Author Interview: 20 Questions with Ariel S. Winter

By the1stdaughter On August 30, 2012 · Add Comment · In Author Interviews, Turkeybird's 20 Questions

The 20 Question Interview with our very own Turkeybird is our feature interview that happens with all of the book authors, illustrators and poets we love!

Today the Turkeybird is busy at school, because he just started kindergarten! Thanks to a few helpful books, an incredible new kindergarten teacher and hopefully the encouragement from all of us {crying secretly} at home he’s thriving in his new adventure! One of the books we shared to get ready for this adventure was One of a Kind by author Ariel S. Winter. Yesterday we shared our review of this fantastic picture book about individuality and fitting in, but today we’re excited to welcome Ariel S. Winter to our site via another grueling 20 Question Interview with the Turkeybird. We think it turned out great and hope everyone will enjoy it!
So, without further hesitation on our part, the Turkeybird’s 20 question interview with Ariel S. Winter…

1. Are you a twin?

No. But I know some twins. Some of my closest friends are twins. I love twins! Okay, I saw some twins once. But they were really cool twins. And they shared their M&M’s with me.

2. Do you have any brothers or sisters?

As I say in my bio, I really am an only child with four siblings. I’m the only child from my parents’ marriage. Then they both remarried and each had two children with my respective step-parents, girls for my dad, boys for my mom.

3. My mom said you like to write grown up books and kid books. Which do you like better?

It depends on who I’m talking to. Say I’m talking to a five-year-old boy. Just in theory. I’d probably say, kids’ books all the way. What could be better than kids’ books? But seriously, I love them both, and the actual process of writing isn’t that different. I don’t change my language or the way I create a story or the disciplined schedule necessary for writing when I write for children. I just change my tone and scope. But that can change between children’s books or between adult books too. So it’s just a matter of what idea strikes me and which I pursue.

4. Why?

Why do I have a bad feeling about this question? Perhaps it’s all too familiar. I really can’t explain why the sky is blue. I know it has something to do with refraction and prisms. I don’t know. That’s why we have the internet.

Whew. Now that I’ve headed that one off, let me attack the intent of the question a little more. The thing that is interesting about children’s books is that they both take less time and more time than adult novels. The actual composition when I’m writing a picture book can be one sitting with rewrites and tinkering over only a week (at first). And I love that, because the sense of accomplishment comes before the utter dread and self-doubt you get writing a novel. But, because the artist then needs to create the art, the finished book could take two years to come out, which is a really, really long time. So in some respects picture books are a lot more fun than adult novels, but the process is a lot more frustrating since so much of it is on other people’s hands.

5. Colored Pencils or Markers?

Markers. There’s a we-don’t-mess-around-and-we’re-here-to-stayness about markers.

6. Why?

I knew it! “Why” is back with a vengeance. I really don’t know how water comes out of the faucet when we turn it on. I vaguely know there’s a reservoir somewhere and pipes under the street and water pressure. I do know that the hot water faucet’s on the left and the cold water faucet’s on the right. In America at least.

7. What’s your favorite color?

My four year old daughter’s favorite color is pink, purple, and rainbow. You try to explain to her that favorite implies only one color. She’s got three and one of them’s all the colors, so there. Myself, I like color combos. Green and yellow’s nice. Especially when they’re on Battlecat (who’s sitting on my desk as I write this). I’d like to figure out how to safely color my own cat green and yellow.

8. If you were five what would you read next?

Ah. I was a children’s bookseller for a while, and I’d always start by asking if it was a book the five-year-old was going to read himself or be read to, since those are two different things. If it’s read himself, I’m currently in love with the book The Boy Who Cried Ninja by Alex Latimer, who reminds me a lot of the brilliant Oliver Jeffers. It’s got ninja in the title, so I don’t really need to tell you more. If it’s a book to be read to said five-year-old, The Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth. It’s about a boy whose hen lays an enormous egg, and a triceratops hatches from it! One of my favorites as a child.

9. Why?

I’m prepared for you this time “why.” Because I said so. Ha! There. Beat that.

10. Left or right? (I’d go with left.)

Does left take me North or South?

11. Do you have a favorite treat? (Mine is chocolate ice cream!)

What used to be called a Chipwich, but is now referred to as a cookie ice cream sandwich. I long for one of those “Original Chipwich’s.” But I love Cold Stone’s version (which is probably better than the original, in reality). Tollhouse does a good job with Mrs. Field’s and Good Humor bringing up the rear. One time, in Oxford, Mississippi, I had a chipwich that was advertised as “big as your head.” Someday, I’ll make it back to Oxford. Someday.

12. You like really super old kids’ books. Wow! Which one is your very most favorite ever?

The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegard Swift and Lynd Ward. I grew up in northern New Jersey, so the little red lighthouse and the great gray bridge were things I actually saw in reality, which blew me away. I like the message that little things are as important as big things. I like the rhythm, the tone, and of course, Lynd Ward’s illustrations. Ward’s the man.

13. I’m starting school in just a few sleeps. What is your favoritest thing about school?

The school library. All of my elementary school memories are of going to the school library, getting read to, and getting to pick out my own books to take home and read. That’s the best.

14. Do you have tips for me about school?

Be a leader, not a follower. And eat your lunch at lunch time. You’re not going to be home for a while, and there’s no snacking in class.

15. Should I try and make photocopies of me? It didn’t work for Lysander in the book, but he’s not a real boy like me so I think it might for me.

Don’t try it on your parent’s at home all-in-one printer/fax/copier. But I say go for it at the library or Staples. You’ll want help though, someone to hold the part of you that’s hanging off the copier, since you’ll only be able to copy a part of your body at a time.

16. Swings or Slides?

Swings. They last longer.

17. Why?

No. You win. I give up. I don’t know. That’s what you wanted me to admit. I just don’t know anything. Why? Why? Why? (crying jag) I don’t know.

18. What’s the best thing you’ve ever won?

I won a Nintendo Wii for writing a short story about superheroes. ‘Nuff said.

19. What are you writing right now?

I’ve been bogged down with publicity for my books, so most of my writing right now is answering questions like these. When I do get back to some more serious writing, I’m re-writing an adult novel that I wrote a few years ago about a family coming together for a good event at a hard time.

20. Do you have any more fun kids’ books coming out?

I wish I could say, yes, but as of right now, we’re shopping scripts around. I have one that I think is hysterical about a little girl sneaking out of the bath and then sliding out of the house on soap suds and all around town. And I just wrote a rough draft of a book about a kid going to a people-sized maze with her grandparents. Hopefully, they’ll become a reality soon.

The Turkeybird Speaks: Ariel, you are so so so so smart! All of your answers were my favorites! I’m already trying to get my mom and dad to buy me one of those Chipwich things to go with the ninja book. That sounds like a really super fun after school treat to me!

If you ever have your book about the girl slipping around town after her bath made into a book I really want to read it! That sounds like so much fun! Like going on a slip and slide with soap all over everywhere. Wow!

Sorry about making you cry, I like to ask why a lot because I want to know everything. And thank you super a lot for answering my questions and for your really fun book!

This book was purchased for our home library.
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