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Welcome to the world of Jasmine Florentine, a multi-talented mechanical engineer and author-illustrator. Join her in this interview with “Galaxy-Boy Delivery” as she shares her passion for STEM and how she combines it with her love for writing and art to create unique works of fiction. Discover what sets her apart and learn about her support team, working environment, and the books and worlds that inspire her.
A word from Jasmine…
Hi! My name is Jasmine Florentine and I’m a mechanical engineer and author-illustrator and I love making stuff! And by “making stuff” I mean everything from writing books to drawing comics to engineering a brain-scanning helmet to making ticklish robots! (Ticklebot says hi!)
I’m passionate about using creative approaches to share my love of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). One thing I’m particularly excited about is using stories to show how fun and exciting STEM can be, which is why I became an author in the first place. My recent debut, Hex Allen and the Clanksmiths, illustrated by Ebony Glenn, is a middle-grade STEM adventure in which the main characters outsmart monsters with everything from LEDs to electromagnets to water balloon launchers.
When I’m not writing, drawing, or building robots, I love hiking and traveling.
What makes your work different?
My background is in mechanical engineering, so I love to combine real life STEM with fantasy in my work. My recent debut, Hex Allen and the Clanksmiths, is set in a fantasy world where Hex and her friends have to overcome obstacles like tricking ogres and escaping goblins by using engineering. Similarly, my upcoming graphic novels, The Adventures of Maker Girl and Professor Smarts features two friends who decide to use their science and engineering abilities to become superheroes.
While the fantasy is well, fantasy, the science and engineering is all real. In fact, Hex Allen has a section at the end of the book with step-by-step instructions to recreate the projects Hex builds during her adventures. In fact, one of the projects is available online for free as part of a collaboration with Engineers Ireland: https://www.engineersireland.ie/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=cy90ym3pvy8%3d&portalid=0&resourceView=1
While there’s a lot of amazing non-fiction STEM books out there, there aren’t as many plot-driven works of STEM fiction. My hope is that with all my works, the story will draw the readers in, and in the process of reading it, they’ll see how fun and creative STEM can be.
Who is your support team for your work?
My professional support team would be my agent, Jemiscoe Chambers-Black, and the publisher and editing team for whichever book I’m working on. For Hex Allen and the Clanksmiths, I had a lot of fantastic support from The Innovation Press and the incredibly patient editing team. I was also lucky enough to have illustrator Ebony Glenn on my team, who created the beautiful book cover, as well as illustrations throughout the book (and this super cool map!).
Before it ever reaches a publisher though, my friends and family, as well as my critique group, are my support team! My spouse, siblings, and friends have read countless drafts of my work and have provided great feedback. Also, many of my friends are in STEM fields so they are able to provide advice on subjects I know less about to make sure all the science is accurate. For instance, there’s a scene in Hex Allen where one of the characters uses home-made smoke bombs as a distraction. Even though this is one of the projects that there aren’t instructions for in the book (sorry, have to keep things safe!), I still wanted to make sure the way it’s described in the book is accurate. Since chemical engineering isn’t my forte, I asked a friend who knows more about that topic to help me out with the science.
One thing I learned writing my book is that even though there’s only two names on the cover—mine and the illustrator’s—it really takes a whole team to write a book!
Where do you usually work? Home studio? Study room? Cafe?
I love working at cafes (which is funny because I don’t like coffee). Before COVID, I would bring my notebook or my computer to a nice cozy cafe and work there. My favorite ones are cafes inside of bookstores. I carry a notebook everywhere, so even if I’m not at a cafe or at home, I’ll stop and write whenever inspiration strikes—whether that’s on the train, while walking, or one time inside of a clock tower. Now that I have a desktop computer I tend to work from home when I’m at the stage of typing things up, but I still have my notebook on my desk for the early stages of writing.
List 3 books that inspire you!
Yeesh, only three?
Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang, art by Gurihiru
The Art of Tinkering by Karen Wilkinson and Mike Petrich
What are some worlds you’d like to explore in fiction?
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (especially Ankh-Morpork)
Berk from How to Train Your Dragon
Camp Half-Blood
What’s your favorite tool to create with? Pencil? Digital? Typewriter? Computer?
For writing, my favorite tool is a notebook and a pen! I really like using fancy notebooks and a nice fountain pen—it makes me feel like I’m Oscar Wilde penning my next great novel. It also just makes the writing experience more fun for me, because I look forward to using my tools of the trade. But then there’s other times I’m out and about and just write with some pen I’ve borrowed on the back of a receipt. It really doesn’t matter what you’re writing with as long as you can get your thoughts down on paper. I do a lot of the initial brainstorming, plotting, drafting, etc. in my notebook, and then eventually I’ll type it up on the computer.
For drawing, my favorite tool is my iPad Pro. I do initial sketches in pencil and paper (nothing really beats pencil and paper for getting the brain going), but once I get past the first draft, it’s all digital.
How do you create characters?
