Behind the Scenes Look at Creating a Book!

Interview with Mark Svendsen and Ben Redlich
creators of "Circus Carnivore" and Review of same.
By J.R.Poulter

Would be writers & artists often ask questions like - what happens in the creative process? - how does one get from 'BRILLIANT IDEA" to finished product? Well, different things work for different people, but this is how it worked with the layered lunacy of "Circus Carnivore" (Lothian Books, rrp$27.95, ISBN 0734407548, Hardback ), the latest offering of poet/writer Mark Svendsen and artist/illustrator Ben Redlich.

Jennifer: Mark, how did the poem start - a rhyming doodle that wouldn't let
you sleep or an idea that demanded setting down on paper?

Mark: The poem started in response to a seven year old child telling me his
day had been Œjoy-some¹. Immediately I related this word to the actual word
noisome which means something rank, evil smelling or negative though not
exactly opposite to joysome. Then I wrote the stanza, ŒYou may think when I
say me noisome words/ That I thought and chose to say them,/ But me words
are made in me Noise-a-matron,/ Say hello to the people who made 'em!¹ So I
had a character in mind who was blaming someone else for what they had
said. Maybe I watch the television news too much? The rest flowed from
there, (like vomit really) but only after I met Ben some two years later.

Jennifer: When did you first realise this was not a poem' but a picture
book?

Mark: I always thought of this idea in visual terms. But that's why it sat
as one stanza for at least two years, I didn't know any illustrator who I
thought would be excited by the idea.

Jennifer: How did you end up, poem in hand, on Ben¹s doorstep?

Mark: A mutual acquaintance, Kerry Neary, decided we both needed to know
each other so we were introduced to each other at Kerry's place. He's a
perceptive man that Neary, we did need to know each other, we just didn't
know this fact before we knew each other! (We couldn't really know this
fact though could we, given we didn't know each other, like, hey, hmmm?)

Jennifer: Ben, what was your first reaction to the manuscript?

Ben: I didn't know it at the time but Mark wrote the text with me in mind
not long after we met for the first time. He sent it to me in an unfinished
state and of all the poems he sent me this one leapt off the page. It was
unlike anything else I'd read and though I had no idea what it was about to
start with, I loved it nonetheless. The text was a far cry then from what
it has become, but most of the nonsense and wordplay has been maintained,
at least enough to keep us and the publishers happy.

Jennifer: How did you first see the mind-ground behind the words?

Ben: I didn't see these characters or the Noise-a-matron in my mind
straight away. It was a slow process of just scribbling away on paper. Mark happened
to be working on a libretto for a symphony by composer Elena Kats-Chernin
at the time and lent me a cd of her music. I took that home and listened to it
whilst working and suddenly ideas poured onto paper. I used her manic style
to help shape the characters and tone of the book. I always use music as
inspiration. Classical music especially helps fuel the imagination.

Jennifer: Was the central figure an evolution or instant inspiration?

Ben: The central character, Kate, came much later on. The editor at
Houghton Mifflin had this idea of having an identifiable character for the reader ‹
a guide to take us through the book. Mark and I were originally just caught
up in the nonsense of it all and didn't really have justification for
anything. Her interpretation however was that all this was taking place in
the mind of a tantrumming child. That was a real, ŒYes! That's it!¹ moment.
We were happy with this idea, so we indirectly named this character Kate,
after the editor.

Jennifer: Was the total concept a partnership or a surrendering of the text
to the artist to interpret? A collaboration or a fusing of two
inspirations?

Ben: Both really. Mark is an illustrator's dream to work for ‹ he left it
completely up to me to interpret it how I wanted. He had no preconceived
visual ideas, only that my particular style was more than suited, since he
wrote it with me in mind. That said, he always has invaluable creative
input once the ball is rolling. I can't recall a moment where we weren't moving
in the same direction. We had the odd friendly debate on things, but no great
conflicts. Mark knows a lot of artists and creative people, so I think he
knows full well how to treat them ‹ being the fragile little creatures that
they are. Thus, as a result the whole creative process is smooth and
enjoyable. I distinctly remember a phone message left by Mark after
emailing him the rough for the final spread in the book. In between fits of
laughter he rattled on for a least five minutes about every detail in the
picture and what he liked about them. I felt like a dog getting it's belly
scratched!

Mark: Ben's just being polite here. It was FOUR YEARS OF HELL! ABSOLUTE
HELL I TELL YOU! Or not. Either way it kept us both entertained for a very
long time. I have close to 1000 emails from Ben about, Circus!

Jennifer: On first reading, the poem is a fun, fantasy play on words with
hints of darker doings ‹ a young mind using word play to sort itself out ‹
was this the
intention, Mark?

Mark: Originally the idea was simply that the words we speak, both 'nice'
and not so, all come from inside our heads. But it never made sense to me
that the 'good' side and the 'bad' side of our selves should originate from
the same place ‹ although of course they do. This paradox, that we are all
an admixture of good and evil, is the central human paradox so that seemed
like a fair enough place to start. The essential dualism of free will and
fate also featured. But not too loudly. Since publication I have had
several psychologists suggest to me that it is about the id, problems with
authority and even darker subjects of child psychology. As long as the fun
remains paramount for the reader it¹ll be about what they make of it won¹t
it? I¹d prefer to think Circus is about the joy of creation within the
discipline of the constraints of artistic freedom ‹ in this case within 32
pages.

Ben: To me, Circus is about chickens, eggs and eggcups with a few
irrelevent things in between‹isn¹t it Mark?

Jennifer: Ben, how did you Œread¹ the poem?  Did you read into it or just
respond to it intuitively?

Ben: Mostly I respond to things intuitively. I rarely like to sit down and
analyse. If it becomes too calculated it loses it's charm. I'm like that
with a lot of things ‹ films, art, poetry. I don't always have to 'get'
something to enjoy it. It's all about the emotional response and I
responded strongly to this story.

Jennifer: I guess I¹m asking both of you how much was deliberately created
and how much was truly, purely right brain?

Ben: Being left-handed, mostly right brain I think. Most things that are
more deliberately created are
from editor's intervention, which isn't always a bad thing. I hope I
understood that question? I'm responding to it intuitively!


Mark: Actually since the lobotomy it's mainly back-brain for me. I have to
consciously think about it if someone tells me to turn right or left. I
honestly have to visualise a pen in my right hand ‹ I am right-handed ‹ so
I can tell which hand is which, then I decide which way to turn. Do you
seriously want to know what side of my brain it is that holds the pen! I
can't tell. Brains don't hold pens! Illustrate me something Ben! Quick!

Jennifer: What can we expect from your future collaborations?

Ben: Mark and I have multiple projects in the making, but next in line is,
Whacko the Chook. This will be Part One in what we hope will become a picture book
series. Whereas Circus took over four years to create, we deliberately set
out to do something in a very short time-frame. Mark wrote the story in one or
two nights and I had finished artwork in just over a month. It was an easy
sell with publishers too, the direct opposite of Circus which took 18
rejections from Australia, UK and USA before it was taken!