Speaker 1: Good morning, Terry. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm good.
Speaker 1: How are you fantastic? Looking forward to sharing a conversation
with you, because I mean, you really do bring out
that art of creativity, because I mean you did everything
in the book. I mean, from illustrating it to writing
the storyline. I love it when people allow their creativity
to reach other people.
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: This is the ninth book in this series.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I know, right.
Speaker 1: Does it start off as a doodle and then all
of a sudden you know you've got a story. How
is it that you're able to be able to pull
all this together?
Speaker 2: Oh? Wow? Yeah. Actually, because I'm on pretty tight deadlines,
usually one book comes out per year, I have to
have a lot of structures, so I pretty much have
the story down path before I start illustrating it, although
I'll indicate where the art's going to go and what
it's going to be like as I write, just because
it is so into graded into the story, I was.
Speaker 1: Going to ask you what came first, the pictures or
the words? And now now that I know that, it's
the storyline that comes first. But isn't that a shift
in personality? To suddenly become the illustrator.
Speaker 2: I guess in retrospect, yes, but at the same time,
I've evolved a lot in my creativity. It's as far
as well, I should say, in my creative path, because
even though I trained in illustration, I'm so much of
a cartoonist. I used to write a syndicated comic strip
for a long time, and so both the writing and
the art are so ingrained in me, and both are
so integral to this process. So it's more of like
a marriage of writing and artwork. They both kind of
go hand in hand.
Speaker 1: For me, I could totally tell that you were a
cartoonists because these characters are something that I would see
in the Sunday morning paper or I would love to
see them on like Nicket Night or something in action.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of graphic novels only because that's
how my grandson learned how to read, and to this
day he picks up a writing instrument and he will
sit there and draw his own characters. You are changing
people's lives on this side of the pages. Thank you.
Speaker 2: I love to hear that. Yeah, I always say, man,
if graphic novels like these not just mine, but all
these wonderful kids graphic novels that they existed back when
I was a kid, I would have never left my room.
I would have read everything.
Speaker 1: You're so right. You're right about that, because I mean,
it's like it's at one place where I can go,
where where A I can feel secure, and B I
can get a storyline inside my imagination.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think it's wonderful, especially for reluctant readers
or maybe readers who are just more visually inclined. It's
such I mean, they're great books in and of themselves,
but they're also such great gateways to other types of
reading too. And that's kind of how I started. Even
though we didn't we didn't have these typtographic novels. I
grew up on a diet of comics, so I read.
I read the funnies, I read comic magazines and books
things like that, and that opened up my whole world.
Speaker 1: I would love to see your adult numbers, because with
a book like this, I mean, my god, I mean
I would love to see the adults that are picking
this book up and they're reading it too. Because it's
like an old song. We go back to those old songs.
To pick up on memories of our childhood.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I hope so well. I hope like parents
or grandparents read them with their kids and grandkids, et cetera,
because I think I think it's fun for everybody, and
there's so much humor in these books, just that I
think grown ups can appreciate just as much as kids.
Speaker 1: You talk about that humor. Joe's jokes aren't always a
home run. I mean, you're not afraid to say that,
you know that, you know you not. This is not
your day today, Joe. But I'm gonna put this joke
up here anyway.
Speaker 2: Well, that is Joe. He's definitely more of a prankster.
His jokes still, you know, they're working progress.
Speaker 1: Hey. Coming up next, we're going to go even deeper
with author Terry Libinson. Hey, thanks for coming back to
my conversation with author Terry Libinson. The name of the
book entirely Immy. I love the fact that you've mixed
Joe with Emmy in the way that Emmy is very shy,
and you know, and I always think of a shy
person as being a very creative person because they're inside
always thinking about something. And then you've got Joe, who
is the class clown, who doesn't who can't keep it inside.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's an odd pairing for sure. That's that's
and that's really the whole you know, heart and soul
of this book too, that I wanted to thrust these
two opposites together. Actually Night my editor at the time,
she was the one who came up with this pairing,
and I thought, I thought.
Speaker 3: It was great, but just you know, to see where
it would go, because yeah, because it's such an unlikely pairing,
and they're put together almost accidentally, because it takes place
at during this three day camping trip.
Speaker 2: It's a class trip and everybody has to be paired
off together for activities, and Joe and Emmy find themselves
kind of buy themselves like they were supposed to have
their other friends, but I want they what happen, and
they find themselves alone in the end, and so they
are partnered up by the teachers and they're not very
happy about it. But surprising things kind of happen, some
good some dads and just you know, and just some
fun campgrounding things.
