A Peek Inside: Poison for Breakfast with Margaux Kent

It’s not every day that a dream project comes your way.

When Margaux Kent told me she was illustrating a book by Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, I was thrilled. Everything Margaux does is timeless and evocative, and she has such a way of capturing the beauty in the dark and wild. Can you imagine a better fit for Snicket’s darkly comedic yet sweetly hopeful stories?

If you don’t know Margaux, she’s half of the creative team behind Peg And Awl, where and she and her husband sell objects for everyday living, hand crafted from found and sustainable materials. But it is in her own art and writing, as seen on instagram at @thebrotherskent, that you really get a sense for the magic she brings to the ordinary.

As soon as we launched The Secret Treehouse I knew I wanted to interview Margaux about her experience working on Poison for Breakfast. Luckily she said yes! Please enjoy, and note that all photos in this article are copyright Margaux Kent.

JP: Hi Margaux. Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us! You recently finished your first ever illustrated book, and it just happens to be with one of the most popular and beloved authors of our time. How does that feel?

MK: It has been nearly a year since Pete (Peter J. Simon, Editor and Vice President of W.W. Norton) reached out to me — I thought it was a hoax of a kind. I still don’t quite know what happened. Or cannot find words that can articulate the strangeness.

JP: What was it like when you were first contacted about this project?

MK: It was really funny. The publisher emailed me through Peg and Awl because I built my own illustrator website and didn’t set up the email link correctly. (I had left the default contact page on squarespace.) He didn’t tell me straight away what the project was.

It was late, I was typing in bed. “What is your project?” I started to ask. Holidays were fast approaching and my small business needed me. I was ready to say no. But I couldn’t not know what the project was. I wrote a page full of questions, deflections, and reasons why I couldn’t. Then I typed, again, “What is your project?” I deleted the entire middle and sent, unbeknownst to me,

Hey Pete—

What is your project?What is your project?

Warmly,
Margaux

And yet — he wrote again.

In his next email he told me it was Lemony Snicket’s new book, Poison for Breakfast, and he compared it to the Little Prince and The Phantom Tollbooth. So much magic in one email! I forwarded it to my friend, Nicole Michels, and asked, “Is this real?”

Her response:

THIS LOOKS ABSOLUTELY REAL!!!!!!!

AND incredibly exciting.

PLEASE SAY YES!

Also you can do this!

JP: Sounds like a good friend! Was it intimidating to embark on such a high-profile project?

MK: It was a very quick turn-around, for one, and didn’t give me enough time to feel intimidated. I had to learn so much in so little time. Early in the project, the Art Director disappeared, so I had to figure things out on my own. This forced me into decisiveness! Toward the end, Pete was the one betwixt me and Mr. Snicket. Then communication happened quickly despite time zones. It was precisely my kind of fun – partaking in unexpected spontaneity.

JP. Can you talk a little bit about your process?

MK: I straight away asked to see the manuscript. Even before they told me I got the job. (Job? What a weird word here. This never felt like work.) I devoured the book — my first Lemony Snicket book outside of picture books! I felt like an uncannily perfect fit for the book. I would have been crushed if they didn’t choose me.

Once I was officially the illustrator, they gave me a list of ideas for the drawings. I had already underlined favourite and most visual parts. From here, I scribbled and filled a wall with the scribbles! I went to West Chester (our little college town) to draw a small town, and a goat farm to draw goats. We found a wintery wheat field, and there I drew wheat.

I tried to draw as much as I could from life, over and over, and when I couldn’t, I shot or referred to photographs. The chick was a photograph from when our chickens were little. We have lots of chickens and eggs of all colours. I cooked a lot of eggs for drawing. At one point we all mixed up the favourite egg and made it poached over soft-boiled (the latter, our house favourite!) So I practiced poaching eggs for a while, and then drew them. This turned out to be a glorious challenge.

JP: Did you do anything in the early phase of illustration to prepare for the full book?

MK: I read the book a few times, scribbled on the pages, underlined my favourite lines and parts. Read it again, read it to my boys. I tried to work my physical self into the pages, the words. And then I kind of journaled myself back out, scribbling onto scraps of paper, ink splatters, smudges, dirt smears and all. I hung them up.

