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Speaker 1: Is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets. Welcome to Animal

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Rights on pet Life Radio. That's your host, Tim Link

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and I'm super excited that you're joining us today. Got

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a fun, fun show. It's all about children's books, illustrations

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and fun ways that you can help shelter animals and

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adopt your write and perfect Forever Pet and give them

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write and perfect Forever home. Of course, we're talking to

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Christine A. Lombardi, who is author extraordinary and she's got

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a new book out called Uton. So we're gonna talk

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to Christy a little bit about the book, the writing,

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the illustrations because she does it all herself, and then

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we'll talk a little bit about writing styles in general

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and one attract her to this genre as well as

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how this is different than other things she may be writing.

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So it's gonna be a great show. We're gonna pick

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her brain a little bit and have some fun with it. Everybody,

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hang tight, we'll be right back after this commercial break.

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You're listening two Animal Rights on Ptlife Radio.

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Speaker 2: Take a bite out of your competition. Advertise your business

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with an ad in Petlife Radio podcasts and radio shows.

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large and reaches more pet parents and pet lovers than

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can advertise on the number one pet podcast and radio network,

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visit Petlife radio dot com slash advertised today, Let's.

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Speaker 3: Talk pets on petlifradio dot com.

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to animal rights on Petlife Radio. Joining me

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now is author illustrator extraordinary Christine Lombardi. Christine, welcome to

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the show.

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Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, my pleasure, my pleasure, And I love the book.

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The latest book is called Creuton and has this wonderful picture.

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It's pink book, beautiful picture of this kitty cat. So

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it attracts you right away. So I love that. Tell

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us a little bit about Crewton the book, and then

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is there a Crewton real life furry friend.

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Speaker 4: Okay, well, the book is based on a cat that

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I had named Boo. Sadly she passed away a couple

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of years ago. But she just had such an impact

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on my life, and I knew I would write a

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book about her one day, and I sort of probably

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started it maybe five years ago and just kind of

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kept chipping away at it and tried to find the

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right way to tell the story.

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Speaker 1: Nice and that is that's pretty amazing, Because I mentioned

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before this is the book's geared towards children or young

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young young adults, and for the novices out there that

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want to write in this genre or are writing this genre.

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If you're not familiar, it's not that easy. You know,

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when you say five years, you think, well, you should

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have whipped this out in about five days. But that's

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not the case, is it.

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Speaker 4: I was guilty of saying things like that before I

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before I did this, and I said, well, this looks

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so easy.

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Speaker 5: What is it?

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Speaker 4: Two hundred words? But the challenges You have to tell

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an entire story, and it's either thirty two or forty pages.

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Generally this one is forty pages. But you have to

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have a beginning, a middle, and end, and a page turner.

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And it's a challenge in a lot of ways, but

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it's fun. It takes a while to kind of get

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that down, but once you do, it's a lot of fun.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's fascinating the fact you mentioned that you

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have a short period of time to get your message

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out as well as get the attention and keep the

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attention of the children. And that's a very discerning audience.

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You know, there's tons of hands not known to be large,

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we'll say. And then if you don't catch them right away,

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then A, they're not going to finish your book, or

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B it's not going to be their favorite that they

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go back to time and time again, right for sure.

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Speaker 4: And it's funny when you read to them, you can

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see the parts that they take the most interest in.

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But also when you watch them reading the book, they

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don't miss anything. You could have the tiniest little detail

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in the background that maybe I just drew into fill space,

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and their eyes will go to it without a doubt.

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We'll say, what is that little thing? It is so cute,

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you know.

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Speaker 1: It's very true. I mean I've never written a children's book.

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My first book was very simple about stories of the

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animals that I work with. And on the cover, you

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know it is a dog and a cat. Get have

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a dog and cat? If it's about that? And then

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a little frame mantis was up on the on the

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label of Waggy Tails, and I never thought it would

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be a children's site book, but I attracted a lot

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of the young adults and a lot of children, and

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that was the first thing they always noticed with I wish

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that bug is up there. So tell us then about

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Boo and as we know the book, Cruton, how you

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came about the title and writing and how did you

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come back to tell a life story and what it

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meant to you and what's your little baby meant to

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you in that short period of time.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, Over the years, I kept notes. I mean, I'm

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a big I always have a notebook. I generally go

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through about two of them a year and just take notes,

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bits of dialogue or little ideas. I have a running

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list of pet names for different books, and Bruton was

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on the list. Bruton is just I just think is

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such a cute name. I have a thing for food names.

