This month’s Author Interview is with Jocelyn Watkinson. The idea for her debut picture book–The Three Canadian Pigs: A Hockey Story, which releases in August 2022–didn’t come out of nowhere. She’s from Canada, after all! Plus, she attended a lot of hockey games to see her little brother play goalie for the local rep hockey team. (Yeah, she brought along books and read in the stands the whole time, she admits!)

Today, Jocelyn lives in California, where she:

• plays soccer
• enjoys board games
• sips hot tea
• refurbishes old furniture

To find out more about her and her debut picture book, let’s get to the interview!

• Jocelyn’s website
• Jocelyn’s Facebook
• Jocelyn’s Instagram
• Jocelyn’s Twitter

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RVC: We have to start things off with the #1 question that everyone has. On a scale of 5 to 5,000, how much do you miss Tim Horton’s double double?

JW: Haha–great lead question! Can I answer infinity??

For those that don’t know, a “double double” is a coffee with two creams and two sugars–known to be the most popular order at Timmies! But since I am a non-​coffee drinker (crazy, eh?), I only drink tea. But there is no comparison to Tim Horton’s Steeped Tea, which I miss dearly!

RVC: Since I’m a fellow non-​coffee-​drinker, I fully appreciate your answer. But let’s circle back to the beginning. What’s the story of how you got interested in writing?

JW: The short version of the story is that my husband got hired at a California university as a professor so we would be moving to the United States. Because of visa reasons and employment restrictions at the time, I was ineligible to work, so I found writing to keep me busy! Right before we made our move south of the border, our dog George got sick and we had to put him down. With all the hectic moving plans, the grief didn’t sink in until I was sitting alone in my new California apartment. For some reason, the idea of a kids book to help deal with the loss of a dog came to me, and for some reason, in rhyme! (Bad rhyme, I’ll admit!) That book is now firmly on the shelf but it got me into the kidlit world, so it definitely will always have a special place in my heart.

RVC: By “on the shelf,” you mean something like “tucked away in a drawer, never to be seen again,” right? To me, “on the shelf” means available in book form at Amazon or my local indie (which for me is Bookstore1Sarasota).

JW: Exactly.

RVC: Gotcha. At what point did you decide you were going to get serious about publishing kidlit?

JW: I decided to finally go to a SCBWI conference. I arrived and thought “yes…this is where I’m meant to be!” I also won a raffle for a one-​on-​one with an agent and felt like that was a big sign of encouragement from the universe. 😊

RV: Congrats on that!

JW: The advice I gained from the conference helped guide me to a few critique groups and ultimately to Renée LaTulippe’s Rhyme and Meter course (which is an absolute MUST if you are going to write in rhyme) where I learned meter (the real trick to writing in rhyme) and the proper way to rhyme. Once I felt confident in these craft skills was when I felt like I was getting pretty serious about it.

RVC: What’s the story of how The Three Canadian Pigs: A Hockey Story came about?

JW: I love fractured fairytales. I find them to be so fun and creative. I happened to be working on a different idea and was bouncing the idea off my mom. Then she just blurted out, “You should re-​write the three little pigs, but make them Canadian!” So, I have to completely owe the idea to her (thanks Mom!).

As soon as I figured out that the wolf would want to eat their Canadian bacon, the puns just started flowing.

RVC: What are you most proud of regarding this book?

JW: I think just the perseverance of how many edits it took to get it to where it is now and not stopping until it was just right. I think I had 47 versions of this story. When writing in rhyme, you’re constantly tweaking to make sure your readers don’t trip over your words.

RVC: If you could go back and do one thing differently to get you to that debut book deal faster, what would it be?

JW: I don’t think I could have got this book any faster, to be honest. I am absolutely an outlier when it comes to this. I have been so lucky in this industry so far and have a lot of people to owe my success to.

RVC: Tell me more about what happened.

JW: Once I had the idea mostly flushed out, I reached out to Shannon Stocker who I hired for her professional critique services. I met her the year prior when I didn’t get a PBChat Mentorship that I applied for but was awarded a critique from her. After some very helpful feedback, I applied to the PBChat Mentorship program in 2020 and was selected as a mentee by Lori Degman! She was amazing to work with and whipped my manuscript into shape.

