Interview With Author Ann Crawford

 

1.      What inspired you to write this book? It started the night before Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, when I saw a bunch of posts on a friend’s Facebook page. One was, “Bye Don thinks he’s going to be inaugurated tomorrow!” accompanied by that GIF of Michael Jackson eagerly eating popcorn in a movie theater from the beginning of “Thriller.” Another was a repost of a tweet telling people, essentially, “Keep the faith. This is all part of the plan. But just you wait.” 

Then Biden was sworn in, and the posts continued: Keep the faith despite appearances. Everything is unfolding as it’s meant to. Martial law will be imposed soon, and Trump will be back in the White House. 

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I knew this woman was estranged from her adult children because of her beliefs. Meanwhile, her online friends were applauding her courage for continuing to post. When a few people expressed alarm, she responded, “This is my page. I’ll post what I want. If you don’t like it, go elsewhere.” And that brought more applause from her online community—and more reinforcement to keep going. 

I didn’t understand as much about algorithms then as I do now, or how much these systems can infer about us—including moments when we may be particularly vulnerable—or how relentlessly an engagement-driven algorithm can keep serving us more of whatever holds our attention. Our online behavior can reveal an astonishing amount about what’s happening in our lives, including loss and grief. 

And of course someone who has lost a spouse or a child can find enormous solace in a community of people who have experienced the same thing. But the algorithm’s job is to keep us engaged—to keep us online, clicking, scrolling, and coming back. Sometimes what begins as connection can lead us farther and farther down a rabbit hole. 

Then I started imagining what it would have been like to turn on the news on January 6, 2021, and recognize someone you loved in the crowd. 

That was the impetus for Valley High, Mountain Low. I began with the algorithms, the rabbit holes, and a family being pulled apart by them. And then, like all my stories, it took on a life of its own. 

2.      What exactly is it about—and who is it written for? Valley High, Mountain Low follows Mariella, a high-powered Silicon Valley marketing executive who finally torches the life that looks so enviable from the outside—her techstar career, her picture-perfect marriage, and the world she helped build—and heads to her childhood home in Colorado to regroup. 

But home isn’t exactly a refuge. Her teenage nieces are disappearing into social media’s “thinspo” culture, while her mother has fallen deep into conspiracy theories, culminating in Mariella seeing her at the Capitol on January 6. Suddenly, the algorithms she helped promote aren’t an abstract social problem; they’re sitting in her family’s living room. 

As her old life continues to unravel, she has to reckon with grief, fractured relationships, motherhood, and the unintended consequences of the digital world she once believed was connecting people. It’s ultimately a story about reinvention, forgiveness, and what can rise when you let it all crash—with plenty of humor amid the wreckage. 

I wrote it especially for readers who love smart, character-driven women’s fiction about complicated families, messy lives, and women reinventing themselves when the life they carefully constructed blows up spectacularly. But I also hope it speaks to anyone who has looked around at the people they love and wondered, “How did we get so far apart—and is there a way back?”  

3.      What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book? First, I hope they’re thoroughly entertained. I never want the message of a book to get in the way of telling a really good story. But underneath that, I hope readers come away thinking about how easily we can lose one another—not just to technology or politics, but to grief, certainty, anger, and the stories we tell ourselves about people who see the world differently. One of the questions at the heart of the book is whether we can find our way back to one another without requiring everyone to agree first.  

I also hope readers see something of themselves in Mariella’s reinvention. Sometimes the life we’ve worked so hard to build has to fall apart before we can discover the life that actually fits us. And finally, I hope readers think a little more about our relationship with technology. As Mariella and a former coworker say, “We thought we were connecting the world… but we forgot to connect families at the dinner table.”  

4.      How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design? The title made itself known to me, like they always do. Valley High, Mountain Low works on several levels: Mariella is leaving the high-pressure world of Silicon Valley and returning to the mountains of Colorado, while emotionally she’s moving through some pretty dramatic highs and lows. I love titles that reveal more of themselves after you’ve read the book, and this one does that.  

The cover features an orange sunset over the mountains, and Colorado sunsets are something I describe throughout the book. Mariella is going through a period when so much of her life is ending, but of course a sunset is both an ending and a transition—there’s always another sunrise coming.  

