Julie Swanson

 

February 4, 2025

 

I recently saw a video on Instagram, in which a 25-year-old woman stood at a podium at some type of public forum talking about how she'd been groomed as a child to be transgender and claiming that her school had had a huge part in this. She said "media similar to the book Lily and Dunkin (a novel for readers 10 to 13-year-olds written by Donna Gephardt) had led her into having gender dysphoria at fourteen," and then she was suddenly surrounded by "trans everything" and this made her believe that her body "was wrong and needed fixing with surgeries and hormones." She said all she really needed was for someone to tell her it is OK to be a tomboy, but instead she was "walked down a path of suicidal ideations and anxiety" due to media like this book that is available to seventh graders. She asked why we want to teach children that their bodies are wrong, that self-hatred is good, that they need to chop off healthy body parts in order to find happiness. Why, she asked in addressing the audience, did "people like you need to tell me as a little girl that I needed to self-harm in order to be truly happy."

 

I doubt that's what the author of Lily and Dunkin wanted to teach children. I doubt that's what the librarian or anyone at her school wanted to teach children. The notion that there is this rampant phenomenon where people are preying on children in schools and trying to influence them to be transgender, well, that's pretty unbelievable to me. During this fall's election campaign, one of our presidential candidates would say things like, How would you like it if you sent your son to school and he came back a girl? Because that's what's going on...["Can you imagine your child goes to school and they don't even call you, and they change the sex of your child?... Your child goes to school and they take your child: It was a he, and comes back a she. And they do this. And they do it, and often without parental consent."] As a former teacher and now an author of book with a gender-confused character in it, that made me angry, such a far-fetched stretch of anything that could happen, a non-truth put out there to scare people. Sure, kids get confused (I did, without any media to blame), they take things the wrong way, they experiment with ideas that get into their heads one way or another. And, yes, sometimes it truly is bad; we know there are adults who groom children to take advantage of them sexually. But the vast majority of LGBTQ-friendly adults who work in and/or have influence in schools--counselors, teachers, coaches, parents, therapists, clergy, authors of books for kids--are simply trying to help children (not hurt them, not groom them) by talking to struggling students about what they might going through or pointing them to books which might help them feel less alone, less misunderstood, or which might help them understand what struggling classmates are going through. 

 

When I saw this video I immediately wanted to read Lily and Dunkin. I'd seen this book on various websites a number of times. It's highly rated, reviewed, recommended, won a lot of awards. Its Amazon page is prominently marked with the black banner of having been chosen as a "Teacher's Pick." Why hadn't I read Lily and Dunkin, I wondered, when I had so many other middle grade and YA books with LBGTQ+ characters in them? I'd considered buying it a number of times. Maybe it's because the book came out in hardcover 2016 and I'd been looking for more recently-published things. I'm not sure. But I ordered it the day I saw this Instagram post. I was curious to see what it is about it that could so influence a girl, that it would be the only title she mentions.

 

I had other issues with this Instagram video (even before getting the book). When was it filmed? I couldn't find the date. It must be at least a few years ago, because in it the young woman says she's 25, which means it would've been eleven years ago that she was fourteen and first "led into having gender dysphoria." Eleven years ago from now it was 2014; Lily and Dunkin wasn't even published yet. So the video is either at least a few years old, and she really did read this book at fourteen or earlier, and it had a big impact on her, OR she read it after she was fourteen and had been led into having gender dysphoria and--for some reason--she singled this one book out as representative of the type of media she was taking in when she was younger. Maybe it seemed the perfect example to her, so she chose it as an illustration of the kind of book she's saying kids shouldn't have access to. Either way, it seems unfair to the book, to the author. And it seems unfair to her school, as well, to blame her gender dysphoria on ideas she got from the media available there and saying that her school had a huge part in her grooming. This same book would've been available at a public library. She could have found it there. She could've found it at home while searching online and then gone to a library to get it. Your school isn't the only place you're going to find books, videos, and articles if you're a kid looking for them. And, no, I'm not saying these kinds of books are bad or dangerous. Books shouldn't be banned even if people sometimes misconstrue the things they read in them.