Then as a finale to the mentorship, we had a showcase where agents and editors were invited to shop through our work. I didn’t get any interest until the very last day where Sarah Rockett from Sleeping Bear Press requested to see the manuscript. Then within a month, I was told we had a deal! I think that’s pretty fast compared to industry standards!

RVC: It sounds fast to me, and Sarah Rockett is terrific–we did an interview with her in 2020.

JW: Cool!

RVC: So, you like to write in rhyme (I know this from your social media names such as “Jocelynwritesinrhyme”). I’m a big fan of rhyme—I just wrote an article on that very thing for Writer’s Digest, in fact! What are some of the top tips I should’ve included in that article?

JW: I think any seasoned rhymer will tell you that rhyming isn’t for the faint hearted. Be prepared to work and work and work at it until readers don’t trip over any parts of your story while reading aloud. This takes tons of practice, patience, and wonderful critique partners. Also, another plug to take a rhyme and meter course and learn the craft. Check out Renée LaTulippe’s variety of rhyme and meter courses if you want to learn the right way to rhyme. She also has some great YouTube videos.

RVC: What’s something about your writing process that might surprise people?

JW: When I get an idea for a story, I come up with key words and then make a list of words that rhyme with them and see what kind of lines come to mind, then I start to build out the story from there.

RVC: What special strategies do you use for overcoming writer’s block?

JW: First, to write in rhyme, and goofy rhyme at that, I need to be in a mood that matches. I tend to listen to Adam Sandler, The Lonely Island, or any artist that sings funny songs–their silliness can really start to get the juices flowing.

RVC: You’re not sitting on your laurels—you’ve already got another picture book deal. And a collaboration, no less. 

JW: Oh, yes! I am very excited about that. At the end of my mentorship with Lori Degman, I pitched the idea of a sequel to her Travel Guide for Monsters book which came out with Sleeping Bear Press in April 2020. The book follows a group of monsters across the US visiting all the iconic landmarks. I remember seeing that book when she was promoting it, before we even knew each other and remembering how clever it was and the illustrations were so amazing. So, during our mentorship, I thought it would be great if the monsters could also go through Canada!

I can’t believe that she agreed to take a look at what I had written so far, but she did and then we pitched it back to Sleeping Bear Press (again with Sarah Rockett) and they agreed to publish it! It was quite serendipitous how it all came together; the mentorship, the book deal, and how the previous book lined up with the same editor and sequel, etc.

RVC: That’s an amazing story. Now, one last thing before we get to the final part of the interview. What are you working on these days? 

JW: Building my portfolio so I can be successful in querying an agent. But my current WIP is called The Cantankerous Canker…not quite sure where I’m going with it yet but “cantankerous” is becoming my new favorite word!

RVC: Good luck with the agent search, but now it’s time for the LIGHTNING ROUND! Zippy quick answers and zappy fast answers. Ready?

JW: Oh ya, fer sure!

RVC: #1 Canadian expression that Americans just can’t appreciate.

JW: I gotta go with the classic “Eh!” It is pretty iconic when you think of Canadians but it is so versatile.

• Want someone to agree with you? Say “Eh?”
• Need clarification on something? Say “Eh?”
• Just really excited about something? Work “Eh!” into your sentence.

RVC: What word do you always misspell?

JW: “Convenience.” Did I get it right?? I always have to say “CON-​VEN-​I-​ENCE”

RVC: If you built a themed hotel, what theme would you use?

JW: Probably something sports or board-​game themed. I love board game nights with friends!

RVC: What books are on your nightstand?

JW: Catkwondo, Jack B. Ninja, and The Three Ninja Pigs. My son is big into Taekwondo right now!

RVC: Most underappreciated but awesome picture book?

JW: It’s Only Stanley by Jon Agee. So clever and simple and in rhyme. I hope one day to write something like that.

RVC: Five words that sum up your picture book philosophy.

JW:  Make the grownups laugh, too!

RVC: Thanks so much, Jocelyn. Best of luck with your debut!