Banana Peelin' with Kelly DiPucchio

 I'm in love. But you see, it's quite complicated. We are what you might say...star-crossed.  Here is a picture of me and my beau.

Okay, okay. I know what you're thinking. Isn't this that guy Mortimer? And isn't he with that one gal, Mildred?

Fine!  You caught me. Our love is NOT star-crossed, but unrequited. That's what I get for loving a zombie!

You can only imagine my delight when Mortimer's creator, the literary brains behind one of my favorite picture books, Zombie in Love, agreed to come on the blog to discuss one of her not-so-shining moments in her career as a children's author. Please welcome the talented Kelly DiPucchio!

Most good stories involve some form of humiliation, promiscuity, or self-loathing. My Banana Peelin’ story meets all three criteria. And now that I’ve used the word “promiscuity” you have no choice but to read on.

            Many years ago when I was newly published, I attended an industry party hosted by my agent.  The room was full of famous authors, artists, and prominent editors.  I was absolutely star-struck. I alternated between feeling like Cinderella at the ball and feeling like an imposter who was about to be asked to leave the premises at any moment.

            At one point during the evening, I found myself standing next to one of my new editors. I will call her The Dragon Lady because she scared me. She was confident, cool, and sophisticated. In other words, she was everything I was not back in 2003. I introduced myself to The Dragon Lady. She was polite, but unaffected. We made small talk about the party. The longer I was around her, the more nervous I became. She casually asked, “So what other projects are you working on?”  I knew she really didn’t care what my answer was, but I wanted to impress her. I wanted her to like me!  And that’s when I developed a violent case of verbal diarrhea. 

My performance was very much like the infamous scene in Bridesmaids, only the cringe-worthy explosions were coming out of my mouth.  Maybe it was the glass of wine. Maybe it was the fact that the room was hotter than a sweat lodge. Or just maybe it was 20 years of crippling insecurity and self-doubt purging its ugly self all over this icy woman who had already made up her mind she didn’t like me. Whatever the cause, I proceeded to tell her about every book deal I had with her publishing competitors. In hindsight, I realize now this is a bit like telling your boyfriend about all of the other cute guys you’re sleeping with. 

            When my full-disclosure filibuster finally came to an end, Dragon Lady quickly excused herself, and I was left standing there with a glass of wine and a bucket of self-loathing.  I’d like to tell you the humiliation stopped there, but like any great horror film, just when you think it’s over - it’s not.

            The next day, I attended Dragon Lady’s session at a conference. The room was packed with nearly 800 writers and illustrators. Once again, Dragon lady was confident, cool, and sophisticated. After extolling a few industry niceties, she proceeded to discuss the pitfalls and perils of publishing promiscuity. I began to blush, and sweat, and shrivel in my seat.

“There’s a real danger in new authors spreading themselves too thin!” she spat. At that point, I fully expected a large spot light to begin scanning the audience before finally landing on me. Groan. I just wanted to disappear.

            Surprise, surprise.  I never did sign another book deal with Dragon Lady. But I did learn a very valuable lesson from that experience. Two actually.

            The first: SHUT UP. The “less is more” golden rule that applies to picture books also applies to social sharing.  Remember that, people! It’s important.

            The second:  SO WHAT? We all make blunders, look foolish, and say the wrong thing at the wrong time. So what? Let’s not take ourselves so seriously. Forgive yourself. Laugh at yourself. And when you slip and fall on that banana peel, say “Thank you!” Those awkward moments usually provide the best material for your stories.

Banana Peelin' with Mira Reisberg

My beautiful post about Mira Reisberg was sucked into the Blogger black hole. What has worked before, did not work today. An unexplained mystery. Argh!  I sincerely apologize for the delay. =(

Friends, countrymen, lend me your ears...shhhh....we are SO incredibly lucky to have the Picture Book Whisperer, Dr. Mira Reisberg on the blog today. I love Mira and her passion for children's literature. I faithfully watch her blog series, Mondays With Mira: Pleasurable Picture Book Reviews each Monday morning. Monday mornings are now just as exciting and entertaining to me as an instant Netflix Friday Night Lights marathon!

Can I tell you that I will be participating in Mira's ecourse, Hero's Art Journey? Come join me! Writing and art go hand and hand. Both creative, both cathartic, healing even the deepest of paper cuts. In fact, if you are a banana peeler, Mira is offering half off her course! Lucky dogs! Please join me and become part of a creative community of learners!

Please help welcome the wonderful and wise, Dr. Mira Reisberg!

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Mira Reisberg’s Very Own Confessional Slip Ups

Hullo all,

Having been involved in the picture book field for a long time, I’ve managed to make quite a few slip-ups, perhaps more than my share and definitely humbling. And, being a long-time teacher, I am going to share 3 of them, despite the accompanying embarrassment that comes with admitting what some refer to as f*$%-ups, messes, boo-boos, or slips. I’ll just call them “growth experiences” for now.

