Meet Children's Books Author Audrey Vernick

A very fun book.

  

My caricature of Audrey

Author Audrey Vernick is unflinchingly honest and gasp-for-breath funny, in real life and on the page.
When I first met her we were at our literary agent's writer retreat in an idyllic setting near Boston, with a reservoir perfect for kayaking, woodsy paths ideal for writerly contemplation, tables on the patio just right for manuscript  inspiration. And a wide, green lawn that I kept hearing hosts frolicking baby  foxes early in the mornings -- but I never saw them even though one morning I did get up very early to jog. 
This was a lovely backdrop for meeting Audrey and other stellar members of our agent's client list. 
At such events my strategy is to memorize names and analyze people quickly. 
Instantly I pegged Audrey as sort of a sister. 
To me this means she can take endless ribbing (and get even) but she also has a huge heart. She's deep. Compassionate. She plays fair. By now she knows some of my worst faults and insecurities but never uses them against me. 
 
We drove for ice cream one night --

Erin Murphy, literary agent, and Audrey Vernick, literary author

and Audrey's group got lost. (Probably her fault.) We gave up looking for them and drove back to the retreat center, but I remember worrying -- not for their safety, but for us. Audrey's little, but she's a big part of any party.

It was on this trip that I came to know Buffalo, of Publisher’s Weekly starred-reviewed Is Your Buffalo Ready For Kindergarten? 

Buffalo is fabulously illustrated by Daniel Jennewein who injects Audrey's visionary characterization with watercolors and caran d'ache to make a naive 
giant of a kindergartener, a sort of Baby Huey for today's kids.
 
And now the Buffalo book has a sibling! A second book, Teach Your Buffalo To Play Drums, debuted last month.
 

To celebrate, I cornered Audrey and begged her to answer six questions: 

1. Why drums? Why not a French horn? Piccolo? Bassoon? Or my favorite, the harmonica? It’s portable, not too loud -- the only problem is you can’t sing while playing. Does Buffalo sing well? If not, I recommend a harmonica.

Audrey's answer:
I'm still reeling from Baby Huey!

The answer to the buffalo question is embarrassing in that it paints me as kind of random and uncreative. But one day, when I was saying something stupid to my son about teaching his dog to bake, I said, "You know, I should write a whole series--Teach Your Dog to Bake; Teach Your Cat to Surf; Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums." That last one kind of echoed in my head. And I never thought to look beyond the words I said. Your question makes me wonder why I didn't consider other instruments before committing my buffalo to life in the rhythm section. But drums allowed me to write one of my favorite lines, one that was ultimately cut from the final text:

You know what’s really cool? Your buffalo should walk around with his drum sticks all the time, everywhere he goes, just so everyone knows he’s a drummer.

It must be noted: Harmonicas are awesome, too. Do you know Bruce Springsteen tossed me his harmonica during "Promised Land" in 1984? True story.

2. I know you love to research because you produce awesome books that require a lot of it. Can you tell us about an unexpected discovery that still delights you?

Audrey's answer: 
You ask fun questions, Ruth Barshaw. I think I'm saving my favorite discovery for a book that keeps not getting written by me, but one I really hope to write some day. So let's go with these two tidbits.

Editing the text of SHE LOVED BASEBALL: THE EFFA MANLEY STORY required cutting away some very important scenes. One of my favorites involved Branch Rickey. He's pretty widely regarded as being the man who, by signing Jackie Robinson to play for the Dodgers, integrated the major leagues. But from Effa Manley's point of view, he was more like a thief. This is a scene I regret cutting from SHE LOVED BASEBALL:

But Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Dodgers, wasn’t done yet. He signed five more Negro League players, offering to pay for only one of them, and just a tiny amount at that.

She couldn’t stay quiet any more.

Effa decided to do something about it.

She wrote to Branch Rickey, criticizing the way he took players without paying for them. She asked for a chance to meet with him. Rickey did not respond.

One day she happened to be at Yankee Stadium when Rickey was there. She marched over to him and explained that Negro League contracts were as real as major league contracts. She pointed out that she could take legal action against him. It is said that she made Branch Rickey turn very bright red.

I just love imagining the moment when Effa spotted him. Keep in mind this was the 1940s. She was both African-American and female. And she upbraided the great Branch Rickey right there in front of everyone in Yankee Stadium.

