Archive for Interviews & Appreciations

Just What To Do: Some Thoughts on Grief

November 18, 2024 / / One comment

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I loved this gentle picture book about grief and how we struggle to offer comfort in sad times. The text is spare and simple; the illustrations clear and poignant without being sentimental.

It’s pretty perfect.

As a teacher and writer, I’ve spent time lately thinking about the practices and strategies we have to cultivate our own creativity. I’ve even reached out to my peers for their tips and suggestions, which you can easily find on my blog with a little scrolling. 

Here’s one thing I do: 

When I go to the library, around once a week, I try to grab 10 new picture books from the shelves that feature “what’s new.” I find that I really like 1-2 of them, actively dislike a couple, and shrug at the rest. It’s hard to create a really great book and that percentage seems about right.

Anyway, this is the book I found last week and immediately shared with my class. For many reasons. One of those reasons was to remind these aspiring writers to keep the text short, to hone down to the bone, to seek the essence. I struggle with that myself. 

These days, picture books are getting younger and younger. The text is shorter. Conventional wisdom now says that a manuscript should not be longer than 500 words. So, of course, people keep coming in with 600-750 word stories. Ha. Maybe it’s time to work harder at writing 150-200 words manuscripts. Leaning hard in the other direction. See if you can stay very spare, direct, and allow the (imagined) illustrations to carry some of that load. 

Don’t try to do too much in one 32-page picture book.

On a personal note, my oldest, Nick, is a two-time childhood cancer survivor. He’s 31 today and imperfectly healthy. Back then, friends and neighbors felt it and cared. A two-year-old with cancer. How could they not? But they struggled, I’m sure, to say and do the right thing. This book is about that. What I came to believe was that it was important to say something. Recognize the moment. Simply, directly. It doesn’t have to be a lot.

Don’t say, “What can I do?” Don’t say, “Just ask if you need anything.”

Don’t put the work on them. 

Just drop off the lasagna. The gift card to the coffee shop. Think about what you can do . . . and do it. The small gesture means so much. 

The one thing I hated — despised — was when someone would say, “I’m sure he’s going to be okay.”

It made me furious. Such complete and utter bullshit. You don’t know. No one knows. The core of the experience is the unknowing. Children die. Terrible things happen. Don’t you dare squeeze my hand and promise something you can’t possibly deliver, just so you can feel good. You are sure of nothing. You don’t know. Nobody knows. That’s why each day is so hard. 

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Category: Interviews & Appreciations, the writing process / Tags: , , , ,

CULTIVATING CREATIVITY, Part 4: Tips & Strategies Featuring Vikram Madan, Lizzy Rockwell, and Matthew McElligott

November 12, 2024 / / No comments

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Welcome to Part 4 on my award-winning series (not really) about creativity (really!), where we learn from some of the most outstanding voices in children’s literature to hear what they do to cultivate their own creative process. Think of it as priming the pump.

For many of us who attempt to do this for a living, being creative is not simply a matter of sitting back and waiting for the magic to happen. It’s a way of being that can be cultivated, nurtured. But how? There’s the rub. We are all different in the way we live and the way we work. “Being creative” might feel entirely natural for most of our participants — but still, there are strategies that help bring us to that creative ground.

Today we’ll look at the terrific answers I received from Vikram Madan, Lizzy Rockwell, and Matthew McElligott.

In Part 3, we heard from Diana Murray, London Ladd, and Jeff Mack; while Part 2 featured responses from Travis Jonker, Paul Acampora, and Michelle Knudsen. Those links’ll bring you there.

 

VIKRAM MADAN

There’s a rule of thumb in painting that if you see a scene and you think “That scene would make a great painting”, then that’s very likely true –- that scene is probably worthy of turning into a painting. I apply that to writing too — mostly, whenever an idea or thought strikes me as a possible book, and often it is nothing more than a title or phrase, I try to capture that by making a list, or making an empty folder for it on my computer -– and then over time keep adding thoughts and reference material into that folder. Most folders remain empty, but eventually one or two will reach a critical mass where I feel I have something I can try to develop more intentionally. Sometimes I can go back to these mostly-empty folders and mine them for ideas for other projects I have. It’s a very organic, chaotic approach.

