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As I am still treading deadline water, I'm reposting a blog post from several years ago. This is one of my favorites, an interview with M.T. Anderson. Tobin is simply one of the best writers and best people I've ever had the honor to know. Enjoy!

SH: You've written picture book biographies (Strange Mr. Satie), perhaps the best dystopian novel of all time (Feed), a complex and brilliant historical novel (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Parts 1 and 2), rollicking fun middle reader pulp novels (the Whales on Stilts! books), and some other books I haven't read yet so they don't really count but I have on good authority they are equally amazing, though I can't confirm or deny that at present. You jump from genre to genre like a flea at a dog show (you can borrow that simile sometime if you want, no charge, just make sure you mention me in the acknowledgements) and yet you do each one brilliantly, convincingly, perfect. So, what's the deal, Tobin? You got something to prove? Were you bullied as a kid by some smart-mouthed pre-teen genius who threw a ball at your head and said, "I bet you can't go down that slide head-first and survive OR write a dozen different books in different genres and be brilliant at all of them, so there, poo-poo head!" and you've been trying to prove that kid wrong ever since, especially since after you went down the slide head first you did survive but suffered a severe concussion and to this day still see shiny lights in your periphery and occasionally hear Bob Barker whisper in your ear, "Spin the wheel, Tobin. Spin it!" Is that it?

MTA: Can we just forget the slide? Who told you about the slide? I bet it was that jerk, Milt Barrega.

*drops to his knees and cries to the gathering clouds*

MILT BARREGA! CURSE YOU! ... HOW MANY SWISHIES, SWIRLIES, MONKEY BITES, AND CHARLIE HORSES DID I ENDURE AT YOUR HANDS? HOW MANY WEDGIES, SKUNKERS, KNUCKLE SCRUMS, AND MAR-BELLIES? HOW MANY WALLS OF MY HOUSE DID YOU KNOCK DOWN WITH YOUR CATAPULT, YOUR TREBUCHET?

I thought I had moved on. After all, that was some thirty years ago. He was just a snot-nosed kid. And wiped it on me. I thought I could let bygones be bygones. And then I discover that he tells stories like this to you; that is my bank manager, that he eats at my favorite restaurant, that he sends weird cakes to my wife.

MILT BARREGA! I SHALL SEEK YOU OUT TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH... AND WHEN I CATCH UP TO YOU, AND I SEND YOU HEAD-FIRST SLITHERING DOWN A SLIDE, YOU'LL FIND THE LANDING AIN'T SO SOFT WHERE YOU'RE GOING ... AND THAT IT'S REALLY HOT THERE! At the bottom of the slide! Which I'm sending you down!

And there are devils there. And brimstone and criminals.

I mean, what I'm trying to say is the slide goes down to the Bad Place. Like, that's the joke.

Sorry. Sorry, Milt. I didn't mean it.

Whales on Stilts! is a middle reader book, a parody of (or homage to) the old pulp novels, a great pick for reluctant readers, and uproariously funny. It moves fast and easy, but doesn't skimp on the quality writing. Just listen to this passage: "She, Lily, and Jasper pulled away from all the people who wanted to hear their story, and they stepped over to the railing to watch the sun set over the sea. Around them the potted ferns waved and the seagulls cried. The clouds turned a rich, rumbling kind of red as the sun disappeared. The sky stretched peach above their heads. The wind blew at them." Simple, elegant, evocative. Any writer would gladly offer up various body parts to write like that. So my question is, if I had a potluck BBQ, what dish would you bring?

I only know one recipe. Cereal.

Normally, the recipe for cereal is:

INGREDIENTS

cereal

milk

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Pour cereal into bowl

2. Pour milk over cereal (to taste)

But I'm lactose intolerant. So my recipe for cereal is a special one for lactose intolerant people.

INGREDIENTS

Cereal

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Eat cereal.

I'm the life of the party!

Follow up question: Are you free on Saturday?