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I always think they're funny. But yeah, having this adorable

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little cat, she was sort of a tuxedo caligo mix.

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I guess I adopted her and there was just something

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so special about her, and the little things that she

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would do were just so charming, so a lot of

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the things that ended up in the book were truly

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inspired by this cat. You know. There's there's a spread

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in the book where Crewton says, I help her get

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focused on her homework, and the joke is that she's

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laying on the homework. So that was something Boo would do.

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She would lay across artwork, she would lay across my keyboard.

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She was just always in the mix.

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Speaker 1: Very nice. Well, you got to have, you know, an assistant,

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you know, when you're writing these books, you know, and

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in life, you've got to have an assistant in nearby

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to keep you straight and keep you going. In addition

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to learning more about Boo or Krewton, as the book

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is labeled, you have some other messages in there too

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that I picked up that you wanted to get across

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to our children, our young adults, and even going up

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to the parents.

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Speaker 4: Oh about adopting, Yeah.

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Speaker 1: One of our favorite topics of for sure, because obviously

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all of them need to write and perfect Forever Home.

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And I loved how you phrased it in the fact

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that you know, it wasn't the people necessarily finding the animal,

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but the animal the cat finding the people.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, as I was writing the story, it just

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felt a little too predictable. So originally I just kind

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of had the process of me adopting Boo and all

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of the things that go into you know, when you

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go to the shelter and you know, you're trying to

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find that perfect fit, and it just felt too expected

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and it took me. I mean that's why I say

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it took a few years because I finally figured out

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that I wanted to flip the narrative and make it

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that the cat thinks she's doing the adopting. And then

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once I knew that that was going to be the angle,

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then it was much easier for me to write. And

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so I basically just thought about all the things that

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we say when we go to a shelter and we say, oh,

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you know, she has the sweetest disposition, you know, or

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this one's a little you know, a little active, or

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a little this, a little that, and we use all

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these descriptives to talk about the animal, and I thought, well,

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how funny if the cat is saying all this about

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the human.

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Speaker 1: Exactly.

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Speaker 4: I really had fun with it, exactly, and.

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Speaker 1: I love that aspect because I definitely obviously rescued. We'll

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say you're gone to shelters to bring home the right

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and perfect forever animal in our lives. But you know,

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I was a former persident of the Humane Society here

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in the northern Atlanta area, So yeah, I understand how

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you have to write the right and perfect bio because

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you want to attract. We're discerning, you know, in the

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fact that we have to make sure it's the right

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fit and the right household, these type of things being

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part of the Humane Society. But if you don't catch

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their eye right away, both with the animal as well

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as the bio by writing something unique, then you lose

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them right away. And I love the fact that you

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know in the book, Crewton, it's the cat is deciding

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really ultimately, you know, you can say all you want

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about me, but I'm reallycommended to decide who I'm going

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to go home with. And I love that, love that

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approach on it and the illustrations we had to go

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into that because you are the last And once again,

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that's not an easy task because when you're writing a

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children's book in particular, you have to a catch him

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by the story, but you also got to catch him

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buy as I mentioned, a go the cover the design

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the character's in there, because if the kids or anybody

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reading the book is not attracted to what you're putting

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down an illustration, then you're going to lose them. So

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how do you go about citing, how you're going to

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design it, and how are you going to put together

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the characters and do the illustration.

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Speaker 4: I think with especially with this book, I wanted to

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have kind of a push pull of maybe a little

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bit of sarcasm in there, like you for instance, the

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homework spread I mentioned, but you know, the humor of

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There's one scene where Cruton says, the next day we

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both needed some grooming, you know, and grooming is a

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word you always use with Kat and then in parentheses

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it says one of us needs it more than the other,

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and it's the girl's hair is an absolute mess, and

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you see Krewton sort of clawing her hair, sort of

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getting you're ready to go to school. So, I mean,

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I had so much fun with that. But I think it's,

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you know, the words. There's an interplay of the words

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in the pictures as I'm going through the process, and

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then you know, sometimes you have to have the five

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hundred foot view and say this is just not funny enough.

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You know, maybe the words are okay, but the pictures

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could be better, could be funnier. So sometimes I literally

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go back to the drawing board and I say, what

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if I did this, This could be funnier if I

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did this. And I think that's sort of like putting

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the puzzle pieces together when you're writing a book as

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an author illustrator, when you're writing it, because you don't

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always want the picture necessarily to reiterate what you're saying

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in text. You want it to be something different or contrarian.

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So I always have fun with that. And I wanted

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to set the scene definitely of a shelter because I'm

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so pro adoption, so I wanted to make sure that

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I opened with little Cruton in that shelter, with all

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the animals, you know, waiting for the doors to open.

