I originally wrote Emmie entirely as an illustrated novel-mostly text with small illustrations mixed in, no comics. How did you come up with this, and why does it work for you?
Your books have an unusual format: illustrated chapters alternating with comics that are done in a different style. It’s that particular blend of cringe, empathy, and humor that I love navigating around. I just try and do it delicately with the addition of humor for some levity. I lived those moments and apparently, I have no shame. How do you approach writing those awkward scenes?įirsthand experience. It can be painful to read about cringy preadolescents. There’s an anxiety factor that I wanted to explore. She’s endearingly quirky and I love how her personality emerged along with Mia’s, who is quite opposite but also a fun character-very organized and type A, like myself.īy the way, it’s explained in Remarkably Ruby why Ruby’s always running to the bathroom-aside from her meal choices, of course. That’s how I knew she deserved her own story. In the last few years, I’ve had many requests for Ruby, aka Baked Bean Girl. I love seeing whose stories they’re most interested in, and they’re often on par with my own ideas. Young readers often send me suggestions for main characters, as well as titles. At what point did it occur to you to tell her story? When Ruby first popped up in the books, we didn’t know her name, but she quickly became familiar as a running gag. It keeps the writing process fresh, interesting, and challenging. Not so much story-wise, but I knew that if it became a series, I’d want to keep rotating or introducing new protagonists. I didn’t want to get my hopes up! But after the success of Emmie and Izzy, I had more of a vision. When you wrote and drew Invisible Emmie, were you already thinking of a series?Īt the time, I wasn’t really thinking farther ahead than Emmie. That-and recalling childhood friends’ personalities-helps create the voices of these characters. I don’t recall the day-to-day details from that time, but I remember my feelings as a shy, artistic kid. But instead of writing from my adult viewpoint like I did with the strip, I write from the viewpoint of my inner 12-year-old. I approach the kids’ books similarly to the comic strip-that is, autobiographically. How did you make the shift from the parental point of view, in The Pajama Diaries, to the child’s, in Invisible Emmie?
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