Dear Dumb Diary, Jim Benton Author Visit

Tue, 10/05/2004 - 10:33am

When: August 26, 2008 at the Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

Meet the author of the New York Times bestselling series Dear Dumb Diary and the Franny K. Stein: Mad Scientist book series. Jim draws, tells stories and signs books in this lively, interactive event.

Transcript

• [00:00:25.88] JIM BENTON: OK, I thought I'd start out with a PowerPoint because very often people ask me the question, how did I start doing what I do? So the PowerPoint I think makes it a little bit easier. So I took art classes in college. That's me with all my hair. I draw all the time. I do lots of sketches and I very often don't know what I'm going to do with them. So something like this is something you would see up on the walls in my studio or more likely lying around on the floor till I figure out what I need to do with it and that's very often where the ideas come from. Is just from sketches. This is a thing that I did back in 1987, some of your grandparents weren't born yet. And I did lots of stuff on T-shirts, T-shirts were one of the first places that I worked professionally. And I made lots and lots of stuff like this. You know, I sort of learned licensing a little bit and figured how to make programs. So it's not just a bunch of random drawings. This was a program called the Mrs. and it was about you know, sort of making fun of men, so there's Mr. Hunter, Mr. Fisherman-- all sorts of stuff like that. Real popular line. And People Magazine recognized it. And so they wrote me up in people with you know with that line and other T-shirts I did. For the people following the timeline you can see I still have my hair there, so that hasn't gone yet.
• [00:01:52.99] I was an editor on Writer's Digest for about 10 years. Mostly a contributing editor, so what I usually did was read the articles and then illustrated them. So against my will I read every article in Writer's Digest Magazine for 10 years. And sort of got the whole secret of writing boiled down that way, rendered down almost. And I wrote a book. This was Dealing With the Idiots in Your Life. It was a book of cartoons that I did for Simon and Schuster and it had cartoons like in it. And this is a cartoon that when I go into people's offices very often I'll see has been faxed and refaxed and faxed again. I see it up on bulletin boards all the time.
• [00:02:41.36] Another program I did was something called Just face It. Very simple, like bold lines and simple text and you know, we did millions of these at fine stores everywhere. I did a show called Secret Files of the Spydogs. It was on Fox Kids for about two seasons and I got to work with Adam West- was one of my main voices. And Mickey Dolenz-- some of the people recognize Mickey Dolenz-- this was Mickey Dolenz. This is the expression Mickey Dolenz has on his face all the time. And I did this character and this character was one of these ones that you know, I had drawn and had gone up on a bulletin board and just after awhile every time I saw it it made me laugh and it stayed there for a long time. In the meantime, I did more shows. And I put these shows into development-- not on the air-- although, Clementine I think is going to be a movie, we signed an option on Clementine.
• [00:03:38.92] AUDIENCE: With who? Disney?
• [00:03:41.55] JIM BENTON: No, not with Disney. Disney's actually made an offer three times on Dear Dumb Diary. We just can't come to an agreement on it yet. But I also did stuff for Nickelodeon. Back in the olden days when people used it dial-up on the internet, it went through the telephone line and it was really, really slow and a lot of kids you know, when they would go to a website they didn't have enough bandwidth to get the cartoons. So I came up with a way that would put cartoons on that would drop down quickly, but they would still animate. And these are just animated gifs that are set up with text and they loop, too. So it's just a continuous loop. It doesn't start and stop. It just keeps going constantly. And the idea behind this one was what would kids think that the year 3000 was going to be like. And there was still this character. And it took me years and years for people to even get the joke. You know, I showed it lots of times. I showed it to people I was working with. And typically, what they would say is, yes, I think it's funny, but the customer's won't understands why it's funny. Why this cute bunny is mean. They won't get it. So I did other things. I wrote a book called Franny K. Stein. Any I wrote it for my daughter who liked cute things, but she also liked spooky, scary things. So I did Franny for her. And Franny actually, unbelievably turned up on the years hottest hotties at number 10 in the National Enquirer. And they sent it to me and one can't even understand how that kind of thing happens. It just happens and you say, OK. That's not what I was going for, but all right. Franny's you know, there's six books here, there's another one I just finished called The Frandidate, which is for the election and that's just coming out now. And one of them won the Eleanor Cameron Award, which is sort of like the Hugo Award for kids science fiction. And there's still this guy.
• [00:05:53.58] Ultimately, I get people to sort of understand the joke and store Hot Topics decided to try it and when they tried it it went in, sold great. As soon as that happens it's very easy to take it to people, to put it on other products, and before you know it, the bunny has won five Licensing Industry Merchandise Awards, which no other property ever has. It's more even than Spongebob.
• [00:06:22.72] AUDIENCE: Is it based on [? sales? ?]
• [00:06:24.47] JIM BENTON: Nope, this award is based on industry people, which is manufacturers, licensers, licensees, retailers-- they all have votes in it. And they vote on the properties that they like in different categories. So it's [? everybody's ?] won in a few different categories. This was one of the ones that won and it was in a pilot partnership for Drug Free America user. So they called me up and they said, can we use it for anti-drug messages? And I said yes, but I have to write it and your choices are thumbs up or thumbs down. Because nobody else is going to be able to write this and make it work and understand how to make it work for this character. So they said, OK, we'll do it. It won three Addy awards and they're continuing to use and more states are beginning to use it in middle school.
