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MEET STEVE BREEN
by Bonnie O'Brian

What did you most like to do when you were a child?

Steve Breen

Build forts!

What books influenced you most when you were growing up?

ROBINSON CARUSO, MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN, STEWART LITTLE, THE GIVING TREE

If you didn’t write as a child, then when did you start writing and what inspired you to start?

I started drawing when I was five or six. I started cartooning in junior high once I discovered Mad magazine.

What was your first job when you graduated from college?

Working as a paginator/illustrator for the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey.

When was your first book published?

STICK was my first children’s book and it was published in 2007.

Was your first book accepted immediately? or did you experience a number of rejections?

I did get a few rejections, but I also had several big houses that wanted STICK. The key is not to give up if you believe in your character and story. And take what agents say with a huge grain of salt. I found they don’t know as much as they think they know in terms of the creative end of things.
 
What kinds of things inspire you to write?

Life in general…I do a lot of newspaper reading for my job as an editorial cartoonist. And fiction inspires, too! Sometimes reading a story by someone else can inspire my imagination to travel down a different road.

How did your life change when you got married? and had children? Did it make it easier or harder to find time to write?

I have four kids so there is definitely less time to write and draw! But I wouldn’t trade my family time for the world. Plus, I wouldn’t have grown interested in children’s books had it not been for my kids. As I would read books to them, I thought, “I can do this”.

Do you enjoy researching or do you prefer working totally from your imagination?

I enjoy both! Some children’s books call for research, believe it or not and that’s fun. I like pulling from reality and putting an imaginative spin on things.

Do you work on more than one book at a time?

Yes. My imagination is quite restless.

Do you like to include humor in your stories? Or adventure? Or mystery?

I seem to be drawn towards combining humor and adventure for some reason.