Kazu Kibuishi, AMULET SERIES
[0:08]Hi, I'm Zibi Owens, and you're listening to the award-winning podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[0:13]Please sign up for my newsletter at zibiowens.com for weekly updates about my podcast, events, and more.
[0:20]Also, follow me on Instagram at zibiowens and also at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[0:26]And finally, join my virtual book club called Zibi's virtual book club, which meets every other Tuesday at 2 p.m.
[0:32]Eastern Time until 3 p.m. and features half an hour of book club discussion followed by 30 minutes of Q&A with the author whose book we've just discussed.
[0:41]You can sign up on my website zibiowens.com under the virtual book club section or even on Instagram, under the link in my bio.
[0:49]I hope you'll find to me in all these different channels and enjoy this podcast.
[0:53]Thank you so much to Audible for sponsoring today's episode.
[0:57]For those of you who don't know, Audible is the leading provider of spoken word entertainment and audiobooks ranging from bestsellers and new releases to celebrity memoirs, business motivation, and also podcasts.
[1:08]They've recently launched their newest plan called Audible Plus.
[1:11]With Audible Plus, you get full access to their Plus catalog filled with thousands of select originals, audiobooks, and podcasts, and connects you to just amazing content.
[1:22]The best time to try it is now with their holiday offer because for only $4.95 a month for your first six months, this is a fantastic deal.
[1:31]And all you have to do to get it is visit audible.com slash zibi zi bbi or text zibi zi bbi to 500-500.
[1:43]Again, visit audible.com slash zibi or text zibi to 500-500.
[1:50]I love Audible and listen all the time in my car and on walks.
[1:54]I recently finished searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Quack, also small animals by Kim Brooks,
[2:00]his only wife by piece, Medi, and also on all fronts by Clarissa Word.
[2:05]So those are for my recent ones.
[2:07]I hope you'll join me in checking out Audible, audible.com slash zibi or text zibi to 500-500.
[2:14]Did I say that enough times?
[2:15]Kazu Kibuishi is the writer and artist of the New York Times best-selling
[2:19]amulet graphic novel series published by Scholastic Graphics, which PS is one of my
[2:26]son's most favorite graphic novel series, and he thought I was just the coolest for interviewing.
[2:30]Kazu, and it ended up being one of the more enjoyable conversations I've had lately,
[2:36]as I learned so much about him and his brain injury, and all the things he's working through
[2:40]to write and create, and he was just amazing.
[2:42]Anyway, more about him, the eighth book in the series, amulet 8 was released in fall of 2018,
[2:47]and now the latest one has just been released.
[2:50]He's the editor and art director and cover artist of the Explorer and Flight Comic Anthologies,
[2:56]and is the cover illustrator of the Harry Potter 15th Anniversary Edition paperbacks
[3:02]from Scholastic. His debut graphic novel Daisy Cutter, the last train garnered critical acclaim
[3:08]and won a Yale sub-best books for young adults award. His web comic, Copper, was nominated
[3:13]for an Eisenhower Award in 2005 and was later published by Scholastic Graphics as a graphic novel.
[3:19]The book was a junior library guild selection for the fall of 2009.
[3:23]Born in Tokyo, Japan, Kazu moved to the U.S. with his mother and brother when he was a child.
[3:28]He graduated from film studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2000,
[3:33]and moved to LA to pursue a career in the entertainment industry.
[3:35]He currently works as a full-time graphic novelist and lives near Seattle,
[3:39]Washington with his wife and two children.
[3:42]So, for my son, this is for you. You better be listening.
[3:45]Hi, Kazu. Thank you so much for coming on Moms. Don't have time to read books.
[3:49]Oh, yeah. Thanks for having me.
[3:50]Oh, my pleasure. I have to tell you that your amulet series is my older son's
[3:56]like favorite series of all time. And he was so excited that I had the opportunity
[4:02]to interview you. So, anyway, here I am. That's what we're doing here.
