 hours a week to homework, but I probably averaged around 30, or even more closer to packet due dates. You get out of it what you put into it, so “your mileage may vary.”

Anita Pazner: Since Jay and Diane have already described the academic portion of the program, I feel it my duty to discuss the aspects not listed on the brochure. Yes, we spend countless hours going to lectures and readings, but we also have fun, staying up late into the night discussing everything from politics and religion to the adult humor in Spongebob Squarepants. Did you know that Mr. Krabs lives in Bikini Bottom? Yeah, it’s a little disturbing.

When we finally get a break on laundry day, we venture into Montpelier to savor real food in real restaurants. It’s also around this time that the fourth-semester students throw a themed costume party for the graduating class. I’m not calling anyone out on this, but students have been known to dance in the fountain located in front of College Hall on their way back to the dorms—at least they did until the fountain was shut down for “health reasons.” Hmm.

There are also amazing opportunities, such as the chance to spend a summer residency in Bath, England, where you can meet Phillip Pullman and David Almond, and literally walk in Jane Austen’s footsteps. As you can see, there is so much more to an MFA program than simply reading a few hundred books, writing a thousand pages of creative work and completing twenty or more academic essays on the craft of writing for children and young adults.

Erin: A semester at WSCU’s MFA program is like any online class, but with more: It was a support system of cohort members sharing your passion and open to giving more to help with success (a we’re-in-the-same-boat attachment and desire). I won’t downplay the work. It’s hard. Many hours. You have to be super disciplined, and I spent many a day up at 5:30 AM, when the coffee shop opened, to get in word count and quality writing time.

I liked the idea of one two-week summer residency in the summer in the mountains of Colorado (who wouldn’t?!)... and it didn’t disappoint. Yes, we worked incredibly hard, but the environment was beautiful, memorable, and special.

Rebecca: Hamline has five 11-day residencies and four six-month(ish) long semesters, which involved one-on-one work with a faculty advisor: four packets due roughly a month apart, each with creative work, critical work (essays on topics like “Rhyme in Picture Books” or “Verse Novels”). A letter or phone call from the advisor provided feedback and instruction for the next packet. Over the first two semesters, every student had to complete an annotated bibliography based on a reading list of 120 notable children’s books. The third semester involved the usual creative work plus a critical thesis. Students presented a lecture on their thesis topic during fourth residency, while the final semester was geared toward creating a creative thesis--a collection of picture books or a finished, full-length novel.

In summer residencies, we lived on campus and worked. Hard. Dark-o’clock workshops ran until noon, then lectures and hands-on lessons until dinner, then readings and outings and signings.

In winter, we stayed in a nearby hotel (with a bar! And a pool!) and, after a hotel-provided breakfast, rode the shuttle to campus in the morning, where we followed our summer routine. Evenings were adventures of walking in the dark to local eateries (or the dining hall), back for readings, off to the shuttle and back to the hotel for drinks and pick-up games of Dixit (because what OTHER game would a bunch of writers play?). I loved the camaraderie of dorm life during the summer, but I adored the luxury of hotel life in winter. 



Thanks to Team MFA for giving us a behind-the-scenes peek into their programs!

Come back tomorrow for MFA Week, Day Four. Our MFA team will answer the questions, "How did you research programs to find the best fit for you?" and "What's available after you graduate?"

Back to School: MFA Week, Day Two

Welcome to Day Two of our special Back to School: MFA Week! Six SCBWI-MI members (representing three different MFA programs) answer a question a day for the next six days. It's everything you ever wanted to know about getting your MFA.

Just joining us? Go here to read the first post in our MFA series.

Team MFA: Jennifer (Jay) Whistler, Diane Telgen, Anita Pazner, Erin Brown Conroy, Rebecca Grabill, and Katie Van Ark.

Why did you decide to pursue an MFA?

Vermont College of Fine Arts

Diane: I had been a regular attendee at SCBWI conferences, both local and national, for more than fifteen years. While some of them had workshop elements, I wasn’t getting the focus on craft that I felt I needed. I attended the VCFA Day in Ann Arbor in 2014, and the workshops Marion Dane Bauer and Coe Booth presented were the kind of craft-focused event I wanted. I was also impressed by the quality of readings from graduates and current students. I hadn’t thought about going back to school before, but by the end of the event I had decided to apply to VCFA.

Anita: Much like Diane, I wanted more in the way of workshops than could be found at SCBWI conferences. I attended a Highlight’s summer workshop and then did an online class with agent Wendy Goldman Rohm of the Rohm Agency located in New York and Paris. That’s when I realized I craved an academic setting to work on my novels. I highly recommend searching out writing classes locally or specific online courses to further your knowledge. The biggest reason I felt I needed an MFA program was that I was painfully unaware of gaps in my knowledge. In essence, I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

Erin: I earned my MFA with Western State Colorado University’s Low Residency program. I decided to go back to get an MFA for two reasons. 
1. The college where I was working (teaching online writing classes) wanted me to have more credentials for their impending regional certification process.
2. I knew I wanted to transition from nonfiction to fiction writing, and I wanted to learn fast. An MFA appeared to be the way to steep myself into the skills, to jump ahead -- and I can’t tell you how much it did. Story is so incredibly powerful, reaching hearts and souls in a way that nothing else can. You can say the power of story wooed me. I still write nonfiction, but a piece of my soul is now complete with fiction writing.

Rebecca: I’d been hiding a brochure to the (then only) MFA program in my desk for over a decade. Over and over I’d take the brochure out, page through, decide I didn’t need an MFA, it wouldn’t be worth the expense, I could learn all that “MFA stuff” on my own anyway… and I’d put it back. But after a decade of writing, I realized I wasn’t growing in any focused way. And, being totally honest here, I also started dealing with some serious issues, like a lifetime of agoraphobia. Suddenly it was time. None of my then-three children were in diapers, and I just knew this was the next step, one I desperately needed to take. So in 2009 I enrolled in Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.

Hamline University, Minnesota

Thanks, Team MFA! Come back tomorrow for MFA Week, Day Three. Our team will answer the question, "What's it like to spend a semester in your program?"