My first growth experience occurred in 1988 when I was asked to illustrate my first book. Uncle Nacho’s Hat was a book about change and it came just as I was quitting a bunch of bad habits and undergoing many changes myself.

So here I was illustrating a picture book about change and going through a whole bunch of changes myself and by the time I got to one particular painting, I was totally pooped. I tell you these details as a bit of an excuse or as background as to why I messed up and created what I now call my “Painting of Shame.” You see, when I did my research on cows in Nicaragua, where the story is set, I found that they had Brahmins, which are somewhat strange looking animals. But my cows were way stranger than that. Mine were weird pink mutant pig/cows. And even though I knew I should re-do this painting, I was just so tired – so I said “screw it,” or something like that.

Well, of course, it’s now over twenty years later and when I look at that book and that painting, you can imagine what I think.

Fortunately, despite the weird mutant pig/cow thingies, the book received a citation for a UNICEF Ezra Jack Keats award, was featured on Reading Rainbow and read aloud by LeVar Burton (yay!) and reprinted in many languages around the world, selling well over 200,000 copies. And the really good news is that it’s being re-released by Lee and Low in July (yay again).

So lessons learned: Always revise, revise, revise! Whether it’s text or art, and if you get too tired, take a break and come back to it because it might be 20 plus years later and you still have to live with that embarrassing painting of shame.

Growth Experience #2

Years later, I was in graduate school studying for my MFA, working 5 jobs to pay for it and I was asked to illustrate a book for another publisher. Needing money, I said yes. Even though I liked the story, it didn’t thrill me the way my other books had and when the story switched hands to another editor and changed completely, I was less than gracious in my responses to lots of major changes in the art. Coming from an expressive culture of Eastern European Jews who even have an affectionate word for complaining, “kvetching,” I kvetched quite eloquently about my displeasure with the changes and was never hired by this publisher again.

Lesson learned: Always be super gracious with editors and art directors and just say yes to whatever they want. Save your complaining for your family unless you have real ethical or narrative concerns with the book you are working on.

Growth Experience #3

Even more years later, I’m invited to do some school visits as an illustrator/author and present at the local university. While there, I’m talked into moving there and doing a PhD. By then, I’ve done lots of school visits empowering thousands of kids and teachers with my Painting of Shame and stories about immigration, being weird, and how creative people often get their creative ideas by paying attention to what’s  around them. I’d also been teaching children’s book writing and illustrating at UC Berkeley Extension and SF City College and many of my students had been successfully published, so I decided, why not!

It was the hardest thing I ever did writing a 370 page dissertation on children’s picture books and learning about them on a whole other level. This was the good part. Then I got a job in the Midwest and that was the bad part. I hated the systems of surveillance, having to write using obtuse language and publish or perish, the meanness that went on in the institution, and the constant grading to rubrics that left little room for those who were wildly creative but unable to reach the benchmarks. I had no time for writing kids books or making art and I hated who I was becoming.

We’d left a fabulous rent controlled apartment in San Francisco and a fantastic community of friends and even tho we couldn’t afford to move back to SF, we did move back  to Northern California. All in all I took a seven year detour from doing what I truly love teaching for learning rather than the grade, and making art and picture books. I’d followed the illusion of potential financial security with a “real job” and buying a house and then lost it all after realizing that I was not an institutional type of person. During the 9 years that I was not actively in the field, my main publisher went out of business (and was recently sold to Lee and Low) and the industry has gotten much harder to get into to.

I still miss San Francisco and am working on some exciting picture books of my own. I also began independently teaching picture book courses in Sacramento and doing picture book consulting via Skype (ooh and I’ll be launching the Picture Book Academy in August ). But sometimes I feel like I messed-up leaving San Francisco and making that long detour into academia, following my head rather than my heart.

Lesson learned: Always follow your heart and if you have a passion for making children’s picture books - don’t give up on it no matter how enticing something else may look.

BIO

Mira Reisberg is the award-winning illustrator of six picture books and co-author of two award-winning anthologies of stories and art. Mira received her MFA from Mills College in Painting and Digital Art. She received her PhD in Education and Cultural Studies from Washington State University. Mira is also an editor, instructor/mentor and picture book consultant whose students’ award-winning books, including New York Times best sellers, have sold over a million copies. Mira has also exhibited nationwide and internationally.

She now teaches online courses including the Hero’s Art Journey, which explores the archetypal hero’s arc underlying most plot driven books and mythology. To find out more visit www.herosartjourney.com. And for Banana Peelin readers, Mira is extending the half-off special for the next course starting June 4th - simply email her at miraguy AT gmail.com. If you are in the Northern California area, Mira also has 2 spectacular upcoming picture book offerings also in June. To find out more and receive special gifts, join her newsletter tribe here http://eepurl.com/hJCmQ or email her directly.

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I love this woman! What else could you want from a teacher?! Hope to see you in Hero's Art Journey! Thanks so much Mira for your contribution to the series!