An Author Visit

Recently my daughter joined a virtual event with Mac Barnett, an author of stories for children. The event had plenty of time for Q&A which I overheard. I love the idea of ELI5 and practice that since I have young kids, but often find it challenging doing so. His answers set an great example for me.

One kid asked: How do you publish your book? He explained: I write on computer, using some computer program; then send it by another computer program, to an illustrator in a different place, the illustrator uses another computer program, to draw pictures, then send it to yet another person in another place, who is the publisher, to design the book, by yet another computer program, then send it to print: but not print myself nor use family printer, in another country like China, Singapore.

One kid asked: Are you currently writing a book? He said yes, and that’s some team work with Shawn Harris: they worked together for quite a while but due to pandemic they can’t meet in person. So they are now doing “live cartoon” (he said “if you don’t know the term live cartoon that’s normal, because we invented it”). The live cartoon can be found at “the first cat in space dot com”. He also recommended his “Mac book club show” on Instagram.

One kid asked: How do you feel when you write a book? He said he loves it! But it’s really hard: he can get stuck, can struggle and feel embarrassed sometimes. It’s really hard too to revise the book he is writing. Other people may think “for him writing is easy” but he can say it’s hard for him, and he knows it’s true for so many writers.