Speaker 1: But see, what's great here is that is that you're
showcasing something for a lot of readers that go out
and find somebody who is the opposite of you and
build that friendship. You don't have to have somebody who
agrees with you all the time, you don't have to
have somebody who's always going to make you feel good.
Just go out there and find your friend. They're all
out there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's some And I wanted to One
of the one of the reasons I read this story
was I wanted to see what happened if Yeah, it's
two different kinds of kids who who didn't become friends
like more organically. I guess you could say, like so many,
so many friendships happened through shared interests or or or
the like, And I wanted to do what happened if
too kind of opposite spared ups and uh, if there
would be you know, like an explosion of things. And
actually what happens is these these two kind of learn
to like trust each other and to trust themselves, and
they kind of learned about opening up the lines of
communication not just among themselves but with their other friends
as well.
Speaker 1: I too, am an author. I know how stories come
to me and how I have to answer that call.
What when did you know that this was going to
be the next story. Where were you at the mall?
Were you at the park? Where were you at.
Speaker 2: Oh? I gosh, I was probably at my desk. Yeah.
Well for this story, I'm trying to remember, I'm already
I'm I've already moved on to the next one. So
it's kind of hard for me to to think back.
But I know, I know, I wanted to use Joe.
This is more character centered because so many kids wrote
to me and clamored for Joe to be a main character.
And I could not resist Joe. He was definitely a
challenge righter. But but I wanted I wanted the books
to focus partly on him. And I think my editor
at the time asked if I would want to circle
back to any and and I you know, and I thought, wow, okay,
that's going to be pretty combustible, so let's do it.
So really, I think the story, I think we're kind
of brainstorming and thought about taking taking the setting outside
the box and take can get to different sites so
that this time I didn't have to draw lockers. I
could draw trees and havens things like that. That was
pretty refreshing, just you know, just to make it a
little different and so yeah, so then we're just like
sort of brainstorming different activities they can do, and then
the general storyline.
Speaker 1: How do you keep it so simple because there are
some graphics in here that it's just one thing on
the page. I mean, you're giving me as the reader,
You're giving me the opportunity to breathe, to digest it,
to sit there and just kind of just take things
and instead of you know, like like like so many
different graphic novels as well as comic books are so overcrowded,
but you choose not to be.
Speaker 2: Wow. I think you're the first person who's mentioned that.
I appreciate that. I don't know. I think part of
it is just instinctual with my training as a cartoonist.
I know, I you know, I kind of I feel
like I know my pacing pretty well, although know that
changes too the story goes through edits and sometimes you know,
I'll have to throw on an extra panel or condensed
or something like that. I just kind of rely on
my instinct to that. But I did want I definitely
wanted to keep it a little simpler, partly because I'm
on a deadline and I can't make it so detailed
because I'm writing and illustrating the whole thing. It goes
through edits and it's a yearly thing, so so I
can't like make it overly complicated or I just won't
get it finished it by But the other part is
that's kind of the way I like to work anyway.
And I think it's great for kids too. I think
it's just you know, it keeps their eye moving and
keeps the story flowing. So you know, a lot of
different components there.
Speaker 1: Is that your way of saying that the perfectionist has
no room in your workspace.
Speaker 2: Well, I am a perfection so this is just another
way of going about it.
Speaker 1: I think, Well, no, I totally get that, because I
mean I have daily writing disciplines. I mean if I
don't follow my disciplines, then I get lost and then
I start overcrowding everything I'm doing as a writer or
a thinker. So I mean I totally get where you are.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's so interesting. I'm curious about the way
you were too that. Yeah, I definitely do that. Get
myself little goals, give myself guardrails and guidelines. Yeah, I
think that helps.
Speaker 1: Well, I do a thing called a defragging. In other words,
when I when I sit down and I create something,
I go in there and I start asking the questions
and questioning the answers. I want to know how it
came into being, how can I make it better? And
then and I've got to answer those questions so that
it makes things even better.
Speaker 2: Oh that's a great idea. I actually just wrote that down.
Speaker 1: Well, where can people go to find out more about
you and your adventures because you're just so exciting.
Speaker 2: Those things.
Speaker 3: Well you can.
Speaker 2: You can find entirely emmy at your local bookstore or
online retailer. It should be pretty much everywhere, I hope,
and you can find me online. I've got a website
Terry Leibnson dot com. Or I'm also on Facebook and
Instagram and blue Sky that's at my name Terry Levinson,
so pretty easy to find.
Speaker 1: I love it. Please come back to the show anytime
in the future, Terry. The door is always going to
be open for you.
Speaker 2: Oh. I really appreciate that. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks you as well.
Speaker 1: And if you see Ammy or Joe later on today,
let him know I was thinking about him.
Speaker 2: I will do