Speaker 1: Is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets. Welcome to Animal
Rights on pet Life Radio. That's your host, Tim Link
and I'm super excited that you're joining us today. Got
a fun, fun show. It's all about children's books, illustrations
and fun ways that you can help shelter animals and
adopt your write and perfect Forever Pet and give them
write and perfect Forever home. Of course, we're talking to
Christine A. Lombardi, who is author extraordinary and she's got
a new book out called Uton. So we're gonna talk
to Christy a little bit about the book, the writing,
the illustrations because she does it all herself, and then
we'll talk a little bit about writing styles in general
and one attract her to this genre as well as
how this is different than other things she may be writing.
So it's gonna be a great show. We're gonna pick
her brain a little bit and have some fun with it. Everybody,
hang tight, we'll be right back after this commercial break.
You're listening two Animal Rights on Ptlife Radio.
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to animal rights on Petlife Radio. Joining me
now is author illustrator extraordinary Christine Lombardi. Christine, welcome to
the show.
Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my pleasure, my pleasure, And I love the book.
The latest book is called Creuton and has this wonderful picture.
It's pink book, beautiful picture of this kitty cat. So
it attracts you right away. So I love that. Tell
us a little bit about Crewton the book, and then
is there a Crewton real life furry friend.
Speaker 4: Okay, well, the book is based on a cat that
I had named Boo. Sadly she passed away a couple
of years ago. But she just had such an impact
on my life, and I knew I would write a
book about her one day, and I sort of probably
started it maybe five years ago and just kind of
kept chipping away at it and tried to find the
right way to tell the story.
Speaker 1: Nice and that is that's pretty amazing, Because I mentioned
before this is the book's geared towards children or young
young young adults, and for the novices out there that
want to write in this genre or are writing this genre.
If you're not familiar, it's not that easy. You know,
when you say five years, you think, well, you should
have whipped this out in about five days. But that's
not the case, is it.
Speaker 4: I was guilty of saying things like that before I
before I did this, and I said, well, this looks
so easy.
Speaker 5: What is it?
Speaker 4: Two hundred words? But the challenges You have to tell
an entire story, and it's either thirty two or forty pages.
Generally this one is forty pages. But you have to
have a beginning, a middle, and end, and a page turner.
And it's a challenge in a lot of ways, but
it's fun. It takes a while to kind of get
that down, but once you do, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's fascinating the fact you mentioned that you
have a short period of time to get your message
out as well as get the attention and keep the
attention of the children. And that's a very discerning audience.
You know, there's tons of hands not known to be large,
we'll say. And then if you don't catch them right away,
then A, they're not going to finish your book, or
B it's not going to be their favorite that they
go back to time and time again, right for sure.
Speaker 4: And it's funny when you read to them, you can
see the parts that they take the most interest in.
But also when you watch them reading the book, they
don't miss anything. You could have the tiniest little detail
in the background that maybe I just drew into fill space,
and their eyes will go to it without a doubt.
We'll say, what is that little thing? It is so cute,
you know.
Speaker 1: It's very true. I mean I've never written a children's book.
My first book was very simple about stories of the
animals that I work with. And on the cover, you
know it is a dog and a cat. Get have
a dog and cat? If it's about that? And then
a little frame mantis was up on the on the
label of Waggy Tails, and I never thought it would
be a children's site book, but I attracted a lot
of the young adults and a lot of children, and
that was the first thing they always noticed with I wish
that bug is up there. So tell us then about
Boo and as we know the book, Cruton, how you
came about the title and writing and how did you
come back to tell a life story and what it
meant to you and what's your little baby meant to
you in that short period of time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Over the years, I kept notes. I mean, I'm
a big I always have a notebook. I generally go
through about two of them a year and just take notes,
bits of dialogue or little ideas. I have a running
list of pet names for different books, and Bruton was
on the list. Bruton is just I just think is
such a cute name. I have a thing for food names.
I always think they're funny. But yeah, having this adorable
little cat, she was sort of a tuxedo caligo mix.
I guess I adopted her and there was just something
so special about her, and the little things that she
would do were just so charming, so a lot of
the things that ended up in the book were truly
inspired by this cat. You know. There's there's a spread
in the book where Crewton says, I help her get
focused on her homework, and the joke is that she's
laying on the homework. So that was something Boo would do.
She would lay across artwork, she would lay across my keyboard.
She was just always in the mix.
