In March, 2004 Derek was invited to speak at the Lee County Reading Festival in Fort Myers, Florida. In advance of his appearance, he was asked to respond to a few questions from the News-Press, a South Florida newspaper. These are his answers...

What other writers do you most admire?

I'm an absolute biography fiend. I can't get enough of them. I mostly read about
eccentric writers and artists. Ernest Hemingway, J.D. Salinger, Salvador Dali,
Joseph Cornell and Margaret Wise Brown are just a few.

Do you have a favorite first or last sentence in a book? What is it?

Though it's not the first or last sentence, I do have a favorite. It's from the book
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and it goes: "I have many times marveled
at the sleight of hand with which the universe delivers its treats."

What do you listen to as you write?

Since I both write and illustrate books, more of my time is spent sketching and
painting in my studio than writing. But I mostly listen to CDs while I work-
everything from classical and instrumentals to rock depending on my mood.

What (or who) makes you laugh?

I laugh all the time, so a lot of things make me laugh.

If you weren't doing what you're doing now, what would you be doing?

Because the picture books I'm doing are such a visual medium, I really identify
with movies. I'm very attentive to how directors achieve different moods by the
lighting, angles and shots they choose. So I guess if I weren't doing books, I would like to be working in movies.

What is your favorite word?

" Delicious"

What is your least favorite word?

" No"

What's your single favorite possession?

When I was in 7th grade I visited Pulitzer-prize winning political cartoonist
Frank Miller for career day. At the end of the day he gave me one of his
originals. He died the next year. I have it hanging on the wall of my studio
next to my drawing table.

What do you think about before you fall asleep?

One of the problems with being an author and illustrator is that we live very much
inside our heads. I'm always working on ideas, even when I'm not physically working. Characters, plots, words and pictures are constantly rattling around. So it's hard to shut it off, even when I go to bed. Unfortunately, this makes for some very sleepless nights. But it's worth it when the solution to a problem I've been working on for months finds its way to me at 3:00 in the morning and I spring out of bed to write it down.

What's on your screen saver?

I have a painting I did of Salvador Dali as my screensaver.

Who are your favorite historical figures?

Abraham Lincoln, hands down. We'll never have another president like him.

Do you have any writing superstitions or habits?

Not really. I'm not a very superstitious person. There's only one thing that I'm really superstitious about. I will never sit at a table where there are thirteen people. Twice in my family's history, that occurred and both times very bad things happened.

What's the best piece of writing advice you've ever gotten?

I can't think of any writing advice that's stuck with me, but I did get a very valuable
piece of advice about illustrating. When I was trying to get published, I once went to a book signing and showed my work to an illustrator. He told me, "Your work is solid, now just go home and make a lot of mistakes." It's the best advice I've ever gotten. A personal style is discovered through trial and error, there's no other way.

What are you reading right now?

I just finished Girl With a Pearl Earring, a fictional novel about a girl who was a servant for the artist Jan Vermeer.

What are you working on now?

Right now I'm working on paintings for a book I wrote about an animal at the zoo. I can't say too much about it yet, but it will be published in Summer 2005 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.