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I just kind of had to get inside everyone's head,

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you know, say what is it like from their side?

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You know, to see these feet walk by, you know,

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if you're in the lower cage, what does that look like?

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What does that look like from the animal's perspective? You know,

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it kind of breaks my heart when I think about it,

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you know, because anytime I do visit a shelter. I

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make sure I look very low, you know, because it's

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very easy to stay at eye level. But there's animals everywhere,

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and just trying to get into their head and say

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what did they feel? Are they nervous? Are they hopeful?

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Speaker 2: You know?

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Speaker 4: Did they look out and look at us and say, oh,

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I like him?

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Speaker 5: I like her?

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Speaker 4: So it was a lot of.

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Speaker 1: That nice nice And that's part of the research behind

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it too. Now the question is, did you do any

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research as far as getting ten kids in a room

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and reading the arc of this to decide if they

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really liked it or not.

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Speaker 4: Believe it or not. I didn't. I didn't know. I mean,

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after I got the I decided on the narrative, and

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my editor and I you know, went back and forth

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and everything. It was sort of just mostly the two

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of us working on this and saying how can we

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make it stronger? And you know, I think one of

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the things that we probably thought about the most is

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would a cat say this about a human? Because at

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one point I said, she's kind, she's super cuddly, which

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is true of humans. I mean, I'm always hugging my cat,

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so I could see a cat saying that probably sounds crazy,

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but you know, saying somebody's kind? Would an animal say

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that about a person? I think so, because when you

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know the little girl's brushing the cat, you know she's

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sort of doting on her. It was those adjectives were

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probably a bit of a I wouldn't say the most challenging,

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but as far as writing it, we wanted to make

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sure it would fly like it would it would make

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the most sense.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: In my opinion, it's no different than in writing any

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other genre, whether it's a a mystery or anything of

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this sort of the fact that if you don't get

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into the characters and feel what they are feeling and

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what they're seeing and how they would approach themselves, then

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that's never going to come across. And as you mentioned before,

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you have even a tougher task in my opinion, because

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you have to get into the characters, but yet such

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a short window to get that message across. So it's

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it makes it, in my mind a little a little

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more challenging too.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and I didn't want it to be too sad.

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I mean I remember going to shelters and just seeing

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things that just rip my heart out, you know, like

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when you see the cat stick their paw out, you know,

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out of the kennel, and oh yeah, I wanted it

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to be accessible. I didn't want any children to be depressed,

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you know, by the shelter. But at the same time,

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you know, there is a strong message, you know that

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there's someone out there for everyone, and I just think

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everyone should adopt. I don't know why we'd we don't

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clear the shelters, and I'll get off my soapbox, but yeah,

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you know, there there's all these breeders and designer animals,

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and I just think there's all these little animals waiting

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to be adopted. Let's take care of them first.

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Speaker 1: There you go, So go to your local shelters and

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rescues and let them choose you. That would be the key.

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All Right, We're gonna take a quick commercial break. We'll

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come back talk to Christine Lombardi more about the book, Crewton,

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and then we'll delve even further into Hashi masters or craft.

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So everybody hang tight. We'll come back rad for this

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commercial break. You're listening to Animal Rights on at Life.

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Speaker 4: Radio, Real people, Real stories.

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Speaker 3: Our little dog developed this loomph problem at the Chemotherapy

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lasted for six months started developing more lymph nose, so

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I thought I'd just tried carnival work. The lymph nose

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started to go down. Then I took them into the

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vet to him checked out and there was no signs

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at all inside.

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Speaker 5: My god had issues that developed into the height. And

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three months later my venirings and this go ahead and

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remove the eye.

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Speaker 3: Heard the carnivor on advertising.

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Speaker 5: So I said, you know what, I'm going to order

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this product.

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Speaker 3: They did the procedure, they did all the death and

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they said, I don't know where you did this product.

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They had died.

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Speaker 5: I've got a laborador. You could hardly lift yourself up

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off the floor. The treatment was chemotherapy. That's when I

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said this could be the ticket. About three weeks you

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could tell she was very alert. She was going on

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buy my walk and she is just like crime again.

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Speaker 4: Well eight six six eight three six eight seven three five.

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That's eight six six eight three six eight seven three

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five Or visit carnivore dot com. That's c A R

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N I v O r A dot com. Use promo

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code pet life at checkout for fifteen percent off your

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order at carnivora dot com.

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Speaker 2: Let's talk past it, Let's done, Petal Radio, Headline.