 

Vikram Madan is one of those rare people who stepped away from a successful career in order to pursue the wild dream of writing and illustrating children’s books. Today he lives in a sodden cardboard box. No, just kidding! Vikram lives in the Seattle area where he’s still dreaming — of dragons and nozzlewocks, owls and penguins, Bobos and Zoonis. Some dreams, it seems, have a way of coming true. 

 

 

 

 

LIZZY ROCKWELL

For most of my 40 year career, I have been a freelance illustrator who thrived by solving other people’s problems. I like collaboration. I like knowing trim size dimensions and target audience

For many artists, limitations are stifling. For me they are inspiring. But now I only illustrate children’s books that I write. I create my own problems to solve.

Once I have a concept (often handed to me by Muse, while I’m walking, sleeping, gardening…) I need to create some structure. I conceive each spread as a scene in a picture book, typically 15 of them. I usually write by hand in a spiral notebook, noting which page will hold which words. Or I write directly into a thumbnail-sized handmade book dummy, writing and sketching in pencil as I go. Sometimes it goes well. Sometimes it does not. But I have posed a good problem to solve. 

Here are the images, plus an interior spread from IT IS TIME: THE LIFE OF A CATERPILLAR. 

This one was a first attempt at my insect book.  It ended up completely differently as I LOVE INSECTS. I came to hate the “coaxing know-it-all parent” tone of this original stab. The finished book is written as a debate between two kids, one who loves insects and her friend who hates insects. Along the way they tell us a lot of cool things about insects. Such as, “Insects help plants.” And “Some insects hurt plants.” (The illustrations do the heavy lifting.) It was written as a leveled reader, which upped the limitations ante in a challenging and fun way. 

Below shows rough dummy writing and illustrating at the same time. Working at about 50% scale. You can see the erased words of earlier attempts. Grace M. and I had a whole back and forth about the pronoun of the caterpillar. I felt “It” did not make the protagonist as relatable to the reader. Grace thought genderless was less troublesome in these complex times.  In the end we used “she”. Though the black swallowtail caterpillar is not visually distinct by gender, the female butterfly who reveals herself at the end is. 

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Lizzy Rockwell is the extremely proud daughter of acclaimed children’s book author, Anne Rockwell. Clearly, Lizzy is one acorn that did not roll far from the family tree. Lizzy lives in Bridgeport, CT, where she loves to quilt, cook, hike, paddle, and grow things in her garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MATTHEW McELLIGOTT

For me, keeping a notebook is critical. Interesting thoughts pop up at the strangest time, but I’ve found that if I don’t capture them immediately, they disappear, never to be seen again.

The other thing I’ve learned (and this will come as no surprise to you) is that having a community of other authors and artists to talk with, share a coffee or a beer with, and bounce ideas off of does more to keep my momentum going than anything else I know. One good conversation with an interesting, thoughtful person can inspire me for the week. Being part of a community — even if it’s a community of loners who all work by ourselves — gives me the energy to push through those creative dry spells.

And coffee. Strategic, targeted application of caffeine works wonders.

 

Matthew McElligott has been drawing and making up stories all his life. Some involve math, some involve monsters, all encourage laughter. When Matt’s not working on illustration and children’s books, or drinking coffee with his pals, he spends his time teaching as a professor at Russell Sage College in Albany, NY.

 

 

 

 

 

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Category: Cultivating Creativity, Interviews & Appreciations, the writing process / Tags: , , , , , ,

Chuckles, the Candy: A Tribute

September 26, 2024 / / No comments

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It’s remarkable that we live in a world where we can still purchase Chuckles candy. After everything’s gone so wrong, how is it that we’ve got this one thing right? Chuckles is like a food item left to us from an alien world. A distant galaxy. And certainly a different time. 

