Christy Mihaly writes about the power of Music and Silence

by Sue Heavenrich

Today I’m talking with GROG’s own Christy Mihaly about her book, Music and Silence: The Passion and Protest of Pablo Casals, illustrated by Mariona Cabassa. It will be released next month by‎ Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. Christy and I have been critique partners for nearly as long as she’s been working on this book, and it’s been a wonderful journey to watch it grow up and, now, hit the shelves. 

When Christy began working on her story that would become Music and Silence, she was at the beginning of her writing journey. She had just returned from a year of living in Spain (her husband was on sabbatical). 

Christy: When our family moved to Seville, I left my job as a lawyer in Vermont and resolved to spend the year evaluating whether I could start a new career as a writer for children. 

in Cordoba

During that year, I encountered fresh inspiration on every corner. Everything I did and saw felt new and unfamiliar. Everywhere I went I thought, “This would make a fun story for kids.” So, I wrote and sold an article to AppleSeeds magazine about the Pinzon brothers, Spanish sailors and navigators that all Spanish schoolchildren know about and without whom Columbus wouldn’t have succeeded. 

I also continued with my cello lessons, and I decided to learn more about Pablo Casals. So we visited Barcelona and went to his birthplace and museum. The more I learned about him and his life, the more I admired and appreciated him, his ideals, his activism, his pacificism, his principles, and his passion. I started thinking I’d like to write a book for kids about Casals. I realized lots of people in the U.S. didn’t know his story, but I thought maybe they should!

 dressed for la feria

Sue: With all that inspiration, you wanted to write something for children. Can you share your navigation from story idea to writing a book?

Christy: When I returned from Spain, I attended a workshop at the Highlights Foundation about writing nonfiction for kids. I learned a huge amount and started seriously on the path to becoming a nonfiction children’s author. 

Sue: We met at that workshop!

Christy: And that was the beginning of our years-long collaborative friendship. In 2014 I took an online writing class and wrote an initial draft of the Casals book. I was still researching the life of Pablo Casals, viewing videotapes and movies about him, listening to recordings, and studying the co-written memoirs he left as well as biographies and press articles. I studied mentor texts. I explored possible themes and put together musical word lists. I shared drafts with critique partners and revised. I also started, prematurely, sending the manuscript out to editors. Editors under a certain age didn’t know who Casals was, so they didn’t understand why people would want to know read about him. Clearly, I had more work to do.

Sue: One of the things we’re told as writers is to come to our story from different angles. 

Christy: Yes. I changed the focus and tried different approaches. Some of my drafts included direct quotations from Casals, in boxes. I loved this; the editors, not so much. I laid out the page turns and tried to squeeze Casals’s whole life into 12 spreads - thankfully, the final book is much longer than the typical 32 pages! I cut down the words about his childhood and then put them back in. I cut pages from his later years. One time, I received a thoughtful critique from an editor and, at her invitation, edited and re-submitted. But that revision was rejected.

I must have revised my story more than twenty times that year, and I continued working on it into the next year, 2015 when I sold my first picture book, Hey, Hey, Hay! – a rhyming picture book about making hay. That was a thrill, and an educational process. 

signing the contract with Erzsi

And then, in 2016, I submitted the Pablo Casals story to literary agent Erzsi Deak, who loved it enough to offer to represent me. Yay! At last! Erzsi had a couple suggestions, so I tweaked the manuscript and then she started submitting the story. But nobody bit. 

Meanwhile, the political winds in the U.S. were shifting, and Erzsi and I discussed bringing more emphasis to the anti-fascism theme in Casals’s story. I made more revisions while also trying new approaches to the story. In one draft Pablo’s cello narrates, and another draft is told in verse. I didn’t end up with any of those versions, but each one informed how I eventually wrote the story of Casals’s life. 

In 2018 we started a new round of submissions. The story felt more timely than ever. After about a half dozen rejections, we received an offer from Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. Over the next seven years the story wended its way through the publishing process, getting delayed for a bit by Covid. In 2022, when the search for an illustrator started, I knew I wanted an illustrator from Catalonia, Casals’s homeland. I pushed for Mariona Cabassa, whose work I knew because she had beautifully illustrated my 2021 book, Barefoot Books WATER: A Deep Dive of Discovery. It took a while, but it was worth the wait. I am so glad she brought her gorgeous art – and love of Casals – to this project.

Sue: Fourteen years is a long time to keep believing in a book. What words of wisdom might you offer to kidlit writers who are having a hard time getting an editor to love their stories? 

Christy: Write the story that is in your heart. Because that’s what writing is about. Don’t get distracted when people tell you what the market wants, or how to sell to a certain editor – unless those are stories your heart also wants to tell. Editors and agents love to read work in which they can sense the author’s passion and commitment, stories that are animated by the author’s love of the topic, the characters. If you don’t love what you’re writing, write about something you do love writing about.

Sue: You started playing the cello as an adult. What advice might you offer to folks who want to learn how to play a cello – or any instrument – later in life?

Christy on the cello

Christy: First, accept that you’ll never be a brilliant player. Or, you won’t develop the level of competence you would have if you’d started young. So let go of that expectation. Do it for the joy of making music, for the pleasure of learning a new skill – that’s what keeps us young.

Second, you must practice. A lot. But don’t overdo it, because you do not want to injure yourself. (I speak from experience.) Take breaks. 

And third, find others to play with. My cello teacher organized a group of students to play together. I love making music in a group, together with other (older) musicians. I also loved playing duets with my daughter, who was taking violin lessons and who is  a better player than I’ll ever be. What a joy! You might look for a local community orchestra or band to play with. Or draft your family members and friends.

Sue: I should probably have asked you this first. What is it about Pablo Casals’s music that absolutely gobsmacks you?

Christy: I love the emotion that permeates his playing. I love that he isn’t afraid to show us his passion through his musicianship. His technique, obviously, is lovely, and he produces a gorgeous, mellow tone. But what I love most is that when he makes his cello sing, you can hear the music of his heart.

Thank you, Christy, for sharing your book love and your lessons on how to courageously dive into new things! 

Christy Mihaly has written books on topics from civics to sunlight, and math to moose, including a picture book about making hay when the sun shines! You can find out more about Christy’s books and writing life at her website, www.christymihaly.com. 

And if you'd like to preorder Music and Silence here, (OR Christy's book coming out in May, America's Founding Myths ... And What Really Happened here), her local indie, Bear Pond Books, is taking orders online. Christy will sign your book before it goes out. You can specify how you want it personalized .... or call the bookstore and let them know. Thank you!