The other discoveries that don't exactly delight me, but make me laugh, have to do with the Acerra Brothers, subject of the forthcoming BROTHERS AT BAT: THE TRUE STORY OF AN AMAZING ALL-BROTHER BASEBALL TEAM. For this book, I interviewed two of the three surviving brothers from the twelve-member team of brothers. And my repeated refrain to their glory-days stories was, "It's a book for CHILDREN!!" The testosterone stories they told! My favorite example of incredibly bad judgment came from Freddie. He was determined to join the Navy during World War II, but despite living blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, he had one tiny problem: he couldn't swim. I can't tell this story without my head involuntarily shaking, but this is how he solved the problem: he gave his dogtags to someone else, someone who could swim, and had him take the swimming test. Don't think about it too hard.

 
Yikes!!! 3. What is Buffalo’s favorite martial art? 

Audrey's answer:
Sumo.

 
4. Are you working on another Buffalo book?
 

Audrey's answer:
I have submitted a list of possible titles; it's in my publisher's court right now.

5. How do you think Buffalo and Ben-Ben would get along? (Ben-Ben is Ellie McDoodle's hyper little brother)
 

Audrey's answer:
Buffalo would adore Ben Ben and be tickled by his energy. I think they would enjoy hilarious hijinks together, and I'd like to see how you'd draw that, ma'am. But I think Buffalo would need to nap after a few hours. I don't think a slumbering Buffalo would slow down Ben-Ben, though. I think he would continue, sometimes hijinksing atop a sleeping buffalo.

I totally agree. 

6. What’s the question you wish I’d asked? (And what’s the answer?)

Audrey's answer:
What is the derivation of babyhead? (A term I use to describe myself and others).

I don't know the answer. I just know it's a term I use, on occasion, to describe myself. And others.

You've called me Babyhead many times. I don't feel any more enlightened than before. :p   

Audrey, if you need to know what it feels like to wrestle in a Sumo suit, I can tell you sometime. My nephew rented Sumo suits for his graduation party last month, and of course I suited up to fight. (Don't do this on a very hot day. And try not to be the person who puts on the suit immediately after the kid in the wet bathing suit.) 

As to Bruce Springsteen's harmonica, I am in awe. "Promised Land" is part of why I wanted to learn how to play harmonica. I still can't play it... 

Thanks so much for today's duet. :)

  Audrey's other books:

Water Balloon
Clarion Books
September 5, 2011

Her first novel comes out in just a few weeks!

So You Want To Be a Rock Star
illustrated by Kirstie Edmunds
Walker Books for Young Readers
January 2012

Bark & Tim

by Audrey Glassman Vernick and
Ellen Glassman Gidaro
illustrated by Tim Brown
Overmountain Press, 2003

Indie bound link   

Amazon link  

Barnes & Noble link  

Audrey’s website link  

Please check out the other stops in Audrey's book blog tour: 

Jean Reidy’s blog (6/22) (Buffalo's bucket list!)

Peter Salomon’s blog (6/29) 

Laurie Thompson’s blog (7/13)  

And you'll love Audrey's blog.

Kim Norman's Blog Book Tour!

I'm taking a break from getting ready for my daughter's graduation party tomorrow (whew -- almost done!) to take up the Tail end of the Blog Book Tour for my friend Kim Norman, who has a new book out!

Jack of all Tails debuts this month with Dutton, and it's a tail wagger. I mean, it's the purrr-fect read-aloud. And you'll go ape over the illustrations.

But before you read my interview, check out the others:
Read Kim's blog at http://jackofalltails.blogspot.com/, and follow the rest of Kim's tour as she visits:
Monday - Elizabeth Dulemba's blog
Tuesday - Dotti Enderle's blog
Wednesday - Kerry Madden's blog
Thursday - Barbara Johansen Newman's blog
Friday - Karen Lee's blog
Saturday - my blog

Hello, Kim! :)


Kim's the
ultimate
performer;
hear her
sing, here




You're an entertainer, a singer, a writer, a graphic artist, a mom and a deep thinker. Is there anything you cannot do? Give us the nasty details, please. :)

I cannot stay on a diet. I cannot run fast. (Couldn't even BEFORE I needed to stay on a diet.) That holds true for pretty much all forms of athletics, although I enjoy swimming. Instead of thinking of myself as athletically challenged, I like to think of myself as "cerebrally inclined." The only reason I turned out to be any good at tap dancing was because it's more about innate rhythm than athletics.
(Well, unless you're Gene Kelly, my all-time Hollywood crush. Then it's ALL about athletics. Other Hollywood crushes? Christopher Plummer. And Morgan Freeman. And Jewish actors with intelligent faces and thinning hair. Really. I have a thing for Jewish guys. Somehow it always feels a little racist saying that.)
I cannot play the piano well or read music as well as I'd like. VERY poor practice habits as a kid.

