PWJ: S3E31 – AH – “After Hours” with Lina Maslo

I sat down with author and illustrator Lina Maslo to discuss her new book, Through the Wardrobe: How C. S. Lewis Created Narnia.

S3E31: “After Hours” with Lina Maslo (Download)

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Time Stamps

00:44 – Biography
01:42 – Drink-of-the-week
02:17 – Quote-of-the-week
03:43 – How did you become an artist?
05:09 – How did you discover C.S. Lewis?
07:07 – Why a book about Lewis?
08:42 – How did you begin?
16:21 – How do you handle Lewis’ tragedy?
18:39 – What is your development process?
21:13 – Talk through the book
44:03 – What do you include at the end?
45:16 – Interesting facts
48:04 – What are your future projects?
49:26 – Last Call and Contact Info

YouTube Version

I took a bit more time with the YouTube version of the podcast this week, integrating into the video some of Lina’s illustrations:

After Show Skype Session

Rather than talking with Matt this week, I flicked through a paper edition of Lina’s book:

Show Notes

• I shared some biographical details about Lina:

Lina Maslo is an author and illustrator with a Degree in Art from New College of Florida. Though she spent most of her childhood in Florida, she was born in Ukraine, and came to the United States at the age of five. Lina’s debut book, FREE AS A BIRD: THE STORY OF MALALA, is published by Balzer+Bray of HarperCollins. It is a Library Guild Selection, as well as a 2019 CCBC Choice, and the winner of the Living the Dream Book Award. Lina lives with her husband and children in South Carolina. She is an active member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and you can find her on Instagram and Twitter @linamaslo.

Biographical details of Lina Maslo

• For the drink-of-the-week, I was drinking ginger beer. Lina was drinking Tazo Wild Sweet Orange Tea.

• I shared the quote-of-the-week:

When I was ten I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

C.S. Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing for Children

• I asked Lina to explain how she became an artist.

• Lina shared how she came across C.S. Lewis. Her favourites were Paralandra and The Great Divorce. Her favourite Narnian book is The Horse and His Boy.

• She explained why she chose to write a picture book about C.S. Lewis.

• I asked about Lina’s process of writing and illustrating the book. She spoke about reading books and travelling to the UK. She explained that she had also received a lot of help from The Wade Center and Douglas Gresham. Apparently Lewis was claustrophobic as a child!

• Since much of Jack’s life was marked by tragedy, I asked Lina how she went about adapting that content for a book to be read by children. During her answer, she quoted Jack himself:

Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.

C.S. Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing for Children

• Lina explained the process or writing and drawing.

• Lina began talking us through her book. When speaking about Lewis telling stories, she quotes a letter from his cousin:

“…sitting one very small in the wardrobe while Jack told us his tales of adventure.”

Claire Lewis Clapperton

In the scene depicting his mother’s death, I noted that the silhouettes were evocative of this line from Lewis’ spiritual autobiography:

“the house became full of strange smells and midnight noises and sinister whispered conversations”

C.S. Lewis, Surprised By Joy

The scene in the trenches has Lewis writing one of his poems:

“Faeries must be in the woods, Or the satyrs’ laughing broods”

C.S. Lewis, Spirits in Bondage

• I particularly enjoyed Lina’s summary of some of the Narnian books:

…“to awaken the trees and the waters, and bring the badgers and squirrels and hares out of hiding”

Lina Maslo, Summary of Prince Caspian

“…to sail through nightmares and darkness and dragony thoughts, towards the sweet waters of Aslan’s country”

Lina Maslo, Summary of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

• I (badly) recounted an incident between Lewis and a child in at a hotel:

Once in a hotel dining-room I said, rather too loudly, ‘I loathe prunes: ‘So do I,’ came an unexpected six-year-old voice from another table. Sympathy was instantaneous. Neither of us thought it funny. We both knew that prunes are far too nasty to be funny. That is the proper meeting between man and child as independent personalities. 

C.S. Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing for Children

• Lina explained the more detailed sections at the end of the book.

• I asked Lina about her future projects.

• Find out more about Lina at her website, LinaMaslo.com. You can purchase the book directly from Harper Collins, or Amazon, or your local bookseller. Follow her on Twitter @LinaMaslo.