I know. It’s Monday. It’s raining. And if you’re like me you’ve eaten all of your black jelly beans. Also the red and orange ones. Also the yellow ones. And you’re down to the reject colors like white and pink. Seriously, does anyone like white jelly beans? Why do they even make them?
But cheer up! You’re here, among friends, in our happy little corner of the blogosphere! And I have someone awesome for you to meet, AND you could get a present!
So tell me, doesn’t the day seem brighter already? 🙂
(Oh, but just one tiny thing before we get started. Tina put up an awesome post on Phyllis’s visit to South Korea! If you haven’t had a chance, please check it out! And I heard a rumor that her visit to Corey in New Jersey might be up today… fingers crossed 🙂 Also, fabulous news, she will be visiting St. Lucia and maybe, hopefully Africa!!! Okay! Enough digression… :))
Today I am so excited to be introducing a fabulous author/illustrator to you all. Please give a warm welcome to the wonderful and talented Lisa Thiesing!
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| Author/illustrator Lisa Thiesing |
Hi Lisa! Thanks so much for joining us today!!
Hi Susanna! Thanks so much for inviting me! I’m excited to be here!
SLH: When did you first become interested in writing and/or illustrating? Was it something you always did, or something you came to later in life?
LT: I first became interested in children’s books when I was very little. My mother always read to me and she was very excited about all the new books that were coming out at the time. Things like the Little Bear books and Eloise were brand new! Can you believe it? Eloise was a character I particularly related to since I grew up in Manhattan, just a few blocks away from you! We even had a mail chute by the elevator. It was tempting but I never did pour water down it! Oh! and Harriet the Spy…. I often ran around the park pretending to be her. These characters seemed so real and were my friends. My mother would also point out interesting things in the drawings, like how a certain expression on a character was just so perfect for the story. She made books seem important and fun. Also, this is probably bad, but she would let me stay home “sick” from school so that I could work on my tremendously original novel about Old Boy, a dog that was constantly saving his boy from falling down wells and other disasters.
SLH: Were you encouraged by family/teachers?
LT: I was definitely encouraged by my mother. I was VERY shy as a girl and I think she saw writing and drawing as my way of communicating.
SLH: You are both an author and an illustrator. Which comes first for you, the story or the art?
LT: The story comes first. When I write a story, what usually happens is that a certain phrase will keep repeating in my head. Sometimes it’s the beginning of the story, sometimes it’s the ending. When I wrote my first picture book, Me &You, my daughter was very little and she kept doing things that I used to do when I was that age. So I kept saying to her that I used to do whatever it was, just like you! That would be my beginning. And I knew I wanted to end it with And when I grew up, I wanted to have a little girl…just like you! I had a beginning and I had an ending. I just needed to fill in the middle. I had lots of photos of me and Katherine doing the same things but completely differently. So that took care of the middle. And with the photos for reference, I was able to tell the other part of the story – the differences in time, place, personality, attitude – through the illustrations.
SLH: Is there an author/illustrator who has been especially inspirational or instrumental in your own development as a writer/illustrator?
LT: I really like the early reader genre. So people like Arnold Lobel, Syd Hoff and James Marshall are particularly inspirational.
SLH: What was your first published children’s book? Tell us about the moment when you got your first offer!
LT: My first book assignment was The Ghosts of Hungryhouse Lane by Sam McBratney. I had been taking my portfolio around to all the various publishing houses for a couple of years, with no luck. I did keep working on my portfolio, showing it again and again, and kept sending out postcards to editors. I was close to giving up when the phone rang and it was Brenda Bowen, then at Henry Holt! She asked if I might be interested in illustrating a middle grade novel! I nearly fell on the floor! I thought to myself, “Are you kidding me?!?!” But I was cool and instead shouted, “YES!!!!” I got to go to her office, but now as an actual illustrator because I had a real book to do and we’d talk about our project! It felt wonderful.
SLH: Where/when/how do you get your ideas?
LT: It seems I often get ideas for stories while driving. I don’t know why that is. Or doing the dishes. My Peggy the Pig books were adaptations of stories I already knew. The Viper is based on the old campfire scary joke. The Aliens Are Coming! is a variation on War of the Worlds. A Dark and Noisy Night is a combination of The Tell Tale Heart and my cousin’s daughter’s fear that the tree branches scratching at her window were witches’ fingers! And The Scarecrow’s New Clothes is from an old story a friend’s mother used to tell.
