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MEET MARIANNE D. WALLACE
by Bonnie O'Brian

What did you most like to do when you were a child?

Marianne D. Wallace

I loved exploring out-of-doors. This was hard to do sometimes since I grew up in Los Angeles. However, we lived close enough to the ocean for me to explore tidepools and learn about sea life. And my grandmother had a cabin in the mountains where I usually stayed a few weeks each summer so I spent a lot of time hiking and exploring the forest.

When you went to college, were you already pursuing a writing or illustrating career?

 No. I remember drawing and doing lots of art projects while I was growing up but it was what I did for fun - I didn’t want to be required to draw for a grade or a degree. Writing as a career never occurred to me although I did enjoy writing. What I really wanted was to be paid to be outside learning about animals, like Jane Goodall and the chimpanzees. So I became a biologist.

What was your first job when you graduated from college?

My very first job was as a grocery store checker. I think I was the only college graduate working at the checkstands. But it paid really well and most biology jobs at the time were in laboratories. I wanted to work outdoors. About six months out of college, I got a job as a tour guide and school field leader at a botanic garden. I consider that my first “real” job.

If you didn’t write as a child, then when did you start writing and what inspired you to start?

 I went back to college to get a secondary teaching credential so I could teach biology, a subject I loved. Most of my writing up till then was non-fiction “technical-type” papers with literature-cited. But then one of my instructors – I think it was a Psychology of Teaching class – wanted us to write a couple pages about what we thought about something. Not exactly stream-of-consciousness but certainly not something based specifically on facts like I was used to. Writing those two typed pages was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. Afterward, I felt pretty good about my effort and let my husband read it. When he told me I was a good writer, he planted the seed. That seed sprouted when I realized a few months later that I didn’t want to be in a classroom for 9 months teaching the same material year after year. But...I could write and illustrate books and share my love of biology and natural history in that way.

How soon after that was your first book published? When was it published?

I took a leave-of-absence from getting my teaching credential and began learning about children’s publishing while working on America’s Deserts, Guide to Plants and Animals, my first book for kids. It was published in 1996, two and a half years after I left the teacher credential program.

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

I spent about a year attending conferences, researching children’s writing, reviewing publishers, and preparing the submission of America’s Deserts. I ended up with about ten publishers that seemed likely to publish an illustrated (no photographs) natural history guidebook for children. The first only wanted photographs (their new policy for “science” books), the second had just acquired two books on deserts, and the third was a publisher of adult natural history books looking at titles for their new children’s imprint. They bought America’s Deserts and have since published a series of my natural history guides for children.

Do you focus on fiction or nonfiction? Do you find one easier than the other?

Most of my work is non-fiction, which is easier for me and comes much more naturally. However, I’m incorporating more literary elements into my present projects and plan to do some fiction, especially in picture books. But science, especially nature, is my passion. So I suspect that even in future fiction projects, I will incorporate some factual, or non-fiction, elements.

Do you enjoy researching or do you prefer working totally from your imagination?

My favorite part of a writing project is the research. I love research. That’s when I’m learning something new. But research ties me to my reference books and a computer with Internet access. With a lot of fiction, I can use my imagination to write anywhere, anytime. There’s great freedom in that and is one reason I’d like to do some fiction writing.

Do you work on more than one book at a time?

I always have several projects in some stage of completion. But I can only focus on one book at a time and the closer I get to a deadline, the more focused I become. My field guides for children require a lot of research (the last in the series, America’s Forests, will have illustrations of about 300 plants and animals!) and ultimately take me about a year and a half to complete. So during that time, I take mini-breaks and work on other writing or illustrating.

Which of your books did you most enjoy writing?

America’s Seashores. I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was twelve years old and have always loved seashore animals. So I knew a lot about the seashore before I began researching and writing the book. I kind of knew what I wanted to include in the book from the beginning so that made the whole process easier and more enjoyable.

What are you working on now? When do you expect to start submitting it to publishers? When is it book going to be in bookstores?

I have finished the manuscript and am drawing the illustrations for America’s Forests. It’s the 6 th and last book in a series so I don’t have to go through the submission process. That book and a boxed set of the entire series is due in bookstores fall, 2008 or spring, 2009.

Do you write every day and do you have set hours that you work?

I try to do all my writing and illustrating during the week so I have weekends free to be with my family. About 8:00 in the morning, I look at email and review work from the previous day. If I’m not actually writing or illustrating, I’m usually on the Internet doing research or reading through reference books. Since my office is at home, I get out of the house and go out to lunch a couple days a week at a local deli and write or do book research for a few hours. Sometimes, my favorite time to work is late at night, when the family has gone to bed and the house is dark and quiet.

What other jobs did you have before you became a writer and illustrator?

I had several part-time jobs during high school and college: babysitting, selling donuts, scooping ice cream, veterinary assistant, botanical illustrator, and gift wrapper at a department store. After college I was a supermarket checker, tour guide/field leader and printing-press operator at a botanic garden, elementary science teacher, outdoor recreation leader, education specialist at a mosquito control district, and manager at a botanic garden gift shop and bookstore.