• [00:07:14.75] THe Wall Street Journal did a story on it. And this is all from this character that at one point I couldn't even get people to understand the joke. And so the next thing you know it's in the Wall Street Journal and right now I lock horns with Disney. So like, Walmart-- the sleepwear back to school program is Hannah Montana, High School Musical, and It's Happy Bunny. And I have friends at Disney and it makes them nuts. In addition to that, I work on lots of different properties, different characters. This is from a line called Just Jimmy, which is just simple drawings. And if you remember back to that one that I did with the three sheep dogs, it's sort of the same thing. That was done in 1987 and this is just sort of a more modern take on that same sort of a joke-- with the one person kind of being out of place, which is how I feel all the time. Then there's other programs like this, Just Plain Mean. Just Plain Mean released at about the same time as It's Happy Bunny and sort of suffered from the prettier, older sister syndrome. The numbers were just as good, almost. So we dropped Just Plain Mean and went to It's Happy Bunny. But the Just Plain Mean program is sitting there on the bulletin board, ready to go when it's time. Meanie Doodles is another one. She's launching at Claire's this fall. And Claire's took an exclusive on it and we'll see how she does. She's always in a bad mood the way It's Happy Bunny's always in a good mood-- she's perpetually angry.
• [00:08:51.31] When I pitched Dear Dumb Diary to Scholastic the way that it happened was Scholastic had asked me to do books with It's Happy Bunny. And I said, I don't think it's possible. I don't think it could be done. I don't think it's a good idea. And so they talked to me back and forth for awhile, and finally, I got a photo album in the mail and it was the pictures of the people in the editorial department looking into the camera going like this, wearing all of the merchandise. They have it all over the desk and they're going-- So I called the editor and I said, you know, there's a point where the zebra stops fighting the lion. It just lies down, it's over. So I said, OK, it's over. We'll do these books, but you have to give me time to figure out-- because It's Happy Bunny is so insulting, you have to give me time to figure out a way that the kid who's reading it doesn't feel insulted. The kids going to come around and sit next to the bunny and they're going to judge the entire world together. So as soon as I could figure that out then we would do it. But I said, but I have another idea for something that I want you to look at in the mean time and it was called Dear Dumb Diary. And I sent them four pages of text and they read the text and I these are just rough draft that I had done, rough illustrations. Sent them four pages of texts, told them the other titles and they bought eight book on the spot from the four pages of text. And I had no idea what I was going to write these books about. I just pulled the titles out of thin air. And you see I've used most of them already. Am I the Princess or the Frog; Never Do Anything, Ever; My Pants are Haunted; My Cousin's Probably A Troll, that could have been the first book because the kids like a troll in that book. And then by that time I started doing It's Happy Bunny books. And three of the four have been American Library Association Top Picks for Reluctant Readers. Dear Dumb Diary, six books out now or seven, I guess. This is the one that I just finished, It's Not My Fault You Know Everything. The last three actually have been New York Times Bestsellers.
• [00:11:02.60] But going back to very early on, when I was drawing and I would just do little drawings-- one of the programs I'm doing now is with my sketchbooks. I'm just taking art and paintings and stuff like that. Sort of coming back around to the beginning and just putting little drawings on shirts and product again. Often when I talk to people they ask how I get my ideas for stories and the stories do sometimes start out with these drawings where I just sketch and see what comes of the sketch. I drew this one first here and I started thinking about a kid who was maybe raised by turtles. Maybe they haven't broken ito him yet, that he's a turtle maybe. And just because I think there's part of us that we all feel we were raised by turtles in a way. I haven't even written the story yet, but I like the pictures.
• [00:11:55.93] This is another example. It's just a drawing. But you know, as these drawings are littering the studio-- and I have a box called orphan art, I just draw stuff and I put it in the boxx-- but every once in awhile you'll see one and I just liked this guy raiding refrigerators for some reason. That's another one. You can see he stepped on her little dogs there. I did another drawing right after this and the dog's fine. This was a just a series of drawings. And I drew the first one here, the mouse, by himself. And then I drew him just loitering outside the mouse hole. And then I started to think, well maybe he's so bored that he wants a cat. So he's putting a sign up there for cat wanted and the idea behind the story is that he wants to hire a cat to chase him.
• [00:12:48.15] I just did a book for Penguin, which they're calling an adult picture book. It's really like for 14 and up. And it's a little girl who may or may not be murdering her aunt's one at a time, we can't tell for sure, but it's done in rhyme. I don't know if she did it or not. And that's it on this part. Any questions before we do some of the other-- yeah?
• [00:13:11.62] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:13:12.12]
• [00:13:15.13] JIM BENTON: Oh, you don't get it? That one right there, the joke is really sort of-- it's horrible to explain the joke. But it's sort of a disconnect between something that's really cute and saying something really horrible, you know? It's sort of like that surprising contrast kind of thing. Kind of destroys the joke to explain it. What I do is, much like the way I draw, I just write you know, lists of stuff and then the things that are just too horrible to release on humanity, I throw away and then the rest of them we run by the licensees and they take them to their retailers and the retailers pick. But even when I know it's going to a retailer I always put some of the worst stuff in there, knowing full well that the buyer will say, oh we could never put-- we could never, you know? They like to see it. They like to reject it and they like to see the most beligerant, nastiest of all. So we leave those in there just for them.
• [00:14:17.37] AUDIENCE: Did you draw as a young boy and where did you go to art school?
• [00:14:22.21] JIM BENTON: I drew as long as I can remember. When I was kid and I heard people asking people, what do you want to be when you grow up, I never wuite understood it because I'm just a bigger, hairer version of what I was then. You know, I drew a lot. And I wrote a lot. And you know, one thing the kids are here can see-- one of the things I did in elementary school, me andl my friends did this all the time-- you have to pretend this is a piece of notebook paper. So this is called a French fold if there's any printers in the house. Take it, fold it one more time like this, then you put a stable right here and then you cut that across and now you've got a book, right? And then you make little comics and you trade them around with your friends. So I did that a lot in elementary school. So I've always done it.
• [00:15:11.02] AUDIENCE: And where did you go to art school?
• [00:15:13.19] JIM BENTON: Western. Remember that picture where I was drawing? That's exactly what I looked like.
