Beyond the Page: Tim J. Myers
This week we are excited to feature Tim J. Myers, author of Yao Bai and the Egg Pirates illustrated by Bonnie Pang (West Margin Press, April 2019). Get to know him through fun questions below.
What’s your favorite (current or all-time) movie, dessert, and adult book?
Movie: The Black Stallion, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. I can’t express how much I love the earlier part of the story when the boy and the stallion are alone on the island, living in nature and growing to love each other.
Dessert: Only the best thing in the whole wide world: Peanut-butter cups. I worship Mr. Reese, who apparently was the first person to put peanut-butter and chocolate together. That was genius!
Adult book: I love Kim by Rudyard Kipling. I don’t like Kipling’s ideas about imperialism and racism—but I love the way this book shows how love can bring different people together. And I love its rich portrait of the great diversity of India at that time.
If you could only eat one food for a week, what would you pick?
I promise I’m not just saying this because of my new book—but I love fast-food Asian! I live in the Bay Area, so there’s plenty of it around. I especially like to eat at a chain restaurant my wife jokingly calls “Panda Excess.”
What fictional place would you most like to go?
My answer may seem strange, but right now it’s Bedevia—a world I myself made up and am currently writing a novel about. It’s a big world full of harsh realities but also great beauty and wonder. And because I’m “building” this world and spending so much time in it, I’d jump at the chance to actually visit it. It certainly feels real in my head.
Tell us one fun insider-fact about Yao Bai and the Egg Pirates.
Most of Yao Bai and the Egg Pirates takes place on the water, first San Francisco Bay, then the open ocean. And someone described it as an adventure on “the high seas.” In the afterword, I wrote that the story actually was inspired by a boat trip my family and I took to the Farallon Islands. What I didn’t mention was that I was very, very seasick most of the time! Still, as Yao himself might say—WE SAW WHALES!
Tim J. Myers
Tim J. Myers is a writer, teacher, and storyteller. He is the author of numerous children’s books, including Basho and the Fox, which made the New York Times best-seller list for children’s books and was chosen by Smithsonian Magazine as a notable book. Myers lives in Santa Clara, CA, where he also lectures at Santa Clara University.
