Chippewa Valley Author Debuts Two New…
KEEP BUILDING. Local author Katie Venit, pictured, is celebrating the release of two children’s books – yep, TWO! – at a free-to-attend launch party at SHIFT Coffee Bar on Aug. 24.
Getting any book published nowadays is an uphill climb. Two books, positively sky-high. Yet, Eau Claire’s very own Katie Venit has done it — over five years — in one of the toughest markets to enter; with two children’s picture books released within two weeks of each other.
Forts, acquired in 2020, was illustrated by Kenard Pak and released by Viking Books for Young Readers on July 29. Cassini’s Mission: A Spacecraft, a Tiny Moon, and the Search for Life Beyond Earth, acquired in 2021, was illustrated by Julia Blattman and released by MIT Kids Press on Aug. 12.
To celebrate Katie’s debut of both books, SHIFT Coffee Bar (615 Graham Ave., Eau Claire) will host a free-to-attend launch party from 2:30-3:30pm on Aug. 24. There, Katie will do readings from each book and a short Q&A, along with book signings. Dotters Books (307 S. Barstow St., Eau Claire), a local independent bookseller, will have both books available to purchase on-site.
“I wrote Forts just before the pandemic hit,” Katie shared in an interview, where we were seated next to the featured picture books in the children’s section of the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library (400 Eau Claire St., Eau Claire).
Katie described its origins as a “panic-write” for a local art gallery reading. She needed one more piece for the event, and the contents of Forts emerged.
“The words just came out of my head onto the page as I wrote, so I must have had this story in me for a while.”
A life of fort-building and storytelling
Growing up in Bethesda, Maryland, Katie spent countless hours building forts in the family living room with her three siblings.
“We’d stretch a sheet between the couch and the coffee table, with pillows stacked on the sides like walls,” Katie said. “When we were out in the woods, we’d look for natural forts.”
Katie’s viewing of a documentary on Netflix in 2018 — an episode of 7 Days Out: NASA’s Cassini Mission — inspired her to write Cassini’s Mission. “I cried when Cassini crashed into Saturn on her final mission after gathering data about life on Saturn, its moons and rings, for NASA for 20 years,” noted the self-described science nerd. “I asked my family to watch it with me a second time. And, I cried again. So, I knew I had hit upon something meaningful to me.”
Katie’s family consists of Chris Venit, her husband (a college professor) to whom she has been married for 18 years, and their two middle-school-aged children. She works full-time as an instructional designer in the College of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Her time to write often takes place before her kids get up in the morning, after they go to bed at night, and on weekends, time-permitting.
The seed for Katie’s writing career began in the fifth grade, when she and her classmates would exchange notebooks as they wrote stories together. As her writing passion grew, she earned a bachelor of arts degree in English with a minor in journalism from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
“She had a million ideas, and they were all fresh and original. I noticed her really quirky, creative way of thinking and just in general… brilliance.”
JOYCE SWEENEY
CHILDREN’S AUTHOR, DIRECTOR OF SEYMOUR AGENCY’S ‘KIDLIT’, AND VENIT’S AGENT
The bud to write children’s books happened after many years of writing for adults, then having children of her own and falling in love with the humor and heart found in picture books.
Katie did her homework before diving into the field of children’s literature, she said. From 2015 to 2019, she attended local writing events, took online classes, and studied craft books and online blogs about writing short pieces for adults and writing picture books for children.
“Many people think it’s easy to write picture books and get them published,” she said. “A lot of people expect to get the first picture book they ever write to get them an agent and lead to being traditionally published. But it’s actually really, really, hard.”
Compared to writing long-form novels, it’s very easy to write a first draft of a picture book, Katie added. However, mastering the craft of writing saleable picture books for the traditional publishing market can be a challenging endeavor that takes years of study.
“I have so many drafts of picture books that I wrote before Forts that will never see the light of day, because I just didn’t know what I was doing then,” Katie said. “The skill of writing picture books had not clicked yet.”
In the fall of 2019, she enrolled in an online course on how to write children’s picture books with Joyce Sweeney, also a children’s author – and future agent and director of Kidlit at the Seymour Agency, which represents award-winning authors and illustrators from around the world.
Joyce already had the intentions of becoming a literary agent, and was actively scouting new authors during the time of the class. Then, came along Katie.
