Wakefield—Two years after The Room to Write was originally planning to sit down with the talented Joy Nelkin Wieder, author of The Passover Mouse, Colleen Getty finally got to chat mask-free in the WCAT Studios. In her interview, Joy takes viewers along on a journey from spark of an idea back in 2002 all the way to this moment twenty years later as we celebrate the progression and success of her picture book in time for Passover, which begins on April 15th.
The Passover Mouse came out two years ago, so Joy has patiently endured a two-pronged form of perseverance with what was quite a long wait for her story to become a book and reach the eyes of children, but also to then connect with those children once the book was out there. One by one, the book publication events she had planned were cancelled, but two years later she looks forward to reading it to kids in the classroom, at libraries and bookstores and see their reactions to her story about a mischievous but adorable mouse.
Joy said it best during her interview when she said, “Don’t give up!” That’s a great piece of advice for all of us in all aspects of our lives. For writers in particular: Keep writing and even if you tuck your story away in a drawer, it might be exactly what somebody is looking for ten, twenty, even thirty years later.
We are so grateful to Wakefield Community Access Television (WCAT) Studios for being so supportive of The Room to Write’s mission to support and connect writers of all ages, abilities and means by making The Journey of a Story interview series possible. Be sure to watch Joy’s interview about how she writes and the roller coaster of the publication process by visiting TRtW’s website at www.theroomtowrite.org, WCAT Studios’ website at www.wcatwakefield.org, or link directly to the interview at https://youtu.be/-aEIf54QQQc.
The Journey of a Story series focuses on the art of writing with real writers. How do writers write? Where, when and why do they write? How do they publish their work? What have they learned? If you are a published writer and/or illustrator who has published a piece of writing in any format and would like to share your writing process and publication journey, contact Colleen Getty at colleen@theroomtowrite.org.