THE FATHER AND SON TEAM

RitaL: Tell us about the dynamic Myers father and-son duo. When did you first realize your son Christopher had artistic talent?

WDM: Christopher liked to draw and build things with his blocks by the time he was three. I didn’t recognize any particular talent but his mother says she did. By the time he was seven or so he would occasionally draw something that seemed remarkable but just as often his art would be just children’s drawings. Then one day it all changed (maybe over a few months and I didn’t notice it). He used to draw pictures for my books when he was nine or ten and I would let him although I knew I wasn’t going to use them.

RitaL: What a great story! But we all know that most writers are advised to allow publishers to choose their own illustrators for books. How did you introduce Christopher’s work to the publisher?

WDM: When he went off to Brown, I began working on a story that I had worked on when he was quite young. I remembered he had wanted to draw
pictures then, and I called him and asked if he was still interested. He said yes. He was eighteen. The book was called Shadow of the Red Moon. I made no promises, but I showed them to the publisher (who hadn’t thought of the book as being illustrated) and they liked them.

Most often I do the text of a book first. Then I give him the text and he does the art with little or no consultation. He doesn’t want to be my son at that point, he wants to be an independent artist and I respect that.

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