Speaker 1: Very nice. Well, you got to have, you know, an assistant,
you know, when you're writing these books, you know, and
in life, you've got to have an assistant in nearby
to keep you straight and keep you going. In addition
to learning more about Boo or Krewton, as the book
is labeled, you have some other messages in there too
that I picked up that you wanted to get across
to our children, our young adults, and even going up
to the parents.
Speaker 4: Oh about adopting, Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of our favorite topics of for sure, because obviously
all of them need to write and perfect Forever Home.
And I loved how you phrased it in the fact
that you know, it wasn't the people necessarily finding the animal,
but the animal the cat finding the people.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, as I was writing the story, it just
felt a little too predictable. So originally I just kind
of had the process of me adopting Boo and all
of the things that go into you know, when you
go to the shelter and you know, you're trying to
find that perfect fit, and it just felt too expected
and it took me. I mean that's why I say
it took a few years because I finally figured out
that I wanted to flip the narrative and make it
that the cat thinks she's doing the adopting. And then
once I knew that that was going to be the angle,
then it was much easier for me to write. And
so I basically just thought about all the things that
we say when we go to a shelter and we say, oh,
you know, she has the sweetest disposition, you know, or
this one's a little you know, a little active, or
a little this, a little that, and we use all
these descriptives to talk about the animal, and I thought, well,
how funny if the cat is saying all this about
the human.
Speaker 1: Exactly.
Speaker 4: I really had fun with it, exactly, and.
Speaker 1: I love that aspect because I definitely obviously rescued. We'll
say you're gone to shelters to bring home the right
and perfect forever animal in our lives. But you know,
I was a former persident of the Humane Society here
in the northern Atlanta area, So yeah, I understand how
you have to write the right and perfect bio because
you want to attract. We're discerning, you know, in the
fact that we have to make sure it's the right
fit and the right household, these type of things being
part of the Humane Society. But if you don't catch
their eye right away, both with the animal as well
as the bio by writing something unique, then you lose
them right away. And I love the fact that you
know in the book, Crewton, it's the cat is deciding
really ultimately, you know, you can say all you want
about me, but I'm reallycommended to decide who I'm going
to go home with. And I love that, love that
approach on it and the illustrations we had to go
into that because you are the last And once again,
that's not an easy task because when you're writing a
children's book in particular, you have to a catch him
by the story, but you also got to catch him
buy as I mentioned, a go the cover the design
the character's in there, because if the kids or anybody
reading the book is not attracted to what you're putting
down an illustration, then you're going to lose them. So
how do you go about citing, how you're going to
design it, and how are you going to put together
the characters and do the illustration.
Speaker 4: I think with especially with this book, I wanted to
have kind of a push pull of maybe a little
bit of sarcasm in there, like you for instance, the
homework spread I mentioned, but you know, the humor of
There's one scene where Cruton says, the next day we
both needed some grooming, you know, and grooming is a
word you always use with Kat and then in parentheses
it says one of us needs it more than the other,
and it's the girl's hair is an absolute mess, and
you see Krewton sort of clawing her hair, sort of
getting you're ready to go to school. So, I mean,
I had so much fun with that. But I think it's,
you know, the words. There's an interplay of the words
in the pictures as I'm going through the process, and
then you know, sometimes you have to have the five
hundred foot view and say this is just not funny enough.
You know, maybe the words are okay, but the pictures
could be better, could be funnier. So sometimes I literally
go back to the drawing board and I say, what
if I did this, This could be funnier if I
did this. And I think that's sort of like putting
the puzzle pieces together when you're writing a book as
an author illustrator, when you're writing it, because you don't
always want the picture necessarily to reiterate what you're saying
in text. You want it to be something different or contrarian.
So I always have fun with that. And I wanted
to set the scene definitely of a shelter because I'm
so pro adoption, so I wanted to make sure that
I opened with little Cruton in that shelter, with all
the animals, you know, waiting for the doors to open.
I just kind of had to get inside everyone's head,
you know, say what is it like from their side?
You know, to see these feet walk by, you know,
if you're in the lower cage, what does that look like?
What does that look like from the animal's perspective? You know,
it kind of breaks my heart when I think about it,
you know, because anytime I do visit a shelter. I
make sure I look very low, you know, because it's
very easy to stay at eye level. But there's animals everywhere,
and just trying to get into their head and say
what did they feel? Are they nervous? Are they hopeful?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 4: Did they look out and look at us and say, oh,
I like him?
Speaker 5: I like her?
Speaker 4: So it was a lot of.