[4:07]So, his first question to you is, where did you come up with the idea for the amulet series?
[4:13]He should just bring him on. I don't know. I asked him, but I think he's just being shy or
[4:17]somebody. He doesn't, he's 13 and he's, anyway.
[4:20]So, the question was, what was the inspiration?
[4:23]What was the inspiration? And then, tell listeners a little more about what the amulet
[4:26]graphic novel series is about and how there's, you know, there's one through eight and all the rest.
[4:32]Yeah. So, I've been drawing comics since I was five. So, you know, I always tell people,
[4:37]you know, when they ask me, like, when did I start, I usually ask them when did you quit?
[4:42]Because I think we all drew cartoons when we started. So, I just, I'm just the last kid out of the pool,
[4:47]you know, so to speak, because I've been, I just been doing it just out of sheer interest.
[4:52]And when I started, I was inspired by Garfield at the, at the Scholastic Book Fares.
[4:59]I wanted to get the newest edition of Garfield and be the first one there because all the other
[5:03]kids wanted it to. And I read Mad Magazine, things like that. And so, I did a lot of cartooning
[5:09]really early on, but it wasn't until I read Nausica of the Valley of the Wind by Hayo Miyazaki,
[5:15]where I realized, oh, I could do these cartoons and I can write stories with them that had
[5:21]a literary quality to it. It had the scale and scope of something of, like, Lord of the Rings.
[5:29]And I felt like I didn't, up to that point, I didn't realize that I could do that with my cartoons.
[5:35]And so when I read that, I said, okay, I'm going to try to do this instead of just the funny stuff.
[5:39]Because I used to, I used to draw hilarious cartoons. I got myself into so much trouble.
[5:45]Well, I was in detention for drawing all sorts of silly cartoons on the,
[5:50]would anyone else find them funny except you or did everybody find them funny?
[5:55]Well, all the kids did. Okay, good. All right, just checking.
[5:58]I noted some of the teachers, but they, you know, they, they would scold me because they knew that
[6:02]you're supposed to scold the kids for doing things like that. But I was always kind of,
[6:06]kind of a cartoon troublemaker. And I always thought of cartooning as that. And I did something
[6:11]kind of irreverent, something a little off the rails. And then I read Nausica, the value of the
[6:15]wind and it had a huge impact on me. It just felt like, you know, I knew at that moment, the moment
[6:21]I finished reading that book that I would have to do this sometime in my life, that it would be
[6:26]a mountain that I have to climb. And I had nothing to do with career motivations. I was not
[6:31]motivated by career ambitions to do this. In fact, if I, if I was motivated by that when I started,
[6:39]I think most people would have considered me quite foolish. What did you want to do? What were
[6:44]you motivated to do? I just wanted to make my parents happy. I was okay with, you know, my mom
[6:49]told me I was going to be a doctor pretty early. So I just assumed that I was going to follow
[6:53]some kind of path like that. And so I thought, well, maybe I could, I could take this art stuff
[6:59]and turn it into something respectable. And I thought, maybe it could be filmmaking. And so I
[7:04]went to college for film studies and learned how to be a filmmaker with live action filmmaking,
[7:10]being on the set, work with actors, right, screenplays, all that stuff. And that was kind of the
[7:15]path that I was going to be on. When I got out of school, it was really difficult to find work
[7:20]as a live action filmmaker, as you can imagine. They don't post that on like Craigslist or
[7:26]monster or whatever else sites are these days. I just wanted a director. That was the issue.
[7:33]So there's a bit of a log down there. And I ended up just getting work as a graphic designer.
[7:38]And it led me down this path where I actually was kind of on the cusp of becoming an architect
[7:43]because I ended up working in the field of architecture as a graphic designer did very well.
