To learn everything you didn't want to know about Alan, check out his blog.
Personal
Where were you born?
Knoxville, Tennessee.
Where did you grow up and go to school?
I went to high school at Webb School in Knoxville, then went to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, for both undergraduate and graduate school.
How old are you?
I was born in 1972. You can do the math.
Where do you live?
In a little town called Bakersville in Western North Carolina.
Do you ever do tours or author visits?
I don't have any say whether or not my publisher sends me on author tours, but I do many, many school visits each year that are arranged through me. Click here to find out more about inviting me to your school.
Are you married? Do you have any kids?
Yes, and yes. My wife's name is Wendi, and my daughter's name is Jo. We all share a blog called Gratz Industries, where we chronicle our attempts at living creative, productive lives.
Do you have a day job?
Yes. It's writing. This is my full-time job. (Pretty awesome, huh?) And despite what my dad thinks, I really am in my office researching, outlining, writing, or taking care of writing business stuff all day.
If you weren't a writer, what would you be?
I was an eighth grade English teacher before I was a full-time writer, so I suspect that's what I would be doing. My dream job, outside of writing novels? Game designer. I also wish I could draw comics.
Do you have any hobbies?
Sure. I love playing board games and video games and role-playing games. I also like building things, like chicken coops and woodsheds and catapults. I collect action figures and other toys. Oh, and I read, of course. Books, magazines, and comic books.
What is your favorite food?
To say that my favorite food is pizza is like saying that my favorite thing to breath is air. Let's just leave it at that.
What's your favorite baseball team?
Major League Team: Los Angeles Dodgers
Japanese Pro Team: Hiroshima Carp
Minor League Team: Asheville Tourists
Who's your favorite baseball player?
Sean Casey, aka "The Mayor." He played for a lot of teams, including the Cincinnati Reds, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Boston Red Sox. He's retired now, and works as a commentator for MLB Network. I also like James Loney, first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
What are your favorite television shows?
I watch very few programs, but those I do watch I tune in for religiously: Project Runway, Pardon the Interruption, Iron Chef, Veronica Mars, Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Justice League Unlimited, Columbo, Pushing Daisies, and all the Star Trek series. (A lot of my favorites are now defunct, but I still watch them over and over again on DVD.)
Who are your favorite authors/what are your favorite books?
Yikes! It's hard to choose. If you held hot coals to my feet, here's a top ten:
Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay; Summerland)
Raymond Chandler (The Long Goodbye)
Rex Stout (the Nero Wolfe novels)
Neil Gaiman (American Gods; Sandman comics)
P.G. Wodehouse (the Jeeves and Wooster stories)
Mike Mignola (Hellboy comics)
Frank Herbert (Dune)
Peter David (Imzadi and all his other Star Trek novels)
James Robinson (Starman comics)
Alan Moore (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; Watchmen)
Did you read a lot as a kid?
No. I read some things--I remember loving Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth, and enjoying a lot of classics now given to kids, like Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea--but I was usually playing video games or building forts in the woods. My best friend and I had an imaginary country we invented called West Columbia, and we made up maps and flags and a constitution and official edicts. We even printed up our own money. So even though I wasn't reading, I was always up to some kind of invention, which I like to think made me into a storyteller as an adult. I do wish I'd read more as a kid though, if only so I wouldn't feel so very behind with all the books I want to read now!
The Books
Where did you get the idea for Samurai Shortstop?
I've always wanted to visit Japan, and I was thumbing through a travel guide when I saw a picture of a Japanese man in a kimono throwing out the first pitch at a baseball tournament in 1915. 1915! I had no idea Japan was playing baseball that long ago, so I found a book about Japanese baseball. And another. And another. A dozen or so books later, and I had a story about a boy blending bushido with baseball and . . . well, go read the book!
Why is that opening chapter of Samurai Shortstop so graphic?
I had two reasons for beginning Samurai Shortstop with a depiction of Toyo's uncle killing himself. First, I wanted to grab the reader's attention with something startling. But second, and most importantly, I wanted to scare Toyo, and, by extension, the reader. After his uncle commits suicide, Toyo's father says he's going to do it next, and Toyo spends the rest of the novel trying to stop his dad from following in his uncle's footsteps. The first chapter is the motivation for everything else Toyo does in the book. So that first chapter has to be graphic and scary, otherwise we as readers wouldn't understand what the big deal is.
Is Samurai Shortstop saying it's okay to commit suicide?
No. That's what Toyo is fighting against the whole time. But ritual suicide among the samurai was a real thing, and there's no reason to pretend things didn't happen in the past just because we wouldn't do the same thing today. Toyo comes to understand his uncle's decision, but that doesn't mean he agrees with it. That's an important difference. The same could be said of modern Japan: they understand why their ancestors did what they did, but they no longer agree with it. Even by Toyo's time, ritual suicide in Japan was seen as scandalous and sensational.
If anyone was going to die at the end of Samurai Shortstop, who would it be?
I get this question all the time, and I have no idea where it comes from. No one would die! That's not the way it ends!
Is Ichiko a real school? Are the storms and the Clenched Fist real?
You know those author notes you skipped at the end of Samurai Shortstop? Read them. Then go here.
Where did you get the idea for the Horatio Wilkes mysteries?
