I know. We haven’t done Oh Susanna in ages! But awesome things keep coming up that I just have to slide in somewhere, one of which is today’s post about a great new picture book. So… next week?
Today I am delighted to introduce you to Tiffany, but real quick before I do, let me just announce that the winner of Steven Petruccio’s gorgeous picture book Puffer’s Surprise from last week’s author/illustrator interview is Delores (thefeatherednest)!!! Congratulations, Delores! I hope you’ll enjoy this beautiful book!
Now then! Everyone, please meet Tiffany! I have to tell you, I found this interview so entertaining that I’m afraid you guys will never want to come back and read my boring old posts after it, so you have to promise not to throw me over 🙂
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| Tiffany Strelitz Haber & Co. 🙂 |
SLH: When did you start writing for children?
TSH: When I was in third grade, I wrote my first “rhyming picture book”. I continued writing for many years. In fact, all throughout highschool, and a bit in college as well. So obviously, when I was figuring out what I wanted to do for a living, I headed straight for the financial world! I was never really one for connect the dots. 🙂 Anyway. Yadda, yadda, yadda, cut to 24 years later (give or take)…chronically unhappy in the career I had been diligently building for over a decade, and feeling like it was ‘now or never’ to make a change, I realized I was barking up the wrong tree entirely. I wanted to really love what I did for a living. So I went back to what I had loved for so many years before, and started writing for kids.
SLH: Do you have an agent, or did you submit on your own?
TSH: Agent. I learned very quickly (by attending a couple of NJSCBWI conferences), that having agent representation opens doors otherwise closed to most authors. It also allows you the freedom to really focus on writing (and later promoting) as opposed to spending countless hours researching publishing houses and editors, constructing query letters, physically printing, stuffing, stamping and mailing submissions out, following up and…well…you get the point.
SLH: Was The Monster Who Lost His Mean your first submitted PB or did you have others before that haven’t sold yet?
TSH: I actually got extremely lucky. My agent subbed two PBs of mine simultaneously to a variety of houses. Several months later…within the same week, we had offers on both. It was very exciting! (SLH: OMG! I think I speak for most of our readers when I say I could sure use a week like that! 🙂
SLH: Tell us about the moment when you got THE CALL!!! How did you feel? What did you do? Did you celebrate? Call all your friends and relations? 🙂
TSH: Ok, so I was on a ski trip with a bunch of friends. We were sharing a house and had been out super late the night before, so everyone was passed out on various couches and beds. Anyway…for some reason, I found myself wide awake at 5 in the morning so I checked email on my phone. And there it was. We had an offer on MONSTER and as I leaped off the couch and looked around for someone to share the news with (read: tackle with uncontrollable zeal), I realized I was surrounded by zombies. There wasn’t a single soul within a half mile radius that wasn’t dead to the world and stickin’ to it. So I kind of just muttered to myself in the corner for a while with a pre-dawn bloody mary. Party of one, please!
SLH: Do you have anything else under contract?
TSH: I have another rhyming picture book due out in April 2013. It’s called, Ollie and Claire (Philomel/Penguin) and was illustrated by the amazing Matthew Cordell.
I also have a couple of stories in that critical, “at an editorial meeting” type phase where it could still go either way…but you know you’re close and you’re just kinda….waiting. (read: pacing, email-refreshing, obsessing)
SLH: And please share where we can find you…
TSH:
Twitter: @tiffrhymes
Just for fun quick questions:
Left or right handed? right
Traditionally or self-published? traditionally
Hard copy or digital? hard
Apps or not? not that I know of?
Plotter or pantser? plantser?
Laptop or desktop? lap
Mac or PC? Mac
Day or night worker? DAY
Coffee or tea? Coffee (and then suddenly tea for like…a day)
Snack or not? I want to meet the person who says “not”. And then never talk to them again.
Salty or sweet? Salty. Althought salty and sweet in the same bite is actual heaven on earth. #ChocolateCoveredPretzels
Quiet or music? Quiet
Cat or dog? both
Currently reading? Helter Skelter
And now, my lovelies, Tiffany has generously offered a signed copy of her brand new, hot-off-the-presses, WONDERFUL book. All you have to do is what the Rafflecoptor widget tells you to. And may I just say that I hope the Rafflecoptor widget is going to show up somewhere – it probably will not show up where I intend it to, so look around, be ingenious and persistent, and hopefully you’ll find it wherever it chooses to appear 🙂
a Rafflecopter giveawaySo yeah – fill that in. You get extra points for “liking” and “following” and things of that nature. And just in case the widget doesn’t work, and I am off in the boonies of PA/VA/NC unable to fix it, please also take part in our fun contest in the comments – it’s supposed to show up as mandatory in the Rafflecoptor thingy, but like I said, my faith has limits…. 🙂 so I’m putting it here too:
Everybody knows the ‘M’ in MONSTER stands for Mean. When one young MONSTER loses his…and becomes THE ONSTER, everything goes awry. What does the first letter in *your* name stand for? How would you feel if you lost it? Answer below for a chance to win a signed copy of THE MONSTER WHO LOST HIS MEAN!
