Interview with Patti Calkosz, Author of Olaf and Essex

Today, we're joined by Patti Calkosz, author of Olaf and Essex--a forthcoming MG in which a fox and bear take on bumbling witch kidnappers and the NYPD’s Chief Magic Detector to protect a magical baby and the witches of New York.

Welcome to Smack Dab, Patti! Please tell us a bit about Olaf and Essex.

 

Thank you! Olaf and Essex is my debut. I’m sure my subconscious mind used my brother’s teddy bear and my plush fox as the jumping-off point for the Olaf and Essex characters. During childhood we would sometimes put on puppet shows for family friends. My brother was the writer then.

 

I was utterly fascinated by the idea of a baby who can amplify powers. Where did this idea come from?

 

When I began writing the story, I only had a vague notion that Mabel wanted to steal the baby because of a prophecy that the infant would “bring light to the darkness.” When I wrote the scene where Mabel turned Harvey into a frog, I realized she wouldn’t have been powerful enough to transfigure Harvey on her own, that it was the baby’s presence that amplified her power. So then I was able to set Mabel on a trajectory, starting from doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, to having her completely lose sight of anything but gaining personal power.  

 

The witches in the book are both good and bad and seem to represent how society often tries to suppress things that it doesn’t understand. (I’m thinking of the Magic Detection Unit). Yes?

 

Yes, exactly! In the first version of the story, the cops, Jackson and Gardner, visited Mabel just like they do in the finished book. I always meant for them to be good cops. At that point I was writing about New York City in the future. When the George Floyd protests erupted, I thought that the movement to “defund the police” would result in reformation, and that gave me the idea for the “Conflict Resolution Department.”

 

While my first editor was reading the manuscript, a scene popped into my head: a high-ranking police official interrogating Mabel, enjoying telling her that she would not get her phone call. But the scene seemed too dark to fit into that first version. When my editor told me Mabel’s motivation wasn’t strong enough, I thought about how groups or individuals with power don’t actually want to give up their power. I figured the Conflict Resolution Department would blame society’s problems on witches and other humans who were adept at magic, and that the department would create a Magic Detection Unit. I also gladly took an agent’s advice to set the story in an alternate NYC instead of the future.

 

It's funny because both the witches and the Conflict Resolution Department/Magic Detection Unit have the same goal; both Mabel and the Chief believe they’re trying to eradicate the dangerous elements in society—each other! If they could just let go of their inherent fear and mistrust of the “other” and have some open-hearted conversations, they would find they actually have a lot in common and could work together to solve society’s problems.

 

This is one of those magical books that will appeal to both children and adults–how to do you manage to strike a balance in the tone?

 

Perhaps it’s because I enjoy reading across genres and age levels? Or that, as an adult, I have adult concerns, but I still retain many childlike qualities? Or that I enjoy watching animated films, which generally are made to appeal to both kids and the parents who accompany them to the movie theater? In any case, thank you! I totally intended that humans of all ages would be able to enjoy my story, so it’s wonderful to hear that I succeeded.

 

The appearance of the book is absolutely lovely. How closely did you work with the illustrator?

 

Very! I first commissioned Xiao to draw some illustrations for my new website, while I was still querying. I mentioned to her that I might decide to self-publish, in which case I would want to use those website images for my cover, as well as ask her to draw new illustrations for many of the chapters.

 

When I decided to indeed self-publish, Xiao asked me to write out a list of illustrations I wanted. Along with the list, I added my own sketches—not much more than stick figures—which she took as a starting-off point but of course greatly improved upon, and often reimagined completely. She also felt that a few of my ideas wouldn’t work or weren’t necessary to the storytelling and asked me to think of alternative ideas for those chapters.

 

For most of the characters we started with a design process. For the humans, she asked me to send her pictures of real life people whom I’d imagined as the characters. In a couple instances she said, regarding multiple pictures I’d sent for a specific character, “These are completely different people!” Because sometimes I had imagined a character as one person in some scenes and in other scenes as other people.

 

There was a lot of back and forth, trying different facial structures, different hairstyles, different noses, etc. I sent Xiao a bunch of mobster pictures for Harvey (most of them actors in mobster roles—I’d always envisioned Harvey as a sort of New Yorker magazine cartoon mobster). The version of Harvey she came up with was so much better than the one I’d had in my head!

 

Mabel Blackthornudder is both funny and a villain. Did the character appear this way initially, or was it one of those things that came into focus after multiple rewrites?

 

I tend to write with humor, so while I knew I needed a convincing baddie, I think it was inevitable that Mabel would also be funny. Weeks after I began writing, I realized I’d been subconsciously influenced by Madame Medusa and Snoops from The Rescuers, one of my favorite animated films from childhood. I’m sure that’s why I envisioned Mabel with orange hair (although I think Harvey is a much kinder and nobler man than Snoops was, and he also has more of a backbone). But right from the start, Mabel and Harvey had that humorous, bickering dynamic.

 

Was the book actually born in Central Park? (I thought I saw a picture of you with a Central Park sculpture on your website–I sort of imagined the characters coming to life for you on a walk through the park!)

 

The first idea I got for the story was a mental image of a fox and bear standing with a young girl in a tundra. I’ve never lived in a tundra, and I didn’t feel I could do that setting justice just through book and internet research. Once I made the decision not to set the story in a medieval town, that I was going to use a modern setting, I naturally felt, having grown up in Queens, that the story should take place in New York. And Central Park seemed to be the place that a bear in NYC would find its way to.

 

I had really just begun writing when the pandemic hit, so for more than a year I relied on my memories, the internet and books about the park. But in the spring of ’21 I started making treks to the park and its surroundings, to the locations of specific scenes so I could incorporate details I noticed into the manuscript. I remember that first day, standing on Oak Bridge in the Ramble: the weather was beautiful, the sun shone on the water, the sign for Essex House was off in the distance, and I could hardly believe I was actually doing field research for a novel I’d written after feeling mentally blocked for so many years.

 

 

One of my favorite themes in the book is that of found family. I love unlikely connections–and especially loved the trio of Olaf, Essex, and Football. How do you think this unconventional family unit challenges traditional notions of what makes a family?

 

I wish every child could know unconditional love within its family of origin. But many children aren’t that fortunate, and many grow up seeking that type of strong family bond through friendships. And every child who grows up in a loving, supportive family, whether it’s “traditional” or not—is incredibly lucky. The people who insist only traditional families are authentic, or healthy for a child, are coming from a place of fear—like you said earlier, they mistrust what they don’t understand.

 

Olaf and Essex both had loving parents, and in Essex’s case, a loving mate. But when they found themselves alone, they were able to find each other, care for each other, and help each other. When the baby came into their lives, they immediately wanted to help her. I think their family unit is yet another example of the kinds of loving bonds that are available in so many different variations in this expansive universe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s next?

 

I’m about 80 pages into a sequel, where the new Commissioner of the Conflict Resolution Department has to find a sneakier way to keep control of New York’s magical population. This story is shaping up to be quite different. The animals and the baby—now a toddler—are still very much involved, but I’m planning to bring in a bunch of new kid characters. The good witch, Helga, will likely be more of a main character this time around. And there will be even more of a focus of tying the spiritual and material worlds together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where can we find you?

My website is patticalkosz.com. I’m on Instagram as @patticalkosz and “Patti Calkosz author” on Facebook. Thank you so much!

Snag a copy of Olaf and Essex from Bookshop