Joe Harris: Just recently, my daughter moved to Boston, and she has a job, and she has her own apartment, and at 18 she's got the world at her feet.
NB: That's very exciting!
Joe Harris: So I hope to do some traveling now, the fun kind.
NB: Right, the fun kind. You mentioned you've got books coming out. What are they?
Joe Harris: One is already out, and that is called Narda, and that was done for a group called Kerzner International. After her mother died, I took my daughter down to the Bahamas because she was having a really hard time. We went to Atlantis, the huge... you know about it?
NB: Yes, I do. My husband and I tried to vacation there but they were booked.
Joe Harris: That's the problem, they're booked. So we went down [to Atlantis], had a wonderful time. We went on every one of the slides, memorized all the fish, did everything we could do. It was really very much of a tonic for her.
While I was there, I thought, why isn't there an Eloise for this place? And I got the idea of creating a little girl who lives there and has wonderful adventures. She has a guardian and a tutor. A woman named Mrs. Dolby, who's rather straight-laced, and her father, who is a very successful businessman, but rarely at home. So she goes through these adventures.
The arc of the three people, is that Mrs. Dolby gets loosened up and learns how to have fun because of Narda. Narda grows up and realizes that what she really misses is her father. Her father catches on, eventually, and says, "From now on, I'm going to spend more time with you here." And so there's a story in it for everybody.
NB: That's wonderful.
Joe Harris: That came out two or three years ago. The next one I did for Random House, which is The Belly Book. It's in the tradition of Dr. Seuss. I believe it's coming out in January.
The one I'm working on now, I'm also finished with it, is called The Witch's Halloween Ball. That's a story about a little boy who sees witches flying from all corners of his world, and settling down in a big field behind his house. And he walks in and finds that visitors are welcome, and he mingles with the goblins and the ghosts and the skeletons and all the characters, who have joined every year for their annual ball. He meets a goblin, whom he dances with. Goblins, you know, are exceptional dancers.
Everybody loves him, and they back off and applaud him. Then they ask him to sing, and he sings a song. They give him some of their famous root beer. Then the music picks up, because by the time dawn comes, they all have to go.
They say their goodbyes in the field, and just as the sun breaks over the horizon, they all disappear in the blink of an eye. And he goes home and dreams about it, and the next day he goes to school and he talks to people about it. They ask him, "What did you do for Trick or Treat?" The whole thing is in rhyme, by the way. "Tomorrow when you're on the street, and hanging out with friends you meet, when they ask what you do for Trick or Treat, just smile sweetly and tell them all, I went to the Witch's Halloween Ball." So it's a story about a little boy who has this marvelous adventure.
NB: That is a fun Halloween story. The, kind of, spooky, fantastical stories were always my favorite. They still are.
Joe Harris: This is full of all sorts of strange creatures. I think for the age group, it isn't frightening, but it is just a little bit, like, "Wow." It isn't vanilla, either.
NB: Like Harry Potter is nowadays.
Joe Harris: He's really turned into something else.
NB: I will confess... Like I said, I love those kinds of stories, so I'm a giant Harry Potter fan.
Joe Harris: Have you read the most recent book?
NB: Oh, yes! I stayed up until 3:00 a.m. Saturday night to finish the last book.
Joe Harris: Oh, what did you think?
NB: It exceeded my expectations.
Joe Harris: Nothing like it, is there?
NB: Nope, there's nothing like it, I have to say.
Joe Harris: It's just the greatest. You know, I've read any number of stories about J. K. [Rowling], and most of them are false. You know, that she was in poverty and wrote on the subway and all of that. But what she's done now is to create, and this is the wonderful part for any writer, she's created a little empire for herself that's now worth $2 billion.
NB: Yes, "empire" is the word.
Joe Harris: She's not a bad example to set for the rest of us.
NB: I hope when you see the premiere of Underdog you're happy with it.
Joe Harris: We'll see what happens. I'm open, my mind is open. I used to say it's unhinged, but now it's just open.
