SIX MINUTES WITH A.J. PAQUETTE:
Author Ammi-Joan Paquette joins LitPick for Six Minutes with an Author! Ammi-Joan is both a children’s and young adult author, writing picture books and novels. Her writing career goes back to her early childhood when she and her sister would spend hours creating masterpieces! Ammi-Joan is a 2005 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award honoree, and received the 2008 SCBWI’s Susan Landers Glass Scholarship Award for the book that would later become Nowhere Girl. Her first picture book, The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Fairies, was published in 2009.
How did you get started writing?
Like many authors, I’ve been writing for just about as long as I can remember. The impetus for me to begin my journey to publication, however, came from two places. First, my mother passed away. She’d had a long-held dream to be a published author, but for one reason or another, had never gotten around to pursuing it. The second thing was my daughters beginning to grow up and fall in love with books themselves. As these two elements came together, the idea of being an author moved from vague dream to concrete goal. And so I began to write books for children—a journey that’s been richer and more rewarding than I ever could have imagined!
Who influenced you?
In my early reading, I was a huge fan of authors like Tamora Pierce, LM Montgomery, Enid Blyton, Margaret L’Engle, and Agatha Christie. I read voraciously and widely, though, and I know that every book I read was an influence, feeding my inner stores and preparing me to launch out on my own authorly journey someday. Once I began to pursue publication, I also quickly connected with a terrific online network of likeminded writers—in particular, the writing forums on Verla Kay’s website, Absolute Write, and the SCBWI events were crucial in getting me where I am today.
Do you have a favorite book/subject/character/setting?
As you can quickly see from looking at my published books and their extremely varied topics, genres, and age groups, I tend to choose wide-ranging over specializing. If there’s any commonality, though, I’d say it is that I love exploring the fantastic. My books feature, among other things: fairies, mermaids, ghosts, elves, and interplanetary space travel. Of my 7 published books, only two are in no way speculative: One is the picture book PETEY AND PRU AND THE HULLABALOO, which features a pair of mischievous squabbling friends, but the core of this story is my love of exotic and fancy words, around which the story is built. The other is the novel NOWHERE GIRL, about a girl born and raised in a Thai prison, who must find her way out in the world, and this novel drew heavily on the rich Thai setting, which became almost a character in itself. So I guess you’d say that I am drawn to the different, the unusual, to things that challenge and excite my imagination. I write to travel to worlds and places I’ve never been. I write to explore.
What advice do you have for someone who wants to be an author?
Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Never give up. That’s (almost) all there is to it.
Where is your favorite place to write?
I have a variety of local coffee shops I frequent when I’m on a writing deadline. Getting out of my familiar setting helps to get my creative energies flowing. It’s my “on” switch that tells me: Time to produce!
What else would you like to tell us?
I’m currently very excited about my newest project-in-the-works: A shiny new MG series, launching from Philomel in July 2015. PRINCESS JUNIPER OF THE HOURGLASS is the exciting story of a princess who asks her father for a very small country that she can rule all on her own. But as she sets out to her mountain kingdom with her troop of kid subjects in tow, she quickly learns there may be a lot more at stake than just her own piece of the world. I am very excited about this new series and hope that you will pick up a copy! (It’s currently available for pre-order ☺)
Ammi-Joan, thank you for spending six minutes with LitPick! We are looking forward to the publication of your new middle grade series!