Author Interview: Rosanne Parry and A Wolf Called Fire Giveaway

Happy Monday Everyone! Today I’m excited to have Rosanne Parry back to share about her new MG A Wolf Called Fire. I interviewed Rosanne Parry when she was a debut author in 2011 and I was starting out blogging. Since then, she’s published eight middle grade novels and two picture books. A Wolf Called Fire is a companion book to A Wolf Called Wander, which has been a New York Times bestseller for the last five years. A Wolf Called Fire is a 2025 Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, and I’m excited to read it.

Here’s the Kirkus review with a blurb of A Wolf Called Fire:

A wolf cub charts his own path to pack leadership.
In this novel based on the life of a real wolf who was brought to Yellowstone National Park in 1995 as part of a conservation project, a young cub named Warm reckons with not being the biggest, strongest, or loudest at howling among his littermates. When an attack by another pack leaves him to care for a set of younger siblings—Leap, Snap, Quiver, and Yowl—Warm struggles to keep the cubs alive despite never having made a killing blow of his own. Even as his survival skills are tested, Warm develops a uniquely compassionate outlook that helps him navigate the recombination of packs and other dangers. Parry’s short sentences create a quickly moving story with deep emotional currents. The immediacy of Warm’s first-person voice and the abundant sensory descriptions pull readers right into the animals’ world, though the large cast of wolves can be difficult to keep track of. Armiño’s numerous, beautifully detailed black-and-white illustrations add ample emotion and dynamic movement. Environmentally conscious readers, animal lovers, and those with a taste for nonfiction will be thrilled by the extensive backmatter, which includes a darling hand-drawn map of Warm’s journey as well as photos and abundant information on wolf biology, recovery efforts, and the ecology of the American West.
An exciting and thoughtful portrait inspired by a real animal who succeeded by being different. (author’s note, resources) (Fiction. 8-12)

Hi Rosanne! Thanks so much for joining us.

1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer.

I started writing when my third child was a week old. Not practical. Don’t recommend. But some senior ladies from church came and brought casseroles and then after fussing over my baby for a total of three minutes, they spent the next 30 complaining about how busy they were. I was outraged! They were retired! They got to go the bathroom by themselves! I had a newborn, a 3 year old, and a 6 year old. And I realized that there was never going to be a not busy time of my life. If I wanted to write I was just going to have to figure out how to do it while I was busy with all the other important things. So I started. A tiny amount of writing almost every day, and in only 9 and a half years I got my first publishing contract. Practically an overnight success!

2. Where did you get the idea for A Wolf Called Fire and why did you decide to write a companion story to A Wolf Called Wanderer?

I’ve received many letters from young readers who are heartbroken that Wander lost his favorite brother

Warm. So I decided to pick up his story and take a look at how the very same pack events would look to the omega pup. I chose Yellowstone Wolf 8 as my model. He was an omega pup who was viciously bullied by his brothers when they were young. He grew up to be a wolf with a special gift for mentoring young pups. He was chosen by an alpha female to lead a pack of young pups whose father was killed by a poacher the day they were born. 8 took those pups to heart and raised them with compassion. They went on to defeat every other pack in Yellowstone. But 8 never killed an alpha he defeated. Those defeated wolves never crossed into his territory again they taught their offspring to do the same. In time wolf 8 became the patriarch of the most powerful pack in Yellowstone.  That example gave me reason to write about different kinds of leadership—a topic I’m finding particularly relevant at the moment.

Your Writing Process

4. It’s so cool that so many young readers wrote you. I’ve read you like to research your stories. What research did you do before writing A Wolf Called Fire?

This book was faster to write than my others have been because I was revisiting a familiar landscape. Even so I read a lot of new research about wolf packs and their social dynamics. It turns out that it’s not always the biggest or strongest wolf who becomes the alpha. Most often the pup who picks a game everyone wants to play will become the leader in the end, even if they are not the fastest or meanest wolf in his litter. Rick McIntyre has spent thousands of hours researching wolves in Yellowstone and has written many books about them for adults and kids. They were a great resource. I also had an opportunity to meet him and watch wolves together in Yellowstone. That was amazing! I learned a lot. Not the least of which was that at sunrise in Yellowstone in the middle of May it is only 28 degrees. Brr!

