Meet the Clever Picture Book Rhymer, Josh Funk

CAROL GORDON EKSTER: Josh Funk is clever, kind, and funny. He’s in my on-line critique group and part of the New England chapter of SCBWI, where I am always happy to see him at kid-lit gatherings.  I am thrilled to highlight his talents and successes here at Writers’ Rumpus, where he has also done guest posts.

Josh, how you did work your way from a day job with computers and software to become a rhyming genius of funny picture books?

JOSH FUNK: Whoa! Way start out the interview, with a loaded question!

While I appreciate the compliment, I hardly consider myself a genius. It’s true, my day job is as a software engineer. So how does writing rhyming picture books relate to math and science?

I tend to think of writing rhyming picture books as solving puzzles – just like writing software solutions. Each word is a puzzle piece and the book is the puzzle as a whole. Words all have a

 

rhythm, sound, and meaning. It’s my job to find the right combinations of words to create a complete story. Similarly, I use ‘For Loops’ and ‘Data Structures’ to create ‘Code’ that allows you to buy books from IndieBound.org.*

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that many rhymers are or were engineers and scientists. Rumpus Writer Paul Czajak was a chemist. Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen was an engineer. And I recently heard that Laura Gehl was a biology teacher. And I keep finding about more. It wouldn’t surprise me if Corey Rosen Schwartz used to work for NASA.

As far as funny, I’m gonna plead the Sendak**: I don’t write funny. I write – if people tell me it’s funny, that’s great.

* I don’t actually work for IndieBound, but it would bore your readers to explain what I really do.

** Maurice Sendak once said: “I don’t write for children. I write — and somebody says, ‘That’s for children!’”

CGE: You are a board member of The Writers’ Loft and will be the co-coordinator for the NESCBWI 2016 and 2017 Conference. Can you try to explain how and why you got so involved in the writing community? I just wonder where you find the time!

JF: Living in New England, we’re very lucky to have such a wealth of resources for aspiring writers. I met Heather Kelly, Empress of The Writers’ Loft in 2013, about two months after she founded the place. The Loft was exactly what I needed at the time to further my writing life: A writer’s room of requirement. A writing conference with events spread out over an entire year.

As The Writers’ Loft was in its burgeoning state, I took a leadership role. And it’s been invaluable, from both writing and networking perspectives. The Craft Chats and Workshops have taught me so much. And the advice I got on querying and more has made all the difference in both getting published and finding an agent.

And co-coordinating the 2016 and 2017 New England Regional SCBWI Conferences also came about because of The Writers’ Loft. Loft Empress Heather Kelly co-coordinated in 2015 and will be continuing in 2016 and asked me to be her coordinate with her (it’s a two-year rolling commitment). So I will be coordinating with Heather in 2016 and with my successor in 2017.

CGE: Do you have a specific writing schedule or some strange writing habits you can let us in on? Tell us about your writing process.

JF: I don’t have any particular writing process or habits yet. I’m still developing them. I often don’t have time to write until the kids have gone to bed, but I know evening writing is not the best time for creativity. I’m not an early riser, so I’ll never be waking up at 4am to get my writing in before the kids wake up.

I guess the only interesting thing I do while writing is that I usually have a movie on. And I’ve had the most productive writing sessions when that movie is Scott Pilgrim vs The World. I just love that movie.

CGE: What have been your biggest joys and biggest disappointments on your journey to becoming an author?

JF: With three picture books on the horizon, I’ve had lots of joys lately. I’m in that euphoric state where everything is new and exciting.

So, to kill the buzz, I’ll start with the disappointments. I think the biggest disappointment I had was at my first critique with an editor. I was still pretty new but I thought I was ready (and boy was I wrong!). The editor was completely polite and made excellent points, but the realization that I had a long way to go was not something I expected.

But, as Lisa Simpson once said, “The Chinese have the same word for Crisis and Opportunity.” I didn’t give up after that failed critique. I looked at that Crisi-tunity and kept writing.

And now it seems like something amazing and fun happens every few weeks. From the first email from an agent or editor that wasn’t a rejection, to the email that said “here’s an offer on for your book.” Chatting with all of the #NerdyBookClub teachers, librarians, writers, and readers on Twitter. Seeing the first sketch of a silly character I thought up as rendered by an actual artist. It’s all been such a thrill.*** And my first book isn’t even out yet.

*** Don’t worry, I’m bracing for the disappointment of that first Kirkus review.

CGE: Do you think you’ll ever veer off from the picture book world and try your hand at another genre? And what does the future hold for Josh Funk?

JF: The future? My first book, LADY PANCAKE & SIR FRENCH TOAST will be released from Sterling Children’s on September 1^st (Book Launch at Porter Square Books on 9/1 at 7pm – all Writer’s Rumpus readers are invited! Kath in Australia, this includes you!) And let me note that Brendan Kearney’s illustrations have taken it to the next level of awesomeness!

My second book, DEAR DRAGON, will be released by Viking/Penguin next winter (2016) and is being illustrated by Rodolfo Montalvo (I’ve seen some sketches, and they’re PERFECT).

My third book, PIRASAURS! will be coming some time later in 2016 from Scholastic, with illustrations from Michael Slack, who you probably know from Tammi Sauer’s Nugget and Fang, Monkey Truck, Elecopter, Wazdot?, and many others. To date, I’ve seen a single sketch of a dinosaur pirate and I can’t wait to see more!

And you can always find me hanging around Twitter, reading up on all the kidlit blogs written by teachers, librarians, moms, dads, and even kids. If you’re not hanging out with the #NerdyBookClub, you’re missing out. In fact, I’m going to be at nErDcamp in Michigan this summer with an all-star cast of educators, authors, and illustrators. Check it out!

As far as other genres, I haven’t written more than a page of anything that isn’t a picture book. For now, writing 500 words (or less) in a manuscript is about all I can handle.

Josh’s first book LADY PANCAKE & SIR FRENCH TOAST is now available for pre-order at:

IndieBound
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Books-a-Million
The Book Depository
Chapters/Indigo
& you can mark it “want to read” at Goodreads.

Josh lives in New England with his wife and many many children. He is the author of the forthcoming picture books LADY PANCAKE AND SIR FRENCH TOAST (Sterling, 2015), DEAR DRAGON (Viking/Penguin, 2016), and PIRASAURS! (Scholastic, 2016).

Josh will be the co-coordinator of the 2016 and 2017 New England Regional SCBWI Conferences. He is also a board member of The Writers’ Loft in Sherborn, MA.

Josh is terrible at writing bios, so please help fill in the blanks. Josh enjoys _______ during ________ and has always loved __________. He has played ____________ since age __ and his biggest fear in life is being eaten by a __________.