If I’m illustrating someone else’s story, then the ideas, of course, stem from the story. Except that I do get to make the characters look how I want and set the scenes where I want. It’s like being a movie director. You get the story and then you can interpret it visually as you like.
SLH: What has been the most challenging thing you have faced as an author/illustrator?
LT: The most challenging thing I have faced is the current climate of publishing in general. It used to be that even if you were not a super star, bestselling author/illustrator you could still work and still publish books. It seems that now you are given a small window of opportunity and if in that time you don’t produce a best seller, that’s it. As Heidi Klum would say, “One day you’re in and the next day you’re out.”
SLH: What has been the most wonderful thing that has happened to you as an author/illustrator?
LT: That’s a difficult question. A couple of things come to mind. A few parents have told me that their children actually learned to read with my All Better book. That is really gratifying. There is a lot of repetition in that book and it was my goal to help kids learn to read and to enjoy it. And they did!
Also, the first time I saw my Two Silly Trolls in the front of the I Can Read display at Barnes & Noble. I took a picture of that and then the sales person said I wasn’t allowed to do that. And I said, “But that’s my book!” And he said, “Well, it’s our policy, blah, blah, blah…”
It’s also really wonderful at school visits when kids say, “I LOVE you! You are the best writer and illustrator ever! Don’t ever leave!!!”
SLH: Do you do school visits? Would you be kind enough to briefly describe your program/presentation? What is your preferred age range and group size? Do you have materials available for parents/teachers to go along with your books(s)?
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| kid’s drawing of Peggy 🙂 |
LT: So, yes, I do school visits. I have a PowerPoint presentation of one of my books, complete with sound effects! Currently I’m doing The Viper. There’s also a little bit about printing and binding because I have found that kids really want to know how a book is actually made. My books are geared toward K-4 and I prefer smaller groups. After we do questions and answers, I also give a short drawing lesson. I’ve been using basic shapes and have the kids follow me step by step. We draw Peggy and also do other animals or a scene. All of them, even the youngest, have made beautiful, wonderful pictures which they are really excited about.
SLH: Can you give us any hints about what you’re working on now?
LT: This seems an unlikely turn of events. But recently I was contacted by someone from The Guggenheim to work on a project with them! I will be writing a narrative for children that will be performed at the end of the month for the museum’s Family Day. It is part of the “still spotting” project, which finds different places in the city that inspire peace, quietness, “home”, transformation. This will be in Jackson Heights, Queens. http://stillspotting.guggenheim.org/about/
SLH: Do you attend writer’s conferences?
LT: I have attended conferences. I think they are valuable when you are starting out because they do provide a lot of information. Sometimes there is a really great keynote speaker and that can be inspiring.
SLH: What has been your best-selling book so far? Which book’s sales (if any) did not do as well as expected? Why do you think that might have been? Have all your titles earned out? Are they all still in print? Have sales affected publishers’ willingness to do further projects in a good or bad way?
LT: My best-selling books so far have been the Two Silly Trolls books. They were part of the HarperCollins I Can Read program, which is one of the best, most trusted and well-loved group of books ever. So there is a built-in safety umbrella. Both retail customers and educational outlets are going to buy books that are published by them. That doesn’t happen with most books.
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| Lisa’s studio (nice, isn’t it?:)) |
Most of my books have earned out and I’ve received royalties. But ALL of my books should have sold better than they did and they are now out of print. And that, of course, does affect publishers’ willingness to publish more.
SLH: Where can we find you?
Website:
Facebook:
Info on School Visits:
I’ve started giving art lessons to kids in my studio! It’s been really fun!
Info on Art Lessons:
Also, I’ll be participating in the Hudson Children’s Book Festival on May 5th. I would love to see everyone there! It’s a great opportunity for people who love children’s books to come out and meet some of their favorite authors and illustrators. Bring the kids!
Reader question: how important is it to have a story? Can you just entertain and make people think, or do you have to have a story to make a picture book?
LT: A story is very important. But I’m not sure what you mean by story. Even a concept book about color, for example, is a story. And I think it is tremendously important that a book be entertaining. Reading is fun! A silly book can also be thought provoking and that’s a challenge as a writer for children.
Just for fun quick questions:
Agented or not? Not.
Traditionally or self-published? Traditionally.
Hard copy or digital? Hard Copy.
Apps or not? Not.
Plotter or pantser? Don’t even know what that means!
