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# Write Now With Emma Otheguy
- URL: https://justincox.com/blog/2025/02/write-now-with-emma-otheguy/
- Published: 2025-02-19T16:00:10.000Z
- Updated: 2025-02-19T16:00:10.000Z
- Description: Today's Write Now interview features Emma Otheguy, author of COUSINS IN THE TIME OF MAGIC.
- Author: Justin Cox
- Tags: Interview, #emma-otheguy

## Who are you?

I’m Emma Otheguy, a children’s author in New York City.

## What do you write?

I write picture books, early readers, and middle-grade novels. I’m particularly interested in history and often write about Latinos in the United States.

## Where do you write?

I’m lucky to live in a neighborhood with about a thousand great coffee shops, where I do the bulk of my writing. I am also a member of the New York Society Library, where I go when I need sustained silence and access to open stacks for research.

My writing tools are:

- My laptop
- A marble notebook
- A Paper Mate Profile pen
- A clamp binder with printed copies of my outlines and research notes

![](https://justincox.com/content/images/2024/10/Cousins-in-the-Time-of-Magic---Cover.jpg)

Photo courtesy of Emma Otheguy

## When do you write?

My writing schedule varies according to my school visit schedule (to say nothing of when I have kids home sick). I like to write for 45-minute stretches, and I find that I’m at my best if I do about three of these 45-minute blocks in a day. I try to get at least 500 words written, though many days I write much more. Right now I’m racing to the finish line of the second [*Cousins in the Time of Magic*](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Cousins-in-the-Time-of-Magic/Emma-Otheguy/9781665915182?ref=justincox.com) book!

## Why do you write?

I write because I have a lot to say, and writing is the best way to make my ideas heard. I’m motivated and inspired by my love of children—and their books!

## How do you overcome writer's block?

I always give the same advice: keep coming back. Almost everyone’s life has interruptions and setbacks, and almost every creative and intellectual process has challenges and stumbling blocks. All you can do is keep coming back. I get frustrated by advice dependent on rigid routines that are mostly not applicable to the lives of real people. But I know from years of experience that if you keep coming back to your manuscript, trying again, and picking up where you left off, you will eventually have a book on your hands. So keep coming back.

## Bonus: What do you enjoy doing when not writing?

I like hanging out with my three kids, knitting and needlepoint, and reading voraciously!

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*My thanks to Emma Otheguy for today's interview.*