Last month
while scrolling through my newsfeed, I discovered that our member, Marcy Pusey,
had a new book out. How did I not know this?
Yay, Marcy!!! And…
…here it
is.
 |
| book cover Bath Time Magic by Marcy Pusey, illustr. Yaroslava Yoshchenko |
Making his second appearance since his
best-selling debut in According to Corban, the imaginative Corban is at
it again!
In Bath Time Magic, Corban must fool
his parents into believing he hates baths to keep them from learning his
secret: his tub is magical. Join him on a bath time adventure as his
magical tub plops him into shark-infested seas, raging rivers and waterfalls,
and favorite games with his ocean friends. But when the ocean swirls and twirls
a cyclone, will Corbin escape to make it back to his bathroom before mom shows
up?
A magical
tub? What a great concept for a book. Shark-infested seas? A cyclone!!! How
exciting. I needed to know more and interviewed Marcy. Here are her answers to
my questions.
Q: Yay, Corban is back! How did you get the
idea for a tub time book? Was this inspired by the REAL Corban?
A: Corban is back! I actually wrote these two books fairly close
together, but it took me a while to prioritize this one for publishing.
Suddenly, the time was right. Just like According to Corban, this follow-up
relies in part on my experiences as a mama and watching the actual Corban get
lost in his own world of play. As most parents experience, kids fight the bath
until they're in it. Then it's hard to get them out! One day it struck me--What
if all this fighting to get in is a trick! What if Corban knows something I
don't know about this tub and he's trying to keep me off the trail. Thus became
Bath Time Magic. I should add that Corban's mama loves baths so the reality of
mom hogging the tub is a legit concern.
Q: I got a kick out of this line in your
book: "But mooooooooooooooooooom! I don't need a bath. I'll get wrinkly.
I'm too young to be wrinkly." First
of all, that is such a typical statement for a kid. Plus, when I was a kid, I loved
baths but hated the way my fingertips got all wrinkly. How do you come up with
realistic dialogue? Corban? Observing
other kids?
A: You know, I think we all still have access to our kid-selves. Like
you said, this line immediately took you back to a very child-like memory of
hating to be wrinkly. It's in us to remember. So in some ways, when I write
good realistic dialogue, I'm both pulling from what I actually remember
thinking as a child, in addition to being a good observer of kids around me.
This line specifically was from my own childhood experience! I remember telling
my mom that I was too young to be wrinkly and crying real tears. I actually
thought I was aging. She laughed so hard. Her reaction is probably why the
memory has stuck with me.
Q: The illustrations are adorable. Only
after I look closely at the cover, did I notice that this book has a different
illustrator than According to Corban (book 1).
What was it like working with a new illustrator?
A: This is one of my favorite parts of working with illustrators, but
also one of the greatest challenges. Many of the illustrators I work with are
very good artists, but haven't been given a chance to work on a full book yet.
I've had illustrators from all around the world, some even in developing
countries, where the US dollar goes a lot further. I love investing in other
gifted humans and helping them live from their talent. The downside of that is
I eventually can't afford them! This is the case with Daniella from book one. I
believe According to Corban was her first book. I paid her less than $1000
(because that was my budget). Then I promoted the heck out of her once the book
was published: school visits, writers I coach, webinars... and she's now able
to charge upwards of $3k per book project and moved from her native country to
London! I love that I got to be a piece of her development... but now she's out
of my price range! So I had to find someone who could replicate her work (which
feels so offensive to me because I value each person's unique style). But
Yarolsava was not only willing but so capable. She was incredible to work with.
And she still found ways of adding her own creative touch, which I love. And
like with Daniela, I've been able to support and promote her and she now has
more projects! (Hopefully she'll stay affordable for me. HA!) I've worked with
five illustrators now and love them all. I feel like we're bffs once we're
done.
Q: What do you want the reader to take
away from your book?
