When you see someone put in the work, write with heart and intention and show up for others, you can’t help but root for them. Our honoree today, Sandra Headen, is a friend and inspiration. Witnessing her determination and commitment to being a children’s book author has filled me with pride. What a joy to celebrate her.
Sandra’s Bio
Following a rewarding career in teaching and research at universities in Chicago and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, I became an independent consultant and seized the opportunity to start a writing career. My identity as an African-American woman raised in the South fuels my passion for writing coming-of-age stories about strong African-American youth who are striving to achieve their personal goals and searching for identity amidst daunting cultural and societal challenges. My work is targeted to middle-grade readers and uses lessons from the past to help them understand the world that they live in today and to navigate the challenges of the worlds that will unfold before them in the future.
My first book is a historical novel, Warrior on the Mound. The protagonist in the story is a twelve-year-old baseball player whose goal is to follow in the footsteps of his deceased father and brother and pitch for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Baseball league. He will face quite a few challenges before moving closer to that goal. The novel won the inaugural On-the-Verge, Emerging Voices Award from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and was published in March 2024.
My second book, Roi and Me and the Double V, forthcoming in 2026, is a historical novel that focuses on two themes; the passion that young people can have to pursue a treasured goal at a very young age. It is also the story of how two best friends work with one another and with their neighbors to save a tract of land that is vital to the girl’s running track and cherished by the community at large. The children prevail against the powerful shipping company that needs to land to build workers’ housing to increase shipbuilding needed to support the war.
Although retired from the field of Public Health, I have a second career these days, being completely immersed in the writing world. I look forward to expanding the scope of my work to include other genres, especially picture books. And my focus remains the same; to illuminate the challenges and accomplishments of Black Americans as we work to achieve equality in America for all citizens.
The Journey: My Path to Publishing
Seems like I was born to tell stories. Been writing since I could read and hold a pencil. Wrote my first novel, Mary in Magic land, when I was only eleven. The story transported a little Black girl and her friends to the wonderful land of Oz. Sound familiar? Finishing that book was life-changing and so much fun! I knew then that, for the rest of my life, I was destined to dream up amazing adventures for Black kids like me and my brother. Sadly I got too little encouragement from the world around me and eventually, I stopped writing altogether.
Years later, when my health forced me to work part time for a spell, I enrolled in a class and writing became a centerpiece in my life again. I embraced it with joy and abandon. I was writing something almost every day, which was a dream I had always wanted to come true. Publishing was another dimension that I rarely thought about because writing itself gave me deep satisfaction. And then, within the span of a couple of years, I won three writing contests and my life was transformed. (a) The Writing Colony at Dairy Hollow granted me a week-long retreat where all of my personal needs were cared for and my only task was to finish my novel-in -progress.(b) The N.C. Writer’s Network awarded me their inaugural Jacob-Jones African American Fiction Writer’s Award and published my short story, “Papa’s Gifts” in the Carolina Quarterly magazine. (c) I was one of three winners of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ inaugural Emerging Voices Award for writers from underrepresented communities. I was awarded a mentor for a year and at the end of that time, my novel in progress was ready for submission.
Publishing my first novel was a decade long journey. If you start from the beginning, that is the first paragraph that I wrote. But I was not sad or depressed because I was not waiting for something to happen. Indeed, I felt privileged to be able to spend so much time creating stories and sharing them with other writers who were doing the same. I enjoyed attending writing conferences and writers’ retreats. For me, this life would have been quite enough. But if you live the writer’s life and do all of the things you’re advised to do, submitting your work to be considered for publication is part of the mix. And so, I queried many agents and editors and just when I was about to give up, two fellow writers vowed to do all in their power to keep me from quitting. One of them called me late at night to announce that she had found an agent online who was looking for a middle grade baseball book. Halelujah! But this was the last day she would keep the request open. But I had been a good student and had a submission packet ready to be tailored to her needs, I edited it and sent it before midnight. Eventually, I got representation at the agency where this agent worked and the rest is history. It was an unbelievable chance encounter that proved to be a marvelous fit. Within a year, my new agent negotiated a two-book deal for me and my debut novel, Warrior on the Mound, was published in March 2024. My second novel is forthcoming in August 2026. So, from my point of view, being a writer has been a dream come true. I’ve been writing stories all my life and traveling the road to publishing all along. 598 words
The Inspiration: Who/ What Inspired Me?
