Transcript: Children Chatting With Author Jarod Pratt and Illustrator Jey Odin

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Children Chatting: Discussion between author Jarod Pratt, illustrator Jey Odin, and Children Chatting members

DANIELLA: Hello, everyone. You're listening to Children Chatting with Authors. Today we're going to be joined by author Jarod Pratt and illustrator Jey Odin of the book Lemonade Code.

DANIELLA: Hi, my name's Daniella. My question for both of you is, considering Lemonade Code is set in the future and has a lot of cool science, I was wondering what books, TV shows, or movies set in the future inspired you guys or that you really loved watching growing up?

JAROD: Oh, that's a great question. I'd say Star Wars but that's really in a time long, long ago, not really in the future. So I like Back to the Future, that was a heavy kind of thing when I think about future things I like. Carswell, who's not a book that takes place in the future, but he's a theoretical scientist and he talked a lot about quantum physics and singularity, he was a pretty big influence. He had a really deep book about what might happen in the year 2047 as technology kind of goes through the law of accelerating recurrence and like basically technology's at point where it's kind of doubling every year, so that thing is like the graph is just gone straight up.

JAROD: So what things might look like in 20 years, it's kind of almost inconceivable to what we think now. So I would say that was some of the bigger science-based things. Blade Runner was a big one. I guess the Matrix took place in the future and the present so then the Matrix [inaudible 00:01:37] so it's a little iffy, but Matrix is a big one. And yeah, I hope that's enough. I just want to say too that Daniella, you have an awesome voice. I hope you look into voice recording, you have an awesome voice.

DANIELLA: Thank you.

JEY: I mean I think Jarod says it all. I would say also maybe the Jetson's.

JAROD: Oh that's a good one.

JEY: Yeah that was really cartoony. Honestly, I didn't really pool from any reference from any future show I'd seen as a kid. I kind of just I already had what I envisioned and then I just kind of looked at whatever the script was and kind of did the best I could. So I'm glad I met the expectations that Jarod had for me, so it worked out. It was good.

DANIELLA: Thank you.

MILES: So this is a question for both of you. By the way, my name is Miles. What inspired you to make fairyflies?

JAROD: Fairyflies. Okay, Mr. Smiles. Man, I would say I just tried to... I wanted something that was miniature because it [inaudible 00:02:49] the story kind of build it up like it was going to be this big deal. So, I honestly just went through Google and found out what the smallest insect was. And then when I heard of fairyflies I'm like "I have never actually heard of these things in my life" and they're the smallest insects in history, and I thought that'd be just a cool thing to show that technology has been able to shrink down such a small [inaudible 00:03:10] by being able to replicate the smallest insect.

JEY: And when I was drawing them, he gave me like a diagram, kind of, so I kind of just drew some cannon eyes that made that look like a robot. And then I, at the very end, I remember we had a talk at the very end where all of the fairyflies come together and there's a gigantic fairyfly. I remember after I had already drawn the scene, Jarod had said that he thought that I was going to just draw like a really big one, he didn't know that I would just kind of like draw every single one of them piled up together. So, I mean I had a lot of fun drawing them. It was a really cool enemy, I guess, per se to draw and all of those panels. So yeah, it was really cool.

JAROD: To see that you can have a vision in your mind that looks a certain way, to me it was just like a [inaudible 00:04:02] monster, and he took the time to like draw the visual swarm. I actually think that's the better choice, and so yeah, that's just one of those things that collaboration will come out, just from this guy being so gifted at what he does. I already told him that you were the reason for the books to stick.

JEY: Oh yeah that's cool, nice. That's awesome. That's awesome.

MILES: Thank you.

MICAH: Hi, my name is Micah and my question for Jarod is how did you first get into writing and making up stories? And my question for Jey is how did you get into drawing and becoming an illustrator?

JAROD: I got into writing when I was really young. I used to have just a lot of toy collections. Though I'm a little older, but I had all these GI Joe toys, the Transformers, all the Star Wars or super friends toys. I would want to do these epic battles, so I would just start writing out the epic battles and just been writing stories since then, pretty much. But as a career, I probably didn't take it serious until like 2015, but I've written the whole time. I've always had like a circle of writers and people I just share the writing with.

JEY: Yeah, just like Jarod, I've been drawing since I was really young. I was like six years old when I first started drawing. My brother used to draw as well and he was kind of like a rival of mine, so I would draw something, he would draw something. I would try to impress him and then he would tell me that I was stupid.

