Neal Shusterman's Blog - Posts Tagged "tesla-s-attic"
Q&A Roundup from Last Month
I had the pleasure of doing a fun Q&A with the members of the David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite! Goodreads group for a few days last month. Since some of you may have missed the event, and since I get asked several of the same questions below on a regular basis, I've decided to clean up and copy the whole thing here. Read on to learn about which UNWIND character I relate to the most (all of them), my thoughts about pistachios, the nitty-gritty of an UNWIND/EVERLOST crossover, and my favorite books as a kid. Oh, and some writing advice:
Q: If you somehow developed superpowers, would you don tights and a cape and go by the name Shuster-Man?
A: Hah! It would definitely be Storyman like my website (www.storyman.com) and my license plate (STORYMN)
Q: Dear Mr Shusterman, how did the monstrous idea of "unwinding" came into your head?
A: Long story! It was a combination of three separate things in the news—a story about feral teens in England that people wished they could euthanize, the insanity surrounding the abortion issue in the US, and an article about how scientists predict that 100% of a donated body will be able to used in transplant some day soon.
Q: In the Unwind series, you put a lot of your characters through very harrowing situations. How can you tell which ones are going to survive and become stronger, and which ones are going to break? Do you pull the strings, or is it your characters?
A: It’s always the characters. I don’t know who is going to break until they do. If I don’t want them to break, then I pull back on the situation a little. I don’t decide what the characters do—I leave it up to them, but I do decide how much to torment them.
Q: Do you ever find a particular type of character difficult to write?
A: The heroes! They are hard, because they can get kind of boring to write. It’s always the quirky supporting characters, and the antagonists that are the most interesting. I’m always struggling to make sure my main character isn’t dull!
Q: What do you think is the most important thing someone should know/do, if they wanted to become an author?
A: Rewrite. Period, the end.
Q: Bruiser was absolutely brilliant, my favorite read of the year. Where did you get your inspiration for the character of BRUISER?
A: What made me want to tell the story was not just the idea of someone with healing power, but a character who couldn’t control it, and also healed your psychological and emotional wounds. What would that person be like? What kind of life would they lead? That became the character of Brewster.
Q: Did you always imagine Lev in the story? Was he always a 13-year old boy? Why do you think authors tend to pick older YA characters for stories and not so much insightful, smart, younger ones?
A: Yes, Lev was always in the story from its very inception. Yes, he was always 13. YA Authors tend to choose older characters for marketing/business reasons. Kids rarely will read characters that are younger than them, but they’ll read older. There are exceptions of course—Percy Jackson, Ender Wiggin, for example. I wanted to make my main characters have a range of ages in UNWIND—but I couldn’t start with Lev, because I would have lost my older readers in the first page...
Q: What was the most challenging aspect in concluding The Unwind Dystology?
A: Making each book better than the last. I never want people to say “eh, this one wasn’t as good as the last one” so I don’t let it go until I feel it’s better.
Q: As an author, how hard is it to write a conclusion to a story that you think most readers/fans will like? Is that even a consideration as you are writing?
A: There have been a slew of disappointing series conclusions recently. The trick is to make it satisfying, without making it a “happily ever after” conclusion. Leaving the reader satisfied doesn’t always mean wrapping everything up with a happy little bow. You can satisfy readers in a way they weren’t expecting. That’s what I’ve attempted to do in Undivided. Everyone who has read it says it’s extremely satisfying, in a way they didn’t predict, and that it’s the best book of the four. That’s what I want to hear!
Q: Because Cam is a Rewound, I sometimes find it hard to think of him as a human being. He was made, and not born. How do you classify Cam? Human being or just a successful science experiment?
A: Your conundrum is the whole point of writing Cam. It’s the question that he struggles with himself. Is he human? Who makes that decision. Who decides if he has a soul or not? Who has the authority to do so? My take is that he is human, and does have a soul. If he didn’t then it would be impossible to write from his point of view, because to have a point of view, you have to have consciousness.
Q: If you could cast your characters from UNWIND (or Everlost, if you want to touch on that too), who would you cast?
A: I intentionally never think of casting. Once I do, then it’s hard to separate the character from the actor.
Q: Did you draw on any other literary works for inspiration while you were writing? For example, I drew quite a few parallels between UNWIND and 1984 in its scary world building.
A: The things we read and appreciate always influence our writing. None of it is intentional, but it’s all rolling around in my brain, and I notice them after the fact. If I see too strong a parallel while I’m writing, I usually change it, because I don’t want to tread on familiar ground.
Q: What is your single favourite thing about being a successful and recognized author?
A: Getting heartfelt emails from fans, and knowing that the books are making a positive difference in people’s lives. And yeah, it’s nice to be able to support myself and family doing something I love!
Q: What are you currently working on?
A: A Holocaust-themed graphic novel called COURAGE TO DREAM; the first book of a new series to follow up UNWIND, called SCYTHE; a new standalone novel—best one I’ve ever written—called Challenger Deep; and HAWKING’S HALLWAY, the conclusion the The Accelerati series.
Q: I see that you go out to your fans on Facebook to pick your character's names. Have you always done this? That's soooo cool by the way!
A: I started it a few years ago—it’s a way of recognizing the fans, and coming up with great character names at the same time!
Q: Which book(s) that you've written are you most proud of?
A: CHALLENGER DEEP. It’s a very personal story. Stay tuned to my website and social media for more about it. It comes out in April.
