Interview with Antony John part 2

On Monday I posted the first part of an interview with John Antony, the author of Five Flavors of Dumb, which is possibly my new favorite book.  You can read my review of the  book here.

The rest of the interview is about publishing and his life.  Enjoy.

On Publishing

1) Once you got your agent who long did it take to see the book on the shelf?

I got my agent in June 2007 (I think), and BUSTED came out October 2008. That's a pretty quick
turnaround, though. FIVE FLAVORS OF DUMB sold in September 2008, and didn't come out until
November 2010!

2) What's the best part about being a published author?

Most authors I know take their writing very seriously, whether or not they're published. To me, the
best thing about being a published author is that, even though I may not have changed at all,
other people's attitudes toward me have changed. Instead of feeling as though I have to justify an
hour spent writing, it's understood that I need that time. I suspect that this, as much as the lure of
being published, is what unpublished writers want: to be able to write without guilt!

3) What's the hardest part about being a published author?

Finding time to balance writing and publicity. Because I'm a stay-at-home dad, I only have two hours
each morning to write. But when DUMB came out -- and started getting good reviews -- I discovered
I needed more than two hours a day just to respond to emails, interviews, and requests for school
visits. Not that I'm complaining -- I'm committed to doing free school visits as often as my schedule
will allow; but when I do, I effectively lose a day of writing.

I've discovered that the solution is to save the morning for writing, and deal with everything else
once the kids have gone to bed.

Again, though, this is a really nice problem to have, right?

 4) What was the best moment throughout this whole process?  Was it winning  the Schneider Family Book Award.

Yes and no. Pre-publication, I'd say the best moment was when I completed the first draft and
handed it to my wife; I just knew, deep down, that this was a good story, and I was really proud of it.

Post-publication, the Schneider Award was an incredible (and wonderful) surprise. I was so worried
about misrepresenting deafness, and to be told I got it right means so much.

On life:

1) As a stay at home dad, how difficult is it to find time to write?

As I say, I get two hours every morning to write. It's not as much as I'd like, but it does keep me
focused and motivated, which is a good thing. I have a pipe dream that when I'm writing full-time
(my son is in kindergarten, and my daughter will be starting in 2012) I'll suddenly crank out four
novels a year, but that's almost certainly unrealistic. My most productive working time is the
morning, and by lunchtime, I'm practically useless. Seriously. Just ask my daughter.

Incidentally, I adore being a stay-at-home dad as much as I adore writing, so there's no trade-off
here.

2) Being a parent, which TV show or movie have you seen over 50 times?

Actually, we don't have the TV on during the week usually. But I'm pretty sure my kids have seen
"Mary Poppins" and "Horton Hears a Who" at least four times each. Which, of course, means that I've
seen them that often too!

3) Which authors writing today makes you geek out in a fan tizzy?

(Translation, who is your favorite author writing today)

I am a huge fan of so many authors today, but if I had to pick one, I'd go with Meg Rosoff. I was
completely blown away by her first novel, HOW I LIVE NOW, and every novel since then has been
extraordinary. One of the things I find so impressive about her writing is how lean it is: there are no
wasted words, or extraneous scenes. Every chapter contributes narratively and enables the characters
to grow. If I could write half as well as her, I'd probably frame one of my many awards and go into
early retirement.

4) If you could offer one piece of advice my readers, what would it be?

Because I've followed the rules so well so far, I'm going to break them now and offer TWO pieces of
advice:

1. It seems to be a recurring theme these days, but ENJOY THE PROCESS. We all have goals, and I
think goals are vital, but if the long-term plan is to have a career as a writer, you really need to be
able to enjoy writing day-to-day. If you're lucky, you'll have one book come out each year, and on
that day you'll celebrate, but on the next you'll get straight back to work. You need to be able to
derive satisfaction from both of those days.

