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Good morning, Terry. How are you doing today?
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Hi, I'm good.
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How are you fantastic? Looking forward to sharing a conversation
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with you, because I mean, you really do bring out
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that art of creativity, because I mean you did everything
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in the book. I mean, from illustrating it to writing
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the storyline. I love it when people allow their creativity
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to reach other people.
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Oh, thank you. I appreciate that.
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This is the ninth book in this series.
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Oh my god, I know, right.
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Does it start off as a doodle and then all
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of a sudden you know you've got a story. How
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is it that you're able to be able to pull
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all this together?
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Oh? Wow? Yeah. Actually, because I'm on pretty tight deadlines,
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usually one book comes out per year, I have to
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have a lot of structures, so I pretty much have
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the story down path before I start illustrating it, although
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I'll indicate where the art's going to go and what
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it's going to be like as I write, just because
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it is so into graded into the story, I was.
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Going to ask you what came first, the pictures or
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the words? And now now that I know that, it's
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the storyline that comes first. But isn't that a shift
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in personality? To suddenly become the illustrator.
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I guess in retrospect, yes, but at the same time,
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I've evolved a lot in my creativity. It's as far
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as well, I should say, in my creative path, because
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even though I trained in illustration, I'm so much of
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a cartoonist. I used to write a syndicated comic strip
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for a long time, and so both the writing and
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the art are so ingrained in me, and both are
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so integral to this process. So it's more of like
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a marriage of writing and artwork. They both kind of
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go hand in hand.
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For me, I could totally tell that you were a
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cartoonists because these characters are something that I would see
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in the Sunday morning paper or I would love to
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see them on like Nicket Night or something in action.
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Thanks.
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I'm a big fan of graphic novels only because that's
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how my grandson learned how to read, and to this
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day he picks up a writing instrument and he will
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sit there and draw his own characters. You are changing
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people's lives on this side of the pages. Thank you.
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I love to hear that. Yeah, I always say, man,
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if graphic novels like these not just mine, but all
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these wonderful kids graphic novels that they existed back when
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I was a kid, I would have never left my room.
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I would have read everything.
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You're so right. You're right about that, because I mean,
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it's like it's at one place where I can go,
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where where A I can feel secure, and B I
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can get a storyline inside my imagination.
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Yeah, and I think it's wonderful, especially for reluctant readers
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or maybe readers who are just more visually inclined. It's
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such I mean, they're great books in and of themselves,
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but they're also such great gateways to other types of
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reading too. And that's kind of how I started. Even
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though we didn't we didn't have these typtographic novels. I
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grew up on a diet of comics, so I read.
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I read the funnies, I read comic magazines and books
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things like that, and that opened up my whole world.
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I would love to see your adult numbers, because with
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a book like this, I mean, my god, I mean
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I would love to see the adults that are picking
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this book up and they're reading it too. Because it's
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like an old song. We go back to those old songs.
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To pick up on memories of our childhood.
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Oh yeah, I hope so well. I hope like parents
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or grandparents read them with their kids and grandkids, et cetera,
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because I think I think it's fun for everybody, and
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there's so much humor in these books, just that I
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think grown ups can appreciate just as much as kids.
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You talk about that humor. Joe's jokes aren't always a
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home run. I mean, you're not afraid to say that,
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you know that, you know you not. This is not
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your day today, Joe. But I'm gonna put this joke
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up here anyway.
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Well, that is Joe. He's definitely more of a prankster.
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His jokes still, you know, they're working progress.
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Hey. Coming up next, we're going to go even deeper
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with author Terry Libinson. Hey, thanks for coming back to
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my conversation with author Terry Libinson. The name of the
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book entirely Immy. I love the fact that you've mixed
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Joe with Emmy in the way that Emmy is very shy,
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and you know, and I always think of a shy
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person as being a very creative person because they're inside
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always thinking about something. And then you've got Joe, who
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is the class clown, who doesn't who can't keep it inside.
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Yeah. Yeah, it's an odd pairing for sure. That's that's
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and that's really the whole you know, heart and soul
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of this book too, that I wanted to thrust these
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two opposites together. Actually Night my editor at the time,
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she was the one who came up with this pairing,
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and I thought, I thought.
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It was great, but just you know, to see where
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it would go, because yeah, because it's such an unlikely pairing,
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and they're put together almost accidentally, because it takes place
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at during this three day camping trip.
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It's a class trip and everybody has to be paired
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off together for activities, and Joe and Emmy find themselves
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kind of buy themselves like they were supposed to have
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their other friends, but I want they what happen, and
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they find themselves alone in the end, and so they
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are partnered up by the teachers and they're not very
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happy about it. But surprising things kind of happen, some
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good some dads and just you know, and just some
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fun campgrounding things.
