SPEAKER_01 0:00

So I've been writing like with the intention of trying to publish for about 15 years now. And my debut came out last year. So I am definitely in that club of people who wrote a bunch of different books before they found success in terms of publishing. And I am also one of those authors that racked up hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of rejections along the way.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Welcome to the Write It Scared podcast. I'm your host, Stacy Fraser, a formally repressed creative soul, turned fiction writer, story editor, and author accelerator certified fiction book coach. At Write It Scared, we tell the truth about why writing a novel is so hard by acknowledging that most writers grapple with two stories. The one they want to put on the page to the best of their ability, and the often subconscious internal story that prevents them from doing it. This show is designed to help you identify and rewrite the internal narrative holding you back while you discover and write the story you want to tell and learn all the tools to help you do that successfully. Join me each week for a new episode where we'll talk about writing to deepen our understanding of the craft and of ourselves as writers. Writing a novel is an inside job that we do not do alone. Welcome to Write It Scared. I'm glad you're here. Let's dive in. Hi, writer. Welcome back to the Write It Scared podcast, where we talk about the brave and messy act and sometimes very long and laborious act of writing our novels, so that we can do it with more clarity, more confidence, a little less self-doubt, and not feel so alone. Today I have an amazing guest interview for you. I'm in conversation with Allie Trace, who is here to talk to us about writing middle grade fiction. She has two novels out in the world now. The first is Free Period, and the other is Vote for Goat. And I just really enjoyed this conversation. We talked about how difficult it can be to deal with our frustrations of not getting there quickly enough, but at the same time, we have to learn how to find a way to stay in the joy of the process of creation. Allie was such a candid guest, a delight to speak with. So let me give you her bio and then we'll jump into the interview. Allie Trace is a middle-grade and YA author who writes funny and heartfelt stories, including Free Period, which came out in 2024, and Vote for Goat, which is now out from Aladdin with Simon and Schuster in 2025. Her work has been long listed for the National Book Award, has received starred reviews in School, Library, Journal, and Publishers Weekly, and many more accolades. She lives in the Northeast, and you can go onto her website, which I will make sure to include in the show notes for book bonuses, giveaways, and resources like discussion guides, recipes, and craftivism projects. Hi, Allie. Thank you so much for coming on to the Write It Scared Podcast. I am so excited to have you and to talk about your new novel that has come out last month from Simon and Schuster, which is Vote for the Goat.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

So how are you? Thank you so much for having me on. I love the podcast and I'm so excited to talk to you today. And I'm very excited to talk about Vote for the Goat, which is a book that I'm super proud of.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Before we hit record, I was telling Allie that I was just rereading the opening and chuckling like a mad woman. It is, it is so fun. It is really fun. And I I don't know if you know this, Allie, but I have goats. I have like a little herd of goat. But I didn't know that. Oh my god, nice adventures. Yes, I'll send you pictures. My daughter just actually took her Nigerian dwarf to the fair because she's in 4-H, right? And it was adorable. Poor Truffles had never been to town before, but Truffles did good. Truffles did I think Truffles needs his own story now. I know. I know. My my daughter writes too. So she might, who knows? Who knows what she'll do with that? But I'll make the suggestion to her. That'd be awesome. The story of Truffles going to town. Okay, before we dive into your interview, I would love it if you would share with our listeners just a bit more about your journey to becoming a writer and a published author.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Yeah, so I've been writing like with the intention of trying to publish for about 15 years now. And my debut came out last year. So I am definitely in that club of people who wrote a bunch of different books before they sit found success in terms of publishing. And I am also one of those authors that racked up hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of rejections along the way. But it all like worked out in the end because I think the book that I debuted with, Free Period, last year was Scholastic, was the book I was meant to debut with. And that is a story of friendship and period equity that's a tween comedy where a couple of chaos monsters fight to get maxi pads in all school bathrooms for all students who menstruate. And I love all the books I wrote before that one, but it is okay with me. I'm at peace with it that it took me that long to get there. And so just for anyone else writing out there and maybe it taking a while, I just want to encourage everybody to keep going. It doesn't mean you have to go nonstop. It doesn't mean it doesn't get frustrating. But take your breaks, come back to it, keep on to that love of writing. And I really hope that everybody gets there.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Oh, thank you. Yeah, I was just sharing with my group yesterday that I think one of the things that's important in writing is like the consistency that we bring to it, but not necessarily the intensity, right? Some sometimes you gotta take your foot off the gas pedal and it's just it kind of ebbs, it does ebb and flow, right? So, but stay in it because you love it, right? There's regardless.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