My family tells me that I started writing as soon as I could read and hold a pencil. Throughout childhood, I kept a journal, wrote short stories, even completed a novel when I eleven. Mary in Magic Land was about a Black girl who was whisked away to the land of Oz along with her friends. Sound familiar? Indeed, as a Black girl growing up in the South, in a segregated city, rich in civil rights history, all of my stories, were a way to describe, explain, or unravel the circumstances of Black folks living in America.
Everyone in my family devoured books and magazines, but I have no idea why I was so passionate about writing. Don’t know why I subscribed to Writer’s Digest in high school either, but it courage me to latch onto the idea that I wanted to be a reporter in the day time and write novels in the wee hours. I tried to pursue a career in journalism by becoming editor of the school newspaper in both high school and college. But my lust to be creative was not satisfied in these roles and I stopped writing on a regular basis altogether.
Years later, I had a break in full time employment and enrolled in an adult writing class. My passion for creative writing was rekindled! But this time, my grandfather was the specific inspiration for the story I wanted to tell. Who was he? How did he come to be the kind, brave and intelligent man that I had known and loved? These questions were the seeds at the heart of the work that eventually became my debut novel, Warrior on the Mound. The year is 1939. In this historical middle grade novel, my grandfather’s spirit and his character are mirrored in twelve-year-old Cato Octavius Jones, a little league pitcher who wants to play professionally with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Baseball League. And also in Cato’s grandfather, Papa Vee, who is simply the spitting image of my grandfather.
My second book, Roi and Me and the Double V, will be published in late summer 2026. The inspiration for it is a message to my younger self and every other young person who knows what they want to do early in life. Marvel Zander is determined to achieve a goal that her father inspired in her; to become a track star by winning a gold medal as sprinter in the Olympic Games. Her best friend, Roi, wants to be a newspaper reporter, just like his teacher, a part-time correspondent for the colored weekly paper, The Pittsburgh Courier. I was inspired to have these twelve-year-olds pursue their dreams at the start of WWII when Black Americans, encouraged by the Pittsburgh Courier, campaigned for societal changes that would bring them equality at home as the Allies fought for democracy abroad.
The Process: How I Work
So far, I have written two novels, both in my favorite genre, historical middle grade fiction. My most surprising revelation in writing has been the discovery that historical fiction has an important element in common with science fiction, another favorite genre of mine; And that is, world-building. The writer must create for her characters settings that may have existed in the past or never existed at all, but are believable environments where exciting adventures can take place.
I absolutely love world-building, but a story come to life for me only when an interesting character steps into my world, someone whose personal dreams and goals, their family and neighborhood are so compelling to me that I am driven to know more about them. Who are they? Where did their amazing dreams come from? How do they hope to accomplish their possibly unrealistic goals? Who and what are the things in their environment that will help or hinder them in achieving their goals? However, before I commit to a larger story, I write mini-stories in my head to answer some of the questions I am curious about. If the mini-stories continue to intrigue me, I free write dozens of passages about this possible story in order to capture the character’s personality and his or her voice.
Once I have a character and parts of a story that are compelling to me, I compile all of the fragments into a file and start from beginning. But, ‘The End’ is a ways in the future and I take my time getting there. I write and revise until I have a satisfactory first paragraph, one that feels like and sounds like the life of the character I have lived with for some months now. Then I plow through writing the first page and the first chapter until the story has truly moved into my life and I can’t wait for the next chapter to unfold. And as a writer, I live like that until the story ends. But the ending can be a dilemma. I now ask myself how I want my readers to feel when they have finished my book. Until I had written two middle grade novels, I was not award that I have a kind of philosophy about that. I believe that the historical content of my books show that there is darkness in the world, but I want my readers to believe that they have the power to bring light into the world, to change some things, or to at least try.
The Buzz
New York Public Library Best Books for Kids in 2024
Books of Wonder: Great Middle Grade Reads
Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
Social Media
Instagram @sndr.bellenoire29
I am so thrilled that I stopped by. What an AMAZING read!!! Oh how I loved reading about your journey and how your characters inspired your process. WONDERFUL!