We are thrilled for author and Writing Barn success story Anne Wynter who is celebrating the release of two new board books, Hands On! and One Big Day. Anne was also recently featured on NPR’s Picture This for her debut children’s book, Everybody in the Red Brick Building.
Anne was a previous Write. Submit. Support. (WSS) student with Dianne White, and her two recent releases were products of the 6-month course! Our fan-favorite WSS sessions will be returning this March for novelists and picture book/chapter book writers.
Interested in WSS? You can attend a FREE info + inspiration session on February 8th.
- Please tell us a bit about your new books! My new books are called Hands On! and One Big Day. They’re both board books illustrated by Alea Marley. Hands On! is about a baby taking their first steps, and One Big Day is about a baby turning one.
- How long have you been writing/working on this specific project? I wrote both of these in 2018 during Dianne White’s Write. Submit. Support. class at the Writing Barn.
- Where did the seeds of the stories come from? When my first child was an infant, we lived in an apartment with an area that was easy to section off and keep clean for him as he crawled around. But with my second child, we were in a different apartment where we couldn’t section anything off — plus there was a toddler running around — so things were just messier and more chaotic for the second baby. I thought about how he was crawling around and getting an up-close view of the floor. I spent a lot of time thinking about what he saw as he crawled, and the places he was crawling — that was the seed of Hands On!
For One Big Day, it started as a more general book about birthdays, but it wasn’t quite working. In WSS, Dianne gave me the feedback that the book didn’t feel like it was about a one-year-old. I hadn’t actually thought of an age for the child, so when she said that, something clicked and I decided to make it all about turning one. - What is your connection to The Writing Barn and/or Bethany Hegedus’ Courage to Create Community? I met Bethany a long time ago at a SXSW event. In true Bethany fashion, she was extremely friendly, introduced herself and told me about something called The Writing Barn. For years, I was on The Writing Barn’s email list, but I never felt like I could commit to an in-person class because I was in the infant/toddler years with my kids. But when The Writing Barn started offering virtual classes, I signed up for a Picture Book I class, which is where I workshopped Everybody in the Red Brick Building, which became my debut picture book. Since then, I’ve been a Writing Barn Fellow and taken/TA’d more classes than I can count!
- What fears/hopes did you have before participating in WSS or a WB class/intensive? Writing chapter books and novels for kids has been a dream of mine for a long time. But after I had children, I started thinking about writing picture books. I can’t say I was scared of writing picture books, because my expectations for what would come of it were pretty low — I wanted to learn more and have fun. By the time I took my first Writing Barn class, I had a couple of picture book drafts and I mainly wanted to see if I was on the right track.
- Did the WB programming aid you in the craft and the business of writing? If so, how? Absolutely. I’ve taken Writing Barn classes on so many aspects of writing for children — nonfiction, humor, social justice, chapter books, etc. And Write. Submit. Support. gave me so much useful guidance on living a creative life. Not to mention the wonderful advice I got from Bethany Hegedus and Dianne White about submitting my manuscript and then handling offers of representation from agents. The Writing Barn has been such an important part of my writing journey.
- What is a takeaway you will carry with you far beyond this good news as you continue to build and develop your career? To pace yourself. The board books came out a few days into the new year, and I’d been sick over the holidays, so I was worried that I didn’t do enough leading up to the book’s release. But now I’m doing some things in the weeks after, and I feel like it’s still good, it’s still beneficial, and — most of all — it’s still fun for me.
- Any advice you have for writers/creatives having trouble staying the course while pursuing their goals? Try going through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It helped me prioritize my writing at a time when I really needed to. And sign up for a class! I do really well when I have structure, deadlines and expectations.
- Who in the kidlit world are you currently reading, excited about forthcoming books? I’m loving When I Wake Up, a picture book by Seth Fishman and illustrated by Jessixa Bagley (another WB teacher of mine!). It follows four possible paths a child could take after waking up. My kids like to wake up and act out all the options. It’s such a fun book and so beautifully done.
- Where can readers order your books? Anywhere books are sold! I always recommend ordering from my local indie bookstores, Black Pearl Books and BookPeople!
About Author Anne Wynter
Anne Wynter is originally from Houston, Texas, and currently lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, their two children, and a cat. In addition to writing children’s books, she’s written more than a dozen short plays that have been produced around the country. Anne earned a degree in drama from Washington University in St. Louis, received a certificate in short story writing from the University of Chicago, and studied writing for children at the Writing Barn. To learn more about Anne or to say hello, visit www.annewynter.com.