• [00:15:19.85] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:15:24.75] JIM BENTON: I do. I draw very fast. I write fast also. I also eat too fast. Any other questions before we do this next part? No? OK. This is something that we do when people ask about, how do you come up with the story ideas? And we'll see there's a lot of adults here, lots of times I do this for kids-- kids are very good at this and adult aren't always very good at it, but we'll see.
• [00:16:02.53] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:16:02.98]
• [00:16:03.42] JIM BENTON: What?
• [00:16:04.04] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:16:15.62] JIM BENTON: I think yeah, when my wife and I are fighting, probably. I try to lighten it. One time I told the policeman I wasn't driving too fast, I was just flying too low and he could of written me up for a lot worse.
• [00:16:34.54] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:16:35.04]
• [00:16:50.51] JIM BENTON: Yeah, and how does that do when it comes to ticket-writing time? Any other questions? OK, let's try this.
• [00:17:00.28] This is what I do for when I go into kids' libraries and schools and stuff like that. And we're going to come up with a story. You guys can take this story because you're going to come up with it, you can get on a plane tonight, go to New York and sell this story. This is your story, it's not my story because you're going to write it. OK, so the first thing we need and you can write a story lots of different ways, but for this example we'll start with characters. So who has an idea for a character? Any kind of character. Yeah?
• [00:17:26.98] AUDIENCE: A person who's [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:17:33.45] JIM BENTON: OK. Person dolphin guy. OK. Any other ideas for a character? Yeah.
• [00:17:43.19] AUDIENCE: A [UNINTELLIGIBLE].
• [00:17:44.89] JIM BENTON: One more time.
• [00:17:45.81] AUDIENCE: A [UNINTELLIGIBLE] dodo bird.
• [00:17:47.90] JIM BENTON: OK, dodo bird. We'll get down to the specifics later. So we'll go like dolphin guy, dodo bird, yeah?
• [00:17:58.36] AUDIENCE: A hobo.
• [00:17:58.95] JIM BENTON: A hobo. Now let me tell you what's funny about that. Every time I go to a school, every single time, this is one of the suggestions. There's two that I always get, every time no matter what and one of them's hobo. We'll see if we get the other one the next couple picks here. Did he have a suggestion? Oh, here. I'm sorry sweetheart. Yes? Way in the back. The handsome young lad.
• [00:18:24.50] AUDIENCE: He doesn't know.
• [00:18:26.26] JIM BENTON: He doesn't know OK, we'll come back to you. More ideas for characters? Yeah.
• [00:18:31.96] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:18:33.72] JIM BENTON: Bunny. OK, yeah?
• [00:18:38.26] AUDIENCE: A weak football player.
• [00:18:39.67] JIM BENTON: A football player, weak football player. Is there somebody in particular you have in mind? Yeah, I thought so. I could see sort of an inside joke playing on your face there. Ah, yes, way in the back.
• [00:18:53.35] AUDIENCE: A hippie.
• [00:18:53.58] JIM BENTON: A hippie. That's number two and that's my daughter and that's why she said it, it's because she knew. Now and then when I ask them, I go, OK. So they say, a hippie. Haha. So you go, OK, so what's a hippie? And they go, like, I don't know. Something like from 10 years ago. And they were like-- well, you know, what are hippies like? Well, I don't know they'rel dirty. That's it. I think that they know it as a halloween costune and nothing else. Anything else? Any other ideas for characters? Yeah.
• [00:19:24.60] AUDIENCE: A marshmallow.
• [00:19:25.29] JIM BENTON: Marshmallow. OK, so all of these when you're writing-- all of these can be really, really good ideas, right? But we gotta pick one because you're going to write this bestseller right now, OK? So show of hands- and you can't vote more than once. Dolphin guy-- yeah, stand by it. You said it. OK. Dodo, dodo bird. OK. Hobo. Right, way to stick with it. Bunny. That's a bunny vote. Football player. OK. Hippie. Marshmallow. Oh, marshmallow I think wins it. I kind of thought hippie was going to get it. OK.
• [00:20:09.43] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
• [00:20:09.96]
• [00:20:11.04] JIM BENTON: Can you? OK, we'll see. All right.
• [00:20:14.06] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
• [00:20:14.61]
• [00:20:15.69] JIM BENTON: OK, not so much fun for the marshmallow so far. OK. So we've got a marshmallow. Now we gotta put the marshmallow somewhere. Who said marshmallow first by the way? OK. So we gotta put the marshmallow somewhere. So you gotta kind of think about what sort of story you want to tell. So where do you the marshmallow's going to be?
• [00:20:37.65] AUDIENCE: A farm.
• [00:20:38.60] JIM BENTON: A farm? At a marshamallow farm? Yeah, OK. Are these like this or like-- how do you pick them?
• [00:20:47.85] AUDIENCE: I don't know.
• [00:20:48.32] JIM BENTON: I don't know either. Have you ever picked them.
• [00:20:49.97] AUDIENCE: No.
• [00:20:50.86] JIM BENTON: Oh, OK.
• [00:20:51.93] AUDIENCE: A campfire?
• [00:20:53.08] JIM BENTON: At a campfire. Like what if you're a marshmallow and somebody invites you camping? Like you want to go, but you're kind of-- I don't know, really? Camping? How about the farm.
• [00:21:10.72] AUDIENCE: A candy store.
• [00:21:10.78] JIM BENTON: A candy store, OK. Camping. Really? Camping? You don't want to go to the farm or something?
• [00:21:23.19] AUDIENCE: Library
• [00:21:23.96] JIM BENTON: Library. Yeah, in the green.
• [00:21:31.38] AUDIENCE: In the classroom.
• [00:21:33.97] JIM BENTON: In the classroom.
• [00:21:36.24] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:21:36.72]
• [00:21:40.12] JIM BENTON: Eating a bag of marshmallow, OK. Like us, right here, right now. I don't want to be the marshmallow. If some of us are the marshmallows and some of us are the sticks, right?
