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MEET LAURA J. RENNERT
by Bonnie O'Brian

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

Laura J. Rennert

I always envisioned writing for children because the books that I came to as a child and teen are still the books that are most important and dear to me as an adult. As a kid, I was wholly immersed in the novels of the Brontës, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, C.S. Lewis, the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, the poetry of Christina Rossetti, and other authors whose books often get classified as Children’s.  As an adult, when I went on to get my Ph.D. in English Literature at the University of Virginia, these were the authors I studied, taught, and researched.  After 8 years in academia, I went on to work in publishing and I’m now the senior literary agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency, a literary agency that specializes in children’s books.   I choose to write children’s books and, as an agent, to represent children’s books and young adult/crossover fiction, because I believe that books that you love as young person have to ability to change you and to become a part of who you are.

When you went to college, were you already pursuing a writing career?(or a career in illustrating? or just art in general?)

When I went to college, my interests were divided. Either I wanted to pursue a writing career or teach and study literature, or I wanted to become a doctor.  After my first year at Cornell University, when I took both undergraduate literature and writing classes and pre med classes, it quickly became clear that my real love was writing and literature.  My father is a doctor and geneticist, and he is ethical, giving, committed, and passionate about medicine and science.  I admire him so much that I think it was more of my desire to emulate him than my own burning passion for science that were driving my pre med aspirations at the time. 

Do you focus on fiction or nonfiction? Which do you prefer? Do you findone easier than the other?
In my writing, I focus on fiction, and my first love is fiction. I think, in some ways, the truths you can tell through fiction are some of the most powerful. 
I find I’m more interested in the creation of imaginary worlds and in exploring the psyches of characters whom I create, than in writing nonfiction.  As an agent, I also represent far more fiction than nonfiction

Where do you get your ideas?

I get my ideas from delving into my own memories as a child and young person from seeing the world through the eyes of the children and teens around me.  I’m inspired by the things I love – dinosaurs, princesses, Chihuahuas, 19th-century British literature, the works of Shakespeare, Greek and Norse mythology, fairy tales, the places I’ve traveled, and the rituals in life (both big and small) that are important to me.  I’ve always had a real capacity for empathy, for seeing the world through other’s eyes, for imagining the circumstances, feelings, and backstory of other people.   I love people watching and exploring new places, because both give me the opportunity to imagine the secrets and history behind what is visible.

What gave you the idea for BUYING, TRAINING, AND CARINGFOR YOUR DINOSAUR?

I have always loved dinosaurs.  I went through a serious dinosaur phase as a child, and never really grew out of it.  I think if I were not a children’s book author and literary agent, I’d want to be a paleontologist. When my daughter was five (she’s now eleven), she and I used to play all sorts of dinosaur games and read dinosaur books.  I taught her all the different kinds of dinosaurs and this was a focus for us and she loved them, probably because I still took so much pleasure in them.  We used to pretend to be different kinds of dinosaurs, and we had many dinosaur models.  At some point, my daughter said she wished, more than anything, that she could have a dinosaur pet, and then I was off and running with the idea.  I thought about exactly what you would do and would need if you were going to bring home a dinosaur.  This was the inspiration for my own book for how to own a pet dinosaur.

Have any of your fiction stories been about real people or events?

My book BUYING, TRAINING, AND CARING FOR YOUR DINOSAUR (October 2009, Knopf/Random House) is inspired by my love of dinosaurs and the dinosaur play I did with my daughter Emma when she was five.  In some ways, my forthcoming book EMMA, THE EXTRA-ORDINARY PRINCESS (2012, Dutton/Penguin) is about Emma.  I’ve transposed her to a fictional kingdom and created a trying, high stakes situation that she’ll have to face at the Royal Princess Academy.  My Emma of course isn’t a princess, and, in fact, it was some of the most un-princessy things about her that inspire the character Princess Emma, who is her own person, a daydreamer and reader, a bit of a tomboy, very much in the physical world but not really into ballroom dancing and other more conventional princess interests.  Instead, my Princess Emma is into animals (especially magical animal care), dogs, soccer, sliding down castle banisters.  Most of her favorite activities are very hard on ball gowns and at odds with princess propriety or convention.  I love the idea of putting my character into a princessy world and then having her find the strengths and resources that will work for her in this realm that seems rather antithetical to her.  My own lovely Emma is an avid fencer, loves trapeze and soccer, adores for her Chihuahua Lola, and is both a daydreamer who explores the world of books and an intrepid traveler who wants to see the world.

What are you working on now?  When do you expect to start submitting it to publishers?

I’m working on a new picture book right now, and am just revising it for my editor at Knopf.  My editor is the only person who has seen the manuscript and, since it hasn’t been acquired yet, I feel like I should keep it under wraps for the moment.  However, I will say this much.  One of the fans of BUYING, TRAINING, AND CARING FOR YOUR DINOSAUR, who must have read a bit about my forthcoming princess Emma book, said something that captures the spirit of the new project I’m working on.  She said she wanted a copy of my DINO book for her daughters because ever princess should know how to tame her own dinosaur!  And I agree!