But it can be much easier to just tell yourself I'm gonna take a break, which is totally legitimate than say I'm giving up, I'm never writing again. Because if you loved it enough to get into it, there's probably still something there, right? So it's absolutely legitimate to take breaks.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Now, did you always write middle grade or did you write anything else?

SPEAKER_01 6:09

So I started writing basically after fighting with TV shows all the time, like you know, thinking I could do better. I love mysteries, I love romance, I love thrillers. And so I thought I said, okay, I'm gonna give it a try myself. So my first attempt was an adult mystery. And that was my like, that was my making every single mistake book. And I can look back on it now and say, oh, thank goodness nobody published it, nobody signed me up for it. You know, I opened it with the the point of view character looking at herself in the mirror to describe herself. Basically, if you went online and found a list of all the things to not do in a novel, yeah, I did them. Um, and generally I think like, you know, rules are made to be broken and you would pretty much do whatever you want as long as it's not boring. But yeah, I made it boring and I did all the things you're not supposed to. And it wasn't until I was pregnant that I started thinking about writing for kids. And I came up with, you know, one of those, one of those story ideas where like the character comes like in your head fully formed. It was a little mystery, and it was for tweens. And that is what made me join SCBWI, the children's writing group. And our chapter in New Jersey has a list where you can connect with other writers to form a critique group. And so I was super lucky. I had no idea what I was doing, but I contacted one of the coordinators from that group and said, Hey, could I could I join you guys? And we've been writing together for 12 years. They are the first people I tell everything about. You know, we meet twice a month, sometimes online, sometimes in person. We text like, you know, multiple times a week. We're there for each other for all the highs and lows. We're all at different stages of the writing and publishing process. But that is what got me into kids' writing. And honestly, it's that sense of community that I think kept me going within kids writing.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

I love that. I love that community is so important. And for anybody listening who doesn't know that is the Society of Book Writers and Illustrators. And Allie, you rolled that acronym off so well. I can never make it happen. Like my tongue just tangles around those words. But thank you. And I will make sure I'll pop a link to S C B W I in the show notes. Because it is. I've also been a member, I'm not current right now, but because I've branched off to write a couple of other things, but I'm circling back because now I'm writing a young adult suspense. So sponsor room. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

And if anyone listening doesn't rate for kids, really, whatever professional organization involves your type of writing, it's useful to just check them out and see if they do have that kind of critique group list. Another option is libraries. Lots of libraries have writing groups now. Some bookstores have writing groups now. And then, of course, you know, connecting with people online, although we used to do that on Twitter, and I know that I I'm not on there anymore. So I know it's harder, much harder than it was before. But yeah, if there's any way to create community around your writing, I have personally found that that's been really helpful to me.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Me too. Me too. Absolutely. Okay. So you've been writing for a long time, and it took you a long time to learn the ropes. Community was a key in that, you know, having people with put eyes on your work so that you could grow as a writer. And then eventually we were able to get free period in the world, and then followed by Vote for Goat, which is your newest. So why don't you tell us about Vote for Goat and what it's about?