• [00:21:56.84] AUDIENCE: On a hot cocoa [UNINTELLIGIBLE].
• [00:22:04.00] JIM BENTON: Well you know, as were coming up with the ideas here, one of the things that sort of triggering for me and probably for you is that there's some ideas that you're having that are just kind of funny, right? When you start to hear them, you go oh yeah, that's funny. When you're doing these things by yourself, when you're sort of you know, in your room at your typewriter, whatever-- computer. You can come up with all of these ideas. And you might say, farm-- OK, that could work. You might say, hot cocoa factory-- I mean, there's something there that's kind of gruesomely funny. And then camping-- well, it's kind of a motif that is developing now. You know, like the marshmallow just finding himself in the most perilous possible situations, right? So have you ever known somebody who maybe thought they had something to prove? Like a marshmallow really has something to prove because when somebody is like weak or fat you know what they call them? Marshmallow. So he's kind of got a chip on his shoulder maybe, right? So I like the idea of a marshmallow going to a campfire and-- who you calling soft? OK, so now if you have your character and we kind of have something that the character needs, right? In most stories the main character-- he needs something, he's trying to do something or go somewhere, accomplish something. So what does this guy need?
• [00:23:59.38] AUDIENCE: A friend.
• [00:24:00.85] JIM BENTON: A friend? He needs a friend? Yeah, OK that's a possibility.
• [00:24:05.34] AUDIENCE: A chocolate bar.
• [00:24:05.92] JIM BENTON: A chocolate bar? Oh, he wants something s'more out of life, right? Yeah, you groan-- that's money.
• [00:24:19.23] AUDIENCE: A stick.
• [00:24:20.72] JIM BENTON: A stick? OK, so if our character now-- I'm telling you we're using the s'more out of life joke-- I don't care how many groans it gets. OK, so let's try to do it in-- so we have this character, the marshmallow and he lives-- in a bag of other marshmallow? That was what we picked? That was your idea, right? OK. But he's tired of like being thought of as a marshmallow, is that it?
• [00:24:49.89] AUDIENCE: He wants to think out of the bag.
• [00:24:51.03] JIM BENTON: Think out of the bag. This might be OK for the rest of you softies, right? There's more to life than this. There's s'more to life than this.
• [00:25:04.67] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE].
• [00:25:06.22] JIM BENTON: So he's going to set off. He's going to prove something. So where's he going to go first? And let's do this in three beats because lots of times in American storytelling there's three big beats. Three big beats. And we want to save the best one for the last. So we got him in a campfire, right? What's he going to do, like the jack be nimble thing, like--
• [00:25:26.59] AUDIENCE: Break out of the bag.
• [00:25:28.56] JIM BENTON: Yeah, he'll do that, right. We're just going to fast-forward. We'll fill in that later when we rewrite. What's he going to do first? Is it the campfire, hot chocolate? We need one more big beat on the marshmallow.
• [00:25:44.72] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:25:46.40] JIM BENTON: On a raft? The entire ocean?
• [00:25:49.52] AUDIENCE: No.
• [00:25:50.68] AUDIENCE: A pond.
• [00:25:51.26] JIM BENTON: Yeah, a pond maybe? Yeah, kind of scale it down.
• [00:25:54.40] AUDIENCE: Go up an escalator at the mall.
• [00:25:56.53] JIM BENTON: An escalator? Like are marshmallows afraid of that?
• [00:26:01.23] [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:26:02.28] JIM BENTON: Oh yeah.
• [00:26:05.52] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:26:07.66] JIM BENTON: Yeah, Ian?
• [00:26:09.44] AUDIENCE: He's going out with [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:26:12.77] JIM BENTON: Oh, that's very funny. He's going to date one. He's so dreamy. That's right. She's my girlfriend. What are you looking at? OK, so he's going to date a girl scout.
• [00:26:57.41] AUDIENCE: Size doesn't matter.
• [00:26:58.39] JIM BENTON: Yeah, he's going to data a girl scout. Well, he's not a miniature marshmallow. And he's going to go to the hot cocoa museum. Turn up the heat. Yeah, it's like a hot tub, right? OK and what's the next one? He's going to go camping, right? Just noticed my orange over here. OK, so he's going to go camping. All Right. What are you going to do with the story now? Your editors want to know, they like it so far. Now what? Yeah?
• [00:28:11.12] AUDIENCE: He's going to run away?
• [00:28:12.31] JIM BENTON: Well, he kind of has been running away, right? I mean, he left the bag. He left the comforts of home and he went off to do these things and now is he going to return home triumphant-- the prodigal mallow?
• [00:28:27.76] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:28:28.26]
• [00:28:31.31] JIM BENTON: So it's a happy ending? Explodes? Like pow, like just burned to a cinder?
• [00:28:40.51] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE].
• [00:28:43.98] JIM BENTON: Here's what you have right now because lots of times we get to this point in the story where you kind of have to decide is this a happy ending like you suggested or a tragedy, a sad ending, is it a romance? Yeah?
• [00:28:57.38] AUDIENCE: His girlfriend roasts him.
• [00:28:58.88] JIM BENTON: His girlfriend roasts him. Ahhahahhaa You fool, leaving the bag. Is that what you want? Like that? Kind of gruesome, yeah?
• [00:29:34.19] AUDIENCE: I have a question, what's this marshmallow's name?
• [00:29:41.14] AUDIENCE: What about Marshall?
• [00:29:42.63] JIM BENTON: Marshall. That rocks. Marshall. Marshall.
• [00:29:52.58] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
• [00:29:53.08]
• [00:29:55.55] JIM BENTON: And save him? Oh, eat him? Still that's it for him, right? Can he be saved? First off, is this character good or bad? What do you think?
• [00:30:06.71] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
• [00:30:07.85] JIM BENTON: Marshall, you forgot already?