What are your school visits like? Pretend I have a budget for only one author to visit my school, and I already hired myself last year. Why should I hire you this year?

I like to think I give an entertaining school visit that leaves teachers with "take-aways." (Things they can reference later, after my visit.) I also like to see that, while the kids are having a good time, they aren't out of control. I recently saw a rather well-known author, (won't name any names) who did -- to be sure -- a funny, entertaining presentation. But, number one -- it was all over the place. One minute he was talking about Santa, the next, somehow we were looking at pictures of butterflies. A very ADHD presentation. Not sure how teachers would use this material later in the classroom. And he got the kids worked up to that level where they become kind of sassy. You know what I mean? Where they think they're part of the show and start showing off, giving goofy, giving off-task answers, cutting up and being rude.

I did a school visit a few weeks ago where the kids were in a howling frenzy over my evil inner editor photos, and yet, if they got too rowdy, it was still easy, before things got too out of control, to give them a polite, "shhh" before I moved onto the next image.


Kim working
with kids at
an author
visit



When the kids ages are right, I often close my presentations with a song I wrote called "The Storytime Boogie." It's a song that encourages reading at bedtime. Another good time spent at my Mac, mixing the song in Garage Band. I could do that all day! I had my talented friend Carol, (who DID practice her piano) record the song for me, then I mixed it in Garage Band, adding sound effects which the kids think are funny.

What's the next book, after Jack of All Tails and Crocodaddy?



Kim's new book







There's a rhyming picture book on one of my editors' desks right now that I need to revise. Plus, I'd really like to pull out that chapter book, "Smoke Rings." Maybe with the inspiration of my new gazebo, I can finally REALLY put some good work into that book. I've just got to overcome that evil inner editor, who harps at me much more loudly on longer works. I've written some really good stuff for Smoke Rings, but I haven't totally found it's direction yet. Maybe I need to pretend I'm just blogging, so typos and ungrammatical sentences don't matter!

Are you a Harry Potter fan? What do you think of all the fuss?

I was during the earlier stories. I think I read up to book 4 aloud to my kids, which was very fun. I remember one vacation in Maine where we had these idyllic read-alouds. Since then my younger son has devoured each one moments after publication. He keeps encouraging me to read the rest of them, but somehow I just never get to it. And I confess, I get a little fidgetty during the movies, although we have been to see all of them so far. Action movies just don't hold my interest the way more character-driven movies do.

What's your dream situation for your books to take you into, in the next 7 years?

Oh gosh. That's so hard to admit out loud, isn't it? It would either sound ridiculously pie-in-the-sky, or like bragging. But I'll take a stab at it:

-- I'd like to win some awards, but not big enough that I have to go on the Today Show. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor told the funniest story when she spoke at a conference a few years ago. Got "the call." Was told to stay off the phone, because the Today Show would be calling momentarily to book her for the NEXT DAY. Says she doesn't remember much after that, but does recall telling her husband something like, "I have to lose 30 pounds by tomorrow." Haha! I know I'd have exactly the same reaction.

--I'd like to do a series. Something that would just fly off the shelves as the next book is announced. (Hey, we okayed pie-in-the-sky for this list, right?)

--I'd like to be one of those speakers who gets a WHOLE page to herself in the conference catalogs. I do think my speaking skills are a good match for my writing career. I know some writers just shudder at the thought of having to give a speech. I'm lucky that I don't get nerves over that sort of thing. I get nerves over finding my way to the venue where I'll DO the speaking. That's another of my "cannots." I am very directionally challenged.

How many half-written story ideas do you have stuffed in a drawer?

Oh, dozens and dozens! Well, maybe not that many half-written, but I do have an idea file into which I quickly record ideas. That's in the hundreds at this point. (If I'm at work at the newspaper and an idea comes to me, I send myself an email.)

