Ciera Burch is a lifelong reader and writer. She has a B.A from American University and an MFA from Emerson College. She is the author of Finch House, Something Kindred, Camp Twisted Pine, and Out of Step, Into You. Finch House was a JLG Gold Standard Selection and a New York Times Kids Year of Books selection.
When not reading or playing video games, she can be found playing Dungeons & Dragons, eating ice cream, talking about diverse kids lit, or teaching 5th grade English. While she is originally from New Jersey, she currently lives in Washington, D.C with her plants, far too many books, and D&D dice.
The Process:
I tend to work with an outline! When I was a teen and earlier, I used to think that outlines took all the fun and surprise out of writing, but as I got older I realized the benefit of having a path laid out for myself to follow…even if I ending up veering off of it wildly, like Little Red Riding Hood! While my characters are always going to do what they want, it’s always useful for me to have a blueprint about what I think happens next, that way if I do veer off course (which is inevitable) I can at least look ahead to start to plan how to make the new route match up to things I hinted at earlier and to help me create a satisfying ending that both is fun and feel earned as I write.
I tend to work with an outline! When I was a teen and earlier, I used to think that outlines took all the fun and surprise out of writing, but as I got older I realized the benefit of having a path laid out for myself to follow…even if I ending up veering off of it wildly, like Little Red Riding Hood! While my characters are always going to do what they want, it’s always useful for me to have a blueprint about what I think happens next, that way if I do veer off course (which is inevitable) I can at least look ahead to start to plan how to make the new route match up to things I hinted at earlier and to help me create a satisfying ending that both is fun and feel earned as I write.
The Back Story:
Honestly, everything was fairly straightforward for me, luckily! After my short story, “Yvonne”, became the Boston Book Festival’s One City, One Story, when I was in grad school, I had some outreach from agents, but I was determined to finish my thesis first and finish it well rather than rush into finishing it for the sake of getting a deal. During my work on it and in my final year of grad school, the pandemic came which ended up giving me much more time to write. I’d already had a long list of agents I was interested in, so once I felt I’d polished my thesis (after defending it!) and extended those 100 pages into a novel I could be proud of, I made a tier list of the agents I wanted to work with and decided I would separate my querying into 3 rounds. If I didn’t hear from any of them, I’d go back to my manuscript and try to see what wasn’t working. I heard from the agents in my first tier just a few days later…and the rest was history! Something Kindred, back then known as The Inevitability of Home, sold in a few short weeks and we were off to the races.
The Inspiration:
Mildred D. Taylor and her Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry books were one of my first big inspirations. It was rare, growing up, that I saw people who looked like me in the books, let alone as the main character with family who reminded me of mine. Ms. Taylor also never shied away from hard topics despite writing kids books. She didn’t mince words or show history through rose-colored glasses and both as a child and an adult, I always appreciated that.
The Buzz:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Connect with Ciera:
Find her on Instagram @cierasburch.