Interview with Children's Book Author Safari Sue Thurman - Page 2

Tell us about your children's books.

The Safari Series of books include lots of animal stories and has started with my current release, Maybe We Are Flamingos. Others completed include Monet The Smallest Ant, Sam The Tallest Giraffe, and the adventures of Dr. Zelda Zoolander Zocks, from the land down under. I also have a longer work in progress, Starshine, based on a character from live theatrical productions.

Starshine has appeared in a variety of venues and is from the planet Etheria, home to the largest library in the universe, where reading is magic. This galactic adventurer has many colorful friends, including a musical scientist named Logandy, her robot companion TC, and Palo, a silver weeper tree that teaches the forest of silver weepers their songs. My ultimate dream is to bring Starshine to life in a screenplay through Pixar.

Do you like to outline and plot ahead, or are you more of a stream-of-consciousness writer?

In writing fiction, stream-of-consciousness writing works well for me. Once the glimmer of an idea gets my attention, it lurks in my mind for a time before I write anything down. I’m a very visual person so after looking at the idea as the production comes to life, I play with a variety of ways things could go. It unfolds as images on a giant movie screen and I observe how the characters might act with each other.

What are you working on now?

Along with promoting Maybe We Are Flamingos, I’m developing a script for a television pilot, Emerald City Imagineers. The planned series will promote the magic of reading with humor, animals, children, and highlight some of the best children’s books currently available. We plan to shoot this summer and books from Guardian Angel Publishing will be featured in the pilot.

I’m also going to have a rhyming contest in July to celebrate the release of Maybe We Are Flamingos. It would be wonderful to announce the rules here, and there will be a prize for the winner.

What was your favorite book as a child?

There were several, but if I had to select one, it would be Mother Goose. It was like reading hundreds of mini stories. The illustrations were great and it was also fun to imagine what happened in Mother Goose Land outside the rhymes. I wanted to have rings on my fingers and bells on my toes while riding a white horse. I wondered if Little Jack Horner ever got sick of eating pie, and if four and twenty black birds might one day attack a neighbor while they put clothes on the line to dry. Trying to figure out what was in the curds and whey of little Miss Muffet drove me nuts until in my version it became cottage cheese and the spider made Miss M flea, so it would rhyme. Due to the influence of Mother G, I love to make up rhymes.

Article Author: Mayra Calvani

Mayra Calvani is the National Latino Books Examiner for Examiner.com.

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