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Speaker 5: Radio, pet Life Radio dot com.

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to animal rights on Life Radio. Our conversation

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with author and illustrator extraordinator Christine Lombardi and her latest book,

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crews On. So we talked a little bit about the

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book itself and the message it comes across. But obviously

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you've written numerous books and received accolades and awards for

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your work, so kudos on that. Do you go into

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whether we're talking about Cruton or any of the other

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books with a walk away? You know there's a message,

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as we mentioned, but is there a thing that end

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the day someone's reading the book and you want them

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to get this out of it or they say, hey,

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I really whatever about the book. I love the book,

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or I love this or that. Was there a central

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thing you're hoping as an author of illustrator that comes across.

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Speaker 4: I think so. But I think when I work on

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a book, it doesn't seem like I'm really trying to

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hit anyone over the head with a certain message, but

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there always seems to be one. I had somebody approach

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me at a book signing once and said something like,

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I love your books. They're all about acceptance cool, and

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I said, are they look.

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Speaker 1: I just She said, yes, they are. Thanks for catching that,

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but I do.

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Speaker 4: I definitely well something touches me like I had. Probably

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my lesser known book but had a lot of heart,

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was called Mister Biddle's and it was about a lonely

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sounds ridiculous talking about it, but it was about a

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lonely cat inventor who was in his basement working, you know,

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toiling away, and the doorbell rang and he went upstairs

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and it was basically a lobster delivery gone awry. He

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got this lobster and he never looked at it as food,

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which I do have a thing for lobsters and tanks.

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I feel terrible for them, so I have to cover

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my eyes at the supermarket. But what he does is

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he takes the lobster in, He introduces himself, and he

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makes them his assistant because his little claws can hold

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the screw or he's nut nice. And he put them

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to work in the lab and they become the best

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of friends. But ultimately the lobster, whose name is Hopson,

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he has to go home. He misses his family. He

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got plucked from the ocean and he just wants.

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Speaker 1: To go back.

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Speaker 4: So I wrote this story, and you know, I realized

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it's it's sort of like if you love something, set

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it free, you know. And I didn't realize it at

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the time, but that really was the message.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely and once again acceptance. So I think that, you know,

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the reader was spot on. You know, lobsters and cats

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can live in harmony together, you know, tongue in cheek,

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but it's very true. You know, there's no reason that

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animals can't get along, people can't get along, even though

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we may have different lives and different paths that we're taking.

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Speaker 4: So and they look good at knob cooats.

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Speaker 1: So that's right, an internal all x nut. I can't

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even do that. I forget it. What is the hex nut?

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I guess that's what AI's for nowadays. I don't know, hopefully,

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just that. So we'll talk about I'm gonna mention the

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chicken in the egg. So when you're put together the book,

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you're the writer, you know, the author, and the illustrator,

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which comes first illustrations.

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Speaker 4: I think illustrations. I mean, for years I tried to

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just write straight out or just write a manuscript like

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open word and write it, you know, I would fixate

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on the page count and the page how the pages

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are laid out, so I could, you know, I could

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visualize it. So if it's spread eight nine, I would

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have the text for eight and then the text for nine.

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But then ultimately I always went back to sketching. And

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sometimes I'm a big list maker. Sometimes I would just

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make a list saying what would be a blast to

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draw for this book. And then as I came up

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with that list and started drawing it, it got more

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and more fun, and then the story started to gell more,

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and then the words came second because I was already

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telling so much of the story and the art, so

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I needed the text to sort of push the narrative

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a little bit, you know, and what I couldn't show

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an art, and so I ended up kind of doing

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it backwards. And I think I still pretty much work

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that way. I mean, I have the general idea, but

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I think, especially with the picture book, I think the

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pictures carry so much of the book, and you can

400
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tell little side stories too, you know, you can show

401
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emotion in the art without having to say, Okay, you know,

402
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now it's sad or now it's this. I remember with

403
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that same book, I had the sky changing, you know,

404
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so it was blue, but then you know, when Hobson

405
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had to return, it got increasingly cloudy. So it was

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just a way to change the tone temporarily. But I

407
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don't you know, I think it's just bit by bit.

408
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It's such a process. I mean along the way they

409
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call them book dummies. When you sketch out the whole

410
00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:53,839
book and you're looking at it, you know, you're able

411
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to turn the page and figure out if there's good

412
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action coming, you know, does the child want to turn

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the page? You know, you kind I don't want to

414
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have a mini cliffhanger, if possible. So it's a lot

415
00:21:03,039 --> 00:21:05,079
of that. It's a lot of back and forth or

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oh this won't work, I have to change this. And

417
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:09,720
you know, by the time you're done, you can have

418
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ten to fifteen different book dummies.

