Idea Development
Welcome to the Backyard Science Imprint website. My name is Callie LaValle and I’m the co-author of Houdini and the Magic Molt. I would like to share with you today how the book started. Tally Scully, my aunt, had come to visit my family for Thanksgiving. During her visit while waiting for food in a restaurant, she mentioned she had an idea for a book. She was struggling putting the ideas together as a children's story. I had just won first place in a writing contest through the school, so Tally knew I was a writer. Tally started to tell me about her idea and I thought it was a great one. We talked about some improvements for her idea. My mom gave me a notebook and pen and I started to jot the ideas down. We were both very excited. Once Tally had left, we continued to e mail and Skype each other. As soon as we had gotten the main story down, we decided we needed illustrations. Tally told me that her mother taught art at a university and was an accomplished artist herself. She asked her mother, Read, to create the illustrations for the book, then it became a three generational book.