• [00:30:11.03] AUDIENCE: No.
• [00:30:11.54] AUDIENCE: I thought you were naming the girl scout?
• [00:30:14.12] JIM BENTON: No. Well we're not sure if we're going that way. Yeah?
• [00:30:18.70] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:30:19.21]
• [00:30:23.87] JIM BENTON: Oh, he doesn't have to prove himself. OK. Well is Marshall a good character? A bad character? Is he sympathetic? Do we hate him? Do we like him? Yeah? AUDIENCE: He's
• [00:30:35.18] like a good marshmallow [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
• [00:30:39.80] JIM BENTON: He's a good marshallow, what?
• [00:30:41.98] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:30:42.43] JIM BENTON: Oh,
• [00:30:43.81] when he got out of the bag. So he's good, but is he making mistakes or is he just--
• [00:30:51.78] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:30:52.26]
• [00:30:56.63] JIM BENTON: So he's got like an independent--
• [00:30:58.19] AUDIENCE: I'm feeling that way about Marshall.
• [00:31:01.12] JIM BENTON: OK, like I think that Marshall right now, he could go two ways. Is that we could say he's a hero, right? Because he just doesn't want to be a marshmallow. But there's another set of marshmallow, got a little Napolean thing going, right? Where he's really got something to prove. So I think we could write the story either way, sort of depending on if you want Marshall to be a sympathetic character-- you know, sweet, soft. Or if you want him to be you know, like a problem and then maybe he'll redeem later. You know what I mean? Like he doesn't start off good, like sometimes in stories people start off bad and get good. Sometimes good and get bad, sometimes they just stay flat and usually that makes a characters that's not that interesting. So, it's your story.
• [00:31:48.69] [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:31:51.54] JIM BENTON: He's a rebel. So you like him better as like a--
• [00:31:53.95] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:31:57.73] JIM BENTON: He could get what?
• [00:31:58.93] AUDIENCE: He could get [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:32:01.20] JIM BENTON: Oh, OK. Is he like Shia Labeouf in the last Raiders of the Lost Ark, sort of-- don't smoke kids. It's his little switchblade there. It's a candy cigarette. He's a marshmallow. Come on, be real. OK, we got to give him little biker boots, too.
• [00:32:48.84] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
• [00:32:49.35]
• [00:32:50.37] JIM BENTON: Yeah, OK. So rebel without a stick, rebel without-- so that's the kind of character, right? So he goes through these things, these various tasks and maybe this one here-- you remember it's a close call. He's not dead yet. OK, so if that's true then we've succeeded here today. Still a little toasted here. OK, so yes, Erin?
• [00:34:14.99] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:34:15.49]
• [00:34:20.86] JIM BENTON: Because they are all so confined or--
• [00:34:24.03] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
• [00:34:24.55]
• [00:34:26.14] JIM BENTON: Yeah, I think so. I think that that's one of things-- you know one of the things that also I tell kids when we go to the libraries and schools and stuff that there's one thing that all of the books have in common-- in this whole library, every single thing. What are you going to say? Words? Somebody said words? Yeah, there's one other thing and that is every single one of them is rewritten. There's not a first draft in this building. So when we're doing stuff and you come up with that idea-- and this is sort of late in the story for a big event like that, but you go, you know what? Yeah, maybe we want to put that in. Maybe that's one of our other beats. When you're telling a story, when you're writing a story, you can be flexible like that. You're in charge. So you can go back and you can change the name to Marcia if you decide you want it to be a girl, right? Or you can make him more of a Napoleon than a herp type. All these things can be rewritten. But if he goes back now, how are the other marshmallows going to receive him?
• [00:35:31.38] AUDIENCE: Told you so.
• [00:35:32.87] JIM BENTON: Told you so. Anybody wants the story to end with a told you so. It's one of the worst things to hear, right? Have you ever had somebody tell you that? Oh jeez. It's the worst. OK, so maybe some of them do, right? Some of them say I told you so.
• [00:35:54.05] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE] What happened to you?
• [00:35:58.84] JIM BENTON: OK, they might have seen this coming, too. Right? When he said, I'm outta here.
• [00:36:05.58] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:36:06.09]
• [00:36:16.90] JIM BENTON: He's going to leave again? I think that that's a good like midway point of the story, but if we're going to land this plane now what'll happen? Like we're at the very last part of your story.
• [00:36:30.37] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:36:30.88]
• [00:36:41.03] JIM BENTON: Ah, so he's going to lead them. He's like Moses marshmallow, sort of. He's going to lead them to the promised bag. Yes?
• [00:36:51.89] AUDIENCE: How about [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:36:57.50] JIM BENTON: Oh, the young marshmallows, the miniatures-- do not do as I have done. I'm here today.
• [00:37:07.72] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE] Never run away from home. [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:37:28.16] JIM BENTON: So we have the older Marshall now and maybe we reveal like, and that's when I left the bag. And we have all the little marshmallows here. And they all say, oh, thank you Mr. Marshmallow, Mr. Marshall, for teaching us everything we need to know. Except for one, right?
• [00:38:07.16] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:38:07.65] AUDIENCE: We can build on that idea, like he goes bad and then he starts a rebellion, so then every single marshmallow [UNINTELLIGIBLE].
• [00:38:15.97] JIM BENTON: The marshmallow rebellion? I think I read about that.
• [00:38:20.90] AUDIENCE: The mini marshmallow could be the rebel then.
• [00:38:23.91] JIM BENTON: OK, this is the story you guys want to try one more now that you're published authors. You know exactly how to do this, want to try one more? OK, we'll try one more. You're going to be a lot faster this time. You guys gonna take the marshmallow story to New York and sell it. What are you going to call it? Just marshall, maybe? Yeah?
• [00:38:44.99] AUDIENCE: Mashall runs away.
