Featured Illustrator Nick Adkins

MEET NICK

This questionnaire goes back to a popular parlor game in the early 1900s. Marcel Proust filled it out twice. Some of our questions were altered from the original to gain more insight into the hearts and minds of our illustrators. We hope you enjoy this way of getting to know everybody.

1. Your present state of mind?

Chill.

2. What do you do best?

Come up with ideas. I have more ideas than I know what to do with and some of them are good.

3. Where would you like to live?

Disney World, but I hear they frown upon that, so a cozy place on the beach would do.

4. Your favorite color?

Green. Like the first little sprout of grass in the spring.

5. Three of your own illustrations:

6. Your music?

When drawing: indie rock/pop. I’m listening to The Shins right now.

When writing: instrumental only. I’m partial to string quartets and video game soundtracks. The Stardew Valley soundtrack gets me in a pretty happy state of mind. And always Rainy Mood playing quietly in the background.

7. Your biggest achievement?

Creatively: I would say sticking with my current project (a middle grade novel) for the last three years. There was a time in my life that I could hardly stick with a project for a week. I can’t wait for it to be out in the world!

In life: my family. My wife (Ashley), and kids (Logan and Eli) are the best!

8. Your biggest mistake?

Not writing my ideas down in the past. I was always so sure I’d remember them. RIP forgotten million dollar ideas.

9. Your favorite children's book when you were a child?

I don’t really have one favorite thing of anything, so here’s a short list:

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Those Terrible Toy Breakers by David McPhail

The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McClosky

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

Say Cheese and Die by R.L. Stine

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

Hatchett by Gary Paulsen

10. Your main character trait?

Patience (with others, sometimes not with myself).

11. What do you appreciate most in a friend?

Humor, kindness, and a love of reading. Otherwise you run out of things to talk about.

12. What mistakes are you most willing to forgive?

I often find myself forgiving my kids for spilling something. At some point, it would seem they would stop making that particular mistake, but I haven’t stopped forgiving it yet. Don’t cry over spilt chocolate milk.

13. Your favorite children's book hero?

Maniac Magee, maybe. My cousin and I spent a lot of time one summer trying to run on the rails like him, but never quite got it. I’m a pretty big fan of the Harry Potter trio too.

14. What moves you forward?

Two things:

1.    The thought of finishing a project usually gives me a good push. If it feels like I’m nearing the end, I sometimes work late into the night and early morning trying to wrap things up.

2.    Ashley. She’s really good at keeping me on track and moderately focused.

15. What holds you back?

Procrastination and anxiety. I’ve developed a bad habit of constantly second-guessing my work and being worried about things most people don’t worry about. Public appearances sometimes have me feeling sick for days.

16. Your dream of happiness?

Travel. Lots of travel.

17. The painter/illustrator you admire most?

I really like Scott Campbell. He has some pretty interesting art books out there with lots of pop culture references. Zac Gorman is great too—lots of nostalgic video game art. He adds gifs to his artwork that I think are pretty neat.

18. What super power would you like to have?

I always wanted to be a Wolverine when I was growing up. Now the claws seem less practical. I’ll go with flying or teleportation.

19. Your motto?

I don’t really have a motto, but I do often find myself saying, “Could you guys quiet down?” and, “Shhhh.”

20. Your social media?

Thanks for asking! My website and blog are at twomonsterbooks.com. Events, articles, and other shenanigans can be found at facebook.com/StoriesByNickAdkins. Ashley is my social media master and keeps it all up to date!

Writing Through a Slump by Nick Adkins

If a draft is written in a hotel lobby, and nobody is around to read it, does it really exist? 

I have been working on a chapter book since February 2015. The current iteration is "New Revisions 34." I don't know how many "Old Revisions" there were, but I do know that the new revisions started after I had named a file "August Adelaide's How to Make a Friend FINAL FINAL." Clearly it was not. 

Most of those drafts have never been read by anyone other than me. I don't like people seeing my work until I've read through it without making any edits. Then they mark it up in red and I start over. It’s crazy and endless. It's write and rewrite and think about it in the shower and in the car, and then start it all over again. 

But why so many rewrites? What is missing? Why have I deemed the 33 previous versions not good enough? Why haven’t I written “FINAL FINAL FINAL” yet? When I realized I didn’t have the answer, I sort of broke down. I stopped attending local writing groups. I stopped participating in the online writing community. After a couple weeks, I stopped writing.

I’ve heard this comparison that writers are like sharks. It’s thought that if a shark stops swimming, it will die. Likewise, if a writer stops writing, he or she will die. But it felt more like losing a friend. Like someone you’ve come to expect to be there day in and day out and then suddenly they aren’t. 

Fast forward. I dragged myself to a writing conference—Write on the Red Cedar. It was great last year, I knew it was going to be great this year, but I hadn’t written more than a few words in a few months. Did I really belong at a writing conference? A voice told me that I did not. I recognized it as the same voice that tells me I’ll never make it. But then I saw people I hadn’t seen in months. I conversed with them and it drowned that other voice out. Sure I sat at the table in the back of the room, but I was surrounded by writers. I was surrounded by my people.

