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Speaker 1: Arrow. How are you doing today?

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Speaker 2: I'm doing good. How are you doing?

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Speaker 1: Doing? Fantastic? Looking forward to sharing a conversation with you,

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because you have this great way of breaking down a

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story in the most simplest way, but yet there's always

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a message in it.

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Speaker 2: Ah. Wow, I never thought of it that way, but thanks.

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Speaker 1: Is it because of personal experience that you inside your

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own creative mind? You know, you're that child or you're

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that young adult that wants to read books just like this.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think it's because I was a

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reluctant reader as a kid, and I know I know

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the kinds of things that turns those kids on and

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bores those kids. And so you know, I'm writing as

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if I'm writing for some for myself, you know. And

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I if I see something that I think is going

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to bog down the story, you know, I cut it

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out and I try and get to the action, get

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to the gist of the story, so that I don't

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lose my readers. Wow. Where are you located, by the way,

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I am.

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Speaker 1: Down here in a very wet and soggy Charlotte, North Carolina.

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Speaker 2: Ah okay, all right, good, all right, thanks for having

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me on again.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate it absolutely because I believe in your storytelling.

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And that's the one thing and one of the things

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that inspires me most about you is the fact that

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you are willing to talk with students and you do

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it virtually, and because that is so important. Teachers will

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show a student how to read, but they don't show

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them how to write as much as you know, the

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way that you and I like to dig into a

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story and bring something forward.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I used to do my school as it's

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in person before the pandemic, you know, and then of

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course all the schools closed down, and I kind of

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figured out a way to do it virtually, and I

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found it was so much fun visiting schools virtually and

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not having to travel, you know, being able to do

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it from my apartment was great. So I love the

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visiting schools. Now I can visit schools all over the country,

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all over the world, even virtually.

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Speaker 1: Well, but see what on the other end of that

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screen is someone who's going to pick up that writing

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instrument or put their fingers on a keyboard, and all

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of a sudden they're going to become the storyteller because

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they got to see who really is and what they

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look like, and it's like, oh my god, I can

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be that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Hey, when I was a kid, probably when you

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were a kid, authors didn't visit schools. I never met

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any authors, children's book authors, you know, and now a

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lot of us. Hey, we do this for the fun

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of it. We make money doing it, and we turn

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kids onto reading, and it's just a win win for everybody.

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Speaker 1: The Picasso Curse. You are releasing this book at the

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right time because everybody is going back to school. People

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in South Carolina are already in school. North Carolina is

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just a few weeks away.

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Speaker 2: Really already. Yeah, wow, that's quick. I think in New

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Jersey and New York, I think it's like not until

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the first week of September.

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Speaker 1: My goodness sakes, you guys are spoiled up North Well,

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in your heart, who is Edwin Hodge? I mean, a

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character like this just doesn't happen. You had to have

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created this character then and then shaped him.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's a long story. I'll try not to

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bore you with it. But for years I had these

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two thoughts were knocking around in my head. I couldn't

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get them out of my head. The first one was

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that back in nineteen eleven, the Mona Lisa, the most

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famous painting in the world, was stolen from the Louver

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Museum in Paris, Okay. Most people actually know that, but

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very few people know that one of the prime suspects

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of the theft was Pablo Picasso, the most famous artist

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of the twentieth century. And I thought, oh, there's got

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to be a story in here, somewhere. There's got to

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be a way for me to tell this story in

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a novel form. And my first thought was to do

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it as a nonfiction book, just telling the straight story

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of how it happened. But actually I was lucky because

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somebody actually wrote that story. A guy named Nicholas Day

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wrote a book called The Mona Lisa Vanishes a couple

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of years ago. He basically told the story, but I

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wanted to put it in a fictional form, you know.

