The deadline for the 2021–2022 SCBWI WWA Mentorship Program is just days away! Get to know all of our wonderful mentors in these interviews on our Pen & Story blog. Then learn how to apply here. Deadline: July 30!
Michele Bacon loves prime numbers, tabletop games, roller derby, downhill skiing, and traveling. Always eager to immerse herself in other cultures, she’s visited all 50 states and dozens of countries. She so adores kids and young adults that she often skipped college classes to volunteer in schools. Whoops! As a child, Michele was drawn to people’s stories, and she remains eager to learn how you got that scar or fell in love. Her contemporary realistic fiction focuses on families, friends, and the complicated relationships therein. (She knows you know about complicated.) Michele’s published YA novels are Antipodes and Life Before. Visit Michele’s website at michelebacon.com, and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
I like to mentor because . . .
Helping writers find their voices and tell their stories is my jam. In addition to supporting another writer’s growth, mentorship brings another writer into the fold. Too often, writing is a solo endeavor. Let’s work to change that.
What can a mentee expect from your mentorship?
I don’t adhere to the parameters set by this program. I meet them, of course, but I generally talk more often with my writing partner and, after my initial read and their revision, become a sounding board.
What are you reading?
Since Washington shut down, I’ve read many detective series (think Sara Paretsky) and a lot of middle grade (most recent love: The Sea in Winter, by Christine Day). I zipped through Liane Moriarty’s backlist via audiobook, because I continue to crave Aussie and Kiwi accents. My favorite read of the last year was TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea. Today, I’m digging into Kelly McWilliams’s Agnes at the End of the World. The Travelers, by Regina Porter, is next.
What are you working on these days?
I’m writing a murdery YA right now. The voice is solid. The structure is different, because I like experimenting, but it feels like the most Michele manuscript I’ve ever written. It’s my first effort at a mystery, so I’ve been on a quest to learn about writing suspects, being subtle, and keeping readers wondering. What a great adventure. As always, I’m throwing in picture-book manuscripts every month or so.
Besides writing, what’s something you’re good at?
I’m a loyal friend. I’m an ace with logistics, planning, and project management. And I bake delicious goodies.
What are the best parts about being an author?
My answer is twofold. Author life is my entry ticket into classrooms, libraries, and bookstores. Every time I work with teens and tweens, or when I visit younger kids, I get to tell them their voices are unique and their stories matter. And, with longer classroom/workshop relationships, I show young writers how those things are true. That’s powerful.
Also, published books feel like credentials. I now conduct workshops—from an afternoon to a 10-week course—to support adults writing manuscripts. I was lucky to get a decent education, study writing in college, and had the resources and community to write and publish my work. I use my workshops to leverage that privilege. Because we need stories from writers who didn’t graduate high school, study writing in college, or have support from a partner who works in tech.
What books did you love when you were a child or teen?
In middle school, I loved Ann M. Martin’s Baby-Sitters Club. It’s probably more accurate to say Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Stacey were my best friends. I read a lot, but I kept coming back to them; Claudia’s bedroom was my sanctuary.
What do you listen to when you create?
I can listen to only classical music while I’m writing. When I’m trying to build my confidence or coax myself into writing, I’ll blast Brandi Carlile or the Indigo Girls or Joan Jett. Giving myself a little concert goes a long way toward feeling strong enough to write, but that same music is a distraction when I’m cobbling words together.
What does being a successful published professional look like to you?
It’s important to note that this each of us defines what we need to feel successful. For me, I’ll feel successful when I’ve published a few more books… but I already consider my career a success. For young me, books were a sanctuary. They meant friendship and family and safety. I never saw myself in books, but I saw who I wanted to be. Seeing myself and my lived experience in books would have been a gift, and my childhood would have been different had I known I wasn’t alone.
About six months after my second book, Antipodes, published, I was visiting several schools in Baltimore. I loved Antipodes’ plot and structure and protagonist and sweeping landscapes and was honored to talk to readers about it. Imagine my surprise when I entered a one-room school where every student had my first book, Life Before on their desk. Life Before is about a guy who’s been keeping his violent family a secret from everyone in his life. When his mother is murdered, everyone learns his secret and he goes on the run to save himself. It’s dark and emotional and I didn’t want to go to the dark place; I wanted to discuss the fun book!
Because the class had read Life Before, we discussed it. And domestic violence. And secrets. And safety in families. I shared some of my childhood memories with students and they told me about living on the street, living undocumented, and feeling as if they’d never find safety. It remains the most intimate school visit I’ve ever done. As I departed much later than expected, a student quietly thanked me for Life Before and confessed it was the first time he’d seen himself in a book. And it was the first time he’d read a book he thought was written for someone with his life experience.
In that moment, my writing life became a success.
What helps you get through challenging writing times?
Dance parties? Raucous concerts for a party of one? Really good chocolate cake. (I make amazing chocolate cake.) All that is true, but the thing that works best is a deadline from someone else. I can set all the personal deadlines I want, but the work really happens when I owe a draft to someone else.
Who inspires you and why?
Many, many people in my community inspire me in big and small ways all the time. These days, I find the greatest inspiration in my youngest daughter. At eight, she’s more confident and self-assured than I ever have been. I’m working toward that.
What qualities would your ideal mentee have?
I’ve worked with many, many writers. My favorites are those who approach our relationship with an open mind. I enjoy writers who consider many options and choose the path that’s in service to the story. When we make decisions with the best story in mind, we cannot go wrong.
What roles do diversity, equity, and inclusion play in your writing?
Just as all people belong on Earth, all people belong in stories. My protagonists draw from my lived experience (white, cis, queer, nonreligious, living with clinical anxiety, and formerly quite poor) and their communities include characters who are Black, indigenous, Indian, Japanese, Maori, Pacific Islander, straight, gay, nonbinary, Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, Protestant, living in homelessness, living with addiction, etc. And I WANT those round characters on the page, because people with those lived experiences are in my life. And we all share the same planet.
But diversity in my work is not enough. We must work toward equity in publishing, which means having BIPOC and female and queer and Muslim people at the table, making decisions. To make a difference to creators in historically marginalized communities, we must buy and promote their work.
What surprised you most about becoming an author?
I am surprised how much authoring (promotion, marketing, etc.) can get in the way of writing.
What’s the writing advice you give most often?
Trust yourself.
Brought to you by Suma Subramaniam and Jenny Tynes, SCBWI WWA Mentorship Program, and Dolores Andral, Pen & Story