I have a jar of old keys I found at my grandmother's house. They're gorgeous old skeleton keys, old barn keys, some just plain keys that don't look as old. But I was enchanted when I found this heavy box of keys in my grandmother's house after she passed away. I put them into an antique canning jar so you can see them properly. The keys represent inspiration for me, because every key has a story. It's up to me to find those stories. There used to be 231 of them, but sometimes I send them to friends when their books are published, so I don't have quite that many now.

To some of the keys, my grandmother had affixed notes like, "Found outside church, Sept. '46." I'll never know whether she kept them because she hoped to return them to their owners, or if she just liked the design of the keys. I'm guessing more of the latter.



The
keynote
jar




Once, as an experiment, I went thru all my idea notes, printed them up on slips of paper and stuffed them into a second jar. I wanted to have as many ideas in that jar as I had keys. I made it, too! I often bring the jar with me to school visits. There's always at least one clever child in the audience who immediately gets that the keys represent stories to me. I call the second jar my "keynote jar."

Do you keep a journal? How do you keep track of your good ideas?

I used to keep a journal into I wrote every morning after my walks. I've let BOTH those good habits lapse in the past couple of years. Really need to get back to that! Have resolved that before this summer is over, I WILL. (Yeah. Like the diet I'm always starting tomorrow.)

I talked about my messy collection of notebooks on another blog this week, and mentioned my idea jar above, but that's still not a good way to organize my ideas. I do have a folder on my computer into which my more developed ideas go. If I've taken the time to work on an idea a bit, (rather than that initial scribbled sentence), I'll go ahead and create a folder for that story and put it in my "Kim Stories" folder.

But I still don't think it's ideal. I'm one of those organizationally challenged types, (a double whammy with my directional challenges) who does best if she can SEE a project. So I used to have these colorful, vertical hanging files into which I'd put the stories as well as any publisher correspondance. But THAT didn't work well either. I ran out of wall space to hang them! And some of the folders got too fat and heavy! So I'm still looking for that ideal filing system that works just right for my particular brain.

What's the most important message you have for your fans?

Buy lots and lots of my books! No, seriously, just buy books.... and love books. If you can't afford to buy them, (I buy most of mine 2nd hand), check them out from the library -- by the boatload.

I was thinking about the "state of books in America" recently, as I enjoyed my book launch party. You constantly hear that books are a dying form of communication. And yet, here were all these people who took time out of their day to come and celebrate with me. Americans still DO get excited about books. They admire authors because they admire books. Or at least, they admire the act of book writing. They think of it as a kind of magic. Heck, I write them myself and *I* still think it's magic. I'd just like people to continue to believe in that kind of magic.

It's magic to me! Thank you, Kim -- you're a good friend and a fabulous writer and an entertaining interviewee.

Kim's blog http://jackofalltails.blogspot.com/
See more of Kim's interviews here:
Monday - Elizabeth Dulemba's blog
Tuesday - Dotti Enderle's blog
Wednesday - Kerry Madden's blog
Thursday - Barbara Johansen Newman's blog
Friday - Karen Lee's blog
Saturday - my blog

Barbara Johansen Newman's Blog Book Tour

My dear friend Barbara Johansen Newman (barbjn to those who hung out with her on the Illustrators' One-list) is out promoting her brand new book, Tex and Sugar, all over creation.

And to help her get the word out, some of her friends have formed a blog book tour for her. Read my interview with her, below, and then visit these other interview spots on the web this week for a more detailed look at Barb. She has a fascinating background and smart insight into the children's book industry:

Dotti Enderle's blog - Monday
Elizabeth Dulemba's blog - Tuesday
Kim Norman's blog - Thursday
Karen Lee's blog - Friday

I was surprised when I found out you have a history with puppets. I made lots of puppets over the years, and when I was little I dreamed of being a puppeteer. But you actually lived my dream! Did making puppets affect how you create art now? Have you been tempted to make puppets of your more recent art?

Hey, it is never to late to get back to puppetry! My husband and I think about doing some day again when we both have more time. I would like to create stories that I could turn into puppet plays some day.

Puppets are essentially character portraits, and when I create the protagonists and supporting players for a book, I think along those terms. I try to pick out the visual clues for clothing, expression, hair and settings that define the essence of the stars of the story.

I am actually planning on Tex and Sugar puppets and dolls right now! I haven’t decided which to do first, but I am leaning toward the puppets because they are more portable and I will be able to use them for school visits.