[7:48]And then 9-11 happened. And it was a wake up call for me. And I thought, well, if I was going to
[7:53]just go out right now, if things like the chips are down, everything's over right now. If I look
[7:59]back at my life, did I do the right thing? And I said, no, I don't think so. I think that I have
[8:04]something more to offer. And it's through cartoons as little value that some other people might find
[8:10]there to be in cartoons. I found there to be a lot. And I knew that I could be somebody who could
[8:16]make that make that case. So I thought if I didn't do that, I'd be failing the world.
[8:21]And so since then, it's been really easy on it. As far as career trajectory, even when I failed
[8:27]with cartoons, I've just stayed with it. Just said, you know, all these opportunities came my way,
[8:33]movies, TV shows, all these different things. People have been really kind to me along the road.
[8:37]And I've had to turn down many great opportunities to stay focused on the one thing.
[8:42]And that's the draw cartoons and comics. And I think that I think people, the world is starting
[8:47]to catch up to that now. They're starting to understand the value of them in our society.
[8:51]So true. On 9-11, did you have a personal connection to it or a first-hand
[8:56]experience or was it, did you just hear about like, where were you and everything?
[9:00]I was in downtown Los Angeles working in the, it was at the time the city, the city group
[9:06]building, I believe. And I was the top floor. I was a graphic designer for our outside reporter
[9:10]architects. And, you know, woke up the morning of, you know, I got a phone call from my coworker.
[9:17]Good friend Ryan. He called me and he, and he said, it basically, they're vacuating a building,
[9:22]but he said, don't come in to work. I was like, what's going on? He said, just look at the news.
[9:28]And I saw what was going on. And, you know, then there was even reports of
[9:32]playing coming to LA, you know, and that's the one I believe that landed somewhere in the middle,
[9:37]middle America. And so, yeah, I mean, it was, you know, like, it was, I was only in my early 20s.
[9:43]And I just thought like, you're just supposed to get a job, everything's, you know,
[9:47]there's everything's going to line up and everything's going to be easy to understand.
[9:52]You know, you can, there's a, you can chart a course for your success. And that's the
[9:56]career and that's your life and it's safe and it's all okay. And then that
[10:00]happens, and you realize, oh man, we live in a volatile world,
[10:06]and things can just change at the drop of a hat.
[10:09]So I just decided, if that's going to be the case,
[10:11]I better put my best foot forward.
[10:13]And not just, because that when I was doing graphic design,
[10:16]it was convenient for me, because I could make good money.
[10:18]But it wasn't what I could produce.
[10:21]In graphic design, I was only one element
[10:23]of the things I've trained to do.
[10:25]I trained myself to design well, but also illustrate well.
[10:29]but to write well as well.
[10:30]And speak as well, like, like this.
[10:33]Yes, you're speaking very well.
[10:35]LAUGHTER
[10:36]I'm not going on.
[10:38]And I thought, how's really wasting something?
[10:42]And I felt like I would be really letting down
[10:44]a lot of people, if I didn't get back on my horse.
[10:48]And so, here I am.
[10:50]I have that same experience with 9-11, actually.
[10:52]But I lost my best friend in roommate
[10:54]who was working in one of the towers that day.
[10:56]And I was 25 at the time.
[10:58]And as you were speaking, I was thinking
[11:00]about the impact of the people like us in our 20s
[11:04]and how our careers, I wonder if it's
[11:07]a whole generation where we search for more meaning
[11:10]from the beginning, where as other people,
[11:11]maybe they were too entrenched in their careers
[11:13]and their 30s and 40s even, maybe the people in their teens
[11:17]hadn't even had to pivot, because they
[11:19]hadn't had a vision yet.
[11:20]But I feel like all of us had a chance
[11:23]to say, wait a minute, no, no, no, no.
[11:25]Like, I'm going to bring my whole self to what I'm doing.
[11:28]And now's the time.
[11:29]So anyway, it's nice when I hear it, because it's...
[11:32]That was it.
[11:33]That was it.
