I've been talking about writing novels for middle grade forever.

If you haven't already, feel free to read my blog post about Perseverance.

aptop. Panel 1: She smiles and thinks, “I’m having a good writing day,” with a blue angel saying “Good for you!” and a red devil saying “So what?”. Panel 2: The background fills with red, self-doubting thoughts while the devil whispers more negativity and the angel looks worried. Panel 3: The writer yells “STOP! I know that things may change tomorrow. But right now…” as both the angel and devil react. Panel 4: She calmly returns to writing, thinking again, “I’m having a good writing day,” with only the blue angel remaining. Art by Debbie Ridpath Ohi.

I will, at some point, write more about how my mindset has changed over the years. But in a nutshell:

As much as I love illustrating, I was yearning to get back to some long-form writing. I did try to do both at once (have a productive picture book career at the same time as writing novels) but while some creators can multitask like this, I just can't. Complex reasons, but one of them is that I have other life commitments and changes: some ongoing, some new.

Jeff and Debbie standing smiling in the foreground. Behind them are moving boxes piled in front of a window. Through the window is a lovely view of trees.

Just a few of the new:

  • My career-long art director at my home publisher is no longer working there. 😢 My career-long literary agent retired. I found out about both around the same time and was devastated. It made me think very hard about what I wanted to do next.

  • My husband and I are finally moving ahead with a major house renovation. Major enough that we have moved into a rented apartment for a year (see above photo). Finding an apartment, finding a renovation company, meetings about renovations, emptying the house, moving, etc took months. Last week was our first relatively normal week!

  • I was a wee bit too enthusiastic in the packing phase, and inadvertently injured the rotator cuff in my left shoulder as well as aggravating my tendinitis in my right arm. I confess it was a major disappointment at the time when I realized the implications (couldn't help with the rest of packing/moving, couldn't type on a keyboard). I am now relying heavily on voice-activated dictation, though things are gradually improving.

More on that some other time, but back to writing.

Update on my middle grade novel writing

I have a new agent! I'm now working with Katie Grimm at Curtis Brown Ltd, and she is amazing. She and I have done a LOT of talking about my writing projects, next steps. Katie has lit a fire in my belly.All I want to do these days is WRITE.

One of my challenges is that I have too many book ideas and want to work on all of them. I also have realized that I've been trying to squeeze too many of these into ONE book, and Katie has helped me figure out what to focus on first. I asked her to give me "homework," and she obliged.

And woohoo, I'm back in the flow!

Making slow but steady progress. I'm still adjusting to the voice dictation, but also discovering an unexpected silver lining: writing by dictation is forcing me to plow ahead, to resist the temptation to edit as I write. My first draft is going to be super rough, but my expectation is that by the time I finish it (December is the first goal), my tendinitis will have improved enough that I'll be able to properly type a revised version by hand. My second goal is to send a draft to my agent by the end of March.

Tips on making steady progress

When I posted about this on Bluesky recently, one person asked for any tips on how I'm making the "slow but steady progress." Here are a few things that have worked for me, but please keep in mind that these are specific to my own situation and probably won't work for everyone.

  • I started saying no more often. Declining more social invites and online meetups, not being able to attend as many kidlit events as I wanted to.

  • Pulling back somewhat from certain types of social media. I am still on social media more than the average person, I'm sure.😉 Bluesky remains my go-to social media platform, partly because I have much more control over what I see and don't see, but also because it is built on AT Protocol. The more I learn about AT Protocol, the more excited I get about its potential. I recently asked ATproto gurus to help explain the concept to non-techies; feel free to read my blog post.

  • Blogging for the fun again. Anyone else remember the days of Livejournal? Greymatter? Hand-coding HTML pages? I blogged about this recently, if you're interested. I still enjoy sometimes putting together blog interviews and similar research-based short-form writing but also felt the pressure to make them super-polished and professional-sounding (not that I always succeeded, but still). Now that I'm using for casual blogging, I find myself blogging more often. And the more I write this way, the easier writing seems to become for my novel-length projects. Using an ATproto blogging platform like Leaflet has many other advantages that end up saving me time, and also helping to protect my creative space. I know it seems counterintuitive to say that starting to blog more regularly again is enabling me to spend more time writing, but it's true. I'll be posting more about this in my Blatherings at https://debbieohi.leaflet.pub/.

Looking forward

There is no guarantee I will find a publisher for my middle grade novels, though I'd like to think I have a better chance now than before I had any experience in the industry. I'm also aware of the doom and gloom predictions about middle grade in recent years, especially for debut authors.

Illustration of a figure sitting cross-legged on green grass inside a blue bubble, floating above a gray background filled with scattered objects and clutter. Figure's expression is one of contentment. Art by Debbie Ridpath Ohi.

One reason I've been pulling back somewhat from social media is because I just want to focus on the joy of writing again. I'll always remember Shaun Tan's advice to creatives in his SCBWI keynote years ago, to do whatever we can to create a safe mental space in which we can feel good about our work. At least for the next little while, I want to be able to focus more fully on my own creative process.

And LOOK, I actually am putting out an author newsletter more than once a year! Yay, me!

Other bookish news:

My art is going to be on the covers of two Judy Blume classics being reissued by Simon & Schuster's Atheneum imprint next month!

Promotional graphic from Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf. A green heading reads “COVER REVEAL.” Below are the redesigned covers of Just as Long as We're Together and Here's to You, Rachel Robinson by Judy Blume. Beside the covers is a headline reading “S&S to Relaunch Two Judy Blume Classics,” with text explaining that Simon & Schuster's Atheneum imprint will publish new hardcover and paperback editions featuring new jacket art by Debbie Ridpath Ohi. The date at the top right is March 19, 2026, with Bluesky and Instagram icons below. A Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf banner with a frog reading a book appears across the top. A Publishers Weekly article URL appears along the bottom.

I'll be talking more about those in my next newsletter.

Thanks for the support of me and my work!

Cartoon illustration of smiling girl holding a thank you sign, beside a handwritten signature that reads "Debbie" and a small red heart.

Curious about my other mini-blogs on Leaflet? See https://debbieohi.com/links/