5. Your story is told from the point of view of Fire? How did you tell this story from his point of view and what are some of the challenges of telling a story that’s not a fantasy from an animal’s point of view?

I always want to write about animal behavior that is consistent with the physical behaviors of the animal in the wild. I fact check that part very carefully. I don’t mind imagining the mental and emotional life of the animal. There is good reason not to assign human emotions to animal behaviors--that tends to lead to all kinds of false assumptions. But denying animals the thoughts and emotions and motivations that we would prefer to reserve for humans also tends to create errors of perception. So I try to strike a balance. The rest of the game is just knowing the ecosystem intimately and thinking about how a wolf with their unique capabilities would experience the setting. What would a wolf notice? What does the place smell like? What does it sound like? How does the ground feel like under a paw? I take a lot of very slow hikes in which I smell things and close my eyes and listen and lie down on the ground and feel the heat or the cold or the damp of it. I love all of this, but let’s be honest, I’m not a very fun hiking partner!

Your Road to Publication

6. Fiona Kenshole is your agent. How did she become your agent? Has how she helped you changed over the years as you published more books?

Fiona is a fellow Portlander, and I met her at various literary gatherings around town. I love her genuine enthusiasm and depth of experience in children’s books so when I was looking for a new agent, she was one of several people I considered. I chose her in the end because of her enthusiasm for my work and because she was willing to think strategically and help me prioritize what I offered for publication and where. I appreciate her breadth of experience too. She has worked as an editor and as a book festival organizer. She has worked in animated films, and she has a more international focus than any other agent I know.

At the beginning of our partnership, Fiona was focused on finding new publishing partners for me. She gave me solid editorial feedback in that phase of our journey. Now that I have a good publishing home at Greenwillow and a brilliant editor in Virginia Duncan, she doesn’t give me editorial feedback at all. She focuses on negotiating increasingly complex contracts and arranging foreign sales. She’s also a sounding board about the business end of writing. I’m so grateful to be working with Fiona; she’s a gem!

7. It’s awesome that Fiona lives in Portland too. Share about the process of selling so many books over the years when many authors struggle to publish two or more books. What tips do you have for other writers on building their career as an author?

Longevity, I’ve found, is mostly about deciding to continue writing even when you are in a phase of your career when you are not selling anything. I had a stretch of 8 years in which I didn’t get a single contract of any kind. Every author I know with a “long career” has had a dry spell of somewhere between 5 and 15 years. Discouraging certainly, but I decided that digging in and honing the craft and trying new things was more important to me than fretting over submissions and sales figures. So I used that lull in my career to write Turn of the Tide, Last of the Name, Big Truck Day, The Wolf Effect, and A Wolf Called Wander, in addition to three other finished novels and a half dozen more picture book manuscripts.

There has never been a “golden age” in which it was easy to publish a children’s book. There is always going to be lots of competition for book contracts and (unless we change the way schools and libraries are funded) diminishing school and library book budgets. It’s always going to be a struggle. And sometimes the struggle is not worth it. If writing was bad for me or bad for my family. I would stop. I could walk away tomorrow if I wanted to. But today—the book is worth the struggle. More importantly—the reader is worth the struggle. I’ve heard from many parents and teachers who’ve said my books are the key that unlocked reading for their child. That’s the best reward of all. So I stick with it and I try to find new ways to challenge myself with each book.

6. It’s good to know that an author may have to go through long dry spells but can still be successful. How did you plot out this story? Has your process changed as you’ve published more stories?

Because I had to make this story fit within the time frame of WANDER, I knew there were several events I had to include: the first moment out of the den, the attack by the ice wolves, the scattering of the pack, and Swift and Warm’s final meeting. Those signposts gave me a structure. I do outline and self-revise more intensely than I used to. Partly because I have a clear sense of the format and audience of my book. If I write a draft that’s 10,000 words longer than the other Voice of the Wilderness novels, then I don’t need an editor to tell me I need to tighten and focus the manuscript. I see how teachers are using the books so I want to make sure the important elements they use in a classroom are in all of the books. For example, I want all my books to have a map. So the character has to go on a journey.