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Yes. So Vote for the Goat is a tween comedy that just launched with Aladdin. That's an imprint of Simon and Schuster. So it is for ages nine to 13, and this is a heist comedy that's Ted Lasso for tweens. So in this book, two students witness their middle school mascot get kidnapped. She is a tiny little goat named Bebek. And the main plot of the story is them finding her and stealing her back so they can truly set her free. Because even while the sports-obsessed parents in town might think it's okay to have a goat trapped on a school campus, the kids in this book realize that that is not okay. And so they scheme and find a way to get her freedom. And in learning to stand up for Babette, they also learn to stand up for themselves. So the underlying issue in this book is bodily autonomy. And that is the human right that we all have to make decisions about our own bodies. So, sort of a side plot in this book is that some of the characters are student athletes, and along the way of fighting for Babette, they also fight for what's called a safe return to play plan for student athletes at their school. And that is to make sure that if you are injured, or if you are having even mental health challenges in playing sports, that you have a safe way to return to play that doesn't throw you in too fast, that doesn't risk re-injury, and that doesn't risk burnout, which is a cause of a lot of kids dropping out of sports as they enter those tween years. So the issue in my debut was period equity. The issue in my sophomore book is bodily autonomy. And my like kind of overall goal for writing for tweens is to write about health equity issues and to show them that in times when the grown-ups might not be having their best interests at heart, they can organize together and form a collective voice to fight for their rights.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

I love all the empowerment and at the at this younger age group, I think it's really important. And I'm so glad that we have books like yours out in the world. I mean, for my own daughter, who's nine, right? And is starting to face some of the issues like the collective peer pressure, and just like what do I believe is right for me versus what you know, what's what's the current wave happening in in in the middle school or in the in the elementary school, so to speak. Yeah, so it sounds like you're really drawn to talk about some difficult issues, but do it with humor and use that lens of humor and lightness to to do that. And I'm as a parent of a middle all well, uh soon to be tween, who continuously likes to remind me that she is almost there. I really appreciate that angle.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

For me, I I write comedies for tweens about tough issues because I think that they deserve to laugh and have fun, and that by doing that, especially in community, it's a great way to break down barriers and talk to each other. I can tell you from traveling around the country with free period, if you sit in a circle of people and say, All right, we're gonna talk about periods, some people will be like, Yeah, I'm ready to go. Other people will be melting into the ground. But if you say, hey, let's make bracelets and let's laugh about these period sweep, like in that book, there's maxi pad cupcakes and tap pretzels and stuff, that can start to break down barriers, get people laughing, get people talking. And that's also why I incorporate a lot of craft into my books. Yeah. Because I really think that when we are making things together, it helps us talk. And I just want kids to have fun with books. I think that storytelling is a great way that we can address tough issues also because it helps us to speak through characters sometimes. So in Vote for the Goat, Meg is a burned-out soccer star and she's really having to stand up to her sports-obsessed dad about whether she's going to continue to play even when it's causing her pain. It can be a really hard conversation to have with a parrot who is convinced that this is your path to a better future. So if you can maybe talk through the characters in this book and say, yeah, I really feel the way that Meg is talking to her dad, but I'm nervous to do the same. That can be easier than just bringing up an issue all by itself.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Oh, absolutely. I love that. Well, tell me a little bit about your writing process. What is it like for you to go from a glimmer of an idea to a novel that's ready for your editors?