Speaker 1: That nice nice And that's part of the research behind
it too. Now the question is, did you do any
research as far as getting ten kids in a room
and reading the arc of this to decide if they
really liked it or not.
Speaker 4: Believe it or not. I didn't. I didn't know. I mean,
after I got the I decided on the narrative, and
my editor and I you know, went back and forth
and everything. It was sort of just mostly the two
of us working on this and saying how can we
make it stronger? And you know, I think one of
the things that we probably thought about the most is
would a cat say this about a human? Because at
one point I said, she's kind, she's super cuddly, which
is true of humans. I mean, I'm always hugging my cat,
so I could see a cat saying that probably sounds crazy,
but you know, saying somebody's kind? Would an animal say
that about a person? I think so, because when you
know the little girl's brushing the cat, you know she's
sort of doting on her. It was those adjectives were
probably a bit of a I wouldn't say the most challenging,
but as far as writing it, we wanted to make
sure it would fly like it would it would make
the most sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, it's no different than in writing any
other genre, whether it's a a mystery or anything of
this sort of the fact that if you don't get
into the characters and feel what they are feeling and
what they're seeing and how they would approach themselves, then
that's never going to come across. And as you mentioned before,
you have even a tougher task in my opinion, because
you have to get into the characters, but yet such
a short window to get that message across. So it's
it makes it, in my mind a little a little
more challenging too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I didn't want it to be too sad.
I mean I remember going to shelters and just seeing
things that just rip my heart out, you know, like
when you see the cat stick their paw out, you know,
out of the kennel, and oh yeah, I wanted it
to be accessible. I didn't want any children to be depressed,
you know, by the shelter. But at the same time,
you know, there is a strong message, you know that
there's someone out there for everyone, and I just think
everyone should adopt. I don't know why we'd we don't
clear the shelters, and I'll get off my soapbox, but yeah,
you know, there there's all these breeders and designer animals,
and I just think there's all these little animals waiting
to be adopted. Let's take care of them first.
Speaker 1: There you go, So go to your local shelters and
rescues and let them choose you. That would be the key.
All Right, We're gonna take a quick commercial break. We'll
come back talk to Christine Lombardi more about the book, Crewton,
and then we'll delve even further into Hashi masters or craft.
So everybody hang tight. We'll come back rad for this
commercial break. You're listening to Animal Rights on at Life.
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to animal rights on Life Radio. Our conversation
with author and illustrator extraordinator Christine Lombardi and her latest book,
crews On. So we talked a little bit about the
book itself and the message it comes across. But obviously
you've written numerous books and received accolades and awards for
your work, so kudos on that. Do you go into
whether we're talking about Cruton or any of the other
books with a walk away? You know there's a message,
as we mentioned, but is there a thing that end
the day someone's reading the book and you want them
to get this out of it or they say, hey,
I really whatever about the book. I love the book,
or I love this or that. Was there a central
thing you're hoping as an author of illustrator that comes across.
Speaker 4: I think so. But I think when I work on
a book, it doesn't seem like I'm really trying to
hit anyone over the head with a certain message, but
there always seems to be one. I had somebody approach
me at a book signing once and said something like,
I love your books. They're all about acceptance cool, and
I said, are they look.
Speaker 1: I just She said, yes, they are. Thanks for catching that,
but I do.
Speaker 4: I definitely well something touches me like I had. Probably
my lesser known book but had a lot of heart,
was called Mister Biddle's and it was about a lonely
sounds ridiculous talking about it, but it was about a
lonely cat inventor who was in his basement working, you know,
toiling away, and the doorbell rang and he went upstairs
and it was basically a lobster delivery gone awry. He
got this lobster and he never looked at it as food,
which I do have a thing for lobsters and tanks.
I feel terrible for them, so I have to cover
my eyes at the supermarket. But what he does is
he takes the lobster in, He introduces himself, and he
makes them his assistant because his little claws can hold
the screw or he's nut nice. And he put them
to work in the lab and they become the best
of friends. But ultimately the lobster, whose name is Hopson,
he has to go home. He misses his family. He
got plucked from the ocean and he just wants.
Speaker 1: To go back.
Speaker 4: So I wrote this story, and you know, I realized
it's it's sort of like if you love something, set
it free, you know. And I didn't realize it at
the time, but that really was the message.
