Victoria Kann, RUBYLICIOUS

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[0:38]Victoria Khan is the author of Ruby Licious. She is the author artist of the New York Times bestseller Peter

[0:43]Ifick and for number one New York Times best selling books aquilicious and roll delicious

[0:48]Silverlicious and Goldylicious all of which are next door in my daughter's room right now

[0:53]She is the artist in co-author of the New York Times bestsellers Pinkalicious and purple licious also next

[0:58]In addition Victoria co-wrote Pinkalicious the musical which premiered in New York City to sold out audiences

[1:04]Which I saw and continues to be performed across the country

[1:07]Victoria is the co-executive producer of Pinkalicious and Peter Ifick on PBS kids her award-winning artwork is

[1:13]Grace the covers and pages and many magazines newspapers and books

[1:16]She lives with her husband and two daughters. Welcome Victoria

[1:19]Thanks so much for coming on momstone have time to read books to discuss Ruby Licious and all your amazing ish's books

[1:27]Oh, thank you for having me. It is an incredible honor to be speaking with you

[1:33]I'm a huge huge fan of yours and and I love listening to your interviews. They they're so stimulating and inspiring

[1:42]They're really great. So thank you. Thank you. Well, I am such a huge fan of yours

[1:46]And I am joined here by four girls to remind two were friends who are also fans of yours

[1:52]And they're gonna try to behave themselves

[1:54]But I have to say my older daughter who's here. We I must have read her Pinkalicious

[2:00]Thousand times like we read it a million times and as each book came out

[2:04]We were so excited. We would always wonder what the next book

[2:07]The color was gonna be and everything

[2:09]So this is such a thrill to welcome in Ruby Licious, which is amazing

[2:13]That's so nice and it's really exciting when when you start reading a book to your child and then at a certain point

[2:21]You realize they've memorized it

[2:23]Right and I'm sure that happened and then at another point they start reading it to you and you're like

[2:29]Oh my gosh, this is incredible. It's such a great feeling as it as it's amazing

[2:33]It's really amazing. So how did you start this series?

[2:36]What were you doing before you started the Pinkalicious series and how did you come up with the whole thing?

[2:41]So I was an editorial illustrator

[2:44]I did covers for magazines and newspapers for Harper's Magazine for Business Week for the New York Times

[2:52]For all these publications for Time Magazine and Newsweek. It was crazy deadlines. Literally

[2:57]I would get a call from Time Magazine at 12 o'clock on a Friday, which is when I would teach

[3:02]I taught a SVA. I was teaching my students at SVA

[3:06]While they were working I would give them assignment. I would have to do sketches

[3:10]and fax them to

[3:12]You know get them to Time Magazine and then have the finished by five o'clock for the messenger that would pick it up

[3:18]So it was like crazy crazy crazy deadlines

[3:21]Which as a mother you just can't do like there's there's no way

[3:25]So when my daughter Christina was about three years old and I wrote I wrote a bunch of children's book ideas

[3:32]But when she was three years old she was really really into the color pink really

[3:38]As as you may remember from that stage and she also really like cupcakes

[3:44]So I wrote Pinkalicious as in April Fool's Day joke April Fool's Day is my favorite day of the year

[3:51]And it's because you get to do it's basically you make up stories and you try to convince people that they're true

[3:57]At least that isn't like it people people are afraid of me on April Fool's Day because it's I always go above and beyond

[4:05]And so I wrote it as a joke

[4:07]I wrote the story and I sent it to all of my friends and family and I saying that my daughter

[4:13]had turned pink from eating too many cupcakes that she had pinketitis and I had a friend that was supposed to come over and she

[4:21]She called her doctor. They were gonna have a play date. Our daughters were gonna have a play date

[4:25]She called her doctor and she's like have you ever heard of pinketitis

[4:29]Because my we're supposed to go over to somebody's house and my

[4:32]You know my friend's daughter has it and I don't want my daughter to get it is it contagious