“I spotted Katie right away for her lyrical voice and the fact that she was as passionate about aerospace as I was,” Joyce said. “I saw several of Katie’s projects in that class. She had a million ideas, and they were all fresh and original I noticed her really, quirky, creative way of thinking and just general…brilliance.”
The pinball machine of publishing
So how does Joyce know if she wants to represent a particular book or author? The pinball machine effect.
Joyce described it in an online interview with Ready Chapter 1: “This is a bit unscientific, but there is a virtual pinball machine in my heart that lights up, makes noise and shoots out sparks when it’s the right client. Of course, my brain is supposed to weigh in, too, about the skill level of the person, the salability of the project, etc. But the pinball machine is what I rely on.”
In that class, Joyce had a pinball machine reaction, not once, not twice, but three times. “Three of my most successful clients came from that class, Katie is one of them,” she wrote.
“For katie to persevere and get two (books) published is a bigger and rare thing than most people are aware of.”
ROB REID
LOCAL AUTHOR, RETIRED UW-EAU CLAIRE CHILDREN’S LITERATURE PROFESSOR
“I knew as soon as the class was done, I would offer representation to Katie,” she continued. “It was an intersection of things. Her intelligence, her complete understanding of how kids think and process, her interests, which aligned with mine, and mostly her lyricism. As soon as I saw Forts, I was sure that it would be her debut project.”
Katie signed with Joyce in March 2020, just as the pandemic hit.
And how is it that Katie’s first two books are being released within two weeks of each other? Forts was released on July 29, and Cassini’s Mission on Aug. 12, though they were bought over a year apart (Forts in 2020 and Cassini’s Mission in 2021).
Joyce explained in an email: “Ah the vagaries of timing in picture books. Forts was accepted during COVID-19. There were various supply chain issues, and we held out for a great illustrator. So Forts was technically accepted at the end of 2020. Here we are five years later. But it was worth the wait. The delays involved therefore pushed it closer to the release of her second book Cassini’s Mission. So we just had to work with both editors to move the releases as far apart as possible. Katie is the poster child for having to wait, but now I’m thrilled she has this bonanza of TWO magnificent picture books in the same summer.”
Katie’s mission, what’s coming next?
Not to mention, two launch events. Prior to her upcoming event at SHIFT Coffee Bar, Katie held a launch and signing party for both books at Wonderland Books, an independent book seller in Bethesda, Maryland – Katie’s hometown – on Aug. 12.
Rob Reid, local children’s author, retired UW-Eau Claire children’s literature professor, and former local children’s librarian shared: “I’m so excited for Katie, and I can’t wait to buy her books and get them autographed. One reason I’m so proud of (Katie) is because it is so effing hard to get a book accepted by an editor — they get so many submissions and only accept a few each year.
“For Katie to persevere and get two published is a bigger and rarer thing than most people are aware of,” he added.
Even with two books out, Katie stressed the importance of continuing to study the craft. She is known at the local Eau Claire library for checking out new picture books every week to read and research.
“To have an idea of the market, it’s crucial to read a lot of current picture books published in the last two to three years,” Katie said. “There are classics, like Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, but if you only read the classics, you won’t know where your book fits.”
What’s next for Katie, author and longtime supporter of the writing community in Eau Claire? She is scheduled to present at two writing conferences in Wisconsin this fall.
The first, The Artistry of Craft In-Person conference — hosted by the Wisconsin Chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators — on Saturday, Sept. 27 in Wisconsin Dells. There, Katie will share “The Art of the Art Notes” based on her picture book publishing experience.
A week later, she will present the “Tale of Two Picture Books” on the first weekend in October in Stevens Point at the fall conference of the Wisconsin Writers Association.
Later, a new set of book releases — which shall remain unannounced for now, Katie said.
Katie currently serves on the board of the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild (CVWG) where she hosts the Rough Draft Reading Series, an open mic event hosted by the CVWG, often held at 2 Roots Art and Wine Gallery (216 S. Barstow St.) in downtown Eau Claire.
For more information on Katie Venit’s recently published works – Volume One readers may also be familiar with Katie’s work, contributing to the magazine with an emphasis on local happenings with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) – and upcoming events, visit their website online at katievenit.com. Kenard Pak and Julia Blattman, illustrators for Katie’s books, share their creative works online and via social media.
