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MEET CHARLES CARNEY
by Ann Stalcup

I was a daydreamer with asthma who stayed home from school a lot. So I read comic books, played with toy soldiers, and built forts.

Outside of owning a complete set of Classics Illustrated, the actual book A TALE OF TWO CITIESstirred my soul. I actually copied one of the chapters down in longhand. I liked Poe, short stories like “Leinengen and the Ants,” and was electrified at age 12 or so when I read ANIMAL FARM and CATCHER IN THE RYE I think I responded most to the humor and the tone of those as much as the characters or story.

Did you write stories when you were growing up? at school? Or at home as a hobby? As a young child, or as a teenager, or both?

Not really. In the third grade I wrote a story about a bear, and the teacher praised it, and I thought to myself, “well, there's something I can do well.” It never left me. But I was never much of a real writer. I didn't have the dedication or drive, so I thought more about writing than actually writing something. The identity was more important than the creation. That's a problem! People shake their heads at people who are more concerned with acting “writerly” than sitting down and doing the hard, lonely work that it takes.

When you were a child did you ever have a moment when you decided that you were going to be a writer when you grew up?

I was never that confident to believe I was going to BE anything when I grew up. I was all just a gauzy dream of how I thought life ought to be, but it never included the hard work I mentioned. It was more a decision to wait and be discovered, which is funny and sad in retrospect. I wasted quite a few years waiting for publishers to come banging on my door.

What audience did you have in mind for your career as a writer - adult or children?

Adults, and lots of them! Legions of fans. Children just seemed too easy. Once again I learned the truth the hard way.

I majored in journalism with a minor in English. That was the best education I could ever have had. My professors were old-school, newspaper-ink-in-the-bloodstream kind of guys. They made it clear that I didn't know anything, and that they would teach me. It was perfect. There were some fine journalists in my class who went on to great careers. I had to hit the ground running. The journalistic duty to anchor a story with facts and organize it for the reader's ease of information helped me in my academic writing. For an internship, I wound up at the L.A. Times, which was an honor and a terror at the same time. But I was taught well and did fine. Turns out I didn't have the “jugular instinct” it takes to really dig for the pulse of a news story, so I did mostly features and honed my storytelling skills. I met all kinds of interesting people: an old man who collected miniature printing presses and created stamp-sized hardcover books, a dog that fetched all the neighbors' newspapers for treats, a man who made dollhouses with interiors that looked exactly like people's real homes. Lots of people who had a story. Of course, you also, eventually, get the Army Corps of Engineers assignment…

If you didn't write as a child, then when did you start writing and what inspired you to start?

My first writing assignment was for a comedian friend. I saw his act and made some suggestions, and he hired me to work for him for a while. Nothing is more inspiring for some writers than the sound of a pen on a check. I taught high school English for seven years, and I wrote with my classes when we did journals. It gave me an inside view of what I was asking them to do. Then a mutual acquaintance of my comedian friend, with whom I shared a love of Looney Tunes cartoons, asked me to come up with an idea for a Bugs Bunny cartoon for Warner Bros. I got the assignment to write it and I never looked back. They hired me full time, and I ended up helping start the studio's animation-related publishing division, writing most of the children's books myself. So my start was in animation and children's books; again, it was a sink-or-swim challenge, and I was lucky enough to have watched a thousand Looney Tunes cartoons when I was growing up, so writing in the voice of the characters was almost second nature. It was like being an actor and giving the characters voice on paper. I was a lousy kids' book writer, though. Too many words, and the wrong language levels. But I am one fortunate guy to have learned on the job with the guidance of a remarkable publishing professional, Michael Harkavy. All in all, it was a wonderful case of preparation finally meeting opportunity!

What was your first job when you graduated from college?

Mine is an unusual career trajectory. I didn't go right to college after high school, and knocked around in dead-end jobs for years. One of my bosses urged me to go back to school. That was in the 1970s. My first book was published in 1995. I've probably written a couple of hundred books in lots of formats, in verse and prose. Not all of them are credited. I've edited three times that many.

My first “big-time” book title was a coffee table book for the movie SPACE JAM called SPACE JAMMIN’: MICHAEL AND BUGS HIT THE BIG SCREEN. A company named Rutledge Hill published it. I got to use my journalistic skills and my animation writing chops together in a very fun project. That was 1996.

Was your first book accepted immediately? or did you experience a number of rejections?

Again, a weird trajectory. With all those books I had written, I'm now getting rejections. But I'm a determined type, if a bit unfocused sometimes.

I have a reincarnation fable (A NEW LEAF) based on a conversation between two leaves, a picture book about a kid becoming conscious of the sounds his body makes (ARTIE COLTRAIN HAS A NOISY BODY), a picture book about an abused dog that wanders into a foster kids' summer camp and brings the kids a source of comfort (EVEREST COMES TO CAMP). There are several others. They're all still manuscripts in my agent's hands, waiting for a home.

Do you focus on fiction or nonfiction? Which do you prefer? Do you find one easier than the other?

I read lots of nonfiction, but give me fiction any day. It's my world, and I giveth and taketh away. I make my living, though, as a copywriter. That gives me the freedom to write fiction. I guess, in my mind, I have a vision of the world that ought to be, and fiction-especially for children-allows me to try to create pieces of that world.

Do you do other types of writing - for example, educational, nonfiction, magazine work?

