Sluggers :: Loren Long & Phil Bildner

Q: What is a barnstormer?

LL: In the words of Uncle Owen, "Barnstorming is when folks traveled around the country presenting plays, giving lectures, or performing exhibitions like dancing, tightrope walking, or baseball" to make money!

Q: In the beginning of Game 1, we learn that Griffith, Ruby, and Graham have just lost their father. Did either of you lose someone you loved when you were little?

LL: Fortunately, I've never suffered the loss of a close family member. But as my wife, Tracy, and I are raising my two sons, my biggest fear is something happening to them followed closely by something happening to my wife or myself. Our characters' love for their deceased father also translates into their love of baseball. A love of baseball is something he gave them and loving baseball is loving their father.

PB: I have not suffered the loss of a close relative in my lifetime; however, I have suffered other types of crushing losses, and I have certainly drawn from those experiences in order to write these scenes.

Q: Were you both big baseball players when you were young?

LL: You might say that. Before college I played for the Kishwa Ground Squirrels in the Carolina Leagues as a rising star center fielder. I was living a dream until I shattered the patella tendon in my right leg. During my rehab time off from baseball that year, I spent a lot of time coloring and drawing, and something changed inside. I left my dream of baseball for the bright lights, fortune, and fame of children's literature. Some of this story is true...well, maybe. But yes, I grew up playing baseball and drawing, and it is really cool to create something like Sluggers, marrying so many things that I love.

PB: Growing up, I was an avid baseball fan. I've been a Mets fan since the first grade! I went to college down in Baltimore, and I spend many afternoons and evenings at old Memorial Stadium watching the Orioles and also supporting the Johns Hopkins University baseball team. I also played baseball growing up, and I still play ball as often as I can. And whenever I travel, I always bring my glove!

Q: Baseball in 1899 must have been pretty different than what we see today. What was it like to write and illustrate something so familiar and yet so different?

LL: Writing and illustrating the game of baseball in 1899 is a treat. The fact that it is so familiar yet different in its setting, flavor, and look is one of the strengths of the series. Phil and I are baseball fans -- we love the game and its history. I played on the Cincinnati Red Stockings (true story), a vintage baseball club for a few years. We played as the 1869 team following 1869 rules, traditions, and practices competing against other regional vintage baseball teams. Through that experience, I learned a great deal of the customs and vernacular of the old-fashioned game. And as for the art, I think of myself as a throwback to the American Regionalist painters. I'm a disciple of the WPA (Depression-era Works Progress Administration) and American Scene painters to begin with. So the art has been great fun! I love the old stone lithographs of the twenties and thirties. I wanted the full-page images and the spreads in these books to feel something like a stone lithograph from that period.

PB: Sure, the language and nuances may be different in places, but baseball is a constant. It's part of our nation's fabric, and while it may fray around the edges, the core of the game always remains the same. Interestingly, the 1899 baseball we describe is slightly anachronistic. This was done intentionally. By 1899, baseball was big business. There were already large stadiums, which seated thousands of fans, and the World Series was introduced only four years later. We also incorporated the vintage baseball era into our story because it is so colorful and flavorful.

Q: The Travelin' Nine and the Payne children can see things no one else can see, and it has something to do with a baseball! Can you give us a clue?

LL: Well, the Barnstormers is legend, it is folklore. It is a tale that changed the history of baseball, which in turn changed the history of America. There is magic in that. Phil and I are learning about that baseball along with our readers. We are as curious as you are!

Q: What was your collaborative process like?

LL: Sluggers started as something of a daydream that I shared with a friend. Then Phil and I started dreaming together about what could be. I believe we fed off of each other's enthusiasm. The next thing I knew, largely due to Phil's energy, the first book was being written and I was loving it.

PB: Working with Loren has been great. We both share the same vision for the series, and since we're both starting from the same place, all the rest seems to fall into place naturally. For over the last two years, it's been a constant flow of e-mails and phone calls and face-to-face conversations.

Q: Where did you get the names Ruby, Griffith, and Graham?

LL: Griffith and Graham are my two sons. And Ruby is the daughter of our Simon & Schuster art director, Dan Potash!