JEY: He's my older brother, but no it was just it was awesome just to draw. I learned a lot from him, I met my mentor through him and we were all like really close. We went to the same school. He was like 10 years older than me so he knew already a lot about comic books in general. So, he had been teaching me since I was like 10 years old, so by the time I had gotten to college, I had known a lot about drawing comic books and illustrating and all of that other stuff. And, I don't just draw comic books, I also write. I have my own series, it's called Hammer, currently being materialized and published in this magazine called Saturday AM.

JEY: So I do that and I also draw comics like when Jarod... Luckily, I know he says in the last time we talked just now, he said that I was the reason for the success of this book, but I mean, had he not written the script it wouldn't have happened. So, I'm very happy that Jarod was able to have that script and I was able to draw it and make that come out the way it did. But, I've been drawing ever since I was six so I'm just really happy that it's finally gotten to this point, but it takes a really long time. So, yeah that's what I do.

LEAH: My name is Leah and I have a question for both of you. Why did you want Robbie to be a mad scientist?

JAROD: Oh. Well, I knew I wanted the story to take place for the future because there's been a lot of kids books about maybe lemonade stands, face-offs, and war, so I was like a nice twist on it would be setting it in future, and it kind of really just came from there. And once I knew it was in the future, I wanted a character that you could really kind of dive into the technology with. So, being a mad...it was a scientist or a mad scientist and the mad scientist part was just because Robbie's kind of the antagonist, he's kind of that figure. He's kind of like a Lex Luther kind of type, so it was better making a mad scientist because you can get more jumps out of.

JEY: Yeah and it was actually really fun to have him do all these poses like he's a mad scientist and point at you and all this other stuff, so that was really cool. And I agree, him being the antagonist to Daphne because Daphne, I assume yeah she's a kid, but you know she's just like the angel according to their relationship. Robbie was not as nice as she was, so it worked out having him be a mad scientist. I thought that was really funny.

LEAH: Thank you.

JAROD: Thank you.

ADALINE: Hi, my name is Adaline. So why did you want to do it about lemonade?

JAROD: Well, it's my favorite drink in the entire world so [crosstalk 00:08:17] and I never got to have a lemonade stand when I was a kid, so this was a nice way to have a lemonade stand vicariously I guess, like even though I'm old, just write about it. And then I wanted a familiar story because I knew it was going to take place in the future, and I wanted an entryway into the story that would seem familiar to people and I thought people could really relate to a lemonade stand. I had some other ideas, it was going to be a robot in like the beauty show, but I didn't think that would be as... I didn't think that'd be as compelling as just seeing two kids on the street corner, especially being able to show a futuristic setting and still narrow the story down the street corner and something so familiar. I thought that was a good way to kind of ground the story and not let it get too far out of hand with like the [inaudible 00:09:04].

THERON: My name is Theron, and my question is, is this story related to you guys?

JAROD: Not to me personally. I guess I know some kids like Robbie so it was an easy character. Oh I know kids like both characters, like Robbie and Daphne, so they were pretty easy to write. I will say maybe as far as single mom relationship with Dr. Mom, my parents got divorced pretty early and even before then my dad was a little absentee ish, so that relationship was probably drawn heavily on things I... like just knowing how it is being a single mom and having kids. I had brothers and stuff so it wasn't just [inaudible 00:09:47].

JEY: I have a brother, I said that earlier, but yeah we have a single mom. My dad was around, he came every other weekend, but I definitely had that relationship in terms of drawing this comic and trying to make the situations relatable. Like facial expressions wise, how would their body language be if this happened or this situation happened, how would that work out?

JEY: So I always... I thought about all those situations to try to like translate it, try and translate that into my comic book work. But other than that, no, I unfortunately never had a lemonade stand. I always wanted one, I thought that would be really cool. I love lemonade as well, it's definitely one of my favorite drinks so that's always really nice. Yeah. I unfortunately never had this grand of an adventure when I was kid, but I definitely had a lot of fun drawing it. I got to live through this character, so it was really cool.

AVERY: Hi, my name is Avery and my question for both of you is how did you get the idea to make it a lemonade contest? Did you like lemonade stands in your childhood?

JAROD: Yeah. Definitely love lemonade, any kind of lemonade actually. Like I'm a sucker for lemonade, just throw it on the menu, I'm buying it. So that was pretty much the... And then, again, just the idea of wanting to do something familiar, I thought that lemonade code, a lemonade stand kind of story would be pretty good for all the people. I love lemonade. Blueberry lemonade is my favorite. [crosstalk 00:11:32] I wish I could try some of the... I don't want to try all the wild favors from the graphic novel, but I wish there was a machine where you could just try any flavor of lemonade, that'd be great.