For you, Shannon, I'm free any time. Wouldn't that be fun, if we could all get together for a BBQ?

PS. Do you prefer Quisp or Count Chocula?

Which Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut, invention would you most like to own and use at will?

Definitely the flying restaurant. I love it there. I would get them to put waffle fries on the menu, and fried zucchini with Russian dressing, and boneless Buffalo fingers. And then they could have a robotic cheesecake dessert cart, with specialty cheese cakes.

 But WAIT A SECOND, I'm lactose intolerant. So I'd be reduced to just staring at the robotic dessert cart longingly.

Even in my own daydreams, I'm frustrated.

You were recently photographed about town:

Clearly this is an original picture and your head was not cut out and put on someone else's body by my husband with mad PhotoShop skills. Ahem. Now besides the fact that you seemed to have gained fifty or sixty pounds since I saw in you June, I'm curious about the shirt. I guess it speaks for itself, but care to elaborate? (Also, is that a gold bracelet you're wearing?)

Wow, that's some photo. By "greatness," I apparently mean, "my great love of baked goods."

Because you're sweet, like them!

Awwwww....

Stop it, I'm blushing! So you see why I vote M.T. Anderson for our favorite literary guy. Don't you want to take him home with you to smile and say witty things and explain string theory and Ulysses? Easy, ladies, he's taken..

Chapter 12

Mud in the stream/And earth in the air/Clay in my ears/And stone in my stare: I remember someone once asking me which song was my favorite and I chose this one. I don't know if I could pick one favorite of anything, but I do like it.

First paragraph: I love that feeling of waking up at home again after being away for a long time. What could in some circumstances be annoying--Pa's snore--is comforting.

pg 143-145: Dialog is a lovely and dangerous tool. It's so awesome for character and relationship building, and so lousy for exposition. A general rule is never use dialog for anything the narrator could tell. Never use dialog to deliver information. I break that rule here with Katar informing about delegates, and I did so very carefully. I hope it isn't jarring. I do like this conversation, all the girls talking together, making plans really for the first time. I love that this is the first time any of them have thought to ask the prince's name. Slowly, he's becoming more real to them.

Being smart, pg 150: Miri considers what it means to be smart. I've often felt discouraged that the main way we determine smarts is by school grades or the ability to test well. Of course there are so many different kinds of smarts.

Marda and the academy: Even as Mir and spring holiday solved some of the problems and questions of the story, new ones arise. Within the main story arc, a novel is a series of smaller problems and solutions.

Dr. Sallie N. Cheinsteen asks, "When you decided that you wanted to be a writer, was it solely because you loved writing, or did multiple things help you decide that? For example, you had a goal of uplifting others, you wanted others to read what you had written, etc." I dealt with this question on my site: Why do you want to be a writer? I'd also add that no author I know writes because it's easy for them. This is the hardest work I've ever done, yet the most satisfying too. It takes a ton of commitment and sacrifice. But the main motivation is always the words, the characters, the story. We tell the story the best we can and let the readers decide what it means to them and how, if at all, it changes them.

KMB asks, "how much research do you do on the country your story setting is based on?" Since I'm not writing non-fiction or historical fiction, I have so much leeway. I love doing research and the true facts I uncover help root a fantasy novel in reality. But I can pick and choose what I use. For quarrying, I used the library, reading all or parts of about ten books. For setting research, it was combined books and internet. I do no where near the amount of research as a non-fiction writer, but I do a fair amount, I guess.

HP asks, "are you given a choice about the cover of your book?" My publisher consults with me but they  make the call on covers.

 Janette Rallison is about a cool a lady as you can hope to meet, deliciously fun and kind to boot. She writes funny, clean, delightful teen chick lit. Her latest crosses over into the fantasy realm (come to the dark side, Janette! You cannot resist!). I gobbled up My Fair Godmother in three days (supa-fast for slow poke me) because I just kept wanting to turn those pages. So I hollered down to Arizona, "Hey Janette, will you do a blog interview?" and she said, "I'd love to. Just let me know when so, you know, I can wear my skinny jeans." So here she is, in skinny jeans, the fabulous Janette Rallison.

