Author Q&A

Author and Illustrator Pamela L. V. Henn

By Jennifer Pullinger, WIW Member

Author Pamela L. V. Henn's new mystery-action-adventure book, Nick and Slim: The Legend of the Falcon Mine, is about 11-year old Nick, whose mother was recently killed by a drunk driver, and whose work-obsessed father is too busy to notice his son.

On a school field trip to Silverado Ghost Town in Colorado, Nick is accused of stealing a museum artifact ¾ the journal of the notorious and unjustly accused murderer Slim Marano. Nick comes face to face with Slim's ghost and realizes that to prove his innocence, he'll have to clear Slim's name as well.

Henn's taken a unique approach to creating Nick and Slim, which was published this month. Not only is she the author, but she also its illustrator and chose to self-publish it through her company, White Wolf Studio.

Henn has logged in many years working in the children's feature animation department with the Walt Disney Company--so she knows her audience well. WIW talked with Henn, who lives in Orlando, Fla., about how she juggles the two creative forces of writing and drawing, how she mines for research and how she has marketed herself as a first-time author. One part of her marketing strategy includes her Web site ( www.nickandslim.com ), which replicates the look and tone of the book.

Why did you choose to write a children's book as your first foray into publishing?

For 20 years, I worked with the Walt Disney Company. I worked for Walt Disney feature animation so I worked on a lot of children's feature animation movies including The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Pocahontas and stuff like that. It's very familiar to me and seemed to be the easiest thing for me to do since I've been associated with Disney for such a long time.

Did you draw the pictures in Nick and Slim ?

Yes. White Wolf Studios, which is the studio that produced this book and is my studio, is a teaching studio. One of my goals with actually doing this kind of project, which ended up being a really big project, was to work with students because I privately teach as well. I had one student that came to the forefront artistically. We were trying to get him and his portfolio accepted into Ringling School of Art and Design, and so what I did was worked with him. I did all the character designs, and then I gave him the responsibility to actually come up with the look for the actual illustrations within the book, meaning whether to use graphic or charcoal or some other type of medium. His responsibility was to read the script as it came out from me, and then we would illustrate it.

What sort of business challenges have you faced as a first-time author?

I'm self-publishing at this point. I chose to self-publish because I'm an unknown. I didn't believe any major publishing people would even look at me even though I had Disney experience behind me. What I decided for me this first leg out was to self-publish so I could try to understand the inner workings of what it is to get into this industry. It's the same as the film industry but different, and so I wanted to see what the difference is between the two areas.

There is a Washington, D.C., connection in the book. How did that come about?

The Washington, D.C., area is probably one of my highest-end reference and resource centers, especially with the Smithsonian. I'm constantly going back to Washington, D.C., for one reason or another, especially because of the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian is just a godsend as far as the best research facility I could ever ask for.

What kind of research would you do?

There are so many visuals that the Smithsonian has and little snippets of stories here and there. It's just an unending resource for me. Being such a visual person, you never know what idea it's going to spark.

How do you inspire yourself, in other words, what are your sources of creativity? It sounds like the Smithsonian is one of them.

The Smithsonian is definitely one of them. History. I love history. Probably my biggest source of inspiration and what drives my creativity, however, is people in general. Being an artist means I'm a very, very highly visual person. Probably more so than what most people normally are. One of my favorite things is to go to Starbucks and sit there and watch people. You have to understand my background. I look at things like their body structure and how they walk and their facial expressions and how they interact with people. I absorb all of that and that directly affects me and how I draw or it affects me in how I describe something, how a character moves or they react or stuff like that. I take that from life.

Is it hard to be both a writer and an artist? How do you work with both of those two different ways of being creative?

Being an artist I find has really helped me to be an author. Writing for me--and I don't know if this is the same for every author--but writing for me is like painting, except that my medium is different. Instead of painting with paint, which is what I normally do, I am painting with words.

What are your thoughts on how to market yourself as a new author?

What I did was to take a strong look at how the big publishing houses approach the media and tried to get educated on what they do, and why they do what they do. What I'm trying to do is take their basic template. So I got with a small PR firm that is based out in San Diego, and I'm taking their basic template and I'm trying to think outside of the box--think of things they would not necessarily consider because they are looking for the bigger wheel to get it out there. For example, what about some of the smaller venues that might get the word out? It might be a little slower than what the big publishers would do, but I'm a self-publisher. I have more time than they do.

How do you know that you've written something that will interest your audience?

One of the things that I did was to give the book to a bunch of friends that I really trust. They'll tell me if they like it or not. What they did was to give it to actual kids, friends' kids, and I just got some reviews back from 10-year-olds who absolutely love it. So I feel I have a good product because these kids don't know me so they don't know anything about me. They only know the person that gave them the book. So far I've gotten good feedback from the kids who have actually read it.

Where do the characters Nick and Slim come from? Are they based on people you know?

Slim is a really, really good friend of mine. I went through a divorce not too long ago, and I had a really good male friend who came up beside me and just really helped me to sort through everything and basically heal. He was a really positive influence in my life. So Slim is based on his personality. Nick is a combination of several people. Nick basically has my nephew Brent's looks, my nephew Peter's personality and my experience.

Are you hoping given your Disney background that Nick and Slim is made into an animated feature?

I'd prefer live-action. I would not want it to go to animation at all.

What are your future projects?

Nick and Slim is a series, and, right now, I'm 250 pages into book two. Book three is in research, meaning we have a concept for it. I have a storyline, but we are researching all the elements we need. With book four, we just have a basic storyline but we haven't gone any further. I'm not sure how many are going to be in this series at the moment. It just depends on the vehicle. It depends on the story--what part of history inspires me to take them to that arena.