And Michael Hauge was there. He taught us about emotion and conflict and structure. About a journey of transformation and inner motivation. I’ve heard of these things. I’m familiar with the hero’s journey. But I had always assumed it was better suited for an epic storyline like Star Wars. Then Michael showed us clips from Pixar’s Up and outlined Carl’s journey. That’s when I realized that part of August’s journey was missing. I left the talk. I sat down in the hotel lobby and I wrote. “How to Make a Friend FINAL Revision 1” was born.

If a draft is written in a hotel lobby, and nobody is around to read it, does it really exist? Will the first 20 minutes of Up have you crying like a baby? The answer to both questions is yes. Each draft lives on in its successor, getting better and better and better if only a little bit at a time. Anybody who works persistently at something knows this. Sometimes it takes a conversation with a friend to remind us. Sometimes it takes an 8 hour workshop with a Hollywood screenplay consultant. Whatever it takes, find it.

Nick is an author and an illustrator who has self-published two picture books. He illustrated The Great Big Scary Monster (by Saraya Evenson) and wrote and illustrated Sloth VS Turtle. Nick is currently working on a chapter book about an introvert, a robot, and the struggle of making a friend. Learn more at http://www.twomonsterbooks.com/

Coming up on the Mitten blog: Interviews, interviews, interviews: a Michigan indie bookstore and a superstar librarian, teacher, and blogger. Plus, takeaways and congrats from the annual SCBWI Winter Conference in New York.

Happy creating,

Kristin Lenz

Nick Adkins - Winner Of The Conference Logo Contest

The Michigan SCBWI Fall Conference is less than two months away! Earlier this week, we shared the winning logo for the conference on our Facebook page and it definitely sums up the theme of the day.

Congratulations to Nick Adkins for winning our conference logo contest! Please read our spotlight below!

All of our speakers either live here in Michigan or grew up in our great state. So they are all examples of the amazing homegrown talent that Michigan shares with the children’s writing community. We have two editors coming who will also be offering written critiques, four amazing authors, one speaker on literacy and an illustrator sharing his time for portfolio reviews. Here’s a little breakdown:

Kathryn Jacobs

is a Senior Editor at Roaring Brook Press, which is part of the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.

Kathleen Merz 
is a Managing Editor for Eerdmans Books for Young Readers which is located in Grand Rapids.

Deborah Diesen 
is the award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling THE POUT-POUT FISH series and other picture books.

Kelly DiPucchio 
is the award-winning author of over twenty picture books, including New York Times bestsellers, GRACE FOR PRESIDENT, and THE SANDWICH SWAP.

Lynne Rae Perkins 
was awarded the Newbery Medal for CRISS CROSS. She has authored other novels and also written and illustrated several picture books.

Ruth McNally Barshaw 
is the author/illustrator of the popular Ellie McDoodle series and her first illustrated picture book, LEOPOLD THE LION, will be released this fall.

Dr. Mary Bigler 
is a Professor at Eastern Michigan University where she teaches courses in reading and language arts. She is a past president of the Michigan Reading Association.

Wong Herbert Yee 
is an award-winning author/illustrator of numerous picture books and early readers. His first picture book, EEK! THERE’S A MOUSE IN THE HOUSE, released in 1992 and is still in print.

It’s an event you won’t want to miss. Mark your calendars for Saturday, October 3 at Thomson-Shore publishing in Dexter. Registration will open on August 1.

 

Nick Adkins, Author/Illustrator, SCBWI member since 2014

As soon as I heard about the contest the idea of a flower kind of blossoming into an open book popped into my head.  When I originally sketched it out, I wanted the roots to grow into the conference title, but it just wasn’t legible. After some struggle and some consultation with my wife, I decided to go with straight text and add the texture to the grass and dirt. I left the pages blank, because it’s our job to fill them. It took four iterations before I was happy with it. Five before my wife was happy with it.

  

I’m a lifelong doodler. A favorite birthday present growing up was always a pad of paper and a box of colored pencils or crayons. I loved making things up and drawing them. Eventually that grew into writing stories. I didn’t take any of it seriously until I was part way through college and remembered how much fun it was.

That moment when everything comes together. I often go into the creative process with a pretty

basic idea and trust that it will change and grow into something better. When it does and I can take a step back and take it in—I live for that! And if I can get a classroom full of kids to laugh, that’s pretty good too.

I’m working on a series of early chapter books about a quirky fourth grader. She is trying to navigate the ups and downs in the life of a ten year old, but chaos ensues when a sassy little robot joins the family. My goal is to find an agent to represent me and then get the books into the hands of young readers.

My mission since the start has been getting kids interested in reading. At school visits, I’ve found kids that have already started to bottle up their imaginations and I do my best to inspire them to be super creative.

For writers and illustrators:

Create something that excites you. Find your happy place, turn on your happy music, and just work. And if it stops working, walk away and come back in a day or two. If it’s still not working, change your place or music or project and try again. For me, developing a process has really helped the ideas to flow from mind to hand to paper.