Think of the things that didn’t exist when Chuckles first hit the scene in 1921. This colorful, sugar-sprinkled “jellied candy” arrived before smartphones and the internet, before alarm clocks and avocado toast, before scotch tape and sliced bread, before the chocolate chip cookie and TV dinners, before the cheeseburger and chicken nuggets, before the walkie talkie and the electric guitar, before the frisbee and jukebox, before everything bagels and string cheese, before M & Ms and Gobstoppers, before Sour Patch Kids and the Charleston Chew, the Milky Way and Hershey’s Kisses, Milk Duds and Heath Bars and Tootsie Roll Pops and Red Hots, before the microwave and the atomic bomb.

Today we can walk into a convenience store and find that tidy rectangular rainbow of jellied confectionary in red, yellow, black, orange, and green. The mighty Chuckles, perfectly packaged in thin cardboard and a cellophane wrapper. Even the typeface is exactly right with those two cockeyed eyeballs over the u. 

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Chuckles began more than one hundred years ago when a man named Fred Amend introduced his latest edible invention to the unsuspecting world. Amend’s genius? He figured out how to make jellied candies that didn’t stick together. Amend threw together a few wholesome ingredients: corn syrup, sugar, cornstarch, modified food starch, natural and artificial flavors, red 40, caramel color, yellow 6, blue 1, and yellow 5 and . . . presto!

These days, now a grown man, I’m like that bee buzzing by the flowers, seeking nectar, thinking: sugar, sugar, sugar. I blame my father for my sweet tooth, for he did the food shopping in our family. On Saturdays, Dad ventured out alone and performed the massive, weekly food shop at Bohacks or the A & P for a family of nine ravenous mouths. When Dad pulled up to the house in a station wagon crowded with groceries, it was expected that all available children would file out to help, passing along the behemoth brown bags like a fire brigade.

It was a ton of food. And if we are in fact what we ate, here’s a snapshop of me: cans of vegetables, peas and corn and carrots. TV dinners. Campbell’s soup. Juice and six-packs of soda (we kept it warm under the sink) and Maraschino cherries for cocktails. Pop-tarts and big boxes of sugary cereals (Quisp was my childhood favorite) and “family-sized” packages of Reese’s Peanut Cups and a bag or two of those pink wintergreen mints he loved so much. Dad was a devout Entenmann’s man, of course, so there would be coffee cake and raspberry danish and whatever else struck his fancy. Open to inspiration while wandering the aisles, Dad was prone to coming home with surprises. 

What chance did I, just a child, have in the face of all that goodness? I caught the buzz even then: sugar, sugar, sugar. 

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One day we’ll look up and Chuckles will be gone the way of the dodo, destined to extinction, surpassed by Gummy Worms and Life Savers Gummies or Skittles or what have you. But for now, count your blessings. And be like me: once a year, or once every few years, pick up a sleeve of Chuckles at the neighborhood convenience store. It’s like tasting the Olden Days. A magical portkey that transports us through time to a simpler era.

Sugar, sugar, sugar.

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Category: Around the Web, Family, Interviews & Appreciations / Tags: , , , , , ,

Three Children’s Books That I Loved: Featuring a Plucky Peacock, A Wild Acorn, and Animals in Pants!

November 29, 2023 / / No comments
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I recently opened a new folder and titled it, “Beginnings.” I’ll keep starter files in there. Ideas. Words. Phrases. Seeds for possible stories.

It’s interesting how a line or phrase can open the door to a story. When I have ideas without words, it’s like I’m standing outside a giant egg and I can’t find my way inside.

Words are the voice, the tone, the key.

These past few years, I’ve been teaching a recurring class for Gotham Writers: “Writing Children’s Books: Levels 1 and 2.” We sometimes have special guests, which we all enjoy immensely. Recently we hosted Jen Arena, who has quietly put together an admirable career in children’s publishing. We talked, among a great many other things, about her most recent book:

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Jen mentioned that the idea came in the form of a simple sentence that popped into her head one day: Acorn was a nut.

Those words — it always comes down to words, doesn’t it? — provided a way into the story, a door opening for the writer to walk through.