2. Writing is all about empathy, so don't forget to empathize professionally as well. When you query
agents, try to put yourself in their place. Same with editors. I'm sure that when I started querying
agents I was too caught up in myself and my novel to realize that, at heart, agents are people who
LOVE NOVELS. It's really that simple. If you can write a great story and convince them to read it, great things might happen !

I want to thank Antony for this interview- it's basically the best piece of blog content I've put out in a while (and I didn't even have to do much)  

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Enter to win your own copy of the book.  

Leave a comment below saying you would like to win the book.  You get an extra entry if you become a fan of Antony John on his Facebook page.   Contest ends 2-21-11

Please check out his webpage http://www.antonyjohn.net/

Interview with Antony John

About a week ago I emailed Antony John and asked him for an interview.  He said yes,  I know I was shocked too, clearly he had no idea who I am.

I reviewed his book a few days ago and I LOVED IT.   

The interview will be in two parts-- today will talk about writing and Thursday will talk about publishing and his life. 

 On Writing Five Flavors of Dumb

What was the inspiration for making Piper deaf?

First off, thanks for inviting me along to your blog! It's a pleasure to be here.

Given my background in music, and my fascination with rock music, I knew I wanted to write a book
about a rock band. But let's be honest -- there are a TON of rock music novels out there, and a lot of
them are very very good. So I knew I needed to offer readers something new.

Well, I was talking to my wife one evening, and she said "Wouldn't it be cool for you to think about
music from the perspective of a deaf person?" And honestly, that was my lightbulb moment. Right
then, I had this image of Piper, and I even had a sense of who she was, and her "voice" in prose. And
my wife was right: it really WAS cool to think about music from Piper's perspective.

 2) The book felt very realistic and well researched, about how much time did you spend researching?

About 4-6 months, but not continuously. To be honest, I was paranoid about tackling a topic like
deafness, and then screwing it up. So I did a LOT of research. As well as reading books and watching
documentaries, I enlisted the help of deaf readers (who read early drafts), talked to audiologists, and
sat in on an American Sign Language course. I still don't consider myself an expert on deafness, by
any means, but I learned enough to realize just how complicated it is.

3) Was there a fun fact you learned through your research that you'd like to share?

I'm not sure it's a "fun" fact, but deaf people don't like to be referred to as "hearing-impaired," which
is what most hearing people assume is the PC term. They much prefer "hard-of-hearing" or "deaf."

 4) What is your writing process like, do you outline, do you write  in order of the story, do you write by the seat of your pants?

My first novel, BUSTED, was written by the seat of my pants. As any such ride ought to be, it was
exhilarating, hair-raising, but not something I could see myself doing again.

With DUMB, I took an entirely different approach. I planned the novel in detail (about 30,000 words)
before I even began. It meant that some of the issues with the story were played out before I'd written
the first draft, and also enabled me to write the novel out of order without worrying whether it would
all come together at the end. I liked the result, and it made editing MUCH easier. So that's how I
approach all my novels now.

By the way, I'm not suggesting this approach will work for everyone. I truly believe that the writing
process is a purely personal thing, and everyone needs to find what works best for them.

5) How many drafts and revisions did Five Flavors of Dumb go through?

My editor, Liz Waniewski, and I generally have three rounds of revisions, with the comments getting
more specific each time. She knows exactly how to frame her comments to me, and knows how I
work best, so the process is absolutely seamless. (At least, it seems that way to me!) It's a sign of
how well-matched we are that I usually end up agreeing with about 99.9 percent of her suggested
changes.

 6) What is your favorite scene, wither it was fun to write or your simply proud of the way it turned out.

The obvious answer would be the final (climactic) scene, or the scene in the salon (which were,
indeed, a TON of fun to write). But just as gratifying were some of the smaller scenes, like the one
where the three girls have coffee together and we suddenly realize that they're not quite who we
thought they were. To peel back the layers was really exciting for me, and reminded me why I felt so
connected to these characters.

7) How many WIPs do you have sitting on your hard drive?

