Interview with Author/Illustrator Aidan Cassie

I am beyond thrilled to be able to share an interview with fellow B.C. children’s book creator Aidan Cassie, creator of STERLING, BEST DOG EVER and LITTLE JUNIPER MAKES IT BIG. Here we go!

Please introduce yourself to our readers!

Nice to meet you all! I’m Aidan (she/her), and I’m a picture book author-illustrator. My home-studio is in the woods of Salt Spring Island where I live with my little family, and big wolfy dog. My husband and I are both self-employed, so we get to enjoy both the bliss of living anywhere we want, and the angst of the inconsistent incomes that go along with freelance work.

Let’s see, if we’re going to hang out you should know I’m an open-book, but also an introvert, preferring a month of hermitting between visits. What else? I enjoy starting my days early (like, before six), I need five giant teas a day, and I’m often distracted by delving into the science of the animal-characters in my books. Other than writing and drawing, studying animal behavior (ethology) is my favorite thing.

Sadly, I found calculus and physics ‘unyielding obstructions’ to an animal-study career path, but, happily, my love of illustration and story-telling lead me to film-making and animation. Later I did professional character and product design, and finally, settled into the world of picture books. It is a great excuse to study an animal species, contemplate the characteristics it may share with humanity, and, with a dash of anthropomorphism, find the story in it.

Can you tell us a bit about some of the projects you’ve worked on so far?

I really started to focus on my writing when our daughter began preschool – that ‘goofy yet earnest’ stage was so inspirational! I also acknowledge my privilege, specifically to have an opportunity to do that because I, like a disproportionately large number of picture book authors, am a white, middle-aged women who is not the sole bread-winner. I made my first “practice book” by writing and illustrating the Salt Spring Island Activity Book, still in print, and then began writing my own narratives while creating portfolio illustrations.

During 2015’s Picture Book Idea Month (now called StoryStorm, where you must come up with a-book-idea-a-day) I had a whacky story idea about a dog who thought he was a fork. During the following “12×12” (the writing challenge where you draft a manuscript every month, for a year) I developed that confused dachshund character and then created an illustrated dummy that summer. I pitched it to my dream agency and to my shock and delight, I got a call back and soon began working with a fantastic agent, Wendi Gu. That book, STERLING, BEST DOG EVER, came out in 2018 and recently got nominated for both for the The Joan Betty Stuchner—Oy Vey!—Funniest Children’s Book Award, and a BC Book Prize award for illustrated children’s literature.

LITTLE JUNIPER MAKES IT BIG, my second book, will be on shelves this summer. Juniper is a small raccoon, and a lot like me as a kid. Not that I was masked, fury or even short, but I was indignant that the powerful half of the world, the adults, had built everything for grown-up sized people. Fortunately Juniper has a wee friend who helps her with a growth in perspective.

At the moment, I’m drawing all day, every day, to get the final artwork done on my third tale; a story inspired by my struggle to fit into a new culture when we moved to France and I didn’t have the language. I can’t wait for you to meet brave Kemala in THE WORD FOR FRIEND; her story comes out next year.

What techniques do you use to make your illustrations?

I know my work often looks like ink and water colour, but truth be told, ink scares me – the permanence of it. I’m just too changeable. I’m happiest with a pencil in hand; something erasable. I often intentionally mar my paper at the start just to take away the preciousness and help me loosen up.

For picture books my drawings start as wee thumbnails. I’ll work most action out on squares that are about 2” high, to get the gestures, layout and essence of the story down. That’s it for my real tools: pencil and eraser. Everything else I do is created digitally on my Cintiq (a tablet where I draw directly on the screen). I play with my scanned drawings by adding textures and colour on layers. And importantly, whenever I need to, I can hit “undo.” Yes, it often feels like cheating compared to messy paint. Sometimes I use my camera for special textures like woodgrain, vintage fabric patterns or peeling paint. Sometimes I just scan big hand-made washes of ink or watercolour to give the digital paintings more life.

What’s the best part about being an artist? What parts aren’t perhaps quite as nice?

Of course working my own hours from my home-studio jumps to mind as ‘tops’, but really, it is being able to tell my own tales. Getting lost in my stories, in worlds children may one day visit and explore, is a pretty lovely way to spend the day. Also nice: I love how supportive the picture-book community is, both online and in real life. I love that my publisher, FSG–Macmillan, has such creative and supportive people on staff to ensure the books we put out are the best they can be. I love that my work is an excuse to travel, to stay on high-alert for stories in the richness around me, and do new things to “refill the well of ideas”.

On the other hand, it’s hard to feel like you can ever take time off; like most self-employed people I’m constantly behind and feel like I should be doing something else – if I’m writing I feel like I should be drawing, or parenting, or cleaning the gutters. It can make 9-5 and a pay-cheque sound pretty attractive. And the guilt of “I should be working on something else” happens between the books themselves. As you are creating one book you need to be working on the marketing of the previous one, and also be conceiving of and writing/sketching the next one so that there’s future work and income. Haven’t mastered that yet.

What advice would you give to someone who might be interested in pursuing a creative career?

My advice? Pursue your favorite thing without compromise, without conforming to trends – show your unique flare off with passion. Know your own working style and what work you’d most like to do; perhaps creative freedom and working alone is your priority. Or perhaps you like the idea-infusions found in collaborative work and being on a creative team would be ideal. Perhaps you already have the skills you need, but just need to carve out the time to create, and start reaching out professionally.

I know many creatives enjoy having an unrelated day job (hopefully a rewarding one) that allows them to work more creatively during their downtime as they have less pressure to produce an income by it. Some find the mundanities that may come in ‘regular’ work to be just the quietude their minds need to invent and allow ideas to marinate.

For me, art school was eye-opening and integral, but I wasn’t prepared to set out on my own, making books off the bat. By getting an illustration job in giftware design I honed my craft, drawing constantly. But eventually I realized that by the end of the day I was creatively drained and couldn’t work on my own projects. Now I am thrilled to be able create my own narratives, and though it took ten years to get here, I’m right where I want to be. Though I may be hiding in my studio, please come say hello on Twitter or Facebook!