Your publisher is making a big splash with your newest book,Tex & Sugar. What does it feel like to get the star treatment? And how do you think it will affect your next book?

It feels very validating. I’ve been illustrating for a long time. The people at Sterling really believed in this book from the beginning, and I am happy that they enthusiastically got involved with the promotion. I love doing promotion, too, so it is great to think of being on a team with them and sharing the goal of seeing the book get out there.

Of course, now I have been a little spoiled. Who wouldn’t be? I very much want my next project to find the same enthusiastic support. I am working on a story that has a kind of timeless and universal theme. The setting is fun and the characters are funny. I hope it has the same appeal as Tex and Sugar. Of course, one never can predict anything in this business. But, Sterling has been wonderful to work with and I hope the next book is as well received as this one.

If you make picture book dummies, can you describe them for us?

I sketch everything out on full size watercolor paper. I just start brainstorming and let the ideas flow freely. When I sketch, I make sure to listen to something, or talk on the phone so I can sketch from the back of my head without thinking. Eventually the page begins to take shape. But it’s just the beginning.

I then scan in all the rough sketches and start to play around in Photoshop and Painter, until I get them just right. I take a long time with this. It takes a while to clean up the pencil marks, move things around and change sizes, flip images, draw some more, and so on and so on. This goes on forever. I do very detailed dummies.

Eventually I will print the first dummy on to cardstock and construct a book of sorts to see how it flows and to make sure the proportions are right. When I have it exactly where I want it, I print out the line art on to watercolor paper and start painting.

What's your process after an editor asks you to illustrate a manuscript?

I read the story several times and wait for the movie in my head to come through loud and clear.

First I have to see the character (s). I will make sheets of character studies until I see the face that says: this is the guy! I then take that guy and draw him in several poses and outfits and settings. I do this with all the story characters, like someone in charge of casting (BTW, I am always “recasting”movies I see, too). I see manuscripts like I am a movie director. I compose shots and figure out which scenes to shoot, I decide whether or not I need a close up, and then I start filming.

Do you have an art rep? Ever have one? Got any good horror stories?

I do not have an art rep. I have had a couple. I worked for years without representation, but wondered if I was not as much a pro without one. So I signed on with a couple of them.

Guess what. I still got most of my own work, and I still had to fork over a large percentage to reps who did nothing to get me the kinds of jobs I should have had. I got those myself. So it did not work out for me. It was a big mistake.

Frankly, I think that the 25-30 % art reps take is steep nowadays. We are no longer married to having offset hard copies printed to send around. Web sites do much of that work, so potential clients can narrow what they are looking for and a rep can tailor the samples sent, and print them out on office printers.

I think that literary agents have a much more reasonable fee of 15%. And that is well deserved. But 30%? I don’t buy it.

What's your dream job right now?

Here is one of my dream jobs: I want to work on astory that takes place in a fifties diner, with a jukebox and lots of funky diner patrons. Those patrons would drive in ‘55 caddies and ‘57 chevrolets. They’d wear herringbone suits and shirtwaist dresses and hats and pearls. There would be dogs and cats, even if the patrons were humans.

And when they got home they would sit at chrome and formica tables and eat off of Fiestaware before going into the living room to watch a console TV with rabbit ears. Of course, the parakeet would talk nonstop.
My other job would have something to do with Elvis. I love Elvis.

When I first met you online, you were hanging out on the Illustrators list (which is now a community of 1200 on Yahoo Groups). You were unfailingly patient in answering newbie questions, so I felt my questions were never too dumb to ask.
You talked about your art *and* your writing, freely, so I could see that my own hopes of being an author as well as an illustrator were achievable. You were a voice of reason, experience and inspiration. I learned an awful lot from you.
Grovel, grovel, grovel, question: Do you have any advice for those who are not quite new to the industry, but not real experienced yet, either? Like, me?

Geesh, how do I show a blush on line? Thanks for those nice words, although I honestly don’t remember doing anything special.

First, I have to say that I could easily write an advice column like Dear Abby for illustrators, but, I’d pass on offering the writerly advice. I feel like more of a newbie in that department than you are for sure. You write that part.
Still, I have plenty to say about art and I have a bit of the Jewish/Italian/Norwegian mother in me who likes to mentor an awful lot.

