Author Interviews

You’re Never Too Old or Too Late to Follow Your Dreams with Author PJ McIlvaine

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 3 Comments

PJ McIlvaine has been published in The New York Times and Newsday. PJ is also a regular contributor for the Children’s Book Insider newsletter, and a co-host of #PBPitch, a Twitter pitch party for picture book creators.

PJ has written across ages and genres, including a screenplay for Showtime which became the movie My Horrible Year. Her picture book, Dragon Roar, releases on Oct. 19, 2021 through MacLaren-Cochrane Publishing, Inc, which specializes in books for readers with dyslexia.

You’ve had quite a career in writing, including writing a movie for Showtime (which earned a daytime Emmy nomination, very cool). What has that been like and why did you switch to kidlit? 

Well, it’s like being on a roller coaster without a harness or safety belt. Sometimes you have to hang on and hope when the rides over, you haven’t broken every bone in your body. I consider myself a Jill of all genres when it comes to writing: I started out writing short stories, then poems, song lyrics, then eventually novels and screenplays but nothing in the kid-lit arena. Then my mother died (I was her caretaker for years), and I was now a grandma. I read picture books to the babies, and I realized hmmm, this was something I could write. So then I immersed myself fully in picture books, and soon graduated to middle grade and young adult. I have a good feel for kid lit—I cut my teeth on Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden growing up. So given where I was in my life, it was a natural evolution.   

Continue reading →

Show, Don’t Tell with Author Karla Valenti

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 14 Comments

K headshotAs one of my critique partners, Karla has been a huge part of my writing journey. I can say with experience that she gives excellent and thorough advice. And luckily, she’s agreed to share some of that here, along with the chance to win her new picture book, Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence, a story about science and perseverance that’s definitely needed right now. See the details below on how to enter. In the meantime, enjoy Karla’s sage advice on how to show not tell.

 

Thank you, Karla!

Thanks for talking about this hard-to-pin-down topic of how to show not tell. With that, I’m going to turn the rest of this interview over to you to explain how to do this.

Johnell – thank you for inviting me on to your site and giving me a chance to launch my Show Don’t Tell blog series. I also appreciate the chance to share a little bit of information about my upcoming debut picture book “Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence.”

What is Show Don’t Tell?

I’ve been doing PB critiques for many years and have read hundreds of manuscripts. Time and again, the two things that come up most often in my feedback is the importance of structure and showing vs telling. Structure is fairly easy to understand, but showing is a lot more elusive and difficult to explain. I always find it easier to simply point out instances of showing (or telling) in my client’s work, and to analyze why those scenes worked (or not). Eventually, my clients begin to internalize these moments and acquire their own instinct for when they were showing vs telling. 

I’ve wanted to do something similar using books that have been published and are accessible to any reader. My hope is that by understanding (and assimilating) these tips, it will become more instinctive in our own work. Cover

I thought I’d start with my book since I know it pretty well. Also, when I wrote it, I was very deliberate about finding ways to show what I wanted to convey so it’s easier for me to point out those instances.

I do want to say, this is simply my opinion and readers are welcome to disagree. I do not claim to be an expert on this. However, to the extent this sheds some light on this very elusive but important storytelling rule, I hope it helps. Continue reading →

Interview with Author Chana Stiefel

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 8 Comments

 

ChanaStiefel_Head shot_Color.jpgChana Stiefel’s latest picture book, My Name is Wakawakaloch!, made its debut last month and has already charmed its way into the kidlit circles. Chana is graciously giving one reader a signed copy of My Name Is Wakawakaloch!. Please see below for details.

Thank you, Chana, for your time. 

Your newest picture book, My Name is Wakawakaloch!, hit the shelves in August. What was the inspiration for it?

I grew up with a hard-to-pronounce name (click here to learn how to pronounce her name), and I could never find my name on a T-shirt, mug or keychain. People continue to bungle my name every single day. Originally, I wrote a story about a girl named Chana who wanted to change her name to Sue. Her grandmother told her about her namesake, her great grandmother Chana who came to America as an immigrant and was incredibly kind. (Guess which name Chana kept?) My critique partners liked the story and found it relatable, but they felt that Chana should solve her own problem. I agreed, but I struggled with a solution. A few months later, my husband and I were on vacation in the Canadian Rockies. I had read a blog post by my agent John Cusick, who basically said that if you’re stuck on a story, drop your main character into a new setting. While hiking in Banff among rocks and boulders, I thought to myself, “What if Chana was a cave girl?” and “What if her name was something different, like…Wakawakaloch?” I started writing at 5 a.m. the next day. The new pre-historic setting opened up fresh opportunities for storytelling, as well as new language, new dialogue, new characters, and a new set of conflicts and solutions.

