Chatting with Debra Hess

I have the pleasure of chatting with Author, Senior Editor, Highlights for Children, and faculty, Highlights Foundation Debra Hess today! So grab yourself a cup of coffee, cozy up to your display and join us…

If we were sitting down at a coffee shop for this interview, what would you be drinking?

Nonfat cappuccino with an extra shot

And what might you be snacking on?

Fresh fruit salad

That sounds yummy – now I want a fresh fruit salad!  O.K. – enough about food! Let’s get to the important stuff. What was your favorite book as a child?

Harriet the Spy. Although I did read Little Women and Little Men over and over again.

And now, what’s your favorite book as an adult?

The Secret History by Donna Tartt  (but I reserve the right to change my mind ‘cause there are lots of books I consider favorites.)

With so many great children’s books out these days, which ones have stood out to you recently?

The best YA fiction book I’ve read recently is Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick and the best nonfiction picture book I’ve read in a long time is The Boy Who Loved Math by Deborah Heiligman and the book I’m reading now is Killing Jesus by Bill O’Reilly which I was really enjoying until the sentence “Herod sighed,” because as a nonfiction editor I have to ask where the primary source material for that sigh is.

You’ve been locked in a bank vault Twilight Zone style, so you finally have time to read!  Your glasses are fine(whew!)so what’s the first book you crack open? 

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

 

If you followed the career path you chose for yourself in high school, what would you be doing for a living now? 

I actually have a BFA in acting. Was going to be an actress but my stage fright was just terrible.

That’s awesome!  Well the acting part – not so  much the stage fright… It can be tough trying something new and putting yourself out there for the world to see, which leads me to my last question: If you could sum up your best advice for new writers in only four words, what would it be?

Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.

Great advice – thanks for spending time with us today Debra and we can’t wait to see you at the Spring: Nature’s Revised Draft! conference.