The bees were sort of a metaphor for that, and I was intrigued by the image! So intrigued that I wanted to investigate the girl, the bees (they get to tell their side of the story!), and the way that bees on one’s head can be a metaphor for anxiety, for feeling out of control, and/or for navigating growing up.ĬGE: I see on your website that you already have events lined up to promote Zinnia and The Bees. He was, in a way, describing me at the time since I was going through a painful season and anxiety in my own life. My husband, who’s an artist, told me about an image that had come to his mind of a girl with bees around her head. And I just love the book trailer!ĭD: I can’t take credit for the original idea. I do write picture book manuscripts and hope-hope-hope to have the opportunity to publish one of them someday.ĬGE: Tell us about how Zinnia and The Bees came to be. The Red Tree by Shaun Tan is one of my favorite books of all time and other picture books have been touchstones for me as a writer and a human. And picture books are the perfect inspiration! I wanted to blog, and sometimes craft, about picture books because I’m such a big fan of the form. I think being a word person, it’s helpful for me to create with my hands once in a while. I found my writing home-writing for young readers-through writing this book.ĬGE: What made you want to blog about picture books? Am I assuming correctly that you are crafty yourself to come up with those wonderful artistic ideas as follow-up activities for picture books in the section of your blog, PICTURE BOOK CRAFTS? And do you write picture books?ĭD: I love crafting, but not because I’m particularly good at it.
Eventually, I rewrote it, converting it into a story for a middle grade audience and, click, it finally worked (and then I went on to revise it many more times after that, of course!). But this manuscript actually started as a story for adults as that’s who I was writing and publishing short stories for at the time I began it. Can you tell us about your journey into the world of publishing for children?ĭANIELLE DAVIS: Books were a life raft for me as a kid and I’ve loved children’s literature for a long time. Her debut middle grade book, ZINNIA AND THE BEES, (which entered the world on August 1st) sports a fabulous cover, top-notch writing, and a fabulous first line that every reader will love: “Ronny the Rattlesnake is naked.”ĭanielle, congratulations on your awesome first book.
Her literary love is evident and I’ve been impressed with the crafts she comes up with to complement the books she reviews. CAROL GORDON EKSTER: I found Danielle through her wonderful blog about picture books, “This Picture Book Life.”
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