The mountains are also central to the story, not just as a setting but as a contrast to the Silicon Valley world she leaves behind. I wanted the cover to have that sense of beauty, spaciousness, and possibility after everything in her life has come crashing down.   

5.      What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers – other than run!? Definitely run first. LOL. After that, follow your heart—but listen to the wisdom of professionals along the way. Learn the craft, take good advice, find people who know more than you do, and then ultimately write the story that won’t leave you alone.  

I’ve been writing since I could hold a pencil, and I honestly couldn’t not write books. It’s simply how I move through the world. I think if that’s true for you, too, you keep going.  

Publishing changes, markets change, trends come and go, and some days the whole business can make you completely crazy. But none of that changes the reason you sat down and started putting words on a page in the first place. Keep learning. Keep getting better. And keep writing what only you can write. 

What trends in the book world do you see—and where do you think the book publishing industry is headed? The biggest thing I see is that writers have more ways than ever to reach readers—and it’s harder than ever to get their attention. There are so many books, so much content, and so many things competing for those few precious hours people have to read. At the same time, the old walls around publishing have come down considerably. Authors can publish professionally, produce audiobooks, reach readers all over the world, and build communities without waiting for someone in New York to give them permission. 

AI is obviously going to change publishing, too, although I hope we figure out how to use it as a tool without losing the very thing readers come to books for: a human voice, a human imagination, and the experience of one person telling another person a story.  

I also think readers are becoming increasingly important as the gatekeepers. Word of mouth, book clubs, online communities, librarians, independent booksellers, and individual recommendations can give a book a life that no marketing campaign can manufacture.  

Publishing will keep changing—as it always has—but I don’t think our hunger for a wonderful story is going anywhere.   

7.      Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book? Definitely. I’ve lived in both California and Colorado, so those two very different landscapes and cultures were already in my bones. I’ve also worked in advertising and other corporate environments, which gave me plenty to draw on for Mariella’s professional world.  

My years as a documentary filmmaker probably came in handy most of all. Documentary work taught me to be intensely curious about people, especially people whose lives or beliefs are very different from my own. You have to listen long enough to understand how the world looks from where someone else is standing. That was essential for this book because I didn’t want to write caricatures or create heroes on one side and villains on the other. I wanted to write a family.  

And, like most people, I’ve had my share of lives falling apart and putting themselves back together in unexpected ways. I know something about reinvention. That certainly found its way into Mariella’s story.  

8. How would you describe your writing style? Which writers or books is your writing similar to? I describe what I write as “Big WOW Stories with Humor & Heart.” I tend to take on fairly big subjects—grief, love, spirituality, technology, family, the strange ways human beings manage to hurt and heal one another. But I almost always find the humor in them, because that’s how I experience life. Even in our hardest moments, something absurd usually happens.  

My style is character-driven, conversational, emotional, and often funny. I like books that can make you laugh on one page and hit you in the heart on the next.  

For Valley High, Mountain Low, readers who enjoy Liane Moriarty’s mix of complicated relationships, contemporary issues, humor, and emotional depth would probably feel at home. I’m also drawn to writers who aren’t afraid to explore serious subjects while still making the reading experience entertaining.  

I never want readers to feel as though I’m teaching them something. I want to tell them a great story—and if it leaves them thinking about something afterward, all the better.  

9. What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book? I’m still overcoming them! Honestly, writing the book is the easiest part for me. Marketing it is much harder, especially because the book world—and the world in general—has gotten so much louder. Getting someone’s attention long enough to say, “Hey, I wrote this book I think you might love,” can feel like standing in the middle of Times Square whispering.  

As for the writing itself, the challenge was taking on subjects that can instantly divide people—politics, conspiracy theories, social media, technology—and keeping the focus on the human beings rather than turning the novel into an argument. I wanted these characters to be complicated people who love one another, frustrate one another, hurt one another, and still have to figure out whether they can find their way back to each other.  

That required a lot more nuance than simply deciding who was right and who was wrong. But that was also one of the reasons I wanted to write the book in the first place.  

10, If people can buy or read one book this week or month, why should it be yours? Because I think it will make you laugh, make you feel, make you think, and maybe make you see someone in your own life a little differently. Valley High, Mountain Low is about the world we’re living in right now—technology, polarization, families struggling to understand one another—but it’s also about things that never change: love, grief, friendship, motherhood, forgiveness, and the courage it takes to begin again when the life you thought you wanted falls apart.  