JAROD: That would be pretty cool.

JEY: That'd be pretty cool.

JEY: My favorite lemonade is, other than the blueberry lemonade because there's simply that brand of lemonade is amazing their blueberry, they also have strawberry and raspberry as well, but Chick-fil-A lemonade I just...It's amazing.

JAROD: [Hearty laughs] Lemonade!

JEY: I don't know why Chick-fil-A lemonade...Well, I mean Chick-fil-A, in general, is just delicious, but I mean their lemonade is just phenomenal.

NICHOLAS: Hi my name is Nicholas, and my question for you is how did you get the idea for Robbie?

JEY: Yeah. I knew I was writing a kids book. So this was an idea I had a long time ago I should say, it was like a newspaper strip idea I had before I submitted the Oni Press, and so a lot of storylines, I had different storylines for it. And to submit it to Oni Press, I just kind of take a certain story line which would be a little bit different if you did it in a newspaper, which is a daily strip, and expanded out into a large story.

JEY: So, I think the original idea came from me and my cousin just passing ideas back and forth, and I knew I wanted to write from the viewpoint of the antagonists. It's something you see in adult novels a little bit more, but you don't see it as often in kids novels. I thought it was interesting to write from that perspective and see if you can make the antagonist kind of redeeming you know?

JEY: So, that was pretty much the whole idea behind it, so that's where it started. As far as the rest of the thing, I just kind of based him on kind of kids I've known. I've known kids like Robbie, and sometimes they can be amped up in that way and just a little bit misunderstood. They can take just a little bit more grace and a little bit more understanding and really get to the core of who they are, they're not really bad kids.

JEY: Sometimes they just get wrapped up, especially if you deal with a kid that is exceptionally smart, sometimes all the logic and everything kind of gets in the way of like just basic human empathy and emotion. I wanted to show like this doesn't make the character necessarily good or bad, without sliding it to having to delve too much into like maybe making the character autistic, explaining it a different way that's still [inaudible 00:14:04] so that was basically the gist of it. Great question. Thanks.

CYRUS: Hi, my name is Cyrus, and my question is why did you name the characters like that name? Why did you choose those names?

JAROD: Oh, okay. Well, originally it was called "R&D: The Lemonade Code" but we dropped the R and D, but yeah it was originally named R and D and so our characters were all going to be male. Every important R character would start with a...Male character would start with L, every important female characters start with a D. So you get like Daphne, Dr. Mamma, Deloris, and on the R side, you get like Robbie, Researcher, and his dad was in there if you just look for any character that has nothing to do with the story, with a name R.

JAROD: That was like a little code that was built into it, and from there I just kind of went with a name that I thought a kid... For Robbie, it was more about having a kiddy version and an adult version of a name so you can have a kid who wants to be older and be like [inaudible 00:15:11] so that just seemed to fit. And then for Daphne Du-Ri, I wanted her to be that she's kind of a magical, mysterious character. Again, I just went to Google. I looked up for Korean last names because I only knew one Korean last name that started with a D and I didn't want to use that one. So, I looked up another one and there's not many people named Du-Ri in South Korea, it's a very rare name. There're some questions around it so I thought that fit the mysterious nature of the character, kind of showing up out of the blue and blowing the whole spot up.

CYRUS: Okay Thank you.

JAROD: No, thank you.

LEAH: Hi, my name is Leah and I have a question. So why did you want Robbie to have a black eye?

JAROD: Violence was something I wanted to address a certain way in the book, that's why kind of the end scene with the fairyflies is like a song and dance kind of number. One of the things I was trying to do with the book and I was saying it, I guess too upfront, was that maybe violence isn't always the answer. So I wanted the acts of violence in there to be kind of "Well, one's not his fault, one's kind of his fault" but even the character feels horrible about it happening and so I think that's fitting. Plus, I thought it was just kind of cool for the first page to be this character with a black eye. There's a movie that I don't think anybody would have seen that is called Election, and in Election, there's a high school girl that runs...You saw it before?

JEY: [Laughs] It's a great movie.

JAROD: Robbie is what happened in the movie. The principal kept trying to...There's an overachieving girl that wanted to be high school president and the principal kept trying to make sure she couldn't be president. He just had a grudge against her for no reason, just thought she was [inaudible 00:17:07] a little conceited I guess. And so every time he tried to sabotage her he would suffer the consequences, and that was something I kind of wanted to show about Robbie's bad behavior is that every time he actually tries to do the wrong thing, he suffers consequences. Except for the one accident [inaudible 00:17:25], but that was kind of my way of trying to say that even if you kind of liked this character, he definitely went about it the wrong way. He suffered the consequences of his actions.