• [00:38:46.64] JIM BENTON: Yeah, Marshall runs away.
• [00:38:47.76] AUDIENCE: Marshall's story.
• [00:38:49.33] JIM BENTON: Marshall's story, OK. AUDIENCE: Cooking
• [00:38:57.02] with Marshall.
• [00:38:58.88] JIM BENTON: Cooking with Marshall. OK, characters. Now you kind of see also what will be a good character and a bad character, right? You kind of have an idea now, you're published authors now. Yeah?
• [00:39:13.39] AUDIENCE: A match.
• [00:39:13.97] JIM BENTON: A match. This can't go well. That story, the story of the match is going to end badly. Yeah?
• [00:39:27.18] AUDIENCE: Bigfoot.
• [00:39:28.12] JIM BENTON: Bigfoot. Did you believe it when they showed him? I didn't believe it either, but I wanted to believe it because I believe in Bigfoot.
• [00:39:36.32] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:39:38.13] JIM BENTON: A sock. Any sock in particular. A sock-- we'll get to it maybe. OK.
• [00:39:48.88] AUDIENCE: A lightbulb.
• [00:39:49.19] JIM BENTON: A lightbulb. [UNINTELLIGIBLE] for you. Go ahead.
• [00:39:56.62] AUDIENCE: An eye doctor?
• [00:39:58.25] JIM BENTON: A what? An eye doctor.
• [00:39:59.95] JIM BENTON: Eye doctor. An optima-ma -- eye doctor. OK. Yes. A cat. Do you have a cat? OK, most times when people say cat they have a cat. A centipede.
• [00:40:15.43] JIM BENTON: A centipede. It's like, who said hobo before? Do you have a hobo? Because most people that say hobo have a hobo at home. Yes? An iPod. OK, this is enough for us to start I think. So show of hands, only vote once. Match. It's going to end tragically man, I'm telling you. Bigfoot. OK. A sock. Lot's for sock. Lightbulb. All right. An eye doctor. The guy has to look real close to see what-- eye doctor. A cat. Standby it you said it. Centipede. OK. iPod. OK, sort of seemed like more for sock. Is that what you saw?
• [00:41:09.41] AUDIENCE: Bigfoot.
• [00:41:10.14] JIM BENTON: Bigfoot is what you saw? OK, well you're counting from the back of the room. OK, so bigfoot. Is it a girl bigfoot or a girl bigfoot?
• [00:41:20.34] AUDIENCE: Girl.
• [00:41:20.61] JIM BENTON: Girl bigfoot, OK. Give her a little femininity there.
• [00:41:42.45] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:41:51.23] JIM BENTON: OK, now if I may I've already come up with her name. Beti because oftentimes they're also called Yeti's right? So Beti the Yeti? Maybe? OK we'll put a pin in it. OK, so what's the story of girl bigfoot? Where is she?
• [00:42:12.60] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:42:13.09]
• [00:42:17.49] JIM BENTON: Oh, she wants to prove that there is a such things as a bigfoot. OK, she's got an advantage, I think. So, how's she going to do that?
• [00:42:27.26] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:42:28.72] JIM BENTON: She peeks in the cabins, OK, and like is she trying to like give them a good shot? Like she's serving over the shoulder kind of? Like I'm Bigfoot, you don't have it ready yet, OK, go ahead and get it ready.
• [00:42:46.93] AUDIENCE: She goes to Hollywood.
• [00:42:48.62] JIM BENTON: She goes to Hollywood. What does she hope to accomplish in Hollywood? Bright lights, big city.
• [00:43:09.43] AUDIENCE: She's looking for her dream guy.
• [00:43:12.41] JIM BENTON: Looking for what?
• [00:43:13.15] AUDIENCE: Her dream guy.
• [00:43:14.06] JIM BENTON: Oh, her dream guy. OK, so she's going to go to Hollywood.
• [00:43:20.04] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:43:26.17] JIM BENTON: Beti [? has mirror. ?]
• [00:43:27.10] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:43:31.77] JIM BENTON: Oh, maybe because see hears so much that she's not real. Like self-information. Beti good bigfoot. Betty exists. Yes?
• [00:43:47.39] AUDIENCE: Maybe she wants to be a basketball player.
• [00:43:49.25] JIM BENTON: A basketball player? Yeah, she's kind of got the build for it, I guess. Right? How tall are they? Does anybody know? Like seven feet tall? So that's almost tall enough, right?
• [00:43:59.12] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
• [00:44:01.13] JIM BENTON: No, well that's the thing, right? If she wants to be able to prove that there is a Bigfoot-- I mean, could that be her problem? Like most characters have a flaw or they're not very interesting. So maybe she wants to prove that there's a Bigfoot but she's bashful.
• [00:44:17.78] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:44:23.00] JIM BENTON: Oh, she wants to learn how to speak in front of people. OK we have to do this one together in one voice, my name Beti and I afraid of public speaking. AUDIENCE: My
• [00:44:48.24] name Beti--
• [00:44:48.88] JIM BENTON: No. You say, hello Beti. Remember? My name Beti, I afraid of public speaking.
• [00:44:55.77] AUDIENCE: Hello Beti.
• [00:44:59.82] JIM BENTON: OK, and that's how she's going to get over her bashfulness and prove that there is a such thing as a Bigfoot? OK, what else? That's one beat. What's the next thing? How's she going to come out of this Yeti shell and be the sasquatch she knows?
• [00:45:15.35] AUDIENCE: Find Johnny Depp. Find Johnny Depp and Johnny Depp will-- maybe she meets Johnny Depp?
• [00:45:24.39] AUDIENCE: Yeah.
• [00:45:24.95] JIM BENTON: Is that like a dream of a Bigfoot you think?
• [00:45:27.18] AUDIENCE: I don't know.
• [00:45:28.07] JIM BENTON: Yeah, maybe. You know, maybe just in these circles she'll run into him at a party, right?
