Rebecca Brown's Interview with
Paul Many
Author of
The Great Pancake Escape

Rebecca :
I had great fun reading your story of a Dad cooking breakfast for his kids, & reading from the wrong recipe book. What is so special about Louise's & Ned's Dad?

Paul :
I happen to think it's magic how gloppy, gluey batter gets transformed into crispy tasty pancakes. Maybe that was the inspiration for Dad being a magician. In an early draft, I tried to answer “Where's Mom?” & thought about having a note on the refrigerator: “Gone to Kabloona. Back Soon. Love, Mom,” but then thought being a single parent would make him even more special. Of course Dads -- even those who are magicians -- seem ordinary to their kids. Was he trying to shake them up a little with his breakfastake? Only Dad in his heart of hearts knows.

Rebecca :
I giggled when I read:
“The cakes turned somersaults and flips,
we caught them on our dishes,
where they squirmed and flopped and wriggled
as if they were live fishes.”
Is writing a story in rhyming verses hard?

Paul :
Aaargh! Was it ever. I have a file four inches thick that contains a couple of hundred pages of misguided attempts at rhyming “wand” and “spoon,” or finding anything to rhyme with “syrup” or “spatula” (“Ashtabula”?)

Surprisingly the first three or four verses slid out fairly easily. I should have been wary. The same rhyme scheme was often used by Emily Dickinson, by the way, & she gets away with rhyming “daffodil” & “sell” but I had a tougher editor, I guess.

Rebecca :
You were a lucky author to have Scott Goto illustrate your grand adventure, I've enjoyed his vigorous & enthralling style of picture-making since catching Shooting Star -- Annie Oakley & Shoeshine Whittaker!

Paul :
Yes, I do feel lucky with Scott. I've had a chance to see color Xeroxes of the original paintings up close & they are all truly individual works of art. The fine brush strokes are amazing!

Rebecca :
I kept hearing the words “edible landscape” as you told us about all the places the stampeding pancakes went -- why pancakes? Would broccoli or cheese sandwiches have been just as interesting?

Paul :
Who would chase after broccoli? I could see a book in which kids are chased by steamed broccoli maybe. I thought about using cheese sandwiches, but Scott said that he'd have a hard time drawing taxi cabs with square wheels.

Rebecca :
Who is the long-eared green bunny?

Paul :
He represents the animal id, the sly commentator on our silly human affairs, a being with one foot in the rational & the other in the ancient gestalt. What Harold Pinter referred to as “The weasel under the cocktail table.” Also Bugs' out-of-work grandson who needed a gig.

Rebecca :
Thank you, Paul, for a thoroughly thrilling read! What are you cooking up now?

Paul :
I have a short story in the anthology Big City Cool coming out in August & a new YA novel titled Walk Away Home, in fall 2002. I also have a couple of other picture books in the works, but beyond misleading you into thinking that one is about desperado Pteranodons, I'm pledged to secrecy.

Rebecca :
Do catch my rollicking review of Paul Many's The Great Pancake Escape -- it will make you hungry for your own copy!



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Rebecca Brown
(Published June 23, 2002)