Back to Featured Interviews >>

MEET J. H. EVERETT
by Ann Stalcup

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

J. H. Everett

I have been writing and creating since I was a kid. I was always creating some world in my head, making it as real as I could, and then recruiting my brother and sister to help. We had monster expeditions into the desert behind our house in Tucson, AZ. Our family had a coat of arms with real swords in it. We would take out the swords and pretend that we were knights on a quest.

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

I started writing and creating professional illustrations as an adult, near the end of graduate school in my mid 30s. I went to school for a degree in History, not Art or Creative Writing (I learned art from mentors like Bob Singer). In the last few years of school, I started writing and drawing to relax. At one point, I remember specifically thinking that if I was going to write and draw for a living, it was going to be in kid’s books.

What gave you the idea for the Haunted Histories series?

While I was doing my research for my doctorate in Europe, I spent a great deal of time in dark, dank castles and spooky old libraries. I would also spend my free time touring supposedly haunted graveyards, crypts, underground regions, and old towns across Europe. Some people like roller coasters; I enjoy touring graveyards at midnight! When I was a kid, I absolutely loved checking out all of the scary books in the school library. I combined two of my favorite interests to come up with something that I knew I would enjoy reading.

Does writing or illustration give you the most pleasure?

I love both equally, but for different reasons. I love writing because it allows me to slip into a world outside of the real world for long periods of time. I get to be different people, with different points of view other than my own. I love illustration because I love the ability of images to have multiple meanings and messages in a single piece of work. Illustrations are like puzzles with lots of little problems to solve. I enjoy the challenge of getting an image to be just right for a scene or a story.

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

I think that the best approach to research is to treat it as careful observation of everyday, often mundane things, in order to find something extraordinary. I love research, but I don’t know how much I separate it from imagination. Research fuels my imagination. One of the things that a person learns as they study is that real life is weirder than almost anything that a person can imagine. At the very least, real life provides an amazing springboard for fantasy and fictional stories.

Do you work every day and do you have set hours that you work?

I work hard everyday. I usually get up around 6 -6:30AM, open up my studio, called “The Hut,” in our backyard garden and then help get my sons ready for school. Their mom and I walk them to school, help get the school library open, then I get back to the Hut with a cup of coffee in hand. I have a list that I go through each day, which I created the day before. I try to do most of my creative illustrations and writing early in the day. After school, while my sons do their homework, I work on the rest of my daily business (returning phone calls, updating my blog, emailing, and meeting with people). I usually work until 6 or 7 PM each night. I try to take the weekends off, if possible, to be with my family. On Wednesday mornings, I meet with my studio group, Studio 5 (www.studiofiveart.org).

Do you work on more than one book at a time?

Yes. I usually work on many projects at one time. Jim Henson used to say that creative people should keep as many balls in the air as they can manage, so that when one hits the floor, there are still many more up there. I have taken his advice to heart. I work on multiple projects at once on a daily basis: illustrations, writing, and business.

What do you most want the students to get out of your school visits?

In my experience, it takes a village to create a book. Kids should know that although ideas often start inside one person, books need a lot of teamwork to get to market. People working as a team or as a community can do so much more together than one person can on their own. Books and art connect us together as people. They are a reflection of all of us. They come out of our experiences of living and learning together. Literature and art help build our communities up and strengthen them.

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?

All of life is practice for being a writer and artist. I have done many things in my life: I have been a teacher, a writer and an artist. I have worked as a musician, an actor, a theater director, a researcher and an academic, a bookstore manager, a travel director, a grocery store janitor, pizza delivery guy, and even a cookie maker! I remain a student of life, everyday that I am alive. Most importantly, I have a loving family; I am a husband and father of two boys. I think it is important to remember that being a writer and artist is something that you can be, a point of view that you can take, even when you are doing many other things in life.