Yay For Middle Grade Books! Interview With Misty Wilson!

Hi, everyone! Today I'm happy to present an interview with Misty Wilson, the author of Play Like A Girl (illustrated by David Wilson), which releases in September!

Would you please tell us a little about your book, Play Like A Girl?

Play Like a Girl is a graphic memoir, illustrated by my husband David Wilson, about my experience in seventh grade, when I decided I wanted to play football while simultaneously trying to fit in with the popular girls. It’s about how hard middle school can be, especially when friendships get complicated and you’re trying to figure out how to balance what you want versus what you think everyone else expects. It’s about defining yourself when maybe how you define yourself isn’t considered “cool.”

The graphic novel is illustrated by your husband, David Wilson! What has the experience been like working together on the book?

Haha, we are asked this question a lot by fellow authors, who often say they don’t think they’d be able to do it. But it’s actually been great. Writing often feels very solitary, even when you have a group of writer friends, but Play Like a Girl was very collaborative. We’ve worked together creatively for a decade on just “for fun” projects, but this was the first time we had to figure out how to work together in a way that made sense to An Outsider (our editor! Haha). We did everything kind of backwards, but it made sense for us—we had a script written, David drew 256 pages of sketches, then we got our edit letter and went through rounds and rounds and rounds of rewrites and revisions, and every time I had to rewrite/revise, he had to redraw. And at that point, we were no longer using a script. David was working off an outline and I was writing dialogue as we went. Basically, it was a very, very messy process that of course led to some snarky comments and eye rolls between us haha, but overall, it worked for us! It was nice having someone who understood everything I was going through during every step of the publishing process because he was going through it, too (i.e. getting an edit letter and sobbing in my kitchen!)(he didn’t sob, but he understood how overwhelming it was!). And it’s really cool that when something awesome happens (like being a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection!), we get to share that success with each other because we’ve *both* earned it.

Random Question! What is your favorite holiday?

Hmmm… This is a hard one. It used to be Christmas, particularly because I love Christmas music and movies. But as I’ve gotten older, Halloween has grown on me. My kids LOVE getting dressed up in costumes, and even though it’s raining every single year, I love pouring myself a hot coffee and walking around trick-or-treating with them. Plus, it's a minimal-stress holiday and I get to eat their candy, so….

If you're able to talk about it, what are you currently working on?

Well, I’m truthfully not sure how much I’m allowed to say but also how much I want to say because I don’t know how much it’ll change by the time I do publicly talk about it. BUT my second middle grade graphic novel with David will be a work of fiction, but many aspects of the main character’s life will be based on my own childhood. I just turned in an outline last week (this is being written at the end of April), so I am waiting to hear what my editor thinks. It could end up being an entirely different book by the end of the year haha

I am also working on a contemporary YA, which I’ve been writing and revising for nearly a year, off and on (while working around PLAY deadlines and waiting on notes on it from my agent).

And I have a TON of projects I’ve started but haven’t had time to return to since I’m also teaching. I’m a workaholic with so many ideas and not enough time. I’m excited to see what I can accomplish this summer!

What are some of your favorite MG books you've read recently? And what are some that you're looking forward to reading?

I am a HUGE fan of Jenny Han, who is mostly known for her YA books, but when I recently found out she had a MG book, Shug, I devoured it. I love finding authors’ backlists. I also recently read Gordon Korman’s book The Unteachables, and I LOVED it. Other recent reads include Isla to Island, a graphic novel by Alexis Castellanos and The Real Riley Mayes, a graphic novel by Rachel Elliott!

My current MG TBR pile:

Grow Up, Tahlia Wilkins! By Karina Evans

Keep it Together, Keiko Carter by Debbi Michiko Florence

Front Desk by Kelly Yang

Mary Underwater by Shannon Doleski

Glitter Gets Everywhere by Yvette Clark

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

Thank you to Misty Wilson for participating in this event! :)

Author Bio: Retired seventh-grade football star Misty Wilson teaches by day and writes by night. She is a voracious reader, and she loves binge-watching television shows. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two daughters. Play Like a Girl is her middle-grade debut. Learn more at www.mistywilsonwrites.com.

Here are a few links:

Her Website

Her Twitter

Her Instagram