A Conversation with Alyson Schefren
A ready-to-run interview for reviewers, reporters, and podcasters. Answers may be quoted directly or edited for length.
Where did the idea for Meet Me in Dreamland come from?
It came from my daughter, and from one very ordinary, very exhausting bedtime. Night after night it was the same negotiation: one more book, one more song, I'm hungry, one more. Like every other mom, I was getting tired, impatient, and honestly a little short. Then one night, almost without thinking, I said, "I have to leave the room right now, or we can't meet in Dreamland." She went completely quiet. "What's Dreamland?"
So I told her the truth. "You think Mommy stays up after you fall asleep, but I don't. I go brush my teeth, wash my face, and go right to sleep too. And the second we're both asleep, we meet in Dreamland, and Dreamland can be anywhere you want to go." She lit up, and then she shooed me right out of her own room. "Okay Mommy, go, go, goodnight!" I stood in the hallway a little stunned, thinking, that actually worked.
But the part that made it a book wasn't that it got me out of the room. It was the next morning, when I walked in and we talked about where we had gone, and I gave her space to run with it. Night after night she started thinking about where she wanted to meet me, instead of the fact that I was leaving. It was never perfect. But it turned the goodbye into the start of something we did together.
Underneath the space adventure, what is the book really about?
On the surface it is a space adventure. Underneath, it is about separation, and about igniting a child's creativity, bravery, and independence. It is really a promise: even when we are apart, when you are asleep or you feel like I have left you by walking out of your room, I am never actually leaving. I am in your heart, I am in your mind, and we can always find each other. You are safe to let go. Goodnight.
You spent 20 years in media before writing a picture book. Why write one now?
I have always been a writer. I was an English major, and I knew whatever I did had to involve creative writing, so that is exactly what I built my career around. For twenty years I worked in media partnerships, selling big creative ideas to Fortune 100 brands and finding ways to weave them into the fabric of who those companies were. I loved it. Dreaming up an idea, putting it on paper, pitching it in a room, and watching it come to life was a thrill.
When I made the decision to step back from my career and be home with my children, I still had that itch for a creative outlet. I had been carrying this Dreamland idea around for years, ever since those bedtimes with my daughter. So I sat down at my computer and thought, let me just start writing and see what happens. It became one of the most fulfilling things I have ever done. Having my kids watch me make something gave it a purpose, and it filled the space that stepping back from work had opened up.
Why tell it in rhyme, and why space?
I love a rhyming bedtime book. There is something so soothing about that rhythm and meter at the end of the day, and I love the way it sparks a child's own creativity, when they start filling in their own word that rhymes, sometimes instead of the one on the page. Space felt like the perfect place to begin. It works beautifully for girls and boys, and it is something even we as adults still dream about, because so much of it is unknown. That made it a wide-open canvas for the kind of big, wild adventure a child and a parent can take together.
What do you hope families take away from it?
I hope it warms their hearts. I hope it becomes a real tool they can reach for, something that sparks their child's imagination, eases the hard part of separating, and builds a connection that keeps going long after the lights go out. Mostly I hope it brings families a little closer, because that is the whole point: me leaving your room has never meant we are apart. You are okay. And I love you all the time.
What is next for the series?
As you can see on my website, we are heading under the sea. We will have so much fun exploring everything the ocean holds, and then some, because it is Dreamland, which means we get to do things no reader has ever imagined.
Your best tip for a hard bedtime?
Meet me in Dreamland, of course. Beyond that, take a big deep breath. The end of the day is when it is hardest to stay calm and patient, and easiest to get frustrated with all the stalling. But kids feed off your energy. If they feel you tense up, it only winds them up more. So breathe, stay soft, and give them all the love they are asking for. It helps more than anything else.