My editor told me something that has helped me think about what I send in to my publisher. Virginia said, “In the process of editing I’m going to read your story many, many times but I only get to read it for the first time once.”

So I always want to give her the most impactful first draft I can.

Promoting Your Book

8. How are you promoting A Wolf Called Fire? Has your approach to marketing changed as you’ve published more books and if so, how?

Well as it turns out, after you have sold a million copies of your book, the publisher starts taking the promotion game quite seriously. I have some feelings about that! I bet you do too! Let’s take a breath.

Okay. As a bookseller I’ve learned all the ways that publishers promote books that the author never sees. Every book gets promotion. Every single one.

Every book gets a catalog page. They all get sent out for review. They all get pitched to the sales reps. The sales reps take every book on the list to their bookstore clients. Sales reps have their favorites (not always the book the publisher hopes they will pick). Every bookstore has unique patronage and specific needs. A best seller at Annie Blooms in Portland is probably not a best seller at our buddy bookshop Beach Books in Seaside. Every indie bookshop decides on their own what to highlight and hand sell. If the publisher buys an ad for your book, they will place it somewhere that teachers and librarians and booksellers will see it, but almost never where the general public will see it.

(Honestly, this happened to me today! There was a beautiful ad for A Wolf Called Fire in PW. Did Greenwillow tell me about it. Nope. Did I see it on my own. Nope. A friend emailed it to me.)

 There are reginal and national trade shows sponsored by the ABA and the ALA that authors very seldom attend. Author attendance is not what sells the book. It’s the quality of the book and the access to advanced reader copies for teachers, booksellers and librarians that makes the sale. And the hard truth is that it’s reader response and reader willingness to share a favorite book with a friend that drives book sales more than any other thing. Reader engagement cannot be manufactured by the publisher. It is frustratingly impervious to marketing money. Social media seldom moves the needle. Only the writer can generate reader engagement through the quality of the storytelling.

All of which is to say, I worry a lot less about what my publisher is doing for me, and I worry a lot more about the quality of my writing than I ever did before.

9. Thanks for sharing all this about the realities of how book are marketed by publishers. How have you developed a social media platform, and what sites have you found most useful for promoting your books and connecting with readers?

I have a lot less time for social media at this point. I like to keep a hand in it, so I budget about 20 minutes a day for all the apps. I set aside 30-45 minutes a week to maintain my website. As I get closer to a book release, I budget more time for blog interviews like this and for networking with my local bookstores. I think one of the most effective things an author can do is develop over time a solid relationship with a local bookstore. Shop there regularly. Ask the staff for their favorites. Go to the author events—even if the book is not your cup of tea. Lots of free mentoring happens at bookstore events. Mention them on your social media. Tell the booksellers about your favorite recent reads. We love to hear about that! Once you have a relationship then it’s the easiest thing in the world to approach them about an event for your forthcoming book. At Annie Blooms we love to support our local authors and with a well-crafted and timely book we can generate hundreds of sales.

10. What are you working on now?

I have several more Voice of the Wilderness projects to work on. The next novel will be about ravens and I’d like to write a nonfiction picture book like The Wolf Effect about river restoration.

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Rosanne. You can find Rosanne at www.rosanneparry.com

 

Giveaway Details

Rosanne is generously offering a hardback of A Wolf Called Fire for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by February 15tth. If your email is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog and/or follow me on Twitter or follow Rosanne on her social media sites, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This book giveaway is International.

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday is hosted by Greg Pattridge. You can find the participating blogs on his blog.

Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops

Wednesday, February 5th I have an interview with Shelly Page and a giveaway of her YA Brewed With Love and my IWSG post

Monday, February 12th I have an interview with Elly Swartz and a giveaway of her MG Same Page

Sunday, February 16th I’m participating in the Wish Big Giveaway Hop

Monday, February 17th I have an agent spotlight interview with Jim Averbeck

Monday, February 24th I have an agent spotlight interview with Reiko Davis and a query critique giveaway

I hope to see you on Wednesday!