Q&A with Paul Coccia

 

 

Paul Coccia is the author of the new children's picture book The Bear Fairy. His other books include the young adult novel Recommended Reading. He lives in Toronto. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Bear Fairy?

 

A: I drew a doodle of a fat, hairy, male fairy with the legs of a bear when texting with Heather Smith, a very accomplished and talented writer and friend. Heather told me I should write a picture book about the bear fairy I had drawn. So, I did.

 

My dad’s town in Italy was home to a yearly fairy festival with these deadly, cloven-hooved, wildly dancing fairies that lived in the caves of the mountain above the village, so the idea of an animal-legged fairy was inspired by that.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between your character Spencer and the fairy? What about between Spencer and Mariah?

 

A: I described the relationship between Spencer and the Bear Fairy as having uncle energy. I love being an uncle and older cousin because I don’t have to be the parent. There’s something nice about not having to worry about enforcing bedtimes or eating vegetables.

 

Mariah is an antagonist. She’s blunt. She can be rude. She’s also sure of herself. I can see Spencer and Mariah being called frenemies although my editor and I used a different word to describe Mariah at times.

 

Q: What do you think Fred Blunt’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: There would be no book without Fred Blunt. From conception, so much of the story was told visually. The original manuscript was only dialogue so the story was reliant on Fred’s visual storytelling as much as my text.

 

When I saw Fred had chosen full-colour, I was delighted as he added so much liveliness, energy, and sparkle and he helped move the plot and characters forward. I am still discovering and getting thrilled by the small details Fred added (like ‘80s action figures) that flesh out the world and bring it to life.

 

Q: What do you hope kids take away from the story?

 

A: I hope kids enjoy reading it before all else, and will want to read another book as a result.

 

Beyond that, readers (children especially) are smart enough to take whatever message they need from a story at the time they read it. One kid might see something about accepting people as they are, not as you imagine them to be. Another may see body-positivity.

 

Another, and I do think this is the universal takeaway, will probably walk away thinking they too want to be left alone to eat potato chips.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’ve usually got a couple of things in various stages of writing, but nothing contracted.

 

However, I can share I am in the early development stage of an adult romance for Julie Murphy’s Bittersweet Books, the team who came up with the concept for Recommended Reading. It’s so embryonic there isn’t much to say except it’s been a lot of fun so far.

 

I love Julie and the Bittersweet team. Words really can’t express how thankful I am to work with them again and to get to delve into a new genre.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: It sounds like making the leap to writing a picture book was simple as I described it above: I was told to write a picture book. I wrote one.

 

In reality, writing a picture book is very hard. My first drafts sucked big time. They were told in a traditional narrative style. They didn’t fit the story. When I went for a less traditional dialogue-only narrative, it worked better. My editor, Margot, made suggestions that improved it immensely. Fred, of course, was an integral partner in telling the story.

 

All this is to say, it’s OK to fail and get frustrated, but not to let it paralyse you. It’s also to say how much deeper my admiration for picture book authors and illustrators is now I’ve had the privilege of experiencing the process from the inside.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Paul Coccia.