MOON JOY! with Author Roseanne Baxter Frank O’WIN AND THE MOON
Hello, friends—welcome back!
Thanks for joining us for chats with writers and others in the publishing community.
I’m so glad you’re here.
Happy April—month of MOON JOY! I’m still feeling that sense of pure awe and joy brought to us by the Artemis II mission, are you? I know that today’s guest, Roseanne Baxter Frank, felt it too. So, what better time to talk about her lovely book, O’WIN AND THE MOON, a wonder-filled folktale about the moon and the constellations, illustrated by Friederike Ablang, originally published by Wonder House. (And psst—read below for some more exciting publisher news!) Roseanne has many fun, joyful, and fascinating stories to share, so…
…grab a cup of something yummy, get comfy…and let’s dig in!
SR: Roseanne, welcome to the blog! I'm really excited to be talking with you about O'WIN AND THE MOON, especially right now, when we've all been so inspired by the Artemis II mission. Have you always been inspired by the moon and the stars?
RBF: I followed the Artemis mission like I was twelve years old again! It was fabulously exciting!
To answer your question, I’ll date myself here, but I fell in love with the PBS series COSMOS and Carl Sagan in the 70’s. He had a way of explaining science things that made it all sound accessible and fascinating. It was also an interest sparked by my father, who encouraged my brother and I to always be in a learning mode. He’d take us outside on a clear night, no matter the season, to view the stars, the moon, constellations, and planets, and this reminded me of our place in the galaxy, that we are just a small part, and that “we are made of stardust.”
[…“we are made of stardust.” How can one not be inspired by that?]
SR: I love that you wrote O'WIN AND THE MOON in the form of a folktale. Did you set out to write it this way, or did it become clear once you started writing the story that it "wanted" to be written in that form?
RBF: I love folktales with a particular fondness for Native American origin stories. And I knew O’WIN was always going to be a folktale.
When we had a solar eclipse, my mind wandered to when, ages ago, people were afraid of eclipses, not understanding them, of course. So, I asked that great writing prompt: What if? “What if someone wanted to save the sun?” I immediately thought it sounded like an old folktale and why can’t I write my own? Yay! I’d have a story that would spark the imagination of storytelling AND include all the sciency-stuff I love! After so many revisions and so much research, and finding that there are plenty of solar eclipse books but none about a lunar eclipse, I changed the story, but the structure and characters essentially stayed the same.
O’win and the Moon. Written by Roseanne Baxter Frank. Illustrated by Friederike Ablang.
SR: I always have fun naming my characters. Sometimes I'll change a name several times before one sticks. Will you tell us about how you chose the name "O'win"?
RBF:
I went through several names as well, some I can’t even remember, but I always knew that the main character’s name needed to have meaning. DAVE couldn’t save the moon. At least not in this story (haha). I researched incessantly different cultures and name meaning, and finally settled on giving a nod to my Irish heritage and actually created the name O’win. Owin is Celtic and means “young warrior.” Win on its own is Old English and means “friend.” An apostrophe after an O (O’) in Ireland means “of the,” like O’Sullivan (of the Sullivan clan), so O’win means “of the brave friend.” (I have this weird obsession with etymology too.)
Fun fact: O’win and the Moon was not the original title. For years, it was the last line in the book.
[It’s so fun to know this, Roseanne—thanks for sharing this fun fact!]
Informational back matter from O’win and the Moon. Written by Roseanne Baxter Frank. Illustrated by Friederike Ablang.
SR: O'WIN AND THE MOON is a STEM-themed book with plentiful back matter [contextual and/or factual information in the back of the book] on lunar eclipses and constellations, (By the way, it's also multilayered with themes of friendship and kindness, which I think is so apropos of what we've been seeing with the Artemis II crew.) When writing the back matter, was there anything that you were especially excited about? Was anything particularly challenging?
RBF: You mention layers to the story (love layers!), and the funny thing about the back matter is that I kept adding and adding and adding as a new layer evolved. The phases of the moon came later after I asked what if…(again, that great writing question). I had Moon show different phases to O’win.
