Currently I am maxing and relaxing in Stratford, Ontario enjoying a play or two.  Just kidding.  By my calculations what I’m actually doing as you read this is driving hell-for-leather out of Canada back to New York City while seated in a rental car’s back seat next to a 3-year-old and a 13-week-old.  For hours.  And hours.  And hours.

As you digest that pleasant little mental image (fun fact: someone in this car gets carsick regularly and it’s not me) I’m going to do you a solid.  In case you missed it, we’ve been soliciting authors for special behind-the-scenes tidbits and facts about their 2014 books.  These appear one a day on our Wild Things blog (the blog that celebrates Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature).  So enjoy what we’ve posted so far and stay tuned because there’s a LOT more where these came from!

First up, a video so good you’d swear we paid to have it made.  It’s N.D. Wilson talking gators, football, burning sugarcane fields, and there’s a live recitation of Beowulf in here to make the ladies swoon (the Beowulf lovin’ ladies . . . which is to say my friend Lori Ess):

Christian Robinson was up next and he brought some thoughtful consideration to the depiction of nontraditional families:

Bethany Hegedus followed and her talk touched on spelling errors and matchmaking:

When authors and illustrators asked what kind of video to do I always pointed them to this video of Steve Light.  His talk involves runaway primates, which is as awesome as it sounds:

And speaking of primates, Katherine Applegate was a true class act, appearing alongside primate keeper Jody Carrigan to discuss Ivan the gorilla’s more mischievous streak:

How great is Jack Gantos?  We asked the man to plug his book and he plugged ours instead!  Class act, that one:

Greg Neri came by to talk about the five things you might not know about Johnny Cash, Letterman style:

Jon Scieszka put on a fez.  Would that everyone did.  A fez just makes everything good:

Lisa Brown’s art may contain the only time in history this particular piece of furniture has appeared in a picture book:

Aaron Starmer told a magnificent story from his own youth that will honestly make your heart bleed a little:

And today we have Lauren Castillo, featuring an editor beloved to many:

Like I say, there are many more to come.  Perhaps your favorite will be up soon!