Marie Lamba
This week: Marie Lamba!
This week we are taking a bit of a break from adult fiction and focusing on Young Adult (YA) and picture books! Marie Lamba answers this week's questions - so take a look at what this author and literary agent has to say!
Name: Marie Lamba
Website: www.marielamba.com and www.jdlit.com
Genre: YA and picture book
Everywhere! I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s true. Some ideas come to me in the early morning hours (I definitely keep a notepad on my night table), others on long walks, and some of the best ideas are ones that just stick around for a long, long time. Things that I enjoy most or worry about most or am intrigued about. Like layers of history being somehow uncovered. Old houses. Stories hidden in artwork. A grumpy kid and what makes her smile. All of these have become book manuscripts.
Which character in literature do you associate yourself with the most?
Piglet! Small and cheerful and just a bit worried. ☺
Which piece of your writing was the most entertaining/enjoyable to write? Why?
DRAWN – my time travel novel. It combines so many things that I love… Intrigue, castles, mystery, fine art, true love, and bravery. Also, I’m always attached to the last novel I’ve written, so that might be a factor! But I do think that my writing gets stronger with each manuscript, and that makes the process more fun.
Was the first novel you published the first you ever wrote? What was?
No. My debut is WHAT I MEANT… (YA, Random House). But my first novel written was Time Passages. Spent 10 years on it, and it was never published.
When I’m not writing I’m usually…
Agenting! That takes up like 90% of my time. But outside of that, taking long walks with my dog, or hanging out with family, daydreaming, gardening or cooking up a storm.
If you could tell or ask any character in literature or film anything, what would it be?
Yikes! I’m drawing a blank… I can’t think of anything particularly clever…rats!
If you had lived a different life, made different choices, what would you be doing now?
I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m fortunate in that I’m doing what I love the most. Oh, but I would add a house cleaner into the mix.
What are five things you couldn’t do without?
1. Connectivity: laptop, phone, internet
2. My family and friends (oops! Should have said that first, right?)
3. Homemade soup in the winter, iced tea with fresh mint in the summer
4. Long quiet walks through beautiful scenery
5. Laughter and ridiculous humor
I love to work on complex puzzles and spend HOURS obsessed with these.
Are you working on any current projects?
My editor and I are putting the finishing touches on my next picture book: A DAY SO GRAY, which comes out through Clarion in Fall 2019. I hope to see Alea Marley’s amazing artwork for this very soon. Can’t wait! Other than that, I have a number of picture book texts in various stages of readiness.
What work of fiction made you want to be a writer?
HALF MAGIC, by Edward Eager. I picked it up from my Sicomac Elementary School Library and fell in love with the magic that writers can weave.
What tools do you use for writing, organization, marketing?
Journal and Cross pen. Laptop. I use folders for different projects (I’m all about hard copies), and I treated myself to a proper filing cabinet this year.
Why do you write?
Honestly, it is who I am. I come from a boisterous family of funny storytellers, and this is my way of getting my own stories heard.
What's the most intimate or profound experience from your own life that you've ever worked into your fiction?
Readers of my novels WHAT I MEANT… and OVER MY HEAD will recognize some deeply personal experiences that come through in the plotting of both books, involving being part of a biracial family, and how different cultures tug and hug throughout life.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Definitely do more writing, than TALKING about writing. Get things on paper, write that crappy first draft till you hit THE END, and only then look at editing it and sharing it with others. Enjoy the creating – you’ll have plenty of time to revise afterwards.
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Author Bio: Marie Lamba (marielamba.com) is author of the picture book Green Green (Farrar Straus Giroux, ’17), of the upcoming picture book A Day So Gray (Clarion), and of the young adult novels What I Meant… (Random House), Over My Head, and Drawn. Her articles are in more than 100 publications, and she’s a frequent contributor to Writer’s Digest. She has worked as an editor, an award-winning public relations writer, and a book publicist, has taught classes on novel writing and on author promotion, and belongs to The Liars Club. Marie is also a Literary Agent at the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency in NYC (jdlit.com), where she represents picture book writers and illustrators, middle grade, YA and adult fiction, plus memoir. You can follow her on Twitter @marielamba, and like her Facebook page: Marie Lamba, Author.
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