I would probably be a TV art director somewhere, maybe. I don’t know. I tried that for a while, actually, but I got fired. My boss was not amused that I wanted to dress up our weather lady as a fairy and fly her on to the set on a large swing, dressed as a fairy, and land in front of a little wishing well. She would tiptoe over and say, “Well, what’s happening today with our weather?”
And I would be in the well. I guess I’ve got a little bit of ham in me. And I would answer her. I would say, “It’s snowing today, Shirley. Get out your galoshes.”
And then I told him how there would be a little, mechanical squirrel that would hand her markers to do weather maps and how we would change her costume with the seasons. He stopped asking me questions at one point. I don’t remember how soon, but I did find a pink slip in my mailbox the next morning, and it entitled me to a free Christmas ham. And I lived on ham for a long time.
I did have many jobs. Kids think I just sort of woke up one day and became an author-illustrator, but it was a series of being fired from many jobs that led me here. Each thing had something to offer and I brought it to what I do now. I think of kids as my boss and I really take my job seriously. I don’t want to be fired, because I really like what I do.
