Shutta Crum

1. Let’s start out with something kids often wonder. How old were you when you first started seriously writing?

I was a grownup with a child of my own. (Now I have two very large sons!) I enjoyed writing as a child, and always received praise from my teachers, but somehow ended up a graphic artist for years before trying writing again.

2. How many rejections did you get before you got your first acceptance?

Oh dear, I’m not sure I can count. About a dozen per book for… maybe 3 or 4 books. The funny thing is, when I finally sold a book, I found a rejection letter for the book from the publisher who eventually bought it. The rejection was for a query, not the full manuscript. The sale came about because an editor read my story at a conference. It’s a good thing I’m not very organized. If I had remembered her company had already rejected it, I would never have submitted it for review at the conference!

3. How do you make up names for your characters?

Some of them are borrowed names, like naming a cat-owning family after a friend of mine who fosters stray kittens. And some are variations on names I’ve heard. Just today I noticed the name of the salesman written on a box of vacuum cleaner bags I had bought. "Burlie Napier." Isn’t that a great name? I think I’ll have to use some variation of that name in a story.

4. When you write do you like quiet, music, or lots of activity around you?

I like to listen to "new age" instrumental music if I’m doing art, but I like silence when I’m writing. I especially love sitting out in my front yard, under the pecan and magnolia trees when I’m writing. When my neighbor starts playing his radio loudly, it makes me very grumpy!

5. What age child do you have in your head? Is there more than one child there?

I’d say — about 7 or 8. That’s also my favorite age to teach/interact with.

6. Do you wake up in the middle of the night with fantastic ideas for books? Or are ideas hard to come by for you?

I’ve had a couple of ideas come to me in dreams. In one dream, I even remember writing down the idea — in the dream! — because even in the dream it seemed like a great idea. More often, I think of things early in the morning, when I first wake up. If possible, I try to lie there for a while, in a dreamy state, and think about my projects. The idea for "Wee Piggy" a book that’s coming out from Dutton next year, came to me that way, during an early morning rumination.

7. Are crocodiles good fathers?

Well, at least my Crocodaddy is. Haha!

8. Do you have any superstitions about writing?

Ooo, great question! I don’t think I’d call it superstition so much as… fear. (Sometimes.) When I’m working on longer works where I feel a little lost. It gives me very real anxiety; the same kind of anxiety I feel when I’m lost in an airport, say.

9. Who would you rather have a date with (given you weren’t married/attached), Strider from THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Dr. Watson, Wolverine, Susan Boyle, or Homer Simpson?

Oh that’s easy — Wolverine — but without his make-up and dressed as Hugh Jackman, instead. I have great admiration for actors who are also talented Broadway performers. I’m not at all drawn to brooding bad boys like Wolverine. I have a weakness for brainy Jewish actors, but I didn’t see one of those on your list.

10. If you woke up in the morning and found a bottle of champagne, a top hat, and a dozen Twinkies in your refrigerator, what would you think?

That Hugh Jackman had finally showed up for our date!!

11. Have you ever been abducted by aliens? Did they tell you the titles of any of their favorite books? Were they wearing T-shirts?

I was once abducted by a trio of Big Band saxophonists with bad come-overs. They WERE wearing T-shirts. How did you know?! But their bellies spilled over their cummerbunds rather unattractively.

12. Will you name a character in your next book after me?

I like that idea! How about Burley Crum? I love it!

13. Finally, let’s end up looking toward the future. What’s up next for you? Anything you want to tell us about?

Two books coming out next year, "the good Lord willin’ and the crick’ don’t rise"… I KNOW A WEE PIGGY WHO WALLOWED IN BROWN, from Dutton, illustrated by Henry Cole. And TEN ON THE SLED, from Sterling, illustrated by Liza Woodruff, whose first sketches I have already seen for the book, and they’re MARVELOUS!!

I have resolved to spend the summer back at work on a novel I’ve been dodging. (It’s that same lost-in-the-airport problem, but I’m trying to overcome it.) And I’d like to dabble in some art again. I was rearranging a room and found all these delicious art supplies I bought a while back, which I have hardly touched.

Enjoy Kim’s books!  And remember, there’s not much time left this summer to get under a tree and read. So just do it!

Ciao!

Shutta