Q: Which of your characters do you relate to the most? Are any of them based on real people?
A: I never base characters on real people unless it’s a true story. I feel the characters need to be their own individuals. Can’t say which one I relate to the most… All of them.
Q: Do you have an all-time favorite book?
A: Can’t pick a favorite book either. I have tons of favorite books I’ve read.
Q: Do you plan on writing more realistic fiction (in the lines of What Daddy Did)?
A: What Daddy Did is being re-released by Simon and Schuster next year under the title CHASING FORGIVENESS. I have no plans to write any more true stories, and most of my upcoming projects all have some quirky otherworldly twist. CHALLENGER DEEP is very true to life, but also very surreal.
Q: I was also wondering about the unwinding scene in the first book. It impacted me as being both one the most compelling and one of the most disturbing parts of the book. Can you remember how you came up with that?
A: The goal for the unwinding scene was to show the psychological aspect. I don’t think of myself as a horror writer—I never write something for the purpose of scaring you or grossing you out—so I set myself some strict rules for that scene: Absolutely no gore! I even replaced blood with green oxygenated fluid, so even if you’re imagining it, you’re not seeing blood. It was all about moving deeper into the character’s fear, and his consciousness until that consciousness is gone. Approaching it that way makes it far more disturbing than something gory and exploitative.
Q: How did you decide that you wanted to be an author? And how do you deal with everyone judging your work, in good and bad ways?
A: I always loved writing, and had teachers growing up who really encouraged me. Everyone loves positive feedback—but constructive criticism is more important. In one of my earliest novels I got slammed by reviewers for having a weak female character. So I worked on that, and got a lot better with writing female characters. I’ve learned there’s a golden core to every criticism. That’s how you learn your craft—by working on the things you’re doing wrong. If you just get defensive, and refuse to accept criticism, you never grow as a writer.
Q: Also do you prefer books with multiple POVs or just one (in writing and reading)?
A: Just like in my writing, I like a variety.
Q: I really love your world-building, especially in the UNWIND and Skinjacker Trilogy: Everlost; Everwild; Everfound books—it's very detailed and unique! Where did you get inspiration for worlds like those, and how did you go about designing them?
A: The answer to world building could be its own novel. World building is a complex process, and one of the most difficult things to do as a writer—which is why I always encourage fledgling writers to resist the urge to write stories that take place in other worlds, until you’ve mastered writing in this one. The short answer is that I start with a premise for the world, and then I follow the very real threads of how that premise would realistically affect the world, and society. In EVERLOST, for instance. I had the rule that if you stand in one place, you sink as if the world was quicksand. Okay, so then characters would have to keep moving. But would there be any places that were solid for them? Okay, so maybe there are islands of solidity—but what would be the rule to that? Okay, so places where people died would be solid. But What about things? Okay, things that were beloved in the world but were destroyed are still in EVERLOST. And on and on and on—it’s all about posing questions about the problems your world creates, and coming up with logical solutions. Answer enough questions, and you have a world!
Q: What would happen if an Unwound teen became an Afterlight? Would they be a whole Afterlight or would all their parts just be floating around Everlost in a jumbled mess?
A: The answer implies a question that is intentionally never answered in unwind — When you’re unwound what happens to your soul? Since I don’t know the answer to that, I can’t postulate what would happen if an unwound kid wound up in Everlost.
Q: Speaking of EVERLOST, is it possible for Afterlights to reappear during certain times where some legends say the veil between our world and the world of the dead is thin? Like the Day of the Dead, or Halloween?
A: Yes, but I’d give that a unique and quirky twist so that it matched the absurd nature of EVERLOST. Like maybe those holidays don’t have any connection to the dead. It’s actually on Groundhog Day that the dead become occasionally visible for unknown reasons—but only if the Groundhog sees his shadow.
Q: I read your short story collections Darkness Creeping: Twenty Twisted Tales and Mindstorms: Stories To Blow Your Mind—both had tales that just stunned me to the core and made me cry with how beautiful they were. But the one that stuck with me the most was “Growing Pains”... Was that part of your inspiration for UNWIND?
A: Hmmm.. Maybe. I never even considered that. Funny thing about growing pains, is that I wrote it to be funny — kind of like a Monty Python sketch — but then I read it out loud to a class, and realized it wasn’t funny, it was really creepy.
Q: Was it hard to change writing style for the Unwind Dystology as everything is in present tense instead of past tense?
A: I love experimenting with different voices. I get bored if I write in a familiar voice. The hard part is getting into the voice. If you see my first drafts of the early chapters, I keep slipping into past tense, and sometimes even first person. It takes a while for the voice to take hold.
Q: As a fellow writer we all have characters we make that we love… And that we love to hate. Do you have any characters that you loved to hate while you wrote them?
A: Starkey (The Unwind Dystology) and Mary Hightower (The Skinjacker Trilogy) are my favorite love-to-hate characters.
Q: What is the weirdest thing you've ever had to research for a book?
A: The flashpoint of human flesh for The Star Shards Trilogy and the black market price of organs for the Unwind Dystology.
Q: When you write do you ever question your work? Like do you ever question if it is good or not? Do you just write what you want to write or do you consider what everyone else wants?
A: I question myself all the time. The second you stop questioning yourself, that’s the second you stop growing as a writer. As far as what I choose to write—I write what excites me, and I hope that other people will respond to it.
