The Music and Story Behind Escape from Zoodletraz
By Steven Joseph
I am sure there have been many authors out there who have been inspired to write a story because they heard a song. There were moved. They were inspired. Something deep inside was triggered and pulled on, and now everyone can see.
We have heard these stories and we listen closely to learn what it was like. We then think about the things that may have inspired us in our lives and move on.
But, I have a truly unique experience to share with you. We are not just in “Inspired by a Song” land. This is the story of my relationship with a truly amazing and multi-talented illustrator, Andy Case, and how being introduced to a talent, unknown to me, opened up a universe for me to explore, and led to the third Snoodles in Space book “Escape from Zoodletraz”.
Ok. First, I have to start from the beginning. I wrote my first storybook “The Last Surviving Dinosaur: The TyrantoCrankaTsuris” and it was through Mascot Books. They said they would help find me an illustrator. I already had a vision in my head of what I wanted, and I was excited to learn that they would provide me the work of 75 different illustrators. They told me to pick the top three, and after that, they would send me more examples of their work.
It was an easy choice. I could have picked Andy out of the 75 and we could then get to work. However, I might as well see more work from Andy, and the other two illustrators who I put in the final three.
I have to say it was the easiest decision I ever made, and Andy’s work just blew me away. I then proceeded to get The Last Surviving Dinosaur published. But, throughout the process, I never met Andy. If I had changes, the publisher said that I got three. I wanted four. I paid extra for the fourth change. (I learned later that Andy never got paid for the extra change. Argh!)
With my next book, Snoodles, Kidoodles, Poodles, and Lots and Lots of Noodles, I search out Andy online. He had his own website, and it conveniently had the quite important contact button which is always a good thing for a web site. I pressed it, and Andy responded right away!
The relationship was born. Andy lives in England, and I am in Hoboken. But, we would meet on Teams Meets, and we always wrote back and forth about our ideas. After a few months into the process, Andy would start sending me pictures, and the book was coming to life. Every picture was like opening up the present under the Christmas Tree that you had asked Santa Claus for. Every picture was both exactly what I wanted and yet, far beyond my wildest imagination. The friendship grew and I flew out to meet Andy in person, and we shared laughs, and a few pints. By now, we had finished our fourth book together “Snoodles in Space, Episiode 2: The Zoodles Strike Back”, and Andy would scold me to keep writing. Andy really loved doing the Snoodles, and he felt that we weren’t done. My problem was that he was so good with the first three, I had a hard time imagining writing anything better.
“I have nothing.” I told him.
Andy replied, “You better. If you don’t, I go gangsta on you.”
Now, I didn’t know what “gangsta” was, and I was too scared to ask him to show me what “going gangsta” looked like. But, I had a mental block, and imagined that I would have my head chopped off. I guess then I would really have a mental block.
I got back to the USA with no ideas in my head. A couple of weeks later, Andy wrote to me that he was releasing his first album, and I could take a listen on Spotify.
Now, when your friend tells you something like they made a Rock Album” and they never told you that they were a rock star, you think that you would give a listen and come to the conclusion that it was cute, and that Andy should not quit his day job. Or, maybe, it was just good enough that it would be worth listening to him in a small bar. Well, at least it would be worth a listen there in the small bar just for the pints of beer!
Something about me. I am a runner. I run about two hours in the morning. Every morning. I listen to music when I run. The best music to listen to is the music that pulls you in, and you forget you are even running. I put on Andy’s album titled “Leap of Faith” and I was immediately hooked. It took just one listen through of the entire album, and the whole story for the next Snoodles book.
It was one song after the other! “Lost Souls in the Dark” had that guitar rift that remined me of U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” but in a darting kind of way, and I pictured Snoodles flying through space to rescue our heroes. The next song “Break Free” had a slower guitar play and reminded me of a spaceship slowly rising from the planet. Then came “Should Have Sent a Card”. It is a hysterically funny song about someone trying to write a love song and failed. Because he failed, he sings out “I should have sent a card!”
Then, there was Andy’s hypnotic beautiful voice that would fit in well as the lead singer in any Baptist Church that people line up to go to in Harlem.
I had my story! Cloodle the Grand Roodle comes to Earth for his first World Concert Tour. He is terrible (and probably should have just sent a card). Cloodle seeks revenge and kidnaps Shmoodle the Poodle and Droodle the Poodle and takes them to Zoodletraz, a place where escape is impossible! The music in my head that Andy Case, the amazing illustrator, singer, rock star wrote in my head now is the book “Snoodles in Space: Escape from Zoodletraz.
The only question left to ask is when you get that lightening bolt of inspiration, will you be ready to create your next great escape!
And Andy’s Second Album is coming out late fall 2025. Two years later, I delightedly still in shock, and with every day, inspired by my gifted friend!
