This is NOT a Sleepy Author Interview— Brian Gehrlein Disrupts Expectations with This is Not a Sleepy Bear Book
Well, hello again! I’m so glad you’re here.
Come on in and join me!
Let’s “settle in, snuggle up, and get ready for” this interview with the funny, interesting, and insightful Brian Gehrlein!
Brian Gehrlein (pronounced like “airline” with a G") is the author of two picture books: THE BOOK OF RULES (illustrated by Tom Knight and published by FSG/BYR, 2021), and his latest: THIS IS NOT A SLEEPY BEAR BOOK, illustrated by Jennifer Harney and published by Little, Brown. He is also the creator of the Picture Book Spotlight blog, #PBCritiqueFest for aspiring authors, and he offers professional story coaching/critiques that are out of this world!
Brian teaches high school English and lives in Liberty, Missouri with his wife, Katherine; sons Peter and Albee; and their corgi.
SR: Hi Brian! I’m absolutely thrilled to have you on the blog. Congratulations on This Is Not a Sleepy Bear Book! It truly made me laugh out loud.
Let’s jump right in.
Random jazz flute?!
BG: Thank you for having me, Stacey! I’m so glad you enjoyed the book! Yes. A random jazz flute. This detail was a later addition to the book and inspired by a very silly movie that came out in 2004, when I was a sophomore in high school.
The jazz flute scene in Anchorman, starring Will Ferrell, is forever etched in my mind as the pinnacle of absurdity for flutes. They say write what you know, and sometimes my comic instincts are to pull from goofy movies if the moment calls for it. What I didn’t expect was for this small detail to become so important and memorable for readers or my own agent and editor. Mostly, I was cheekily seeing if I could get away with an Anchorman reference for any millennial parents reading my book. Cheers to jazz flutes and the legend of Ron Burgundy!
SR: An Anchorman reference! Knowing this makes me love the random jazz flute snake dude even more (even though I’m a Gen Xer, shhhhh).
But seriously, this reminds me of my dad. He always used to say that the old cartoon Rocky and Bullwinkle was brilliant, because it had humor for kids on their level, and humor for the adults on their level. I think your book does the same thing. It sounds like you set out to do a bit of that, yes?
BG: Very much so. Because picture books are read BY adults TO kids, I want to play to both audiences. To be clear, picture books are for everyone, not just kids. They are real literature. However, the majority of contexts in which people are engaging with this sort of literature are an adult reading and a child listening. I have to engage both groups so that both groups don’t mind pulling a Brian Gehrlein off the shelf before bedtime. If it’s ALL for the kids or ALL for the grownups, something fundamental to picture books is left out and I can’t do that. I’m always thinking about how I’m engaging who is doing the reading and who is being read to.
…PICTURE BOOKS ARE FOR EVERYONE, NOT JUST KIDS. THEY ARE REAL LITERATURE.
SR: Picture book writers often talk about how ideas come to them: sometimes a title pops into their heads, or sometimes a premise, sometimes a character, sometimes the whole darn book (and usually that’s in the shower!). What came to you first in the case of This Is Not A Sleepy Bear Book?
BG: This book came to me in a library after seeing many hibernating bear books. The first thing that came to me was a title. I often start with a title. I think titles are important. They tell you a lot about what you’re about to read. The original title was: Another Bear Book. But we don’t want “Another Bear Book.” We want something unique! So my idea was to do the opposite of a gentle, cozy wintery bear story. I needed to push against a pattern I was seeing and disrupt expectations. It’s such a fun formula for a picture book: observe something that has been done before and do it again—only different! Give it a try!
SR: I most certainly will!
THE ARTWORK FOR A GOOD PICTURE BOOK IS NOT MERE DECORATION TO ENHANCE THE WORDS—IT SHOULD BE ADVANCING THE STORY.
SR: Jennifer Harney’s illustrations are equally charming and hilarious. How excited were you to know that she was going to illustrate the book?
BG: I truly hit the jackpot with Jenn Harney. When people in real life pay compliments to the book, they are 90% of the time commenting on the vivid brilliance and skill of the illustrations. It’s a picture book. A picture book. The pictures come first and I am so pleased with how she helped tell this story and how much life she breathed into it.
The artwork for a good picture book is not mere decoration to enhance the words–it should be advancing the story. She added so much foreshadowing and tonal and convention support. The two different styles she had to employ is downright impressive. You really don’t see that a lot (at all?) in picture books. She had to nail the classic storybook vibe of Owl’s bedtime story AND the chaotic party scenes with the endearing ensemble characters up to something.