Q: Favorite snack to eat while writing a book?
A: Lately it’s been pistachios. And someone needs to find the person who started packaging pistachios without the shell, and put them to death.
Q: What would you tell a freshman in highschool that you would like him or her to know about UNWIND before reading it? Is there anything specific that you'd like them to learn from it, such as a life lesson?
A: Ask questions. Ask hard questions. Never for once think that anyone really knows the answers, and be very wary of people who say they do.
Q: Did you always plan to make UNWIND a four-book series, or did the story just need four books?
A: It’s really UNWIND, and then the trilogy that followed. UnWholly was supposed to be just a sequel, but the story kept getting bigger, and bigger…
Q: What was your favorite book as a teenager?
A: I have a lot of them, starting with the “Lords” (Lord of the Rings and Lord of the Flies), The Tripod Trilogy, The Stand, name a few.
Q: Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?
A: I wanted to be a lot of things—writer, actor, artist, architect, doctor, rock star—but in college writing emerged as my greatest passion
Q: How do you find inspiration for your novels?
A: Everywhere. You never know where inspiration will come from, or why it comes. You just have to be ready to snag it, and run with it when it does!
Q: Why did you decide to write YA books?
A: I didn’t. I decided to write stories that I found moving. They sold as YA. It’s like Genre. Orson Scott Card was once asked how he knew whether he was going to write a fantasy or sci-fi book. His answer was something like “When they publish it, if there are trees on the cover, then I know it must be a fantasy, and if there’s a space ship, then it must be sci-fi.”
Q: What made you decided to add the red Half border with you name in it, on some of your books? is it sort of your own way of being unique?
A: The publisher decided to create the “line look” or “branding” so that there’s a distinctiveness to all of my books—or at least all of my books published by Simon and Schuster. I really like it!
Q: How long does it normally take you to write a book? (:ike how many hours do you just sit down and write for?)
A: I try to write for six hours a day, 6.5 days a week. Doesn’t always happen though. In fact, that rarely happens, because life intervenes. It usually takes me from four to seven months to write a book, depending on its complexity.
Q: If you had to pick one theme for the Unwind Dystology what would it be?
A: Picking one theme leads to people saying “this book is about,” which I’d prefer people not say. The books are about a lot of things—unintentional consequences, the nature of society, human nature, the quest for answers, abuse of power—so many things that to single out a theme would be misleading.
Q: And for the Skinjacker trilogy?
A: Same as above!
Q: Did you have a ending for UNDIVIDED when you were still writing UNWIND?
A: UNWIND was originally a stand-alone book, so no, I didn’t have an ending. When I started UnWholly, I conceived of where the story would end, and UNDIVIDED comes close to where I thought it would go—but with a lot of discoveries and changes along the way.
Q: Do you prefer doing collaborations with other authors or just doing solo books (in which you are the only author, besides the editors and whatnot)?
A: I like both. I’m collaborating with Eric Elfman on The Accelerati Trilogy (TESLA'S ATTIC, EDISON'S ALLEY, and HAWKING’S HALLWAY), and worked with Michelle Knowlden on UNSTRUNG. Having a collaborator doesn’t make it go any faster, but sometimes two heads are better than one, and it’s a bit less of a lonely process!
Q: Who is the first person to read your books in their finished state?
A: Members of my writing group, The Fictionaires. The first person to read it after it’s published, and write me a letter with comments is my aunt Mildred.
Q: Adults tend to hate on young adult books—if you could say one thing to them what would it be?
A: I wouldn’t say they hate on them, but they can be dismissive. The best response is to write something that changes their minds. More and more young adult books are being read by adults. A journalist recently wrote an article that really was hating on young-adult books, and it received a huge backlash from people. Young Adult books are winning the battle. The haters’ little island of hate is getting smaller all the time.
Q: Is being a author a full-time job? Does it involve more than just writing the book?
A: For me it’s a full-time job, but writing is only about a quarter of it. it’s 25% writing, 25% thinking, 25% traveling and speaking, and 25% dealing with the business end of things.
Q: I know fans have been going crazy about a UNWIND and EVERLOST crossover. But if you could make one character from each book meet each other, who would be best friends? Worst enemies?
A: Ooh. I would love to see Starkey and Mary get together. What an unstoppable team of evil.
Q: Will you be coming to Canada? I am dying to ask you more questions personally, and would drive a long ways to see you. PLEASE COME VISIT US.
A: Thanks for the invitation! If your school invites me, and there are enough schools to put together a few days, I’ll be happy to come! So start working on your principal. ;)
Q: Which environments do you write in the most: quiet study room on a desk, in the park, in a cafe, etc...?
A: I cannot write in a quiet room. I require the world happening around me. I’ll go to starbucks, or the food court, or a park on a nice day. The rooftop restaurant of a tall building in a big city. The lounge on a cruise ship with a 360 degree view of the ocean.
Q: Were any of the characters influenced by real-life figures (example: maybe Starkey was influenced by your high school nemesis or Sonia by a family member, etc…)?
A: I’m sure the characters are subconsciously influenced by people I know or have met, but consciously I try to make sure the characters are their own individuals.
Q: Will there be something chronologically after Undivided? I've heard rumors about novellas.
A: The plan (although it’s more of an idea at this point than an actual plan) is to create a series of 5 or 6 novellas that take place within the unwind world, featuring some of the secondary characters. UNSTRUNG will be included. I’d be collaborating with different authors for each one.
