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Speaker 1: Hello and good morning. How are you doing today?

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Speaker 2: Good morning, I'm well, how are you? How about yourself?

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Speaker 1: Absolutely fantastic. I'm so excited about this book because I'll

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tell you what, I'm seeing a big shift and change

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in our current culture in the way that more men

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are spending time with their kids, even at a grocery store.

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Speaker 2: Varian, I agree, and I really wanted to capture that

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in book form. For sure.

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Speaker 1: I get I'm so jealous of this book because my

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father would have never done this. He would have never said, Hey,

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my little man, come on, let's let me teach you

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a lot of things about life.

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Speaker 2: You know, I do think there's a shift with that did.

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I think lots of dads before and all these generations

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were kind of the strong, stoic type, and they felt

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that the best way to just show what admits to

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be a man, to be a role model was to

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kind of carry on this burden and not to just

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stop and explain things. And I find I wanted to

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have a place where other and son could talk and

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and be real with each other and not just kind

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of do as I do and follow along that mentality.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that you feature in this book.

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I was just in a major league conversation about this.

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I said, you never see kids with kites anymore, and

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yet in your story there's a kite.

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Speaker 2: I love kites. I live in Texas, in off the

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off the area. There's a kite festival here every year.

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It's amazing, great winds, and I thought, yeah, let's bring

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a little old school back to it. Let's get away

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from video games and great, right, they have their place,

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but let's do something that's a little bit more active.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that you cover inside this book.

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And I wish that I could, you know, tap into

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my own memory of when my sister was born. Did

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I go through a jealous stage, because I mean Elijah

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does go through a stage here that is you know,

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I say, Okay, now there's a baby, it's not all

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about me anymore.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, I have a younger sister and I certainly

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went through that. And I think Elijah, well, he's not

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necessarily you're not mad at the baby, right, but he

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does realize that there's less time available for everyone. Yeah,

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less time available for him, and he misses that time

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with his parents. He desperately wants it.

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Speaker 1: So what led you to the name Elijah, because I mean,

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I'm Christian man. Elijah and Elijah are two very powerful

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names and people inside that big book.

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Speaker 2: You know, I consider myself a Christian as well, and

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I've always loved the name Elijah. Yeah, how it feels

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is such a powerful name. And I thought this is

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for this characters lots of changes, but I don't think

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the name has ever changed. I think he's always been Elijah.

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Speaker 1: Wow. So no, you prove one thing inside this book,

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and I hope, I hope little readers understand this, that

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everything doesn't go perfectly. And I like the way that

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you're very transparent and honest about that.

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Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, Elijah is trying to do the as you can.

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But he makes mistakes. He makes a number of mistakes.

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But I wanted to create a story where his father

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encourages him to fite the mistakes, but he's going to

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figure it out. I do think there's a place for correction,

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but direction doesn't always have to be yelling or like, oh,

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never mind, just sit in the corner and do your

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own thing. Like no, you can figure this out, because

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helping your family is a great thing. It's going to

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make you feel great, it's going to be a good

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thing for our entire family. I really wanted Elijah winning

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bubbles to be encouraged to keep trying.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of helping out, I mean, how about that reminder

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of hey, let's have some fun here. It's not all

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about work, dude, come on, have some fun with me.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. That was actually inspired a lot about from my

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own life. I have two daughters and during the time

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of COVID, we were all home together and they wanted

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to play all the time. And I was like, well, sweets,

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I have to work, and they didn't understand why wouldn't

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I want to play. So we came up with this

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this great agreement where we would all work hard in

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the morning I would work at my job of running books.

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They would either school, school work, do some tours, and

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then in the afternoon we got to play hard. So

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then we would get the legos out and blocks out,

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the hot wheels out. Uh. And it was similar with

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my father as well too, us all being together and

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working as a family unit. Both those really helped to

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drive the story.

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Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Varian Johnson coming

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up next. Hey, thanks for coming back to my conversation

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with Varian Johnson. Creating side by side with Reggie Brown.

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What was that like? Because I mean, I mean what

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came first, the chicken or the eggs? Was it the

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words or was it the pictures?