JEY: Yeah and it was actually really fun to draw a black eye. It was just really, really cool. I didn't want to make it look too painful, but I didn't want it to look comical at the same time so I figured just a big circle with a line in it. But yeah...

JAROD: The second way you drew it, Jey, when it was kind of falling through the page.

JEY: Oh, yeah.

JAROD: That was another way in which you reinterpreted. That came out really cool.

JEY: [crosstalk 00:18:08] Yes. When I was reading the script, I was envisioning like a double page spread and then I realized that it actually wasn't a double page spread. So I was like "Okay, well, let me see if I can do something else that would still be really cool" and that's what came up. So, I'm glad it came out well enough for it to be not confusing when you're reading, because that was like one of the biggest things that I was trying to like make sure I didn't do. I never want to confuse anybody when they read my comics, so that was a very difficult thing to do, but it was very fun and drawing his black eye just... I don't know, it was very fun, every panel after that.

MICAH: Hi, my name is Micah and this question is for both of you. What are your plans on the series? Are you going to make some new books or if not, what other [inaudible 00:19:09] you plan to create?

JAROD: Good question. Jey, you want to go first?

JEY: Yeah, sure. So, first off, when it comes to Lemonade Code, me and Jarod have talked. We were totally down to do a volume two, I guess we will see what happens in the future. Right now it's a very busy time for me, and I remember in one of our last podcasts, Jarod was telling me that he was working on stuff as well. But for me in particular, drawing the comics and stuff, I am currently working on like five projects, which is a good thing just because I love drawing comics and it's finally becoming more of my career so I'm very happy. Always follow your dream kids. It can come true. It takes a long time, so just keep that in mind. But it can come true.

JEY: But there's... The series that I'm currently working on, it's actually my series, it's called Hammer. It's about this kid who gets sucked into his father's journal and he's trying to find a way out, but he can't and he's like trying to like fight all these monsters while turning any part of his body into a hammer. He's just trying to survive. And the company that I'm getting that published with, first off, we have an app which we update every month with a new magazine issue. We're on like issue 135 of that magazine and we have two other magazines, one's on issue four, the other one's on issue 13 so obviously, those got started a lot later, but so I'm working on something like that.

JEY: I'm currently working on another script that's about to be sent in to me. I'm been talking to one of the editors at Oni Press, there's two stories that I might be working on it. And then there's also another book that I'm pitching as well to Oni Press that I believe everybody will enjoy. I don't want to spoil anything for anybody yet, but it's a pretty cool story. It's about, essentially, a family going on an adventure, but you know there's a little more to it, obviously. Hopefully, you'll see more from me in the near future, definitely starting next year and stuff, but when it comes to Lemonade Code, I would love to do one if at all possible within the next five years. I think that would be great to do for sure.

JAROD: Mm-hmm (affirmative) Yeah. I agree with Jey. We talked about it... when the time's right. When the time is right I hope we can get it done. I'm currently working on more [inaudible 00:21:44] as opposed to... I'm not an artist, again. Also, can I just say right here before I say what I'm working on. I woe this guy. I tell him every time we come on here, I have to give an apology because I wrote these huge crowds and normally [crosstalk 00:21:58] draw these crowd things, they will just... They'll draw one or two characters and they'll draw shadows in the background to kind of show the crowd, but he really individually went in and drew every hair and that kind of painstaking detail is just amazing, and it really makes the thing look like a comic book. And why I give him all the credit is because of that, because even though I do write stories, [inaudible 00:22:22] it's like a story I wrote.

JAROD: I don't think the story... If there was another artist on it that didn't put that detail into it, I honestly don't believe the book would have been as good as it did. That detail is just insane. I owe you an apology, I'll never do it to you again. For Lemonade Code 2, no crowd scenes. But as far as projects, I worked on an audio book, which was some old comedy sketches I wrote and just turned into an audiobook. That's more for adults, I guess. For young adults, I've been working on a story called "4,004 BCE", which imagines like a more modern society thing with futuristic, and every myth kind of existed together. So just instead of like tales and fairies, you might have African myths, or you might have Japanese or Chinese myths, and just in this really futuristic setting. So, it's like a cyberpunk fantasy, I guess.

