Carolyn Watson Dubisch Author Bio:
Carolyn Watson Dubisch is an award winning author/illustrator of 17 children’s books and the illustrator on five children’s books with various authors. She also writes and illustrates comics for kids. Some of her comic book series include “The Horribles”, “After The Robots Died” and “The Dragon in The Closet”. As a writer and artist she has designed alien bird-men for Star Wars games and colored Wolverine and Silver Surfer Comics for Marvel. She’s also had her writing and illustrations in various children’s publications including Highlights for Children, Hopscotch and Whimsy Magazines
She currently lives in a house by the beach in Mazatlán, Mexico with her husband, scifi-fantasy artist and writer, Mike Dubisch and her youngest daughter.. She also has a very old dog and four Mexican street cats who make life interesting every day
What inspires you to write?
My husband, the kids I teach art to at the primary school, my dog, my cats, and even what I had for breakfast can inspire me. There are stories and ideas everywhere I turn. Writing is something that is always there. I feel like I have a thousand little stories waiting to to be revealed. Sometimes writing a story can inspire a new story.
Tell us about your writing process.
I'm a pantser, though I am not extreme. I always have a rough idea as to where a story is going. Almost like a outline is inside my head but not written down.
I do so many character sketches, but that's because I'm also an illustrator and the stories I write are for children's books or for kids comics. When I'm writing my kids comic book series,"The Dragon in the Closet" I write in long hand in a notebook. Then I draw the scenes in a sketchbook (I'm working in sketchbook #6 for this series). Followed by digitally coloring and lettering the pages and posting them onto the webcomic site. Once I get to the right "break" in the story arc, I compile the pages into an issue. Issue #4 "The Water Devil" was just released. I don't have the whole series written yet, but I do have a good idea of where it's going.
However for my middle grade comic book series "The People That Melt in The Rain", I typed out the entire series and have planned precisely every moment and scene and developed character profiles. This is because I am working with my husband, artist Mike Dubisch on that series. We have released the first issue called "Deluge; The People That Melt in The Rain #1" and the reviews have been great so far.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I empathize with my characters. I do like many of them, though some are very difficult people and are usually motivated by feelings that they know better than everyone else. This kind of thing makes them very controlling and easy to turn into villains.
Sometimes it's hard empathizing with them because I have a tendency to trap my characters. I throw them in dungeons, lock them in crypts, cages, and even trapped inside the monkey house at the zoo. In The Dragon in The Closet, the dragon is magically trapped inside a closet by a witch ever since he hatched and his egg was stolen from his mother.
In The People That Melt in The Rain, Laura is a 12 year old who moves to a new mysterious town and discovers that when the rain falls it burns like acid on her skin, just like it does for all the people in town and now she too is trapped here and cannot leave.
In my children's book "Fireflies" two young girls capture fireflies on the deck of a ferry boat and realize in horror their jars are full of terrified little fairies. It seems to be an ongoing theme in many of my books.
Who are your favorite authors?
I've really been enjoying books by Sarah Rees Brennen. "In Other Lands" is one of my favorite all time books and the fact that it's YA just makes it even better. I am reading her book "Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy, #1)" and the characters are fantastic and funny, so i definitely recommend it, though I haven't finished. As for middle grade books I just read "Trailer Park Hero" by V.C. Sanford which I absolutely recommend. It's a dog story that was really engaging and, no, the dog doesn't die!
As for kids comic books, one of my favorites is called " Dead End Jobs for Ghosts" by Aminder Dhaliwal. The art is clean and expressive and the story is unique and hilarious. A teenager dies with her driving instructor in a car accident and finds herself "employed" in the after world.
What genres do you write?
Children's Comic books , Children's picture books
How did you choose the genre(s) you write?
I studied children's book illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. I have always been fascinated by juvenile fiction and I write things that I can enjoy drawing. Also raising three kids was like a focused and intense course on studying children's literature. I read 5 or 6 books a day to my kids, sometimes more, for years.
I also love comic books and I like to explore visual storytelling.
What hobbies do you have when you need a break from writing?
I am also a sculptor. I create fantasy and animal masks for films, photo shoots, tv shows, and stage productions. I also sell them online through my Etsy store, Artisan Masks. Mask making keeps me pretty busy and gives me time to think when I get stuck in a story.
What formats are your books in?
eBook, Print
Website(s)
Follow On Amazon
Link to Author Page on Lulu.com
Author’s Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
All information is provided by the author and is presented as it was submitted so you the reader get to hear the author’s own “voice” in their interview.