SPEAKER_01 14:39

So I will confess that I have totally changed this over the years from starting 50. Yes. So if anyone feels something isn't working, you could definitely change it. I used to be an obsessed outliner. I would have every single scene of a book outlined before I would really let myself start writing, you know, in paragraph form. And then I would find that about halfway through, nothing would make sense anymore because of what I had actually written along the way. And so I would be re-outlining and re-outlining. And I but I just had to admit to myself, like this the outlining is stopping me from the writing. So now what I do is I pitch myself an idea, like a 30-second elevator pitch. It usually has a comp, it usually has, you know, a tagline. Then I write point of view character studies, which are like two pages about all the key things about the characters. And then I write a five-page summary from each of the point of view characters where I just ask them to tell me what happened. And that really helps me figure out each of those characters' voices. So all of that kind of prep work helps me understand what the story is. And then I do a turning point outline. And my amazing mentor, Rebecca Petruck, had directed me years ago to Michael Haig's screenwriting resources. And he has a great one-page, six turning point outline. So now we're talking about, you know, what could be days to a week or so of work. And what I've found is that that work gives me the flexibility to really explore the characters in the story while I'm writing, instead of feeling like, okay, I have to hit whatever I've said two months ago in this one scene, even though the characters and even me as a writer have changed during the last two months. And then I rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. But I'm very lucky I have, like I said, I have a critique group and we we typically do one to two chapters in reviewing each other's work. So that's one option. And then also over the years, having met different writing friends, I now have people that I can exchange entire manuscripts with as well. And so all of that happens before a manuscript would go to my agent, and then my agent would give me feedback before it would go to my editor.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Thank you for sharing that. That's that's pretty cool. I mean, started out like a hardcore outliner, which, you know, if you were starting with a mystery, I I kind of I I know there are some people out there who pants mysteries, but uh they baffle me. But but then you kind of like reverted and and found like this middle ground that sounds like it gives you so much freedom, yeah, and and lets you figure out who the people are before you put them through the basis of a plot. You I'm gonna shove you in this box and you're gonna do what I tell you. Yes, that never works. That never works for me anyway. So these are contemporary stories, right? So, what is your word count aim these days for for that in traditional publishing?

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Honestly, this is a huge discussion right now. So, my debut was I think it ends up being 64,000 words. Then Vote for the Goat, it actually looks bigger and has like a little more generous design and interior design, but it's actually 60,000 words. But the two books I wrote after Vote for the Goat are both 45,000 words. And I I was like hesitating because I'm I love the the 45,000 word books, they're very zippy, they're kind of non-stop, but because I write plot heavy books, I am missing the space that those extra 15,000 words gave me to address some more subplots. Got it? Some people like that. Some people they really want something streamlined for kids, other people want, you know, more subplots, more character development. So yeah, I in contemporary, I don't know how things are going to are going to go. We see fantasies that are like complete doorsteppers, you know, 70, 80,000 words for for little kids.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

But even that, even that is starting to there, I I've I've been just hearing like there's quite a bit of pushback in the publishing world on middle grade, science fiction or fantasy, yeah, that's over 65k.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

So that's gonna be a challenge for me is how how to write stories that address these tough, more complex issues with all the but seeing if I can get in that 45 to 50,000 words sweet spot. I think we're we'll have to see how things how things go. Because there's also this move in middle grade to get more books for the in-between readers. So these are the readers in eighth or ninth grade that we can't really serve them with like the middle grade that sometimes always goes goes all the way down to eight years old. But they're also not always being served by YA books that I mean, in some cases right now, YA books are being pretty explicitly written for adults. So it's like this incredibly exciting time in life, that eighth and ninth grade, where you're really becoming your own independent person, and they're not always getting literature that's really directed to them. So there's this movement for how can we write books for them? I'll be very interested to see, first of all, you know, what publishers are going to do with that, how they're gonna be shelved, which is a huge issue right now. I had a really interesting conversation at the Rhode Islands library conference this year where uh the librarians shared that the 12-year-olds don't even want to go into the children's section anymore. So they're struggling with do we label these like kind of in-between books as more teen than YA? That makes a difference. And then do they shell them in the children's section of the library, in the YA section of the library, or do they literally try to find an in-between space? That's one of the reasons I think it's so important if you write for kids to be talking to librarians because they are dealing with the these on-the-ground issues that when we're writing, we don't always totally appreciate. Of course, writing the books is enough. Like if all we do is write the books, that's great. But I personally really like to understand how the books are being used in the libraries, in school libraries, in classrooms to better understand how kids are interacting with these stories.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

And you also had mentioned to me that you really enjoy helping authors put together programming for libraries and for organizations like that, educator type events. Can you share any tips for authors that are looking to connect with those communities and other reasons why it's beneficial? I mean, obviously it sounds like you're having the pulse on your reading community, or you're trying to have your pull, the feel the pulse of your reading community and understand some of the challenges that the readers have. But do you have anything more to expand?