JAROD: And for kids, I have been working on something for a while [inaudible 00:23:18] which is I'm a big fan of Looney Tunes, which is another inspiration, I guess I should have said for like Robbie. I consider Robbie Daffy Duck and kind of consider Daphne like Bugs Bunny a little bit because like that dynamic. And so I've been working on this which takes the character, research the dog, and then in the original version of it was a rapper instead of Daphne, the dog was, but then we took out all the talking animals which was probably for the best. So, I took that character so just a little story about a rapping Pomeranian, kind of business mogul bird, a DJ mouse, and a fashionista cat. And they all get together and they form like this cool little collective and go out into the entertainment/music industry. So, I'm hoping it'll be good and I'm hoping to find a way to maybe even do some songs as a dog, mostly just because I didn't get to do it for Lemonade Code.

JEY: Yeah that would be a very fun series to look at. A rapping Pomeranian. I remember when I got the sheet of like character descriptions and originally he's right, it was going to be a walking [crosstalk 00:24:31] Maine Coon yeah. [crosstalk 00:24:34] It was a Maine Coon for Daphne, and I was like "Man, this is a tall cat." There was the Pomeranian and I remember I showed...I drew the Pomeranian in like rap gear and like a chain and I showed that to my wife and she was like "Oh my God." [crosstalk 00:24:54] So all of that to say is, I can only imagine how cute a rapping Pomeranian with a DJ mouse, like a fashionista, a cat and all these other.. Like that sounds awesome, that sounds good.

MILES: Hi, my name is Miles. I have one last question and this is for you, Jey, why did you choose this style for the comic book?

JEY: Yeah, that's a good question. So, I can't actually change my style of drawing a lot, and recently I've been drawing more and more in this cartoony... I like to coin the phrase "cartoony manga." It still looks a sort of like a Japanese comic, but it's so cartoony and warped that you're just like "This is a cartoon though." It doesn't make you immediately think of just Japanese manga when you see this, especially since it's in color as well. So, having it in this art style is an art style that like I came up with, and I've been drawing my other series, Hammer, in and volume one of that should be coming out soon.

JEY: And I knew that when volume one of that comes out, Lemonade Code will be coming out and I thought it would be a really cool thing to not only just let people know through, I guess, my art style that I have other books out. If you look at Hammer, then you'd be like "Oh wow, this looks kind of like Lemonade Code" and then you pick up Lemonade Code and then there you go, I have two books. Or you pick up Lemonade Code and then you're like "Oh wow. This other book looks like that." So, that was one of the reasons why I had that art style. The other reason is to play up all the comedy aspect. There's a lot of movement with kids and even with, for instance, Robbie tripping at the very end. It's really a lot easier to play up that comedy factor with the silliness of like expose, and I couldn't necessarily do that as effectively if it was drawn realistically, it wouldn't translate as well. So, that's one of the main reasons why I chose this style of drawing. But yeah good question, man. That was cool.

LAUREN: My name is Lauren, and my first question is for Jarod. Jarod, you know I love Robbie so much. I know you say he's the antagonist. I love his personality. I love his temper tantrums. He was so hilarious, but I feel like you added this element with him and his relationship with his mom, Dr. Mamma, that really made anyone that reads the book like him. And so did you write Robbie and Dr. Mama together, be a mad scientist to follow her in her footsteps to add some love to Robbie?

JAROD: I did. I did. I knew he was kind of a tough...he'd be a tough abrasive character, so I wanted to show that even though he might act that way in a certain situation, look how he act in this situation. So, you would be kind of forced to deal with the... I don't want to say this [inaudible 00:28:07] dichotomy of the character, the both sides of the character, that he could be the antagonist, but in this thing. And really all this kid wants to do, he's so focused on trying to help his mom out, he's having a good time. So, if somebody comes in... And I want to say like Daphne wasn't completely innocent, she did just come set up like with no warning.

JAROD: I do think he would, I thought he was... One of the things I wanted to prove, I guess, he kind of says at the end, you couldn't think of another way to do this. So, it's not so much the Daphne was right for what she did, but the way you responded was so wrong. He went so far that it kind of, like any reason you had is out the window but the kid didn't deserve that kind of response you know? So for you spying and just treating her so bad and that was kind of one of the things I wanted to say about the character too. I'm really about fair play and things like that and then like equal force, equal measures and counter measures and things like that. We shouldn't go so hard all the time to say we feel threatened.