Speaker 1: Absolutely and once again acceptance. So I think that, you know,
the reader was spot on. You know, lobsters and cats
can live in harmony together, you know, tongue in cheek,
but it's very true. You know, there's no reason that
animals can't get along, people can't get along, even though
we may have different lives and different paths that we're taking.
Speaker 4: So and they look good at knob cooats.
Speaker 1: So that's right, an internal all x nut. I can't
even do that. I forget it. What is the hex nut?
I guess that's what AI's for nowadays. I don't know, hopefully,
just that. So we'll talk about I'm gonna mention the
chicken in the egg. So when you're put together the book,
you're the writer, you know, the author, and the illustrator,
which comes first illustrations.
Speaker 4: I think illustrations. I mean, for years I tried to
just write straight out or just write a manuscript like
open word and write it, you know, I would fixate
on the page count and the page how the pages
are laid out, so I could, you know, I could
visualize it. So if it's spread eight nine, I would
have the text for eight and then the text for nine.
But then ultimately I always went back to sketching. And
sometimes I'm a big list maker. Sometimes I would just
make a list saying what would be a blast to
draw for this book. And then as I came up
with that list and started drawing it, it got more
and more fun, and then the story started to gell more,
and then the words came second because I was already
telling so much of the story and the art, so
I needed the text to sort of push the narrative
a little bit, you know, and what I couldn't show
an art, and so I ended up kind of doing
it backwards. And I think I still pretty much work
that way. I mean, I have the general idea, but
I think, especially with the picture book, I think the
pictures carry so much of the book, and you can
tell little side stories too, you know, you can show
emotion in the art without having to say, Okay, you know,
now it's sad or now it's this. I remember with
that same book, I had the sky changing, you know,
so it was blue, but then you know, when Hobson
had to return, it got increasingly cloudy. So it was
just a way to change the tone temporarily. But I
don't you know, I think it's just bit by bit.
It's such a process. I mean along the way they
call them book dummies. When you sketch out the whole
book and you're looking at it, you know, you're able
to turn the page and figure out if there's good
action coming, you know, does the child want to turn
the page? You know, you kind I don't want to
have a mini cliffhanger, if possible. So it's a lot
of that. It's a lot of back and forth or
oh this won't work, I have to change this. And
you know, by the time you're done, you can have
ten to fifteen different book dummies.
Speaker 1: Oh there you go, and then maybe you can turn
those into ten to fifteen different books. Now there, Now
you're talking. It'd be nice, that would be nice, that would.
Speaker 4: Be It's a process. It's definitely a long process.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, and that's why I tell people. I mean,
just writing in general, it's very rewarding. But when you're
starting to talk about, you know, children's books and illustrations
and things of this sort. There's a lot that goes
into it. You've got to have a good story, you've
got to have good illustrations that catch your captures of
what you're trying to say as well as catch their eye.
And it has to be something that you can go
back to time and time again. And I think you've
done a great job with that as always with the
latest Crewton. So everybody think a copy of the book
for sure, Well, tell us a little bit about where
you're going to be, how people can find out more
about Crewton the book as well as all your other
wonderful writings.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm still going around to different bookstores and doing
events and I'll be doing a school visit this week.
So yeah, the book is Luckily it was an Indie
Next Pick, so it's in most independence stores good, which
is nice. And what else I don't know.
Speaker 1: And we're going to keep track of you and your
comings and goings and where you're going to be. You
got a website or a favorite social media site that
you use.
Speaker 4: Definitely Instagram, So my handle is Illustration Lombardi.
Speaker 1: Nice around bad.
Speaker 4: It's a bit long I would have chosen something different today,
but it was a long time ago. There.
Speaker 1: You can always have more accounts, I think, can you
or I don't know. I don't know anything about that.
Speaker 4: I don't want to be on that much.
Speaker 1: No, that's the key. You gotta get your messy chatting
when you can though. That's all right, So everybody pick
up a copy of the book. It's available nationwide. Go
to your favorite independent bookstore. Definitely keep track. We'll post
Christine's website and all of her socials on the episode,
so you can keep track of what she's got going on,
where she's going to be, and pick up a copy
of the book. It's called Crew Toon and you're gonna
love it, and your kids are going to love it,
and everybody's gonna love it. So go out and pick
up a copy. Christine, thanks for coming on the show.
Congratulations again on all the success, and we'll look forward
to chat with you some more down the road.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me on. It was
so much fun.
Speaker 1: Same here, Christine, thank you so much. Well, we're coming
to the end of the show today. I want to thank
everyone for listening to Animal Rights on pet Life Radio.
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