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But see, what's great here is that is that you're
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showcasing something for a lot of readers that go out
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and find somebody who is the opposite of you and
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build that friendship. You don't have to have somebody who
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agrees with you all the time, you don't have to
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have somebody who's always going to make you feel good.
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Just go out there and find your friend. They're all
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out there.
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Yeah, I think that's some And I wanted to One
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of the one of the reasons I read this story
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was I wanted to see what happened if Yeah, it's
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two different kinds of kids who who didn't become friends
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like more organically. I guess you could say, like so many,
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so many friendships happened through shared interests or or or
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the like, And I wanted to do what happened if
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too kind of opposite spared ups and uh, if there
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would be you know, like an explosion of things. And
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actually what happens is these these two kind of learn
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to like trust each other and to trust themselves, and
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they kind of learned about opening up the lines of
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communication not just among themselves but with their other friends
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as well.
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I too, am an author. I know how stories come
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to me and how I have to answer that call.
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What when did you know that this was going to
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be the next story. Where were you at the mall?
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Were you at the park? Where were you at.
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Oh? I gosh, I was probably at my desk. Yeah.
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Well for this story, I'm trying to remember, I'm already
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I'm I've already moved on to the next one. So
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it's kind of hard for me to to think back.
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But I know, I know, I wanted to use Joe.
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This is more character centered because so many kids wrote
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to me and clamored for Joe to be a main character.
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And I could not resist Joe. He was definitely a
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challenge righter. But but I wanted I wanted the books
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to focus partly on him. And I think my editor
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at the time asked if I would want to circle
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back to any and and I you know, and I thought, wow, okay,
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that's going to be pretty combustible, so let's do it.
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So really, I think the story, I think we're kind
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of brainstorming and thought about taking taking the setting outside
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the box and take can get to different sites so
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that this time I didn't have to draw lockers. I
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could draw trees and havens things like that. That was
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pretty refreshing, just you know, just to make it a
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little different and so yeah, so then we're just like
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sort of brainstorming different activities they can do, and then
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the general storyline.
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How do you keep it so simple because there are
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some graphics in here that it's just one thing on
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the page. I mean, you're giving me as the reader,
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You're giving me the opportunity to breathe, to digest it,
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to sit there and just kind of just take things
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and instead of you know, like like like so many
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different graphic novels as well as comic books are so overcrowded,
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but you choose not to be.
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Wow. I think you're the first person who's mentioned that.
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I appreciate that. I don't know. I think part of
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it is just instinctual with my training as a cartoonist.
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I know, I you know, I kind of I feel
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like I know my pacing pretty well, although know that
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changes too the story goes through edits and sometimes you know,
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I'll have to throw on an extra panel or condensed
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or something like that. I just kind of rely on
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my instinct to that. But I did want I definitely
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wanted to keep it a little simpler, partly because I'm
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on a deadline and I can't make it so detailed
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because I'm writing and illustrating the whole thing. It goes
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through edits and it's a yearly thing, so so I
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can't like make it overly complicated or I just won't
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get it finished it by But the other part is
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that's kind of the way I like to work anyway.
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And I think it's great for kids too. I think
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it's just you know, it keeps their eye moving and
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keeps the story flowing. So you know, a lot of
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different components there.
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Is that your way of saying that the perfectionist has
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no room in your workspace.
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Well, I am a perfection so this is just another
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way of going about it.
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I think, Well, no, I totally get that, because I
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mean I have daily writing disciplines. I mean if I
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don't follow my disciplines, then I get lost and then
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I start overcrowding everything I'm doing as a writer or
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a thinker. So I mean I totally get where you are.
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Yeah, yeah, that's so interesting. I'm curious about the way
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you were too that. Yeah, I definitely do that. Get
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myself little goals, give myself guardrails and guidelines. Yeah, I
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think that helps.
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Well, I do a thing called a defragging. In other words,
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when I when I sit down and I create something,
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I go in there and I start asking the questions
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and questioning the answers. I want to know how it
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came into being, how can I make it better? And
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then and I've got to answer those questions so that
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it makes things even better.
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Oh that's a great idea. I actually just wrote that down.
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Well, where can people go to find out more about
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you and your adventures because you're just so exciting.
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Those things.
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Well you can.
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You can find entirely emmy at your local bookstore or
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online retailer. It should be pretty much everywhere, I hope,
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and you can find me online. I've got a website
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Terry Leibnson dot com. Or I'm also on Facebook and
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Instagram and blue Sky that's at my name Terry Levinson,
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so pretty easy to find.
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I love it. Please come back to the show anytime
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in the future, Terry. The door is always going to
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be open for you.
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Oh. I really appreciate that. Thank you.
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Will you be brilliant today?
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Okay, thanks you as well.
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And if you see Ammy or Joe later on today,
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let him know I was thinking about him.
