Author Q & A: Naomi Danis

(Photo Credit. Joan Roth)

NAOMI DANIS is the author of recent picture books My Best Friend, Sometimes; While Grandpa Naps; and I Hate Everyone. She lives in Forest Hills NY.

Snip20200626_2

  
 What is the book you most clearly remember from when you were a child? 
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton. It was long, and I remember feeling consoled that it would go on for a while, that these moments of family togetherness with the book would last. My dad would read to me and my sisters after dinner. We would lie in a row on a rug on the floor with our heads on a bolster taken down from a couch. I still hear the up and down intonation of my dad’s voice when I read aloud to myself my own stories-in-progress.
 
Did you ever write a fan letter to an author? If so, who to, and did they write back?
As an adult I wrote a fan letter to author Susie Morgenstern after reading her middle-grade novel Secret Letters from 0 to 10. I read it in French. Its themes of silence, abandonment, loss, reconnection and love touched me deeply at a difficult time in my family’s life. I looked for the author online emailed  her, told her a little about myself, and asked her  questions. Nine hours later I got an email back from her. We still exchange emails 20 years later. Writing a fan letter can be a lovely and surprising way to make a new friend.
 
How did you learn to write? What is one writing book or website you’d recommend to anyone else wanting to learn?
Reading and writing. And more reading and writing.
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White made a strong impression on me. Also I’ve worked at Lilith magazine for the last thirty years and I have all along loved seeing how editing makes writing more clear and precise.
 
What is your favourite hobby or activity that has nothing to do with writing or reading?
Gardening. Cooking and baking for friends and family in the days when they could come over for a meal, and looking forward to doing that again one day.
 
Who are your favourite authors now?
This month? Amor Towles, because his A Gentleman in Moscow spoke to me during this pandemic about privilege, confinement, escape and compromise. I was so inspired I’m even considering  reading War and Peace now, though I am a very slow reader.
       But mostly I read middle grade and YA novels. Recent favorites include Merci Suarez Changes Gear by Meg Medina, Anne Blankman’s The Blackbird Girls, a middle grade memoir Free Lunch by Rex Ogle and the YA novel Color Me In by Natasha Diaz. A favorite picture book my grandsons ask me to read to them every time they visit is Rukhsana Khan’s Big Red Lollipop illustrated by Sophie Blackall.
 
BestfriendDo you have a new book coming out soon?
My Best Friend, Sometimes illustrated by Cinta Arribas came out in May from Pow Kids Books. It’s Cinta and my second book together, following I Hate Everyone. Forthcoming from Child’s Play International is a very young picture about watching cars go by.
 
What are you writing these days?
More picture books, I often have as many as a dozen I am tinkering with at the same time.
 
Do you write regularly, or just when you feel like it?
I try to write regularly, but often fail.
 
How do you like editing and revising?
 I love editing and revising.  Most of my writing is re-writing.
 
Can you share one strange, weird or wonderful thing about you?
I  keep two compost heaps, one on each side of my front stoop, somewhat camouflaged in leaves, torn strips of newspaper and  pulled weeds. And I can sing a Chinese national anthem, ironically learned long ago from a college roommate from Hong Kong, and the Belgian national anthem, learned long ago from my mother.

Thank You, Naomi!

Learn More about Naomi.

Next up: Cathey Nickell