What’s for Dinner? follows a young boy and his friends as a simple misunderstanding about his dad’s dinner sparks a hilarious series of increasingly outrageous guesses about what they’ll be eating. What draws you to write children’s literature?

I think children’s literature gives us adults permission to be kids again, which is something we all need, in my opinion. As adults, we have long lost the innocent view of the world; children display it every day. I love writing for children because their imaginations have no speed limit or has no boundaries, they ask questions we adults stop asking ourselves as we get wrapped up in life. The way children can take an ordinary cardboard box and create a spaceship or castle from their imagination, or create a superhero cape from a blanket, is something we aduts can learn from. Children take a simple question, such as “What’s For Dinner?”, add a little imagination, a lot of silliness, and absolutely love the journey it leads them on.

Honestly, if I can write a story that makes a child laugh, help make family memories…I consider that a successful day.

How did the idea for Mac, Howard, and Caitie’s hilarious misunderstanding of “Nun-Ya” come about?

So the characters are actually based off my wife (Caitie), one of my closest friends from my military days (Howard); even Obie is based off of a real dog (my wife’s service animal, Oberon), and of course myself as Mac and Dad. It all started with one of those classic dad answers to “What’s For Dinner?” we all received as children ourselves. Once I started the process, I asked my own children what they thought it was, as we said the same answer to them when they were younger for some ideas of gross foods. Of course we know now as adults that it should have meant “None of your business,” but as children we all took it as an actual meal, and once a child’s imagination gets involved, there’s no way to put the brakes on a wild imagination. I wanted to capture that wonderful childhood ability to take one tiny misunderstanding and turn it into a full-blown investigation.

As a father, I’ve learned that if you give children a question, they will give you a pure and honest answer. However, if you give them a mysterious answer to their questions, they will provide approximately 100 answers, with about 25 of those answers being absolutely wild.

The illustrations add visual jokes and exaggerated reactions to the story. How did you collaborate with Emily Close and Jennifer A. Wijaya to bring the humor to life?

I absolutely loved working with Emily and Jennifer. All the character designs are my own, and I handed them the sketches in the beginning of the process, as I simply didn’t have the time to render or learn a new program while working full time as a father of four and, of course, actually work. Emily and Jennifer took these sketches and layouts and took the humor within my story and tuned it way up in the best possible way!

One of my favorite parts of creating the final version was seeing my characters come to life through each edit and through their expressions on the pages. Watching children read our book and make similar facial expressions is exactly the response we all were looking for by the end of the project. A funny line in a manuscript can make you smile, but seeing my characters’ faces when they are illustrated can make it even more ridiculous and take that joke to the next level.

I basically wrote the joke and gave these very talented artists the opportunity to expand that joke to hilarious new levels…and I am looking forward to working with them on future projects!

Do you think the story might inspire children to invent their own ridiculous answers to “What’s for dinner?”

I truly hope it does, and if it does, I apologize in advance to their parents! LOL. I hope kids start playing their own versions of “What’s For Dinner?” around their dinner tables. The possibilities are endless with children and their imaginations; one might create spaghetti with marshmallows, another might create stink bug stew for their Nun-Ya meals. That’s exactly what I love about this book, as I wanted children to realize that they can take a simple question and turn it into an imaginative adventure. Hopefully, after reading What’s For Dinner? children decide to put their art skills to work and create gross food of their own, and parents send me the images.

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