He's one half of the mind that brought you The Spiderwick Chronicles. Yes. He's the amazing Tony DiTerlizzi!
N: Hey Tony! Welcome to WORD. You're the co-creator of The Spiderwick Chronicles - you must have worked with Holly Black quite a lot. Quick, dish - what's your favorite and least favorite thing about her?
TD: Thanks for having me WORD. What’s the 'word' today? How about radalicious?
Rad•a•li•cious (Rad a lish us), adjective
1. Something so unbelievable cool that you want to lick it.
2. A little known band from the 1980’s with minor hits like “Cake Farm” and “Old Tomato Shoes”
I am indeed the co-creator of the Spiderwick Chronicles with my good pal, Holly Black. She and I are like siblings. Old, faerie-loving-creepy-goblin-drawing siblings.
Seriously, my favorite thing about Holly is that, true to her name, she is always dressed in black. So it is easy to color coordinate with her. I think she owns the entire “Gashlycrumb” clothing line made just for fabulous teen authors.
My least favorite thing about Holly is that…hold on…where does this interview appear? On a blog…is it a popular one? I see…
I have no least favorite things about Holly. Everything she does is radalicious.
N:Pick a mythical creature. If they were real, how would the world react?
TD: I pick the one-and-only mythical creature known as Walt Disney’s head in a jar. The world would be excited to find that it is still alive and full of theme park ideas. We would all tune in to see who will own and care for it after it is sold on eBay.
N: What's your preferred method of writing? Do you write in a notebook, on the computer, with music...
TD: I write everywhere. Usually its in a sketchbook – where I can doodle and write out ideas. My iPhone is also chock-full of little post-it note ideas that hit me when I am out and about.
I listen to quite a bit of music while I work – though I cannot listen to anyone singing while I write. (Somehow the lyrics get all into my head). So I create playlists on iTunes of soundtracks and themes while I create.
For instance, while working on Spiderwick, I listened to:
“The Black Cauldron” soundtrack
“Braveheart” soundtrack
“The Dark Crystal” soundtrack
“The City of Lost Children” soundtrack
“The Princess Bride” soundtrack
…and The Gorillaz.
Just kidding, I didn’t put the Gorillaz on that playlist. But I do listen to them. A LOT.
To contrast this, I created a 1950’s-inspired whacky playlist to listen to while I worked on Adventure of Meno. On it, I had:
“The Jetson’s” theme song
“The Witch Doctor”
“Eep Opp Ork (Uh Uh)”
“Purple People Eater”
…and the Gorillaz. Did I mention I like them? “Demon Days” was awesome.
N: It's raining ____. Why?
TD: It’s raining Breyer’s mint chocolate-chip ice cream. But not in the boxes, that would totally destroy the car…and you can’t really catch it with your tongue. But, like rain, it doesn’t make you gigundous when you eat your weight in it.
Mmmm, sweet minty-chocolate rain. Is that thunder or my stomach?
N: How often do you read? What are your favorite books?
TD: Does reading other people’s facebook status count? If so, I read A LOT. I mean, like every 15 minutes I’m reading something.
No seriously, I read quite often and many of the books that I adored as a kid have shaped the types of books that I am making today.
This can be a long and ever-changing list for me. But, here are some all-time favorites:
Peter Pan and Wendy – J.M. Barrie’s classic has surly pirates, bloodthirsty native Americans, a hungry crocodile, feisty faeries and flying kids with weapons...what more could you ask for?
Watership Down – Richard Adams takes you on an incredible quest from a home colony that’s completely eradicated to Shangri la. One the way, there are monsters, villains, allies, oh, and a fascist leader trying to seize the hero’s new home...and its all told with rabbits. You read that right – rabbits.
The Mouse and The Motorcycle – Mouse buddy + toy motorcycle = Awesome!
The Lorax – In my mind, this one of Dr. Seuss’s undisputed classics. Sadly, we need the Lorax now more than ever.
Lafcadio: The Lion That Shot Back – One of Shel Silverstein’s lesser known titles, but one of my all-time favorites. Actually, I learned about this one when my younger brother read it for school and had me help with his book report. It is one of those stories that you will always remember.
N: What did you think of the Spiderwick movie?
TD: I think they made a movie of my books…that’s called: AWESOME!
Really, the filmmakers did a great job of adapting the stories. I really got a chance to see firsthand what goes into making a film. I understood a lot of the changes from the source material and agreed with most of them – simply put, they couldn’t jam everything from all five books into one film. It would have been really long, and really expensive.
But they did manage to retain the themes of the books (like Jared’s growth in dealing with his parent’s separation, and the knowledge that can be contained in a single book). And, of course, I loved seeing my creature designs brought to life. That’s my childhood dream-come-true!
It was an awesome ride. I’m ready to do it again.
N: Tell us a bit about your upcoming works.
TD: I mentioned Adventure of Meno earlier, which is a silly series of books created with my loverly wife, Angela. It is about a space elf who comes to Earth and befriends a near-sighted jellyfish and a wish-granting sprite. Seriously.
The books were inspired by our love of old 1950’s cartoons, toys and Little Golden Books (hence the songs on the aforementioned playlist). We wanted to make a funny, simple series to read aloud to our little girl.
After that, I’ll be launching a new trilogy. The first book is titled The Search for WondLa. It’s a futuristic adventure teeming with aliens, robots and monsters – a fairy tale for the twenty-first century.
N: It's the dead of night. You're walking, alone, when... ______.
TD: Is that thunder!? Is it about to rain?
Yes! I see mint chocolate-chip ice cream pouring down from the heavens! No need for an umbrella, just a napkin and some galoshes.
Radalicious man, radalicious.
Thanks for stopping by, Tony! Catch him over here at his website [link]!