Sarah Albee @ Politics and Prose :: May 13, 2015

Sarah Albee is, most recently, the author of the nonfiction books Poop Happened (2010), Bugged: How Insects Changed History (2014), and Why'd They Wear That? (2015).

One of the questions she gets asked most often is, "Where do you get your ideas?" Her ideas come from questions. She's naturally curious! Her poop book came from seeing a suit of armor and wondering how knights went to the bathroom. But what really motivated her to get started on researching this question was her youngest son. He was very mischievous as a little kid, and he stopped up the toilet right before a party, and she wondered what people did back in the day before they had flushing toilets. 

For Poop Happened, she was able to conduct research at the Library of Congress and the National Archives. Items to avoid feces in city streets affected clothing and shoes --> history through fashion (which is different than fashion history). Also, lots of bug stuff came up from research during the poop book, which lead to writing Bugged. She also got information about fashion researching insects (ex. Aztecs created red textile dye from cochineal bugs. Spain got rich from this dying technique they stole from the Aztecs and they hid the technology from other countries for awhile).

How she does research: 

• Read: get your hands on as many books and articles as you can.
• Experience: if you can't go to Africa to research animals, go to the zoo.

1. sight (looking at art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian)
2. sound (go to textiles mills to listen to the actual mill)

3. touch (trying on period pieces like clothing slaves had to wear (such as linsey-woolsey))
4. taste (ex. cinchona/quinine for malaria)
5. smell (visiting the old sewers of Paris) 

• Talk to Experts: She just visited the National Museum of Health and Medicine (in Silver Spring, MD) yesterday to visit a forensic anthropologist. (Her next book is on poisons. She came upon this topic from what she learned in her previous research (ex. green dye came from arsenic).)
  
  

Advice for young people who want to be writers: READ! She reads a book twice so she can "look under the hood" the second time around. WRITE! Like basketball (she played semi-pro in Egypt!), it takes practice. 

Fun fact: Sarah used to work at Sesame Street (in the 80s) as an editor and it was the funnest place to work. Her husband jokes that she uses her married name (Sarah Willson) for work she's not proud of (like SpongeBob!). Sarah uses various pen names depending on the work she's doing.

Carol Weston @ Politics and Prose :: May 12, 2015

Carol Weston writes fiction and nonfiction; for adults and children; the "Dear Carol" advice column in Girls' Life magazine (since 1994!); and speaks Spanish, French & a bit of Italian (she studied Spanish and French lit at Yale).

Her first book (Girltalk) came out 30 years ago and is still in print (in many languages)!

She comes from a family of writers: her mom was the garden editor of House and Garden magazine, and her dad wrote for radio, TV, and newspapers. She learned not to say "like" and "you know" from her dad; it taught her to care about words. 

Carol started writing by keeping a diary. She didn't finish that first diary, but she didn't see herself as a failed writer. She just started up another one! Diaries are a safe place to keep your secrets and thoughts. It won't tell you you've already written that and it won't tell on you.

She even wrote a Dear Carol letter to herself and wrote advice for herself when she wanted to write a novel (after many years of writing nonfiction). She went to therapy to understand why she hadn't challenged herself to write fiction. Took writing classes at the Y in NYC and then finally write her first Melanie Martin book. It was rejected at first, but she kept at it until Knopff accepted it and published the series. She used what she knew (languages and art) in the plot line to differentiate her book from other books. 

Carol's new series is Ava and Pip, about two sisters. She uses lots of palindromes in the books. The next book comes out in February 2016: Ava XOX. If she keeps up the series, she might run out of palindromes. How about Ava Nun? No!

The Speed of Life (for 7th and 8th graders) is coming out next fall (most likely it'll remain a standalone book).

Carol uses different colored paper for different drafts of her books so she can look at it with fresh eyes. Her husband is a great -- and critical -- reader. Her mother-in-law is an encouraging draft-reader, which motivates Carol to keep writing.

Why does she use so much word play in her books? When she confided in Elizabeth Winthrop (another author) that her character kept going back to words when she wanted her to think about other things, Winthrop said that Carol should let her character go ahead and be herself (she could edit later).

