Matt Phelan Interview

Oh, this is neat. Anyone heard of A Thousand Times No before? It's a kind of podcast site that discusses a single topic; what happens when somebody receives a great big NO? Their February 4th production interview is with Matt Phelan.

Just this past Saturday I attended Book Fest at the Arts & Humanities Library (the one with the lions) here in NYC. And who should be seated behind me but none other than Mr. Phelan himself. Such a nice guy. Had I but known that the illustrator of the most recent Newbery winner was going to attend, I would have brought my copy for his signature. Ah well. Another year. In any case, we had a great bunch o' conversations. Amusingly enough we ended up at one point talking about Shaun Tan's work on The Rabbits... and then M.T. Anderson spoke not long thereafter and also mentioned The Rabbits... and then I went home and reviewed Tan's The Arrival. I love meaningless coincidence.

The Thousand Times No piece talks about how Matt wanted initially out of college to be a screenwriter. I love stories of how people came to their eventual calling in life. SCBWI fans will appreciate his repeated mentions of the organization. The interviewer also is good enough to have Matt walk listeners through the process one goes through when illustrating a children's book. And at one point Matt laments that there aren't enough kidlit cocktail parties out there. So maybe I'm filling a void here. Hrm....

Anywho, it's well worth checking out. Long long long, but worth it.

Thanks to Children's Illustration for the link.