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Speaker 1: Oh there you go, and then maybe you can turn

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00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:18,039
those into ten to fifteen different books. Now there, Now

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00:21:18,119 --> 00:21:21,920
you're talking. It'd be nice, that would be nice, that would.

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00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:24,079
Speaker 4: Be It's a process. It's definitely a long process.

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Speaker 1: Well, I mean, and that's why I tell people. I mean,

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00:21:26,519 --> 00:21:29,359
just writing in general, it's very rewarding. But when you're

425
00:21:29,359 --> 00:21:32,480
starting to talk about, you know, children's books and illustrations

426
00:21:32,519 --> 00:21:35,200
and things of this sort. There's a lot that goes

427
00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:37,279
into it. You've got to have a good story, you've

428
00:21:37,279 --> 00:21:40,759
got to have good illustrations that catch your captures of

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00:21:40,799 --> 00:21:43,160
what you're trying to say as well as catch their eye.

430
00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:45,480
And it has to be something that you can go

431
00:21:45,559 --> 00:21:48,680
back to time and time again. And I think you've

432
00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:50,960
done a great job with that as always with the

433
00:21:51,319 --> 00:21:54,559
latest Crewton. So everybody think a copy of the book

434
00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:57,200
for sure, Well, tell us a little bit about where

435
00:21:57,200 --> 00:21:58,960
you're going to be, how people can find out more

436
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,519
about Crewton the book as well as all your other

437
00:22:01,599 --> 00:22:02,519
wonderful writings.

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Speaker 4: Well, I'm still going around to different bookstores and doing

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00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:08,720
events and I'll be doing a school visit this week.

440
00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:11,519
So yeah, the book is Luckily it was an Indie

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00:22:11,519 --> 00:22:15,359
Next Pick, so it's in most independence stores good, which

442
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:18,200
is nice. And what else I don't know.

443
00:22:18,799 --> 00:22:21,599
Speaker 1: And we're going to keep track of you and your

444
00:22:21,799 --> 00:22:23,880
comings and goings and where you're going to be. You

445
00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:27,079
got a website or a favorite social media site that

446
00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:27,839
you use.

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00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:32,559
Speaker 4: Definitely Instagram, So my handle is Illustration Lombardi.

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00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:34,599
Speaker 1: Nice around bad.

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00:22:35,039 --> 00:22:37,720
Speaker 4: It's a bit long I would have chosen something different today,

450
00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:39,319
but it was a long time ago. There.

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00:22:39,799 --> 00:22:42,000
Speaker 1: You can always have more accounts, I think, can you

452
00:22:42,119 --> 00:22:44,200
or I don't know. I don't know anything about that.

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00:22:45,519 --> 00:22:46,880
Speaker 4: I don't want to be on that much.

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00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:49,599
Speaker 1: No, that's the key. You gotta get your messy chatting

455
00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:51,759
when you can though. That's all right, So everybody pick

456
00:22:51,799 --> 00:22:54,720
up a copy of the book. It's available nationwide. Go

457
00:22:54,759 --> 00:22:58,039
to your favorite independent bookstore. Definitely keep track. We'll post

458
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:03,559
Christine's website and all of her socials on the episode,

459
00:23:03,559 --> 00:23:06,319
so you can keep track of what she's got going on,

460
00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:09,279
where she's going to be, and pick up a copy

461
00:23:09,279 --> 00:23:12,640
of the book. It's called Crew Toon and you're gonna

462
00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:14,160
love it, and your kids are going to love it,

463
00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:16,559
and everybody's gonna love it. So go out and pick

464
00:23:16,599 --> 00:23:18,960
up a copy. Christine, thanks for coming on the show.

465
00:23:19,319 --> 00:23:22,880
Congratulations again on all the success, and we'll look forward

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to chat with you some more down the road.

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00:23:24,799 --> 00:23:26,599
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me on. It was

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00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:27,319
so much fun.

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Speaker 1: Same here, Christine, thank you so much. Well, we're coming

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to the end of the show today. I want to thank

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everyone for listening to Animal Rights on pet Life Radio.

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00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:37,640
I want to thank the producers and sponsors for making

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00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:40,920
the show possible. If you have any questions, ideas, comments,

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00:23:41,079 --> 00:23:43,079
you can drop us a line or a note, or

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00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:45,200
however we want to get in contact with us versus

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