And despite some of those heavy subjects, I promise it’s not a heavy book. Mariella is funny, messy, occasionally outrageous, and very human. Ultimately, it’s a hopeful story about what can rise when you let it all crash.  

And if you read it, please tell somebody. Remember that Times Square whisper? Authors need all the help we can get.

About The Author: Ann Crawford is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and the author of eleven books spanning literary and women’s fiction, historical fiction, visionary fiction, romantic comedy, and nonfiction. Her work explores the places where big cultural forces become deeply personal, usually with plenty of humor and heart along the way. A lifelong traveler, she has visited all 50 states and more than 75 countries and circumnavigated the globe twice. Ann has worked as an editor, filmmaker, and in an assortment of other careers that have given her no shortage of material. She lives in Colorado with her family. For more information, please see: https://anncrawford.net 

Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator! 

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 9, 750,000 page views. With over 5,700+ posts over the past 15 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2026, 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum

 

 

 

How Are Reading Habits Changing?

 

 

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released the results of its American Time Use survey and the findings indicate that fewer Americans are reading for pleasure. 

Two decades ago, in 2004, the survey found that 28% read for pleasure in any given day. Now, that number dropped to 16%. We have gone from 1 in 4 to 1 in 6 people reading for pleasure today. 

The Atlantic recently noted that the books that people read are simpler than they used to be, saying: “New York Times bestsellers today have sentences that are about one-third shorter than they were a century ago.” 

The recent survey noted that fewer than half of all people in the US read at least one book last year. This means the simple majority of people did not read a book for pleasure last year. 

But, we can’t say the sky is falling. The nation’s population keeps growing, so a smaller percentage of people being book readers, though not a good thing, still means many people are still buying and reading books. 

People read plenty – books, blogs, websites, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, emails, social media posts, texts, etc. There is a lot of content out there. How publishers and authors go about crafting books that people want to read and that are price-competitive will always be the industry’s challenge.

“Learning to spell in English can be a harrowing experience. According to a study in the British Journal of Psychology, children take two to three times longer to grasp English spelling, compared to more phonetic orthographies like German or Spanish.” --Enough Is Enuf: Our Failed Attempts To Make English Easier To Spell by Gabe Henry

Do You Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator! 

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 9,800,000 page views. With 5,600+ posts over the past 15 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2026, 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum

 

 

 

Does It Matter Where Authors Write?

 

Books have been written everywhere – from prison cells and concentration camps to trains and libraries – but a new book, The Writer’s Room: The Hidden Worlds That Shape The Books We Love, focuses on the settings we envision our authors penning their books in.  

Studies, garden rooms, kitchen tables, and boarding houses make up some of the places featured in the book. We learn of where Ernest Hemingway drew his inspiration, as well as where James Baldwin, Ray Bradbury, Maya Angelou, Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, and Virginia Woolf spent their time crafting books that have been read by generations.  

Does the room a writer works out of really matter? Would Shakespeare not be able to write if he had to relocate elsewhere? I think not. But we can’t discount the fact that writers may find inspiration, comfort, and convenience from the places they chose to write in.  

Today’s writer is a nomad. They may have a favorite space at home. I have a man cave. But due to laptops, cell phones, and of course paper pads being mobile writing instruments, writers tend to construct their books anywhere and write wherever they are.  

I have written on planes, in bathrooms, restaurants, hotel lounges, bookstores, cafes, libraries, and wherever there is a table or desk, often around other people. Writing is a solo artform, but I crave practicing it when surrounded by life. Writers are nomads.  

Some need to write in solitude and choose to write late into the night or pre-dawn, before anyone can interrupt with conversations, a need, or a want.  

The growth of literary tourism sent bibliophiles visiting the birthplace or homes of famous writers. On display are well-preserved but likely renovated depictions of where a writer spent some of his or her time creating a work of genius. But writers live internally, so anything external that we see may or may not have had any impact on the writer.  

Perhaps in addition to setting, location, and the environment, an author writes in, another key factor would be the circumstances of the writer’s life at the time he or she wrote something. Were they going through divorce, addiction, poverty, loss, war, family trauma, health issues, or anything that could transform one’s life? Were they of sound mind and body? Were they depressed, in love, or injured? Who we are – not just where we are – influence what, or even if, we write.  