 

To be fair, I don't know this young woman's entire story, exactly what happened in her situation, so I'm not saying she's wrong or lying, and I'm sympathetic to her struggle--I struggled with not wanting to be a girl for years myself. I'm just sticking up for schools and books that, in most cases, are not to blame, are not grooming kids to be transgender.

 

...I've finished reading Lily and Dunkin. [[SPOILER: don't read the rest of this paragraph if you don't want part of the story to be given away.]] It's not at all what I thought it would be based on the young woman's mention of it in the video. It doesn't come from a super liberal perspective--this teen doesn't decide on a whim to reject the gender she was assigned at birth; this kid has felt this way since earliest memory and, although everyone's picked up on that, it hasn't always been embraced, still isn't by certain family members, and definitely hasn't been by most schoolmates. The story takes things super slow (so slow you wonder if this person's ever going to be able to come out publicly), shows the pain and anguish of parents not on the same page about their child being transgender and not on the same page about kids taking puberty-blockers, etc. Though it does have a flashback to this character as a small child wishing a body part could be snipped off, it's not about self-harm (no cutting themselves, burning themselves, having suicidal thoughts) or chopping off body parts, it's not about surgeries, doesn't discuss those as things the character's considering. The story very poignantly shows the difficulty Lily (deadname Tim, although only her mom, sister, and best friend call her Lily at the beginning of the story) has being seen either as a "fag" boy (as some boys call Lily, who still doesn't go by Lily at school, or dress as she'd like to in public; her dad disapproves of that, fearing for her safety) OR being seen as a "girl" (also said in a jeering, derogatory way, as if being a girl is a bad, weak, disgusting thing). Lily's plain old "damned if she does, damned if she doesn't." The only way she wouldn't be harassed, bullied, and abused by her peers (yes, she's physically and emotionally abused at school) is if she were to be totally fake and act macho (even then, I don't think her act would be convincing—Lily doesn't seem to have it in her to know how to act macho), or if she moved to a different school or town maybe, somewhere with a culture more accepting of gender variance.

 

Anyway, long story short, the video posted on Instagram was unfair to Lily and Dunkin and Donna Gephardt in singling her book out (and unfair to other books and authors of books with LGBTQ characters in them). Lily and Dunkin is a story full of love and forgiveness and people trying to do the right thing in a world where kids can be unkind and things aren't always clearcut. It's a good book. So many banned middle grade and YA books are!

 

 

 

 

February 3, 2025

 

Want to try some really healthy and delicious recipes for smoothies, protein lattes, desserts, snacks, breakfast bowls, and simple light meals? My daughter has always been into cooking and concocting things, and for the past seven or eight years, ever since she read Woman Code and In the FLO, both by Alissa Vitti, she's been really into cycle syncing (eating and exercising in a way that's in sync with--supportive of--what your body needs during the various phases of your menstrual cycle), especially from a nutrition standpoint. Check out her posts on TikTok and now Instagram, where she offers "easy recipes for each day of your cycle," as well as her Cycle Synced Protein Latte Recipe Book. She's an artist with food and has quite a following! We're really proud of her, and I'm always trying her recipes even though I don't have a reason to care about cycle syncing anymore. Even my husband who has a terrible sweet tooth likes them (they're a great way to cut back on sugar, using dates and other natural sweeteners instead).

 

 

 

 

January 12 , 2025

 

 

The cover for my upcoming middle grade novel is finalized, and I'm excited to be able to share it! With images that fit my story well and striking color combinations (blues and blue-greens are my favorite colors), I'm really happy with it. The team at SparkPress, led by Art Director Julie Metz, did a great job. North of Tomboy is set to be published September 2, 2025. 

 

 

December 6, 2024

 

A couple weeks ago I received some workups for ideas for the cover of my middle grade novel, North of Tomboy (coming out next fall in September of 2025). Although none of them were just right, I was pleasantly surprised that I liked things about almost all of the six or seven ideas I was presented with to look over and give feedback on, and one of them stood out to me as a favorite that I think could be really good with some changes that shouldn't be hard to do, as far as the artwork.

