Picture Book Tag: The Next Big Thing!

My brilliant picture book friend, Carolyn Fisher, tagged me for "The Next Big Thing Blog Tour", so I will answer some questions below about my next BIG THING, then pass on the Q & A to some more brilliant authors!

1. What is your next Big Thing?

When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky, 
Two Artists, Their Ballet, and One Extraordinary Riot

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

Nine years ago I was sitting at Symphony Hall, waiting for the Minnesota Orchestra to begin. Leafing through the program I was struck by a photo of the composer, Igor Stravinsky standing next to the sad painted face of dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky as Petrushka. The photo was taken in 1911. I showed it to my composer husband, Matthew Smith, and said: “I wonder what it was like when Stravinsky met Nijinsky?” then I smiled and said: “Hey, wouldn’t that be a great title for a picture book?  When I got home that night I cut out the photo from the program, pasted it in a notebook, wrote down the title and began to write a lot of stuff that is no longer a part of the story at all. But it got me started! 

Stravinsky and Nijinsky, 1911

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Non-fiction picture book, though I wrote it to be read as a raucous and fun read-aloud for the very young up to the very old. 

4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Adrien Brody would be the perfect young Stravinsky and Channing Tatum, who is an actor-dancer might be a good Nijinsky?

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

When composer, Igor Stravinsky met dancer-choreographer, Vaslav Nijinsky, their collaboration on the the ballet, "The Rite of Spring" was so different and so new that it caused a riot to break out in the theatre during its premiere in Paris on May 29th, 1913 and revolutionized music and dance in the 20th century.

6. Who is publishing your book?

Harcourt Children’s Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Approximately 6 years.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

~ Ballet for Martha, Making Appalachian Spring, written by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, illustrated by Brian Floca (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, 2010)

~ Jazz Age Josephine, Jonah Winter, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman, (Simon & Schuster, 2012)

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

From the first I LOVED the rhyming and rhythm of “Stravinsky” and “Nijinsky”. Their names seemed to dance and make music on the page even before the story began. I also loved their faces and wanted to paint them. And the more research I did the more I wanted to make the story work for a young audience and the more I wanted to paint every scene. And finally, as an art history major and as someone who made a living in NYC for many years working in museums, my favorite period of painting is the turn of the twentieth century when cubism, fauvism, expressionism, futurism all exploded our notion of how the world should be seen. Stravinsky and Nijinsky changed our notion of what music and dance should sound and look like. What a powerful and rich time for the arts. When I began the illustrations, it became clear that I would pay homage to many of my favorite paintings from that explosive time in the arts. 

10. What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

This year, 2013, marks the centennial since the premiere performance of The Rite of Spring on May 29, 1913. I think there will be endless opportunities to listen to the music on classical radio as spring arrives in the next several months, the perfect soundtrack to go with the book!

Now it's time to play tag! Stephanie Bodeen, Jacqueline Briggs Martin, Wendy Orr, Anne Ylvisaker... You're it!

The Raft  

S. A. Bodeen

After a plane crash over the remote Northwest Hawaiian islands, fifteen-year-old Robie finds herself in a life raft, struggling to survive. 

August 2012, Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan  

photo of "Growing Power"

Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table

Jacqueline Briggs Martin
When Will Allen was a boy he hated farm work and wanted a "white shirt" job. When he grew up, he dreamed of city farms that would grow good food for city neighbors in cities around the world. How did Will Allen make this dream happen?

Fall 2013, Readers to Eaters

The Nim Stories

Wendy Orr

Two books in one: Nim's Island and Nim at Sea, the stories of a girl who lives on an island in the middle of the wide blue sea, with her father, Jack, a marine iguana called Fred, a sea lion called Selkie, a turtle called Chica and a satellite dish for her email.

April 2013, Allen & Unwin

Button Down

Anne Ylvisaker

Ned, of the comically unlucky Button family, hasn't caught a thing in his life until he faces bully Burton Ward in a challenge to catch their town hero's football.

Fall 2012, Candlewick Press

Let the "Showdown" Begin!

Just three weeks after the final performance of GRIMM, I began to write the script for the next summer's show with Betty Butler and Rhiannon Fisk, the artistic director and assistant artistic director, in that order, of Circus Juventas. We knew the theme: The Wild, Wild West!, so that is where we began...

There are over 900 students at Circus Juventas, the largest circus school for youth in this country. And of those 900 students, there are over 50 performers at the advanced level for whom we write the script. First to be decided are the acts in the show, which this coming year will include: wall tramp, wheel of steel, high wire, teeterboard, straps, chair stacking, and flying trapeze, just to name a few! The story grows and develops around the act order, as well as the music researched and collected by Betty. Indeed, the music! The summer shows have fantastic recorded music as well as live music provided by the remarkable Peter Ostroushko and his band. As soon as Betty compiles some of the music, I begin listening to it as I write-- We both find it helps us picture the scenes and the emotions and actions that need to be conveyed.