[4:37]And he said I've never heard of it. You don't know if it's contagious

[4:42]You shouldn't go

[4:46]So my role is never to tell anybody it's a joke until the next day. So Christina my daughter and I had it

[4:52]You know, even though she was three we had we had quite a chuckle over that in the next day

[4:56]You know, I was like come on over because it was just an April full-stage

[5:00]Oh, can she happen to be a children's book author and illustrator

[5:04]She said you have got to make that into a children's book

[5:06]So she really encouraged me and that's that's how it happened

[5:10]I was I was really really lucky to find an amazing editor and publisher and

[5:16]And that's that was the beginning. I had no idea that it would it would go on

[5:21]Wow

[5:22]That's so exciting

[5:23]So were you surprised by the success? I mean it would took off right? I mean did it happen right away

[5:28]I assume it did but I don't know

[5:30]So my very first book signing was in New York City at Books of Wonder and I you know

[5:37]We're living there and my daughters were going to school

[5:41]And I told everybody but the line went all the way out and around the block

[5:46]The book, you know, it had just come out that week

[5:48]And I was like are these everybody that we know like did you we know everybody here and you know

[5:53]Primarily we

[5:55]But it that was just that was just the beginning and I remember I was so shy

[6:01]I was so shy at the time when I was like, wow, I have to I have to read my book in front of all of these people

[6:07]Like can I do that?

[6:09]Oh my god

[6:10]So it's been a huge growth experience in so many different ways

[6:14]Wow

[6:14]I feel like the used to be shy become a writer track is is a well-paid road at this point

[6:21]I think a lot of people who observe a lot become writers and when they don't you know just anecdotally but

[6:27]What's true? You you have to feel very comfortable spending long periods of time alone

[6:32]Especially because I do the artwork too

[6:35]So the writing is actually the fastest process for me

[6:39]It's the artwork that takes a really long time

[6:42]So how long does it take for you to write each one of these books?

[6:46]Well, I'm I'm always working on a lot of different stories

[6:49]So for a book to come out it can take years, you know because I'll write the story

[6:55]Then I'll I'll do a lot of drafts and then I'll start creating the book dummy and then I'll

[7:00]Start creating the art and you know

[7:02]So there's just a big little process that can take years

[7:05]Wow, so does that mean you've already written the ones that are going to come out next?

[7:09]Well, I I don't know yet, you know it it all depends

[7:13]But you've written you've written some you just don't know what's now

[7:16]I have stories that I want them to come out

[7:18]Okay

[7:22]What are you ever gonna run out of colors? No, it's impossible, right?

[7:26]I think though there are so many colors

[7:29]You know, I mean, I could do chartreuse bushes. That's a bit of a mouthful

[7:33]But hey chartreuse delicious chartreuse delicious

[7:38]It's a color

[7:41]It's a yellowy green

[7:43]Do you guys have a suggestions for which book to come next maybe wishes you have a suggestion maybe

[7:50]Yeah, what about black delicious like cuz they're colors

[7:55]Why don't this is

[7:57]yellowish is why delicious

[7:59]Oh, those are great ideas

[8:01]What about the televisions?

[8:03]Like I'm telling

[8:04]I have like gold

[8:07]Don't they have so much

[8:09]bronze delicious

[8:11]No, yeah

[8:17]Angelish it aren't delicious

[8:19]This gold kind of goes in the yellow orange chim category, but I I love

[8:28]Hand delicious

[8:31]This this is my cupcake delicious book. It's a cupcake cookbook. We have that. Yeah, we have that

[8:37]Yeah, she has that. Yeah, awesome. So great

[8:41]So does your daughter still read the books? She must be you know, when did they start coming up?

[8:46]What year was that?

[8:47]Well, gosh, one was it it's been 15 years since the first published

[8:52]And so my daughter's really really helped me with every time I write a story

[8:58]As a matter of fact

[8:59]My husband said at dinner the other day

[9:01]Is this going to be a work dinner or is this going to be a dinner?