Ha! I have notes for maybe 20 projects. But right now, I'm just focused on the four novels that I'm
contracted to write for Dial. Okay, and maybe one other, because you can never have too many WIPs!

WOW- How awesome is Antony?  I saw pretty awesome.  The rest of the interview will on Thursday. 

Enter to win your own copy of the book.  

Leave a comment below saying you would like to win the book.  You get an extra entry if you become a fan of Antony John on his Facebook page.    Contest ends 2-21-11

Please check out his webpage http://www.antonyjohn.net/

Interview with Brendan Halpin

Remember my blog contest was extended to MONDAY August 2!  There's still time to enter and you can get more point by tweeting about it more than once.  You aslo get 3 points for referring someone to the blog.

One of the MYSTERY Boxes will contain The Half Life of Planets.  As you know by now I loved this books. 

I contacted Brendan Halpin about the book and asked him if I could include use all my geeky questions as an interview for my blog.  He very nicely said yes.

A little background on Brendan, he used to be a teacher and wrote a memoir on teaching.  He left teaching to write full time.  He's written 9 books.

Losing My Faculties: A Teacher's Story   

How Ya Like Me Now

Donorboy: A Novel

Dear Catastrophe Waitress

Forever Changes

It Takes a Worried Man

Long Way Back

I Can See Clearly Now

Two of Us

Please check out his blog. 

ME: My biggest fear is that in my book(s) get published and my school system fires me. Was that a concern of yours?  

BH: I was kind of concerned when the books came out about people reading them and what they might think.  When I did my tell-all book about teaching, I disguised the names of the districts and people, and while people who saw themselves in the book were mightily pissed, the place where I worked didn't care about it at all.  I think, sadly, it takes a lot of effort to get people to read your books, and if you don't tell people about them, they may not even know.  I don't toot my own horn about it too much at work because I don't want people I work with to think I'm all "ooo, I'm a wriiiiiiter!".  Even though I kind of am like that.  But I don't want anybody to think I'm like that.  



ME: How did you finally take that leap of leaving teaching and writing full time?


BH: And I actually did leap back into teaching two years ago. I work in a nonprofit with 18-24 year olds now, so I'm no longer teaching high school, but full time writing is a tough thing to pay your bills with.  Also I got kind of squirrely not seeing people all day.  Also I needed an excuse for not doing as much housework as I should, and being out of the house for 9 hours at a time is a pretty good one.  Whereas being in the house all day and still not cleaning is a bit tough to explain to the spouse. 

ME: How much research did you have to do to create Hank or was he based off of someone in your own life?   

BH: So I do have a close family friend with Aspergers that I've known since birth.  Hank isn't really modeled on him, but I guess inspired by him.

ME:How long does it take you to write a novel, on average?

BH: When I was writing full time, it took me about three months to write a novel. Now it takes significantly longer than that. 


ME:What novel was your personal favorite?


BH: Which novel was my favorite-- you mean of the ones I've written?  I don't know.  I mean, I probably liked the characters in Donorboy the most.  And I like the ending of Long Way Back the most.  And Forever Changes is the only one that doesn't have a single sentence that makes me cringe when I re-read it. 

ME: How was it working with a co writer?  Did you flesh out the plot ahead of time? How did that whole thing work?  Was it as lonely as writing a book, was it nice to have someone to talk to or was there more pressure to "get it right?"  Was it easier because you had only had half of the book to write? 

BH:
Working with a co-writer is cool-we kind of sketched out the general plan ahead of time and then just traded chapters.  We have pretty different working styles--Emily is a planner and I'm an improvisor, so I think it was a good stretch for both of us.  Also, with working full-time, owing someone a chapter is a pretty good motivator to get some writing done, so that fit very well with my current life.  It's definitely nice in that it's not as lonely as writing on your own.  And yeah, I guess it's easier to write only half a book.  But then you have to split the paycheck, and that's kind of painful.

I want to thank Brendan Halpin for his time and for being awesome.