And that’s not even the best part. To me, it’s the characters. The extreme emotions and contrasts to their reactions—they truly leap off the page! Picture books are experimental literature and the structural breakdown of the story mixed with two styles of art and metafiction thrown in make this book (hopefully) a textbook example for what you can do in this art form. My hat goes off to Jenn for how this book turned out. Speaking of hats, can we just say something about how amazing jazz flute snake is!? He’s the only character with an article of clothing and I think he deserves his very own book if you ask me…
SR: YES. Let me just reiterate how much I love that jazz flute snake. I’m with you—MORE JAZZ FLUTE SNAKE!
All of the characters are endearing. Speaking of the characters, I’ve heard you say that your wife is an Owl and you are a Bear. What about your kids? Also, did you test drafts of the book out on them?
BG: I very much am Bear to Katherine’s Owl. And our boys have a similar dynamic. Birth order might play a role in that. Peter is a typical rule-following, loves to be in charge, firstborn. Albee is just pure fun and the opposite of all that. I do shoot ideas to them to see what they find interesting but don’t usually read them drafts or work in process. However, I do pay attention to what they pay attention to. I know what tickles them and use my observations as a father playing with his kids to set up comedy and drama. It’s an amazing season of life right now—to be reading picture books to real kids and writing them when they’re finally asleep. They teach me so much and I know I wouldn’t be the writer or storyteller without their influence on me.
SR: This is your second funny book to be published. Does the humor come naturally, or do you have to work at it? If so, what resources do you turn to?
BG: People who know me in real life know I’m always waiting for a well-timed joke to ease the tension or make my friends, family, and coworkers laugh. Humor is like breathing to me. While I do think it comes naturally to me, I’m always testing my jokes and paying attention to my audience. I’m getting my timing right, or seeing how often you can repeat a joke or what the audience is in the mood for.
A well-placed joke in a staff meeting is my favorite context to test these skills—yes, I’m “that guy.” I’ve been doing this for years. In a college astronomy class, after my professor’s rather long explanation about the twenty-three-degree axis of the Earth as the source for our temperature variance and seasonal change, I raised my hand and very seriously asked, “Wait a minute…so you’re telling me Jesus isn’t the reason for the season?” The response from that very full lecture hall (and my professor’s face) has been burned into my brain as a core memory forever.
Resources I turn to are my relationships. I just try to make people smile and pay attention to what works. Also TV and film. There’s a large portion of my comic instincts and consciousness that’s basically just movie quotes.
I RECEIVED 600 REJECTIONS ON MY PATH TO PUBLICATION AND FINDING MY FIRST LITERARY AGENT.
SR: You have candidly talked about how many ‘no’s you received before your first book, The Book of Rules, was published. How was the process for you with This Is Not a Sleepy Bear Book?
BG: Yes, I know a thing or two about rejection. I received 600 rejections on my path to publication and finding my first literary agent. I still get rejected but don’t really count anymore—it’s not healthy to do that! The manuscript itself was not initially accepted. We got a good response but request to revise from Little, Brown. I did this two times over the period of about a year before it was an actual “yes” and they bought the book. I suppose all those rejections helped me learn persistence…
SR: I appreciate your honesty about that, and I’m sure others do too - it helps us know we’re not alone! Persistence certainly is key in this business, because the "no’s” continue even after you have an agent, even after you have a debut book under your belt…or many books!
You have also said that you’re promoting the book a little differently this time around. You’ve put together an Advanced Reader Team. Can you talk a little about that that, and what you’re learning along the way?
BG: The Advance Reader Team idea was something I came up with in the months leading up to pub day and I am so pleased it was a success.
Drawing on my experiences with PBCritiqueFest and some of the other things I had done with Picture Book Spotlight, I was curious about gamifying book buzz and rewarding a team of motivated readers to help me spread the word before pub day. It didn’t feel fair to just ask for help promoting the book with nothing in return and that’s where the giveaways and some of the other incentives came in. We had a bit of a competition and people could self-report the ways they were sharing about the book in the six weeks leading up to the book coming out. It was a lot of fun and we had 115 people from all over the world opt in to the group. They all received an ARC of the book, a discount to my story coaching service (good for a whole year), a raffle ticket to win giveaway prizes, and an invitation to a launch party Zoom celebration that was attended by my agent, editor, illustrator, illustrator’s agent, and other members of our Little, Brown editorial team.
The real impact and how this team helped generate awareness for the book before publication cannot be understated. Everyone truly showed up. I merely set up the infrastructure and got to be an enthusiastic cheerleader as everyone did their thing. I’m so grateful for every member of our Sleepy Bear Advanced Reader Team!
SR: You interview writers for your own blog, and you do professional critiques. How do these activities shape your own writing and experiences as an author? And how does being a teacher influence your writing?