[9:04]Because you know and especially with their friends like they're my focus group

[9:09]So I'll sit down and I'm like, do you mind if I just read a story and you can tell me what you think and yeah

[9:15]They're very helpful and and so many of the stories have been inspired by them

[9:20]You know

[9:21]Silver silver licious where pink licious loses her sweet tooth was really inspired by my daughter because she came up to me

[9:29]And she said mommy mommy my sweet tooth came out

[9:33]And I was like oh well, that's a great idea

[9:36]Don't you know a sweetness comes from me inside and I had to get it down. All right. That's right

[9:42]So what inspired Ruby licious?

[9:45]Well Ruby licious, you know my my daughters really love the color red

[9:50]So they were like what are you going to do for red and I have to tell you I really love rocks

[9:56]And I love collecting rocks

[10:00]Oh, you know, and I love finding rocks,

[10:03]and I love the whole idea of wishes as well, you know.

[10:08]So it's kind of a genie book,

[10:10]but it's not a genie book,

[10:11]because I say it's a genius book,

[10:14]because, you know, people is just finds a rock,

[10:16]and she rubs it, and out comes this character named Rocky,

[10:22]and Rocky grants them one wish, but only one wish.

[10:26]So I'm like a genie that would grant many wishes,

[10:30]and Pinkalicious and Peter,

[10:33]she have to weigh their options wisely.

[10:35]Rocky is very fearful.

[10:38]Has a lot of anxiety, you know,

[10:40]and it's like, I don't know if you wanna wish for that,

[10:42]like that, there really is not gonna be a very good idea.

[10:45]You wish for a, like a mountain of candy,

[10:48]you know, at one point, Pinkalicious and Peter

[10:49]are like, let's have a lot of candy,

[10:52]and Rocky's like, I really, I don't think,

[10:54]I think that would be a bad wish.

[10:55]Let me show you what that wish would look like.

[10:59]And so they have the opportunity

[11:01]to experience all these different wishes

[11:03]before they actually come true.

[11:05]So they get, you know, a bunch of opportunities,

[11:09]and Rocky is like frightened throughout the entire,

[11:12]entire, although all the wishing process.

[11:15]So, you know, it kind of leads them on this adventure

[11:18]to thinking about what are their wildest dreams

[11:20]could come true, and what's really, really important.

[11:24]And in the end, they're very generous with their wish.

[11:27]And, you know, whenever I do a book,

[11:30]I think, I always think, what would be the most fun?

[11:33]You know, like, what would be really great?

[11:36]I always think, what would be the greatest thing ever?

[11:39]You right?

[11:40]Like, with Aquilicious, it's like, you know,

[11:42]meaning a mermaid, but not just any kind of mermaid,

[11:46]a mermaid, like, it's almost like a doll come to life,

[11:49]like a one that you could play with all day, you know,

[11:52]or, or what is it that you really wish for in life?

[11:56]I'm always thinking about that.

[11:57]What is it that you really want in life?

[12:00]What would be, what would be really fun?

[12:03]So, I do ask myself that question constantly.

[12:05]I think it's a really good question.

[12:07]How do you answer that?

[12:08]I answer it in over 70.

[12:09]But it changes every day.

[12:14]So, like every, every book represents an answer

[12:18]to that question, you know, like this one just came out,

[12:21]which is, is Robo Puck.

[12:23]So, you know, wouldn't you want a robotic puppy?

[12:26]Totally.

[12:27]Sure. Why not?

[12:28]I can look up here.

[12:31]So, mermaid.

[12:32]So, what would be your wish today?

[12:34]Anything could make, what could make your life better today?

[12:36]It would be the greatest thing ever.

[12:38]Well, it's talking to you.

[12:39]There you go.

[12:39]What would your wish for today be?

[12:43]Zibi-licious, perhaps.

