Fall 2002 Flying Starts: Heather McCutchen

Don't be surprised to find Heather McCutchen signing her debut novel, LightLand (Scholastic/Orchard), while comfortably attired in her protagonist Lottie's favorite fashion statement: pajamas. Entire schools have held pajama days in honor of her visits. "I love meeting with kids; they're so enthusiastic," McCutchen says. "They really are more fun than adult audiences. I quoted one in the back of my book--one of the first readers out of Norwich, Vt., who said she loved this book 'because it could really happen.' " The child's belief that a magic portal through an expanding "StoryBox" could open to Lightland, a world where an evil NightKing roams and steals memories, thrills the author.

Fall 2002 Flying Starts: Tim Johnston

As an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, aspiring author Tim Johnston happily availed himself of offerings from the school's prestigious Writers' Workshop. When it came time to pursue a graduate degree, however, "I didn't think of applying there," Johnston says.

Fall 2002 Flying Starts: Shirin Yim Bridges

Shirin Yim Bridges listened with special interest when her grandmother started to tell her how she dreamed of going to university in an era when most Chinese girls looked forward only to marriage. Bridges was already writing children's books, and she felt her grandmother's tale was full of possibilities. The story of the girl who loved to learn became Ruby's Wish (Chronicle, Sept.).

Fall 2002 Flying Starts: Ross MacDonald

MacDonald needed Jack's superhuman stamina in his early years, when he began his illustration career in his native Canada. He had moderate success in selling his linocuts and woodcuts to magazines, but he also painted houses to make ends meet. In 1985, he became a full-time illustrator; two years later he moved from Toronto to New York City. Today, he works out of his own printing studio, Brightworks Press, behind his home in Newtown, Conn.

Fall 2002 Flying Starts

Six first-time authors and illustrators discuss their fall debuts

Spring 2002 Flying Starts: Kevin Brooks

If you cross two of Kevin Brooks's favorite authors—J.D. Salinger and Raymond Chandler—you might approximate the hardboiled humor of the British author's first novel, Martyn Pig (Scholastic/Chicken House). The eponymous narrator, a hapless and motherless teenager, spends his Christmas vacation coping with the corpse of his alcoholic and abusive father, in a plot that gets thicker (and funnier) with every twist. British and American reviewers have praised the book for its edgy wit and intelligence.

Spring 2002 Flying Starts: Rachel Cohn

Rachel Cohn remembers how the rich and rebellious narrator of her novel Gingerbread (Simon & Schuster), was born. A friend named Rob Coffman sent her a card he'd drawn: "[It] had a picture of this weird-looking girl on it with a doll trailing from her, and she had these combat boots on," Cohn says. She kept seeing the image during her morning walk through the hills of San Francisco's affluent Pacific Heights neighborhood, and the misfit girl—named Cyd Charisse after the famous actress and dancer—living among the huge houses came alive to her.

Spring 2002 Flying Starts: Janet Lawson

"Persistence pays off." The adage trips readily off the tongue of author/illustrator Janet Lawson, who shares a spunk and steadfastness with her debut book's character, Audrey. While her young heroine's tenacity pays off in an entertaining adventure to India with her cynical cat, Lawson's has resulted in the publication of her humorous picture book, Audrey and Barbara (Atheneum).

Spring 2002 Flying Starts: Heather Henson

By her own admission, Heather Henson backed into the world of children's books. She never meant to start a career editing them, and she certainly never meant to write one. But somehow, at the age of 35, she has ended up doing both.

Spring 2002 Flying Starts

Four first-time children's book authors and illustrators talk about their road to publication

Fall 2001 Flying Starts: Alex Sanchez

Though Alex Sanchez wrote a picture book while in college, he says he didn't have an audience in mind when he started writing Rainbow Boys (S&S), his novel about three gay teens who deal with everything from coming out to parents to an AIDS scare and even hate crimes.

Fall 2001 Flying Starts: Heather Solomon

Webster defines the word clever as "marked by wit and ingenuity," a description many would agree befits debut artist Heather Solomon's artwork in the picture book Clever Beatrice by Margaret Willey (Atheneum). "I use a bit of everything," Solomon says of the technique she used to create the uniquely vibrant and intricate scenes for Willey's spunky tall tale. "I'm primarily a watercolorist, because I initially learned to paint in watercolor," she explains. "But I use other media [collage, acrylics, oils] to make up for what watercolor lacks: bright colors and texture."

Fall 2001 Flying Starts: Cathryn Clinton

"God and faith tend to be taboo subjects for YA fiction," says Cathryn Clinton, whose debut novel, The Calling (Candlewick), introduces a heroine who is not only a firm believer in God but has a calling: Esta Lea, a 12-year-old Southerner, comes from a long line of preachers and discovers that she herself can use faith to heal others. The novel has been praised for its rich, Southern-style storytelling, its supportive but non-preachy approach to religion and its humor. Fans impressed by Clinton's imagination might be startled to hear her say that most of the episodes in the novel, from the miraculous restoration of a blind girl's vision to an offbeat funeral scene, are true or composites of real events.

Fall 2001 Flying Starts: Annie Callan

How exactly does a girl from Dublin end up writing a western?

Fall 2001 Flying Starts: Harry Bliss

Harry Bliss, illustrator of Sharon Creech's A Fine, Fine School (HarperCollins/Cotler) has a knack for pictorial storytelling that can be traced to a love of comics and a family fond of visual art. "I knew who Ben Shahn was by fifth grade," he says, not kidding. "We had to be able to tell the difference between a Picasso and a Braque. I might still have some trouble with that."

Fall 2001 Flying Starts: Ann Brashares

For anyone who hasn't been perusing bestseller lists this fall, or hasn't visited a bookstore and seen an eye-catching pair of faded blue jeans on a book jacket, hearing someone mention "that pants book" might engender only confusion. But the many thousands of teenagers who have discovered the book and are passing it around to their friends would know instantly what you were referring to: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, written by Ann Brashares (Delacorte).

Spring 2001 Flying Starts: Susanna Vance

Spring 2001 Flying Starts: Alex Flinn

Spring 2001 Flying Starts: Nora Raleigh Baskin

Spring 2001 Flying Starts: Laura Ljungkvist