Episode #66: If you could be anything else other than an author, what would it be? -With Sarah Jean Horwitz
Welcome! On today’s episode, authors Grace Lin and Sarah Jean Horwitz answer this great kid question: If you could be anything else other than an author, what would it be?
TRANSCRIPTS:
Grace Lin: Hello, I'm Grace Lin, children's book author and illustrator of many books, including the middle-grade novel, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and the picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star. Today, I am here with Sarah Jean Horwitz, the author of the Dark Lord Clementine and the Carmer and Grit series.
Sarah Jean Horwitz: Hello.
Grace Lin: All right. Are you ready for today's question?
Sarah Jean Horwitz: I'm so excited.
Grace Lin: Okay. Today's question is from a young girl named Bridget, and she asks: If you could be anything else other than an author, what would it be?
Sarah Jean Horwitz: If I could be anything else other than an author, I actually think that I would like to be an actress.
Grace Lin: Really?
Sarah Jean Horwitz: Yes. I was a big theater nerd as a kid, and I was always doing musical theater and plays, and I loved being on stage and performing and sort of that rush and being in front of an audience. But I think what I liked most of all is being part of storytelling and being part of a story and being part of delivering the message of the story. And that's something, obviously, that it goes in common with being an author. It's just something I really loved about it. And so to be involved in storytelling in any capacity is probably what I would still be doing if I were not an author.
Grace Lin: That's a good answer. So it would be theater. Would you want to be a movie actress or more of a theater actress, you were saying?
Sarah Jean Horwitz: Probably more of a theater actress. I do like sort of the rush of a live audience. I think that's really invigorating. And also there's a chance to be a little bit more experimental and there's a chance for people who don't necessarily look like movie stars to be on stage. So I think that would be fun. Plus I don't know where to put my feet. When you're on a movie set, you have to hit a specific mark and stuff. I'd just always be looking down at my feet and tripping over my own two feet.
Grace Lin: Well, I get asked this question a lot, too, and I always think that if I was going to be something other than an author, I would want to be a cake decorator.
Sarah Jean Horwitz: A cake decorator?
Grace Lin: Yes.
Sarah Jean Horwitz: Why do you want to be a cake decorator?
Grace Lin: Because I just think that-
Sarah Jean Horwitz: Can I have your cake?
Grace Lin: I just think it would be so much fun to decorate cakes. I just see, I used to watch the ... I can't remember what TV show. I used to watch on TV, where they would have these people who would decorate these beautiful elaborate cakes with flowers and birds. And I'd be like, "Wow." And just the idea of being able to do something like that. I think it really appeals to my illustrator side. Because I think-
Sarah Jean Horwitz: Oh yeah, that makes sense.
Grace Lin: The illustrator side of me just likes to like create something really beautiful, and the idea of creating something really beautiful that you can eat.
Sarah Jean Horwitz: But it would be so beautiful that people wouldn't want to eat it. If it's anything like the illustrations in your books, they'd be like, "Nah, sorry, I can't. Too gorge."
Grace Lin: No, I think you could talk them into it.
Sarah Jean Horwitz: Sounds delicious.
Grace Lin: So thanks so much for your great question, Bridget. It was really, really good. I hope that it inspired you for some job opportunities if you decide not to be a writer yourself.
Sarah Jean Horwitz: Thank you, Bridget. And thank you, Grace.
Grace Lin: Thanks.
Today’s BOOK REVIEW comes from Iris! Iris is reviewing “A Whale of the Wild” by Rosanne Parry and illustrated by Lindsay Moore.
The book I would like to talk about it is, A Whale of the Wild, by Rosanne Parry. This book is about two orcas, named Deneb and Vega. When a tragedy strikes, they are separated from their pod. Then they try to find their way home. I like this book because the story is very exciting and told from the first person view of two orcas. I loved the water color art throughout this chapter book.
Thank you so much for your wonderful book review Iris!
More about today’s authors:
Sarah Jean Horwitz was raised in suburban New Jersey, where she lived next door to a cemetery and down the street from an abandoned fairy tale theme park. Her love of storytelling grew from listening to her mother’s original “fractured” fairy tales, a childhood spent in community theater, and far too many rereads of Harry Potter and Anne of Green Gables. Sarah was a film production student at Emerson College. She graduated with a B.A. in Visual & Media Arts and a concentration in writing for film and television in 2012.
Naturally, the first project she decided to write after graduating film school was a book. A few years, a handful of continental U.S. states, and many odd jobs later, that book became THE WINGSNATCHERS, the first book in the Carmer and Grit series. THE WINGSNATCHERS was a Kids Indie Next List pick and a Junior Library Guild Selection. The second book in the series, THE CROOKED CASTLE, was released in April 2018. Sarah's most recent novel is the standalone middle grade fantasy THE DARK LORD CLEMENTINE, which was an Amazon.com September 2019 Best Book of the Month and received favorable reviews from the New York Times Book Review, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and more.
Sarah currently works as an administrative assistant and lives with her spouse near Cambridge, MA.
Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and her picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio , a video essayist for PBS NewsHour (here & here), and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf. She is the co-host of the podcast Book Friends Forever, a kidlit podcast about friendship and publishing (geared for adults). Find her facebook, instagram , twitter ( @pacylin) or sign up for her author newsletter HERE.
Special thanks to the High Five Books & Art Always Bookstore, Ms. Carleton’s 2nd grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews.
