It’s another fantastic author-illustrator debut picture book!
Steph is an Asian-American author-illustrator and former pastry chef from sunny California. She lives in a hilly house by the bay, with two beloved monsters, a ravenous pet rabbit, and a freezer stuffed with half-eaten ice cream. Steph works primarily in picture books and graphic novels — usually with a splash of mischief. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Instagram or BlueSky.
THE ABOMINABLE SNOW DANCER is a picture book all about a Yeti with a secret desire. You see Yetis are supposed to be tough and scale mountains and do tough stuff. But while Otto can do all of that with aplomb, what he really wants to do is dance like Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing. Then he accidentally stumbles into a dance rehearsal with unicorns and a rather strict instructor. It’s a fun setup with a huge cast of mythical characters that make appearances.
Welcome Steph!
Me: Can you tell us a little bit about your creative journey? When did you start creating art and/or writing picture books? How did that lead to where you are now as the author-illustrator of this book?
Steph: Growing up, I was a huge library kid, and I’ve always leaned a little artsy. But I didn’t have the confidence to call myself an “Artist” or to believe that a career in books was attainable for someone like me. As a kid, I don’t remember meeting any authors or illustrators, and none of the last names on the books sounded like mine. By high school, I had developed this idea that real artists made capital A Art (what you find in a museum, whereas I draw… hairy yeti butts) and had cool dyed hair and punk rock clothes (in other words, not like me).
I actually had a brief moment of clarity in college (I had been working peripherally around children), but I unfortunately told the wrong person, they said something discouraging (“Oh… I didn’t recall if you were a good writer.”), and as a result, I didn’t write a story for over a decade. Add in a splash of immigrant job practicality (IYKYK) and you’ve got a real recipe for art avoidance.
Fast forward to 2016, and there was sort of a confluence of factors. I had recently had a child and we were spending a lot of time at the library. A lot of awful things were happening in the news. Somewhere during this process, I had an existential crisis and rediscovered my love of picture books.
Once I decided to pursue publication, it took me 6 years to sell my first book (or 19 years, if you count my fail-before-I-even-started in college!). And I actually started out as a writer only, before I gave myself permission to pursue illustration.
Looking back, I can see all the roundabout ways I was trying to find my way to picture books. For example, I was briefly on the teaching track (kids!), then I was a pastry chef (food is edible art), and I even took Flash animation and coding classes (because I wanted to be a business owner like the Homestar Runner guys. Not a storyteller. NOPE, not in denial at all). It took me an embarrassingly long time to connect the dots, but I’m glad I finally made it.
Me: I’m glad you did too! I love the illustrations you did for this book. They feel so energetic and alive! Can you talk about your illustration process a little bit? What media did you use to create the illustrations in this book? Are you mainly a traditional or digital illustrator (or a blend of both)?
Steph: Thank you! When I’m just messing around or starting a project, I work traditionally (fledgling story ideas and character sketches are in my sketchbook), and then for the dummy and the final art, I’m primarily working digitally. I’ll go back to my sketchbook if I’m having trouble ideating, but I generally find it easier to explore color and composition when I can mash CTRL-Z.
Plus, I don’t have a dedicated space for traditional art. You see, when my kid was younger, I couldn’t really trust things to stay in one place. One time, I was trimming art for a portfolio, and when I stepped away – briefly! It was a minute, tops! – I returned to find double-sided tape applied over everything. It was one of those roller applicators, so you can imagine how she probably went, “ZZZOOOOOOM! ZOOMZOOMZOOM!” (She probably had a lot of fun. I definitely didn’t.)
I’d love to do a book in traditional ink someday, but I also know it’ll be a bit of a process… So we’ll see!
Me: I love an oddball story and I love your yeti Otto. What gave you the idea for this story?
Steph: So you know that thing where writers don’t know what the story is about until they’ve written it? And then once they’ve written it, they’re like, Oh no, I’ve written a memoir, again.
This story started out with word play to generate story ideas (“yetis get sweaty”) and the first pitch involved a gym rat yeti. But I’m really drawn to misfits and mischief, and part of that is playing with expectations. Somewhere along the way, Otto turned into a dancing yeti with a secret dream, and then I realized that yeti was actually me. (Though my secret dream was making books, not dancing! And I’m not quite as hairy!)