Q: What you like best about writing YA books, and I wonder: did you write about kids and teens when you were that age (I read you started writing as a child) and then kept writing those kinds of stories, finding you were interested in exploring themes from that perspective?
A: When I was in my late teens and early 20’s I worked as a counselor at a summer camp (Kutsher’s Camp Anawana, in the Catskill Mountains) and was kind of the camp storyteller. That’s what got me into writing stories for teens.
Q: What kind of stories did you write when you started writing?
A: I wrote a lot of sci-fi, fantasy and Twilight Zone-ish short stories. Then I had a college professor who convinced me that the only way to grow as a writer was to write out of my comfort zone, so I swore off that stuff, and wrote a lot of realistic fiction. I became much better when I did that. I didn’t return to writing sci-fi/fantasy until THE EYES OF KID MIDAS, years later.
Q: Young Adult literature is a fairly new genre, arguably within the last 130 years or so. What led you to choose this genre for your works?
A: I don’t believe in genre. In fact, I actively fight against the very concept. Literature should not be belittled by simplistic categorization. I’m a genrebuster!
Q: Would Wil act as a sort of guardian spirit for Lev after what happened to him, or would he watch over Cam since Cam got his hands?
A: I think Wil would watch over Lev. He cared about Lev. And only a small fraction of him “knows” Cam.
Q: I’m wondering not how you came up with the concepts for UNWIND and SKINJACKER—but how you accomplish all the small details. I mean, storking? Who thinks of that? (Obviously you do!) And the idea that ghosts get stuck doing the same thing over and over again, and sinking, and the features getting exaggerated... And chiming! Hilarious! Such fantastic things that add to the stories and so distinctive. How in the world do you think of this stuff?
A: It’s all an outgrowth of world building. The rules of every world creates problems. If you ignore those problems, you end up with an incomplete, non-believable world, so I try to attack those problems head on, and come up with solutions that match the tone of the story. For instance, one of the problems in EVERLOST is that the characters are incapable of feeling pain. How, then, can the monster of EVERLOST (The McGill) torment his prisoners? Since EVERLOST has an absurd quality, I figured he’d torment them by boring them. How do you bore lost souls in a world that feels no pain? I dunno—maybe hang them upside down on chains, and give them nothing to do? Hey, I’ll come up with a clever name for it. I know! Chiming! Because they’re hanging like chimes. Then I pat myself on the back for being oh-so-clever, and move on in the story.
Q: I also want to let you know that as an audiobook fanatic, I have to say that one of the reasons the Skinjacker series is one of my top favs of all time is Nick Podehl. Wow. Just, wow. The guy is amazing and I think probably one of my favourite characters of any book is The McGill. He just made me laugh and laugh and laugh, primarily because of the way Nick voiced him.
A: He is amazing! So is the audio of the UNWIND books. The unwinding scene really gave me chills hearing it.
Q: One last thing: how have you handled the idea that the unwinding chapter in the first UNWIND book is so disturbing? I couldn't read it; got to about the end of the first page and just skipped to the next chapter. Even though I didn't like the character at all, it was just so gruesome. Do you get any flack from educators about that?
A: It wasn’t gruesome at all. You didn’t read it, so you don’t know, but we see absolutely nothing of the unwinding. It’s just the things that are being said in the room, and the thoughts and fears of the character. The unwinding happens completely off the page. Yes, it is disturbing. And it’s the chapter that has made UNWIND so successful, I think, because it reaches a psychological place that I never realized it could when I wrote it.
Q: Do you listen to music when you write? if so what kind of music?
A: All kinds. My current favorite writing sound track is the TRON: LEGACY soundtrack by Daft Punk. I think the whole last third of UNDIVIDED was written while having it on endless repeat.
Q: Where do you hope to see yourself as an author go?
A: Some place really really good, where I can eat ice-cream all day and not get fat, and go on every roller coaster and never get sick to my stomach.
Seriously, though, my dream would be to have a book become a classic that’s read long after I’m gone. And to have all my books made into successful movies, and TV series. To know that I’ve somehow made a positive difference in the world.
Q: What was your first book? Unpublished and published.
A: “Duke:” I wrote it when I was 18 based on a story I told that summer at summer camp, which was inspired by the Album “Duke” by Genesis—although the story had nothing to do with album, it was just images and ideas that listening to the music gave me. It was a fantasy that was sort of a bad Lord of the Rings rip-off, and was never published because it was pretty awful—but the first step to becoming a writer is writing a really bad book. The next one was better, and the third one was the first to be published: The Shadow Club.
Q: If you somehow developed superpowers, would you don tights and a cape and go by the name Shuster-Man?
A: Hah! It would definitely be Storyman like my website (www.storyman.com) and my license plate (STORYMN)
Q: Dear Mr Shusterman, how did the monstrous idea of "unwinding" came into your head?
A: Long story! It was a combination of three separate things in the news—a story about feral teens in England that people wished they could euthanize, the insanity surrounding the abortion issue in the US, and an article about how scientists predict that 100% of a donated body will be able to used in transplant some day soon.
Q: In the Unwind series, you put a lot of your characters through very harrowing situations. How can you tell which ones are going to survive and become stronger, and which ones are going to break? Do you pull the strings, or is it your characters?
