Get To Know Naomi Davis

“Welcome to the BookEnds “Get to Know” series. You’ve read our bios, follow us on social media, and you know which genres we represent. But behind the business persona, we are real people with real lives, hobbies, pet peeves, and passions. These are the people we want to share with you.” – JF

I’m Naomi Davis, and I’m so excited to say I’ve been with Bookends for 2 years now. Coming from my previous agency, I still had much to learn when I arrived here, and I’ve been honored to learn from all the amazing agents who are so generous in sharing their expertise with me as I’ve grown in this career.  I’m looking forward to many prosperous years in this industry and shelf upon shelf of new books!

Hobbies

I spent my childhood singing, and I still do, today! Singing brings me joy and fills me with creative satisfaction much the way writing does. I’m so energized after a 4-hour rehearsal evening that you’ll sometimes find me on Twitter yapping about queries long into the night when my brain is still too stimulated to fall asleep. I wrestle with stage fright. It used to be crippling! But now I’ve embraced the fear as part of what helps me perform well, and a reminder to never stop striving to do learn and improve every day. That’s a mindset I try to apply to my whole life and everything I do.

Pet Peeves

Dear Family,

SCRAPE YOUR PLATES BEFORE THEY GO IN THE DISHWASHER. THIS IS HONESTLY NOT THAT HARD. I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY I HAVE TO SAY IT EVERY DAY. DO YOU ACTUALLY THINK I WANT TO WASH EVERYTHING TWICE? DO YOU?

In all seriousness, I’m not the kind of person who is bothered by a lot. Having three children, it’s easy for me to just let things roll off my back. I don’t get stressed out about dirty socks tossed on the floor or my kids piling toys at the table or my actual carpet becoming a sea of Lego.

But scrape your plates. Please. It is not that hard. *restrained eye twitch*

Passions

I am a pretty skilled home cook. Like, I’m really good, actually. I love being a mom of 3, and I lived in a very isolated location while I was raising 3 toddlers, so in addition to developing a massive stable of imaginary friends book characters and fictional worlds to occupy my intensely creative mind, I also tackled learning to cook many different styles from all over the world. Lately, I’ve been working through The Little Teochew Cookbook by Eric Low, and it has been a new adventure in developing kitchen skills I knew little about before. I’d love to work on nonfiction projects about lesser-known styles of food and how they influence and are influenced by the cultures surrounding these foods.

I am also a hardcore science fiction and fantasy fan, whether that’s books, movies, TV shows, art, or video games. This translates into my work, of course: I’m always looking for exciting new adult sci fi and fantasy projects! Something about being swept into a speculative world and learning how characters interact when there’s new technology or magic just steals my heart. If I can also see my current reality reflected in these interactions, I’m sold. I’m passionate about bringing less-often-heard voices into these genres (and others), because there is just no limit to the number of stories you can tell from different perspectives.

I’m also a mom of three soon-to-be/already teenagers. As such, I have a soft spot for contemporary YA books that really show the importance of the teenage experience. Teenagers are experiencing levels of intensity they’ve never encountered before, and they take this very seriously. I feel that as adults, we have to respect this experience and how intense it is… after all, we are only as good as we are at dealing with Big Things because we practiced through the drama of high school. So I love YA books that highlight how powerful teenage relationships are and how crucial these relationships are in those formative years.

I look forward to seeing you in my query box!