WO: Three of us writers wrote those books. Claudine Wirths, Wendie Old, and Mary Bowman-Kruhm. We had a lot of fun creating them by e-mail. Mary sent Busy Toes to over 15 publishers until finally Whispering Coyote Press bought it. (That now is an imprint of Charlesbridge.)
Now, think about it. Three authors, one illustrator, the name of the books, AND the name of the publisher -- all on the spine of the book. It just doesn't fit. So we our coombined names together. C.W. for the first name and we condensed Bowman-Kruhm into "Bowie" to come up with C.W. Bowie. Then, we wrote Busy Fingers together -- and used the same pen name. Now that Claudine has died (she was much older than us), Mary and I are continuing to use the pen name for our next book. We are working on Busy Bodies.
8.SR: How is the approach to writing picture books different than writing nonfiction?
WO: All three of us are non-fiction writers. (In fact, the two of them talked me into trying my hand at non-fiction when I was complaining that my fiction and picture books weren't selling.) So picture book writing was a fun activity for the two of them. It was something I'd been doing for some time, myself.
Picture books focus on one idea. Something familiar to preschoolers. (what could be more familiar than their own fingers and toes?) You do have to do research for a picture book -- just not as involved as for non-fiction. and it's a different kind of research. You can't read and use what others have done. The picture book concept must be your own creation, even tho you are using familiar things in a child's life. Now, my picture book biography of the Wright brothers -- TO FLY, THE STORY OF THE WRIGHT BROTHERS -- is a whole 'nother ball of wax. It is true non-fiction and must be accurate. The concepts and story must be true, accurate, and stated so as to be easily understood by everyone. (I'd love to have a nickle for every person who has told me that they not only enjoyed reading TO FLY, but that they came away surprised that they had learned something, too.) It's because I won't write something until I completely understand it, myself. I was even re-writing things at the last minute -- when I had the page proofs, simply because I had discovered a better explaination about the propeller they invented. I spent three days at Williamsburg and was thrilled when I finally understood why the American War of Independence began. (for my George Washington/ Thomas Jefferson bios) And could now explain it in 2 paragraphs. (books had not explained it clearly enough for me.)