[12:46]My wish for today would be, I guess, that all these kids

[12:52]would continue to get along in my house

[12:54]with a million kids over here.

[12:55]So, I would say good mood-alicious or something?

[12:58]Yeah.

[12:59]Yeah.

[13:00]Or, yeah.

[13:01]Condolicious.

[13:02]Fun-alicious.

[13:03]Yeah.

[13:04]Okay, we just did it.

[13:05]We just came up with an idea for the next month.

[13:06]There we go.

[13:07]Yeah.

[13:08]Happy wishes.

[13:09]Amazing.

[13:10]So, you've met, I'm sure, thousands, if not, you know,

[13:12]hundreds of thousands of kids at this point,

[13:14]what have you learned from them?

[13:16]Like, what were you surprised at?

[13:18]What are some of the questions that you've been asked?

[13:20]Like, what is it to have your fingers

[13:22]sort of on the pulse of little tiny kids today?

[13:25]Well, first of all, it is the greatest experience

[13:29]I've ever had in my life, to be honest.

[13:31]When I did editorial illustration, I would do it,

[13:34]and it would kind of go into this world of adults.

[13:37]And maybe once in a while, I would get some feedback,

[13:41]like, great illustration about how, you know,

[13:44]we shouldn't be eating that fish that has mercury.

[13:48]You know, like that, that would be the feedback that was

[13:52]a real illustration, by the way.

[13:54]So, when I started doing work with kids,

[13:58]it was just the most incredible thing I've ever experienced

[14:02]because kids connect with words.

[14:05]They connect with visuals.

[14:07]And they're so expressive of their emotions.

[14:10]I mean, they let me know what it is that they like.

[14:14]and why they like it and how it affects them.

[14:17]And so it's really, it's really, really fun for me.

[14:22]It's very joyful for me to experience kids.

[14:27]And especially like in a group where they're exuberant

[14:31]and they're talking about things that they love.

[14:35]I've never experienced anything like it.

[14:37]It's really, it's so miraculous to me.

[14:40]So, and they've inspired me in so many different ways

[14:43]I mean, emeraldalicious came about

[14:46]because I was at a book signing

[14:47]and all these kids were like, you should do a book

[14:50]about the color green.

[14:51]And you should do one about, you know, the environment.

[14:55]And I was like, okay, well, let me think like,

[14:57]what would that mean for pinkalicious?

[15:00]Like, what's important to pinkalicious?

[15:02]So, that book was actually inspired by kids.

[15:06]And then also, when I began to think about it,

[15:09]so I grew up in Brooklyn and down in Dumbo,

[15:14]there was a city garbage dump.

[15:16]And all the kids in my neighborhood used to sneak into

[15:19]this little section of the fence

[15:21]and climb all over it.

[15:22]And they filmed Co-Jack in this old TV show there.

[15:26]It was like the worst unsafe, most unsafe place ever.

[15:30]You know, broken glass, rats all over, you know,

[15:34]homeless people, like it was bad and we would sneak in

[15:37]one of my friends found an old Wall Street sign.

[15:40]Like, it was a treasure trove,

[15:43]but it was a disgusting dump.

[15:45]And I would always look at it and say,

[15:47]gosh, wouldn't this be great if this was a park?

[15:50]Like, this should be a park.

[15:51]This would be really funny.

[15:52]We have nowhere to play.

[15:53]This needs to be a park.

[15:54]Well, now there's a carousel there.

[15:56]It's a park.

[15:57]It's an incredible park down under the Brooklyn Bridge

[16:02]where you walk and it's beautiful.

[16:04]So that's a real life miracle that happened.

[16:06]So I thought about that.

[16:08]And I thought about that in terms of emerald delicious.

[16:10]Like, Pinkalicious would want to turn something

[16:12]into a beautiful sparkly garden that, you know,

[16:16]sparkled like an emerald.

[16:17]So kids always ask amazing questions

[16:21]and they always give me great ideas.

