Debut You is an interview feature on Our Stories Matter blog. Debut authors, who have released or have upcoming releases in 2021, are given five questions to answer about themselves and their book. Currently, the questions are the same for all authors. We hope you enjoy getting to know Chrystal D. Giles and can offer your support.
Describe yourself in five words, then expound on one of them.
Supportive, driven, complicated, loyal, and analytical.
My first career in accounting trained me to process every stitch of information I came across. I am a person who loves data and analyzes EVERYTHING. The deep dive my brain takes me on is both a blessing and a curse; it has also been helpful in my second career as an author. The detailed-oriented process of writing a book in many ways is like financial reporting, minus the spreadsheets.
Explain your book’s journey—how long did it take—from idea to publication?
From idea to publication was a five-year journey. I drafted Take Back the Block in 2017, edited it in early-2018, and started querying it in mid-2018. In the fall of 2018, I entered PitchWars (a mentorship and revision program for writers). The book underwent a total rewrite during PitchWars, and in early-2019, during the PW Agent Showcase, I connected and signed with my agent, Elizabeth Bewley.
After a short revision round with my agent, the book went on submission in March 2019 and was at an auction a couple of weeks later. In April 2019, it was acquired by Shana Corey at Random House Children’s Books, an editor who’d liked my DVPit* pitch over a year earlier.
Balance is the key to successful living. How do you balance the act of writing with other priorities, such as your job, family or fun activities, and self-care?
Balance is a constant struggle for me. I like to describe myself as ‘all or nothing.’ What that really means is, I work super-hard, crash, take a break, and start the process all over. And while that process can be effective, it does eventually take a toll.
The good news is, I am working on it! I am slowly starting to incorporate some personal time for myself, and self-care has made an entrance into my daily practices.
Understanding your audience is essential. What do you know for sure about the audience you are writing for?
I know for sure, the Black kids at the center of my stories are special, deserving, powerful, normal, joyful, and need to have their stories told. My true wish is for young Black readers to have many, many stories they can see themselves in. Stories that reflect their hopes and hurdles, stories that reflect their real lives.
Tell us about your book.
Take Back the Block is my middle-grade debut novel about eleven-year-old Wes, who is on a journey to save his neighborhood from a powerful developer. Readers will fall for Wes’s relatable personality and root for him on his quest to preserve the history of his beloved neighborhood, Kensington Oaks.
This story about community, social justice, friendship, Black excellence, and Black joy will encourage and inspire.
Take Back the Block
Random House BYR | January 26, 2021 | MG | 240 Pages | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound
Chrystal D. Giles is a children’s book author and champion for diversity and representation in children’s literature. Her middle-grade debut, Take Back the Block, is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and Kids’ Indie Next Pick. Chrystal was a 2018 We Need Diverse Books mentee, and her poem “Dimples” appears in the poetry anthology Thanku: Poems of Gratitude (Millbrook). Chrystal lives outside Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband and son.
Connect with Chrystal D. Giles
*DVPit is a Twitter pitch contest for diverse voices started by Beth Phelan.
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