Polly Alice McCann - February 2023 Featured Author
Polly Alice MCCANN writes and illustrates children’s books. She thinks stories are all about exploring our imaginations, creating new places, new worlds, and new friends. She has a secret love for hearts and an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Hamline University. She is always planning the next adventure to share with whoever will come along. She's taught picture book writing at Metropolitan Community College and edited so many wonderful published books. She lives in Kansas City, MO, by a creek with a valentine bridge. Check out her other books at PollyMcCann.com and her newest picture book, Tomie Q. Barbeque, a folk tale.
Can you tell us a little about the book and the inspiration behind it?
I wrote this book during my MFA in writing for Children and Young Adults at Hamline University almost ten years ago. I worked on it with Jaqueline Briggs Martin. I wanted to do a folk tale-style story even though they were kind of out of favor at that time. I did a ton of research on the origins of Kansas City and read live transcriptions of people who lived in Westport or nearby and had to pay unpredictable ferry men to get across the river because there was no bridge.
On the other hand, I also wanted a story that would celebrate the funny things about my dad and mom. I grew up in the area but went to high school on the east coast. My dad asking for ketchup or barbeque sauce or tobacco sauce at every restaurant we went to never stood out here, but on the East coast it did.
The last element that built the ideas behind the book was the story of how my grandpa always offered visitors a homemade hot pepper from a jar. Everyone always declined. But when my dad came to meet my grandparents for the first time, my grandpa said, "Son, would you like a hot pepper?" And my dad said "Sure, and took several and ate them whole." In my mind, this family legacy was always the recipe for love and winning someone's heart. So out came a crazy folk tale about true love and the spices we use to talk about daily life. I've always been fascinated by folk tales and tall tales, especially. It was cool to discover the legend that the tall tale was invented in Kansas City by a man named Bridger, who ran Bridger's general store in Westport before Kansas City had its name.
"Way back when this land was prairie and buffalo, Tomie was born on a ripe blue day and he let out a howl as fierce as the sun itself," reads this first line of my Americana folk tale about a little ketchup peddler named Tomie Q. who has to find a new recipe to win the love of his life, Anna Suzanna. You'll meet a lot of great characters in this book: cowboys, a preacher, a spice woman, and an infamous troll.
Most importantly, the story was brought to life thanks to my co-creator from Dodge City, Kansas, Mary Anne Hendrix, who did the beautiful illustrations. She helped me understand a lot about illustrations that I never learned in school about how to trust a kid's imagination and how to develop the characters in the story that weren't even mentioned. We met at an SCBWI conference. I fell in love with her cowboy art, and we worked on the book together for over a year.
In looking at your other published titles, I noticed several poetry books. How did you get started there, and what do you love about writing poetry?
I've always written poetry, and it's the inspiration for all I do. My most fun and most personal thing that I can do anytime, anywhere. I've published three collections of poetry. Next year, I'd like to publish a book of poetry for kids.
What do you do when you are not writing?
I'm always writing, editing, making art. If I have super free time, I like to sew and garden and watch Korean TV. It's nice to take a break from English when you are an editor.
How does the additional role of editor or publisher help you as a writer?
In some ways, it doesn't help. I still need a critique partner and a writers' group, and my work is still sometimes a mystery to me. On the other hand, I do know that sometimes a book can be overedited. Normally a picture book is written, then taken apart during the illustration process and rewritten. Then it has to be taken back closer to the original manuscript again because a lot of that extra writing that was needed to help the illustrator becomes unnecessary once the pictures are present. The writer has to fight for that original idea. I did that with Tomie Q. Barbeque. I had over 24 drafts, but I went back to the original draft and found parts I wanted to keep that were the heart of the story.
What challenges have you experienced that you didn't expect?
I've worked on becoming a picture book writer and illustrator since I was thirteen. Two degrees and a lot of submissions. But when I realized I wanted to write books for a small market, like a local legend, that editors on the east coast might not appreciate, I decided to start my own publishing company where I could capture Midwestern voices. It was a long journey of getting a trademark and hiring lawyers to make contracts, building a website then learning all the software for each type of design work. It's still in process, but I've really learned a lot along the way. I'm illustrating my first book now for a local restaurant chain. So I've worked from writer to publisher to editor to illustrator until I've been through roles needed to understand the picture book form from every angle. You could say I overdid it. But really, I just wouldn't give up on my dream. I think it will go somewhere good. I have my first book out. Ready to make more.
What is the best advice you've ever been given about writing?
Learn to rewrite and be free to make mistakes while you write just to get it all out there. Then learn to love revision, and writing will be a joy. It's two separate parts of your brain the two parts of writing, so don't do them at the same time or in the same way or the same place.