[11:33]That was it.
[11:34]I was like, if I'm going to die at my desk,
[11:36]I better be doing something that means something.
[11:38]That was sort of my theory.
[11:40]So, and look at your books now.
[11:41]You know, your best-selling series
[11:43]and this hugely successful artist,
[11:45]and you just had to listen to yourself.
[11:47]It just is sad almost that it takes
[11:49]these massive world-scale events to shake us
[11:52]into doing what our calling really might be.
[11:55]You know?
[11:56]Yeah, and you know, I feel like success is really a reflection
[11:59]of a responsibility.
[12:00]You know, I feel like it just means it's a lot of other people
[12:03]who have recognized that you are taking on a responsibility
[12:06]that you may be able to fulfill,
[12:08]and the success comes your way.
[12:09]And then it becomes a new responsibility
[12:11]to have to deal with it.
[12:13]It's something that I think a lot of young artists don't
[12:15]hear enough is that, you know, about the idea
[12:18]that once things do go well for you,
[12:20]are you doing the right thing then?
[12:22]Are you prepared for that moment?
[12:23]Because that's a big one.
[12:24]It's a big transition from going from,
[12:27]hey, no one knows who I am to.
[12:29]Now, everybody's listening to what I have to say.
[12:30]Yeah, so how did you handle that?
[12:32]I came into it so different in such a different way,
[12:35]you know, because of 9'11".
[12:36]Because of, I mean, it was so visceral.
[12:40]I mean, the impact of the event,
[12:42]my wife was in Manhattan, so she was right there
[12:46]to just, she was looking at, you know,
[12:48]she was having to deal with all the stuff
[12:50]that was happening on the ground, you know,
[12:51]trying to, you know, match it with how the media
[12:54]and everybody was talking about it and stuff
[12:56]and how different, like, how different
[12:58]all the different viewpoints were and realizing that,
[13:00]you know, things can really spin out into chaos
[13:03]if we're not careful about how we go about our lives.
[13:07]Cartoons and cartoons in general,
[13:09]they're really best at clarifying information
[13:13]to simplify things to the point where it could be universal,
[13:16]you know, a cartoon can be read by people who speak any language,
[13:21]you know, it doesn't matter what language you speak,
[13:24]you can pick up a but an amulet book
[13:26]and understand it to at least some level.
[13:29]And then, you know, you may even use it
[13:31]as a guide to allow you to understand the words
[13:35]that are inscribed in there.
[13:37]You know, so you're gonna learn English.
[13:38]No, I think there's a lot of kids who learned
[13:40]English through amulet.
[13:42]It's almost like hieroglyphics in the world
[13:44]and days and the old cave drawings.
[13:46]I feel like way back when that was how people communicated.
[13:49]They didn't even have language.
[13:51]This is the most elemental means of communication there is.
[13:55]That would withstand time and borders and anything else
[13:59]you wanna throw at it.
[14:00]So even the written language, they're pictures too.
[14:03]Yeah, we memorize.
[14:05]And so I think we often forget that.
[14:07]It's so interesting too because we often look down
[14:11]on the cartoons, despite the fact
[14:13]that they are the most ancient form of communication we have.
[14:16]You know, but maybe there's a value to that.
[14:19]I think often it allows cartoons to have more power
[14:23]because of how disarming it may seem
[14:27]that we continue to say cartoons or, you know, kids stuff.
[14:30]It's not that garbage, it's just something silly.
[14:34]But you know, but I think that allows it to,
[14:38]you know, allows people to come to it
[14:40]with unconditional love.
[14:41]You know, I don't know, it's an interesting thing.
[14:44]It's one of the reasons why I stuck with it.
[14:47]And to your point earlier,
[14:49]where you were talking about managing the successes,
[14:51]like being successful in whatever endeavor you're having
[14:56]or you've achieved rather,
[14:57]how did you adjust to being just like you graphic designer
[15:01]you to you with like lines out the door at the bookstore you?
