Amy Harding sat down with us in June to talk about her amazing success story and we’re excited that we finally have a chance to share that good news with everyone in the Writing Barn community!
Thanks so much to Amy for taking the time to answer our questions!
Please share your exciting news with us!
I am indeed very excited to have signed with agent Kelly Dyksterhouse of Raven Quill Literary. Kelly is such a great fit for me and my work. I’m so excited to partner with her.
How long have you been writing and pursuing a publishing deal?
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing something, let alone reading everything. I’ve always loved both. I got a B.A. in English, with the goal of writing and teaching writing. I did this all while writing editorials for the university newspaper, poetry for the literary magazine, and cataloging books in the university library. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago, after years of teaching and child-raising, that the idea struck me to combine my love of poetry and picture books into writing my own picture books.
After dabbling for a few years, joining SCBWI, and going to a couple of conferences, I realized that I needed to dive a little deeper and learn a LOT more. So, I enrolled in a “Writing for Children” professional certification program at the University of Washington. I was making good progress in craft and story-building. But, life brought some unexpected challenges, blessings, and surprises (including baby #7) that side-lined my writing goals for a couple of years. In 2019 I was ready to get serious again and began submitting to agents through my 12×12 Gold membership. But for me, querying felt like I was throwing darts at a dartboard with a blindfold on. And I only had two darts (aka polished stories).
With my husband’s insistence, I signed up for a Highlights retreat that summer. There, I was lucky enough to work with Bethany critiquing my writing. She encouraged me to look into a mentorship with her and I immediately knew it was just what I needed.
What fears and hopes did you have before working with Bethany and The Writing Barn?
I felt like I had invested a significant enough time, energy, and funding towards my goal of creating publishable picture books. I needed to make some kind of “progress” in order to justify continued investing. I had several polished manuscripts and a couple of manuscripts that I felt like I had taken as far as I could with the critiques I had received, but I knew I really needed 4-5 really strong manuscripts and some more over-all professional direction to help me move forward.
I didn’t know if what I had already done was enough to enable a mentorship with Bethany to be that missing bridge I was looking for to help me get to that next level of progress, but it felt right and that gave me the hope and courage to invest some more and move forward.
What sets Bethany apart as a mentor? Would you encourage others to take on that deep mentorship if offered?
Not only does Bethany have vast experience teaching and working with
groups of authors as well as industry professionals–she also has the intuitive capacity to help mentees make connections within their work that connects their work with their individual experiences and with their personal purposes for writing. That purpose drives creativity, as well as the courage to engage in that creative work.
Bethany goes beyond offering professional critiques to really mentoring the personal writing journey. I gained as much from her feedback on my process letters and her thoughtful and kind responses to my own thoughts and feelings, as I did from her critiques and suggestions for my writing. Her investment in my writing and my personal development as a creative has been an imperative part of my journey.
How did the Writing Barn programming aid you in both the craft and business of picture book writing?
Bethany had the experience, yet the gracious tact to assess where I was in my writing journey, to applaud my progress so far, and steer me to where I needed to go from there. She pointed me towards topics to study, mentor books to analyze, and probing questions to help me really dig deep into the “whys” of my writing. With in-depth critiques and deadlines for writing and research, she helped me get my strongest manuscripts stronger and take some new manuscripts from raw to submission-ready.
When I was finally ready to be referred to agents, I had the benefit of Bethany’s networking knowledge of the industry for suggestions of which
agencies and agents could be a good fit for me, as well as the weight of her referral to introduce me to the list of agents we had developed together. The Writing Barn “Ask an Agent” webinars happen to coincide with developing my agent query list.
When I participated in the Raven Quill Agent webinar, I was so impressed with the honesty and openness of all the agents and was drawn to Kelly Dyksterhouse in particular. Since they are a newer agency, I never would have gotten to know Raven Quill or Kelly, or know that she would be the perfect fit for me, if it had not been for the Agent webinars.
How did the atmosphere of the Writing Barn aid you in achieving this goal?
As a creative, it’s so imperative that you have support and encouragement to foster your creative work and move beyond the discouragements. The mission of the Writing Barn, and of Bethany as a mentor, is to offer that support, encouragement, and sense of community to help authors move forward with courage on our creative journey.
A mentorship with Bethany proved to be exactly the bridge I needed to offer that support and help me move forward.
What is a takeaway you will carry with you as you continue to build and develop your career?
You have to put it in the work. No one can put in the work for you in this journey. The creative work has to come from the creator. But in order to do that work, you need support.
It is very difficult to keep driving forward in that creative work without having other creatives, who understand the journey, journeying beside you and leading out a head of you, offering support, sharing experiences, and sometimes forcing you to dig a little deeper and work a little harder.
Any advice you have for fellow creatives having trouble staying the course in pursuing their goals?
I have had so many moments of wondering, “Why am I doing this?” or of
thinking “I’m never going to get anywhere with this!” But if you keep doing the work, find the support you need, and stay flexible and humble enough to keep learning, you will get somewhere and the getting there can be so much fun.
About Amy Hansen Harding:
Amy Hansen Harding grew up in the middle of a great big family with a book in her hand and a love for the power of sharing stories. With a B.A. in English and a professional certification in Writing for Children, she now creates stories celebrating value and empowerment of the individual.
As a military spouse and mother of seven, Amy has made her home in every corner (and even island) of the U.S. and fallen in love with all kinds of people, all kinds of places, and all kinds of stories. She currently calls Coastal North Carolina her home, where she loves kayaking and evenings full of lightning bugs.