[16:24]So do you ever worry about like,

[16:26]you seem so, you like manifest all of these child,

[16:30]like, exuberance, like that's in your personality.

[16:32]You can tell, right?

[16:33]So do you ever have a really bad day or a bad mood

[16:36]and you're about to do something related to the book

[16:38]and you're not feeling very Pinkalicious at all?

[16:41]You know what I mean?

[16:43]Yes, I'm on a store, I wrote a story recently.

[16:47]And that was part of the dinner table discussion.

[16:52]And I, you know, it was a Pinkalicious story

[16:56]and an idea for an early reader,

[16:58]one of the early reader stories

[16:59]and I brought it up at the dinner table.

[17:01]And everybody just kind of stared at me.

[17:04]And they were like, mom, like, what, what was that about?

[17:09]Like, where did that come from?

[17:12]Like that, and I was like, yeah.

[17:14]Yeah, you're right, that would be something else.

[17:18]Yeah, I guess I just had to write it down

[17:20]and get it out of my system.

[17:22]You know, and I do fantasize about that,

[17:25]but I don't, I think I would get really bummed out

[17:28]and really depressed if I was writing,

[17:32]I'm very emotional, right?

[17:34]So as much as I'm laughing,

[17:36]like I also cry a lot.

[17:37]Like if I watch commercials, I will cry.

[17:40]So if I wrote sad stories,

[17:42]I would be in a perpetual state of hearing this.

[17:47]Like I would just be crying all the time,

[17:49]which would not really be good for me.

[17:53]You know, so I've got to do, or if I wrote horror,

[17:56]oh my God, I would be just afraid constantly.

[18:00]So now it's, this is much healthier for me.

[18:03]It's true, there are some children's books,

[18:05]no matter how many times I've read them,

[18:07]I cry every time.

[18:08]I can tell you like where on the page

[18:10]it always makes me cry.

[18:11]So just to put myself in the shoes of that author to have

[18:14]to read, maybe it doesn't trigger the same author

[18:16]the same way, but some of these books

[18:18]about growing up and waving goodbye

[18:20]and, you know, the kids, I mean,

[18:22]they just tug at the hard strings, it's like crazy,

[18:24]but I do have to say I cried a lot

[18:28]when I wrote purple-licious.

[18:30]I was actually sobbing, because it's a really difficult,

[18:35]you know, it pink-a-licious is suddenly,

[18:38]and this happened for real, for my daughter.

[18:40]She was in school and the kids made fun of her

[18:42]for liking the color pink.

[18:44]And I was really heartbroken to hear this.

[18:47]So I wrote that story and it's all about pink-a-licious

[18:52]coming to terms with having the courage

[18:55]to stand up for what she believes in.

[18:57]When everybody else likes the color black, you know,

[19:00]everybody else doesn't like that color,

[19:02]they all like can pink-a-licious stand up

[19:04]for herself and say, this is what I like.

[19:08]So I do have to say I did cry a lot during that.

[19:12]And so it was hard for me.

[19:13]I like how in that book, though,

[19:14]you have her coat by writing.

[19:16]I mean, she keeps that diary and purple-icious, right?

[19:18]Unless I'm mixing up the books, but not your writing.

[19:21]So she writes about like how she feels

[19:23]about the color Monday and Tuesday,

[19:24]and you see her like coping through writing.

[19:26]So I like that.

[19:27]Yeah, you've got to get it out of your system.

[19:29]I mean, it's true.

[19:31]It is so true.

[19:32]Even though I write these happy stories,

[19:34]like I said, I do write down things

[19:37]because I just have to get it out of my,

[19:39]I don't want anybody to read it.

[19:40]Yeah.

[19:41]But I need to get it out of my system.

[19:45]So what advice would you have?

[19:47]So many people say, like, I want to write a children's book,

[19:49]or I have an idea for children's book,

[19:51]and I actually do have a children's book coming out myself

[19:53]as I told you.