[15:05]Yeah, well, I was really fortunate
[15:07]cause I got to go slow.
[15:10]Like this success didn't happen overnight.
[15:12]I mean, if it was, some people might perceive
[15:15]that it was an overnight thing,
[15:16]but it was a long, it was a long night, you know?
[15:18]Yeah.
[15:19]That's a good one.
[15:22]And there at least, but I was fortunate to be working
[15:24]with David Saylor, who created the graphics books
[15:27]in print at Scholastic.
[15:28]And he designed the Harry Potter logo
[15:31]and worked with, you know, JK Rowling on those books
[15:34]and saw the success of that.
[15:35]And all the other successes that Scholastic has seen
[15:39]over the years.
[15:40]And so when I was at the start,
[15:41]he was really, you know, helpful in coaching me through it.
[15:46]And, you know, pretty much just told me
[15:48]it's going to happen for you.
[15:51]So here are the steps and here's what you want to consider.
[15:54]And when I was even painting the 15th anniversary edition
[15:57]paperbacks for Harry Potter,
[15:58]they actually at Scholastic, they even coached me through
[16:01]how I should speak to media and all those types of things.
[16:04]And I thought, well, that's was really neat.
[16:06]You know, cause, you know, I mean, I think I was,
[16:09]I was already pretty well versed in all that,
[16:12]but it was really nice to get their feedback
[16:14]and like kind of a really professional ground level,
[16:18]you know, information, you know, very detailed stuff
[16:20]that, you know, they told me like, don't say this,
[16:22]say this, say that, it's like, oh, okay.
[16:24]Yeah, that's helpful.
[16:25]Yeah, that's helpful.
[16:26]So that's the course that everyone should take in general.
[16:28]Every child should have to take that course
[16:30]before they graduate.
[16:31]Maybe even before they graduate, you know,
[16:33]lower school, that would be nice
[16:35]to save the middle school or some issues.
[16:38]And then I read in your bio that you had some form
[16:41]of meningitis and where you were in a coma.
[16:43]What was that all about?
[16:44]What happened?
[16:46]Yes, so I nearly died.
[16:48]And that really like helped redefine like this,
[16:52]this part of my life.
[16:52]Yeah, I got meningitis.
[16:54]I'm not exactly sure how that happened.
[16:56]I'm guessing it might have been something to do with,
[16:58]I had a broken hand and I think it may have been some
[17:01]kind of expired drugs or something like that.
[17:03]The injection, you know, from the steroids
[17:07]that they put into like, for the pain.
[17:10]My guess that's, but we don't know that.
[17:12]I mean, we'll never know now.
[17:14]But yeah, I came out of it,
[17:17]having lost a lot of my memory functions.
[17:20]So now like my short term memory is pretty bad.
[17:24]But prior to that, my memory was so sharp
[17:28]that it actually scared people.
[17:30]And so Amy, my wife often tells me
[17:35]that I came out of the whole experience
[17:38]a nicer person.
[17:40]That's intimidating.
[17:41]Wow.
[17:43]How old were you in this happened?
[17:45]What was this, 2012?
[17:47]Eight years ago.
[17:48]So in your 30s or something, 20s, 30s?
[17:50]I don't know how old you were.
[17:51]It was 34, so that's right.
[17:54]And yeah, so when I woke up, I couldn't draw.
[17:58]I couldn't walk, that I couldn't walk.
[18:00]I had to figure out how to do all that stuff again.
[18:03]No one kind of knew it was going on
[18:05]because that was even between books.
[18:07]I really didn't know.
[18:08]I was so fast at making Amyla at the time
[18:11]that it pushed us back about a year.
[18:13]People complained, but yeah,
[18:14]I had to learn how to write with a brain
[18:18]that just didn't work as well as it used to.
[18:20]So now I have to take more notes.
