I live in the middle of 300 acres in Vermont. One of the things that’s very important to me personally is when I’m working on a book I really need to focus. I remember actually when I did my first book, I was living in New York City. I actually worked through the night, because I couldn’t focus, because New York City is so busy. I lived down in the Village, and it was so noisy during the day that I couldn’t focus on artwork. I couldn’t focus. So, I would sleep during the day and work on the book at night.
So, to live in Vermont in this very rural area, on this back road, which is a dead end road
we’re in a very small town. There are only 1200 people in our town. So, it’s very conducive to focusing. And it’s very important for me to be able to work and then step away from the work and get outside and just go for a walk in the woods, and to just hang out for a while and clear my mind.
We also live on an island off the coast of Maine, which is 30 miles offshore. It’s the furthest inhabited island off the coast of Maine. There’s a state ferry that runs once a month, so for us to get out to the island, we usually hop a boat with a fisherman who lives on the island. There’s only 80 people who live on the island. Or, we hire a five-seater Cessna to take us out to the island. There’s a little gravel runway. It’s a very isolated island. In fact, when we first moved out there, the fishermen wondered what the hell we were doing there. “What are you doing out here? We’re just a bunch of fishermen. And who are you people?”
I’ve had a tremendous amount of experiences on that island that have given me ideas for books. I did a book called The Puffins Are Back, because six miles away is an island called Matinicus Rock, where puffins live. There’s a fellow named Stephen Kress who’s in charge of the puffin project. When I decided to do the puffins book, I was researching a book on lighthouses. And I was out at Matinicus Rock, and I ran into Stephen Kress, who was banding the little sea puffins, because they were trying to rebuild the puffin population on Matinicus Rock. So, some of these ideas merge into one another.
But, again, that island in particular is extremely isolated and very quiet. And that’s what I need a lot when I’m working.