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I will do
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Good morning, Terry. How are you doing today?
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Hi, I'm good.
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How are you fantastic? Looking forward to sharing a conversation
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with you, because I mean, you really do bring out
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that art of creativity, because I mean you did everything
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in the book. I mean, from illustrating it to writing
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the storyline. I love it when people allow their creativity
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to reach other people.
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Oh, thank you. I appreciate that.
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This is the ninth book in this series.
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Oh my god, I know, right.
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Does it start off as a doodle and then all
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of a sudden you know you've got a story. How
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is it that you're able to be able to pull
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all this together?
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Oh? Wow? Yeah. Actually, because I'm on pretty tight deadlines,
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usually one book comes out per year, I have to
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have a lot of structures, so I pretty much have
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the story down path before I start illustrating it, although
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I'll indicate where the art's going to go and what
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it's going to be like as I write, just because
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it is so into graded into the story, I was.
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Going to ask you what came first, the pictures or
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the words? And now now that I know that, it's
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the storyline that comes first. But isn't that a shift
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in personality? To suddenly become the illustrator.
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I guess in retrospect, yes, but at the same time,
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I've evolved a lot in my creativity. It's as far
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as well, I should say, in my creative path, because
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even though I trained in illustration, I'm so much of
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a cartoonist. I used to write a syndicated comic strip
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for a long time, and so both the writing and
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the art are so ingrained in me, and both are
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so integral to this process. So it's more of like
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a marriage of writing and artwork. They both kind of
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go hand in hand.
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For me, I could totally tell that you were a
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cartoonists because these characters are something that I would see
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in the Sunday morning paper or I would love to
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see them on like Nicket Night or something in action.
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Thanks.
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I'm a big fan of graphic novels only because that's
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how my grandson learned how to read, and to this
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day he picks up a writing instrument and he will
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sit there and draw his own characters. You are changing
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people's lives on this side of the pages. Thank you.
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I love to hear that. Yeah, I always say, man,
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if graphic novels like these not just mine, but all
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these wonderful kids graphic novels that they existed back when
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I was a kid, I would have never left my room.
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I would have read everything.
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You're so right. You're right about that, because I mean,
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it's like it's at one place where I can go,
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where where A I can feel secure, and B I
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can get a storyline inside my imagination.
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Yeah, and I think it's wonderful, especially for reluctant readers
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or maybe readers who are just more visually inclined. It's
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such I mean, they're great books in and of themselves,
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but they're also such great gateways to other types of
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reading too. And that's kind of how I started. Even
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though we didn't we didn't have these typtographic novels. I
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grew up on a diet of comics, so I read.
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I read the funnies, I read comic magazines and books
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things like that, and that opened up my whole world.
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I would love to see your adult numbers, because with
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a book like this, I mean, my god, I mean
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I would love to see the adults that are picking
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this book up and they're reading it too. Because it's
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like an old song. We go back to those old songs.
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To pick up on memories of our childhood.
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Oh yeah, I hope so well. I hope like parents
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or grandparents read them with their kids and grandkids, et cetera,
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because I think I think it's fun for everybody, and
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there's so much humor in these books, just that I
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think grown ups can appreciate just as much as kids.
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You talk about that humor. Joe's jokes aren't always a
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home run. I mean, you're not afraid to say that,
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you know that, you know you not. This is not
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your day today, Joe. But I'm gonna put this joke
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up here anyway.
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Well, that is Joe. He's definitely more of a prankster.
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His jokes still, you know, they're working progress.
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Hey. Coming up next, we're going to go even deeper
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with author Terry Libinson. Hey, thanks for coming back to
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my conversation with author Terry Libinson. The name of the
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book entirely Immy. I love the fact that you've mixed
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Joe with Emmy in the way that Emmy is very shy,
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and you know, and I always think of a shy
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person as being a very creative person because they're inside
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always thinking about something. And then you've got Joe, who
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is the class clown, who doesn't who can't keep it inside.
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Yeah. Yeah, it's an odd pairing for sure. That's that's
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and that's really the whole you know, heart and soul
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of this book too, that I wanted to thrust these
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two opposites together. Actually Night my editor at the time,
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she was the one who came up with this pairing,
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and I thought, I thought.
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It was great, but just you know, to see where
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it would go, because yeah, because it's such an unlikely pairing,
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and they're put together almost accidentally, because it takes place
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at during this three day camping trip.
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It's a class trip and everybody has to be paired
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off together for activities, and Joe and Emmy find themselves
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kind of buy themselves like they were supposed to have
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their other friends, but I want they what happen, and
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they find themselves alone in the end, and so they
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are partnered up by the teachers and they're not very
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happy about it. But surprising things kind of happen, some
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good some dads and just you know, and just some
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fun campgrounding things.