So I would tell aspiring children’s book creators that it is key to read a lot of what is being put out there, and to spend countless hours drawing--drawing as though the pencil is a part of one’s hand. Putting down images that pop into your head should come as naturally as writing a simple word. It needs to flow. And it needs to be one’s own handwriting, so to speak, too. One artist’s art should not look like anyone else’s and that only comes with drawing your fool head off. That is not to say we all don’t get inspired by things we see. We do. But when push comes to shove, our art has to be our own. It should be so natural that we couldn’t imitate someone else if we tried and our art shouts only our own names out.

You also can’t underestimate how important it is to develop a very thick skin and be willing to set yourself up for a lot of failure, frustration and floundering. Still, you have to have a certain amount of naive arrogance, too. That’s a contradiction, I know.

This industry is nutty. It makes no sense. If it made sense Madonna would not be calling herself a book author, or getting away with “writing” books and then not putting the illustrators’ names on the front of the books. I am still waiting for the media and kid’s lit world to be as outraged about that as much as how poor the books were.

So you have to be willing to ignore all the common sense in your head that tells that publishing is a dice toss. It is. And the odds are stacked against you. Still, I’d say it’s worth the gamble, because it is very satisfying to create a book. Of all the illustration work I have done, nothing compares to doing a book.

Thank you, Barbara! You continue to inspire me.

Catch Barb's other interviews this week at:
Dotti Enderle's blog - Monday
Elizabeth Dulemba's blog - Tuesday
Kim Norman's blog - Thursday
Karen Lee's blog - Friday

Dotti Enderle's Book Blog Tour

Today we interview
Dotti Enderle, comedian,
author and storyteller.
Dotti wrote the
Fortune Tellers Club books,
The Cotton Candy
Catastrophe at the
Texas State Fair, and
Granny Gert and the
Bunion Brothers,
and she has a new book out!















GRANDPA FOR SALE (Flashlight Press) debuts this month.
In it, eleven-year-old Lizzie is minding the family antique store while her grandpa naps on a spindly sofa. When Mrs. Larchmont and her poodle, Giselle, enter and begin their buying spree, they refuse to leave without bargaining for the one antique not for sale...Grandpa!

To celebrate, Dotti's taking a book blog tour, interviewing with different blogs all week.

Here are the other sites in the tour:
Karen Lee's blog on Monday,
Elizabeth Dulemba's blog on Tuesday, (mine Wednesday),
Kim Norman's Stone Stoop blog on Thursday, and
Barbara Johansen Newman's Cats and Jammers on Saturday
and Joe Kulka's blog on Sunday.

RMB: Dotti, you're the undisputed Queen of Book Marketing. Any tips for the beginner?

DE: Since all books are different, promotion varies for each. As a general rule though you want to get your name out there as much as possible, whether it’s writing an article, mailing bookmarks, or posting to various lists that are frequented by your target audience. Myspace seems to be the trend for connecting with teen readers. And school presentations are perfect for authors of picture books. There’s a lot of competition out there, but if you write the best book possibly, and make yourself available to market it, you should have a good amount of success.

RMB: Your zany nature comes through in your correspondence, your writing and your marketing approach. How'd you get this way?

DE: I was born goofy. I love humor. And I’m the youngest of seven children, so it’s a defense mechanism. I think your personality should shine through in everything you undertake…unless you’re a really crabby son of a gun, then…maybe not.

RMB: When I finally get to meet you in person, like at a conference, how will I know it's you?

DE: My Liza Minelli impersonation? Okay, probably from my big mouth.

RMB: How does it feel to see someone else illustrate your words?

DE: Well, since I can’t even draw a decent stick figure, it feels pretty good. I’ve been really lucky with illustrators so far. They added so much more than I could ever dream. And after meeting two of them personally, I discovered they’re as warped as me, so they were a perfect match for my books.

RMB: Does any part of the book making/publishing process become routine, now that you've done this so many times?

DE: I really had to think about this one. Fortune Tellers Club became routine because I wrote eight of those for the same editor. But because I’ve worked with five different editors now, the routines varied with each house. And there are some parts of publishing that I’ll never get used to…mostly the flop sweat that forms when I get my edits.

RMB: What's the funniest thing that has happened to you, in relation to your book writing career?

DE: I think the funniest has to do with my school presentations.
I read The Cotton Candy Catastrophe at the Texas State Fair, then I touch on a little Texas trivia, asking the kids simple questions like, “What’s the state bird? The state flower?” They call out the answers in unison.
When I get to “What’s the state motto?” there’s always a short pause, then someone inevitably shouts, “Don’t mess with Texas!” Um…no.
Last fall I did an author visit at a school in San Antonio.
When I asked about the state motto one girl yelled, “Remember the Alamo!” Only in San Antonio.
For the record, the state motto is “Friendship.”

