Day 4: Learning From Mistakes

As writers we often learn things about our industry and craft through trial and error. It can be painful at times, but inevitably we survive these experiences being smarter and stronger. We asked Jennifer Bradbury if there was anything that made her think she might never get published.

I never thought I'd get published when I started trying to write YA back in 2002. I learned about the Delacorte press contest for first Young Adult Novel and decided that I would try and write and submit to this contest—having a deadline has always helped me be more productive. That first year, I actually got a really nice, detailed rejection, and ended up speaking with the editor and resubmitting later. I blew it, but felt the next year, when I submitted a story that I thought was way, way better that things would go differently. And they did. But not well. I got the standard, speedy form rejection.

And I was devastated.

Now when I look back at that manuscript, I realize it isn't even close to as wonderful as I thought it was then. But at the time, I was certain it represented the best I could ever pull off. Was certain it was superior to the one I'd submitted the year before. And I sort of folded up and felt sorry for myself for a while.

Eventually, I started revising, bought a copy of The Children's Writers and Illustrators Market, and started querying agents with that same story. And though no one ever bought it, getting through that disappointment was necessary and made me a better writer.

Incidentally, I submitted an early, very rough version of SHIFT to the contest as well (because by then, I'd sort of established a pattern of writing a novel a year and getting rejected). And whether it just wasn't ready, or the people opening the envelopes were put off by the fact that my well-meaning friend (who I had print and submit it for me because we were still out of the country) printed it double sided, I'll never know. But that rejection came back even more quickly than the two before it!


Double-sided? Eek! We're betting that's it. Tomorrow we're going to get to know Jennifer a little better by flipping through her photo album. We'll find out why she was in jail and where she found state-shaped blocks of cheese.

Day 3: Jennifer's VIP

In getting to know Jennifer we've learned her husband has been a strong influence on her writing, but we wondered if there was a teacher or librarian along the way who set her on her path to publication. Here's her heartfelt answer....


I'm pretty sure the expectation for this question was that I'd talk about a teacher or librarian from my own schooling that influenced me. And I had some great ones—Gail Kirkland at Daviess County High School and Linda Tatum from Tamarack Elementary to name two—but the person who really got me started writing in the way I'm writing now is Cathy Belben.

Cathy is the librarian at the school where I taught for eight years, Burlington-Edison High. She was assigned as my mentor my first year, and I'm so lucky for it. Cathy is an amazing teacher, a passionate librarian, and absolutely one of the funniest people I know. But she is also a gifted writer. She's published hundreds of articles on all sorts of topics. From incorporating crafts in the library for professional magazines to her piece on donating her own remains to the body farm for Bust Magazine. She's published award winning fiction, spent a season living in Hollywood writing for Veronica Mars, and generally inspires everybody who comes into contact with her. She's the one who really got me hooked on great YA, and who invited me to join her writing group even though I didn't really write much at the time. She's just one of those people who make you want to join the party of words and story and craft, and we're so lucky to have her in our community.

She's also a great friend. Here we are on one of our homecoming dress up days at school. I think it was superhero day, and we came dressed as twin triathletes. Goggles, running pants, towel capes. We took our bike helmets off for the photo so we wouldn't, ahem, look dumb.

Here we come to saaave the day!

Cathy truly is a superhero. (But she might need to hire a new costumer.) Tomorrow we learn why some writing contests left Jennifer wondering if she'd ever get published.