She can't pick a favorite character, but her favorite book to write was her 'momoir' about being pregnant, which she wrote when she was pregnant.

When she hears kids say that they don't like reading or writing, she likes to add "yet" to the end of the statement. She believes they will find the right genre, and with some extra work, reading and writing will eventually come to them.

Stuart Gibbs @ P&P :: April 24, 2015

Stuart Gibbs lived in DC (Garrett Park) until first grade and he liked to go to the National Zoo. --> Belly Up, Poached (Fun Jungle series)

Likes James Bond movies --> Spy School series. Kids in DC like this series because the school is in DC (but it's a secret location)

He wanted to be a writer his whole life, but he didn't know how to become one. He studied biology in college because he still didn't know how to become an author, and trained to be a field biologist. But his college was in a big city so they observed animals in zoos instead of the wild. He became the US expert on capybaras, and he got to hang out with zookeepers during his studies and learned about all of the crazy things zookeepers experienced --> the zoo would be a great place to set a story!

Eventually, Gibbs moved out to California to write movies and TV shows but never forgot this idea about setting a story in the zoo. He wanted a fun twist to the story and came up with the idea of an animal murder mystery. He decided on the hippo because it's an animal that people think they know a lot about, but they're actually very dangerous and kill 200 people in Africa every year. He did research on hippos at the San Diego Zoo, and even had to research how to kill hippos and get it fact checked by scientists (who were probably wondering why he wanted to know that). His books have animal biology facts, so Gibbs likes to claim they're still quasi-educational!

The TV show The Big Bang Theory drives him nuts because scientists aren't really like that! He knows scientists who are "much more awesome" than the ones on the show. He likes/respects scientists and wants to showcase them in his books. 

Space Case was inspired by his college friend Garrett Reisman who became an astronaut (he has a Yankees patch on his space suit!). Thanks to Reisman, Gibbs even went to the Johnson Space Center in Florida to watch the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis. Reisman took the cover of Belly Up to the International Space Station (ISS) (not the whole book because of weight constraints)! Gibbs got an email from Reisman from the ISS, which Gibbs forwarded to everyone he knew, including his editor ... who forward to other publishing folks who thought it would be great to have a middle grade writer who knows an astronaut and can write about it!

Space travel is nothing like Star Wars or Star Trek --> it's much more cramped and uncomfortable/unglamorous than SciFi stories and movies make it out to be. 

Spy School series is not based on anyone he knows or his own personal experience. Instead, they were inspired by James Bond movies he saw as a kid. He wrote a story about Jimmy Bond (007's son): The Kid with the Golden Water Pistol. (He wrote it as a comedy because most people couldn't be like James Bond. What would happen if you drop a "regular" person in spy situations?) If Jimmy wanted to be a spy he would have to go to a spy school because his dad would be too busy to teach him how to be a spy. That idea stuck with him until he was an adult. 

How did Evil Spy School come along? Even evil organizations need to train their minions!

Gibbs recommends books by Carl Hiaasen and Michael Crichton, and Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce and The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. 

Two new books coming out soon: Big Game (Fun Jungle series) and Spaced Out (spring 2016, Space Case series)

Fun fact: There's an editing error in the Spy School series -- he told the same joke in both Spy School and Evil Spy School!

Random fact: When I mentioned I worked as a school librarian in Manhattan Beach (a suburb of LA), he asked me if I worked at Grand View Elementary. I didn't but I know the librarian there, and I mentioned how she was lucky to have had a NYT bestselling author as one of her volunteers. Turns out Gibbs and I both know him (I'm a friend of his wife's) -- what a small world!

Kevin McCloskey @ P&P :: April 22, 2015

His wife (Mama Patt) is a storyteller in Berks County (PA) and she needed a good story that was funny and true about worms. McCloskey got excited about worms and started working on the book in secret. 

He used paper bags to make the book because earthworms also recycle.

To start a book: ask questions! Asked questions about worms <-- research. Incorporated some of those basic questions, especially the ones that kids are prone to ask/wonder about, into the text of the book.