And that's the motto for this week, too. Support my friend Dotti. Read more about her new book here, at her MySpace site. And visit the other stations in her book blog tour, here:
Karen Lee's blog,
Elizabeth Dulemba's blog,
Kim Norman's Stone Stoop blog on Thursday,
Barbara Johansen Newman's Cats and Jammers on Saturday
and Joe Kulka's blog on Sunday.
Then go buy the book!

Joe Kulka's Art

As part of his blog book tour, Joe Kulka has graciously agreed to let me post some of the gorgeous art from his brand new book, WOLF'S COMING!
All of this art is copyright Joe Kulka, used with his permission; please don't copy it.


In this spread I especially like how the little boy's being yanked out of the scene.


Here my favorite part is the dynamic angle and the bright color against night sky.


This one reminds me of some of the old-timey cartoons, the early ones from the 1930s and 40s, when craft really mattered.

And don't you just love that lucious color? Yep, me too.
Joe's one of those rare artists who can do both cartooning and also color.
Go on -- go check out his book! It's got all good reviews on Amazon.com.

Joe Kulka's Blog Tour!

Enough about me. I'd like to talk about Joe.
Today I am pleased to act as Station #2 on the Blog Book Tour for Joe Kulka, author and illustrator of a new picturebook, WOLF'S COMING! (Carolrhoda Picture Books)



This is the first book that Joe both wrote and illustrated, and to celebrate he's touring the blogs for interviews by a few of my author/illustrator friends in the kid lit world:
Check out yesterday's interview, by Elizabeth Dulemba.
See tomorrow's, by Alan Gratz,
the next by Dotti Enderle,
and the last by Barbara Johansen Newman.

You don't have to read the interviews in order, but I hope you'll check them all out because
1) they're fun and insightful
2) you'll learn a lot about Joe Kulka, and
3) he's one heck of a great illustrator and WOLF'S COMING! deserves the buzz it's getting.

RMB: So, Joe, what's your favorite part of "Wolf's Coming!"?

JK: My favorite spread is the one where Wolf is creeping towards the tree with his tongue hanging out.
I like the way Wolf turned out in that one, I think he's got a good gesture to him and shows some
personality. I also think composition wise it was a nice spread with the simplicity of the dark tree trunk making for a good background for the text.
Plus it's probably the most scary/creepy looking illustration in the book so that always makes me happy.

RMB: Do you have a favorite routine or lucky clothes or a special muse that got you through the deadlines for this book?

JK: No, not really. Mostly seeing the mortgage bill arrive every month was all I needed to keep going and get it done.

RMB: How many times have you read this story to your kids?

JK: So far only twice.
The very first time they were distracted by SpongeBob on TV so I concede that battle.
The next time was when they were both tucked in for bed and it just magical.
They are 3 and 6 and especially watching my youngest's son face - he was all into it. And, at least I think so, not just because I wrote it. He was really listening to the story. I can't begin to describe how wonderful a moment that was. I'm just very grateful I got a book published while they were still young enough to enjoy it.

RMB: What kind of kid were you when you were growing up?

JK: A nerd. Glasses since second grade, constantly sniffling from allergies.
I was a very good student in school, usually straight A's.
Spent a lot of time in the library. Loved to draw. Liked playing basketball but pretty much was lousy at it.
So I spent even more time drawing. I started taking lessons on Saturdays from a local illustrator, Robin Heller, when I was 11. That pretty much set up my next 30 years for me. I would get an assignment and have a week to do it. Even at age 12 I remember staying up until 3 in the morning so I could finish my drawing.

RMB: What's up next, now that WOLF'S COMING! is out?

JK: Working on my next book as author and illustrator "The Rope" to be published by Pelican. After that I start on "Gingerbread Man Superhero" written by Dotti Enderle. That should a lot of fun.

RMB: Thanks, Joe!
See a sampling of Joe's books on Amazon.com,
and check out his entertaining website at http://www.joekulka.com

And then check out the rest of the blog book tour:
- Elizabeth Dulemba
- Alan Gratz
- Dotti Enderle
- Barbara Johansen Newman.