A: It’s always the characters. I don’t know who is going to break until they do. If I don’t want them to break, then I pull back on the situation a little. I don’t decide what the characters do—I leave it up to them, but I do decide how much to torment them.
Q: Do you ever find a particular type of character difficult to write?
A: The heroes! They are hard, because they can get kind of boring to write. It’s always the quirky supporting characters, and the antagonists that are the most interesting. I’m always struggling to make sure my main character isn’t dull!
Q: What do you think is the most important thing someone should know/do, if they wanted to become an author?
A: Rewrite. Period, the end.
Q: Bruiser was absolutely brilliant, my favorite read of the year. Where did you get your inspiration for the character of BRUISER?
A: What made me want to tell the story was not just the idea of someone with healing power, but a character who couldn’t control it, and also healed your psychological and emotional wounds. What would that person be like? What kind of life would they lead? That became the character of Brewster.
Q: Did you always imagine Lev in the story? Was he always a 13-year old boy? Why do you think authors tend to pick older YA characters for stories and not so much insightful, smart, younger ones?
A: Yes, Lev was always in the story from its very inception. Yes, he was always 13. YA Authors tend to choose older characters for marketing/business reasons. Kids rarely will read characters that are younger than them, but they’ll read older. There are exceptions of course—Percy Jackson, Ender Wiggin, for example. I wanted to make my main characters have a range of ages in UNWIND—but I couldn’t start with Lev, because I would have lost my older readers in the first page...
Q: What was the most challenging aspect in concluding The Unwind Dystology?
A: Making each book better than the last. I never want people to say “eh, this one wasn’t as good as the last one” so I don’t let it go until I feel it’s better.
Q: As an author, how hard is it to write a conclusion to a story that you think most readers/fans will like? Is that even a consideration as you are writing?
A: There have been a slew of disappointing series conclusions recently. The trick is to make it satisfying, without making it a “happily ever after” conclusion. Leaving the reader satisfied doesn’t always mean wrapping everything up with a happy little bow. You can satisfy readers in a way they weren’t expecting. That’s what I’ve attempted to do in Undivided. Everyone who has read it says it’s extremely satisfying, in a way they didn’t predict, and that it’s the best book of the four. That’s what I want to hear!
Q: Because Cam is a Rewound, I sometimes find it hard to think of him as a human being. He was made, and not born. How do you classify Cam? Human being or just a successful science experiment?
A: Your conundrum is the whole point of writing Cam. It’s the question that he struggles with himself. Is he human? Who makes that decision. Who decides if he has a soul or not? Who has the authority to do so? My take is that he is human, and does have a soul. If he didn’t then it would be impossible to write from his point of view, because to have a point of view, you have to have consciousness.
Q: If you could cast your characters from UNWIND (or Everlost, if you want to touch on that too), who would you cast?
A: I intentionally never think of casting. Once I do, then it’s hard to separate the character from the actor.
Q: Did you draw on any other literary works for inspiration while you were writing? For example, I drew quite a few parallels between UNWIND and 1984 in its scary world building.
A: The things we read and appreciate always influence our writing. None of it is intentional, but it’s all rolling around in my brain, and I notice them after the fact. If I see too strong a parallel while I’m writing, I usually change it, because I don’t want to tread on familiar ground.
Q: What is your single favourite thing about being a successful and recognized author?
A: Getting heartfelt emails from fans, and knowing that the books are making a positive difference in people’s lives. And yeah, it’s nice to be able to support myself and family doing something I love!
Q: What are you currently working on?
A: A Holocaust-themed graphic novel called COURAGE TO DREAM; the first book of a new series to follow up UNWIND, called SCYTHE; a new standalone novel—best one I’ve ever written—called Challenger Deep; and HAWKING’S HALLWAY, the conclusion the The Accelerati series.
Q: I see that you go out to your fans on Facebook to pick your character's names. Have you always done this? That's soooo cool by the way!
A: I started it a few years ago—it’s a way of recognizing the fans, and coming up with great character names at the same time!
Q: Which book(s) that you've written are you most proud of?
A: CHALLENGER DEEP. It’s a very personal story. Stay tuned to my website and social media for more about it. It comes out in April.
Q: Which of your characters do you relate to the most? Are any of them based on real people?
A: I never base characters on real people unless it’s a true story. I feel the characters need to be their own individuals. Can’t say which one I relate to the most… All of them.
Q: Do you have an all-time favorite book?
A: Can’t pick a favorite book either. I have tons of favorite books I’ve read.
Q: Do you plan on writing more realistic fiction (in the lines of What Daddy Did)?
A: What Daddy Did is being re-released by Simon and Schuster next year under the title CHASING FORGIVENESS. I have no plans to write any more true stories, and most of my upcoming projects all have some quirky otherworldly twist. CHALLENGER DEEP is very true to life, but also very surreal.
Q: I was also wondering about the unwinding scene in the first book. It impacted me as being both one the most compelling and one of the most disturbing parts of the book. Can you remember how you came up with that?
A: The goal for the unwinding scene was to show the psychological aspect. I don’t think of myself as a horror writer—I never write something for the purpose of scaring you or grossing you out—so I set myself some strict rules for that scene: Absolutely no gore! I even replaced blood with green oxygenated fluid, so even if you’re imagining it, you’re not seeing blood. It was all about moving deeper into the character’s fear, and his consciousness until that consciousness is gone. Approaching it that way makes it far more disturbing than something gory and exploitative.