unknown 21:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

So when I was looking at 2013, 2025, knowing I was going to have a book come out this year, and I was still promoting for peer. I was really thinking to myself, what it where could I add value? Again, aside from just writing the books, which isn't enough. And I said, I really want to support librarians this year. Like we talk a lot about the pressures that librarians are under given book challenges, but they're also under extreme pressure with respect to staffing, budgeting, and even like the physical spaces that they have to use. So that's why my goal this year was to create resources and programming that librarians could use out of the box without even having the author present or without having to spend a lot of time or money. And so if you go on my website, you'll find allytrace.com, by the way, you'll find lesson plans, activities, all like low-cost things that can be done by the typical eight to 12 year old with little supervision. And along with that, I said, okay, I want to see if I can go and be in community with librarians at various state and national meetings. So that's been on everything from I was at the American Library Association this summer in Philadelphia to various state meetings. And so, like my biggest tip would be is if you are an author who's interested in this, is that you look at it as a way of being community with librarians, understanding what they're going through, like really on the ground stuff. And then it's also an opportunity to share your work with librarians. But it's important to remember, these are not meetings where like you're going to sit there and, you know, sell a pile of your books. If anything, hopefully your publisher will have books, you know, to give out at these meetings. But, you know, hopefully down the line it leads to orders. The thing about all of this, whether you know you're doing a pre-order campaign, whether you're doing a festival, whether you're doing a library meeting, is to see if this is going to be an investment from you as an author. And you really have decisions to make. Like even if your publisher was paying for you to go, paying for the books, everything else, this is an investment of your time and energy. And so I would say look at the calendar over the next year and really ask yourself, what do you want to do? Why do you want to do these things? And say, can I afford to do them? Because some meetings, like the National Teachers Meeting, NCTE, and ALA, they have like a 10-month lead time for from application to the actual event. So look at the calendar, see what you think. And then the really fun part of this is that when you're putting an author panel together, you get to reach out to other authors whose work you admire and who you think would be in conversation with your work and say, hey, let's see if we can put some programming together that would be useful for librarians and teachers. And sometimes they say yes, sometimes they say no. But I find as an author, it's a really great exercise to think about where my storytelling fits in to the other things that are happening in children's literature right now and see how I can think that through with other authors so that we are offering opportunities and resources to librarians and teachers.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Well, let's do a little transition here. Cause as you know, a big part of this podcast is dedicated to telling the truth about why the writing can be hard and how sometimes it's because we have internal unhelpful narratives that sneak up on us and hold us back. So, and the reason that I bring this piece into the podcast is because my goal here is to identify those unhelpful internal stories, normalize them so that less people are out there thinking I'm a terrible writer, you know. No, you're not. And and the hope is that they will continue and that we will result in more stories from more voices in the world. So, with that, would you share a time for yourself when the the writing or the creative process for you has gotten tough and you really struggled, struggled with doubt. What was that like and and how did you get through it?

SPEAKER_01 26:05

I'm in it right now. So yeah, so it doesn't stop once you're published. It doesn't stop after 15 years of doing this. I've been rewriting a book for like a year now. And I I finally in the last couple of months identified what the problem was. And it's that I was trying to make it not sound like me, which might sound crazy, but it was like, I want to do something different. But in trying to do something different, I was trying to make a story sound different from my typical middle grade writing. And it sounded terrible and it didn't sound like me. And once I was able to admit that to myself, I had been able to finally really start the rewriting process because I can write in different genres, I can write for different age groups, I can do all different things, but it's gonna be tough to not write like me because it is still my brain. And my approach to voice is something that has really worked for me. And it's this it's that I try to meet the energy of the character whose story I want to tell. So if I'm if I'm writing from a point of view of, say, an 11-year-old, I want to tell a story as if like they just burst into the room and said, You're not gonna believe what happened today. And in terms of thinking how that, how that creates voice, like if you think about how you would have told a story at 25 versus how you might tell a story at 40 or 50, the details you notice, the words that you choose, the cadence of your speech, all of those things are different at different points in our life. So we layer on all kinds of differences after that, right? But I start with age because obviously I write for kids. And I had abandoned that in this writing process of how I usually find voice. So yeah, that's that has been really tough for me. And sometimes it's even just tough to admit that this isn't working. That could be the first step is saying, well, this isn't working, that that's okay. I don't know why it's not working, and I might need to sit with that. And I say I've been doing this for a year, I've written another two books during that time where I was writing them, you know, like I write things, and everything was totally fine. So I think also some people like to write one project at a time. I like to have multiple projects going. And yeah, so I don't know. I don't know what the lesson is from that, but maybe it's like, you know, it's okay to always write the way that your brain wants to write.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Oh, I have a couple of questions. Yeah. Do you have an idea of why you felt like you needed to change your voice, your style of voice for this book, or why that needed to change for you?

