Between the Lines: From Manga to Barbie to Minecrafters

by Zinta Aistars

for WMUK 102.1 FM
Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate




Between the Lines is my weekly radio show about books and writers with a Michigan connection. It airs every Tuesday at 7:50 a.m., 11:55 a.m., and 4:20 p.m. (or listen anytime online), on WMUK 102.1 FM, Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate. I am the host of Between the Lines.

This week's guest: Danica Davidson

Danica Davidson

CREDIT DEBORAH PECKHAM

Danica Davidson of Sturgis, Michigan, began her career as a writer when she was just three years old. That's not a typo. She couldn’t write yet but she could dictate. Her parents took down her dictated stories, and little Danica then drew pictures to illustrate them.

By age seven, Davidson had written her first novel. “It was terrible,” she admits.

By age fourteen, she convinced her school teacher to tell the Los Angeles Times that there was a talented writer in her classroom. The newspaper followed up and interviewed the young author.

“I began submitting to agents and editors when I was in middle school,” Davidson says. “And I was learning that to break into publishing was about the hardest thing to do in the world. I thought it would help to have been in the LA Times, but it didn’t.”

CREDIT SKY PONY PRESS

Davidson says her first sale to a publisher was a book on manga — the Japanese comic art form. Anime is the animated version of manga.

“That was a surprise to me. The publisher actually approached me. I had by then a history of writing articles on manga, so they asked me to write a book about it.”

Davidson was soon writing articles for hundreds of publications, magazines, and websites. The list includes MTV,The Onion, CNN, Ms. Magazine,Publishers Weekly, and many more. But she especially enjoys writing for the young. Her "Minecrafter" novels, stories built around characters in the popular video game, are written primarily for ages 7 to 12.

Davidson’s writing about manga for MTV earned her ...

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