I will leave you with this excerpt from Katie Da Cunha Lewin’s book: 

 

“We might imagine that writing happens only in a given location, at a certain time, and in a certain pose, but writing, in its most instinctual and basic feeling, is happening always. It percolates inside us, weaving its way towards us in the day, snaking its way up as we read, or look, or simply live. We hope to trap it in the writer's room, but writing is not like an animal that can be caught and contained: it is more diffuse and changeable than that. We need not champion the genius, with all the baggage that entails, but the skill, craft and labor of the writer: we need to assert that writing is worthwhile enough to be valued and protected, wherever it takes place.”

Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator! 

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 9,800,000 page views. With nearly 5,700+ posts over the past 15 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2026, 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum

Interview With Author Anne C. (A.C.) LeMieux

 

  

1. What inspired you to write this book?

 

Some of the seeds of this book have existed for more than twenty-five years. Back in the 1990s, I was working on a YA book called LoveSpeed, with a character who loved physics, a girl who was a really good artist, and a football quarterback. One of the premises of that story was that the speed of love is faster than the speed of light because it is its own kind of energy, in kind of a quantum-synchronous way.

 

Then in January 2000, my son Brendan, who was almost thirteen and had had a variety of health problems since birth, was diagnosed with a very rare neurogenetic condition called Williams syndrome (WS). I began to do a lot of research on WS, while living the experience of being the mom of someone with WS: a teenager with unique WS personality traits, along with medical issues, academic issues, and the social challenges that can come with being different.

 

Over the years, I'd occasionally pick up LoveSpeed and work on it. It went through more than two dozen drafts and a number of titles. Once my son was grown, and we were far enough away from the immediate experience, I was able to write Daniel's story. Brendan and his lived experience very much informed the story; he was the inspiration for the book that became See The Music Hear The Light. 

 

2. What exactly is it about — and who is it written for?

 

The book is about Daniel James Durkin, Jr., a gifted 14-year-old saxophone player with a neurogenetic developmental disability called Williams syndrome. He tells his own story in the first person. Relatively strong expressive-language skills and a storytelling conversational style are characteristics of WS. Daniel navigates his freshman year at a public high school, beginning with August marching-band camp.

 

Along the way, he grapples with bullying, not only from a rival alto sax player, but also from a rigid, nitpicky social studies teacher. A budding friendship with artistic,  new-to-town Phoebe, helps balance his days. Throughout the year, Daniel faces both typical and atypical issues: forming an identity within a peer group where he is seen as "different," independence from his single, mother, a librarian, while coping with built-in medical issues—some fixable, some not.

 

His father, a Marine musician, died before Daniel was born, but Daniel carries an inherited talisman in his pocket: his dad's Boot Camp Challenge Coin. When an incident derails his cherished musical dream and threatens his life, he learns that the whole world is not his friend—a hard lesson for a person with Williams syndrome.

 

The book is written for neurodiverse students and students with disabilities in grades 6 - 12, as well as for "neurotypical" students in grades 6 - 9. It has a Lexile Measure of HL740L, indicating an accessible book with high interest and age-appropriate subject matter, but lower complexity in terms of reading demands.

 

I hope the readership will include students with disabilities in grades 6 - 12 who may identify with some of Daniel's struggles and challenges in middle- and high-school peer ecosystems, as well as with the courage and spirit that he musters to meet those challenges. I also hope to reach "neurotypical" students, particularly in grades 6 - 9, whose perspective on fellow students with differences or disabilities may be enlarged through reading a story told "through the eyes of" and "in the voice of" a someone like Daniel. I am working on study guides for that group, with a focus on social and emotional learning, and empathy development. 

 

3. What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book?

 

I hope See The Music Hear The Light will enhance a reader's social awareness and encourage mindfulness in social interactions, both within their own spheres and outside them. I hope readers will come away from the story with an expanded understanding that fellow students with "differences" have the same feelings and emotions, the same dreams and hopes for the future, and the same fundamental humanity.

 

I hope readers with "differences" will come away feeling understood and championed. I hope they will feel that a voice of one of their own has spoken up.

 

So many times, in talking with individuals with varying disabilities, I have heard accounts of the bullying they endured, and I have witnessed firsthand their courage in meeting all kinds of challenges. I have witnessed many triumphs, too.

