I have actually been in touch with Suzanne Williams, a prolific children’s writer with hits such as Library Lil, Ten Naughty Monkeys, the Fairy Blossoms series for several years now. So it was great to get to a short interview her and her co-writer, Joan Holub (Might Dads/Moms, Little Red Writing) to discuss their careers, Greek mythology and upcoming news.

1. How did each of you begin your writing careers?

Joan: My first jobs out of college were as a graphic designer in advertising. I wanted to be a children’s book illustrator, though, so I haunted bookstores and studied children’s books to figure out good story structure. (The Writers’ Journey and Save the Cat! became my go-to structure guides.) I joined SCBWI (which is how I met the awesome Suzanne!), and that organization was a big help. Eventually I moved to NYC and worked at Scholastic as an associate art director in children’s books, which was a fantastic learning experience.

Suzanne: My first career after getting my MLS (Master’s of Library Science) was as an elementary school librarian. I loved helping kids find just the right books to fit their interests. The wide knowledge I gained of children’s books while working as a librarian definitely helped me when I decided I wanted to try writing children’s books myself. A class from the (now online) Institute of Children’s Literature taught me the nuts and bolts of writing and publishing for children, and then I wrote and wrote and sent out dozens of stories until I eventually began to experience some success. I think I my second book had just been published when I met the terrific Joan. She was living in Seattle then. We hit it off right away, and started getting together for dinner several times a year. It wasn’t until many years later, however, that she proposed we try writing a series together. By then we both had several series of our own under our belts. It’s been a fantastic partnership. We’re just now beginning our sixth co-written series and have been writing together for over a dozen years. Our publisher, Simon & Schuster, has recently begun to publish graphic novels based on both Goddess Girls and Heroes in Training. We never could’ve anticipated that happening when we started writing the first four (of nearly thirty now) Goddess Girls books all those years ago. 

2. What drew you to children’s fiction in particular?

Joan: The art in children’s books drew me, initially. I wound up writing stories as vehicles for my art and published numerous early readers. A turning point came when I wrote a rhyming early reader called Pajama Party for Penguin/Grosset. The art director asked if she could select someone else to illustrate it. This was a bit painful, but Julie Durrell’s illustrations were perfect and that book has sold well. (Lesson learned: Art directors know what they’re doing!) I slowly segued into full-time writing and that became my first love.

Suzanne: I was drawn to write children’s books because of my familiarity with them as an elementary school librarian. And because of my own happy childhood memories of reading. I was the kind of kid who always had her head in a book. (Just like the librarian character in my picture book Library Lil.) I’d devoured series fiction (Pippi Longstocking, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, The Bobbsey Twins, Mary Poppins, etc.), so it was probably no accident that I found my way to series writing after a time. 

3. What is your favorite part of playing around with these famous as characters of mythology and fairytale?

Joan: I enjoy building on existing story frameworks in myths and fairytales, and tweaking their storylines and characters into new relatable series with humor for young readers, like Heroes in Training (chapter books) and Goddess Girls (middle grade). 

Suzanne: Ditto what Joan said. It’s a fun challenge to add new twists to these timeless tales. And as a former librarian (and a parent and grandparent) I take pleasure in knowing that Joan’s and my labors may hook a child on books and help lead to a lifetime of reading.

4. Favorite book or plot that you explored through the characters?

Joan: Medusa the Mean, Goddess Girls #8 is a fave. Medusa is a pretty terrible character in Greek mythology. (Snake hair? A glare that can turn you to stone? Yikes!) It was fascinating to try to create a book that stayed true to who she is in myth, and yet manage to get readers to understand why she wasn’t always the nicest person–and even get them to wind up rooting for her in the end. In myth, her two sisters are immortal, but Medusa is mortal. Wow! There’s a problem for a kid, right? Your siblings have magic powers and you don’t? How can you not sympathize with her? This is also one of my favorite cover illustrations in the series.

Suzanne: In all honesty, my favorite is always whichever book we’re working on at the time. Because I get really caught up in the whole process of creating a story and seeing it take shape. That said, I love Medusa the Mean too, for the same reasons Joan mentioned. And also Pheme the Gossip, who, like Medusa, had to have her persona rehabilitated (so to speak) from earlier books. Just as we did with Medusa, we gave Pheme a bit of a backstory to elicit some sympathy for her. There is little mythology around her, however, so we were freer to create it. We said she was born into a family of thirteen kids and, until Zeus gave her a chance to come to MOA (in great part because he valued her ability to uncover important information), she’d never felt like she stood out or was appreciated. We figured most readers have felt that way from time to time (whether or not they have siblings), so the backstory would better allow them to identify with Pheme. 

5. Why do you think fairy tales and mythology are continually used
and adapted? What draws you to them?

Joan: At their heart, myths and fairytales deal with human relationships, which are always interesting to me. The gods, goddesses, and mortals as well as fairytale characters have personalities that are larger than life, and I love that. Their stories are filled with excitement–wars, journeys to fascinating places, monsters, trickery, romance, over-the-top behavior! What’s not to like?!
Suzanne: Ditto what Joan said again. I suspect that writers and readers are both drawn to fairy tales and mythology for the reasons she gave. As humans, we love to exercise our imaginations about other places and times and think what it might be like to live in someone else’s shoes, even the winged sandals of a goddessgirl!  

6. Upcoming news like the Super Special, any other series etc.?

Suzanne: We’ve sold a sixth series, another series with a Greek mythology hook, to our Aladdin publisher’s Quix line (ages 5 – 8) that will debut in Spring of 2024. In the meantime, there are additional Goddess Girls and Little Goddess Girls books in the pipeline as well as the graphic novel adaptations. 

You can see more of their catalogue by looking at their respective websites and assorted social media under their names/series names.