Like I said, as a copywriter I write business proposals, PowerPoint decks (they're telling a story if they're done right), speeches, presentations, brochures, press kits. I do it all. I also have a blog called Pachinko, which I use to keep my creative muscles toned (www.charlescarney.blogspot.com).

Events in the news, daily occurrences that take on new dimensions after time has passed, a funny or strangely logical idea that usually comes just as I'm waking up. I'm a great lucid dreamer.

From a lady in Van Nuys, California. No, really, I don't know where they come from. Other writers know-it just happens. I grab a piece of blank paper or look at a blank screen and just start writing. I get a lot of inspiration from my friend Annie Lamott. Bird By Bird is one of my favorite reference books, and she's a true storyteller and idealist. Her words are like sculptor's tools. I love her, and I love her writing.

How did your life change when you got married? and had children? Did it make it easier or harder to find time to write?

Again, a weird late bloomer trajectory-my son was born when I was 49, my daughter when I was 50. They're still in elementary school. I am very involved in their school library, as much to be of service as to listen to young minds in the act of thinking. I haven't had the courage to read one of my own books to their classes yet. It's harder to write around the normal activity schedule of little kids, but I do most of my writing after they go to bed. My wife is the most supportive woman any man could want, and she is my cheerleader when everything seems like it's going into the proverbial handbasket. “Where's my blue top?” “I need…” and “What's for dinner?” (usually asked at 8:30 in the morning) are obstacles, but I'm devoted to writing-really fingers-on-the-keyboard writing-for at least three hours a day. Often in 20-minute bursts.

The dog in the summer camp book was based on a news story. A NEW LEAF (two leaves on a tree talking about death) was inspired by some life lessons given to me by observing an 82-year-old friend who was dying at the time.

I can only dream of writing a fact-driven book like Sara Hunter's THE UNBREAKABLE CODE. She interviewed the surviving Navajo “code talkers” from World War II and turned it into a compelling tale that celebrates an unsung group that helped save the free world. Now that's a wonderful piece of history, told in a direct and fascinating way.

Do you enjoy researching or do you prefer working totally from your imagination?

It's a mash-up of research used to feed my imagination. I love the discovery of researching, but I always step away from the facts at some point and let the story go its own way.

I read recently about a writer in the 1950's who had four rooms in his house, each with a typewriter, and he would move from room to room until he had exhausted himself on a project, then on to the next one. So, yes. Thank goodness for Windows. Those are my rooms.

What are you working on now? When do you expect to start submitting it to publishers?

I'm working on the first book of a chapter book series for ages 8-11 with Guy Vasilovich, an animator and illustrator. It should be finished by the end of the summer, and we'll submit it as soon as he can catch up with the grueling art schedule. He's amazing, though. I have complete faith in him. Maybe we'll have a finished manuscript with art by early in 2011. Although I'm being perhaps too optimistic about my revision skills…

Monday through Friday. Three hours of writing each day, wherever I can fit it in between copywriting jobs. Sunday afternoons, too. My wife occupies the kids when she can. The best class I ever took in junior high was typing, so I'm fast and a naturally good speller, which speeds things along. I take notes all day, too, but I have to transcribe them quickly because once they're cold, they're illegible.

Last year I finished a set of five toddler books based on the character Pebbles from the Flintstones show. Two came out last year (PEBBLES: DADDY’S GIRL and PEBBLES CONQUERS CAMP), and one (A DAY JUST FOR DADDIES) was published in May. Another is due in November. They are all illustrated by John Skewes, whose work is whimsical and beautiful all at once.

My father was a very funny guy, and I think I inherited his sense of humor, so I'm inclined to write humor. I wrote an adult humor book, The ACME Catalog (Chronicle, 2006), and am putting together a follow-up proposal. The book series I'm working on with Guy Vasilovich is the humorous adventures of a girl with an overactive imagination-or is it? So I guess there's a little mystery there, too.

A NEW LEAF. It's a picture book, and it fell out of my head in one three-hour burst, and I was wiped out at the end, but enormously gratified. That doesn't happen often. Of course, I've done a dozen revisions on it since the first draft, and it's only about 500 words. Lots of positive editor feedback, though no buyer yet. But I'm hopeful.

My father was a very funny guy, and I think I inherited his sense of humor, so I'm inclined to write humor. I wrote an adult humor book, THE ACME CATALOGUE (Chronicle, 2006), and am putting together a follow-up proposal. The book series I'm working on with Guy Vasilovich is the humorous adventures of a girl with an overactive imagination-or is it? So I guess there's a little mystery there, too.

“How much money do you make?” I hate to disappoint any of the future kids' book authors, so I tell them, “You can't imagine.”

I like to let them know that they all have a good story waiting to be told, and they might as well tell it. I try to emphasize that it's not an easy task, but it's rewarding, and the only way they'll experience the reward is to put in the work. It's better than money. I get a lot of looks over that statement.

Is there anything about yourself that you'd like to share - hobbies, where you were born, special talents other than writing/illustrating, what other jobs you had before you became a writer/illustrator?

Weighed against my humdrum autobiographical details, I'll remain a mystery. Although I'll offer that I have been a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant across the street from Disneyland. And I sing and dance when I vacuum.

MEET CHARLES CARNEY by Ann Stalcup

MEET CHARLES CARNEY
by Ann Stalcup