[19:54]Congratulations.

[19:55]I'm so excited for you.

[19:57]I know.

[19:58]That's so wonderful.

[19:59]And like, I...

[20:00]Yeah, wait to read it. It's, it's really, but what's sort of the mind came about in such a random way. It's called princess charming and it's about a girl who can't seem to find her thing and kind of lives in her older brother shadow and then eventually she realizes that she's known her thing all along.

[20:14]So that's what I want a great title to. I think that's wonderful. But I started it because my editor came to me and showed me a picture of this illustration and said, okay, well, would you be interested in writing a book?

[20:27]This girl was named princess charming. What would the book even be about? And I was like, oh, yeah, let me think about it. And then like two minutes later, I'm like, okay, here's how it would be about. And she was like, oh, my God, that's how it came to be. I love your editor. She's amazing. She's amazing. I don't know her. But I'll to say a million people asked me like, what do you do? Like how do you sell a children's book because any parent who's read reads to their kids every night end up with ideas of their own. So what, what would you tell them? Like what advice would you have?

[20:56]Well, first of all, you know, look, the most important thing for moms is you have to be a careful custodian of your time.

[21:07]And that's a quote from another writer, another writer wrote, you have to be, and I don't remember who, but she wrote, she said, you have to be a careful custodian of your time. And it resonated with me.

[21:16]Because we all take care of everybody else, right? We were constantly thinking about like, here you are, you're talking to me, you're working, your kids are having a play date in the background, you're worried, are they going to have a good play date. And then you're also probably thinking, what am I going to do, you know, like, what's for lunch, what's fit in her, you know, what am I going to do tonight? You're all, you're thinking about all of these things while you're talking to me.

[21:41]So, and maybe in the back of your mind, too, you're thinking, can I get a chance to sit down and write a little bit, you know, so I think the number one thing is to just force yourself, force yourself to sit down and make the time for yourself and let everything else go to head.

[22:05]It's, it's okay. So, the other thing I have to say is, and this is in terms of everything going to health is make a mess. This, we are also afraid to make a mess. And the creative process is messy. It really is. It means, if you're writing something, you might be looking at a thousand books, you know, you might be looking at a thousand pieces of artwork, you might have scribbles all over, you know, you might have papers everywhere.

[22:35]Do not be afraid to make a mess. Believe it. Allow it. It's okay. It is fine. So I think those are, that's the two most important things that I can say just allow a mess because in your head, it's organized out here. It might not be. It's fine. I love that. That's so great.

[22:55]And there's certainly a lot of messes displayed in the pages of many of your books, which I'll get, you know, I know.

[23:03]I'm always trying. It's funny because for the for the TV show, Pinkalicious and Peter Refick. When we work on episodes, I'm always like, this should be like a messiest room ever.

[23:15]This should be just totally trashed. And like, it should be so messy. And then the animators are always like, we'll victory. That's a lot of work.

[23:24]And we actually have to create that. And we actually have to then clean that up. You know, because they're making everything move and I'm like, okay, well, you know, it's like three things.

[23:33]Oh my gosh. That's so funny. Well, Victoria, this has been so nice. Thank you for indulging me at the start by having all these random kids, two of mine and many others included in this that like made their day.

[23:48]And thank you for seriously the hours and hours and hours of time. I've spent collectively reading all these books to so many of my kids.

[23:56]I just I really thank you for enhancing my time with them over the years. And you're wonderful. It's truly a pink a pleasure.

[24:05]It really is. Thank you. You're very, you're clearly. We're a thick mom. Thank you.

[24:12]That is the highest phrase.

[24:14]I love that. All right. Awesome. Okay. Thank you so much. And we'll stay in touch. Thank you. Bye.

[24:23]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at zebi Owens and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.

[24:32]Also sign up for my newsletter at zebiowans.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.

[24:39]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Textures Sound for the Sound Editing. And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and out trim music.