Have fun! And if you have any questions or comments for Tiffany, fire away. I’ll try to talk her into checking in from time to time 🙂
Happy Monday, All!
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Susanna Leonard Hill 
Hi! Love you!
Oh my goodness, losing your palindromical status would DEF be traumatizing!
Aw…thanks so much, Vivian! Sounds like you've got it all planned out in terms of letter loss. Excellent work!
Thanks so much!
Glad you enjoyed it, Jennifer 🙂 And it's great book 🙂
Thanks for your enthusiastic response, Angela, I'm so glad you enjoyed it 🙂 And I think you'll love the book!
You have a wonderful imagination and we would ALL suffer if you lost it, Iza! Glad you enjoyed the interview 🙂
It sounds very exotic! I think I sense a new book character coming on for you 🙂
Very clever and how lucky! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the interview!
Glad you enjoyed the interview, Pat! I can't wait to see Ollie and Claire now that I've read and loved the Onster 🙂
I don't think you could ever be boring, Cally 🙂 And wouldn't it be fun for you to win this? You could start a collection of signed picture books for Action Jackson 🙂
I think the Rafflecoptor thing worked mostly right this time, Corey. If so, it's not that hard… although I obviously did it wrong last time when it showed up in a random place…!
Ooh, that would be hard to loose 🙂
My goodness! No C would be a catastrophe! (Well, I guess technically an atastrophe!) I don't think you could ever be anything but cute and cuddly 🙂
You are all of the above 🙂
Look what you've done – thoroughly confusing poor Tiffany with your real name whilst posting under your pen name 🙂 But we would still love you – no matter what your name is – with or without your A 🙂
I had the same impression, Tiffany! I was marveling at your incredible talent – selling your first two out of the gate!
Tiffany Strelitz Haber wrote, in response to Tina Cho:
OH. MY. GOODNESS. Did I give the sense that I don't have over thirteen-bazillion-forty-six-million rejections??? Cause I do. Totally. Just got another a couple days ago in fact. So make that thirteen-bazillion-forty-six-million….and one. And two sales. (I like to end on a positive note). 😀
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Me too! It's great!
I am in VA right this very second!!!! Are you near Charlottesville? In any case, I am waving and will continue to wave until we roll into NC just in case 🙂
Do you still? Here I've been calling you Jarm all this time – I hope I haven't had it hopelessly wrong!!
So glad you enjoyed it, Laura!
Definitely hang on to that dedication!! And the pajamas – one of the perks of working from home 🙂
Robyn is a beautiful name! But I had to laugh at what Tiffany said – I realize it's very late and I've been staring though a windshield most of the day, but I say OBGYN too 🙂 Maybe Rafflecoptor will pick you because you both star with R 🙂
Very funny 🙂 I think there's a story in there 🙂
Such a great answer! And you certainly wouldn't want to lose that K!
So glad you liked it, Erik! And hang onto that E always 🙂
So glad you're pleased! I left it all packaged up and ready to go to the post office. Now it remains to be seen whether any of the home crew will actually get it there. If not, first thing Saturday morning I promise! 🙂
You will LOVE it, Curmudgeonly (I don't believe that!) Caffeinated Cathy! 🙂
You could never be icky 🙂 And I'd sure love to know that secret too!
Ooh – that would be awful not to read! Don't lose that! 🙂
hmmm the 's' in Saba stands for shy and if I lost my shyness good lord I don't know what kind of trouble I would find myself in 😀
great interview!
mmm… I like to think “D” stands for Daring, Dangerous, Devil… but it don't…lol. I think more of Dreamer or Dreamy….lol. Great interview with Tiffiny!
You can be dreamy AND daring 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the interview!
Glad you liked it, Darshana! Tiffany is tons of fun, isn't she? 🙂
You are funny, Saba! 🙂
Thanks Ms. Hill, I will!
🙂 I like that too!
Thanks for an intriguing interview–look forward to reading Monster Who Lost His Mean. And what a week–two offers!
I'm always fascinated by how many children's writers make writing their life's work late in the game. Tiffany, I'm right there with you (staring at MBA diploma). Meanwhile I was just at my parents' house where we dug out some early poetry and a family newsletter I wrote 20+ years ago with headlines like, “Mother, children go to dentist.”
Super interview ladies, I look forward to all these wonderful books coming out. Congrats Tiffany!
Thanks, Ellen! Yeah…that'a a week I would love to repeat!
Thank you!!
Hat! That is so awesome, Kirsten!
Thanks, Catherine. Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Hi Kirsten! So lovely to hear from you! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed Tiffany's interview – she's tons of fun, isn't she? Hope your summer is going swimmingly 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it! And I've got another fun special giveaway coming this week – a brand new book hot off the presses from Lee and Low!!! Stay tuned 🙂