[18:22]I'm still that, I'm the guy after the event now.
[18:25]So I have to take tons of notes.
[18:27]I have to know that I'm gonna forget everything all the time.
[18:31]And this is, I'm sure, I mean,
[18:32]after taking care of my grandparents
[18:35]and hanging out with older people,
[18:37]I see that in how they are.
[18:39]That's what happens when you're older,
[18:41]but my brain kind of ended up having to accelerate
[18:44]because of this situation.
[18:46]And now I just have to deal
[18:47]with kind of an old person's brain while we're,
[18:51]it's the one, it's the biggest struggle now
[18:53]making these books.
[18:54]And one of the reasons why it takes a lot longer
[18:56]is that I need more sleep because if I don't have the sleep,
[18:59]I can't repair my brain.
[19:02]And number two, it just doesn't,
[19:04]I don't, I can't retain information the way I used to.
[19:07]And so it's like, I'm, you know, it's like a fish,
[19:09]I've got, I'm like a fisherman.
[19:11]That's, I've always been a really good fisherman of ideas
[19:13]and things like that.
[19:14]But now I've got a net with like a huge hole in it.
[19:18]So how do I, how do I do that?
[19:20]Like how do I, how do I still, you know,
[19:22]keep it, keep the books at the level
[19:24]that they always were at.
[19:25]And not, you know, feel like I've lost the step.
[19:28]It's really just meant that I have to be more disciplined
[19:30]in my, in my effort.
[19:32]Wow, did you consider just not going back to it
[19:35]or did you ever think like, well, that's it for me or?
[19:38]Like I said, I'm like the last kid of the pool.
[19:40]I don't quit.
[19:41]That's great.
[19:42]I mean, so that's amazing.
[19:45]What a story.
[19:46]Yeah, I mean, the work itself helped me though.
[19:48]You know, it's like, it was like, you know,
[19:50]it's cognitive therapy, you know, for,
[19:53]especially working on the Harry Potter covers
[19:54]because I couldn't write my book at the time.
[19:56]Scholastic asked me to do those and on the side
[19:59]for a little bit.
[20:00]And so I took a little time off just to paint.
[20:02]And that really helped.
[20:04]Like I, you know, to get myself back on my feet,
[20:07]I didn't have to worry about the difficult task
[20:09]of writing a book.
[20:09]I can all I had to do is focus on drawing.
[20:12]All you had to do is paint the cover
[20:14]of like the most popular series on the planet.
[20:17]You know, just a little rehab exercise for you.
[20:20]Wow.
[20:21]To be honest, it was enjoyable.
[20:23]I really felt like a break
[20:25]and I was so glad to be able to take that.
[20:28]Because writing these stories is so much work.
[20:31]It's such a challenge.
[20:33]And drawing it is the fun part.
[20:36]What'd you say?
[20:38]So when is number nine coming out?
[20:40]Can you say yet or not yet or?
[20:42]Well, I'm gonna be done relatively soon.
[20:46]We're on kind of the long final stretch.
[20:48]This is the final stretch of this entire series.
[20:51]That's why I'm kind of, you know, I'm taking my time,
[20:55]you know, to do this, to do this right.
[20:56]I don't want to rush it out.
[20:58]I know it's classic one.
[20:59]Like everybody wanted it earlier,
[21:01]but I really held off on it.
[21:02]I just felt like it needed time.
[21:05]It just needed to marinate.
[21:06]I needed to get in all the ideas that I was trying to get
[21:09]in all these years because of my one last shot
[21:11]on the series.
[21:12]So I just wanted people to want to reread the series
[21:16]just to get to the final book.
[21:18]And I find that too many series these days,
[21:22]because there's so much money and so much pressure
[21:25]involved a lot of the writers end up not,
[21:27]I mean, they kind of lose a lot of energy down the stretch.
[21:32]And so you'll often see things kind of just peter out
[21:36]a little bit and not, you know, not complete.