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So you know, I was thinking and thinking. I was

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asking my friends, you know, how could I make this

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into a story, and nobody seemed to be able to

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help me. And then I kept reading, like every year

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or so, you read about some person who who goes

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to a flea market or buys some kind of a

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painting or whatever, and you know, there was this guy

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in Pennsylvania. He bought a painting and then on the

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back of the painting was a copy of the Declaration

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of Independence, you know. And I thought, Oh, here's here's

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what if. Here's a what if scenario I can come

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up with. And I thought, what if when Picasso was

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being questioned for the theft of the Mona Lisa. He

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didn't steal, of course, but when he was being questioned,

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what if he did a doodle, you know, in his

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sketch book while he was nervously waiting, you know. And

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what if once they said okay, you can go home,

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you didn't steal them on Lisa? What if he threw

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the doodle into the garbage can. And what if the

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janitor there in Paris pulled the doodle the drawing out

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of the garbage can. And what if one hundred years

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more and more later, that drawing happened to find its

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way to a flea market in Illinois, Okay, And what

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if what if a kid, say, brought a poster at

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that flea market for ten bucks, He brings it home,

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takes this cheap frame off of the poster, and Picasso's

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original drawing slides out how would it impact this kid's

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life in positive and negative ways? And that was the

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gist that was the inspiration for the Picasso Curse.

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Speaker 1: Please Do Not Move. There's more with Dan Gutman coming

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up next. The name of the book, The Picasso Curse.

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There's something about this book that I can totally relate with,

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and it's the way that Dan sets it up that

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gives me the opportunity to share something that a lot

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of people do not know. I think that's the reason

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why I can relate with this book because in my

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own paintings that have been in galleries, if they're those

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who actually bought the paintings, if they would take it

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out of the frame, there's all there's always a painting

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behind it that that was my signature. But the thing

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is is that nobody ever takes the frame apart. But

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yet this dude did Edwin does?

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Speaker 2: You're blowing the cover on yourself. Arrow. You know, now

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all these people who bought your paintings, they're going to

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take him out of the frames and find these hidden paintings.

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Speaker 1: It's just because you know, when you're an artist, you

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have so many paintings inside your room. You've got to

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get rid of them, so you team him up with

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something else.

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Speaker 2: I had no idea that people do that.

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Speaker 1: It's just it's it's you know, you know, because you want,

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you want someone to have something of value, and because

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when when when it comes to what these art galleries

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are charging, it's like you know, you said, there, you know,

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please don't just just ask for a buck, just get

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a power for it. And you know in you as

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a writer, you know you must feel the same way.

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It's like you want to charge what Okay, okay, I

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know you've got to get your your ear things, you know,

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be charged up. But me, I just want to write.

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I just want to write.

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Speaker 2: Sure, Yeah, And it was it was interesting just thinking

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about all all the things that might it's kind of

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brainstorming about what might happen if that had happened to me,

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you know, like all the good things, like you know,

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you're going to start making new friends of people who

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suddenly want to be nice to you, you can make

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a lot of money, you'll get famous, you know, and

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stuff like that. But then you've probably heard about these

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people who like win the lottery and it ruins their

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life because they don't know how to handle their sudden

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famine fortune, you know. So I figure, like, all these

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bad things could happen to this kid. You know, people

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would be jealous, they'd want to steal his money. There'd

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be scam artists and shady people, people trying to rip

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him off, people saying the thing was a fake to

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begin with, or that he stole it, and all these

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bad things start happening to the kid. And he starts,

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you know, researching Picasso and finds that, hey, while Picasso

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lived to be into his nineties, just about everybody in

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his life died young and tragically, you know, like his

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sister died when she was seven, one of his girlfriends

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hung herself, one had a nervous breakdown, his son died

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from drinking bleach, and all this kind of horrible things happen.

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And I thought, this kid is going to think, hey,

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maybe there is a Picasso curse and maybe I've got it,

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and maybe something horrible is going to happen to me.

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And I don't want to tell you the big surprise

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at ending. You probably know the surprise heding. I don't

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want to tell your listeners the surprise ending, but I'll

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just say that he comes up with an idea out

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wageous idea that could possibly solve all his problems. That's

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all I'm gonna say. Wow, that's all I'm gonna say.

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Speaker 1: You've got to come back to this show anytime in

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the future. You know, you're a man of brilliant writing

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and I always want to share your stories with with listeners.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I really appreciate you doing that. Ro It means

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a lot to me and the other authors that you

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cut on jags.

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Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?

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Speaker 2: Okay, okay,