And We're Back! We could not think of a better person to 'ring the bell' for season three of our podcast than the talented middle grade author, Jamie Sumner! This conversation celebrates the release (April 9th, 2024) of Jamie's seventh middle grade novel and first novel in verse, Deep Water.

Melissa is in conversation with middle grade DEBUT author, Matt McMann. He speaks about his journey of becoming a published author, and how the journey goes all the way back to middle school. On the day this episode goes live, Matt will celebrate his BOOK BIRTHDAY for the first two books in his Monsterious Series, Escape from Grimstone Manor and The Snatcher of Raven Hollow.

As a professional musician, Matt McMann played an NFL stadium, a cruise ship, and the International Twins Convention. Now he writes the kind of spooky mystery-adventure books he loved as a kid. He’s hiked the Pacific Northwest, cruised Loch Ness, and chased a ghost on a mountain. While he missed Bigfoot and Nessie, he caught the ghost. He enjoys brainstorming new books with his wife, New York Times bestselling author Lisa McMann; viewing his son Kilian McMann’s artwork; and watching his daughter, actor Kennedy McMann, on television.

Visit Matt's website for more information: https://mattmcmann.com/

Melissa is in conversation with author Chris Baron. Chris is the award winning author of Novels for Children including ALL OF ME, an NCTE Notable Book, THE MAGICAL IMPERFECT a Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable Book/ a SLJ Best Book of 2021 & the forthcoming novels, THE GRAY (23) FOREST HEART (24) from Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, and SECRET OF THE DRAGON GEMS, a Middle Grade novel co-authored with Rajani LaRocca from Little Bee Books (23) and editor of ON ALL OTHER NIGHTS: A MIDDLE GRADE PASSOVER ANTHOLOGY, from Abrams (24), He is a Professor of English at San Diego City College and the director of the Writing Center. He grew up in New York City, but he completed his MFA in Poetry in 1998 at SDSU. HE lives in San Diego with his family. He is represented by Rena Rossner from the Deborah Harris Literary Agency. 

Twitter: @baronchrisbaronInstagram: @christhebearbaron