SH: How much discovery do you do as you write? Did you know the plot for My Fair Godmother from the beginning, or do you discover things along the way and make big changes?

JR: I always think I know the basic plot of my novels before I start them, but then while I’m writing I realize I knew less than I thought.
 
This is the same experience I’ve had with men, parenting, many things really—so it’s not a surprise any more.  Life is learn-as-you-go.
 
When I started My Fair Godmother, I knew what was going to happen for each of Savannah’s wishes.  But when she went back to the Middle Ages to help Tristan, and met the mysterious yet sexy Black Knight, well, all sorts of things changed.  That’s why it’s dangerous to introduce mysterious and sexy Black Knights into your stories and why most authors avoid them.

If you had three wishes with the usual stipulations, and Chrissy was your fairy godmother, what would be your first wish?

  I’d probably wish for a better fairy godmother.  I mean, really, what kind of wish is Chrissy going to get right?  That said, it would be very tempting to wish for a self cleaning house.  Fame and fortune might backfire on you, but what’s the downside of dishes that jump into the dishwasher of their own accord?  I get choked up just thinking about it.

What makes you laugh?

My children.  Teenagers are especially funny.  Luckily I have a large supply of children so I’ll have story ideas for years to come.  I don’t know what I’ll do when they finally all grow up and leave home though.  I’ll probably have to go to the mall and stalk random teenagers, just for book ideas.

I have this wonderful vision of your home, full of shenanigans and giggles and baking cookies. Don't you dare spoil that dream, I don't want to hear about any mundane existential household, but what is the Rallison home like?

I had to think about this question for awhile.  Actually, I do think my children are more apt to joke around and look on the lighter side of things because I do it so frequently.  I was feeling good about this until I asked my twelve year old daughter if she thought our house was different than her friends’ houses.
 
“Definitely,” she told me.  “I do way more jobs than my friends.  And you take me shopping less.  Oh, and my friends have better things to eat at their houses.”
 
Doesn’t that just sound like every other twelve year old in the nation?  So yeah, I guess our house isn’t really all that different.

Probably every book event I do where there are adults present, I'm asked, "How do you write with kids?" The obvious answer, "I don't write with kids--they're too unwieldy. I use a computer." But besides that, how do you do it?

I have a fourteen year span between my oldest and youngest child which means my entire writing career has happened in-between taking care of little kids.  I was actually pregnant with twins when I got my first book contract.
 
You can’t wait for a chunk of time to write a novel, because those chunks of time don’t exist when you have five children.  Before my youngest started kindergarten, my goal was to write two pages before I took a shower and got ready for the day.  Which is why on any given day you could find me in my pajamas at two o’clock in the afternoon.
 
Sometimes it took a long time to write two pages.  And sometimes it didn’t happen at all.  But even if you can only write a few paragraphs a day—and I got good at scribbling things down while waiting at dance classes and soccer games—after enough time you’ve got a whole book written.

Also, don’t ask me how frequently I cleaned my fridge out.  It’s best not to know those things.

Which character did you have the most fun writing about?

 There were so many fun characters in this book, it’s hard to pick just one.  I loved the longsuffering dwarfs who have to put up with an air-head Snow White. I also loved Chrissy, the valley girl fairy godmother with her sometimes brutally true observations about our society.  And of course the Cyclops was fun because he had such a hard time deciding whether to eat the heroine or not.  I think most of us could relate to that predicament.

I have a bookshelf in our family room where I put books I've read that I want to share. My babysitters know where to go for the good stuff. Recently when I came home, our awesome sitter Kayla had found My Fair Godmother and was 50 pages in. She begged to borrow it and brought it back later with rave reviews. "I loved how Janette Ralison brought a teen story to life! For example; the swimming pool scene where her bathing suit top came off, and then she ran into the boys dressing room because she couldn't see! That cracked me up! I could really see someone do that! Plus it brought back a memory where I accidentally walked into the boys bathroom at the movie theaters!
Also my favorite character in the book is Tristan, because he's so cute and full of muscle! He's my hero! My Fair Godmother is amazing!" She had some questions for you.