 

Why was I pleasantly surprised, am I a pessimist who expects the worst? No, but as someone who is artistic herself and has such a definite vision of what she wants her cover to project about her book, I was afraid I might be expecting too much. I can be a perfectionist, and this was one part of my book that I had to totally give over to someone else.

 

Would I have liked to design my own cover? No, not totally by myself, but I would like input, and the final say as to, yes, it's ready. I was and have been asked for ideas, lots of them--examples of book covers I like, stock images that seem to fit my main character, photos, ideas for images that might be used on it, fonts I like, colors, color combos, styles... I actually couldn't believe how much input the cover art team gives authors. But while I might have an artistic eye, I don't necessarily know what sells, what's current in the middle grade cover world. Yes, I looked at many recently published middle grade books (art vs. realitic photographs seems to be the thing now) and YA books, (again, art), but as to what kind of art? That was all over the place. In a world where so many books are sold online, a cover image the size of a stamp (on a cell phone or iPad) has to pop, so often the small, little details aren't as important or readily visible, don't show unless a person is interested enough to click on it and see it larger. I didn't want a cover that might look dated either. For those reasons, I really wanted my cover to be designed by someone who does this for a living and considers things in terms of 2024 and beyond. And the cover art team seems receptive to feedback, so I'm excited to see what they do with it. We'll see... Hopefully I can share the cover soon!

 

 

Last week I found out that my publisher's going to stick with the title I've been using for my middle grade novel that's coming out next fall. I hadn't heard, and many other authors in our SparkPress "cohort" of Fall 2025 authors were saying that their titles had been changed, or were going to be changed once they could agree/decide on a new one, but that you really couldn't be sure what your title was until they (someone at the SparkPress) told you they were keeping your title or changing it, and that if they wanted to change it, they would come up with suggestions, things they liked better, but that it was a collaborative thing and they were very good at coming up with title ideas. I haven't heard a thing about my title (sometimes for me, ignorance is bliss, and I'd rather be in the dark than ask and hear the scary answer; but there usually comes a point where I just really need/want to know...), so last week in a Zoom with the publisher to discuss my illustrations, I got up the courage to ask if they'd decided to keep my title or change it. She said something to the effect of, "Oh, we thought you knew; we like it." Phew. So, North of Tomboy it is. Smile. And she said they're fine using the endpaper maps and the little black and white sketches I drew (spot illustrations and vignettes are scattered throughout the book, usually at chapter headings)--they only asked me to improve upon two of them. Another smile. Now I'm curious to see the cover art they come up with for the book...

 

 

(...my new book that's coming out September 2025, that is; see my last Newsletter entry, below this one...)

 

September 4, 2024

 

I always wanted it to be middle grade, worked hard to make it middle grade and thought it was, but there was some talk that it might be marketed as young adult. I'm relieved that it's not. Nothing wrong with YA books (my first published novel was YA, Going for the Record, Eerdmans BFYR, 2004, 2021), but the main character of my story starts out at 9+ years old ends it at 10+, and the story's innocent and young in nature, so I just didn't see teens being interested in a story about a kid that age (not unless they were like my main character growing up). 

It's interesting that some books with younger main characters are marketed as YA, or even adult. I'll never forget when The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (by Kristin Kemp) came out in 2006 and was marketed as YA when it has a main character who's nine. Yes, it's about Auschwitz and the Holocaust and much of that might be a bit much for young kids, depending on how it's presented, how in depth, but I just wondered how many young adult readers would choose to read about a nine-year-old, or how the publisher was going to make sure younger readers or their parents would come to know about this book. Maybe they felt they had to do this, given the subject matter (I read somewhere that the author himself didn't recommend it for 9-year-old readers), so that parents could decide whether or not to let their children read this. My son was nine at the time it came out. We read books together nightly, a chapter or more at bedtime from some middle grade novel. So I decided to try this book out with him, thinking I could assess as I read to him, stop and talk over or explain anything that seemed difficult or too much for him. We devoured this book; he seemed very interested. We had some great discussions, and nothing brought up by the story seemed to be more than he could understand or handle (I mean who can really understand what happened there?). But I thought it was an interesting choice, to initially market that book as YA. It was reviewed by Booklist as for "Gr. 7-10" and by School Library Journal as for "Grade 9 Up," and I've read other places that it's recommended for teens and adults, but I see now on Amazon that the reading age, according to customers, is given as 9+. So maybe more middle graders are getting their hands on this book now, years after it came out. Books like this are tricky. I tend to agree that this might be one that's best read with a parent, and yet if my son had come home from the school library with this one as a 9-year-old or if I'd found out he was reading it at school all on his own during silent reading each day, I don't think I'd have been worried or upset, even if I knew what the book was about.
 
