When limits prevent a young girl from being able to explore, she creates her own solution!

Diane Mittler is a picture book author who draws inspiration from her experiences with a mobility impairment. A retired educator and charter school founder, Diane’s enthusiasm and love of learning drive her creation of empowering, uplifting works that raise awareness about diversity, encourage creativity and problem-solving, and celebrate relationships. Diane lives in the high desert of northern New Mexico, where she enjoys nature photography and exploring with her husband, on the off-road electric bike he designed and built for her. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Instagram or Facebook.

READY TO RIDE is a picture book about physical challenges. Young Jules has an electric wheelchair, which can be great in races. But when her family loves to go hiking and off trails, it’s more of a challenge that leaves Jules feeling left out and frustrated. However, in perfect picture book fashion, she doesn’t stop there. She creates her own solution and the fix is brilliant!

Welcome Diane!

Me: Can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey? How has that brought you to this book?

Diane:  Thanks so much for having me, Jena. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to talk with you about my book!

I have always loved writing and, over time, have dabbled in a lot of different styles—journalism in high school, professional research papers in Anthropology in college and a 600-page charter school application as an educator. Probably my favorite writing has been for and with young students in classrooms—modeling different types of writing and sharing outstanding books with them as mentor texts. When I retired during the pandemic, I was excited to have time to write kidlit and explore the craft.

Me: I love this story of challenge and triumph in such a creative way. What gave you the idea?

Diane: About the time of my retirement, my writing journey and my life journey merged—a mash-up, so to say—creating the challenge you mention in your question.

Ready to Ride is based on my lived experiences with a mobility impairment.  I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1995 but didn’t have many physical issues until just before I retired. My mobility declined rapidly and left me feeling stuck just like Jules feels early in my book. I used a mobility scooter to help me move around our home and in town, but Scootie wasn’t enough in the high desert hills where I live or in the mountains in southern Colorado nearby. So (and here’s the triumph) my husband designed and built me a mobility device so we could walk, hike and explore again. That device, a four-wheeled electric bike, re-opened my world AND provided me the inspiration for a picture book.

When SCBWI-NM, my home chapter, sponsored a contest in 2023 with the prompt “journeys,” I decided it was time to capture my experiences and emotions in writing. I submitted and won an agent critique. One sunny afternoon, I rewrote my poem into a picture book text, shifting the POV from me to a spunky little girl named Jules. After receiving feedback from critique partners and that agent, I entered PBParty and was named a finalist.

Me: Can you talk a little bit about how your book came to be at Beaming Books? Did you submit your manuscript only to them, or were they your first yes? Or did your story somehow catch their attention in a different way?

Diane: Elizabeth Schleisman (now Patterson), an editor at Beaming Books, “heart-ed” my PBParty entry so I sent her the full manuscript. She was the first to follow-up (after a month) and inform me she really liked the story and the team at Beaming Books was talking about it. Later (after another month) she let me know they were interested. I did my homework and found so much to love about their books that I strongly believed that I could trust them with my book, truly with my story. I never looked back.

Me: This is your debut picture book (yay!) with an incredibly sparse text based on some of your own personal experience. Was this more of a challenge to revise? Did you find it hard to write a book that wasn’t strictly fiction as a beginning writer?

Diane: Honestly, now that I reflect on writing this, I think it was helpful to write a story that was so close to me because I had experienced the emotion firsthand. The page in the book when Jules realizes she’s missing out makes me cringe every time because I feel it so deeply. I see her emotions change when she first rides her mobility device and I feel her “YAHOO!”

Me: The illustrations by Andrea Altamirano are pitch perfect. There is so much texture, color, and movement! Any favorite illustrations? Any illustration surprises?

Diane: I love how Andrea captures the whole Jules—her pluckiness, her disappointment, her creativity and her joy. People who comment to me about Jules’ amazing resilience and perseverance didn’t get that from text alone; Jules’ characteristics shine through on every spread. I truly love every page but here are a couple favorite images: Jules creative brain as her mind starts thinking of idea possibilities and her straight-on smile riding her new device. I was surprised to notice Jules riding up to a road sign on a spread near the end that gave her two directions to choose: GO! and YAY! To me, Andrea’s image has become symbolic of my journey, Jules’ journey and the journeys others face. No matter what I deal with in my life, I always want to reach this spot, at that corner to choose the GO! route or the YAY! route. I get emotional thinking about how powerful that is!

Me: I love that. It IS powerful! What is one thing that surprised you in writing this story?

Diane: I’m the product of much-loved characters and their books from my childhood and my teaching career—Whangdoodles, Lilly and her purple purse, and Stanley Yelnats, just to name a few. I dreamed of publishing a kidlit book one day, but I never imagined, perhaps never could have imagined, that my debut would bring a character like Jules to life. Because of own my life journey, I’ve had the opportunity to share a story that provides both mirrors and windows, while also empowering readers and building empathy and understanding.

Me: Any advice for new picture book writers?

Diane: Find joy every single day; bonus points if it is related to something you’ve written, plotted, imagined or created. Embrace that this writing journey will be difficult and that at times you will take more steps backward than forward. Look for every opportunity and take it—a critique group, a mentorship, a contest, a conversation. Little successes add up and help build momentum; celebrate each one of them. Take a break when you need it—sometimes thinking about something else for a while helps you see a challenge from a new perspective. Don’t lose sight of the power you have to impact kids; since they are our future, I believe that this is the most important thing we can do as writers.

That is great advice. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today Diane.

Dear readers, this book publishes next week. It’s a story of challenge and triumph, frustration and innovation, and the courage to think differently to solve our own problems. It accomplishes a lot in such a little space. Trust me when I say, you won’t want to miss it!