Q: How did you decide that you wanted to be an author? And how do you deal with everyone judging your work, in good and bad ways?
A: I always loved writing, and had teachers growing up who really encouraged me. Everyone loves positive feedback—but constructive criticism is more important. In one of my earliest novels I got slammed by reviewers for having a weak female character. So I worked on that, and got a lot better with writing female characters. I’ve learned there’s a golden core to every criticism. That’s how you learn your craft—by working on the things you’re doing wrong. If you just get defensive, and refuse to accept criticism, you never grow as a writer.
Q: Also do you prefer books with multiple POVs or just one (in writing and reading)?
A: Just like in my writing, I like a variety.
Q: I really love your world-building, especially in the UNWIND and Skinjacker Trilogy: Everlost; Everwild; Everfound books—it's very detailed and unique! Where did you get inspiration for worlds like those, and how did you go about designing them?
A: The answer to world building could be its own novel. World building is a complex process, and one of the most difficult things to do as a writer—which is why I always encourage fledgling writers to resist the urge to write stories that take place in other worlds, until you’ve mastered writing in this one. The short answer is that I start with a premise for the world, and then I follow the very real threads of how that premise would realistically affect the world, and society. In EVERLOST, for instance. I had the rule that if you stand in one place, you sink as if the world was quicksand. Okay, so then characters would have to keep moving. But would there be any places that were solid for them? Okay, so maybe there are islands of solidity—but what would be the rule to that? Okay, so places where people died would be solid. But What about things? Okay, things that were beloved in the world but were destroyed are still in EVERLOST. And on and on and on—it’s all about posing questions about the problems your world creates, and coming up with logical solutions. Answer enough questions, and you have a world!
Q: What would happen if an Unwound teen became an Afterlight? Would they be a whole Afterlight or would all their parts just be floating around Everlost in a jumbled mess?
A: The answer implies a question that is intentionally never answered in unwind — When you’re unwound what happens to your soul? Since I don’t know the answer to that, I can’t postulate what would happen if an unwound kid wound up in Everlost.
Q: Speaking of EVERLOST, is it possible for Afterlights to reappear during certain times where some legends say the veil between our world and the world of the dead is thin? Like the Day of the Dead, or Halloween?
A: Yes, but I’d give that a unique and quirky twist so that it matched the absurd nature of EVERLOST. Like maybe those holidays don’t have any connection to the dead. It’s actually on Groundhog Day that the dead become occasionally visible for unknown reasons—but only if the Groundhog sees his shadow.
Q: I read your short story collections Darkness Creeping: Twenty Twisted Tales and Mindstorms: Stories To Blow Your Mind—both had tales that just stunned me to the core and made me cry with how beautiful they were. But the one that stuck with me the most was “Growing Pains”... Was that part of your inspiration for UNWIND?
A: Hmmm.. Maybe. I never even considered that. Funny thing about growing pains, is that I wrote it to be funny — kind of like a Monty Python sketch — but then I read it out loud to a class, and realized it wasn’t funny, it was really creepy.
Q: Was it hard to change writing style for the Unwind Dystology as everything is in present tense instead of past tense?
A: I love experimenting with different voices. I get bored if I write in a familiar voice. The hard part is getting into the voice. If you see my first drafts of the early chapters, I keep slipping into past tense, and sometimes even first person. It takes a while for the voice to take hold.
Q: As a fellow writer we all have characters we make that we love… And that we love to hate. Do you have any characters that you loved to hate while you wrote them?
A: Starkey (The Unwind Dystology) and Mary Hightower (The Skinjacker Trilogy) are my favorite love-to-hate characters.
Q: What is the weirdest thing you've ever had to research for a book?
A: The flashpoint of human flesh for The Star Shards Trilogy and the black market price of organs for the Unwind Dystology.
Q: When you write do you ever question your work? Like do you ever question if it is good or not? Do you just write what you want to write or do you consider what everyone else wants?
A: I question myself all the time. The second you stop questioning yourself, that’s the second you stop growing as a writer. As far as what I choose to write—I write what excites me, and I hope that other people will respond to it.
Q: Favorite snack to eat while writing a book?
A: Lately it’s been pistachios. And someone needs to find the person who started packaging pistachios without the shell, and put them to death.
Q: What would you tell a freshman in highschool that you would like him or her to know about UNWIND before reading it? Is there anything specific that you'd like them to learn from it, such as a life lesson?
A: Ask questions. Ask hard questions. Never for once think that anyone really knows the answers, and be very wary of people who say they do.
Q: Did you always plan to make UNWIND a four-book series, or did the story just need four books?
A: It’s really UNWIND, and then the trilogy that followed. UnWholly was supposed to be just a sequel, but the story kept getting bigger, and bigger…
Q: What was your favorite book as a teenager?
A: I have a lot of them, starting with the “Lords” (Lord of the Rings and Lord of the Flies), The Tripod Trilogy, The Stand, name a few.
Q: Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?
A: I wanted to be a lot of things—writer, actor, artist, architect, doctor, rock star—but in college writing emerged as my greatest passion
Q: How do you find inspiration for your novels?
A: Everywhere. You never know where inspiration will come from, or why it comes. You just have to be ready to snag it, and run with it when it does!
Q: Why did you decide to write YA books?