 

At a recent national Williams syndrome convention, a young woman with WS who had read the book approached me, very emotional, and said something along the lines of, "Finally there's a book that really gets it, that shows how we feel." And my son Brendan, who's now 39, said, after reading it, "It speaks my truth."

 

I hope readers will grasp that truth and perhaps see fellow humans living with disabilities in a clearer and more empathic light. I hope this book will foster social inclusion.

 

4. How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design?

 

From the very first seeds sown in the LoveSpeed book, various drafts went through different titles. For several years, I called it simply, Daniel's Heroic Journey Book. Some of the other titles were: See Me, See You, See True; Hearts & Eyes, & Dragonflies; and If Music Be The Food Of Love... Some of those versions were structured very differently. In one, I experimented with four alternating narrators. Then I pared it down to two, Daniel and Phoebe.

 

Finally, when the manuscript was over 130,000 words, I realized it was too long. I took the book apart and began writing entirely from Daniel's point of view, in the first person. That is when everything really came into focus.

 

The character of Dalton 1.6 came more fully to life, along with his interest in energy waves. Waves became one of the book's motifs, tying back to the early LoveSpeed idea. As I researched various physics topics, I came across material on the acoustic waves, the sound waves, inside the sun.

 

Another aspect that came to the foreground was the synesthetic, cross-modal sensory processing experienced by some people with WS. My son, as a musician with WS, was invited to participate in a research study when he was in his twenties. It involved fMRI brain imaging while participants  listened to various kinds of music. Afterward, I was told that when Brendan listened to music in the study, "his visual cortex lit up like a Christmas tree."

 

Paired with a quote on the wall in Daniel's saxophone teacher's music studio, attributed to the great alto sax player Charlie Parker—"See with your ears. Hear with your eyes."—the title See The Music Hear The Light percolated up to the front of my brain. It felt right to me.

 

 For this book, I had some ideas, for the cover design, such as wanting to include the origami wind horse which Phoebe made for Daniel, and the actual diagram from a scientific article I'd read about the sound waves inside the sun. I took a picture of my 14-year-old grandson playing his alto sax and put it through a few Photoshop filters, to come up with the abstract, geometric saxophone, with the white-gloved jazz hands. I printed elements out and use acrylic and watercolor paints to make colors pop. I cut and pasted with scissors and glue. For the intense blue of the background, I took two pieces of blue tissue paper and wrapped them around a piece of cardboard, then scanned that, and fiddled with it in Photoshop, stretching the "waves" to suggest my idea of deep space, boosting the color saturation.

 

The font I chose, Amatic SC, a wavery, handwritten-looking font, is also used for the chapter titles in the paperback edition. Because of formatting issues, I had to change it for the ebook. I originally chose it to echo with Daniel's difficulty with handwriting, a common WS characteristic due not only to visuospatial deficits but also to fine motor difficulties. This becomes an element in the conflict between Daniel and his social studies teacher.

 

I wanted the first-person chapter titles to function as a lens focused through Daniel's eyes and perception, as well as a road map for readers. Each title has three-parts, like many Victorian literature novels: "In which this, that, & the other thing happens."

 

5. What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers – other than run!?

 

     1) Write.

     2) Don't be afraid to write badly. Just be prepared to rewrite and rewrite until you think it's good.

     3) Be careful who you share your work with, especially in the early stages. The wrong feedback can be wrong in itself, and it can also squelch your creative spark, the thing you need to guard and nourish. (And let rest, when rest is called for.) It's your pilot light.

     4) Read. Books. Articles. Good ones. Don't hesitate to discard reading material that you've already spent some time on, if you've come to a point that it doesn't seem good to you anymore.

     5) Whatever little rituals or talismans seem to help you get going, or overcome inertia, make use of them. Then write.

 

6. What trends in the book world do you see -- and where do you think the book publishing industry is heading? 

 

That is a difficult question for me to answer. I was very active in the children's book publishing world in the late 1980s and 1990s, then basically took twenty-five years "off" because the path of my life required a major pivot. Today's obvious technology-driven trends, ebooks and audiobooks, for example, were not even a thing back then. Nor was self-publishing available on anything like the affordable) scale that exists now. And then there is the AI factor... A topic for another day.

 

That said, I have read some recently written books that I found exquisitely good—wonderfully written from the standpoint of  wordsmithing and craft, deeply important from a human perspective, and original and though-provoking.

