Book Birthday Blog with Sondra Soderborg

 

 

Welcome to SCBWI-MI's Book Birthday Blog!

Where we celebrate new books from Michigan's authors, illustrators and translators.

 

Congratulations to Sondra Soderborg on the release of Sky Ropes

 

 

Your debut novel includes real places in Michigan. How did you come up with the idea for your book?

This book grows out of the first (unpublished) novel I wrote, called Hey, Eyeball. Breanna, a secondary character in Hey, Eyeball, kept stealing her scenes. It became very plain that she needed her own book. For a Highlights Foundation Full Novel Workshop, Patricia Gauch asked us to prepare by drafting a short story that could become our next book. I wrote two short stories. One of them centered Breanana. In Hey, Eyeball, her whole persona is fearlessness. As I considered a story for her, I knew I needed to challenge that claim. The short story I wrote was about Breanna frozen with terror on a high ropes course. It was an effective way into a probing and personal story about the difference between courage and fearlessness.

What is something you hope your readers will take away from your book?

I hope they will take away a better idea about the power of the stories we tell ourselves and how we are the ones, ultimately, who can choose and shape those stories. I also hope they take away a sense of the power of friendships grounded in genuine kindness. 

You've worked as a teacher and a lawyer. What led you to write children's books?

Honestly, I’ve wanted to write children’s books since I learned to read. The world opened up to me when I was six years old and I felt it happen. It’s been a deep drive all my life that I have sidelined as impractical over and over. The fact that my first book debuts the year I turn 60 makes me realize how stubborn, powerful–and useful–our longings can be. 

 

Your book has received some positive buzz. What are your marketing plans for the book?

 

My sense is that there is very little information available for writers to know the best way to market. I feel like I’ve done what made sense to me and what was possible. I established a social media presence and I’ve stuck with that. If nothing else, it gives me practice with putting myself out there. I have contacted library systems, bookstores and schools. I began close to home and will continue to radiate my contacts outward. I organized signings and will continue to do that. I hope by the fall to be doing middle school events. I sent out a bunch of snail mail postcards to friends, family and colleagues. That took a lot of time and may not yield much, but I found it quite fun to remember and contact people.

 

What's next for you?

 

Great question! Sky Ropes is the third novel I’ve written. My first two, Hey, Eyeball and Ruby, are unpublished. I would love to sell them and have a chance to bring them to readers. Ruby is especially close to my heart. I’m also working on a new book, Barnabas. I wrote it through to the final draft stage (I’m an intense reviser), then put it in a drawer for seven years because I knew it didn’t work. I think that I’ve had enough practice since then that this challenging, strange and funny story finally knows what it is and I can kind of wrangle it. This is the most joyful writing experience I’ve had so far. I want to keep writing. I hope to do school visits because they seem like so much fun. And I wouldn’t mind finding opportunities to teach and discuss craft with other writers, too. 

 

A little bit about the book . . .

 

Breanna Woodruff is fearless–everybody knows that. Except, she’s about to go to 6th grade team-building camp, where the big event is the highest high ropes course east of the Mississippi. She is terrified–terrified–of heights; she has her reasons. Somehow, she has got to get through camp without anyone, especially her softball nemesis Cami, finding out her secret.

 

Publisher: Chronicle Books

 

A little bit about the author . . . 

 

I have always wanted to be a writer but have done lots of other things instead, including practicing law, teaching (at a high school and a prison) and raising three kids. Through it all, I was writing, but without direction or training. It took finding the right teacher and community of writers to make the changes and progress I needed to finally break in. I’m originally from Utah and have lived in Ann Arbor, MI for 37 years.
 

Website 

Instagram: @ssoderbee

Facebook: Sondra Sumsion Soderborg