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Today's Featured Biography

 
Derek Anderson

While attending art and writing classes at Iowa State, I was asked repeatedly, "But what are you going to do for a job?" I had always thought I would be a cartoonist. Then I found children's books.

After graduating from Iowa State, my then girlfriend, Cheryl (now my wife), and I moved to Minneapolis where I got a job sculpting Warner Brothers and Disney figurines. And I started down the long, bumpy road of getting published. I worked during the days- and on evenings and weekends I painted pictures and wrote stories and sent them off to publishers in New York. No one, of course, was interested. I even tried to find an agent. They weren't interested either.

I spent at least a few years doing that- and collected a stack of rejection letters that would rival anyone's. Luckily, I have a very supportive wife. Eventually I was able to quit my job and do free-lance illustration, which allowed me time to really go after it.

I drew, painted and wrote constantly- often until 2 or 3am and really began to market myself to publishers. By May of 2001, I was so determined to make this happen, that I put together a portfolio and went to New York. It's still, to this day, the scariest thing I've ever done. But the responses were overwhelming.

Two weeks after I returned, I got a book deal with Random House and shortly after came an offer from Simon & Schuster. I've been working with Simon & Schuster ever since.

If you have young kids, hopefully you've seen some of my books. I illustrated a series of books about a duck named Little Quack. They're called, Little Quack, Little Quack's Hide and Seek, Little Quack's Bedtime and Little Quack's New Friend. And I have a number of books that I've written and illustrated including Gladys Goes Out to Lunch, Blue Burt and Wiggles, and How the Easter Bunny Saved Christmas. I've published nine books so far and have two more finished, which are now in production. You can read a lot more about my books on my website at:www.derekanderson.net

I have the best job in the world. I work from a studio in my house, and when I'm not under deadline, I'm often out speaking in bookstores, schools and libraries, or at conferences and book festivals. I had the worst stage fright back in my school days and absolutely hated taking speech class in high school and college. Now it's part of my job. I've given talks to kids from grade school up through college all over the United States.

Cheryl and I have a lot of fun- we're both certified scuba divers and have been on a number of dives in the Atlantic, Caribbean and around the Gulf of Mexico. I've gone skydiving (Cheryl said, "No way" so I went with some buddies). And we've traveled a lot. We both love Europe and have been on adventures in London, Paris, Rome, Venice and the Loch Ness in Scotland. I even saw the Loch Ness Monster! (Too bad for Cheryl- she was looking the other way).

I missed the last reunion, so it will be fun to see everyone this time around!

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