Today we have author Maggie Lyons who just debuted
her first children’s contemporary chapter book, Vin and the Dorky Duet from
MuseItUp Publishing (eBook) and Halo Publishing International (print). When I
asked Maggie Lyons to share a bit about herself she said, “Well, I don’t want
to alarm your readers so I won’t tell them about the time I was a spy for the
British government. No kidding. I really was—a very informal one—but that’s
another story.”
I’m sorry to say, I didn’t ask Lyons to share more
on that as I was worried for my family’s wellbeing. However, later in this
spotlight interview you will find her contact information and are free to write
her about it. However, I did learn Maggie Lyons was born in a Welsh coal-mining
town and brought up, very properly, in England, where she became an
exceptionally boring child, always reading and practicing piano. Well that is
how she tells it anyway. “I had no idea who the famous pop singers were. I only
knew about dead European composers like Mozart and Chopin. When I was pushed
into adulthood, I zigzagged my way through a maze of professional environments,
managing orchestras, writing concert program notes—one of my favorite jobs—and trying
to appease a troupe of ballet dancers, which has to be an oxymoron. After beavering
away in marketing and media relations in the completely unrelated fields of coffee
and law, I finally settled down to have fun with red ink as an editor for an
academic publisher. When I ‘retired’ I became a freelance editor and discovered
the joy of writing for children,” shared Lyons.
If you call that a boring life, I would love to see
what Lyons considers adventurous. Lyons originally became a writer by default
and said with no regard for the well-being of her family she trained as a
classical pianist, subjecting all around her to four hours of practice a day. “I
suspect the pterodactyls that landed in my stomach before public concerts had
something to do with not taking up a career as a concert pianist. Instead, I
found myself learning how to put rear ends on concert hall seats, otherwise
known as orchestral management,” shard Lyons.
Her first job in that heady field entailed writing
the program notes for the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC. Lyons
said it was a job made in heaven. “I wallowed in the music section of the
Library of Congress and luxuriated in the incredible privilege of being allowed
to take books home to read. The research was as much fun as writing the notes,
if not more so. My job was to write such compelling notes about the music on
the concert program that audiences would actually want to read them before
scanning the donor lists to see who may have donated more than they had. I had
to balance the light—what the composer liked to eat for breakfast, and so
on—with the heavy—how the musical composition was constructed. The job was an
extension of what I had enjoyed studying at college, but now I was being paid
to do it. Try beating that,” stated Lyons.
The writing continued as Lyons zigzagged her way
through the marketing, public relations and fundraising bastions of a motley
variety of business environments. In the meantime, Lyons rediscovered her
fascination of children’s fiction when she began reading bedtime stories to her
son, just as Lyons parents had read to her when she was small. “As a single
mom, I didn’t have the time or the mindset to devote energy to writing my own
children’s stories. I’m in awe of working mothers who can do that. It was only
when I retired from full-time work the idea of writing articles for children’s
magazines swooped in one day,” said Lyons. “I have no idea where it came from,
but there it was, waving frantically at me.”
Lyons began her children’s writing career by writing
some articles, which miraculously appeared in Stories for Children Magazine. “Then
I thought of stringing a few more words together to make something longer,
fictional, a little homage to the land of my birth—Wales. And so my first book
came into being, an adventure story about a Welsh dragon who discovers an
unorthodox and very smelly remedy for his inability to snort fire,” shared
Lyons. “It’s the exuberance of children’s literature that has inspired my
attempts to contribute to the literature, and the older I become, the more exuberance
I crave, but I hope I’m not the only one having fun with my stories.”
After talking with Maggie Lyons a bit about the different
types of writing she has done, she shared her thoughts on writing for children
and how it is harder than any type of writing she has done in the past. “Especially
if you’re long past your own childhood and don’t have children around you. It’s
not just a question of appealing to the culture, language and mindset of
children, you have to know what their parents and all the other adults in their
world find appealing too—a double whammy,” shared Lyons.
However, Lyons favorite part of writing for young
people is indulging in all that innocence, enthusiasm, imaginative freedom,
escapism and humor that is the essence of children’s literature. All of which
shows in her recently debuted children’s contemporary book, Vin and the Dorky Duet. The book was inspired
by two incorrigible habits of Lyons: music and challenges. “I’m an amateur
musician and the main character, twelve-year-old Vin, is learning to play the
trumpet. I think he secretly likes challenges, though he complains when faced
with one. I think he also knows life would be pretty boring if there were no
challenges, even if he can’t successfully meet all of them. Having a go is what
life’s about, isn’t it? I was also inspired by fond memories of my son when he
was twelve years of age. He was fun,” said Lyons.
The story
is about the disasters that pile up when a seventh-grader named Vin and his
brilliant plan to meet his sister’s challenge takes more than one wrong turn.
Life tosses challenges at all of us. It would be incredibly boring if it
didn’t. What matters is what we learn from them. When magnetic compost heaps, man-eating bubble
baths and other disasters erupt, Vin comes close to packing in the completely
ridiculous business. He calls it Operation BS, his code name for a mission to
introduce his sister to a boy she has a crush on. He doesn’t want to play
matchmaker, but Meg’s promise to reward him with a David Beckham autographed
soccer jersey is a decisive incentive. It’s a great book for reluctant readers as well.
You
can buy the e-book at
Amazon
and at the MuseItUp Publishing bookstore under the MuseItYoung section. MuseItUp
lists a number of other outlets where the book can be purchased too. The
paperback is available at
Halo Publishing
International.
If
you would like to learn more about Maggie Lyons and her books, you can visit
the following sites:
Thank you for spending time with us today, Maggie.
We wish you much success.
First on Blogcritics http://blogcritics.org/books/article/spotlight-interview-with-maggie-lyons-author/
