Meet: Stephan Pastis!

Ok, so I know I met him a while ago,
but it’s a great story.
So here we go:

It was Sunday, April 21, 2013.
Around 2 in the afternoon.
I had a BBQ to attend at 5,
but thought, “No sweat!”

I only live 40 minutes from San Jose.
And it’s a SUNDAY.
There won’t be that long of a wait to get my book signed.

Only, there WAS!

Turns out Stephan Pastis is also a VERY FAMOUS cartoonist.
Ever heard of Pearls Before Swine?
It’s a great comic running in newspapers all over the country.

Once I saw it I realized who he was.
Well, Hicklebee’s was PACKED!

Let me say this:

He had an AWESOME slide show presentation.
Ok, I think it was actually power point and not PHYSICAL slides, but you know what I mean.

There were pictures of him as a kid,
things he did as an adult,
and funny little quotes and phrases.

I love when the humor of the author ALSO comes through in the presentation.

And also, did you know he used to be a lawyer?
(That slide was followed by one that said: “Please don’t judge”)
And that he gave up cartooning (he started as a kid) only to pick it up 10 years later?

The book he was there to talk about was this one:

Here’s the blurb from the back:

“My name is Failure.
Timmy Failure.
I am the founder, president, and CEO of the best detective agency in town,
probably in the nation.

The book you are holding is a historical record of my life as a detective.
It has been rigorously face-checked.
All drawings in here are by me.
I tried to get my business partner to do the illustrations,
but they were not that good.”

Then there’s a picture of his business partner,
A POLAR BEAR!
pulling Timmy in a wagon.

It’s a HILARIOUS book!
I laughed through the whole thing.
I think kids would really love it because they’re going to figure out things before Timmy does.
And they’ll have to laugh at how he flubs things up.

Stephan said he started with a sketch of Timmy and just went from there.
“I remember reading detectives as a kid,” he said,
“and I wanted it to be a detective who didn’t know ANYTHING.”

Mission hilariously accomplished!

He said there were ten different publishers who wanted the book!
What a great problem to have!

And why is Total a polar bear?
Because “Timmy doesn’t have a Dad, so I wanted him to have a big protective best friend.”

Aww.
He read the first couple of chapters and the whole place was laughing.

He even answered the “where do you get ideas” question hilariously.
“Here’s how I do it,” he said, all serious,
then some pictures came up.

He was in headphones,
then some fun music played.
Followed by some incense burning,
drinking some coffee,
Drawing on the walls,
And dancing.
A whole lot of dancing.

If only it were that simple!
(Though, I admit, that sounds kind of complicated and potentially dangerous!)

When I got to meet Stephan, he was really nice.
I handed him the thank you note
(I always give them thank you notes)
and he asked me what I wanted him to draw in my book.

Draw in my book?
“Um, how about my sock monkey?”

Singe Singe was on hand,
of course,
to get his picture taken.

He said he’d never drawn a sock monkey before.
“If I can do it, you can do it,” I said,
meant as encouragement, but now that I think about it,
it probably wasn’t that encouraging.

Nevertheless, he did it!

 

I can’t wait to read more about Timmy Failure.
You should check it out if you haven’t read it yet!

Oh yes, I was late to the BBQ, but I brought ice cream,
so no one was too upset 🙂

Until next time,

KE and SS