We were lucky to catch up with Melissa Rooney recently and have shared our conversation below.
Melissa, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
Throughout my life, I have tried to present myself the way I think people need to see me in order to be successful, particularly when it comes to my writing. This means I either 1) let them assume that my writing financially supports me (isn’t that the American definition of success?) or 2) avoid the subject altogether. Either way, this approach breeds imposter syndrome.
I think our competitive society imbues us with the “Fake it ‘til you make it” approach, which can’t help but make us feel like imposters the moment anyone looks at us above the front pages of our embellished resumes.
My new approach is “Kind Honesty” – not just being kind to the person I am being honest with, but being kind to myself in the process.
When someone asks me about my writing, regardless of the circumstances, I try to answer without embellishing anything and without belittling myself as a result. It’s harder to do than you think when you think you have something to prove.
I also try not to let anyone assume that my writing career is more financially lucrative than it actually is — even if this elicits an eye-rolling, “everyone wants to be a writer” response.
I *am* a writer, whether or not I have published with the big houses, have an agent, make most of my money teaching and writing grants, or receive less than $100/year in royalties from all my published books put together. This I can say with certainty.
If asked about what I’ve done lately, I won’t hem and haw about how I’m waiting to hear from my next top agent – the one with a connection to Random House – before changing the subject.
I’ll tell them with pride that I have become the inaugural author for the new independent publishing company, Froward Press, which was founded in 2023 by a college friend on a shoestring budget. Rather than worrying about looking like a small-town wanna be, I’ll tell them that my first book with Froward Press, Larry the Roanoke Logperch, was commissioned by the Kiwanis Club of Roanoke, Virginia, to distribute to children and schools in the Roanoke area, and that this book is not even available for sale. I’ll tell them that my latest book, One Proud Black Cat, has been rejected by agents and publishers for years, but that it is still in production and I’d be happy for any assistance in this regard. All of this I will say with kind honesty and the realization that help is always on the horizon – if I’m brave enough to ask for it.
As I am aging into my role, I see that my humble experience as a writer is not a liability; it’s a tool for stepping into my true self and collaborating with others on a level that benefits all of our creative paths.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a second-generation immigrant. My mother’s grandparents (Szulecki) emigrated to the United States from Poland in the mid 1900’s, and my father’s parents (Buinauskas) emigrated to the US from Lithuania around the time of the Second World War. My parents grew up in different enclaves in New Jersey.
I am a Southerner. I was born in Richmond, VA, during my mother’s medical residency. Shortly after I was born, my parents opened a dermatology practice in Martinsville, VA — home of the Martinsville Speedway, which has been on the NASCAR circuit from its beginning in 1948. My father died when I was four years old, and my “pseudo-stepfather” (my mother’s business manager and boyfriend for the next twenty-five years) was from Eden, NC. My mom still lives in Martinsville, and I have lived in Durham, NC for the last 20+ years.
I am a woman in science. I received my B.S. in Chemistry and my B.A. in English from the College of William and Mary in 1993 and earned my Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1998. From 1999-2002, I taught and did electrochemistry research at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, under a fellowship from the Australian Research Council.
I am an Australian-American dual citizen, having been granted Australian citizenship in 2002, just after I gave birth to my daughter. That same year, my husband and I (we met in grad school) moved back to the United States, where he got work in the pharmaceutical industry and I stayed home with my babies — eventually there were three.
While home with the kids, I became heavily involved in city and county development and planning issues. Durham was just starting to hit its housing boom, and I was appalled at the reckless degree of tree clearing and mass grading that was happening around me. Our waterways were already critically impaired by federal standards, and the erosion and sedimentation coming off these giant development sites were accelerating the situation. When construction was complete, the replacement of trees and other vegetation with impervious surfaces like roofs, driveways, and roads only perpetuated the problem. During this time, I contracted as a monthly columnist for the Durham Herald Sun and Raleigh News and Observer.
When my kids started elementary school, I became a contract scientific editor for American Journal Experts (https://www.aje.com/), enabling me to at least tell people I was using my Chemistry Ph.D.
For the last ten years, I’ve volunteered as an associate supervisor on Durham’s Soil and Water Conservation District, a federally created organization, where I helped publicize and write grants for a workforce-development program that trained and *paid* public highschool teachers and their students to design and install best stormwater management practices (rain-gardens, streambank stabilizations, rain-harvesting cisterns) on public and private properties. Federal, state and local governments have a lot of funding earmarked for installations like these, which stem waterway pollution.
