The Storyteller An Interview with Josh Funk ’93
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always read a lot of books to my children,” Josh starts. “One day, I realized I wanted to try to give writing a shot.” With 12 picture books in print, more on the way and a gig as a Barnes & Noble National Storytime featured author, Josh has clearly hit the mark. Nearly two dozen awards from the Smithsonian and Goodreads to “Top Ten” lists from libraries and literary associations across the nation demonstrate that Josh’s characters and themes are catchy and current. Becoming a children’s book author proved to be a completely novel process, though, entirely different from Josh’s work as a software engineer at MIT Lincoln Labs where he writes code, builds models and simulations of networks. “I had been a B student in English class,” Josh explains candidly. “English was one of my weaker subjects. I was a math and science kid and not a great reader. I wrote terrible manuscripts at first, then enrolled in an adult education class at the Lexington Community Education Center on children’s book writing which I took eight times.” Through the class, Josh discovered organizations such as the Society of Children’s Book Writers and the Writers’ Loft. Relentless networking, classes and workshops paid off as Josh’s writing steadily improved. His tenacity and resolve were buoyed by a simple, affirming belief. “Anyone can be an author. You need to know two things to be a writer: you need to know the alphabet and you need to be able to tell a good story. If you know those things, you are as much of a writer as I am.” After receiving over 90 rejections from agents, Josh finally acquired one. Even with an agent, rejections are nonetheless the norm. “There are lots of good books out there, but most books do not even sell 1,000 copies. It just takes one.” Indeed, Josh sold the “one,” Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast, in the fall of 2013. Before it had even been published, Josh had sold three more books. The process that transforms the endearing characters and rolicking rhymes of Josh’s imagination to the printed page is complicated. Josh readily acknowledges that he “[does] not know how to make a book. I do lots of marketing and promotion on my own, but I rely on the publisher to know what looks good on a cover and to bring my books to trade shows, librarian conferences and book expos.” Josh reveals the roots and rewards of writing. “I get ideas from all over the place. Each story has its own origin and I think about what I would like to see illustrated. I am lucky to have very talented artists draw pictures of what I write. My favorite books entertain me and crack me up when I am writing. On playdates with [Schechter classmate] BJ Novak on the weekends, we would write funny stories together. I wrote poetry about Larry Bird and Roger Clemens when I was in grammar school. I wrote for the school newspaper in high school, random editorials about nonsense. In college, I played guitar and wrote songs with rhyming, clever lyrics. My books really evolved from there and about half of them rhyme.”
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