Toby Speed

Who are you, in 25 words or less? I'm an author, a mom, a pilot, a cat-lover, and a chocoholic. I live on Long Island, about 60 miles east of New York City, close to beaches, parks, and farms.

That was more than 25 words. I'm sorry.

What do you write? I write both poetry and prose, and I like to put the two together when writing for children. My best-known book is probably TWO COOL COWS, which tells the story of why the cow jumped over the moon, and what she found there. Another popular book I wrote is BRAVE POTATOES, a fanciful story about some prize potatoes at the county fair who band together to save vegetable-kind from the chopping block of Chef Hackemup.

Do you do your own illustrations? No. Let's put it this way: my drawing skills are slightly better than those of my boyfriend. Everything he draws looks like a cow. The same cow. Next question.

Who are some children's authors you like? Tough question. The authors who influenced my work came partly from my past life as a child who was read to, and partly from the infancy and toddlerhood of my own children. Some of my favorite books as a kid were Carl Sandburg's THE WEDDING PROCESSION OF THE RAG DOLL AND THE BROOM HANDLE, Crockett Johnson's HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON, and Ruth Krauss's THE CARROT SEED -- simplicity, energy and determination packed into perfect stories.

I also liked Robert McCloskey's books, such as BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL and MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS, and Kay Thompson's ELOISE. And I read and loved all the fairy books by Andrew Lang -- every color.

Poetry influenced me at least as much as story. I loved poems by Christina Rossetti, Walter de la Mare, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Ogden Nash. My favorite book of poems, which I still have today, was a Big Golden Book called THE GOLDEN BOOK OF POETRY.

When my kids were little, I read them books like CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS by Judi Barrett and Ron Barrett, IMOGENE'S ANTLERS by David Small, SWIMMY by Leo Lionni, GOODNIGHT MOON by Margaret Wise Brown, THE LITTLE HOUSE by Virginia Lee Burton, CAPS FOR SALE by Esphyr Slobodkina, and THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR by Eric Carle. Also Wanda Gag's MILLIONS OF CATS, Donald Crews' TRUCK, Raymond Briggs' THE SNOWMAN (these last two wordless, but readable nonetheless!), Maurice Sendak's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE and IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN, Frank Asch's MOONCAKE, Tomie De Paola's STREGA NONA, and Jan Brett's THE MITTEN.

Oh, and JESSE BEAR, WHAT WILL YOU WEAR? by Nancy White Carlstrom, THE SNOWY DAY by Ezra Jack Keats, KING BIDGOOD'S IN THE BATHTUB by Audrey Wood and Don wood, TOO MUCH NOISE by Ann McGovern, AVOCADO BABY by John Burningham, and all of Norman Bridwell's books about CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG.

There are many other books that I'm sure I'm forgetting at the moment. My love for all of the above and countless stories I read in children's magazines convinced me that I could write good stories myself.

Why write more books when there are already so many good ones? Because I love words and love arranging them in ways that have meaning. Because I can't not write. Writing is how I express my feelings and let out what builds up inside me. I live in the world, I read and listen to the news, and I have expectations and hopes and disappointments, like everybody else. There are things I'm afraid of and things I know very little about. Writing is my best way to explore and deal with those things, and with stress.

Some people go for a run when they're stressed. Well, I have bad knees. But, besides that, a good part of the reason I write is that I came from a creative family. My dad was an artist, and my mom designs and sews quilts, has hooked rugs, and does all kinds of needlework. My brother and I played instruments, and the whole family played recorders together. My uncle was also a musician and was my first violin teacher. My parents went folk dancing for many years, and the house was always filled with music. Creating with words, sounds, movement, and color was considered a very good way to live life.

When I was little, my dad would open his big can of wet clay and give me a hunk to work with, or he'd tape a large piece of paper to his drafting table and sit me up on the stool so I could draw. I spent hours drawing and painting while he worked on his projects. He was also a calligrapher and an inventor with seven patents.

My mom has always knitted sweaters, sewed, crocheted, and done embroidery. I wasn't inclined in that direction (I barely passed sewing in 7th grade "Home Ec" back in the day) but I felt the pull to be a writer at a very young age. I was writing stories and poems in second grade, and I had my first short story published in a magazine called The Creative Writer when I was in fifth grade. When the principal called me down to the main office to give me the news, I walked through the hallways with dread — I thought I was in trouble!

Where are you from? I was born in Queens, New York, back in the early middle dark ages, and I grew up in Syosset, Long Island. Long Island is the fish-shaped piece of land east of New York City with many rivers, inlets, and islands of its own that I only discovered when I learned how to fly.

How old ARE you, anyway? Well, I'll give an idea. When I was a kid, girls wore tight bathing caps, blue jeans were called dungarees, and a cell was something you found in a jail. We got our first color TV when I was in high school.

What is your writing process? When I first started writing children's stories, I wrote everything in pencil on lined yellow pads. I still like the legal size yellow pads, which are hard to come by now.

