Writester.net

Name: Judy Cox
Website: www.judycox.net
Contact: Gtrmouse@aol.com

Questions:

Q: Where are you originally from?
A: I’m originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. I currently live in Oregon.

Q: Can you tell us your latest book news?
A: I have two new books coming out in the spring of 2005. Don’t Be Silly, Mrs. Millie! (Cavendish Children’s Books) is a picture book illustrated by Joe Matthieu. It’s the story of a teacher who has fun making up puns and word play with her kindergartners.

That Crazy Eddie and the Science Project of Doom (Holiday House) is a chapter book for ages 6-9. It’s about two friends who argue, make up, and argue while trying to build a model volcano for the science fair. It includes directions for a model volcano.

I have had twelve children’s books published and more than thirty short stories published in children’s magazines.

Q: How old were you when you first started writing?
A: I was eleven when I started my first book and forty when I finally published my first book! I started collecting rejection slips when I was sixteen. If there is one thing I’ve learned from writing for publication, it is that it takes a lot of persistence, practice, and patience to get published.

Q: How has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?
A: I am the oldest of five children and often made up stories to entertain my siblings. Later, when I became a teacher, I did the same thing for my students. My son and I made up stories together when he was young.

Q: What genre are you most comfortable writing?
A: I write for children.

Q: Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your life?
A: The experiences in my books are not based exclusively on real events. I’m not writing memoirs. However, the emotions my characters experience are all emotions I’ve felt when I was growing up—confusion, embarrassment, anger, joy, sadness.

Q: What books have most influenced your life?
A: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig are among the books that have most influenced my life, teaching me to persevere and look at things closely. But I do not think they have my writing style.

Q: If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
A: Although I have never met her, I consider Patricia Reilly Giff to be a mentor. She was a reading teacher (like me!) and wrote a series of beginning readers called “The Kids of the Polk Street School”. I studied her books when I was teaching myself to write chapter books. More recently she’s gone on to win major awards with her books.

Q: Is there anything additional you would like to share with your readers?
A: If you want to succeed as a writer, you must work at it. Learning the craft, and being persistent, is every bit as important as talent. In spite of all the frustrations, it is the coolest thing in the world to make up stories and create your own reality!