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Q:
How did you become a writer? And how did you first get published?
A: I became a writer while I was working in a factory in
Flint, Michigan, writing during breaks. Writing was a refuge for
me. I first got published by entering a contest that Random House
in New York had. I didn’t win the contest, but they published
the book, The Watsons Go to Birmingham— 1963, anyway!
Q: You’re originally from Flint, Michigan. How did you
wind up living in Windsor, Ontario?
A: My wife was living in Hamilton, and we were in a longdistance
relationship; Windsor was kind of halfway between Flint and Hamilton.
She could be a nurse in Windsor and I could go over to Detroit
and work, so that’s it. Twenty-four years later we’re still here
Q: If you weren’t writing, what would you be doing for a living?
A: That’s
easy: I’d be unloading trucks in a warehouse, which is what I
was doing when I started writing professionally.
Q:
What books do you like to read, and has any book or author particularly
affected you as a writer?
A: I’m very eclectic in my taste, and I read just about anything.
When I’m writing I don’t read very much, but when I’m reading
I kind of binge. I’ll go from Toni Morrison to Jim Thompson, who’s
a crime writer and is one of the funniest writers I’ve read; from
Kurt Vonnegut to Mark Twain. I’m all over the place.
Q:
What are some of your other passions in life?
A: I love reading, I love playing basketball, and I love music.
Those are probably the big three.
Q:
What inspired you to write Bucking the Sarge?
A: Is there a story about the writing of this book that begs to
be told? I think the story that begs to be told is, Why did it
take so long? I have no idea why it took me so long to write.
It was like I was in a time warp. When I write, I put the date
that I write each thing on the paper that I write on, and I was
looking back through and I can’t believe that I worked on it for
four years. I wasn’t having problems per se with it, but for some
reason the story took a long time to write. It was just the next
story that came into my mind. I’d done two works of historical
fiction and I wanted to try something contemporary and just see
how it felt.
Q:
With Bucking the Sarge, you’re writing more for young adults,
an older audience than ever before.Why is that?
A: I think writing for an older audience is easier, in a way,
because you can use vocabulary and language and situations that
you can’t with a middle-grade audience. There are things I can
talk about in this work that I couldn’t in my first two books.
And also, an older narrator is going to be more intelligent, hopefully,
and be able to think about things more clearly and be able to
express himself better. Do you think you’d ever like to explore
other genres,
Q:
Do you think you’d ever like to explore other genres, such as
non-fiction, or write for an adult audience?
A: I’ve done introductions to a couple of books, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
and The Prince and the Pauper, and I enjoyed that, but I don’t
know how practical that is, and I get such a kick out of writing
fiction and writing for young people. I have thought about writing
fiction for adults, but when I write my books I don’t really think
of them as children’s novels. I write because it’s a story that
I want to tell, and the narrators just happen to be young people
doing young people things.
Q:
Can you tell us a little about how you write?
A: Well, I don’t use an outline, for one thing. I find one of
the joys of writing is not knowing what’s going to happen next
in the story, and being told what will happen by the characters
I’m writing about. That way the story is as much a surprise for
me as it hopefully is for the reader. I get a real kick out of
carrying it through, seeing what happens next, and what happens
after that.
Q:
What do you like most about doing book tours?
A: I enjoy travelling. I enjoy going out and meeting people; it’s
a lot of fun, and there are always surprises. I love touring,
but I’m grateful that’s it over quickly. It’s two weeks, but you’re
pulled so quickly from one place to another that you don’t really
have time to get sick of it. People ask, Isn’t that hard? I say,
No way! I had a real job before, and that’s hard. On tour, you
go places, you stay in great hotels, you eat great food, you meet
great people. What’s so hard about that?
Q:
What advice would you offer to young writers?
A: I tell young writers three things all the time. One, write
every day. Writing’s like anything else: the more you do it, the
better you get at it. Two, have fun with your writing. You’re
very powerful when you’re a writer: you can make anything happen,
and that’s fun to do. Three, ignore all advice, once you learn
the basics. That’s what makes for good writing: when you do your
own thing and develop your own style.
Q:
What’s next for you?
A: My next book is called Mr. Chicky’s Funny Money, which was
written quite a while ago. But the one that I’m just absolutely
in love with is the one after that: it takes place here in Canada,
and it’s called Elijah of Buxton. It’s about the Buxton settlement,
which was the terminus of the Underground Railroad back in the
1860s, and was a kind of utopia for former slaves. It was a very,
very interesting place. This character has come into my mind,
and he’s fantastic. I’ve never loved writing a book as much as
I’ve loved writing this. R
Visit
www.randomhouse.ca to read an excerpt from Bucking the Sarge.
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