Hi, I’m Sondra
A middle grade writer based in Ann Arbor, MI.
Represented by Erin Murphy of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency.
I remember learning to read, sitting on top of a portable dishwasher while my parents cleaned up after dinner. I sounded out one letter or one syllable after another, night after night. It took time and practice for sounds to shape themselves into words and for words to grow into sentences. But it happened. I read and read and read and my small world grew big.
Even as I first learned to read, I knew that I wanted to write books for kids and do for others what writers had done for me—teach me, transport me, challenge me. I published my first book at the age of 60, which says something about how uncertain I felt about actually doing that work, about how crooked the path of a writer can be, and about how dogged determination might get you where you want to go—if you’re stubborn enough and lucky.
I’ve done many different kinds of work, herding turkeys, working at McDonalds, at a grocery store, cleaning (fired twice), tutoring, being a lawyer, being a teacher at a high school and a prison. All of it has been useful. None of it compares to the sheer joy and wonder of writing for kids.