But better yet, that line didn’t survive the editorial process and didn’t make it into the final book. It became: Acorn was a little wild.

Definitely better.

Here’s to the wild ones.

Gorgeously illustrated by Jessica Gibson, who manages to give the whole thing vibrancy and energy.–

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Jen’s experience reminded me of the great Frank O’Hara poem, “Why I Am Not a Painter.”

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Why I Am Not a Painter

Frank O’Hara

I am not a painter, I am a poet.
Why? I think I would rather be
a painter, but I am not. Well,

for instance, Mike Goldberg
is starting a painting. I drop in.
“Sit down and have a drink” he
says. I drink; we drink. I look
up. “You have SARDINES in it.”
“Yes, it needed something there.”
“Oh.” I go and the days go by
and I drop in again. The painting
is going on, and I go, and the days
go by. I drop in. The painting is
finished. “Where’s SARDINES?”
All that’s left is just
letters, “It was too much,” Mike says.

But me? One day I am thinking of
a color: orange. I write a line
about orange. Pretty soon it is a
whole page of words, not lines.
Then another page. There should be
so much more, not of orange, of
words, of how terrible orange is
and life. Days go by. It is even in
prose, I am a real poet. My poem
is finished and I haven’t mentioned
orange yet. It’s twelve poems, I call
it ORANGES. And one day in a gallery
I see Mike’s painting, called SARDINES.

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The place where inspiration begins isn’t always where the work ends. Perhaps there’s a lesson in that.

The more I think about Jen Arena’s book, btw, the more I consider it a wholly successful picture book on every level. That is, I think: this is truly a great book. A quiet triumph.

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Another book that I absolutely loved was Leave It to Plum by Matt Phelan.

 

 

This is a bright new series — planned as five richly illustrated chapter books — featuring an adorably upbeat peacock named Plum.

Plum resides at the Athensville Zoo, where the peacocks serve as proud ambassadors, enjoying freedom to come and go as they please. Their prime directive: “Mingle! Guide! Delight!”

Phelan’s cheerful illustrations grace very nearly every spread, imbuing the story with warmth and humor. 

 

 

Many of us know Phelan as an award-winning illustrator, author of groundbreaking graphic novels such as Storm in the Barn, Snow White, Bluffton, and more. But it’s his rich, robust writing that commands center stage here: 

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Every morning the ambassadors met for the Mandatory Morning Meeting of Athensville Zoo Peacocks. As today’s meeting came to order, Hampstead, the head peacock, stood as usual under the Great Tree. All peacocks were in attendance.

All but one.

“PLUM!” bellowed Hampstead.

Plum skidded around the path and joined the congregation.

“Here, O Great Leader!” shouted Plum. “Bright-eyed and feathery tailed!”

“Kind of you to join us for the Mandatory Morning Meeting, Plum,” grumbled Hampstead.

“Wouldn’t miss it!” piped Plum. 

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Last but surely not least, I fell in love with Suzy Levinson’s Animals in Pants.

 

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This is such a fresh, clever, original twist on a children’s publishing standard: poems about animals. But these poems are different, for these animals are wearing all kinds of pants!

You’ll have to read it to believe it.

As someone who looks at a lot of picture books, I confess that after a while many of them blend together: too slight, too predictable, too familiar, as if we’ve already seen it all before. Not so here, for Levinson’s Animals in Pants strikes like a thunderbolt. It’s just nutty enough — silly, playful, joyous enough — to feel utterly fresh and completely new. 

Levinson’s short, sharp poetry is highly skilled, rhythmic and impeccable. And the art by Kristen and Kevin Howdeshell make this animal world come alive in bright colors with almost old-fashioned illustrations (read: a classic vibe), brimming with compositional inventiveness and color. But don’t take my word for it, take a gander for yourself:

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This book is a winner and, for debut author Levinson, it marks what should be the beginning of a brilliant career.

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Category: Interviews & Appreciations, Readings / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dahl & Matilda: “You Are Not Alone”

November 19, 2023 / / No comments

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Category: Around the Web, Interviews & Appreciations / Tags: , ,
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