{"id":3459,"date":"2014-07-15T07:29:52","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T13:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3459"},"modified":"2014-07-15T08:16:40","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T14:16:40","slug":"seven-questions-over-breakfast-with-lisa-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3459","title":{"rendered":"Seven Questions Over Breakfast with Lisa Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a sort of miracle that this breakfast interview is even happening, since both author-illustrator Lisa Brown<\/a><\/strong> and I are not<\/em> morning people. Oh wait, right. It’s a cyber<\/em>-breakfast, but still … If it were a real, face-to-face breakfast, you can bet that we’d be having our chat over an afternoon snack, despite the name of this blog. <\/p>\n

Another thing we share in common? A deep and abiding love for coffee (which certainly helps make our mornings easier), so I’m glad she was willing to come have pretend coffee with me today so that we could see lots and lots of her art. In fact, she says her usual breakfast is “a cup of coffee, then some toast and peanut butter, maybe some fruit smoothie if there is any left over from my husband and son, who will have been awake and functioning WAY before I shuffle into the kitchen in my pajamas, exhausted with the effort of having to wake up and shuffle into the kitchen. Then more coffee.” I can get behind these multiple rounds of coffee. <\/p>\n

This year, Lisa saw the release of two illustrated titles, Lemony Snicket’s<\/a><\/strong> <\/em>29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy<\/em><\/a><\/strong> (McSweeney’s McMullens, February 2014) and Cathleen Daly’s<\/a><\/strong> Emily\u2019s Blue Period<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, which just received<\/a><\/strong> a starred Horn Book<\/em> review. <\/p>\n

I love to follow Lisa’s work, and it was good to have a chance here to ask her what she’s up to next. There is a freshness and warmth to her watercolors that can be terrifically child-friendly, but there’s also an edge to many of her books (especially for older readers) and paintings. (She’s doing a sketch a day this year, as you’ll read below, which you can follow here<\/a><\/strong>.) As Martha Parravano writes in that Horn Book<\/em> review, her work can be elegant. Yet she also embraces the enigmatic, as with 29 Myths<\/em>. And embracing the enigmatic is always good. (Embracing the Enigmatic. Band name. I call it!)<\/p>\n

I thank Lisa for visiting this morning and sharing as much art as she does. <\/p>\n

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* * * * * * *<\/strong><\/font><\/center><\/p>\n

Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Are you an illustrator or author\/illustrator?<\/font><\/p>\n

Lisa<\/font><\/strong>: I like to say \u201cIllustrator\/Author\/Cartoonist.\u201d<\/p>\n


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Above: Lisa’s New Year resolution was to post a sketch for every day of 2014.<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Can you list your books-to-date?<\/font><\/p>\n

Lisa<\/font><\/strong>: As writer and illustrator:<\/p>\n