JAROD: And so that was kind of very intentional. It's just I never get to see... I've read a lot of comic books. I'm 43, I've been reading comic books since 1985, and I've not seen too many very well handled single mom and kids in books. There's been some, but they're few and far between, and so I really wanted to do something like that because it's not something that's shown a lot. And as a black guy, that's something that's very... That happens a lot in my community, and so it's something that's a familiar touch point for a lot of kids of color.

LAUREN: Thank you, Jarod. And my last question for Jey is, Jey, I know that you work so hard at a full-time job already. Can you inspire us with how you... you're working on all these projects, how do you have the energy and time and love for what you do, that you're able to work a full-time job and then do these projects? Because I read Lemonade Code a second time keeping that in mind, and the whole time I was like "How did Jey do this? How did he work all day and then put so much love and detail into your artwork?" Can you close it out and inspire us all, like children that are in school all day but they want to work on this project that's outside of school. Adults that maybe have a project that they want to do, but they're too tired when they get home. Can can you share a little bit with us please?

JEY: Yeah. You know, no pressure or anything right? Giving a little bit of backstory on creating Lemonade Code, so it all started when I got the scripts back in like 2016, I believe, or the end of 2015, around that time is when they came to me and said "Hey, we want to do this book." And then I didn't even get the script actually until the 27th. Throughout that entire time, I had a job that I was full-time in, and once I got that script, I was luckily able to go down to part-time. However, that still doesn't mean that I wasn't working a lot of hours. I was usually, I think at that point in time, I was working at a Whole Foods and I was a cashier and I had like at least 20, between 20 and 30 hours a week.

JEY: And I was able to talk to my supervisor and we were able to have a deal where I will be off every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and during those days is when I would get the bulk of my work done. I would end, throughout the rest of the week I would just kind of time manage. I would have like an hour or two here before I went to sleep, or maybe I would stay up because I didn't have to go to work until like four the next day or something like that. So, I would do that constantly and I worked on this book actually for about two and a half to three years. I think overall the entire process was about four years, if I'm not mistaken. And while I was doing that I switched jobs from Whole Foods to... I actually started working at Disney at one point in time.

JEY: I was drawing caricatures. That was a very fun job, but it was really far away. At the time I was still a cashier and it was like right down my street, so I would go there every single day. I was still able to have that same deal where I would be off every Thursday, Friday and Saturday and I got a lot of work done that way. And then eventually, I think right before COVID began, I actually was able to change my position from cashier to now I'm a pharmacy tech, change of department, and it's a lot better in terms of work hours and stuff. I get off a little bit earlier, or I don't have to go in as early, one of the two, and that has helped me be able to time manage a lot more. However, now I've been actually trying to change my schedule to where I go to sleep every day at 10 and I wake up at three, so that's the only five hours of sleep, which I mean it's productive, but it's not recommended.

JEY: Let me just say that just straight up. However, it really depends on, I think, what you want to do and how much passion and how much drive you have to make that one thing happen. And for me, I have loved drawing comics. I've loved drawing. I mean, I don't think I'm dumb, but I do believe that I'm not good at anything else except for drawing. Like I mean you know what, as good as I am, I don't think... I'm not like a rocket scientist. I'm not somebody that can fix a toilet, or I'm not plumber or electrician or anything of this sort. And I wish, looking back at my life, I probably would go into one of those trade jobs because you [crosstalk 00:34:03] everybody needs that. Exactly, everybody needs that, like that's something that everybody needs. I like to entertain people.

JEY: I laugh a lot, I make jokes, I draw comic books. I'm just the person that everybody, I guess, comes to to have some type of entertainment factor. So, I'm happy that I've been able to finally stick to this, to stick to my guns and make this happen, but it's a long road. And what I would say to anybody that wants to make their dream come true, whether it's drawing or maybe making a YouTube channel, or maybe just doing a project around the house or whatever. It's small, incremental progression is just as good as having big progression. I mean you can do one thing a day, even for an hour, and if you did that for an entire week, that's seven hours that you've dedicated to this one thing. And that might not seem like a lot while you're doing it.

JEY: But I mean definitely keep that mindset while you do things like this because that is one definite way that... That helped me not lose my sanity while I was drawing all of those crowds. I would draw five or seven people and I'm like "I'm coming back to this tomorrow." I mean, it's definitely, you just got to trudge forward and keep on going. But yeah, that's what I would say to anybody that wants to do that. Keep on going, don't give up. Whether you say you can or you can't, you are correct, so keep that in mind and think about that because it is very, very true.

GROUP SPEAKERS: Thanks for listening to

MILES: Thanks for listening to the Children Chatting with Authors podcast!

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