Laptop or desktop? Desktop.
Mac or PC? PC.
Day or night worker? Day worker.
Coffee or tea? Coffee!
Snack or not? Not.
Salty or sweet? Both.
Quiet or music? Quiet for writing. Music for drawing.
Cat or dog? Dog. (But I have 3 cats, too.)
Thanks for visiting everyone! And now you have a chance to win a personalized signed copy of Lisa’s fun and popular book A Dark And Noisy Night! (And I just want to say that I’m trying out Rafflecoptor for the very first time and pretty much just hoping it works!!! 🙂 – If you don’t’ see the Rafflecoptor widget, try hitting the comments button and see if it shows up!)
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Susanna Leonard Hill 
I really enjoyed the breadth of this interview, ladies. I especially like dreading about school visits and the realism of book sales. The Guggenheim project sounds inspirational, what a wonderful opportunity. Thank you for pointing out that a concept book, too, has its own story!
Thanks for this interesting interview. I love to hear about other authors and how they write their books.
I do too, Andrea, although it saddens me to know author/illustrators as talented as Lisa have all their books out of print! What is the publishing world coming to? 😦
Thanks so much for reading, Joanna. Glad you enjoyed it!
Great interview Ms. Hill and Ms. Thiesing! I like the Viper story and I would love to see the Peggy book for it! 🙂 I liked learning about Ms. Thiesing!
Erik
Great interview and giveaway. I love that Lisa is inspired by Arnold Lobel–one of my faves too!
Oh and Susanna, white and pink are your reject jellybeans?? Black is what was always left mingling with the fake grass at the bottom of my basket 🙂
Thanks for another wonderful Monday post. I so enjoyed hearing about the writing experiences of Lisa Thiesing. I just put some of her books on hold at the library. The had several available. The illustrations of the Peggy are so appealing! I look forward to reading the stories that resulted in such a precious pig 🙂 I especially liked hearing about where you have gotten your ideas. It is amazing the directions a mind goes if you let it.
Lisa and Susanna, such a wonderful interview. As someone who only writes, because I can't draw to save my life, this was a reminder of who the word and he art both have very interesting roads. I'm glad you stuck to it, Lisa, and was able to see your dreams come through.
Susanna, I'm not so sure I did the Rafflecoptor correctly. I used my email and then I it didn't change the number of entries so I clicked on a +1 button. Then it gives all these options for extra entries “liking this and liking that”???? I didn't do but just the one. Am I doing it right? I am Rafflecoptor challenged 😦
Penny, with Rafflecopter you can have a whole bunch of chances at winning. Every time you complete one of the tasks and click the corresponding green button, you get that many “points” thrown in the hat. So if you do just the first thing, your name goes in the hat once, if you “like” Susanna on FB, your name goes in two more times, and so on… Hope that helps!
Another excellent interview — thank you Susanna and Lisa. I loved this glimpse into the whole process!
Lovely interview, Lisa and great questions Susanna!
Donna L Martin
http://www.donasdays.blogspot.com
Oh!!! Ok! I just didn't want to throw in so many hats that I seemed like a “hat hog” 🙂 But, hey, if that's the way it works…I may just pig out!
My comment isn't showing up from earlier, but I have done all the rafflecopter stuff. Wonderful interview ladies, I particularly like the sound of Two Silly Trolls 🙂
Thanks Catherine! I am struggling with this Rafflecoptor widget because I can't see it, although I know some people can because they've entered – like you 🙂 I didn't see an earlier blog comment from you, but I see this one, and your “who wants the book” comment showed up on Rafflecoptor!
I didn't know there was a rafflecopter until I saw Catherine's comment. I was able to do one thing and now it's disappeared. I'll try later. Enjoyed the interview ladies. Love your work space.
Lisa, thank you for sharing your experience as a writer and illustrator. Great interview.
I want to thank Lisa's mom for letting her stay home 'sick' to work on her book. She nurtured a great talent!
Syd Hoff is wonderful! Great story, Lisa. I am sure your school visits are awesome. I can't wait. But I do know that there is a very small window. Sad. I love coffee too! *waving*
Thanks for the wonderful interview Lisa and Susanna. I loved hearing about all the tips and writers advice especially about the classroom visits.
Really enjoyed the interview Lisa and Susanna. Wow, a mother who nurtured your talents very early! I liked knowing about the Harper Early Reader and how that guarantees your book is selected. And, I found it interesting that your books earned out, you received royalties, but they are out of print, and how that impacts a publisher's interest in your writing. Would have been interest in knowng why you thought they should have sold better. I listened to Roger Sutton of Horn Book, and he commented there are too many books.