SPEAKER_01 28:55

Yeah. So everything I've been writing for the last couple of years has been middle grade and contemporary, even if it's contemporary plus something else. And I was trying to write for a different age group, and I already know this is gonna happen again. Next year, I want to try to write another adult book. I want to give that a try again now that I know all the mistakes to avoid. And I think I was saying to myself, like, well, I need to make this not sound like it's for kids. But I like I'm not trying to make my current books sound like they're for kids. I'm trying to write in the voice of the characters who happen to be kids. So yeah, I think that, especially as someone who writes first-person point of view, you know, multiple narrators, what I have to do is just always trust myself to step into the shoes of the character. And if that means that it doesn't sound quite right at first, I know that I'm a rewriter. And so I will just keep going back again and again, asking my characters what they're thinking, how they would say it. And that's how I'll get there, versus saying, okay, I have to make sure whatever I'm writing now doesn't sound like the stuff that I wrote before.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

I would imagine that that is kind of a common challenge for people who are writing middle grade fiction and stepping maybe into the adult sphere, or or going back and forth. There is an adjustment there, and you're you're having to think about your audience. But I I loved what you said. Like it all comes back into your character. That's where that's where that's where you're gonna get the juice. So you've been writing a long time, so 15 years. So what do you think you've learned about yourself and your creative process just when you take a glance back?

SPEAKER_01 30:43

It is probably that rewriting admission. I I can't remember now that's there's there's some famous reader where they only write like a page a day, but then that page is done. And that's the way the page is going to be. And I don't know what that feels like. Me either. You know, I've tried to sew myself, you know, I just got the book last week. I could probably open it and start editing it right now, right? Let's think. So I I'm really at peace with that now, that I am going to be a rewriter. When I I think the next level would be my current problem, is that I will rewrite the first third over and over and over and over and over and over again. Like for years, having like a rough draft of or a zero draft or a first draft or whatever of the second two-thirds. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh my God, I should rewrite the second two-thirds. So I would love to, you know, as my next development as an author, is to be able to like start at the beginning of a rewrite and make it through to the end without questioning myself over and over and over for that first third.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

What gives you the most joy out of being a writer, out of being a storyteller? What do you like the most about it? I love being surprised.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Even when it's something that I set up on purpose at the beginning of a book, and there's a payoff at the end of something I set up, I am still delighted by that. I laugh at all my own jokes. I like years later, I'll I'll be I'll be reading something and say to, you know, somebody in my family, like that's hilarious. I feel like when you wrote it, like, yeah, I clearly I was hilarious. Um so I I think that's really the key is you know, you hear that you hear that when you start out writing. Oh, you're gonna have to read this stuff over and over. And this is excluding the magicians who can write one page and not have to do it again. But you do, like whether it's with your critique group or with your agent or with your editor or with your copy editor, you do read this stuff over and over. And I I very much appreciate that I am still delighted at the end of the process, and that I'm still surprised sometimes, even though it was me that set this up in the beginning. And I hope I hope that continues. So far it has. I I love when you set up different things at the beginning of a story, multiple storylines, different character goals, and how it all comes together in the end. And then that's on the crap side, the the reaction side, maybe or the reader side. I love asking, like, do you agree with what the characters did? Because in question. Yeah, in each of my books, the so the characters are solving problems. So in Free Period, it was getting these maxi pads into the school bathrooms and a boat for the goat, it was where this goat could go so that the sports craze parents would be satisfied and the goat would be safe. And there are no perfect or easy solutions in these stories, which I think really mirrors real life activism. And so I pick what I think is a you know a result that makes sense, and it's usually the characters having to balance competing interests and nothing is perfect. But I really love asking readers, would you have done something different? Because kids in real life are 10 billion times more creative than we ever even make them on the page. And the goal of my writing is to really encourage kids to use what they already love in life to create change. So whether that is art, music, whether they're the ones who like constructing arguments, or whether they're the ones who are good at looking at budgets, but whatever it is, I know that those kids are going to come up with even more interesting solutions than we could ever write for them as adults.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