• [00:45:32.48] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:45:35.33] JIM BENTON: OK, so she decides to sort of glam up a little bit for Hollywood? OK. So she's going to--
• [00:45:45.15] AUDIENCE: Check into a spa.
• [00:45:47.01] JIM BENTON: Checks into a spa.
• [00:45:49.53] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:45:50.03]
• [00:46:00.96] JIM BENTON: Beti hates smoothie, but she's gotta drink them at the spa, right? To trim down a little bit. What else is she going to do? To get a little bit more confidence? Maybe--
• [00:46:14.26] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:46:14.76]
• [00:46:26.25] JIM BENTON: Beti get full body bikini wax.
• [00:46:29.91] AUDIENCE: Ow.
• [00:46:30.40]
• [00:46:31.38] JIM BENTON: Ouch, somebody said. Ouch. OK. So see her trim down a little bit. She's going to get the electrolysis. Be nice and silky smooth.
• [00:46:44.65] AUDIENCE: Get a pedicure.
• [00:46:46.08] JIM BENTON: Get a pedicure. Holy smokes. How many people on that project? Beti want french tips. OK, so now she gets a pedicure. She got the electrolysis, trimmed down a little bit.
• [00:47:21.79] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:47:44.93] AUDIENCE: Some things you just can't change.
• [00:47:49.50] JIM BENTON: Yeah, what is that? You can take the girl out of the pacific northwest, but you can't take the pacific northwest-- OK, so now she's going to go and say she got a confidence, right? She's going to tell everybody, look, there's something you need to know. There really is a such thing as Bigfoot and I can prove it. Well how?
• [00:48:13.49] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
• [00:48:14.05]
• [00:48:14.60] JIM BENTON: Yeah, but she has big feet. I mean, you're not a Yeti, right? So she kind of blew her whole-- yeah?
• [00:48:23.41] AUDIENCE: Give her a blood test.
• [00:48:24.88] JIM BENTON: Oh, a blood test. Sort of like a CSI sort of--
• [00:48:28.20] AUDIENCE: Blood test.
• [00:48:30.27] JIM BENTON: But if they don't have a marker they can't compare it to anything, right? They need a marker.
• [00:48:35.16] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:48:35.65]
• [00:48:44.50] JIM BENTON: Yeah, she's got--
• [00:48:45.24] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:48:54.93] JIM BENTON: I've got all these pictures, right? Of me, in these films. You know, this one that's me. Everybody knows this picture. But of course, they don't believe her, right? So what's our character? Where is our character now? What positions is our character in? Well, she's in Hollywood. She's palling around with Johnny Depp. She looks like a million bucks, who cares?
• [00:49:29.14] AUDIENCE: Well, she might decide that it's more important to be herself and all this [UNINTELLIGIBLE] that she's put on [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:49:42.34] JIM BENTON: Oh, so she's got to gain it all back now? OK, so do it all backwards. OK.
• [00:49:47.35] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:49:50.49] JIM BENTON: That would simplify things, wouldn't it? So let's see if we can just kind of Yeti her up here a little bit. Put the fur back on. Yeah, I don't know if a costume's going to do it. You guys need to decide, is your character OK with her new life or is your character still bent on--
• [00:50:27.49] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:50:37.51] JIM BENTON: It's Johnny Depp. She meets, Johnny Depp.
• [00:50:47.12] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:50:57.18] JIM BENTON: Excuse me, Mr. Depp I have a question for you. I couldn't help but notice, so maybe is that it. Maybe they're all Bigfoots. Maybe she's just walking around Hollywood and she'e seeing a bunch of size 15s every place she goes. Maybe that's why everybody goes to Hollywood. Is that a possibility? That's a good surprise ending, yeah?
• [00:51:23.41] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:51:23.92]
• [00:51:30.11] JIM BENTON: Yeah, maybe that's it. Because she doesn't want to be outed now as a Bigfoot. Yeah, OK. I think you've got like four endings here, right? So when you guys write this story you guys got to pick an ending. And the one who's going to get it published first is probably the first one to get to New York tonight, right? So write it on the plane, finish it up on the plane. But I think that's probably it for now, right? Is that a good place to end it? Any questions anybody's got? These drawings here they'll do something-- the library. Any questions about publishing or drawing or writing or anything. I know I'll sign stuff that people wanted signed. Yeah?
• [00:52:09.42] AUDIENCE: When did you start [UNINTELLIGIBLE]
• [00:52:13.14] JIM BENTON: It's Happy Bunny started about 12 years ago, 13 years ago or so, but I spent a few years people not getting it.
• [00:52:20.01] AUDIENCE: What would you [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:52:31.03] JIM BENTON: That you shouldn't-- don't be afraid of bad ideas. like everybody has bad ideas. You can see when we're talking up here and when I'm drawing, some of the drawings I did they're just lousy drawings, right? But that's OK. We get through those lousy drawings, their roughs and you improve them as you go. You improve them later on or in the next draft. When you write the story the same thing, you can't be afraid of your failures because they're absolutely guaranteed. Chuck Jones, who's the animator who created like Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, and he did a lot of the things that made Bugs so great-- was he said that every artist has 10,000 bad drawings in them and you just never know when it's going to come out. So if you're drawing and you get one of those bad ones, that's one, just go onto the next thing. Chuck Jones believe that the reason he was a good artist was because his dad was a bad businessman. That he would start businesses and he'd get real excited about it, he'd get a bunch of stationary printed and a bunch of pencils printed up and then the business would fall. And he'd just give it to Chuck, so Chuck had a neverending supply of paper and pencils. So that's the other thing. You need a lot of paper and you got to turn off the TV sometimes and just draw. Draw for the fun of it. Any other questions?
• [00:53:51.11] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:53:56.72] JIM BENTON: Oh, Cherise the Niece? It's out now.
