Josh Funk Interview: LOST IN THE LIBRARY

Patience and Fortitude, the noble lions who guard the New York Public Library, are the stars of a new picture book, LOST IN THE LIBRARY, by the amazing Josh Funk!

When Fortitude awakens one morning, he discovers that his pal Patience is missing. He ventures inside the library looking for his story-loving friend. We get to see the noted regions of the library through Fortitude’s eyes as he scours the rooms to find his friend before sunrise.

No spoilers here, but the reason why Patience wandered off his plinth will make perfect sense. I loved the endpapers which describe details about the celebrated features of the museum. LOST IN THE LIBRARY is a love letter to books, true friendship, and the wonderful NYPL!

I’m thrilled to welcome Josh Funk to The Winged Pen!

Thanks for inviting me, Michelle!

The minute I read the announcement about this book, I wished I’d come up with the idea first. Could you tell us about the inspiration for Lost in the Library?

I have to say that there was more enthusiasm about this book at the time of the announcement than any of my others (I guess in our little world of book-lovers, a book about one of the most famous libraries was rather appealing. Who woulda guessed?).

The truth is, that I did not come up with the idea. Macmillan, who is publishing Lost in the Library, and the NYPL had a plan to create several books about the New York Public Library. From what I was told, this plan included a picture book, middle grade novel, young adult novel, nonfiction book, adult coloring book, and a children’s coloring book. My agent (hi, Kat!) found out about this project from an editor at Macmillan and asked me if I was interested.

Of course I said yes, and my task was to submit a sample – or a partial manuscript – for consideration. Macmillan provided a loose premise: Patience goes missing, Fortitude has to find him, getting a tour of the library along the way, eventually finding Patience in the … well, that actually might spoil it. But you get the picture.

So, the inspiration … I guess you could say it was my brilliant agent’s networking ability that inspired it?

Hear, hear to your brilliant agent! Why was Patience the lion who went missing?

I didn’t actually decide who would go missing – that was part of Macmillan’s loose premise. But it really always had to be Patience.

We spend most of the book following Fortitude around, who, for all of his strengths, is not particularly patient. I think if Patience were the main character, he would have just patiently waited outside for Fortitude to return … and thus, there would not have been any book.

Ha! Very good point!

I’ve read Lost in the Library several times now, geeking out over the lovely details about the New York Public Library, especially the endpaper notes about the NYPL. As I read, I could almost picture you, sitting in various library rooms taking it all in, hanging out with Patience and Fortitude, listening to their secrets. Did you write it on site? Take a trip there to make notes? Imagine it all based on a previous trip there?

I had never been to any branch of the NYPL until after Macmillan selected my sample. In fact, my sample consisted of the opening section (“Oh, no! Patience is missing!”) and the ending (“Yay! I found Patience!”) of the book, but I left the ‘Fortitude gets a tour of the library’ part because I really had no way of knowing what the tour would be like.

Once Macmillan selected my sample, I took the train to New York on January 9^thof 2017 and got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Stephen A. Schwartzman Building. I took hundreds of pictures, smelled all the smells, took several pages of notes, and went in every room that wasn’t locked or off limits (kind of like Fortitude). I have to admit, I didn’t know Patience and Fortitude’s characters all that well when I visited the library, so it was more to experience everything for myself.

That first trip of mine paralleled Fortitude’s in the book; yes, Fortitude is stalwart and bold, and adamantly sticks to his post guarding the library steps. But he, like the reader (and in this case, the writer), is new to the library and seeing everything for the first time.

Later that day I took the train home. And that’s where I started writing the story. And I was so inspired (by the library … and the impending deadline) that I wrote a full first draft in the next three days.

Nice! What can you tell us about what you’re working on now? Do you have any other books about the NYPL planned?

I’d love to write more about Patience and Fortitude, but nothing is currently planned (yet).

This past spring, I just released two new books. How to Code a Sandcastle, illustrated by Sara Palacios, combines my two professional worlds (Software Engineering and Picture Book Writing). It’s about a girl named Pearl and her robot, Pascal who use fundamental coding concepts to construct the perfect beach day (such as sequences, loops, and if-then-else statements). And just before that was Albie Newton, illustrated by Ester Garay, about smart and creative boy who starts school, but doesn’t really have all the social skills down yet.

And then on September 25^th(only four weeks after Lost in the Library comes out), the third book in the Lady Pancake & Sir French Toastseries: Mission Defrostable, illustrated by Brendan Kearney comes out. In this action-packed adventure, the fridge is freezing over – and Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast have to travel into parts of the fridge they’ve never ventured … and need to enlist the help of one of their fiercest rivals. Dun. Dun. DUN! Check out the trailer here:

Great trailer! The music made me want to dance. 🙂

Buckle up for the lightning round, Josh! *hands you a heaping plate of French toast for strength

If you had a superpower, what would it be? Invisibility

Wooden pencil or mechanical? Wooden

Coffee or tea? COFFEE!!!

Sweet or salty? Sweet

Dog, cat, or other? Neither

Plotter or pantser? Both (depends on the story)

One last question: Any advice for all those aspiring authors out there?

I’ve put together a Resources for Writerssection on my website, organized in 12 lessons:

But I think the best advice is to keep writing new things. Your next manuscript will inevitably be better than the last (as you’ve probably learned a lot from writing and revising the last one). And so will the next. And the next next. So keep writing. And eventually your writing will be ready for publication!

Ah, wonderful resources and such terrific advice! Thanks so much for joining us, Josh!

LOST IN THE LIBRARY releases on 8/28, but you can preorder from your favorite bookstore or request it from your local library today!

Josh Funk writes silly stories and somehow tricks people into publishing them as books – such as the Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast series (including The Case of the Stinky Stench and the upcoming Mission Defrostable), How to Code a Sandcastle (and the upcoming sequel How to Code a Rollercoaster), It’s Not Jack and the Beanstalk, Dear Dragon, Albie Newton, Pirasaurs!, and the forthcoming Lost in the Library: A Story of Patience and Fortitude (in conjunction with the New York Public Library), It’s Not Hansel and Gretel, and more coming soon!

Since the fall of 2015, Josh has visited (or virtually visited) over 300 schools, classrooms, and libraries. Josh is a board member of The Writers’ Loft in Sherborn, MA and was the co-coordinator of the 2016 and 2017 New England Regional SCBWI Conferences.

Josh grew up in New England and studied Computer Science in school. Today, he still lives in New England and when not writing Java code or Python scripts, he drinks Java coffee and writes manuscripts.

Josh is terrible at writing bios, so please help fill in the blanks. Josh enjoys _______ during ________ and has always loved __________. He has played ____________ since age __ and his biggest fear in life is being eaten by a __________.

For more information about Josh Funk, visit him at www.joshfunkbooks.com and on Twitter at @joshfunkbooks.

Posted by Michelle Leonard.