KAYLA: Did you have to study about the Middle Ages before you wrote My Fair Godmother?

For years I’ve planned to write a historical romance, so I’ve read tons of books on the Middle Ages.  I’m not sure when I’ll ever get that romance done, but luckily I didn’t have to do much new research for My Fair Godmother.  (This is just another example of how procrastination works for me.)

KAYLA: Are you going to write a sequel to the book?

I don’t have one planned at this point, but it is in the back of my mind.  One just has to wonder what Chrissy will do for her next extra-credit fairy godmother assignment.  Someday I might have to set her on some other unsuspecting teenage girl.

Thanks, lady! You are, as always, the life of the party. By the way, I still owe you $2 for tipping that guy who made a balloon Spider-man for Max. I won't forget!

 Today I have the honor of hosting M.T. Anderson, fresh off from his latest Printz Honor. Tobin is one of my favorite authors, besides being one of my favorite people. Last summer, we were locked up in a room together for two days to rehearse for a readers theater, along with Linda Sue Park and Eric Rohmann, and if you ever have the opportunity to be locked up with three people, I highly recommend those three. Just make certain you supply Tobin with Coke, not Pepsi (or was it the other way around?). My interiew with Tobin might be lacking in some of the depth and dignity due a National Book Award winner. For a truly fascinating interview with M.T. Anderson, check out Seven Impossible Things.

SH: You've written picture book biographies (Strange Mr. Satie), perhaps the best dystopian novel of all time (Feed), a complex and brilliant historical novel (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Parts 1 and 2), rollicking fun middle reader pulp novels (the Whales on Stilts! books), and some other books I haven't read yet so they don't really count but I have on good authority they are equally amazing, though I can't confirm or deny that at present. You jump from genre to genre like a flea at a dog show (you can borrow that simile sometime if you want, no charge, just make sure you mention me in the acknowledgements) and yet you do each one brilliantly, convincingly, perfect. So, what's the deal, Tobin? You got something to prove? Were you bullied as a kid by some smart-mouthed pre-teen genius who threw a ball at your head and said, "I bet you can't go down that slide head-first and survive OR write a dozen different books in different genres and be brilliant at all of them, so there, poo-poo head!" and you've been trying to prove that kid wrong ever since, especially since after you went down the slide head first you did survive but suffered a severe concussion and to this day still see shiny lights in your periphery and occasionally hear Bob Barker whisper in your ear, "Spin the wheel, Tobin. Spin it!" Is that it?

MTA: Can we just forget the slide? Who told you about the slide? I bet it was that jerk, Milt Barrega.

*drops to his knees and cries to the gathering clouds*

MILT BARREGA! CURSE YOU! ... HOW MANY SWISHIES, SWIRLIES, MONKEY BITES, AND CHARLIE HORSES DID I ENDURE AT YOUR HANDS? HOW MANY WEDGIES, SKUNKERS, KNUCKLE SCRUMS, AND MAR-BELLIES? HOW MANY WALLS OF MY HOUSE DID YOU KNOCK DOWN WITH YOUR CATAPULT, YOUR TREBUCHET?

I thought I had moved on. After all, that was some thirty years ago. He was just a snot-nosed kid. And wiped it on me. I thought I could let bygones be bygones. And then I discover that he tells stories like this to you; that is my bank manager, that he eats at my favorite restaurant, that he sends weird cakes to my wife.

MILT BARREGA! I SHALL SEEK YOU OUT TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH... AND WHEN I CATCH UP TO YOU, AND I SEND YOU HEAD-FIRST SLITHERING DOWN A SLIDE, YOU'LL FIND THE LANDING AIN'T SO SOFT WHERE YOU'RE GOING ... AND THAT IT'S REALLY HOT THERE! At the bottom of the slide! Which I'm sending you down!

