New Client Alert- Kristen Wixted

Name: Kristen Wixted 
What you Write: Picture books, Middle Grade
Agent: Moe Ferrara
Why BookEnds? Because of Moe 🙂

What genres do you write? Read?

Kristen: Write: Picture books, Middle Grade novels

Read: Picture books, middle-grade fiction and non-fiction, YA novels, adult novels, and for a change, once in a while on vacation I’ll read adult non-fiction.

If you’re not reading or writing, what would we catch you doing?  

Kristen: Spending time with my family, gardening, buying interesting jars at the grocery store despite not knowing how to cook anything with what’s inside them

Where can readers find you on the web and social media?

Twitter, Instagram: @kpwix 

What’s the last book you read?

Kristen: Just re-read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern; Just started Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

If money were no object, what would be your dream writing location?

Kristen: Anywhere I can concentrate, as long as there are trees nearby

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice you’ve received?

Kristen: There are so many personal ones, but here’s one that everyone might relate to: from the essay Demystifying the Writer’s Fear of Failure

by Sarah Labrie:

“…in this, the era of “fail fast and fail often,” for many writers, to admit to not having gotten there yet feels like acknowledging the very real possibility that we might not ever get there at all.

Which is, in some sense, ridiculous. No one expects a medical student to perform surgery correctly on his first try. And no corporate lawyer would be allowed to negotiate a merger without experience and years of law school behind her. Lawyers and doctors learn by doing. Writers feel we should already know.”

But you shouldn’t already know, and you shouldn’t compare writing to something like medical school which, if you follow all the directions, leads to a guaranteed outcome. There is no guarantee for writers. You have to practice, have faith that you are meant to be doing this, and keep going. 

Drink of choice when writing? When not writing?

Kristen: When writing, breakfast tea (morning) ice water (afternoon). That’s so boring! When not writing, a chocolate malted frappe with a cherry on top.

If you could meet any author, living or dead, who would you want to meet and why?

Kristen: Emily Bronte, for a walk on the moors. 

Do you belong to any writing organizations?

Kristen: SCBWI, The Writers’ Loft in Sherborn, MA (I’m on the board of directors there)

Advice to query trenches:

Kristen: Get yourself some writing buddies, critique partners, and general friendships inside your writing world. This is too hard to do in a vacuum. You are not alone.