With Carly Smith
Photo by Nancy Vo
Can you share with us what sparked your idea for Boobies? It is such a unique and special story and it must have come from a special place.
My previous picture book stories came from one of two places – inspiration or coping.
The Outlaw and The Ranger were inspired by other stories. The Outlaw was inspired after reading Patrick DeWitt’s Sisters Brothers; The Ranger was inspired after watching and reading the Coen Brothers’ adaptation of Charles Portis’ True Grit.
Boobies falls under coping, as did my first “trunk book” about my colicky toddler.
Boobies also began as a dare. And I’m not one to turn down a good dare – thank you, Silver. Your turn now.
This book has the perfect combination of humour, science lessons, and trivia. How did you choose which facts to include and which ones to omit? Is there anything you had to omit that you wish you could have included in the final version?
Thank you. I’m glad that you found Boobies both funny and factual.
Yes, I started with a pile of “facts”, and I knew that I wanted a sort of loosely linked narrative, even if this was never going to be a book with a proper plot and storyline. And yes, there were quite a few facts that never made it into the book – supernumerary nipples, male Dayak fruit bats, placentas and belly buttons, the animal kingdom chart, a bad pun involving ghosts and bees…
The facts that remain are the ones that work the best for this book. I have my publisher, and editor to thank for their guidance. The addition of breastfeeding was genius, Groundwood Books. Thank you!
Can you shed some light on your writing process for this book? Did you write from beginning to end? Or perhaps, did you collect pieces of information bit by bit and move them around to find a particular flow?
It is true that this book developed so differently from the previous two picture books. Those books at least had a sense of story from the onset, whereas Boobies was a collection of facts that I could rearrange until it felt like there was sort of a cohesive link from one page turn to the next.
The book’s humour also relies on visual gags that do not even come through in the text. The sun-toasted humans on the nudist beach, for example.
Illustration by Nancy Vo, The sun-toasted humans on the nudist beach.
Will this book have a sequel, of sorts, about a different body part?
Even though most boobies come in pairs, I am not working on a sequel.
When do you have the most creative flow for writing and illustrating? Under what circumstances or conditions are you most prepared and excited to do your work?
Two of my picture book ideas came to me when I was out running. But that isn’t the whole story. The latest picture book that I’m working on can be traced back to when someone said that I should watch a certain film. That film turned out to be a horror movie involving a Swedish cult. I couldn’t finish the movie but did start wondering if there were actual cults during the mid-1800s in North America. One idea led to another and now the story has nothing to do with cults. However, the first lines are still in the story.
“Once there was a runaway.”
So I guess the answer is that influences come from many places. The circumstances or conditions are not as I would necessarily expect them. Being open to possibility is part of the key, I suppose.
Is there a particular excerpt or illustration in Boobies that you are most proud of?
I’m happy with the cover.
I had another cover idea initially, but the publisher said that the concept of twin peaks was difficult to convey the way I had illustrated them. She sent covers of other humorous picture books, and I went away to think. All the covers that she sent had a forward-facing character. There was a certain assertion that caught my attention.
More thinking…
Of course! The blue-footed booby! Boobies the book should lead with our cos-playing seabird. And now I could really have fun with the title! A strategic arrangement of the oo’s, and we had a winner. The artistic director added his own special cover reveal. I’m so glad that Groundwood pushed me to rethink.
What is your “must-read” book recommendation and what book has had the most impact and influence on your writing?
It might not be fair to give a “must-read” book recommendation because the path is different for everyone. When I started books, I do remember that moment when I realized the possibilities of picture books. I picked up Jon Klassen’s newly published, I Want My Hat Back and felt something click. That was probably the emotional connection
I also just read a lot so that I could figure out what I liked and how picture books work. Children’s Picturebooks – The Art of Visual Storytelling, by Martin Salisbury was a great resource too.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors who are trying to navigate the publishing world?
Read a lot. That is probably the best thing you can do throughout your career.
Other things that help me are:
-being open to revisions and rethinking;
-accepting rejections gracefully.
Separate from a potential sequel to Boobies (which we’re hoping for!), do you have another book in the works or a new project you’re working on? What can you share about it and when can readers anticipate it?
I’m working to deliver book three in the Crow Stories trilogy with Groundwood Books. The Runaway will be published in 2024.