If the kids can keep it to a "reasonable level of pandemonium," he would share real worms at the end of the presentation. Brought out his worm Seabiscuit (he's so fast!).

Collaborated with Francoise Mouly (art director, editor, publisher of TOON) and some pictures were cut ("They don't wear clothes") in favor of being more true than too silly/corny.

One of the more complicated ideas he cut was about Charles Darwin, who studied worms and put worms on his wife's grand piano to see if they could hear. But he realized that earthworms have sensitive skin and could feel the vibrations.

Anyone can draw/paint worms!

Andy Griffiths @ Politics and Prose :: April 20, 2015

There are some authors who just know how to capture their audience's attention. In Andy Griffiths's case, he knows his readers (and potential readers) well and can hold their attention for over 45 minutes. When those readers happen to be no more than 10 years old, that is quite the feat!

His parents were SOOO terrible (they were normal) that he ran away at 8 and never saw them again! He met Terry Denton (the illustrator) because he got his food hiding under restaurant tables stealing food. Terry was wearing inflatable underpants because his parents were very safety-conscious. They met in a river after Andy ran away from the angry chef to a stream where there was a pirate ship. They made a tree house with the scraps from the pirate ship!

Terry coincidentally drew a 13 story treehouse when Andy asked him to include a bowling alley and a shark tank. Warning: There's NO peeing in the shark tank!

Fun fact: he has a Dr. Seuss tattoo from One Fish ...

He bet Terry he couldn't draw a 39 story treehouse (after the 26 story one). Terry bet he could. Andy bet he couldn't. They went back and forth for 3 weeks! And then Terry drew it, proving Andy wrong. And then Andy had to write a book about a 39 story treehouse! Baby dinosaur petting zoo --> Terry made a time machine from a trash can and brought some baby dinos back. It's kinda complicated. 

It takes a year to write a book because they fly around on jet-propelled swivel chairs shooting staple guns. That's 364 days and then they write the book in a day. That's his favorite level in this book. But that one day can now be spent flying around because Terry invented a Once Upon a Time Machine that will write the book for you!

Every story needs a good looking, brilliant hero. "Are you talking about Terry?" asked a student. "No! I'm talking about me. I don't think you understand what I'm talking about."

In the next book, there's going to be a birthday room that everytime you go in, it's your birthday (party). But there's also an unbirthday room. Mainly for adults so they lose years/get younger. Terry goes in and turns into a baby. Andy has to change his diaper so he doesn't like that room. 

When things go wrong, that's when the story starts. If you're going to write a story about a baby, you want to write a story about a bad baby who does dangerous things. 

His book ideas come from trying to surprise his readers (the unpredictable). In the baby example, the baby narrowly escapes getting hit by various vehicles crossing the road, and then it gets hit by a little old lady in a motorized wheelchair!

His favorite book is probably The 39-Story Treehouse book because it's the biggest and stupidest! But that may change come August when The 52-Story Treehouse comes out! (The 65-Storey Treehouse -- yes, with an "e" in Storey -- comes out in August in Australia.)

Chris Grabenstein @ Politics and Prose :: April 7, 2015

Steven Weinberg @ Politics and Prose :: March 17, 2015

Steven Weinberg, author/illustrator of Rex Finds and Egg! Egg! Egg! (published February 2015).

Fun fact: Steven illustrated To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One Story, a memoir (about their life post-college) written by Casey Scieszka, his then-girlfriend, now-wife, which makes him Jon Scieszka's son-in-law! And it's a great book, by the way!

Gareth Hinds @ Politics and Prose :: March 3, 2015

Gordon Korman @ Politics and Prose :: February 4, 2015

George O'Connor @ Politics and Prose :: February 3, 2015

Martin Widmark @ Politics and Prose :: November 5, 2014

Martin Widmark is the Swedish author of the Whodunit Detective Agency series (LasseMajas Detektivbyrå in Swedish). He was at Politics and Prose to talk about writing, creativity, and the middle grade series that's recently been translated into (American) English.