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Speaker 2: The words came first. But my job as an author

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is to write the best text I can, to hand

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it over to the creative team, Reggie specifically, and then

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to get out the way and let him create his maget.

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And there's so many things that he does in this

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story with elevating the text with his m in some places,

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in me in places you don't even need words. The

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images tell the stories themselves, right right?

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Speaker 1: What is that like for you, us the author? When

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when the images do.

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Speaker 2: That, Oh, it is amazing. There were times. There was

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a time as we're going through different drafts of the books,

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and it went through multiple, multiple drafts, we had the

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great spread of Elijah and his dad and Elijah handing

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him this kite, and I had this long description of

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the type, and I email my editor said, you know,

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we don't need ENDIUSI at all, and we cut three

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or four lines just like that because the images told

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the story in a way better than any words could.

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Speaker 1: Well, you do it in a way that I mean

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I mean, these are lessons in life. They didn't give up,

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they helped others, they cleaned up when they made a mess.

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These are all lessons in life. I mean, being big

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was hard work, and that is such an important part

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of where we are in our life today. People, you know,

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they find a mess and they walk away from it.

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They don't clean it up. They walk away, But in

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your book you say, no clean.

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Speaker 2: Up, you know. So, I when I'm writing a book,

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the first reference for me, and then I'm writing it

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for my intended reader after that as I'm revising it.

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And certainly this is the picture book is for our

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youngest readers kindergarten through second third grade, four to eight,

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let's say. But you know, there's lots of parents that

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are going to be reading picture books over and over

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and over again. I certainly did when I was had

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younger children, and so I want some things in there

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for the parents as well too. I'm hopeful that there's

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there's ideas that messages the things that we can can

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glean from the story, whether we're a child or an adult.

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Speaker 1: It's so powerful to see, you know, Elijah and his

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father working together, creating things together. I didn't see that

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as a kid. So therefore when I see it inside

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a book today, it's like, my god, it still lives.

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Speaker 2: You know. Elijah looks up to his father so so much.

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He wants to be just like them, and I think

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then understands the responsibility and tries to live up to that.

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You know. Also with tours, I thought it was really

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important for like you said, to be helping out around

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the house even though he's tired. He'd come over a

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long day, but Marcael said, a long day too with

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that baby at home. So he's helping change the diapers,

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he's helping them make dinner. They're all picking in as

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a family.

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Speaker 1: One of the most powerful lines. And this is something

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that I that I hope that you put on a

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T shirt. At the end of the day, they all

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smelled like sunshine. My god, that's beautiful.

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Speaker 2: I you know, will pitch your books. You're often thinking

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about what action or what emotion is evoking and words

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that kind of evoked that. You know, I could have

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said at the end of the day, all felt happy,

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dr felt well, but like sunshine gives a slightly different

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feeling to us. It's still all this fun, but you

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attached to something you know, physical for lack of a

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better word, sunshine, the sun out, happiness all day together

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without using that specific word happy or fun or things

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like that.

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Speaker 1: When a thought like that falls onto your page, how

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do you react as the receiver?

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Speaker 2: You know, it's it's My goal is to try to

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choose the best I can as an author, and I

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love the books when they're out there, and I hope

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that readers can can pick up certain things as well too,

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some of these intentional choices that tried to make and

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the text and some of these choices that regually made

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in the art too. And what's great is that, especially

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with the art, sometimes you don't see something the first

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time you read it, but you read it over and

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over the least little least little nuggings that you see

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that just adds to the story.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that definitely is in this book. Where can people

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go to find out more about everything that you're doing

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and what you're going to be doing?

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Speaker 2: Well? Uh, you know, in the age of social media,

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I'm all around. My website is Arrian Johnson dot com.

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I'm pretty active on Twitter, I mean Twitter, on Instagram

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at mister Barrian Johnson. I'm active on Facebook too, at

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Barian Johnson. I think I have some other socials as well.

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The great thing is Barrian Johnson is a very unusual name,

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so if you do a search for very Justin, you're

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probably gonna find it.

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Speaker 1: I love it. Please come back to the show anytime

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in the future. The door is always going to be

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open for you.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I will lest you, Thank you so much.

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Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today? Okay, Varian says to you

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Speaker 2: And say to your listeners, thank you so much.