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But see, what's great here is that is that you're
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showcasing something for a lot of readers that go out
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and find somebody who is the opposite of you and
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build that friendship. You don't have to have somebody who
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agrees with you all the time, you don't have to
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have somebody who's always going to make you feel good.
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Just go out there and find your friend. They're all
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out there.
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Yeah, I think that's some And I wanted to One
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of the one of the reasons I read this story
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was I wanted to see what happened if Yeah, it's
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two different kinds of kids who who didn't become friends
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like more organically. I guess you could say, like so many,
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so many friendships happened through shared interests or or or
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the like, And I wanted to do what happened if
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too kind of opposite spared ups and uh, if there
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would be you know, like an explosion of things. And
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actually what happens is these these two kind of learn
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to like trust each other and to trust themselves, and
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they kind of learned about opening up the lines of
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communication not just among themselves but with their other friends
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as well.
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I too, am an author. I know how stories come
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to me and how I have to answer that call.
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What when did you know that this was going to
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be the next story. Where were you at the mall?
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Were you at the park? Where were you at.
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Oh? I gosh, I was probably at my desk. Yeah.
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Well for this story, I'm trying to remember, I'm already
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I'm I've already moved on to the next one. So
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it's kind of hard for me to to think back.
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But I know, I know, I wanted to use Joe.
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This is more character centered because so many kids wrote
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to me and clamored for Joe to be a main character.
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And I could not resist Joe. He was definitely a
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challenge righter. But but I wanted I wanted the books
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to focus partly on him. And I think my editor
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at the time asked if I would want to circle
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back to any and and I you know, and I thought, wow, okay,
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that's going to be pretty combustible, so let's do it.
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So really, I think the story, I think we're kind
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of brainstorming and thought about taking taking the setting outside
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the box and take can get to different sites so
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that this time I didn't have to draw lockers. I
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could draw trees and havens things like that. That was
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pretty refreshing, just you know, just to make it a
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little different and so yeah, so then we're just like
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sort of brainstorming different activities they can do, and then
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the general storyline.
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How do you keep it so simple because there are
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some graphics in here that it's just one thing on
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the page. I mean, you're giving me as the reader,
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You're giving me the opportunity to breathe, to digest it,
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to sit there and just kind of just take things
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and instead of you know, like like like so many
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different graphic novels as well as comic books are so overcrowded,
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but you choose not to be.
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Wow. I think you're the first person who's mentioned that.
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I appreciate that. I don't know. I think part of
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it is just instinctual with my training as a cartoonist.
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I know, I you know, I kind of I feel
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like I know my pacing pretty well, although know that
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changes too the story goes through edits and sometimes you know,
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I'll have to throw on an extra panel or condensed
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or something like that. I just kind of rely on
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my instinct to that. But I did want I definitely
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wanted to keep it a little simpler, partly because I'm
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on a deadline and I can't make it so detailed
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because I'm writing and illustrating the whole thing. It goes
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through edits and it's a yearly thing, so so I
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can't like make it overly complicated or I just won't
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get it finished it by But the other part is
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that's kind of the way I like to work anyway.
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And I think it's great for kids too. I think
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it's just you know, it keeps their eye moving and
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keeps the story flowing. So you know, a lot of
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different components there.
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Is that your way of saying that the perfectionist has
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no room in your workspace.
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Well, I am a perfection so this is just another
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way of going about it.
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I think, Well, no, I totally get that, because I
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mean I have daily writing disciplines. I mean if I
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don't follow my disciplines, then I get lost and then
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I start overcrowding everything I'm doing as a writer or
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a thinker. So I mean I totally get where you are.
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Yeah, yeah, that's so interesting. I'm curious about the way
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you were too that. Yeah, I definitely do that. Get
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myself little goals, give myself guardrails and guidelines. Yeah, I
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think that helps.
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Well, I do a thing called a defragging. In other words,
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when I when I sit down and I create something,
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I go in there and I start asking the questions
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and questioning the answers. I want to know how it
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came into being, how can I make it better? And
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then and I've got to answer those questions so that
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it makes things even better.
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Oh that's a great idea. I actually just wrote that down.
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Well, where can people go to find out more about
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you and your adventures because you're just so exciting.
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Those things.
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Well you can.
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You can find entirely emmy at your local bookstore or
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online retailer. It should be pretty much everywhere, I hope,
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and you can find me online. I've got a website
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Terry Leibnson dot com. Or I'm also on Facebook and
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Instagram and blue Sky that's at my name Terry Levinson,
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so pretty easy to find.
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I love it. Please come back to the show anytime
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in the future, Terry. The door is always going to
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be open for you.
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Oh. I really appreciate that. Thank you.
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Will you be brilliant today?
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Okay, thanks you as well.
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And if you see Ammy or Joe later on today,
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let him know I was thinking about him.
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I will do
