Check out Mighty Casey, now available at your local bookstore!
Matthew Cordell: In honor of the release of our spanking new picture book, Mighty Casey, I (the illustrator) have been asked to interview James Preller (the author). This is my very first interview as interviewer ever. So today I ask dear James (that’s Jimmy if you’re nasty) to step up to plate and answer a round of Casey-inspired questions.
Mr. Preller! We begin.
I can assume that many writers, like many illustrators, are particular about how they work and where they work. Where do you like to do your writing? And what are your tools? The pen, the old-timey typewriter, word processor, or personal computer?
James: Matt! Let me begin by saying—and since this is your first interview, no one would expect you to know this, but—you don’t actually have to sit on my lap during an interview. It’s not like a Santa thing.
M: Whoops!
J: To answer your question, I have a basement office in my home and basically work standard hours, sitting at my computer. Sometimes I like to go Old School and take a notebook or legal pad to the library and write first drafts by hand. Sometimes I need to get out of the house; sometimes I need to escape the plugged-in distraction of the Internet, Facebook, blogging time-suck.
M: Your well-known Jigsaw Jones series debuted in 2001, correct? Was that your official start in the world of children’s lit? How did that first Jigsaw come to be? You used to work in some other capacity at Scholastic (Jigsaw’s publisher) before that time?
J: The first Jigsaw Jones book, The Case of Hermie the Missing Hamster, came out in 1998. He’s been in second grade for eleven years, so you can imagine my confusion when an editor tells me they want a Halloween theme. I’m like, “I did that already, four times.” I got hired as a junior copywriter at Scholastic, not too long after college, early in 1985. Starting salary: $12,500. I was living large, needless to say. I wrote the SeeSaw Book Club. Published my first book in 1986, called Maxx Trax: Avalanche Rescue! Sold more than a million copies, but they wouldn’t give me a royalty deal, so I made only three thousand bucks. But, hey, who remembers stuff like that? The Irish don’t hold grudges.
M: Most of your work is for a slightly older set. Had you tried your hand at picture book writing before Mighty Casey, or is this your first time out?
J: I’ve written some easy readers, Wake Me in Spring and Hiccups for Elephant, also a hardcover picture book that’s now out of print, Cardinal & Sunflower. But I’d just about given up on the idea of picture books—my first love in children’s books—because I became confused about what gets published and why. It felt like throwing darts in an unlit room.
M: What do you see are the major differences in crafting picture books vs. novels? With the novel format, you generally have the space to open up and write more at length. Less confined, I’d imagine, than picture books, where you really have to choose words wisely. Do you prefer writing one over another?
J: Well, there are two things at play here: picture books are dependent upon illustrations, so the writer is already in a strange position. With novels, you have more control over the finished product. Secondly, novels probably better suit my sensibilities. I find that I can’t force a picture book, which tends to be concept-driven and needs to perfectly distill an experience to its essence. With a novel, you have more opportunity to wander in and out of different rooms, and I think that better reflects how my mind natively operates.
M: You were a little league coach for several years—this being obvious inspiration for Casey. Are you still coaching? Did you have an actual Mighty Casey moment—as a coach—that led you to write this story?
J: Yes, I’m still hip-deep in Little League and youth sports in general, with three kids, ages 15, 9, and 8. I’ve coached a lot of kids over the years and seen a lot. At the same time, I’m shocked by how well I recall my own Little League experiences. I mean, I vividly recall games that I played in 40 years ago! That stuff mattered to me on a deep, deep level. It was what I cared about, what I loved, where my heart beat faster, you know? So, yeah, I have that adult perspective, but it’s mostly that I closely identify with that world.
M: So, the coaching brought you to Casey. How, then, did you decide to work from the Thayer poem, Casey at the Bat, as a premise for your Mighty Casey kids?
J: I wanted something with a classic feel. Baseball is so much about tradition and timelessness. I kept seeing new, elaborately illustrated versions of the Thayer poem, which seemed to be drifting farther and farther from a child’s core baseball experience. It hit me to transpose the action of the poem to the youngest level of Little League. The worst team ever, of course, is sort of a literary cliché, or time-honored formula, depending on your perspective. Once it was set on that Little League field, I could picture those kids in my mind and the comic possibilities presented themselves.
M: The kids in Casey are great. Really funny, and really all-over-the-place, out-of-control. One of the most out-of-control moments is your line, “Ronald the runt had to pee, and figured left field would do.” Pretty edgy, man! Did you have any problems keeping that in the book?
J: First of all, that’s absolutely true. Boys, in particular, will play and play and play until the last possible minute, then mid-pitch tear off to bathrooms in a wild, limping panic. Sometimes they don’t make it. Jean Feiwel and Liz Szabla totally got that, the truth of that moment, and humor, and they loved it. Which kind of surprised me, since I expected that it would be deleted. Somewhere along the line, however, a junior editor looked at the manuscript and instructed me to remove it. I sort of queried that and Jean overruled her. She even confided to me, “I’m proud of that scene.” Which made me laugh. Jean is this legendary editor, who has worked with great talent, and she’s proud of a kid peeing in left field.
M: In my experience, the author is not always deliberately brought together with the illustrator in these author/illustrator collaborations. In part, I’m guessing, because having the author included in illustration or design decisions could be, or might a little bit, or possibly maybe just could be a teeny tiny “too many cooks in the kitchen” sort of deal. I’m just sayin.’ In fact, on Casey, you and I never met ‘til the whole thing was wrapped. Do you often reach out to the illustrators of your books? I really like the exchange. It’s a little weird, even, without any at all.
J: It’s one of the shocking and disappointing aspects about children’s book publishing, the total separation of writer and illustrator. Maybe that’s why so many of the best books are created by the single writer-illustrator, like Sendak or McCloskey, where the two creative parts work in unison. But still, I get it. I think it’s about protecting the illustrator from the interfering writer, giving the artist the creative freedom to do his or her job, and not getting phone calls from writers that say, “Well, I really saw her with a little pointy nose with three asymmetrical freckles, and curly auburn hair, and . . .” You have to respect each individual’s role in the project. When the words are done, it’s the artist’s time to take over.
M: The publishing process, as we know, takes a pretty long time. Even though Casey has just come out, you actually wrote it, like, what—three or four years ago? Have you written more picture books since then? If so, when will that/those drop?
J: A Pirate’s Guide to First Grade will, um, “drop,” as you hipsters say, in 2010. Greg Ruth illustrated it and I’ve only seen two sketches so far. It’s fun to kick back at this point and let it all happen. Even better when you have total faith in your publisher, as I do with Feiwel and Friends.
M: You’re also, now, a celebrated fiction scribe. Six Innings was a critical darling. Do you have more fiction things on the horizon as well?
J: Most immediately, Bystander comes out this Fall. I’m really, really excited about this book, and so proud of it. Best thing I’ve ever done. In sound bite terms: Bullying in a middle school. The research on this one really inspired me—books, conversations with experts, time spent in middle schools—and I just tried to do something realistic and responsible, partly because I think so many previous books that touch on the topic are idealistic and unrealistic. I wanted my bully to have charisma, looks, verbal wit, and popularity. Once you do that, the true complexity of the issues comes forth. There are no simple answers. But these are the questions we need to ask.
M: Much success to you with the upcoming titles. To wrap, I sincerely enjoyed our being paired up for the almighty Mighty Casey. And should the stars align again, another fun book will come forth I’m sure. And should they not, Jimmy, we will always have Casey.
J: You know I love you, my brother from another mother. We’ll have this connection always. We’re friends—and I’m really, really happy about that.
Mighty Casey is available now:
Comments