[21:39]And you know, it doesn't complete itself in the ways
[21:41]that I think a lot of fans want to see it done.
[21:44]And I feel that I have an opportunity to avoid that.
[21:49]I feel like I can, I can do this right.
[21:51]But you know, it'll come at a cost to me
[21:53]because I got to pay for my time and just, you know,
[21:57]spend more time.
[21:57]I'm not an employee.
[21:58]That's something that people have to remember.
[22:00]So I'm not just like, I'm not on somebody else's clock.
[22:03]I'm on my clock, but I'm taking that extra time
[22:06]and putting that extra energy and resources and everything
[22:09]to make sure they get my best shot.
[22:11]I just is going to be, I mean,
[22:14]I has to be the best book in the series by a long shot
[22:16]in my opinion or else it's just going to be disappointing.
[22:19]It'll disappoint me.
[22:20]I'll be disappointed myself.
[22:21]If it's not the best sci-fi fantasy graphic novel I've ever made.
[22:25]Wow, that is some drive.
[22:28]You should bottle that up and sell a little bit with every book.
[22:31]How does your mom must be proud?
[22:33]Like, how does she feel now that you did not become a doctor?
[22:35]And instead, this is what you've created,
[22:38]this alternative universe and healed people in a different way.
[22:41]How does she feel?
[22:42]If you would have been proud of me, no matter what I did, you know,
[22:46]loves me, whatever I want to do, however I want to do it,
[22:51]you know, she's there for me.
[22:52]So, and I do this for her too.
[22:54]So, you know, she would have been devastated if I didn't do art
[22:57]probably because she knew how much I, you know,
[23:00]how much I put into it.
[23:02]So yeah, in fact, it was a really, you know,
[23:05]I guess I could tell the little story about when I was younger
[23:09]and I was in high school and I actually had to lie to my mom
[23:12]and I told her that I quit art at the time.
[23:16]And it was a weird thing because I think she was devastated
[23:19]that I would say something like that.
[23:21]But it was actually, it was actually to protect it,
[23:24]to protect the art.
[23:25]I had, I was already like in high school,
[23:27]was a bit of a artist, like a superstar as a kid.
[23:31]I was kind of a prodigy at this.
[23:33]So I was being offered a lot of work early on.
[23:36]And I saw that I could now be moved into all these different
[23:40]directions and I was, my destiny was way out of my hands
[23:43]if that happened, if I took on opportunities
[23:45]that were coming my way.
[23:46]So I said no to everything.
[23:48]And I told my mom too, because she was pushing me into classes
[23:52]and different things and saying, here you talk to this person
[23:54]and talk to this person and trying to be a good parent
[23:56]and seeing if she can help me up some kind of a ladder.
[24:00]And every time those opportunities showed up,
[24:02]I decided I got to say no to all of them.
[24:06]Just my spidey sense told me that I had to just,
[24:10]you know, I had to just like become like a turtle in a shell
[24:14]and just say, I gotta protect the art and the writing.
[24:17]and the sanctity of the process of doing this,
[24:20]you know, it needs to be within the control of the artist.
[24:23]And so that's why I quit art, I quit art to go to film school,
[24:27]to go put my mind on something else.
[24:29]And I went to film school not to make films,
[24:31]but actually to study them.
[24:33]Because I went to UC Santa Barbara
[24:34]and I have a film studies degree.
[24:35]So it's just, it's research, it's history,
[24:39]it's analysis of movies, watch,
[24:41]it's being like a film critic, not a filmmaker.
[24:44]And I think it was one of the best decisions I'd ever made
[24:47]because it gave me time to absorb information
[24:50]and know how to do that.
[24:52]Something that I think artists don't do often enough.
[24:54]They don't know how to curate the information
[24:56]they put in their own brain and put into their work.
[24:58]They don't research very much.
[25:00]They often just practice, practice, practice.