Since this is my fifth year of script-writing for Circus Juventas, I have become familiar with what these young performers are capable of. And because they are such extraordinary performers, it is like painting on a canvas with the best quality materials. Knowing ahead of time who will be the main characters and knowing their past performances, allows the scenes to easily come to life.  After many meetings and tons of research that included several trips to my local library for books on outlaws, gold mining, and the history of the Wild West, then watching lots of Westerns, our story was born: SHOWDOWN! It begins with the discovery of gold. And gold as we all know can change people for good and bad, which makes for great characters and plot right away. Outlaws, including Billy the Kid, prospectors, cowboys, dance hall girls, and a steely-eyed sheriff named Wyatt Earp will all have their lives twisted, contorted, somersaulted, lassoed, balanced, and spun in circles by gold. I can hardly wait to see it come to life. It is most definitely going to be "an action packed, rip-snortin', gold-strikin', hoedown dancin', cowboy lassoin', card gamblin', barroom brawlin', sharp-shootin', Dance Hall swingin', wildest show in the West!"

Model for Showdown by Susan Furr

Model of jail and Sheriff's office by Susan Furr

The character descriptions were handed out to the students and the script was read aloud at the beginning of January. Lassoing workshops have ropes spinning all over the Circus Juventas Big Top. The set design and building have begun, with painting and prop building soon to follow. August is not seeming so far away with the gray winter days of Minnesota growing longer. 

Okay, forget I just wrote that last sentence. It is only February. There is plenty of time! I have a picture book to finish illustrating after all. In the mean time, listen to this to get you in the Western mood.

Explorers and Adventurers

 S.A. Andree taking off in a hydrogen balloon.

The other day I was driving in the car, listening to this show on npr. In an interview with the author, Alec Wilkinson, the story was told of how S. A. Andree, a mere clerk in a Swedish Patent Office, and two of his colleagues took to the air in a hydrogen balloon with the intention of crossing to the North Pole and eventually landing in San Francisco. It was the late 19th Century, when the North Pole was a place of mystery and speculation and many hundreds of explorers had perished trying to reach it. S. A. Andree wanted to rise above those who had tried it on foot or dog sled, so he studied weather patterns and the wind and came to the conclusion that it would take him about 60 hours to reach the top of the world. He even packed a tuxedo in his luggage hoping to be dressed appropriately when he met the dignitaries he imagined would be there to meet him when they landed. Sadly, S. A. Andree and his two companions never reached their destination and were lost in the fog that consumed them and their balloon, just three days out into their journey. They were the first men to be lost in the air. In the interview, Wilkinson said this about what happened to them when the balloon touched down on the ice, never to rise again:

They were suddenly no longer explorers — 

they were adventurers. 

And no explorer wants to be an adventurer.

I loved this notion of "explorer" and "adventurer" and could not help but look at it as a metaphor for the process I go through when writing and illustrating a picture book. Like S. A. Andree, I am compelled to write and paint because of the mystery, the unknown that will come if I just put pen to paper or brush to canvas. In the beginning, I have my ideas and imaginations of what the story will be or what the pictures will look like, but like S. A. Andree's balloon adventure, it rarely goes as planned. 

At one point in the interview, Wilkenson said that Andree was: 

        Faced with the thought, 'If I don't go now, I may never go again, and I will never know the mystery,' 

... like a temptation one finally submits... to the idea of: 'I must.' "

This yearning and succumbing to the notion of "I must" also resonated for me. I have notebooks filled with story ideas and sketchbooks filled with painting ideas, and all of them call to me; "I must" bring them to completion. It is always in the beginning of a book project when I am starting the story or beginning the first sketches that I feel like an explorer. As time passes and I become more involved, it is often then when my exploring balloon thuds to the ground and I become the "adventurer" on a journey of highs and lows, sprees and difficulties; trudging through the snags of pages that don't flow and the images that refuse to resolve, and just like S. A. Andree and his hydrogen balloon, sometimes my stories disappear in a fog, never to return. 

Luckily, I am an explorer in the warmer climates of Minnesota, at least compared to the Arctic! And there is no danger of perishing of the cold in my studio. And luckily, I love the adventure of writing and painting as much as the initial exploring, even with its bumps and tears. So I am happy to begin and begin again, pulled by that mystery that is mine to meet. 

And when it comes to your writing or art-making, are you an explorer who would rather not become an adventurer? Or are you willing to be both?