A: My first hope is that the little twist in the illustration at the
end will 1. be noticed and 2. leave them asking: "Was it his imagination
or was it really magic?" THEN, I want kids to suddenly want to take a bath
to see if their tub is magic, too. (*spoiler alert- it is!*). Beyond that, my
underlying hope when I write for children or adults is a sense of permission to
play or to ask hard questions in a safe place--to see other kids doing things
their little hearts long to do or wonder about or ask about. This is a sillier
book than some of my others, but I think it still creates space for kids to
believe good in their imagination and feel free to get lost in it. And, to
maybe want to take baths more regularly!
Q: If you had a magic bath tub, where do
you wish it would take you?
A: Oh man, this would be amazing. One of my dreams lately (and
something I've done only once briefly) is to swim with sea turtles. I would
LOVE to be dropped off right where they're playing and just float around
soaking up their beauty. If a dolphin wanted to come say hi, I'd be totally
fine with that, too. (This is why there's a turtle in the scene--I had her add
it so I could live vicariously through Corban!)
Q: Do you have a favorite page or spread
and why?
A: Other than the very last scene which leaves a little surprise twist
in the tub, I love the spread with Mom pulling the plug on one side, textless,
and the ocean beginning to swirl into a vortex on the other side with Corban in
his boat noticing the shift in the sea. I love the dance between art and text
and often plan to need both in order for the story to be fully understood. I
got to play with that in this scene. It just makes me smile so big!
Q: How did you choose your publishing
route?
A: This is a great question! The first seven years of my publishing
career was exclusively traditional publishing. I learned so much. They were
essential for what I do now. About four and a half years ago, I was feeling a
bit of a crisis in vocation. I'd had a number of editors and agents really love
my work, and acquisition teams take my manuscripts on... but then maybe 14/15
team members would approve and one wouldn't, and I'd be back to square one. Or
as in the case at one of our Europolitan conferences, my manuscript was upheld
by the agents in a workshop as model writing and an example to follow, but even
so didn't choose to represent me. So I came to realize that I had learned the
craft of writing quite well, but it takes more than that to get published
traditionally. I'd sold a couple books to a small press, but otherwise, didn't
have much to show in print for those years. A course called Self Publishing
School crossed my path one day. At the time, it was exclusively for adult
nonfiction, but I was hungry to see if I could learn how to publish myself, so
I joined. I was the only children's writer in the program! I went ahead and
followed the course as it was designed and wrote Reclaiming Hope: Overcoming
the Challenges of Parenting Foster and Adopted Children. This became an
immediate best-seller and landed me on a number of stages as a keynote speaker.
I literally never saw that coming. Since then, I've published twelve books,
eight for children, with a YA and another Adult Nonfiction coming out this
year as well. And I love it. From the time I decide to publish a book, I can do
it in three months instead of two to three years. I'm not sharing my royalties
with anyone but the book printer or amazon, so I make more money. And honestly,
most people don't care how the book was published if it's good. I do school
visits, library readings, webinars, you name it. I coach writers wanting to
publish. I edit children's books with my dear friend and longtime SCBWI member,
Bethany Telles. I have all of the creative control, which I also love. I get
fan mail from readers! I've taken everything I learned in my first seven years
and applied it to high-quality self-publishing in these last four years,
building that into other writers as well. I now contract as a coach with Self
Publishing School and have designed a course for children's writers and coach
nearly all of the kidlit writers who come through our doors. I'm living my
dream!
Thanks for sharing your journey with us, Marcy. You've accomplished so much. Keeping living the dream.
Marcy is the wife of an artist and the
mother of four, but she’s also tossed pizzas for a pizzeria, acted and sang in
a musical, advocated for families with special needs, made appearances in a few
movies, and mimed with balloon animals at the Halifax Busker Festival. Marcy is
also a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and Certified Trauma Practitioner,
speaker, coach, and the best-selling author of books for adults and for
children. She does her best writing on retreats with a nearby hot-tub, in any
castle, within view of the sea, or in her cozy home in the Black Forest of
Germany. Marcy loves the smiles and giggles of kids who see themselves in her
pages and the tearful nods of adults who realize they’re not alone by her
words.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082WG9CTC
Barnes&Noble:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bath-time-magic-marcy-pusey/1135654928