Welcome, Marie. 

About Marie: I’m a semi-retired, remedial reading tutor living with my artist husband Ed Hagedorn and Max the Cat in our historic house within sight of Lake Ontario, east of Toronto, ON. When not writing or tutoring, I love hanging out with our grandkids, working in our gardens, and relaxing under the big umbrella by our pond.

Where are you from? I was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and grew up in northern New Jersey. As an adult I lived in Toronto for seventeen years before moving east to the edge of a small town near Lake Ontario in Northumberland County, Ontario. (Sort of directly north of Rochester, New York.)

Where do you get your ideas from? Most of my ideas arise from my life. The historic, octagonal house in which I live is the setting for my time-travel, middle grade novel The Girl From the Attic. The story is fictional, but inspired by people who once lived here. My new picture book Who’s Walking Dawg? was inspired by my dearly-departed dog, Chester, although that story too is fictional. My children’s short stories were inspired by incidents in my kids’ lives. All my nature writing arises from life in my gardens and down by our pond. But I have written picture book stories, still unpublished, that originated totally from my imagination.

Tell us about your new book.

My recently released picture book is Who’s Walking Dawg?. This is my description of Dawg’s story that appears here and there –

“When Dawg’s busy family ignores his pleas for a walk, he takes matters into his own paws and follows his nose on an adventure through the neighborhood. Eventually his rumbly tummy reminds him where his food bowl dwells, as well as his frantic family who is searching for him in all the wrong places. Nowadays families are busier than ever and inevitably something important gets dropped. Dawg’s story reassures children and adults that things work out at the end of the day, sometimes in unusual ways. As they finish reading Dawg’s story, children will laugh in recognition and parents will sigh ‘it’s all good.’”

What else have you written? I write across the genres – mid-grade novel The Girl From the Attic (2020, Common Deer Press); picture books, memoir pieces and children’s short stories (Hill Spirit Anthologies II-VI, Blue Denim Press); poetry published here and there, or not.

What has been the most challenging for you as a writer/author? Right now, the most challenging thing for me is to balance writing & revision time with the other demands of being an author – submissions, critique partner feedback, book promotion, social media, launch group support/posts/book reviews, author meetings, webinars, book signings. I often feel like I’m dropping one ball or another. 

How did you find your publisher for this book? In early 2022, I learned that the small, but highly respected Red Deer Press had a new editor who was accepting submissions sent by snail mail (!!!). I sent her two stories. One was returned in its self-addressed envelope within two months. The other not. Two months later, Bev Brenna emailed to ask if Dawg was still available. I signed the contract with their parent company Fitzhenry and Whiteside that summer. The illustrator Leanne Franson from Saskatchewan signed her contract by the end of the year. I loved her illustrations from the moment I saw the thumbnails in 2023. Unfortunately, computer issues delayed Leanne’s final illustration deadline. But when they were finally sent to me, I couldn’t be happier with her work. Then there were printing delays. Finally, Dawg was released mid-November 2024 in Canada and mid January 2025 in the US.

How do you handle rejections? Rejections are never nice, especially because I really research agents and publishers whose interests and publications most match what I am writing. Like every author, I regularly receive them and often hear only silence. Of course it’s discouraging not having one’s stories accepted, but the competition is fierce. Sometimes I want to throw in the towel. But I keep writing and submitting. 

Are you currently looking for an agent? I do not have an agent, but keep seeking one, although not rigorously. In Canada it’s not necessary to have one as many of the publishers open their submission window once or twice a year. However, un-agented submissions do go into the slush pile, which publishers say they look at, but mostly never respond to. I always submit my stories with a query letter. 

What is next for you? Next is now and the past few months. I’m writing the back matter for a dual-narrative, informational picture book about turtles and a child who loves them. I hope to start submitting it soon. Another dual narrative story about a bird is percolating in the back of my head. Lately, I finished a short piece for an Ekphrastic project sponsored by my local Hill Spirits Writers Group and a local Artist Group. Writers chose artist paintings and wrote poems inspired by them. The twinned project will be displayed in April. Last October I had a children’s short story published in Hill Spirits Anthology VI by Blue Denim Press. In another local project, Picnic on Poetry, in which poems are etched on ten wooden picnic tables in the park, one of my poems appears on the Women’s Table. I like being connected to local writers, as I rarely get to see the picture book writers in my SCBWI or 12×12 groups.

If you’d like to follow Marie, www.marieprins.ca IG – @marie.prins

Marie, thank you for stopping by! 

MAY’s BOOK GIVEAWAY WINNER IS: JENNIFER JAMES. CONGRATS!