A: I didn’t. I decided to write stories that I found moving. They sold as YA. It’s like Genre. Orson Scott Card was once asked how he knew whether he was going to write a fantasy or sci-fi book. His answer was something like “When they publish it, if there are trees on the cover, then I know it must be a fantasy, and if there’s a space ship, then it must be sci-fi.”
Q: What made you decided to add the red Half border with you name in it, on some of your books? is it sort of your own way of being unique?
A: The publisher decided to create the “line look” or “branding” so that there’s a distinctiveness to all of my books—or at least all of my books published by Simon and Schuster. I really like it!
Q: How long does it normally take you to write a book? (:ike how many hours do you just sit down and write for?)
A: I try to write for six hours a day, 6.5 days a week. Doesn’t always happen though. In fact, that rarely happens, because life intervenes. It usually takes me from four to seven months to write a book, depending on its complexity.
Q: If you had to pick one theme for the Unwind Dystology what would it be?
A: Picking one theme leads to people saying “this book is about,” which I’d prefer people not say. The books are about a lot of things—unintentional consequences, the nature of society, human nature, the quest for answers, abuse of power—so many things that to single out a theme would be misleading.
Q: And for the Skinjacker trilogy?
A: Same as above!
Q: Did you have a ending for UNDIVIDED when you were still writing UNWIND?
A: UNWIND was originally a stand-alone book, so no, I didn’t have an ending. When I started UnWholly, I conceived of where the story would end, and UNDIVIDED comes close to where I thought it would go—but with a lot of discoveries and changes along the way.
Q: Do you prefer doing collaborations with other authors or just doing solo books (in which you are the only author, besides the editors and whatnot)?
A: I like both. I’m collaborating with Eric Elfman on The Accelerati Trilogy (TESLA'S ATTIC, EDISON'S ALLEY, and HAWKING’S HALLWAY), and worked with Michelle Knowlden on UNSTRUNG. Having a collaborator doesn’t make it go any faster, but sometimes two heads are better than one, and it’s a bit less of a lonely process!
Q: Who is the first person to read your books in their finished state?
A: Members of my writing group, The Fictionaires. The first person to read it after it’s published, and write me a letter with comments is my aunt Mildred.
Q: Adults tend to hate on young adult books—if you could say one thing to them what would it be?
A: I wouldn’t say they hate on them, but they can be dismissive. The best response is to write something that changes their minds. More and more young adult books are being read by adults. A journalist recently wrote an article that really was hating on young-adult books, and it received a huge backlash from people. Young Adult books are winning the battle. The haters’ little island of hate is getting smaller all the time.
Q: Is being a author a full-time job? Does it involve more than just writing the book?
A: For me it’s a full-time job, but writing is only about a quarter of it. it’s 25% writing, 25% thinking, 25% traveling and speaking, and 25% dealing with the business end of things.
Q: I know fans have been going crazy about a UNWIND and EVERLOST crossover. But if you could make one character from each book meet each other, who would be best friends? Worst enemies?
A: Ooh. I would love to see Starkey and Mary get together. What an unstoppable team of evil.
Q: Will you be coming to Canada? I am dying to ask you more questions personally, and would drive a long ways to see you. PLEASE COME VISIT US.
A: Thanks for the invitation! If your school invites me, and there are enough schools to put together a few days, I’ll be happy to come! So start working on your principal. ;)
Q: Which environments do you write in the most: quiet study room on a desk, in the park, in a cafe, etc...?
A: I cannot write in a quiet room. I require the world happening around me. I’ll go to starbucks, or the food court, or a park on a nice day. The rooftop restaurant of a tall building in a big city. The lounge on a cruise ship with a 360 degree view of the ocean.
Q: Were any of the characters influenced by real-life figures (example: maybe Starkey was influenced by your high school nemesis or Sonia by a family member, etc…)?
A: I’m sure the characters are subconsciously influenced by people I know or have met, but consciously I try to make sure the characters are their own individuals.
Q: Will there be something chronologically after Undivided? I've heard rumors about novellas.
A: The plan (although it’s more of an idea at this point than an actual plan) is to create a series of 5 or 6 novellas that take place within the unwind world, featuring some of the secondary characters. UNSTRUNG will be included. I’d be collaborating with different authors for each one.
Q: What you like best about writing YA books, and I wonder: did you write about kids and teens when you were that age (I read you started writing as a child) and then kept writing those kinds of stories, finding you were interested in exploring themes from that perspective?
A: When I was in my late teens and early 20’s I worked as a counselor at a summer camp (Kutsher’s Camp Anawana, in the Catskill Mountains) and was kind of the camp storyteller. That’s what got me into writing stories for teens.
Q: What kind of stories did you write when you started writing?
A: I wrote a lot of sci-fi, fantasy and Twilight Zone-ish short stories. Then I had a college professor who convinced me that the only way to grow as a writer was to write out of my comfort zone, so I swore off that stuff, and wrote a lot of realistic fiction. I became much better when I did that. I didn’t return to writing sci-fi/fantasy until THE EYES OF KID MIDAS, years later.
Q: Young Adult literature is a fairly new genre, arguably within the last 130 years or so. What led you to choose this genre for your works?
A: I don’t believe in genre. In fact, I actively fight against the very concept. Literature should not be belittled by simplistic categorization. I’m a genrebuster!
Q: Would Wil act as a sort of guardian spirit for Lev after what happened to him, or would he watch over Cam since Cam got his hands?
