Always Mom, Forever Dad by Joanna Rowland

It can be hard to keeping writing about grief while going through it yourself. I think 'The Memory Box, A Book About Grief' embodies my messy muse the most because of my journey in writing and life during that time. Is there one story that you would say embodies your Messy Muse the most? In 2016 it finds the perfect home with Beaming Books.īeaming Books is publishing my next book 'Stay Through The Storm' to be released on May 7, 2019. I still do not have an agent and I am still writing, so we shall see what happens next. I left my agent in 2015 and kept writing my grief story, 'The Memory Box.' 'The Memory Box' keeps getting rejected. I received rejections until 2013 when I got my agent and the offer on my first book, 'Always Mom, Forever Dad.' In 2014 my first book was released. It’s the type of letter, as a writer, you always dream of getting.Ĭan you tell us a little bit about YOUR journey to publication?

In 2016, I got the most beautiful letter from my now editor offering publication. Eventually, even though I couldn’t get an agent with this book, it found the perfect home. Now I could honor all the people that had passed away and not have to choose who it would be for. And it wasn’t until one SCBWI conference that an editor looked at me and said it would be stronger if we don’t know who died. It took me two years to get the right words. I left my agent during this time as well. I really couldn’t write much of anything else until I figured it out. During my writing about grief, a girl I coached (who swam with my daughters) passed away from cancer. So, in 2014, I started to write about grief. I knew in that moment, that the little girl needed another type of book. So, I kind of stumbled into writing picture books.Ī month before my positive divorce book was to be published, the dad of the little girl for whom it was written tragically passed away. I told her that I would write her one, not knowing that it would actually work out.

I was at a Christmas gathering where a relative said she wished there were more positive books on divorce- her granddaughter’s parents were getting a divorce. When I needed a break, for fun I would write picture books because they were shorter and I wanted to keep writing every day. When I first started writing, I wrote really bad young adult drafts. Tell us about your Messy Muse- what inspired you to write?

Always Mom, Forever Dad by Joanna Rowland