Vicky Fang has a new series! ~Christy Mihaly

I'm delighted to welcome author-illustrator Vicky Fang to GROG today. Vicky's published books include the "Best Buddies" early readers and the "Friendbots" and "Layla and the Bots" series. Lots of great STEM content there! Vicky's newest book (released June 4) kicks off a funny, relatable new early chapter book series. She tells us about it here.

Welcome, Vicky! To start, maybe you could tell us a little about yourself and why you write books for kids.

Vicky:

Thank you for having me! I started writing and illustrating because I wanted to inspire kids in STEM, and have expanded from there. But the common thread that remains through all my books is encouraging kids to be creative problem solvers, whether that be in STEM or friendships or school—or anywhere!

And now you have three new books coming out! Tell us about one of them!

My next book, AVA LIN, BEST FRIEND! is the start of a brand-new early chapter book series! It features a six-and-a-half year old girl who is navigating school, family, and friends—often with unintended and hilarious results. Ava Lin is Chinese American, which you’ll see in the little details of her life, but her knack for getting into—and out of—sticky situations is familiar to us all.

Great cover! So you are the illustrator as well as the author?

Yes. AVA LIN is the first chapter book series that I have self-illustrated, so I’m incredibly proud of it! I’m hugely grateful to my editor, Sarah Ketchersid, and my art director, Lisa Rudden, at Candlewick for giving me the opportunity and supporting me along the way.

What inspired you to invent Ava and write her story? How did you get the ideas?

AVA LIN is inspired by my kids and my own childhood. I’ve loved watching the earnestness, curiosity, triumphs, and relatable misunderstanding of my own kids and wanted to capture that in this series. They’ve loved watching these books come to life too. We laugh about Ava Lin’s antics together, and when something appropriately funny happens in real life, they say “This should be in an Ava Lin book!”

AVA LIN, BEST FRIEND! (Credit: Candlewick, ©2024 Vicky Fang)

Love that your kids are looking out for ideas for you!

How long did it take you to write this book? 

The idea for AVA LIN sat in my head for several months and then I wrote the first draft during a weekend retreat. (I love retreats.) After that, I probably revised for a few weeks before sending it off to my agent.

That's a great tip for procrastinating writers! Take a retreat!

After you wrote it at that retreat,Vicky, how long did it take to sell the manuscript?

It took about six months to sell Ava Lin. It did sell in the first round of submissions, but the submission process feels so slow these days!

Tell me about it. So slooooow.

What do you hope readers take away from reading Ava's story?

I hope the series makes kids laugh! I also hope that kids will relate to Ava Lin’s experiences—to see that Ava makes mistakes all the time, but that everything is always somehow okay in the end. And that even when things don’t turn out the way she expected, it doesn’t stop her from approaching life with curiosity and optimism. And last but not least, I hope these books help kids fall in love with reading!

AVA LIN, BEST FRIEND! (Credit: Candlewick, ©2024 Vicky Fang)

As an illustrator, you get an additional level of input into your books.

Tell us something about how you did the illustrations for Ava.

I had so much fun illustrating these books. I think I most enjoy the expressiveness that I was able to pull into each of Ava’s life moments. I also just had my first classroom visit where I taught kids how to draw Ava Lin, and it was such a delight to see their own versions of Ava Lin!

What was most surprising about doing these illustrations?

I hadn’t realized how much fun it would be to do this style of illustration, interspersed between text. Each illustration gets to be like its own mini-story, which was super fun to do. I think because Ava Lin is such an enthusiastic character, it also felt joyful to draw the things she loves, like animals, bubble tea, and treasure!

AVA LIN, BEST FRIEND! (Credit: Candlewick, ©2024 Vicky Fang)

This series looks really fun!

Okay, Vicky, tell us: What advice do you have for writers?

Thinking about this series specifically, I feel like it really leveraged everything I’ve learned as an author and illustrator up to this point. I was able to think about crafting multiple elements of this book (plot, character, arc, heart, pacing, etc.) in a much more fluid way than I had been able to in my previous books. And I’m still learning and getting better! So my advice to writers is to just keep at it. Slowly but surely, you will get better and better. 

Also, if you’re looking for more writing and publishing advice from me, I started a newsletter with my friend and critique partner, Christine N Evans (Dear Mr. G, The Wist Library) called Kidlit Survival Guide—check it out!

Thanks, VIcky! Last question: What’s next for you?

I’ve just finished art for Ava Lin Book 2, and am starting sketches for Book 3! I’m also working on sketches for my next series, an early graphic novel series called ONE MAD CAT.

That's a lot! Thanks for taking the time to chat here. I look forward to reading all these amazing books.