And there are devils there. And brimstone and criminals.

I mean, what I'm trying to say is the slide goes down to the Bad Place. Like, that's the joke.

Sorry. Sorry, Milt. I didn't mean it.

Whales on Stilts! is a middle reader book, a parody of (or homage to) the old pulp novels, a great pick for reluctant readers, and uproariously funny. It moves fast and easy, but doesn't skimp on the quality writing. Just listen to this passage: "She, Lily, and Jasper pulled away from all the people who wanted to hear their story, and they stepped over to the railing to watch the sun set over the sea. Around them the potted ferns waved and the seagulls cried. The clouds turned a rich, rumbling kind of red as the sun disappeared. The sky stretched peach above their heads. The wind blew at them." Simple, elegant, evocative. Any writer would gladly offer up various body parts to write like that. So my question is, if I had a potluck BBQ, what dish would you bring?

2. I only know one recipe. Cereal.

Normally, the recipe for cereal is:

INGREDIENTS

cereal

milk

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Pour cereal into bowl

2. Pour milk over cereal (to taste)

But I'm lactose intolerant. So my recipe for cereal is a special one for lactose intolerant people.

INGREDIENTS

Cereal

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Eat cereal.

I'm the life of the party!

Follow up question: Are you free on Saturday?

For you, Shannon, I'm free any time. Wouldn't that be fun, if we could all get together for a BBQ?

PS. Do you prefer Quisp or Count Chocula?

Which Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut, invention would you most like to own and use at will?

Definitely the flying restaurant. I love it there. I would get them to put waffle fries on the menu, and fried zucchini with Russian dressing, and boneless Buffalo fingers. And then they could have a robotic cheesecake dessert cart, with specialty cheese cakes.

 But WAIT A SECOND, I'm lactose intolerant. So I'd be reduced to just staring at the robotic dessert cart longingly.

Even in my own daydreams, I'm frustrated.

You were recently photographed about town:

Clearly this is an original picture and your head was not cut out and put on someone else's body by my husband with mad PhotoShop skills. Ahem. Now besides the fact that you seemed to have gained fifty or sixty pounds since I saw in you June, I'm curious about the shirt. I guess it speaks for itself, but care to elaborate? (Also, is that a gold bracelet you're wearing?)

Wow, that's some photo. By "greatness," I apparently mean, "my great love of baked goods."

Because you're sweet, like them!

Awwwww....

Stop it, I'm blushing! So you see why I vote M.T. Anderson for our favorite literary guy. Don't you want to take him home with you to smile and say witty things and explain string theory and Ulysses? Easy, ladies, he's taken..

Our next guest author is the illustrious Nathan Hale (no relation). Nate, of course, is the fantabulous illustrator of rapunzel's revenge. You can read a little about that collaboration here. He is even as we speak working on the sequel, calamity jack, which will be out spring 2010. He supports a family of four as an illustrator, an amazing accomplishment, due not only to his incredible talent but his astounding hard work. (think 16 hour/days, 7 days/week) His solo work includes the picture books The Devil You Know (optioned for film by the director of Night at the Museum) and Yellowbelly and Plum, one of Max's (and ours) favorite books.

Me: What's your favorite scene in Rapunzel's Revenge?

NH: The tree tower. I love the solitude of Rapunzel in the tiny room. There is a little sequence of panels where we see winter, fall and spring go by (top of page 27) which I'd love to have elaborated on for three or four pages. The escape from the tower is fun too, and I love the boar chase. Honestly, I could have done a whole book based on the first half of Part 1--you know, Manga style, telling the story of Rapunzel's Revenge in a series 24 books long.

Who are your favorite minor characters in Rapunzel?