That's awesome. So I I ask every guest, what is your wish if you could put it out in the world for your fellow kid lit writers who are working on their first novel?

SPEAKER_01 34:47

Okay, it's they might not like it, but I would say don't rush. I would say take your time and discover your unique voice. And that could come from trying to write like your favorite authors further. That could come from writing a book 10 different ways. I don't know. We're all like on our own path to finding our own voice, but you know, you are a unique person and you have so much to contribute to the world through your unique voice. And think of the difference you're gonna make for kids if you take that time to make something that nobody else can make. And I say that being on the other end of this, I totally know the frustration along the way. I even know the frustration now, like, trust me, as I'm rewriting that first word for like the 20th time and being like, oh, let me just finish this. But it's worth your time if you believe in the power of storytelling and particularly the novel to make a difference in someone's life, then it it is worth your time. And you, you and your art are worthy of that time too, which I know can sometimes be hard to remember when we're in the thick of it and we just want to get it out there.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's sometimes it's hard to remember that just the act of creating has merit for the sake of just creating, even if it's yeah. That's beautiful. That was beautiful advice. Thank you so much. So before we wrap up, are you working on any new projects that you would like to share about?

SPEAKER_01 36:20

I don't have anything else announced right now, but in general, I am continuing to write messy girls, changing the world. Sometimes my characters are called unlikable. I think it's just because they are young women in the world. So I think that kids should get to see other people making messes and finding their own way and making mistakes. And so I'm gonna keep writing those stories because I think our kids deserve them. And so no new projects to announce. I will be kind of all over this fall. If you go on my website, allatrace.com, you can see my schedule. I'll be in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Colorado. And so I would, you know, love to see folks if they're out anywhere. And you can also always contact me through the contact form on my author website.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

And with that, would you please let us know where listeners can find you and just keep up with your messy girls changing the world movement here?

SPEAKER_01 37:19

Yeah, so I have the two books available right now, everywhere books are sold. That's free period and vote for the goat. They're all available in hardcover, audio, and ebook. Hopefully they're at your library right now. If not, you can ask your library to add it to their collection. My author website is allyterace.com. And you'll see on there, everything is freely available on there. You can make a Goat Ready with Me headband, you can crochet your own uterus, all kinds of three fun activities on there for everyone, even if you don't want to read the books. Finally, my social media is Instagram. That's all I'm on right now. It's AllyTherce Author, and there's just full of nonsense. I I do really believe bringing the fun of the book world into the real world. So you see all kinds of shenanigans on there, and I love to promote other authors. So you'll see lots of book recommendations, you'll see lots of shenanigans. I have the Cuterus Uterus crew, which you can't see on here, but if you go to my website, you'll see the crochet cuterist uterus crew on a semi-monthly basis will read teensy versions of books to help promote other authors. So you'll see that on there too.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

I love it. I love it. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today and sharing your journey with our listeners. We have learned a ton from you, and I can't wait to see more from you in the future. Thank you for listening to the Write It Scared podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please make sure to hit the follow button so you never miss an episode. And please leave a review. Reviews help other writers like you find the voices and messages they need to hear to continue to write their stories. Let's lift each other up. Remember, you can be scared and still be unstoppable. I'll see you next week.