It was hard to make the change to using a computer. It felt very artificial at first to punch out the words at a keyboard. I felt less connected to the text than I had with a pencil. But after a while, writing on a computer became second nature, and I'm incredibly glad I have my little Macbook Pro that goes with me everywhere.

I do my best writing in the early morning, the second I get out of bed. I usually start out by finishing up a sentence that was half done yesterday, or by tweaking the last paragraph I wrote. Then I make a pot of coffee and go back to writing. On days when I don't have to go to my day job, I can write for three to four hours productively. It depends on whether I'm at a stuck point or in the flow. Sometimes I write very quickly and easily. More often I have to niggle at something or some character that's just not working right.

If I'm really in the flow, I'll keep it up for five or six hours, but that doesn't often happen. More often, if I have the day to devote to writing, I'll take a walk in the afternoon, do some errands or work in the garden (or shovel snow, as the case may be), and go back and do my research or revisions for an hour or two. I'll make phone calls and answer letters then, too.

When I'm stuck, it's usually because my story wants to go in one direction and I'm attempting to force it somewhere else. My characters balk when I try to make them do things they don't want to do. They have their own agendas. Sometimes, with a picture book, I just have to figure out where the story is taking me, what it all really means. I have to let things percolate.

You mentioned a day job. What do you do? I'm senior writer at Stony Brook University. Most of my writing there is in the areas of student recruitment and marketing. I write brochures, ads, website profiles, articles for the University magazine and the faculty/​staff newspaper, and anything else they throw at me. I work with a terrific group of very creative people.

What kind of training did you have to become a writer? I took lots of writing courses at The New School back in the 1970s. In fact, I was a member of the Advanced Fiction Seminar for more than three years. I did write a novel in that seminar, but I never published it. It was pretty awful.

Do you have a college degree? I have 90 credits toward a bachelor's degree in English, accumulated over many years. I've had lots of nontraditional education.

Nontraditional? Such as what? I'm a licensed private pilot with more than 400 hours of flight time. Sixty-five of those hours were done before the checkride. I also earned my tailwheel endorsement and have 50 hours of aerobatics training.

I just completed the 16-week Citizens Academy given by the Suffolk County Police Department. I rode in a high-speed simulated car chase, shot a gun, visited the special ops, canine, and aviation units, got a tour of the crime lab, and went to the morgue, while learning all about how the police department functions.

Once I went to bartending school.

Bartending? What other careers have you had? I never actually landed a job as a bartender. But I've been a secretary, a typist of legal depositions, and an Avon lady.

What are you working on now? I'm writing a murder mystery (my first book for adults!) called DEATH OVER EASY. A short-order cook at a local luncheonette is found dead with her face in a bowl of pancake batter. Amateur sleuth Emma Trace, who is under suspicion, investigates the crime along with her gum-chewing sidekick, LaRue Fusticola. The story takes place in the very real Village of Port Jefferson, on the North Shore of Long Island. I picked Port Jeff because it's a great small town with a lot of history and color, and because I've always wanted to live there. I gave Emma the apartment I would love to live in myself.

She also has a cat, Bergamot, and a freelance editing business that gives her plenty of time to get in trouble.

Are you going to write more mysteries, or go back to children's books? I'm not sure yet. I will probably do both, but we will see.

Have your books been translated into any other languages? Yes. TWO COOL COWS has been translated into Korean, and BRAVE POTATOES into Japanese.

Do you do author visits to schools and libraries? Unfortunately, right now my schedule doesn't allow it. In the past I did author visits, school assemblies, and classroom workshops all over the region. I also did book signings in bookstores and taught writing and poetry workshops in the libraries. For years I was a regular at the Long Island Children's Writers and Illustrators (LICWI) author/​illustrator events. My picture books are out of print at this time, but I hope to find a way to participate again soon. I very much miss the interaction with kids, teachers, and parents.

Do you have any children? I have three grown daughters. My oldest daughter, Vanessa, is 29. She lives in Berkeley, California, and is going back to school for nursing. My middle daughter, Kate, is 26 and works in advertising and marketing in New York City. She recently opened an art gallery/​music performance space called I Made an Art in Red Hook, Brooklyn. My youngest daughter, Zoe, 24, lives near me and is going to school to become an occupational therapist.

What else do you like, besides writing?
flying
blogging
coffee in the morning
the ocean
windows with views of trees
my lime green pocketbook with snap pockets
baby back ribs at Smokin’ Al’s
Monster Truck jams
my cat, Kashi
long walks
having friends all over the country
chocolate

What's next for you? What are your goals? There are always too many things to choose from. Right now I'm not flying. I'd like to go back to doing that. I miss my after-work flights out to the Montauk lighthouse. Someday I’d like to fly around the United States and land on as many grass strips as I can.

I’m also going to learn how to shoot a gun. All in the name of research, of course.

I'd like to go back to playing the recorder, and maybe paint.

Copyright © Toby Speed 2010. All rights reserved.