Most exciting to me is when I can incorporate immersive learning. Since I was an early childhood teacher, there was no way I couldn’t add curriculum connection and hands-on activities. All of this extra information makes for a great marketing tool as well; always keep in mind how you can help market your story.
Particularly challenging was the information about the phases of the moon and the lunar eclipse. I wanted to be sure I got it all exactly correct. To do that, I needed the help of an expert – I didn’t want to rely just on internet rabbit holes. So, I reached out to the educational director of a planetarium local to me and one that I’d visited since I was a kid. The director was kind enough to vet all the information and point out any corrections. My advice is if you ever feel like you’re out of your element with a topic, reach out to someone in the field. You’d be surprised how excited people are willing to help.
Fun Fact: Shout out to the Vanderbilt Planetarium in Centerport, NY. They hosted an O’WIN book signing and an interactive O’WIN on the planetarium dome. A projection of O’win on Swan’s back flew around our heads! It was a dream come true!
[AMAZING!!]
O’win and the Moon at the Vanderbilt Planetarium! How adorable is Roseanne?!
Illustration by Friederike Ablang.
SR: Let’s talk a bit about the wonderful illustrations. Did you or the publisher find the illustrator, Frederike Ablang, for O’WIN?
RBF: O’WIN was signed with a different publisher back in 2019, which then closed. But during that time, I found Rike on Instagram after she posted an illustration of a little boy reaching out to a gorgeous moon, very similar to the cover. I reached out to her to see if she’d be interested and she loved the text. I trusted her to do her magic and that’s exactly what a good illustrator does. Creates magic! Like, how could you possibly show the characters transforming on paper? (Not going to give any spoilers) But she did!
SR: Could you talk about classroom visits? How and what do you prepare?
RBF: I always take into consideration the audience’s age and context, and adjust time and content. Pre-k classrooms are different from assemblies, which are different from science museum camp visits. I make sure the discussions stay interesting – not too simple, not too technical. We read the book and then discuss the layers – the science stuff, friendship, loyalty. Afterward, I have a connecting craft like creating their own constellations. They should think about the shape and a meaning to go with their constellation, just as all the constellations in our night sky have stories to go with them. For larger groups, we talk more about the writing and publishing process
And now, a LIGHTNING ROUND!
1) Favorite Constellation:
Orion. It’s one of the easiest ones to find and one that always sparked my imagination.
2) One writing resource that you love and use often:
Mentor texts.
3) Did you have a mentor book for O'win and the Moon?
I usually have mentor texts. However, for O’WIN, my inspiration was folktales in general, their structures (easy recall because they were all passed on orally), the layers incorporated into them (like love of nature, family bonds, resourcefulness could all be woven in.) I wanted to be sure to honor those stories by following that and at the same time create a story that hadn’t been done before. I especially wanted to write a story where the reader would fall in love with the main character for his friendship and loyalty, and also spark an interest in “out there” – a story that kids would want to read over and over.
AND LUCKY US! BONUS NOTES FROM ROSEANNE!
By the way, I have some GREAT news that just came in that I’m going to share, too. The distribution of the parent company of Wonder House Books was just picked up by Penguin Random House. O’WIN is now included in PRH’s catalogue so you can easily request it at your library and it’s available through Barnes & Noble, Walmart or wherever!
Thank you, Stacey, for inviting me to share! I hope your readers find the information helpful. And one final note – don’t fear all those revisions! Revision is where the magic happens!
GREAT ADVICE, ROSEANNE! I need to hear this over and over and over again…;) Writer friends, how about you?
Where you can find Roseanne Baxter Frank:
Website:rbfrank.com
Instagram: @writingoutloud
Bluesky: @roseannefrank
Help support Roseanne and O’WIN AND THE MOON:
🥢 Follow Roseanne on social media.
🥢 Buy the book for yourself, a friend or family member, a teacher or school library.
🥢 Review the book on Goodreads, Amazon, Bookshop.org, etc.
🥢 Tell your local library about O’WIN AND THE MOON and ask them to purchase it.
THANK YOU AGAIN TO ROSEANNE, AND THANK YOU FOR READING!
If you have a moment, drop a comment—I’d love to hear your favorite takeaway.