[25:02]If there's so much emphasis on practice,
[25:04]so much emphasis on drawing really, really well.
[25:07]And really, you don't need to draw really well.
[25:09]You need to draw clearly.
[25:11]You can clearly communicate your idea
[25:13]and that's a good drawing in my opinion.
[25:15]You know, I mean, it's subjective,
[25:18]but my thing is that if the idea gets across,
[25:22]it's a great drawing, that's it.
[25:24]And it doesn't really take tremendous skill to do that.
[25:28]Yeah, so that was something that I had to,
[25:30]I had to take control of early.
[25:33]And I don't know how I got derailed into this thing,
[25:35]but I just thought it was something
[25:36]that some kids might need to hear.
[25:39]Or maybe a mom, maybe a dad.
[25:41]Yeah, needs to hear that about their own kids.
[25:43]You want to give them agency,
[25:44]because I guess what I'm saying.
[25:46]I think that's great, great advice.
[25:48]Do you have any other parting advice
[25:50]to aspiring authors out there?
[25:52]Build so much time with that.
[25:54]Oh my goodness.
[25:55]Yeah, just try to involve yourself in everything.
[25:58]See, see as much as you can.
[26:00]Don't, you know, I think there's too much pressure
[26:03]to succeed early.
[26:04]And I don't think you need to.
[26:06]I think that maybe you do if you're a professional athlete
[26:09]because there's only so much time your body
[26:12]can do the things an athlete needs to do.
[26:14]But if you're doing this, your whole life is your career.
[26:17]So you can be 70 years old and starting at making art
[26:22]or writing.
[26:23]And when you have something to say
[26:26]and you put it out there, it's gonna be,
[26:28]if it's worth its salt, it's gonna be there
[26:31]for probably beyond your life.
[26:33]And so you might want to spend a lot of time thinking
[26:36]about what it is you have to say before you do.
[26:39]Instead of practicing, practicing, practicing,
[26:41]and putting it all out there for everyone to see,
[26:43]you can do it in your private life.
[26:45]Just hang out with your,
[26:47]make a web comic for yourself and your friends.
[26:50]You know, don't worry about people making it popular
[26:54]or getting a lot of money.
[26:55]Just worry about making sure that you are saying
[26:58]the thing you're looking to say.
[27:01]And that you are just slowly getting better at your craft.
[27:05]And that's about it.
[27:06]And your success isn't really in your hands.
[27:09]It's often in the hands of the world at large.
[27:11]So, and if you find success, then I hope you're ready
[27:14]for it and that's another thing.
[27:16]That's a whole nother discussion.
[27:18]Well, thank you, Kazu.
[27:20]This has been so interesting
[27:22]and I really enjoyed our conversation.
[27:24]And I will now send us off to my son
[27:26]so he can listen to the whole thing.
[27:28]And you should be part of the interview
[27:30]because the kids, the kids,
[27:33]they're some of my best feedback
[27:35]and editing advice that I get for my book.
[27:38]So, I love hearing what they have to say.
[27:39]I always listen.
[27:41]So, if you guys...
[27:41]If he has any feedback, I'll shoot it over to you.
[27:44]Okay.
[27:46]All right, thank you so much.
[27:47]Thank you.
[27:48]Okay, bye bye.
[27:50]Thanks for audible sponsoring this episode.
[27:53]Get your amazing deal for 95 for six months
[27:57]for your first six months for their holiday audible plus offer.
[28:01]Go to audible.com slash zibi or text zibi to 500-500.
[28:06]Thanks, Audible.
[28:07]Thanks for listening to this episode
[28:09]of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[28:10]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at zibi Owens
[28:14]and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[28:16]Also sign up for my newsletter at zibiowens.com
[28:18]and sign up for my virtual book club
[28:20]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.
[28:22]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at TextureSound
[28:25]for the sound editing.
[28:26]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[28:28]for providing this fantastic intro and out trim music.