Hmm good question. With main characters, they often spring into my head almost fully formed, and through a lot of daydreaming, brainstorming, and drafting, I refine their personality. I also like to draw my main characters. It helps me better envision what they look like and how their personality comes through in their body language and facial expressions.
Secondary characters don’t always come into my mind quite as fleshed out—probably because I’m not daydreaming about them as often. So in those cases, I’ll usually write out a table with notes about what personality traits I want them to have, what characters or real life people they might be similar to, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and anything else that helps me build them into a more three dimensional person. Sometimes I’ll do that too with main characters just to make sure they balance each other out.
What types of stories do you want more or personally?
Ooh good question… I think a lot of authors write the kinds of books they wish there were more of. So I’d like to see more fiction-based STEM books for readers like myself who aren’t as into non-fiction. And more STEM books with girls as the main character! The STEM fields are still dominated by men and are not very racially diverse. At some of the jobs I’ve had, I’ve been the only female engineer at the company. That’s changing slowly, but I think that having more stories where girls can see themselves as engineers, scientists, mathematicians, etc., would go a long way to helping change the way the STEM field looks.
What was your first picture book, comic, etc?
I don’t remember my first picture book, but my first comic series was Archie comics! I read a ton of them—in fact, I had an entire drawer under my bed full of them and all the other kids in my neighborhood would come to borrow and read them also. In hindsight, they were kind of sexist (though some of the recent storylines are a lot better about that), but they inspired my life-long love of comics.
Who inspired you as a kid?
Does Ms. Frizzle count? I was obsessed with the Magic School Bus growing up and wished that I could be in her class. I would even dream that I was one of her students and get to go on adventures through space or by transforming into another animal. The funny thing is, I didn’t watch it for the science so much as the magical adventure—I just happened to learn the science as a result and then would become really interested in whatever topic I’d learned. That’s sort of what I’m hoping for my works as well—that kids will come for the story and characters, but get excited about the STEM as a result.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
For a while I wanted to be a paleontologist since I was pretty obsessed with dinosaurs (I still think they are pretty great). Eventually I grew out of that phase, but it took me a really long time to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I always liked making things, and channeled a lot of that through artistic hobbies like drawing and origami. But I didn’t want to be an artist, and didn’t have a good idea of what kind of job description was “making cool stuff”. It wasn’t until I got to college I realized that mechanical engineering was a field in which I could be creative and artistic while making cool stuff! A large part of the reason I wrote Hex Allen and the Clanksmiths was because of my experience. I didn’t know what engineering was growing up, and no one suggested it to me as a possible career path because most of the people around me didn’t have a good idea of what an engineer did either. I stumbled into it sort of by lucky accident, but I feel like I could have easily missed that chance. I wanted to make sure that other kids had that chance by showing them what it means to be an engineer, so even if they don’t decide to go down that career path, they at least know what it is so they can make that choice.
What can All Ages of Geek do more for the kidlit world? What do you want to see us do?
I think what you’re doing already is really great! I’ve enjoyed reading the interviews by other authors and illustrators. One thing that might be nice would be making it easier to find the Galaxy Boy Delivery and kidlit interviews more easily from the All Ages of Geek homepage.
What do you think about All Ages of Geek? Who do you think we should interview next? Any creators you want to give a special shout out to?
I love how visual and friendly the website is! Especially with all the character-driven illustrations, which makes everything more fun.
In terms of shout outs and who to interview next… wow, there’s a lot of people, but since I’ve been talking a lot about using stories as a way to promote STEM, I’ll focus on that:
Nicole Li of Elementari: Elementari is a platform for kids to code their own interactive stories, so it lets them get creative with computer programming, while exercising their visual and storytelling skills.
Jie Qi of Chibitronics and author of Love to Code: I love the Love to Code book — it uses fun illustrations and the character of Fern the Frog to guide the reader through the basic of circuits and coding
Vicky Fang, author and illustrator: She has a ton of STEM books with DIY activities!
Where can people find your work online?
My website is the best place to find my work: https://www.jasmineflorentine.com/
I have an entire section on STEM ed, where I post any freely available resources I’ve created, including instructions for projects that teachers and students can use as resources: https://www.jasmineflorentine.com/steam-activities
I’m also on Twitter (though less often these days since I’m taking care of a newborn) @jrflorentine. There’s a really fantastic Twitter community of STEM educators who share projects and ideas; a lot of them are also very into the idea of story-driven STEM.
We hope you enjoyed this glimpse into the creative world of Jasmine Florentine. From engineering ticklish robots to writing STEM fiction, her passion for science, technology, engineering, and math shines through in everything she creates. We look forward to seeing what she comes up with next!
As a STEM content creator, I work with clients or independently to design projects, host workshops, create lessons, videos, animations, live experiences, and games. I’m always excited to collaborate with other people and organizations working in STEM education and outreach. You can learn more about my work here.
When I’m not building robots, drawing cartoons, or championing STEM, I love hiking and rambling at length about my current favorite book, usually at the same time.
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