You may recognize Margo L. Dill from her column in the News-Gazette, but she is also a freelance writer, editor and substitute teacher, living in Mahomet. Her work has appeared in publications such as Grit, Pockets, Missouri Life, ByLine Magazine, and Fun for Kidz.
Her first book, Finding My Place, a middle-grade historical novel, will be published by White Mane Kids. She writes a blog, “Read These Books and Use Them,” for parents, teachers, and librarians. When she’s not writing, she loves spending time with her husband, stepson, and two dogs—Chester, a boxer, and Hush Puppy, a basset hound.
What inspired you to write for children?
I started writing for children about nine years ago when I saw one of those ads in a Family Circle magazine that said, “You can write for children.” I sent away for the test from the Institute of Children’s Literature and decided to take their correspondence course when I passed the test. I loved it! I fell in love with writing children’s stories and articles. I fell in love with reading children’s and young -adult books, which is why my blog is about them.
Since I taught elementary school full time back when I took the test for children’s writers, my students were my inspiration. I was around children and children’s books all the time, and so the natural progression was for me to write children’s stories and books.How does your experience as an educator inspire your writing?
I want to create stories and books that “teach not preach.” One of the things that drove me CRAZY about teaching elementary students was how kids exclude other kids based on appearances or a “weird” family or any other trivial detail.
I was also reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to my fourth grade class at the time. So, I wrote a story about a little girl who came from a family of witches. She had a hard time making and keeping friends because everyone thought she was weird. She was ashamed of her family and tried to hide who she was. Then one day, a girl came over to do a science project, discovers the magic, and accepts it. I worked in the theme of accepting others for who they are with the popularity of stories with magic, and I actually won a prize for the story.
I also write a lot of nonfiction how-to articles and lesson plans for a website called Bright Hub. My classroom experience also helps me come up with blog posts, too. I currently substitute a couple times a week at Next Generation in Champaign. Those preschoolers can also provide some ideas!
What should parents know before they send their kids to school?
This is a hard question since it can really depend on the age of the student. If we are talking about a Kindergarten student, then parents should know a lot of the basic routines of the school such as riding a bus, bringing lunch money or snacks, and illness policies. If we are talking about a middle school or high school student, I think it is important for parents to know what the school’s philosophy of learning is, what type of schedule students will have, what college prep courses are offered, how the school keeps children safe, and if they offer enrichment or remedial help.
Parents should also know their own children well. They should know their children’s strengths and weaknesses in academics, behaviors, and emotional issues.
How and when do you find time to write while also managing a household?
I wish I had the magic answer to this one. I am a step-parent, so part of the time, my step-son is not here. This makes finding time to write easier and harder. It’s easier because I am taking care of my house, my husband, and my dogs, which do not take as much care as a child, so I have more time to write. My husband also works a lot of nights and weekends, so I am often home with just the dogs. But when my stepson is here and my husband is home, I want to spend a lot of time with them.
So, I guess what I do is schedule my writing time like I schedule anything else–doctor’s appointments, lunch dates, substitute jobs, and workouts.
How does being a step-mom inform your work, or does it? Why or why not?
So far, I haven’t really written about being a step-parent or about stepchildren, which I guess is kind of strange because it is a large part of my life. I think I haven’t written about it much because my husband and I have a good relationship with his ex-wife, and so there’s not much conflict when we are scheduling or dealing with Logan’s schoolwork, for example. Also, I find it really hard to write about emotional issues that I am really close, too.
I know a lot of writers are like this. They will have something totally wonderful or completely tragic happen to them, and someone will say–you should write about it. But they can’t–they are stuck. That seems to happen to me, too. I have a hard time writing about personal issues such as being a step-parent. As a matter of fact, I even have a hard time writing about my dogs! There are all sorts of dog markets for writers; but whenever I write a story about them, it comes out flat. I have noticed a lot of dogs pop up in my children’s stories, though.
If you would like to suggest someone to be featured as a Chambana mom (or dad) to know, please email us at editor@chambanamoms.com.