Thank you all for your wonderful comments! I'm really enjoying hearing from you!
What a great interview! I loved Lisa's story about photographing her book at the B & N. I am positive I would have done the same thing! 😉
I'm with you Susanna–don't like the pink or white jellybeans, and don't like the black either (*GASP). But save all of the orange, yellows and greens for me! YUM!
Hi Lisa! I'm told you are friends with my super talented aunt and uncle in Shokan and my kids have one of your books and get such a kick out of it. Very nice to sort of meet you! Thanks, Susanna! It's been fun to follow Phyllis's journey around the world.
-Vicki
I LOVE The Viper – so clever and fun! Glad you enjoyed the interview Erik 🙂
Glad you enjoyed the interview Coleen. And about the jelly beans… wanna trade? 🙂
So glad you enjoyed the interview, Penny! I love Lisa'a books – such fun! And her little piggies are so appealing 🙂
I can't draw either, Angela (and believe me, there are plenty of days I feel like I can't write either :)) so I am filled with admiration for people who can do both! 🙂
YOu and me both, Penny! I can't even see the widget! But it looks like you're doing it right 🙂
Thank you for that excellent and elucidating explanation, Renee! 🙂
Renee LaTulippe (unregistered) wrote, in response to Penny Klostermann (unregistered):
Penny, with Rafflecopter you can have a whole bunch of chances at winning. Every time you complete one of the tasks and click the corresponding green button, you get that many “points” thrown in the hat. So if you do just the first thing, your name goes in the hat once, if you “like” Susanna on FB, your name goes in two more times, and so on… Hope that helps!
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Thank you so much for reading Renee. Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks, Donna! 🙂
Thanks for trying, Stacy. I definitely see you up there once. I think if you hit “read more” you might see the widget again. Technology confounds me! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the interview!
Thanks for reading, Tracy! Glad you enjoyed the interview 🙂
So true!!
Apparently it's a small world, Vicki – how cool that you know someone who knows Lisa 🙂 Glad you're enjoying Phyllis's journey – it's slowed down a bit but it's not quite over yet!!! 🙂
Glad you liked the interview, Natalie! And I love that B&N story too – I have been guilty of the same thing! 🙂 Actually, come to think of it, I don't like green jelly beans either. Or purple. But I really like Starburst pink…
Glad you enjoyed hearing from Lisa, Robyn – and I agree, the authors she mentioned are among my favorites for early readers too! Also, my coffee is now on it's 67th warm-up of the day… not quite as good as this AM when it was freshly brewed 🙂
So glad you enjoyed it, Jen 🙂
Oh, how can there ever be too many books? That sounds like an oxymoron to me! Thanks for reading, Pat. Glad you found it interesting!
A black jelly bean lover- a girl after my own heart. I love the interview with Lisa and got a kick out of the B&N story. Of course, she had to take a picture- who wouldn't?
Some of us are just sneaky enough not to get caught 🙂
Great interview, Lisa (and Susanna)–looking forward to seeing both of you at all the upcoming children's book festivals and learning more about that intriguing Stillspotting event. And such insanity about not allowing you to take a pix of the B&N window spotlighting your book–I hope you snapped it anyway!
Susanna, thanks for sharing Lisa's story with us. Lisa, how thrilling it must be to work with the Guggenheim. Best of luck with that project!
Hi Vicki! You must mean Robert and Nancy. They are super talented and their daughters are, too! Nice to meet you. Which book do you have? So glad you enjoyed it! Perhaps we'll meet in real life some day.
-Lisa
Hi Kirsten! Yes, it was really thrilling to be contacted by the Guggenheim and completely unexpected. I wrote a diary about growing up in Jackson Heights (which I did not do) and the first performance was last Saturday. I hope the kids enjoyed it!
Hi Animalauthor! So you prefer to remain anonymous. You'll have to introduce yourself at the book fair! There's lots of insanity at B&N!!!
Of course I took the picture!
Hi Tiltonph! I do appreciate a lot of the things my mother did. She was definitely one of a kind! And, well, I think my books should have sold better because they are wonderful! But they did not get the support that was needed from the publisher who decided to drop Early Readers altogether.
Hi Robyn! I'm afraid I've gone up to about a pot a day!