questions for the author
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I didn’t have much sense of myself as a future adult with a job when I was a child. I’m sure I projected somewhat into my future, but was probably happier thinking I would remain a child. I did pass through many stages along the way to being a writer—an anthropologist and archeologist were the two most attractive.
When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
In high school, it suddenly occurred to me that most adults I knew were fairly miserable because they were stuck in jobs they did not like. So I made a list of things I liked to do, and reading and writing and bookish things were at the top. I liked books. Writing was a constant challenge. I knew I would never be bored with it.
What’s your first childhood memory?
It is either burying my plastic buffalo in my grandmother’s backyard, or lighting matches in my uncle’s closet.
What’s your most embarrassing childhood memory? Eating too many hot peppers one night, which was followed
the next day with an ill-timed public bowel explosion. Either this, or the time my sister locked me naked out of the house and the lady next door caught me as I tried to borrow some of her female attire off the clothesline in order to hide my shameful nakedness. I could go on, but I think these two examples are sufficient.
As a young person, who did you look up to most?
I loved the old explorers. I wanted to be Captain Cook. I used to act out his death in my front yard.
What was your worst subject in school?
Algebra.
What was your first job?
Bag boy at a Winn-Dixie grocery store in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I was fourteen. $1.20 per hour. I loved that job. That is when I learned that money was power.
How did you celebrate publishing your first book?
I did a little happy dance in the middle of Park Street in Boston, where I had just sold the book to Houghton Mifflin. I’ve walked by that spot thousands of times on my way to the library. It still makes me smile.
Where you do write your books?
The library. Almost all my books are written in libraries.
Where do you find inspiration for your writing?
I pay close attention to my life. I read a lot. I travel. I talk to people.
Which of your characters is most like you?
Jack Henry, from the Jack Henry series. He is me. Also, I
wrote a memoir, Hole in My Life, and that is most certainly me.
When you finish a book, who reads it first?
Usually, my editor. I don’t share manuscripts too often. I don’t belong to a writers’ group or any of that sort of thing.
Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Morning person.
What’s your idea of the best meal ever?
Sushi on the docks in Tokyo. Wild boar in Bangkok. Green curry in Singapore. Peking duck in Beijing. (I could go on.)
Which do you like better: cats or dogs?
Cats. I have two.
What do you value most in your friends?
Their patience with me. I’m an odd friend.
Where do you go for peace and quiet?
The library. Or I stay at home.
What makes you laugh out loud?
A clever character in a book. A snippet of dialogue that is so sharp, so delicious, so funny that you wish you had thought of it.
What’s your favorite song?
“Strawberry Letter Number 23.”
Who is your favorite fictional character?
Tough question. Gregor Samsa is the first to come to mind, so he wins the race.
What are you most afraid of?
That somehow my weakest qualities are going to result in letting my family down.
What time of the year do you like best?
Fall is always the best. It is the most complicated season. I find the fear of death is far more powerful than the desire to create life. Plus, fall smells better.
What is your favorite TV show?
My favorite show was always The Avengers. These days, I like watching surgical procedures on TV.
If you were stranded on a desert island, who would you want for company?
Certainly not Robinson Crusoe. I’ll go with Superman. Someone who can get me off the island. If Captain Jack Sparrow can get me off, then I would prefer him.
If you could travel in time, where you would go?
The sacking of Rome. The last stone set in the great pyramid at Giza. I could skip the burning of the great library at Alexandria. That would kill me. Also, I always wish I could go back in time and help the Neanderthal people out. I wonder what books they might have written. Also, I wouldn’t mind having season tickets to the Globe Theater in London when Shakespeare was putting on his cycle of Histories.
What’s the best advice you have ever received about writing?
Read good books. Keep a journal. Write every day. Trust yourself. Take advantage of every good thought. Laziness will kill your dreams with a self-inflicted wound.
What do you want readers to remember about your books?
I want the reader to remember how they felt the day after reading one of my books. My book will remain the same. But I always wonder how the reader has been transformed.
What would you do if you ever stopped writing?
I honestly don’t know. I suppose I would return to being a college professor. I did that for eighteen years and liked it well enough. I suspect, however, that I’d end up doing something completely different—like be a heart surgeon.
What do you like best about yourself?
That’s a short list.
I don’t like to give up.
What is your worst habit?
Whining.
What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
My family.
What do you wish you could do better?
Lie.
What would your readers be most surprised to learn about you?
I lie to myself more than I lie to others.
When I had breakfast at the White House, I didn’t steal any of the silverware because I thought if I become president, it would be like stealing from myself.
Perhaps they would be most surprised to learn about my prison record in Hole in My Life.