A couple years ago, this educational workforce program branched off into a nonprofit called Urban Sustainability Solutions (USS, urbanss.org). I am now USS’s “Grant Management Specialist,” which means I spend about 10 hours a week seeking out and writing grants and quarterly reports for the organization.
Ten years ago, I became a visiting public- and private-school educator with the Durham Arts Council (https://durhamarts.org/product/melissa-rooney/), through which I conduct 6-session creative writing residencies or one-hour workshops about atoms/electricity or water resources and sustainability. I self-published my first book, Eddie the Electron (https://www.chicagoreviewpress.com/eddie-the-electron-products-9780692467435.php) to use in my atoms/electricity workshops and got it published by Amberjack Publishing in 2015. The sequel, Eddie the Electron Moves Out (https://www.chicagoreviewpress.com/eddie-the-electron-moves-out-products-9781944995140.php), was published in 2017, just before Amberjack stopped producing picture books and was sold as an imprint to Chicago Review Press (https://www.chicagoreviewpress.com/amberjack-publishing-pages-626.php).
In 2018, I published The Fate of the Frog (https://www.melissarooneywriting.com/books/p/the-fate-of-the-frog; see also www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNdlDfpxvg8), which I use in my workshop about water resources.
This year, I published Larry the Roanoke Logperch with Froward Press (https://frowardpress.com/). Larry (https://roanoke.com/news/local/education/roanoke-kiwanis-club-larry-the-roanoke-logperch-childrens-book/article_126e5c66-d669-11ee-a994-dfcd79f51644.html) is a book about the endangered Roanoke Logperch, whose adorable rock-flipping existence is threatened by human development and waterway pollution. The Kiwanis Club of Roanoke, Virginia, received a grant to create and distribute the book to families living near these fishes’ habitat. I encourage anyone interested in using this book in their classroom or home to contact me at https://www.melissarooneywriting.com/contact-me, so I can see about getting them a free copy.
My latest picture-book project, Summer Dreaming (see https://frowardpress.com/), follows the life cycle of a Lepidoptera species in which only the male grows wings, presenting a metaphor that encourages children to be themselves – in all their glory and despite human-imposed limitations based on assigned gender. Froward Press planned to release this book in Spring 2024; but now that the illustrations and layout are complete, I’ve been encouraged to look for an agent, as we all believe the book could have farther reach than a new independent book publisher can provide. If anyone reading this thinks they can help me connect with a like-minded agent, please contact me at https://www.melissarooneywriting.com/contact-me.
I also write reviews for Triangle Review (https://conta.cc/3OYRr6t), an email and online newsletter covering theater, dance, music and film in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina; and I review picture books for the New York Journal of Books (www.nyjournalofbooks.com/reviewer/melissa-rooney). Of course, I don’t get paid for either of these. But I do get two free tickets to performances, many at one of the highest ranking theaters in the US (https://www.dpacnc.com/news/detail/dpac-tops-national-theatre-rankings); and I get free children’s books, which I either keep for my personal collection or put in the Little Free Library at my local elementary school.
I’ve wanted to create picture books since I started reading them as a child; and I think that the importance and quality of this genre is easily taken for granted by the publishing industry. My writing path has been a circuitous one with many branches, but I’ve found that it only benefits when I follow my heart rather than the money.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Aside from being a mother, I’ve always wanted to be a writer, particularly of Picture Books – because, for my entire life, I have loved young children and meaningful, lyrical yet simplistic writing. But when it was time to choose my major in college, I knew that the chances of becoming a creative writer were slim to none, particularly for a saturated and underestimated genre like Picture Books. So I stuck with Chemistry — all the way to my Ph.D. — because of the financial security it provided,
Though it may seem that I’ve never made good use of my Chemistry Ph.D., my graduate electrochemistry studies and subsequent realization of how few people understand even basic scientific concepts led me to writing and publishing my first picture book, Eddie the Electron, which lead me to doing paid scientific and creative-writing workshops for elementary schools through my local arts council.