I scribbled in the manuscript, and then onto tiny scraps which went into my journal. The scraps just kept bursting forth, making a mess of droppings wherever I went.

JP: What a treasure trove! Did you run into any particular challenges while working on the book?

MK: My mom died in the middle of the project. I haven’t quite made sense of any of this yet. So I got lost. Lost in sleeplessness, in lifelessness, in living in her hot, gothic house for two weeks in the winter with family. Lost in so much emotion and so many walls. And we got Pearl, our first dog. Otherwise, there were a few drawings I was afraid of. Like the water scene. I spent so much time on that and ended up with one of my favourite ever drawings. It wasn’t chosen for the final book because it didn’t quite make sense with Mr. Snicket’s version of the water. So we zoomed in. Getting past that was exhilarating.

JP: Do you have a favorite piece from the book?

MK: I really love the title page ink drawing of Lemony Snicket taking a walk at night. I love night walks and feel I captured the feeling well with a few brush strokes. And also, though I am critical of the clean edges, I do love the feet in the water. And the chicken and egg. (The chick, our baby Ragnar, deceased.)

JP: I know it's common for publishers to liaise between authors and illustrators. Was that the case for you, or did you get to work directly with Daniel Handler at all?

MK: I didn’t work with Daniel — though he sent me a letter. I’ve not yet written back. Well, I’ve written a lot of letters back, but I haven’t sent any. Here, I am most intimidated!

JP: Hahaha I would be too! While this is an unbelievably awesome first book project, I know opportunities like this don’t just fall out of the sky. You have to put yourself out there for good things to happen. I think one of your standout strengths is how you share your world both through your personal work and through Peg and Awl. Any advice for readers who would like to create stronger connections with their audiences?

MK: I have been keeping a journal since I was 12, and I started making books when I was 6! Instagram felt like an extension of this. (But with so much stress and worry and yuk to rinse out). I use it as a journal often. I don’t plan. I think because of this, I am clearly human. I really love the exploration, so that helps. I get to write, draw and make things for a living. Walter and I homeschool our boys — and this isn’t one of us in a home classroom setting, but a continuation of this adventure of simply, exploring the world and searching and discovering magic in it. There is much to be found in the little things! (I often share the little things.)

I share my favourite stuff – ESPECIALLY when it isn’t perfect.

JP: Do you follow a specific schedule or format for sharing content?

MK: Yes and no. For a while I posted on particular days and times based on someone's research — but schedules can be so paralyzing. Just this month, with my sudden, unexpected jumping into Folktale Week when I was inspired by a short story I read, I started sharing not insta-perfect shots and drawings at random times. The engagement has been horrible – and THAT has been exhilarating. So, I think maybe understanding the rules and then breaking them (like with so much in this world) is the best takeaway.

Ask me next month and I shall have something different to say, I am sure.

JP: Any other tips?

MK: It is easy to get sucked into stats (especially when social media helps keep your business going.) but starting The Brothers Kent freed me from that. I really believe that making your best work (not making work for the platform(s)) is the best way to please yourself, find your way, and find the best audience for the work you love. I have a bit of a split personality betwixt the accounts, and that is fun.

JP: What's next for you?

MK: I don’t know! I have a lot of ongoing stories - writing and drawing projects, and never seem to find my way to an end. I am still taking classes — a writing workshop with Sabrina Orah Mark and a picture book course with The Good Ship Illustration coming up. Having deadlines and feedback seem to help me, but mostly, I draw, read, and write daily, and really have to find a way to organize my too many thoughts and scribbles.

We have been rebuilding a dilapidated barn on our property and will move in in December! I am dreaming of spreading out and hanging stories up all over. Poison for Breakfast was such a wonderfully peculiar starting point — it wasn’t a quiet creeping in. I feel like it’s given me the courage to have fun and enjoy the process, disregard the rules, and try some weird stuff. This is something I try to encourage my boys to do, and I am now taking that advice!

JP: That’s great advice. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us!

You can follow Margaux’s journey in art and exploration at The Brothers Kent. You can find a signed copy of Poison for Breakfast as well as many thoughtful and artful handcrafted goods at Peg And Awl.

A Peek Inside: Poison for Breakfast with Margaux Kent

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