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MEET OLIVER CHIN
by Bonnie O'Brian

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

Oliver Chin

My favorite hobby was drawing. I got in trouble for scrawling crayons on the dining room table, carpet, and wall. So my mother would bring home giant sheets of butcher paper for my brothers and me. We’d fill them up with opposing armies engaged in battle. At school, I loved sketching dinosaurs, dragons, and imaginary monsters, and thrived when classmates and teachers would praise my artwork.

When you went to college, were you already pursuing a writing career? (or a career in illustrating? or just art in general?)

At Harvard, I knew I wanted to keep drawing even though I wasn’t majoring in art. So, as a freshman I joined the daily newspaper, The Harvard Crimson , and soon became the staff cartoonist, where I created daily editorial cartoons, weekly comic strips, and covers. Cartooning involved collaborating with editors, reading reporters’ stories, and coming up with my own dialogue and captions, so I was immersed in a writing environment and eventually did write a few columns myself. By the time I graduated, cartooning was my main extracurricular activity and I had illustrated for a dozen student publications.

What was your first job when you graduated from college?

As a junior in college, I had won a scholarship to become a management trainee at Simon & Schuster in New York in 1991, so during my senior year, I didn’t have to worry about finding a job after graduation. At S&S I rotated through different departments each quarter for a year, to get an overview of the publishing process and learn specific roles within it. Though corporate support of the program dissolved midway through the term, we trainees finished our assignments, and I gained hands-on experience in trade advertising, paperback marketing, special sales, and the nascent field of IT’s implementation of desktop publishing. The skills I acquired then, I still use to this day.

How soon after that was your first book published?

Ironically, though I started my career in publishing because I wanted to use the media to communicate my own ideas, I ended up specializing in marketing and sales rather than in art and writing. A decade later, while I was the Director of Sales and Marketing at a small independent press, I pitched my first idea for a book and the publisher agreed. So I pitched a second idea with the same result. So in 2002, my first two books were published. THE TAO OF YAO: Insights from Basketball’s Brightest Big Man commented on how Yao Ming was uniquely important symbol in contemporary sports and society. Then finally I put my cartooning to the test in the graphic novel 9 OF 1: A Window to the World which looked at a post 9-11 America through the eyes of a multicultural high school class.

What are the topics are some of your books?

I’m focused on reviving traditional genres, inventing modern characters with personalities that readers can identify with, and introducing talented artists who can spark the imaginations of 21 st century kids and parents. At the same time, I want to increase the representation of Asian America subjects and people in my stories. Current topics include:

• Chinese New Year – the Tales from the Chinese Zodiac series includes THE YEAR OF THE DOG , THE YEAR OF THE PIG , and THE YEAR OF THE RAT
• Alphabet board book - THE ADVENTURES OF WONDERBABY: from A to Z
• Trains - TIMMY AND TAMMY’S TRAIN OF THOUGHT
• Martial Arts - JULIE BLACK BELT: the Kung Fu chronicles (www.julieblackbelt.com)

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 wouldn’t be writing children’s picture books if my wife and I never had our two sons. They have inspired me to change the course of my career, and dedicate myself to conceiving ideas that can inspire the imaginations of children of all ages. So in 2005, I founded the publishing company Immedium (www.immedium.com), and now juggle writing with other facets of the business. While opening the door to develop more of my own stories, I’m also publishing fresh and vibrant tales from other creators, such as www.octonauts.com.

What are you working on now?

I’m composing a roller-coaster yarn BALTAZAR AND THE FLYING PIRATES , due later in 2009, and then THE YEAR OF THE TIGER for 2010. Meanwhile I’m shepherding adventures fashioned by professional artists onto the drawing board.

When is your next book going to be in book stores?

WELCOME TO MONSTER ISLE (www.monsterisle.net) is scheduled for September 2008: it’s a romp about a family on vacation that gets shipwrecked on an island full of mythical beasts. The latest installment of the Tales from the Chinese Zodiac series, THE YEAR OF OX , arrives in January 2009 and features the heroines Olivia the ox and her best (human) friend Mei. That will make 4 down, with 8 to go! In the meantime, Immedium will publish the debut of the Woollyhoodwinks (www.woollyhoodwinks.com) and the third episode of The Octonauts in fall 2008.