MY_NAME_IS_WAKAWAKALOCH_JKT.inddI can relate to Wakawakaloch, you wouldn’t think it, but especially when I travel overseas, my name trips up a lot of people. And there were never any t-shirts for me as a kid. Did you know this story would be relatable to so many kids and adults?  Continue reading →

Interview with Author-Illustrator Ken Lamug

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 17 Comments

Kens photoKen is not only a talented artist and writer, but he’s also incredibly giving of his time and expertise to his fellow kidlit creators, and serves as the regional illustrator coordinator for his SCBWI chapter. I’m honored Ken took time out to share his experience with graphic novel creation and to give us a sneak peek at his upcoming collaboration with author Teresa Bateman. Double bonus, one lucky reader will receive a signed copy of Petro and the Flea King!

Thank you, Ken!

You self-published your wordless graphic novel Petro and the Flea King, which my family owns and LOVES. Why did you choose that route? And what were the challenges of a wordless graphic novel?

When I started my publishing journey, I did it because of my love for storytelling and illustrating. 

A5-Hardcover-Book-Mockup-vol7I realized early on that the traditional publishing route is a long journey and that there is a high possibility that many of my ideas will not make it to the bookshelves. So I told myself that I would have a plan B which is self-publishing. It just so happened that Createspace/Amazon offered such a service that fit Petro and the Flea King perfectly. 

I knew that a wordless graphic novel would be a challenge to sell, but at that point it didn’t matter. The train had left the station, and it was a book that I wanted to create. 

One of the technical challenges was a personal test to see if I could complete a book with 100+ pages of illustrations and to see how long it would take. And being that it was a wordless, I had to create more illustrations to show small emotions and reactions that could be easily conveyed by speech or word bubble.

 

I showed the book to graphic novel publishers, and even traditional publishers, and while they loved the illustrations and ideas, they also had to look at the market dynamics to see if it was something they could sell. And this is probably the biggest challenge.

You also funded your The Tall Tales of Talbot Toluca series through Kickstarter, so you’ve already got this amazing entrepreneurial spirit. What pushed you into traditional publishing finally? Continue reading →

Interview with Author-Illustrator Jason Platt

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 5 Comments

 

Jason Platt

Graphic novels are a big deal in the publishing world right now, and I’ve been anxious to find out more about them. Fortunately, there’s some really great graphic novelists out there, Jason Platt being one of them. His debut graphic novel Middle School Misadventures hit the shelves in April of this year. My family purchased our copy and it’s already been read multiple times. In my budding graphic novel nerdiness, I was especially impressed with how well he positioned his dialogue tags–no easy task. It’s with great pleasure, that I present Jason’s excellent insights on graphic novels with hopes of more GN news to come.

Thank you, Jason!

What got you started writing and illustrating graphic novels? 

It’s funny, because I never really saw myself doing graphic novels. I had been doing my webcomic “Mister and Me” for a number of years, and even though that is close to a graphic novel, its structure is handled differently. In a traditional comic strip, you have four panels to tell part of a story and where it usually ends with some sort of punchline. But with a graphic novel you have time to really tell all of the story, and develop the characters more. It’s really nice.

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Originally, I had started to write what is now called “Middle School Misadventures” as a book that is similar to, let’s say, Big Nate or Diary of a Wimpy Kid kind of style. Where it was written with prose and then a spot illustration mixed throughout the whole thing. When my agent approached editors with it, we got some positive responses, however, one editor suggested making it into a full graphic novel and asked if I was interested in changing its format. Immediately I said yes, of course. It would flow really well with how I tell stories anyway. But I also knew that the job would be that much harder to complete. There is a lot more construction and organizing that’s involved. But once I got started, I knew it was the right direction to go.

So it wasn’t necessarily something that I was aiming for, but it was a storytelling device that I was able to fall into easily.

What is it that appeals to you about graphic novels?

Very similar to the first question. I think what’s really nice about the graphic novel format is being able to harness any character development and show that in a visual form. And also not have the limitations of a traditional comic strip panel sizes. In other words, it’s so nice to be able to dedicate a whole page for one moment and use that to express the impact that the story may have. And usually, it helps with the excitement or the punchline of a funny moment that is happening.  