Having said all that about The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and a story theme that could be considered too mature/difficult for younger readers, I don't see my book as being in that catagory. Yes, my book deals with gender-identity, but in a totally non-sexual and historical way (by which I mean no one is discussing LGBTQ labels/issues or putting anything on the kid or in their mind as some suggest is happening currently; except for the misogyny inherent in my mc's culture, which isn't to be dismissed, everything else is coming from within the kid and how they feel/think/percieve things. I don't see my book ending up on a banned book list, but then I wouldn't have predicted a lot of the books that are on banned book lists would be!

 

 

August 30, 2024

 

I'm excited to announce that I have a new book coming out, tentative publication date of September 2, 2025. I don't want to say too much too soon, but it's juvenile historical fiction set in 1972-73, a semi-autobiographical novel. More to come as I can reveal title and cover. But it's been a long time coming and will be available everywhere books are sold.

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"It is only by expressing all that is inside that purer and purer streams come."
~Brenda Uela­nd

My favorite Writing Books:

The Virgin's Promise, by Kim Hudson

 

Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Magic Words, by Cheryl B. Cline

 

Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Behind the Plot, by Peter Dunne

ME, by Brenda Ueland

If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland

On Writing, by Stephen King

Walking on Water, by Madeliene L'Engle

The Forest for the Trees; An Editor's Advice to Writers, by Betsy Lerner

Take Joy, by Jane Yolen

Bird by Bird; Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott

Plot, by Ansen Dibell

Beginnings, Middles & Ends, by Nancy Kress

The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler

Picture Writing, by Anastasia Suen

Writers Dreaming, by Naomi Epel

Hooked, by Les Edgerton

Scene and Structure, by Jack Bickham

 

Save the Cat!, by Blake Snyder

 

The Plot Whisperer, by Martha Alderson

I don't pretend to have any writerly advice to give that you can't read a hundred other places. Read, write, write, write, get feedback, revise. Learn all you can wherever and from whoever you can. I would only add; pour it all out there, every little thing you want to, and then prune it, perfect it, ...however long that takes.

For me, it's all about patience and persistance. That's not a fun thing to hear when you are starting out (or when you've just published your first book and are trying to get someone interested in your other manuscripts!) but it's the truth. When I look back and think of some of the things I submitted and how I hoped and prayed that someone would publish them, I just have to say, "Thank God for unanswered prayers!" Time and waiting are really not your enemies; they are your friends. With them, you will only get better, and when that story of yours is finally published it will be so much better than it is now. And if that story means so much to you that you have years' worth of hard work invested in it, then don't you really want to do justice to it and have it be the best it can be?

So we write on, and we believe in what we're doing because we have this story we just have to share. Is it worth it? Is the story that important that we should invest so much in it when we could be doing other things with our time? If we are still working away at it years later (I've been working on one for 37 years, and I still have not lost any enthusiasm for it), then it must be that important to us. And if we are working so hard on something, then it cannot help but be good when it is finished. I don't think that sort of investment is selfish--quite the opposite, I think it is very unselfish to want to share something that badly. To put yourself out there in front of everybody, naked, and not to be doing it for money (most of us will never earn a living doing this), but because you have this story you just must share. That's work that is love.

I write for the child I used to be, and for all of them out there who struggle with the same things I struggled with, or love the same things I loved, the child who I know is dying to read the book I'm writing.

And in all honesty, I also write in the hope (however naive) that one day my writing will enable me to contribute financially to my family. Ha!