Episode 7: What inspires you to keep making new books? with Jane Yolen
*Please note that these episodes were all all recorded pre-pandemic!
Welcome to Episode 7: What inspires you to keep making new books? Please join us with author Jane Yolen!
TRANSCRIPT:
Grace Lin:, I'm Grace Lin, children's book author and illustrator of many books including the middle grade novel When The Sea Turns To Silver and the picture book, A Big Mooncake For Little Star. Today, I'm here with Jane Yolen, the author of Owl Moon and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? Hi, Jane.
Jane Yolen: Hi, there.
Grace Lin: Okay. Are you ready for today's question?
Jane Yolen: I am absolutely ready.
Grace Lin: Okay. Today's question is from a girl named Josie. She asks ...
Josie: What inspires you to keep making new books?
Grace Lin: What inspires you to keep coming up with new books?
Jane Yolen: I think, first of all, I have a very low threshold of boredom, so if I'm bored I have to go looking for another story. But I've been doing this for over 60 years. And that means I have so many stories stuffed into my head that I haven't yet written, that I just sort of ... like it's going into a closet and picking up what dress I'm going to work on today or what dress I'm going to wear today. And it's that way. And if I stop having ideas, I go walk outside and I come back after an hour's walk with maybe five or six different new ideas.
Grace Lin: Wow.
Jane Yolen: But they're not always ideas that turn into books. Sometimes they turn into poems, sometimes into stories and sometimes they just fade away.
Grace Lin: Hmm. So how do you choose which ones you're going to write first?
Jane Yolen: It's a word that that doctors in war zones use called triage, and it means that you look at your wounded soldiers and say, "This one has a good chance. This one needs a lot of work, and this one is already dead on arrival." And it's just like that. So I go, this one looks like I have the most chance with it, and I start, and I start working on it. Sometimes I put it aside for a little while and go to the next one. But sometimes they surprise you. Sometimes the dead one comes back from the dead. So, it's every day a different choice. What am I going to work on today?
Grace Lin: It's kind of similar for me 'cause I feel like I have hundreds and hundreds of ideas too. Like I talk to many of my friends, some of them work very differently who say they don't have that many ideas, but I have hundreds of ideas. What inspires me to actually write those ideas that keep coming back to me and coming back to me and won't let me go, like come on, write me, write me, write me.
Jane Yolen: I used to tell kids all the time, an idea comes, or a character, or a plot, taps me on the shoulder and says "Me next," and that's the one I look at.
Grace Lin: Mm-hmm (affirmative) and that's what keeps me writing, too. So, thanks so much, Josie. Thanks so much, Jane, for your great answer.
Jane Yolen: Thank you.
Grace Lin: Wasn't that great? If you would like to learn more about today's author, please go to our website, kidsaskauthors.com for more information. Special thanks to the High Five books and Art Always Bookstore and Ms. Carlton's second grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews. Grownups, remember, if you know a kid that has a question, a book review, a short story, a poem, or even a joke they would like to share on this podcast, please submit it to kidsaskauthors.com. And if you would like to reach me, you can sign up for my authors newsletter by clicking on the little link icon at the top of the kidsaskauthors.com page or follow me on Twitter and Instagram, where I use the handle @pacylin. Also, if you enjoy this podcast, please spread the word. Tell your friends and colleagues to listen and of course please leave a review on iTunes. That really helps me know that you like what we're doing so we can keep doing it.
Grace Lin: And now we'll close this episode with a joke.
Today we have a joke presented by Lou and Tally!
“What did the left eye say to the right eye?”
“What?”
“Between us, something smells!”
More about today’s author:
Jane Yolen’s books and stories and poems have won the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, two Christopher Medals, three World Fantasy Awards, three Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, two Golden Kite Awards, the Jewish Book Award and the Massachusetts Center for the Book award. She has also won the World Fantasy Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Science Fiction Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, and the Science Fiction Poetry Associations Grand Master Award (the three together she calls the Trifecta). Plus she has won both the Association of Jewish Libraries Award and the Catholic Libraries Medal. Also the DuGrummond Medal and the Kerlan Award, and the Ann Izard story-telling award at least three times.
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.
Thanks to the High Five Books & Art Always Bookstore and Ms. Carleton’s 2nd grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews.
