Welcome back to our series, 20 QUESTIONS!,

where we answer questions about writing, reading, and author life.

(Note that we enjoy the series so much we’ve reset for a second round of 20.)

This month’s question:

What’s something in writing or illustration that you would like to try but haven’t done yet (a medium, category, genre, etc.)?

“I’ve wanted to write a novel for years. I love the idea of your characters talking to you or subtext. I tried writing a YA historical novel years ago but it fizzled out at ~3k words when I realized I was in over my head and needed to do a lot more research. I started working on an MG novel this summer but it’s going really slow.”

– Darshana Khiani, author of BUILDING A DREAM, illus. Dow Phumiruk (Eerdmans, 2023)

“I always intended to age up my writing as my children got older. Now my youngest is reading middle grade novels, and I would love to try writing one. It’d be a fun challenge to plot out a novel and learn how to flesh out details. Full disclosure: I did try it once and it was hard! I also would love to try my hand at illustration, but I know it would be an extremely long, time-consuming road.”

– Margaret Chiu Greanias, author of HOOKED ON BOOKS (Peachtree Publishing, 2023) and HOW THIS BOOK GOT RED (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2023)

“I would love to try writing and illustrating an early reader or a graphic novel. So far, I’ve just written and illustrated picture books, and I think it would be fun to make a book that kids, for the most part, would read on their own. It would be a nice challenge to figure out the ins and outs of a different format.”

– Abi Cushman, author-illustrator of WOMBATS ARE PRETTY WEIRD: A [Not So] Serious Guide (Greenwillow Books, 2023)

“I really want to write a murder mystery for adults! I have much of the details worked out, and think it would be really fun to write. In other words, I have too much confidence, but I’ve got a teensy-tiny (great, big!) problem: I don’t read them! So it will be a while! Ha!

– Julie Rowan-Zoch, author-illustrator of I’M A HARE SO THERE! (Clarion, 2021)