A: I think Wil would watch over Lev. He cared about Lev. And only a small fraction of him “knows” Cam.
Q: I’m wondering not how you came up with the concepts for UNWIND and SKINJACKER—but how you accomplish all the small details. I mean, storking? Who thinks of that? (Obviously you do!) And the idea that ghosts get stuck doing the same thing over and over again, and sinking, and the features getting exaggerated... And chiming! Hilarious! Such fantastic things that add to the stories and so distinctive. How in the world do you think of this stuff?
A: It’s all an outgrowth of world building. The rules of every world creates problems. If you ignore those problems, you end up with an incomplete, non-believable world, so I try to attack those problems head on, and come up with solutions that match the tone of the story. For instance, one of the problems in EVERLOST is that the characters are incapable of feeling pain. How, then, can the monster of EVERLOST (The McGill) torment his prisoners? Since EVERLOST has an absurd quality, I figured he’d torment them by boring them. How do you bore lost souls in a world that feels no pain? I dunno—maybe hang them upside down on chains, and give them nothing to do? Hey, I’ll come up with a clever name for it. I know! Chiming! Because they’re hanging like chimes. Then I pat myself on the back for being oh-so-clever, and move on in the story.
Q: I also want to let you know that as an audiobook fanatic, I have to say that one of the reasons the Skinjacker series is one of my top favs of all time is Nick Podehl. Wow. Just, wow. The guy is amazing and I think probably one of my favourite characters of any book is The McGill. He just made me laugh and laugh and laugh, primarily because of the way Nick voiced him.
A: He is amazing! So is the audio of the UNWIND books. The unwinding scene really gave me chills hearing it.
Q: One last thing: how have you handled the idea that the unwinding chapter in the first UNWIND book is so disturbing? I couldn't read it; got to about the end of the first page and just skipped to the next chapter. Even though I didn't like the character at all, it was just so gruesome. Do you get any flack from educators about that?
A: It wasn’t gruesome at all. You didn’t read it, so you don’t know, but we see absolutely nothing of the unwinding. It’s just the things that are being said in the room, and the thoughts and fears of the character. The unwinding happens completely off the page. Yes, it is disturbing. And it’s the chapter that has made UNWIND so successful, I think, because it reaches a psychological place that I never realized it could when I wrote it.
Q: Do you listen to music when you write? if so what kind of music?
A: All kinds. My current favorite writing sound track is the TRON: LEGACY soundtrack by Daft Punk. I think the whole last third of UNDIVIDED was written while having it on endless repeat.
Q: Where do you hope to see yourself as an author go?
A: Some place really really good, where I can eat ice-cream all day and not get fat, and go on every roller coaster and never get sick to my stomach.
Seriously, though, my dream would be to have a book become a classic that’s read long after I’m gone. And to have all my books made into successful movies, and TV series. To know that I’ve somehow made a positive difference in the world.
Q: What was your first book? Unpublished and published.
A: “Duke:” I wrote it when I was 18 based on a story I told that summer at summer camp, which was inspired by the Album “Duke” by Genesis—although the story had nothing to do with album, it was just images and ideas that listening to the music gave me. It was a fantasy that was sort of a bad Lord of the Rings rip-off, and was never published because it was pretty awful—but the first step to becoming a writer is writing a really bad book. The next one was better, and the third one was the first to be published: The Shadow Club.
Win a Copy of Edison's Alley
Goodreads is giving away three advance reading copies (ARCs) of Edison's Alley! Click here to enter.
Eric and I are also giving away a fourth ARC, as well as a couple signed posters, via the Tesla's Attic Facebook page. To enter, send us your Tesla-inspired invention idea. Click here for rules and details on how to enter.
PS – I'm keynoting a conference in NOLA this week. If you're in town, come say say hi!
-Neal
Eric and I are also giving away a fourth ARC, as well as a couple signed posters, via the Tesla's Attic Facebook page. To enter, send us your Tesla-inspired invention idea. Click here for rules and details on how to enter.
PS – I'm keynoting a conference in NOLA this week. If you're in town, come say say hi!
-Neal
TESLA'S ATTIC is a VOYA Top Shelf honoree!
Eric Elfman and I just heard that Tesla's Attic was chosen as VOYA Top Shelf honoree for 2014!
The honor, which only 30 books maximum get per year, "represents only those fiction titles that clearly raise the bar for outstanding storytelling for middle-grade readers." Librarians and educators use the list as a selection guide for their YA curricula. This year’s list includes 28 titles.
Read the full list here.
By the way, Edison's Alley, the sequel to Tesla's Attic, comes out next month!
The honor, which only 30 books maximum get per year, "represents only those fiction titles that clearly raise the bar for outstanding storytelling for middle-grade readers." Librarians and educators use the list as a selection guide for their YA curricula. This year’s list includes 28 titles.
Read the full list here.
By the way, Edison's Alley, the sequel to Tesla's Attic, comes out next month!
American Library Association Conference 2015
If you live in the San Francisco area, or will be attending the American Library Association (ALA) Conference this weekend (6/27–6/28), come find Eric Elfman and me in the Disney-Hyperion booth! We'll be signing copies of Edison's Alley and Tesla's Attic at Moscone Convention Center Exhibit Hall, Booth 1028 from 10:30am to 11:30am on Sunday morning.
Click here for more info.
Hope we see you there!
Click here for more info.
Hope we see you there!