Though time-consuming and often tedious to the point of boredom, my 10+ years getting paid to write scientific journal articles has enforced brevity and clarity in my writing, two particularly important attributes in children’s books with limited vocabulary.
Chemistry graduate school and scientific editing has also made me comfortable with writing grants. After many years volunteering in this capacity for environmental purposes, I have gained the confidence to apply for grants on my own behalf. One of these paid for the overhaul of my website in 2022. Another paid me to conduct writing residencies in six 2023-24 public elementary-school classes. And a third (via the Kiwanis) paid me to write my latest picture book, Larry the Logperch, and bought the first 1000 copies.
Am I a ‘real writer’ yet? Despite having published several small-scale picture books, my answer still teeters on “Not yet.”
But I am happy with the work I am doing with and for children and the environment, and I no longer feel like I have to “sell myself” in order to do what I want to do and make a difference while still getting paid.
So *patience* is a quality that I am still learning. When I stop trying to promote myself as a writer and just give in to what life is bringing my way – that’s when good things happen. It’s often only in hindsight that I see the way the pieces of my life are fitting together to get me where I want to go.
Confidence is the next quality I’m working on. It’s so easy to get deflated, what with all the rejection letters from agents and publishers, the minimal financial rewards, and the lack of enthusiasm from “practical” friends and family.
I am learning to step into my power — to recognize the positive ways I impact the young people in my life and to acknowledge their need, as well as that of our planet, for what I bring to the table. As a result, it’s becoming easier to share myself and my work with others, including those my writing success depends upon.
This brings me to the third quality that has helped me most in my creative journey and which, of course, I am also still working on: Collaboration.
For decades, I have felt anxiety, intimidation and competition when I participate in writing conferences, book festivals, even author readings. It’s hard not to see other writers as competitors rather than collaborators, particularly in such an oversaturated industry. But this is dysfunctional on every level.
I’ve come to understand that collaboration is vital to the success of any non-narcissistic endeavor, artistic or otherwise. I have become much more open to sincere discussions among other writers and to offering them my assistance as well as asking for theirs.
Now when I am involved in a project — Larry the Logperch, for instance — my first thought is not, “How much is this going to make me?” Instead, I find myself thinking, “How can we incorporate more people to make this project the best it can be and extend its outreach?” Physically, spiritually, and in the progression of the creative force, there truly is power in numbers.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
My biggest thing right now is providing a pathway of least resistance for creative solutions to flow — both alongside and through me and no matter how transiently.
One of the founding missions of my current publisher, Froward Press, is to provide the support that first-time authors expect from traditional publishers but that the majority of authors rarely get. I don’t see how this can be done except cooperatively, by requiring that their authors, say, crosspost and advertise each others’ books and serve as agents and cashiers at each other’s readings/workshops/festivals/conferences. So I am certainly directing new authors to FrowardPress.com.
Froward Press has also asked me to be the judge for their next anthology, which is for winter-holiday-themed entries—specifically the laugh-provoking stories repeated at gatherings with family, friends and workmates. Publication depends on the number and quality of entries. Froward Press will officially open submissions in late summer, but anyone reading this can email their submission early (with the subject heading “winter holiday anthology”) to barbara@frowardpress.com.
I’m also interested in hearing about any project related to elementary ELA, conservation/sustainability, and picture book creation and sales.
I’m particularly interested in publishing books for nonprofits and other organizations to distribute among the families they benefit. And I’d like to conduct more writing residencies with fourth and fifth graders. Each residency ends with a release party, including refreshments, at which each student receives a copy of their class’s anthology, which is published under the Bud Books imprint of Froward Press. In either case, I can write grants for funding, though these generally must be submitted by a PTA or other 501c3 nonprofit.
All that said, I’m open to anything that feels right. So if you feel an urge to contact me about a possible collaboration, please don’t hesitate to do so at https://www.melissarooneywriting.com/contact-me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.melissarooneywriting.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissarooneywriting
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/melissarooneywriting; https://m.facebook.com/eddietheelectron; https://m.facebook.com/thefateofthefrog; https://m.facebook.com/oneproudblackcat
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-rooney-7529a51
- Twitter: Twitter.com/RooneyWriting
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@melissarooneywriting
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@melissarooneywriting
Image Credits
No image credits are required. I own all images and copyrights. Please let me know if you need higher resolution images, as I just don’t have these handy at the moment.