Who are some of your inspirations? Continue reading →

Interview with Author Penny Parker Klostermann

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 21 Comments

klostermann_pennyPenny Parker Klostermann is the author of There Was an Old Dragon Who Swallowed a Knight and A Cooked-Up Fairy Tale (Random House Children’s Books, illustrated by Ben Mantle). She has an informative website with gobs of great info about poetry and rhyme. She recently made a comment on my art notes post that I thought deserved its own space, so I asked if she’d answer some questions for me. She’s given back to the writing community in so many ways, and I’m grateful she took time out to teach us what’s she’s learned about art notes and rhyme.

Thank you, Penny, for your time!

Note: When I got Johnell’s interview questions, she asked about two things — art notes and rhyme. These are two topics that come up often in the picture book writing community. And these are two topics that I had many questions about when I started writing. 

The ONLY reason I have published books, and that I think I have some insight to share, is that while I asked questions and thought about the answers, I worked on my craft. I don’t feel any advice will make much sense or help you unless you’re constantly working on and improving your craft to apply the advice.

Think about all the advice, rules, and information that we hear about writing picture books: 

  • Word count
  • Voice
  • Character development
  • Plot
  • Theme
  • Pacing and page turns
  • Art notes
  • Queries
  • Arc
  • Etc.

I wouldn’t have gained understanding about any of these things, if I’d just read articles and blog posts and asked questions.

Continue reading →

Interview with Author Pam Calvert

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 4 Comments

pam5Pam Calvert is a former science teacher turned award-winning children’s author. She’s best known for her Princess Peepers series, but recently launched her new chapter book series Brianna Bright Ballerina Knight, illustrated by Liana Hee. Pam has mentored other writers through the Writing With the Stars mentorship program and through her own informative site, Woven With Pixie Dust. Pam has two character-driven series under her belt and a soon-to-be-third underway. She’s joined us to talk about characters. Thank you, Pam!

What made Princess Peepers a character that could translate across several stories?

She’s a quirky character that has a personality. If you don’t know your character, you can’t write more stories about them. Princess Peepers loves everyone no matter what they look like or who they are. They could be an ugly troll or a tiny dragonfly, she’ll love it. Which is quite different from many people who put labels on things. And that comes through the stories. She also is a people pleaser, which is one of her faults. Your character must have flaws they have to work through to make a story—this causes problems, something every story must have! Also, PP always loses her glasses, one way or another, and this allows for comedic situations that make children laugh when she can’t see what’s going on. Put all that together on top of some of her silly catch phrases, and you have a good series character! 

With Brianna Bright, did you purposefully plan to have a character driven series and if so, how did you go about crafting her in a way from the beginning to ensure that she could last across a series? 

I did. My editor came to me and asked if I could write a strong girl book. She wanted a commercial book, too, which lends itself to series. 

Calvert-BriannaBrightBallerinaKnight-21431-JK-FL-v4.inddSo…I knew ballet books were very popular with girls, and Two Lions didn’t have one. But I wanted to do something different. At the time, I was reading and watching Game of Thrones. Arya Stark, one of the characters, was this strong princess type character that didn’t want to be in frilly dresses. She wanted to be a knight like her brothers (they didn’t call them this in the story but that’s basically what they are.) That gave me the idea to make my ballerina princess into a knight as well. I worked backward to create the story with what if’s…what if a clumsy ballerina also wanted to become a knight? What would happen? How would she go about finding her way? Then the story basically wrote itself. 

The key to a great story is an even greater idea. Giving my ballerina princess a sword had never been done before. Sure, there’s princess knights out there, but there’s only ONE princess ballerina knight. That’s Brianna Bright. Continue reading →

Interview with Artist Mark Swan

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 6 Comments

markswanYou’ve probably seen Mark Swan’s name a dozen times, but didn’t know it. As an animator for over 30 years, he’s worked for Walt Disney Studios, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. and MGM, among others. Some of his credits include An American Tail, Land Before Time I, II, III, IV, Space Jam, A Goofy Movie, All Dogs Go To Heaven, Rock-A-Doodle, Thumbelina, A Troll In Central Park, Cats Don’t Dance, The Princess and the Pea, and for t.v., Thundarr the Barbarian, The Incredible Hulk, and The Smurfs. His work has taken him from L.A. to Dublin to Budapest and Barcelona. And the most amazing part of all of this is that he’s my big brother. I grew up watching his artwork on Saturday morning cartoons looking for the secret pictures he’d drawn for me to find. I’m thrilled to interview him about his career and his upcoming Kickstarter campaign for a comic book series all his own. 

