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MEET STACIA DEUTCH
by Ann Stalclup (courtesy of Amy Werner)

 Did you write stories when you were growing up? at school? Or at home as a hobby? As a young child, or as a teenager, or both?

Stacia Deutsch

I wrote stories in school, but never thought about being a writer.  It wasn’t until much later that I thought that writing would be a good career for me.  I have, however, always been a big reader.  I read everything, but my favorites are fantasy and time travel and adventure.  I knew, when I decided to write a book, I’d want it to be one of those kind of stories.

What audience did you have in mind for your career as a writer - adult or children?

I actually started writing for adults.  I published on novel and was having a lot of trouble selling another. One time, someone read my book and said, “You write in a young voice.” That means, that my adult characters talked more like kids than adults.  I thought about and realized she was right!  So I changed and started writing kid characters …as they say…the rest is history! I guess I just think like a kid!

What was your first job when you graduated from college? 

I went to graduate school to be a rabbi.  That’s a Jewish community leader.  After a few years of working in a temple, I realized that I was unhappy.  One day, I saw in the newspaper that one of my favorite, adult, authors was coming to town.  I went to hear her speak, met a bunch of authors in the audience and knew that I wanted to give writing a try.  I sold my first book two years later.

Was your first book accepted immediately? or did you experience a number of rejections?

The first book was honestly easier to sell than any others.  I don’t know why.  Luck? Maybe. When I decided to write for kids, I partnered with my BFF, Rhody Cohon.  She does all the research for anything we write and edits and we work on the plots together. Once we got together, it did take a while to make that first children’s book sell – again, we were very lucky.  We told everyone we knew that we’d written a book.  Someone knew someone who got us an agent.  And someone knew someone who was an editor at Simon and Schuster.  We connected them and ended up with our first three book deal for BLAST TO THE PAST!

What are the topics are some of your books?

In the BLAST TO THE PAST books, four third graders time travel to meet famous people in American history.  There are eight books: LINCOLN’S LEGACY, DISNEY’S DREAM, BELL’S BREKTRHOUGH, KING’S COURAGE, SACAGAWEA’S STRENGTH, FRANKLIN’S FAME, WASHINGTON’S WAR, AND BETSY ROSS’S STAR.
After BLAST TO THE PAST, we started writing other things. We have ghost written mystery novels, and a tween girl book.  We also do movie jr. novel tie-ins.  We wrote BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT, DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION, and CLOUDY WITH A CHACE OF MEATBALLS.

Do you do other types of writing - for example, educational, nonfiction, magazine work?

Rhody and I have written articles for magazines and several non-fiction biographies.  It’s really fun to get to know someone in depth, but it’s also really hard to make sure you get all your facts right.  You don’t want to say someone has three brothers when they have four!  Rhody is a great fact checker. I’m lucky to work with her.

What kinds of things inspire you to write?

Have you ever read a really bad book and thought, “I can do better than this!” That was a big part of my inspiration.  It was a bad book about a lady who finds a dog.  So bad!  And I thought, “Well, if she can get published, I can too.”  So I started writing. 
Before I sat down though, I thought about all my favorite books.  I knew if I was going to write something, it would have to be on a topic I LOVED.  I LOVE time travel books, so I decided to start with one of those.

When is your next book going to be in book stores? 

Our next exciting book is called HOT PURSUIT.  It is coming out in March 2010.  It is the true story of three civil rights workers who were being chased by the police. They had to decide whether to stop their car and be arrested for registering voters, something that they felt should not be illegal, or to try and run away, knowing their lives were in danger.

When you do school visits, what question do children ask you most?

At schools, I love to talk to the kids about who they would like to time travel and visit.  It’s such fun to hear their ideas, and who knows, maybe they will inspire the next subject for another BLAST TO THE PAST book!

Has anyone ever written you a fan letter that you’d like to share?

My favorite fan letter said:
You are the third best author because Dav Pilkey is 1st best. R.L Stine is 2nd best. And you are the third best.