 

I chose to self-publish See The Music Hear The Light primarily because, without blatantly giving away my exact age, time is of the essence to me at this stage of life. I know how long the timeline can be from acceptance to publication and distribution. My former agent is no longer with my former agency, and that adds another layer of time.

 

I felt the need to get this book out into the world, to complete the study guides for teachers and students done, and to begin work on the companion YA books, of which three are half-written, having been excised from earlier long drafts Daniel's story.

 

7. Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book? 

 

Yes, very much so. The discovery that Brendan had Williams syndrome really thrust our family into a different world, one in which Brendan found his "tribe" and we became members of it. Being part of that community has deepened my understanding of WS and of my son's identity, and it has propelled me along a fascinating research journey, as well.

 

All the growing-up experiences—my own, as a mother watching, participating, and supporting, and Brendan's, as the person living them—have influenced this story, and the way it is told.

 

I also have a musical background. In my twenties, at the University of Bridgeport, I studied music history, music theory, and classical, acoustic fingerstyle, and jazz guitar. I also taught guitar at a local music store. That certainly came in handy, both in raising musical children and in writing a book in which music is so fundamental that it is almost a character in its own right.

 

8. How would you describe your writing style? Which writers or books is your writing similar to?

 

For the writing style of See The Music Hear The Light, I'd like to quote from the BookLife Review:

 

"Daniel's voice is the book's greatest strength. He narrates in short, staccato bursts that move like jazz riffs, funny and observant in equal measure."                               —Publishers Weekly/BookLife May 18, 2026

 

This writing style is actually very different from that of my earlier YA books, which were influenced by writers like Chris Crutcher, Robert Cormier, M.E. Kerr, and Laurie Halse Anderson, and from my middle grade books, which were influenced by the styles of writers like Lois Lowry, Jerry Spinelli, Margaret Mahy, and Madeline L'Engle.

 

My earlier books were primarily contemporary realistic novels: slice-of-life for middle grade readers, and "problem novels" for YA readers.

 

There are subject-matter commonalities—there's almost always a bully to deal with, as well as "growing-up stuff"—but this book's writing style arose organically from Daniel, its main character.

 

9. What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book?

 

At the beginning of COVID, I was on draft 26 or so, and working with one of my former editors from HarperCollins. One of her comments was, "If you are going to write the story from Daniel's first-person point of view, the voice has to be pitch-perfect."

 

That was the biggest challenge.

 

The second biggest challenge was probably carving away so much writing I has produced over the years, some of which I loved and thought was very good, in order to get to this story, simply and cleanly.

 

A quotation that has been a guiding light for me since I first found the poem "Little Gidding" in T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets is probably almost impossible to achieve, but it's still my aspiration:

 

"...Every phrase and sentence that is right... every word is at home, taking its place to support the others... the complete consort dancing together..."

 

10. If people can buy or read one book this week or month, why should it be yours?

 

     It invites readers into the uncommon world of an uncommon young person, full of music, unusual heroism, and very particular joy. As BookLife wrote:

 

"Daniel's unique way of relating to the world around him draws readers in on every page... The question of what it means to be brave when your body and mind work differently from those around you runs through every chapter, arriving at an honest, heartfelt resolution..."

— Publishers Weekly/BookLife May 18, 2026

 

About The Author: A. C. (Anne) LeMieux is the award-winning author of eleven books for young readers, including fiction for young adults, middle-grade readers, and early readers. Her first novel, The TV Guidance Counselor, was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; her second, Do Angels Sing The Blues?, received a Parents' Choice Silver Honor Award; and her poetry has been included in anthologies edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins and Michael J. Rosen. A former journalist, LeMieux graduated from Simmons College with a degree in writing and illustration. A lifelong reader, researcher, musician, and writer, LeMieux believes that stories create parallel universes which readers may continue to inhabit long after the final page. LeMieux lives in Branford, Connecticut, with her husband and son, Brendan, who was born with Williams syndrome. She is also at work on a research-based collection of personal essays about her family's path to a Williams syndrome diagnosis, as well as companion novels to See The Music Hear The Light. For more information: https://www.seethemusichearthelight.com

Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator! 

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 9, 750,000 page views. With over 5,700+ posts over the past 15 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2026, 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum