In case you thought Liz Strauss is all business, I'd like to introduce you to another side of The Publishing Spot's featured writer--her 65th crayon alter-ego who shows up in some pretty funny places on the web."The 65th Crayon is out of the box. Well, of course, he’s out of the box. That’s why he’s the 65th Crayon—only 64 come in the box," she wrote in a playful post.
"He’s a bit of a rebel that one, full of joie de vivre. Usually he hangs around my desk, pestering me to have fun, reminding me of all of the opportunities we have to play." Today, Strauss talks about her writing career, looking at all the different places she went following her invisible crayon friend.
In honor of that crazy (but good crazy!) muse, I picked Strauss my deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a serialized set of weekly interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing...
Jason Boog:
Some of my readers probably aren't familiar with your byline. For somebody looking for a good introduction to your work, where would I start? If you were creating a greatest hits collection out of all your written material, what would be the top titles and how can I find them?
Liz Strauss:
Well, Jason, not quite everything in the whole world...
I've done many kinds of books for kids, most of them don't have my name, but many have be written from word one on my computer. I've been mostly the "man behind the curtain," the publisher. Most of the time I was the publisher for more than one educational publishing company--the person who decided which books would be published. If you went to school in the US, Australia, Canada, or the UK between 1989 and today, there's a good chance that I touched the books you used in school.
To find the odd (yeah, they're like me, odd) other titles, try Google. There's even one or two weird ones at Amazon, but nothing you'd want to sit down to read. I write school books.
Jason,
The 65th Crayon will be so pleased. He hasn't been getting much press lately and that's been making him a little cranky. You're the best researcher.
Posted by: Liz Strauss | June 7, 2006 8:37 AM | Permalink to Comment