Ask Eric

Cindy in Texas asks: Where do you get your ideas?

Eric answers: The world is full of ideas. They’re happening all around you. You don’t have to make anything up. The trick is learning to keep your eyes and ears open.

Selim in Salt Lake City asks: Is being a writer fun?

Eric answers: Yes. But it’s challenging because it doesn’t come easily. You have to work hard at it. It’s like learning how to ski or play tennis or—as I recently learned—how to scuba dive. There’s a lot of practice involved. You make mistakes, but you learn from them. What’s important is to stop worrying about what others think and focus on what you think. Is that the best you can do? Have you thought of some new ideas that work even better? That’s the time to start revising and re-writing. Anything worth doing takes time. If it were easy, anybody could do it—and what’s the fun of that?

Serena in Portland asks: How is writing a graphic novel different from writing a picture book?

Eric answers: With picture books I usually have little contact with the artist. My job is done when my editor and I agree that the story is finished. Then the artist goes to work. I may not have any communication with the artist at all. Frequently, I don’t even see the pictures until they are nearly finished.

It’s different with a graphic novel. Dov Smiley and I created Shield of the Maccabees in a series of conversations about we wanted the book to represent. We’d toss out ideas, discuss and refine them, solve problems together. In the later stages it was a three-way conversation between Dov, myself, our editor, and our art director. I enjoyed the creative communication. It made for a much better book than I could have created just by myself.

Carlos in Salem asks: Will you do any more books like The Runaway Tortilla? That’s my favorite.

Eric answers: I’d love to. The problem is I’m not Latino. I think editors today prefer to have the author be a member of the group being written about. That’s okay with me. I have plenty of other stories to tell.