Me: I laughed when I saw the book titles and movie poster in Otto’s bedroom. These are such excellent allusions that perfectly display your sense of humor. In fact, there are so many little inclusions all throughout that feel very “you.” What made you decide to include so many of your interests in one manuscript (mermaids, unicorns, yetis, etc.)? Why is this story one only you can have written and illustrated? Did you get any push back (from critique partners, agents, editors, etc.) about these unique aspects?
Steph: I love it when illustrators hide little details in the background, and as my family will point out (sometimes ruefully, depending on the day), I really can’t resist a good pun.
Since you picked up on the background details, you might be surprised that I’m not really comfortable drawing environments! I prefer to draw characters. Often times my agent will push me to fill in the backgrounds (“Can Otto’s bedroom feel a bit more lived in?”), and adding the silly details is how I keep myself entertained when I’m not feeling confident.
As far as how I ended up with a grab bag of mythological animals… I am naturally a person whose interests are all over the place (see above re: my career choices), but the accumulation of side characters was more of a gradual thing.
I started with the yetis, and then because there was dancing, there had to be unicorns (obviously). And then once I had the unicorns, my crit group asked whether there were other mythical creatures, too, and I went… SURE WHY NOT. Next thing I knew, I had amassed a whole host of previously overlooked potential dancing partners, including lumber yetis, a werewolf, a beefy merman, and a girl with snake hair. At one point, we even had a leprechaun and a griffin, though they didn’t make it to the final version.
Nobody pushed back on the large ensemble cast, I suspect because it makes a certain kind of sense in a sparkly magical dance story. It was more about finding the right level of prominence for each of the various side characters.
That said, I did have to be reined in sometimes – e.g. “Can we make these merman pecs a little less prominent?” or “Let’s lose the red veins on the eyes.” But on the whole, the editing process just made the story a shinier, more tightly executed version of itself. So… still me, but like… the super fit six-pack version of me.*
*Disclaimer: The author makes no claim regarding whether she currently has or has ever had a six-pack.
Me: What is one thing that surprised you in writing and/or illustrating this story?
Steph: Okay, so there’s this one spread at the end of the book, where our mythical creatures do… something big (skip this section if you don’t want spoilers).
I had one spread already of the big performance from the audience POV, so to keep things fresh, the next spread had to be from the stage POV. Except when I dummied it out, I had kind of just blobbed in the audience without realizing I would *GASP*… actually have to draw them.
So when I got to finals, I was like, Ohhhhh crap. What did I do to myself??? Curse you, past Stephanie! But my artist friends are really wise and I’m so grateful to have them. In particular, Scout Underhill (of DnDoggos – hi Scout!) encouraged me to really embrace it. They told me, “Think of all the fun characters and silly things you could draw.”
And so I went kind of wild. Don’t get me wrong, it was still tedious as heck (this artist solemnly swears to use more negative space in future books), but it’s now one of my favorite spreads in the book. AND! If you look closely, you miiiiight find a unicorn version of me and my family in the crowd…
Me: I love that! I saw news of your latest book deal and recognized a character from this one. Is the Medusa in Medusa’s Pet Rock the same Medusa we see in this book? Were the two books sold together?
Steph: Yes, that’s the same Medusa! But the books were sold separately, and the Medusa in Abominable actually started out with a different character design (lankier and more woodland fey). I had just started developing her story when we went on sub with Abominable – so when I got to the final Abominable art, I actually had to go back and update her!
Me: Any advice for other aspiring picture book writers and/or illustrators?
Steph: The best advice I ever got was to lean into ways your brain is a little wonky.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t learn how to do things the right way. If I hear later how you told your editor or art director, “Well, Steph Lau said that if I’m bad at perspective, I don’t have to think about it!” I will be rather cross. (You should definitely learn the rules, so you can then gleefully and intentionally break them.)
What I mean to say is, we all have a unique voice and perspective, and a lot of that revolves around what brings us joy as artists and what we are naturally drawn to… So instead of fighting your artistic impulse, why not see where it takes you?
That is great advice Steph. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog.
Dear readers, Steph’s book comes out tomorrow! Be sure to wish her a happy book birthday. If you like fantasy picture books, then this is definitely one to keep an eye out for. It’s humorous in all the best possible ways with a dash of heart and soul too. Trust me when I say, you won’t want to miss it.