• [00:53:58.26] AUDIENCE: Oh, it is.
• [00:53:59.54] JIM BENTON: Yeah, Cherise the Niece is out now. But you know, she's a murderer. She's gruesome. We don't really know if she did it though.
• [00:54:07.96] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:54:08.44]
• [00:54:10.86] JIM BENTON: It's for kids. It's for kids and adults.
• [00:54:13.91] AUDIENCE: But don't get any ideas.
• [00:54:14.84] JIM BENTON: Yeah, don't get any ideas.
• [00:54:18.12] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:54:18.62]
• [00:54:25.53] JIM BENTON: Not really. I'm happiest when I'm drawing, when I'm drawing and writing. So anything that happens with it, like Dear Dumb Diary is being optioned for a movie right now. And actually as a musical. So I mean, that'll be another thing that might be fun to do. But it's really about drawing and writing. And now I have kids that I can draw and write with. And they're geniuses. Yeah, I live in Bloomfield. Like an hour from here.
• [00:54:56.12] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:54:56.66]
• [00:54:57.72] JIM BENTON: I went to high school in Birmingham. You know somebody there?
• [00:55:02.93] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE].
• [00:55:04.05] JIM BENTON: OK, that's right down the street from where I live. Want me to tell him hi, or anything? Oh, he's here now.
• [00:55:10.49] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:55:21.76] JIM BENTON: Like the first real job? In elementary school I would do stuff like signs. In junior high, I did signs also for people, painted signs like at a Dairy Queen. In high school I started designing stuff that went on menus and stuff like that, but the first like full time job was at a T-shirt shop. And actually the T-shirt shop was the closest place to my house that I could draw for a living. Because I didn't have a car. So I walked there. And if there had been something else closer, like a newspaper, I'd be in the newspaper business now. I just stopped at the closest one and that's where I worked.
• [00:56:03.22] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE].
• [00:56:07.20] JIM BENTON: Actually I went to a T-shirt shop and I looked and I didn't have a portfolio, but they had all kinds of stuff up on the walls. There's somebody here I used to work with a long time ago, Anne and there was all kinds of stuff on the walls and I said, I can draw anything in here and I work today for free. And so the guy said, OK. So I worked that day for free and it went great, they hired me, and I worked there for years and years. And learned about you know, apparel and drawing and also about working really, really fast because you have to work fast in T-shirts. Any other questions? Yes sir.
• [00:56:42.53] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:56:53.88] JIM BENTON: Of course. That day, of course. Absolutely. In fact, I wouldn't even pitch it to one guy at a time. You know, there's no reason you could pitch it to a few people at a time. Send it out.
• [00:57:04.89] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:57:07.48] JIM BENTON: Sure, absolutely. You know, like e-mail first. That's a good way because there's a lot of stuff that gets slushpiled and there's a lot of readers that go through that stuff like interns that read it. And even if it just comes back it doesn't mean you can't take it in again. Yeah, the worst thing you can do is stop.
• [00:57:24.95] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [00:57:31.54] JIM BENTON: It's so much easier to just gyp you out of it legally. Because you go, will you print my book? And they go, how does $500 bucks sound? And you go, I'll take it, right? It's so much easier than stealing. So no, they don't really need to steal and there's some stuff that you know, you'll notice things come out, similar things that you know, a whole bunch of vampire stuff now is going to follow on the success of-- is it Twilight? Yeah there's going to be a whole bunch of that now. But just like Harry Potter led a whole bunch of you know, fantasy and magical sort of stuff. But that's not really stealing it, exactly. That's kind of like the flavor, but it's so much easier to just get it from you legal that they don't have a reason to steal it.
• [00:58:16.41] AUDIENCE: Just about publishing [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE] do publishers have to keep an eye on all that stuff, too?
• [00:58:23.34] JIM BENTON: No, self publishing is actually kind of risky because you're going to put a lot of time and money into it, but distributing your book will become sort of like your job. What publishers really do, the thing that they really bring to it is distribution. Because they have people that are out in the field talking to bookstores and talking up your book and they show at trade shows, you know, books fairs and stuff like that-- in Germany and U.S. and all over the world. So if you self publish there are a few examples of that being successful, but very few. You know, I think that you should really kind of get in the mindset, if you want to make a book, make a book good enough for a publisher to pick it up. And if there's some reason that they won't pick it up yet maybe you've got to rewrite it. Maybe it needs a little work. Maybe it just needs a different publisher. But with self publishing, I don't think it's going to be as rewarding. You know, it's immediate, you get that. I mean, so it's fun. You know, that gratification? But I don't think it's the best strategy.
• [00:59:21.51] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE] JIM BENTON: Yeah. I have a book right now called The Caterpillar Girl that's been rejected like nine times. We're just saving up rejection slips on it and it's actually been bought several times if I'll change the ending. And I won't change the ending. So you hit some faith in your chin. I mean, you can take some punches on the chin and it won't hurt. You'll be fine. Just dust yourself off and send it to the next guy. Any other questions? No? One more. Yes sir.
• [01:00:02.11] AUDIENCE: [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]
• [01:00:14.79] JIM BENTON: Most publishers have an international rights department and what they'll do is they'll say like, for instance, Dear Dumb Diary is in maybe nine languages now-- eight or nine languages now and so they just say, you know, they want to do it in Japan or they want to sign up to do it in China. So, is that OK? And everybody's going to say, sure, it's OK. And they just take care of the whole thing. You sign some paperwork and as those royalties come in they get their slice and then you get your slice. And your management gets their slice. Management always get pick. Anything else? OK, well I'm finding anything anybody wants signed and then also these drawings I guess Anne will do something with them.
• [01:01:03.06] SPEAKER: This concludes our broadcast. For a complete listing of upcoming events at the Ann Arbor District Library visit our website at www.aadl.org or call the library at 734-327-4200. Press option three for events listings.