I love Goldy. That goose was so helpful. If I needed to focus attention on anything, I could just point Goldy's head at it. She was like a living "LOOK HERE" sign. And she was funny too. I think she steals the scene in the jail break sequence (she steals other stuff too, if you look closely.) I like Rapunzel's mom, especially in the scene at the well. I also got a kick out of some very minor characters, "Tina's Terrible Trio" on page 110, the trio only got that one panel. But I feel they need a story of their own someday. A Pixar style short feature.

What do you enjoy drawing more: dinosaurs, devils, or toothless outlaws?

The combination. Really, that's one of the best things about being a children's illustrator. You get to do it all. I try to cultivate variety in the projects I take on. Earlier this year I had FOUR dinosaur projects in a row. (including Chronicle's "The Dinosaur's Night Before Christmas"--available now at Amazon.com! For all of your dinosaur and Christmas needs! Act now! Free CD of dinosaur carols included! Your holiday season is not complete without "Hark, the Pterodactyls Sing!") By the end of that stretch I was REALLY tired of painting scales. So it was nice to switch to a project that was totally dinosaur free. I'm sure by the time I finish Calamity Jack, I'll be dying to paint some dinosaurs again--or maybe some tall ships, I've always wanted to do a naval battle/pirate ship project.

Which schoolmate of Yellowbelly's is your favorite?

The easy answer is the little blonde boy in the black shirt. That's my son Ulysses.

As far as the monsters and robots go, I really like the little gray owl girl. When the book was going through sketch revisions, there were two characters that were cut. They still made the book, you can see them on the big playground spread, a shark girl in a tutu, and a cactus boy. Those two were originally in Yellowbelly's class. They were replaced by the dinosaur boy (wearing a cactus shirt) and one of the human kids. I was a big fan of those two, hopefully Yellowbelly will get a sequel where we can see more of them.

Is there any song cooler than David Bowie's "Golden Years"? Oh yeah, what is it?

Sure, here's one. This song gives me chills every time. Every time.

Is there any cooler book title than Calamity Jack? And do you think you deserve some of our writing royalties because you thought of that name? What percent? Would you settle for an ice cream sandwich?

How about a Big Ed's Super Saucer? Do they still make those? The big cookie sandwich. Oh yeah. It's that little touch of salt that makes those so good.

I remember everyone was running through titles and nothing really seemed like it belonged on the same shelf with "Rapunzel's Revenge." Nothing sounded quite as pulpy and action-packed. "Calamity" is a nice $5 word you don't get to hear very much. I'm a big fan of Calamity Jane. One of my favorite books is Larry McMurtry's Buffalo Girls which is about Calamity Jane's trip to the London World's Fair with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show--fantastic.

Who has been your favorite character to return to as you illustrate Calamity Jack?

Jack is great to draw--he draws himself really, he's got so much character. Boring answer, but my favorite person to draw in Jack is Jack.

How much recovery time are you going to need after illustrating Calamity Jack before you'd be willing to do a third graphic novel with us?

Oh we have to do a trilogy--nobody does just a book and a sequel. Gotta wrap it up in a box-set three-pack! I'll even give you the fairy tale to base book 3 on. Let's sa-a-a-ay Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Only the "bears" are giant, city protecting monsters and "Goldilocks" is a Napoleon style conqueror with a huge army. So Goldilocks rolls into a city and conquers it, then she's like, "This city's too warm." Then the monster's like, "Raaaaaaawr!" Repeat three times, it writes itself. You guys can fit Jack and Rapunzel in there somewhere, right? I have faith in you. Go!

That said, I'll need a little gap between books 2 and 3. I think book 3 should come out in 2013. That sounds so far away, like a year from a science fiction movie. 2013. Weird. I'll start the countdown now. Rapunzel 3, 2013.

Now I gotta get back to inking or Calamity Jack will come out in 2013. You can see updates of Calamity Jack, Yellowbelly, dinosaurs and more at my website.

Thank you, Nathan Hale (no relation)! Dean and I will get going on Goldilocks Bonaparte and the Three City-Protecting Monsters (in bookstores fall 2013!)