BG: This is a GREAT question. Having to teach something means you really have to know it. I also approach this question with my experience as a picture book story coach because I see that as teaching as well. I almost think we don’t really know something until we have to teach it to someone else. As I teach, I learn and my craft improves. I also think that teaching is inherently humbling. It exposes your vulnerabilities and you’re confronted in an intimate way with exactly what you know and don’t know.
THEN THERE’S AI.
…I’VE NOTICED SOMETHING THAT’S GIVEN ME A LOT MORE CONFIDENCE AND A SIGNIFICANT MEASURE OF PEACE IN THIS NEW HUMAN ERA: IT CANNOT REPLICATE MY VOICE.
Then there’s AI. Oh man do I even want to open this can? I do. Big breath. Okay. AI. It’s an obvious understatement to suggest this technology is changing nearly every industry and human endeavor—most notably how we critically think and engage in literacy and the writing process. That means it up in my business in a very in-your-face sort of way since I teach and write for a living. I’m saddened by what I see it doing to my students (even in creative writing classes!) but it is forcing me to rethink how I do what I do. While I do want to shove the genie back in the bottle, that’s simply not going to happen. It’s here.
And yet, I am not extreme in my dislike of it. I play with it. I dabble. It’s interesting. At this point, I’ve made my peace with what I’m morally okay with allowing it to do for me—menial analysis or quantitative-type work that I don’t care as much about. What I won’t allow it to do is create work that I attempt to pass as my own. Because no matter how much I change the prompts or have it revise, I’ve noticed something that’s given me a lot more confidence and a significant measure of peace in this new human era: it cannot replicate my voice. And I don’t think it can replicate your voice. Or anyone’s. I think as time goes on, honest to goodness human creativity and the human voice will become a far more valuable commodity. As more and more people surrender their critical thinking to AI, the more meaningful authentic critical thinking will become. I do not think the robots are coming for us. Call me naive but that’s the hill I’ll die on.
…ANOTHER THING ABOUT BEING IMMERSED WITH YOUNG PEOPLE EVERY DAY IS THAT I FIND MYSELF ALWAYS CURIOUS ABOUT WHAT THEY’RE THINKING AND NOTICING.
Moving away from all of this silly robot talk, another thing about being immersed with young people every day is that I find myself always curious about what they’re thinking about and noticing. I ask them about their books and try to learn from what makes them curious about literature and what authors and books are captivating them. I try to listen. All in all, I know I’ve become a greater writer by teaching writing and leading teens through complex literature. My students and the things we read together are a constant source of inspiration to me and I hope I can inspire them in return. If my students feel even 10% more confident as readers and writers by the end of their time with me, I believe I’ve done my job.
AN ANNOUNCEMENT!
SR: What are you really excited about right now? (It can be anything, writing- or non-writing-related.)
BG: I’m still riding the high of This is Not a Sleepy Bear Book publishing and excited also about my third picture book that I can’t really talk about. And I’m always excited about whatever book that’s in development or that I’m revising. Since I get the most joy out of just writing, I’m always most excited about whatever I’m currently working on or whatever is gripping my curiosity.
In non-author life, I’m most excited about our third child coming this April. I can’t wait to meet him or her!
SR: Wow, FANTASTIC NEWS! You heard it here first, folks! Well - maybe not first. Or second. Third? 50th? 1,564th? Anyway, YOU HEARD IT HERE! 😁
CONGRATULATIONS, BRIAN, KATHERINE, PETER & ALBEE!
⚡️LIGHTNING ROUND⚡️
And finally, let’s do a Lightning Round:
1) Favorite meal
The older I get, the more I enjoy a good soup. Potato soup and French onion soup are up at the top for me. But also steak (cooked medium rare) with nothing but a little salt. Yummy!
2) Favorite movie or TV show
Oh man. This is a tough one! The TV show I like to watch again and again lately is What We Do in the Shadows. It’s an absolutely irreverent blend of silly and macabre, following the escapades of present-day vampires in a mockumentary-style comedy. Complete tonal shift, but the movie I’ve probably watched more than any other movie is either It’s a Wonderful Life or Casablanca–I’m a sucker for older films!
3) Quiet, lyrical lullaby or LOUD, HILARIOUS SHENANIGANS?
I do not believe anyone has ever described me as quiet. In fact, if you look in the dictionary under “loud, hilarious shenanigans,” you’ll see my face.
4) Ten-piece drum set or sick guitar riffs?
DEFINITELY a ten-piece drum set. I am actually a drummer and have played percussion and set for decades at this point. Love me some drums!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU BRIAN! And thank YOU, friends, for sticking with us till the end.
WHERE TO FIND BRIAN:
Follow him on Twitter: @briangehrlein. If you want to stay up on Spotlight interviews and other PB Spotlight happenings, subscribe to Picture Book Spotlight. Want to say hi? Contact Brian here.
Brian is also on Instagram: @briangehrlein
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