Simply 7 with Andrew Hacket: HOPE AND THE SEA & CURLILOCKS AND THE THREE HARES

Today I have another unique interview for you: 1 interview about 2 books in only 7 questions!

Andrew Hacket visited my blog earlier this spring with his debut picture book.  He is a writer, second-grade teacher, and father of three. Andrew recognizes that being a kid is hard and he writes to create ways for kids to see themselves in stories and characters, to accept and overcome their insecurities, or to escape for just a little while through the power of their imaginations. He and his family live in Massachusetts.  You can learn more about him at his website or follow him on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

HOPE AND THE SEA is a delightful story about a little girl named hope who is lonely.  She plays at the beach and befriends the sea itself.  She eventually makes other friends and forgets about Sea, but will she forget forever? This story is so incredibly well written with poetic turns of phrase that I instantly fell in love with it.  And the soft watercolor illustrations by Svetla Radivoeva are a perfect compliment.

CURLILOCKS AND THE THREE HARES is an early reader in a new series of fragmented modern fairy tales from The Little Press.  These stories are super fun adaptations of those evergreen fairy tales we all love and this one is no exception.  Here Curlilocks is incredibly unhappy with her curly hair.  That alone made me laugh so many times, just because I also have curly hair.  The lengths this gal is willing to go to change her hair though, that’s not me.  But three hare beauticians who work with hair?  Oh my goodness.  Even saying that is fun word play!  This is a series I will definitely keep tabs on.

Welcome back Andrew!

Me: I love the story of Hope and the Sea!  With lines like “Her feelings shift like the sand” and “A trickle of tears threatens to flood” it’s so poetic and lyrical.  I love the friendship she builds with the sea of all things!  What gave you the idea for this story? 

Andrew: My ideas for stories often come from a phrase or experience, but this story was different. My main inspiration for Hope and the Sea was a desire to explore the feeling of loneliness through a picture book. Not long before I wrote the manuscript, I had entered a few contests where I explored personified settings as characters and this story seemed like the perfect place to try it again. Another influence for this story is my own love for the ocean. I grew up in Rhode Island and visiting the beach was a staple in my childhood that I have maintained into adulthood and shared with my own children. 

Me: Illustrator Svelta Radivoeva really captures the softnesss of the sea and the emotional heart of the story in her watercolor paintings.  I love how she made the sea have a personality without giving it a face.  Were there any illustration surprises for you?  Any favorites?

Andrew: Svetla’s work is the perfect match for this book and I feel very fortunate that we were paired together. Svetla captured Sea, but also the entire environment in a way that felt so familiar to me. Her illustrations also bring the emotions of this story to life. Her artistic choices are executed so well and perfectly reflect Hope’s shifting emotions.

One spread that I love is when Hope first begins to have fun interacting with Sea. We see her footprints crisscrossing the page and joy on her face.

Me: Curlilocks and the Three Hares is book two in an illustrated early reader series.  How did you manage to write the second book in a series you didn’t start?  Did you see a call for modern-day kid-friendly twisted fairy tales?  Or did someone ask you to write it?

Andrew: Curlilocks and the Three Hares underwent quite a makeover to become the second book in The Little Press’ Modern Fairy Tale series. Originally, in my mind, Curlilocks was going to be a 400 word, 32 page, picture book. When we submitted it to Michele McAvoy at The Little Press, we didn’t imagine it being anything other than that. Luckily, Michele saw the manuscript and its potential for fitting into their already started series and asked if I would be willing to revise the format. I agreed and now we have a 1,000 word, 9 chapter, 54 page early reader. Just a teeny makeover. Despite the structural and word count changes, the core of this story always remained the same.

Me: Wow!  That IS a revision!  The writing for this book is longer (as early readers are) and yet you still managed to keep it succinct and have excellent turns of phrase like “Curlilocks twists up an idea to makeover her mane.”  I’ve noticed writing like this in all three of your books so far (including Ollie the Acorn and the Mighty Idea).  With stories that are so different from one another, would you say this is a trademark of your writing?  How can readers know one of your books by picking it up (besides the fact that your name is on the cover)?  What do you see as a commonality in your writing?

Andrew: What a wonderful question! I do think there are some craft choices I tend to make that I have discovered to be my “style.” I love playing with words and finding the perfect synonyms to make a sentence sing. I also have a thing for clipping my phrases and writing in fragments. Something my critique partners have learned to tolerate from me.

Aside from language choices, I have discovered some common themes that connect all three books despite their differences in tone, format, and subject matter. SEL themes of self acceptance and belonging seem to weave their way into most of my work on some level.

Me: I love that.  AND I love the art work by Jan Dolby in this series.  She did the illustrations for Willa the Werewolf (book one in the series) too.  Were there any illustration surprises with this story that you just loved?

Andrew: I LOVE when the three hares are stuck in Curlilocks explosive expanse of hair. Jan did such a fabulous job of capturing the whimsy of this story while also making it feel classic.

Me: Both stories also have excellent female protagonists with strong emotions that ring true to life.  How did you write them so well?  Are they based on anyone you know? 

Andrew: Curlilocks is based 100% on my daughter. When she was younger she hated her curls and how they never seemed to grow and that she couldn’t put her hair up in a ponytail.

For Hope, I mined my own emotions. Regardless of age or gender we all have a range of feelings. I wanted to explore loneliness and what I think is a universal desire to have a sense of belonging. And, staying true to her name, I wanted to maintain the feeling of hope, that even when we are internally at our lowest, there is the ability to move forward whether on our own or through the help of a friend like Sea.

Me: What surprised you in writing either book that you hadn’t encountered in your writing before?

Andrew: Curlilocks was one of the first manuscripts I ever wrote, making pretty much everything I encountered new to me. Because I wrote it so early on in my writing career, my brain was working way more with it’s teaching hat on, than author hat. I had loads of lovely description and what I learned later was completely unnecessary narration. The learning for me here was brevity. How could I say the same thing with way less words? My participation in kidlit contests at this time also supported this learning, as lengthy word counts were not allowed. I quickly learned how to weed out the fluff and get my point across in my voice, with significantly fewer words.

That is an excellent point!  Thank you so much for stopping by my blog again today Andrew.

Dear readers, if you haven’t had a chance yet to read CURLILOCKS AND THE THREE HARES yet, I highly recommend it.  It’s full of laughs and quirky turns of events that will have young readers giggling with glee.  As for HOPE AND THE SEA, you’ll have to keep your eyes open as it is released later this month on May 28th.