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| Photo credit: Grant Blair with Idlewild Photography |
I often eat cookies for breakfast. I prefer homemade chocolate chip or peanut butter, but most mornings it’s Milanos or Oreo Thins.
2. What is your nickname?
Mommy. Not very original, and maybe it’s more of a job title.
3. What is your greatest fear?
Rational: Something awful happening to my children.
Irrational: Jellyfish! Anytime something brushes my leg in the ocean I scream. I’m a lot of fun at the beach.
4. Describe your writing style in ten words.
Really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, short.
Kidding. I’d say:
Simple yet entertaining, relevant but not preachy, often grammatically incorrect.
5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
Dedicated. Passionate. Lucky. Creative. Beautiful.
6. What book character would you be, and why?
Curious George. He gets away with everything. Don’t we all want to go to a museum and swing from the dinosaur’s neck or take a firetruck for a spin? Except in real life my role is The Man with the Big Yellow Hat. I’m constantly keeping my own monkeys in check.
7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why?
Tough question. I’m a bit of a Hamilton fanatic, so I’d like to go back to July 11, 1804 and tell Alexander, “Duels are dumb and immature.” My second choice would be to travel back 100 million years ago. I’d love to see a dinosaur—preferably an herbivore.
8. What would your ten-year-old self say to you now?
“I thought you were going to be an astronaut.”
9. Who is your greatest influence?
I’m going to throw out the obvious answers of my mom, dad, siblings, husband, kids, friends, and former teachers and go with Tina Fey.
10. What/who inspired you to start writing?
I took a journalism class in high school and loved it. The teacher encouraged me to send my first query letter to an outdoor magazine, proposing an article about fishing with my dad and brother. The editor said he’d look at the story, but I never finished it. Then I went to college and didn’t write again for four years because I was an engineering major (lots of math, few essays). It wasn’t until after my children were born that I fell in love with kidlit. I started writing again as a hobby and now it’s a job. (Best job in the world!)
11. What is your favourite word and why?
YES! In publishing, we hear no all the time. Yes is rare. I’d guesstimate I hear 42 nos for every yes.
(Favorite word because of the way it sounds? Arugula! I like to howl when saying it: a-ROOOOO-ga-la)
12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
When I was a kid, we had this Reader’s Digest medical book that had every disease and ailment. It was full of pictures—some rendered, some photographs—and it had a flow-chart section you could use to self-diagnose. (Basically, it was the book version of WebMD.) We also used it to flatten flowers, because it was so heavy. So I’d pick that book. I found it fascinating and if I can only have one book in my life, I assume something catastrophic has happened in the world. A medical encyclopedia would not be a bad tool in a zombie apocalypse.
Stacy McAnulty is an American author of picture books and chapter books for children. Her titles include Excellent Ed and Why I'm Not Taking a Bath and her latest book is Beautiful, illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff and published by RP Kids. Visit Stacy McAnulty's website and Facebook page for more information about her books and author events.
Visit the other sites taking part in the Beautiful Blog Tour:
Visit the other sites taking part in the Beautiful Blog Tour:
29 August Flowering Minds
30 August Kids’ Book Review
31 August My Word Playground
1 September Stacking Books
2 September Unpacking the POWER of
Picture Books
3 September MomReadIt
5 September Enjoy Embrace Learning
6 September Geo Librarian
7 September A Foodie Bibliophile
8 September MamaBelly
10 September Diapers and Daydreams
11 September The Late Bloomer’s Book
Blog
12 September Unconventional Librarian