The co-author of The Lizard Who Loves A Blizzard shares insights on what it’s like to collaborate on a picture book and how the process works.

They say two heads are better than one and when it comes to brainstorming and collaborating, I truly believe that was the case when it came to developing The Lizard Who Loves A Blizzard!

Any working relationship can be challenging from time to time, but when you keep an open mind and don’t allow egos to stand in the way of creative flow, you are bound to succeed!

Each person brings something unique to the table and when you can acknowledge what those gifts are it makes for a most productive experience. 

Creating something from nothing is a testament to creativity.

Michael Sullivan had an idea of a little lizard who might like a blizzard. That in itself was funny, but this lizard was from Australia! The inspiration behind The Lizard Who Loves A Blizzard happened when Michael would step out of the condo where he lives in Florida. The little lizards would race in front of him. They made him smile and he then wondered what would a lizard do during a blizzard? 

He sent me his initial thoughts. I was excited to see that he introduced the concept as a rhyming story. I was in love! We talked more about how we saw Larry evolving; I did some additional writing and sent it back. Michael loved my version, so we continued to build on it and, voila, Larry’s story was born! 

Finding an illustrator that could capture the vision we had of Larry, his friends and the towns folk was next. We reached out to various illustrators in different parts of the world. We were so lucky to find our magnificent Yanaisy Puentes Cruz who went beyond the scope of the project and created a beautiful visual version of what we wanted to portray. 

Creating something from nothing is a testament to creativity. The ability to see and look outside of the box, working together as a team is key and having realistic expectations and showing respect for one another is crucial. All these components working together is what happened for us and why we feel we have a winner!

For more information about Shelley Larkin and Michael John Sullivan, visit Book Review + Giveaway: The Lizard Who Loves A Blizzard.