You’ve worked in animation for a long time. As such, you are quite familiar with storyboarding. Can you talk about the role storyboarding plays in creating an animated movie?

For people unfamiliar with storyboards I’ll often define it as making the comic book version of the movie. You’re drawing out the story shot by shot. It’s a lot like being the director because the storyboard artist reads the scripts and starts breaking things down into different shots and you’re making decisions like, should this be a long shot, medium shot or a close up, a pan shot, a dolly shot. You’re concerned about the composition, the acting and the transitions from shot to shot. You have various story points that you have to keep in mind, and in storyboarding, the artists think up much of the visual humor, and visual interest. page 5

When you get a script, how do you go about creating the pictures to go along with it? 

As I read a script, I get images in my mind and I’ll make a little thumbnail sketch or write a little note in the margins. I’d probably read through it a few different times and then start sketching things out. After getting the first sketches done then you have to review and edit things. In the old days we used to pin up sketches on a cork board so you could move things around, add new drawings or pull some down. You are looking for the flow of the story, the entertainment value and checking to see if you hit all the important story points for that scene.

Continue reading →

Story Mapping with Arree Chung

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 5 Comments

Arree=HeadshotArree Chung is the author-illustrator of Ninja!, Ninja! Attack of the Clan, Ninja Claus!, and Out!. He’s also the founder and host of the Storyteller Academy, a class for aspiring writers and illustrators. He left his production scheduling job at Pixar to enroll at the Art Center College of Design. Arree graciously agreed to share his thoughts on a technique he teaches in his class. Thank you, Arree!

What is a story map?

A story map is kind of like mind mapping, where you write down all your ideas then group or organize them into a sequence, keeping in mind the logical flow from the beginning, to the inciting event, to the end. Here’s an example: 

StoryMap

I can see how this would be valuable for longer works, but how does it help with picture books?

Story mapping is helpful in many ways. First, it can help you capture ideas and quickly connect them. Story mapping also helps you plot several variations of a story. The hardest part in making up a story are the endless possibilities so using a story mapping strategy helps you nail down the story more quickly. Continue reading →

Concept will Make or Break your Story: Interview with Author Tara Lazar

~ Johnell DeWitt ~ 11 Comments

taraflowerAfter a case of mistaken identity (Tara Luebbe’s post got credited to Tara Lazar), I asked Tara Lazar if she would answer some questions about ‘concept.’ Tara is the author of The Monstore, Normal Norman, Little Red Gliding Hood, I Thought This Was A Bear Book, 7 Ate 9, and Way Past Bedtime. She’s a regular speaker at SCBWI events, a co-chair of the Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature Conference, and founder of Storystorm. She’s well-equipped to tackle this confusing topic. Thank you, Tara!

Define concept. How is it different from an idea? How is it different from a plot? For example, what’s the concept, idea, and plot of say Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus? What is ‘high concept?’

An idea is something quick and a bit vague. Non-specific. It lacks details. Before I wrote 7 Ate 9, I had the idea to write about a ‘popular schoolyard joke.’ Once I had that initial idea, I fleshed it out to a concept, to write about the riddle ‘Why is six afraid of seven?.’ Finally, the story’s premise or plot is the backstory of the joke itself—can Private ‘I’ help 6 figure out if his days are numbered? 

7 Ate 9‘s premise is ‘high concept,’ meaning you can boil the essence of the story down to a sentence or two–but not just any sentence. Many stories can be explained that quickly. To be ‘high concept’, the premise has to be unique and make immediate, head-smacking sense. You’ve never seen the concept before but it seems like you should have! People can instantly envision how things might play out. They may even say, ‘That’s genius! Why didn’t I think of that?!’ 

An idea for Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus might be to write a story from an unusual, uncommon point of view. (But honestly, I have no idea what Mo WIllems was thinking, LOL, other than he was thinking genius.) The concept might be to have the book character ask the child reader permission to do something outrageous, with the child getting to act like an adult and say ‘no,’ turning the tables on the usual child role. The plot is to have the pigeon ask the reader permission to drive a bus.

So, if I got this right, let’s say the concept for They All Saw a Cat is something like, “A cat is viewed in a different way depending on which creature sees him.” Would that be high concept? And is it safe to say that the concept is the bones and plot is the flesh? Continue reading →