Author Interview: Artemis Roehrig

The November 2019 author interview is with Northeasterner author and science guru Artemis Roehrig. What’s cool is that a few days after this interview goes live, I’ll meet her in person at a Highlights Foundation event with Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple. How’s that for some PB-​related name dropping? And a dose of literary kismet?

By way of getting to know Artemis, let’s play the Eight Truths and One Whopper game. Here we go!

  1. Favorite food is macaroni and cheese.
  2. Didn’t get on an airplane until age 18.
  3. Longtime member of the pit orchestra for Valley Light Opera.
  4. Secretly hates coffee.
  5. Has four pet tarantulas.
  6. Earned a master’s degree at UMass in Organismic & Evolutionary Biology.
  7. Still owns a huge collection of Beanie Babies.
  8. Taught summer classes at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.
  9. Participates in a combination dance class/​book club.

(If you’re not sure which is false, I’ll spill those biographical beans by the end of the interview.)

For those who are nostalgic about standard bios, though, I’ll offer this, too. Artemis grew up in Western Massachusetts, attended Skidmore College as an undergraduate, and she’s a proud SCBWI member.

Shall we proceed to the interview now? Let’s go!


RVC: Let’s start with your cool first name. Do you have siblings with the name of gods/​goddesses? Do your two kids have equally mythologically wonderful monikers? What’s the real scoop here?

AR: My mother is Greek (check out her memoir Eleven Stories High: Growing Up in Stuyvesant Town, 1948–1968 by Corinne Demas), and since I have my dad’s last name, I think it was important to them that I have an unquestionably Greek first name. And yes, my kids have mythological names too, you’ll have to wait until they publish their first books to find out what they are though!

RVC: Gotcha. (Note to self: Watch for future books from a “Zeus Medusa Perseus Hephaestus Roehrig.”)

So, you made your first book when you were 6, right? A homemade book with your mom called Two Christmas Mice? What do you remember most about that project?

AR: One year we decided to exchange homemade books with our close friends instead of buying Christmas presents. So Two Christmas Mice started as one of those projects. I was very into craft projects at that age, so making books was right up my alley.

RVC: From early on, it sounds as if your mom really wanted you to be a writer. Didn’t she urge you to get a degree in creative writing? What was it like having a successful writer parent?

AR: Yes, she always wanted me to be a writer, and she did convince me to take a creative writing class with Elizabeth McCracken while I was in college. However, I rebelled by majoring in biology.

RVC: I’ve been there there, too, trying like crazy to avoid Fate. But you finally surrendered, and you created a couple of books with your mom, like Does a Fiddler Crab Fiddle? and (forthcoming in 2020) Do Jellyfish Like Peanut Butter? What’s it like to work with her? How is that process different than writing a picture book solo?

AR: As someone in the sciences, collaborating comes very naturally. Look at how many authors there are on most scientific papers! It’s even easier writing with my mom, since we know one another so well. Plus we can be brutally honest with one another when things aren’t working well.

RVC: Talk about the particular challenges of doing nonfiction books for kids. You can’t just make stuff up the way you can with fiction, right? 

AR: Science books are tricky since new studies are constantly coming out. It’s important to always check dates on resources! Nonfiction takes just as much time to write as fiction, but you need spend lots of time on research too. I use a totally different part of my brain when writing fiction versus nonfiction. It’s like the difference between jazz and classical music.

RVC: You’ve spent a lot of time in Cape Cod. How influential is that place—or place in general—in your writing?

AR: I first became interested in pirates when I was a kid and learned about the Whydah, the pirate ship that had wrecked off the coast of Cape Cod, so I feel like it is the perfect place to be when writing about pirates! I also have been very inspired by the Cape for my STEM books. People tend to think of the Cape as just a place to go to the beach, but it has other fascinating habitats like swamps, coastal heathland, marshes, etc, to explore too.

RVC: You’ve got one pirate book out already—Are Pirates Polite? And you’ve got The Grumpy Pirate coming out in 2020 (yet another picture book that’s co-​authored with your mom). What do you find so interesting about pirates?

AR: Pirates are interesting because they are counterculture, which makes them a fun lens to use to look at ubiquitous topics such as politeness or grumpiness!

RVC: How do you balance the creative side of writing with the business side?

AR: The business side of writing definitely takes way more time and effort than I’d like. It’s not really possible to just lock yourself away and be creative. This is a super rough estimate, and varies drastically by project, but in general, I would say the actual writing takes less time and effort than the business.

RVC: Plenty of people give the same advice to aspiring picture book writers (read a lot, join a crit group, be part of SCBWI, pay attention to how kids talk and what they talk about, etc.). What’s one less-​common tip/​strategy/​technique that might help an unpublished picture book writer make real progress?

AR: Well, you hit on a lot of the good ones there. I’d say the most important part of publishing is not to take yourself too seriously. If you’re determined to be published, you’ll need to be very open to criticism. This might include things as extreme as trying out your main character as a different gender or different animal. Rewriting your rhyming book as prose and vice versa. Doubling your manuscript size or cutting it in half.

RVC: Terrific–thanks for those tips. But now it’s time … FORTHESPEED ROUND!! 100mph questions and equally zoomy answers, please. Ready?

AR: Ready!

RVC: Where do you find the yummiest lobster roll in Cape Cod?

AR: I’m a vegetarian, but I’ll say Mac’s on the Pier in Wellfleet because it’s the best location to eat one!

RVC: Most underappreciated insect?

AR: Tiger beetles, since surprisingly few people have even heard of them.

RVC: Awesomest Crayola color that doesn’t yet exist?

AR: Compost. It would be one of those multicolored crayons, made up of various earthy browns and greens. Very useful for coloring in things like trees and grass.

RVC: Best STEM/​STEAM picture book you’ve read in the past year?

AR: Counting Birds: The Idea that Helped Save Our Feathered Friends by Heidi E.Y. Stemple, illustrated by Clover Robin.

RVC: Three words that encapsulate what a good picture book does.

AR: Interest. Educate. Inspire.

RVC: Thanks so much, Artemis!

Note to readers: Did you sleuth out which biographical lie was in that list at the top? The falsehood was … #7. Artemis always thought Beanie Babies were kind of silly. Nowhere near as cool as insects!

 

2 thoughts on “Author Interview: Artemis Roehrig

Comments are closed.