I like telling people that Horatio is as old on paper--in my notes--as he is in Something Rotten. That is, he's seventeen years old in Rotten, and I'd been writing about Horatio Wilkes since I took a Mystery and Detective Fiction class in college seventeen years before he ever made it to print. We had to create our own detectives for that class, and that's when Horatio was born. He didn't start out as a teenager though--at first, he was a thirty-something forensic scientist who taught at a university. I never was interested in doing research into forensics though, so Horatio went through a lot of changes over the years. I always liked his character, but never found the right story for him until I started writing young adult novels, and had the inspiration to make him seventeen. It was a perfect fit. All I needed then was a story for him. I had borrowed his name from Hamlet because I liked how down-to-earth and practical Hamlet's friend Horatio was, and I figured if the character was good enough to steal, so was the story. :-) I had always loved Hamlet and was looking for a way to turn it into a contemporary murder mystery, and everything came together. After that, I chose Macbeth as the inspiration for a second Horatio mystery because I've always loved its villains--Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Are there going to be any more Horatio novels?
I'm in talks with my publisher to do a third Horatio Wilkes mystery, but I don't know when or if it will come out. If it happens, it will be called Something Foolish, and loosely follow the plot of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I have ideas for lots more--including a Julius Caesar take-off that has Horatio solving a murder at a fraternity toga party during a college visit, and a version of The Tempest in which Horatio spends a summer as an intern at a Disney World-like amusement park.
Where did you get the idea for The Brooklyn Nine?
My terrific editor wrote to me one day and asked me what I would do with a story about baseball and different generations of a family, and I came back to her with the idea of nine innings--nine generations--of an American family and their connections to baseball throughout the decades. I had particular eras I wanted to hit--like the women's leagues during World War II and the "Gentleman's Agreement" to keep black players out of professional baseball around the turn of the century--but otherwise I left the stories up to the research. I was always able to find some story I wanted to tell for each generation--often more than one story--and I enjoyed reading up on American and baseball history along the way.
How much of The Brooklyn Nine is real?
You know those author notes you skipped at the end of The Brooklyn Nine? Read them. Then go here.
Has anything or anyone in your life ever inspired something in your books?
Yes. When I was sixteen years old, I watched my favorite uncle commit ritual suicide. I'm kidding! I'm only kidding! The real answer is: not much. The pollution angle in Something Rotten is loosely based on the Champion Paper controversy that was all over the front pages of the Knoxville newspapers when I was younger, and the setting for Something Wicked is based on my trip to a Scottish Highland Festival, but none of the characters in my books are based on people I've known. Oh, and Horatio's car is my best friend's old hand-me-down car.
I did write one novel that uses a lot of my own experiences from high school in it, but that novel hasn't sold and I haven't returned to it in some time. If I ever did sell it, I think a lot of people I once knew would recognize themselves in it, and they'd probably sue me for defamation of character.
Are you like any of your characters?
I share a love for baseball with most of my characters (even Horatio). I also share a lot of the emotions and frustrations of my characters at times, but I'm not Toyo, or Horatio, or any of the characters in The Brooklyn Nine. Horatio and I do share something of the same fashion sense, and I suppose there's a little part of me in all of my characters, but none of them is all me, or vice versa. When I write, I try to create characters who have lives of their own.
You write a lot about baseball. Are you a big baseball fan? Did you ever play baseball?
You can't write baseball books and not love baseball. (Well, I guess you could, but why?) So yeah, I'm a fan. But I've always been a greater fan than player. My greatest Little League moment: I misplayed a long drive to left field, then absolutely launched the ball, trying to throw a runner out at the plate. The ball sailed over the pitcher's mound, over first base, over the fence, and into the bleachers, where it hit my little brother in the arm. All the runners scored. After the inning was over, the coach told me I had a good arm. He also told me not to come back.
Did you create the cover images for your books? Do you have any say about them?
I wish I were that talented. No, I didn't create the covers to any of my books, and no, I don't really have much say (if any) about what they look like. But covers are terribly important; they say, "Don't judge a book by its cover," but we all do, don't we? Here's how it works: when the writing is finished, my editor sends a description of my book and some thoughts about what kind of tone or look she wants the cover to have to the designer who's gotten the assignment, and then she works back and forth with the artist and the art editor to create something they hope will say what the book is about, stand out on a bookshelf, and sell copies. I've been very lucky to have gotten terrific covers for each of my books--a testament to the talents of my editor and the Penguin art department!
If you didn't write your books, would you want to read them?
I get this question a lot, and it always surprises me. Maybe it's because I write books meant for young readers and I'm not "young" anymore? I guess what some people don't realize is that a lot of adults--including me--still read young adult novels. So yeah, I'd read my own books even if I wasn't the author. I can't imagine writing a book I wouldn't read! I write about only those stories and characters I'm interested in. If I didn't like them, I wouldn't write about them--especially since it takes such a long time and such a lot of work to write a book. If I didn't like what I was writing, it would be awful--and the books probably would be too!
Which of your books is your favorite?
This too is a tough question--like a parent being asked to pick which child is his favorite. I love all my books, and I often say my favorite is the one that came out most recently. If I had to pick a favorite though, I'd say Something Wicked--I already knew Horatio and was glad to see him again, and to research that book I went to the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, which was a blast. That book was a lot of fun to write every step of the way.
What are you working on now?
A bowl of popcorn.
Writing
Did you always want to be a writer? When did you decide to be a writer?
My original dream was to be a Jedi master. Unable to master the Force, I quickly turned to writing. When I was in grade school I produced a newspaper called the Blue Spring Lane News for my street, and by fifth grade I had written my first book. It was called Real Kids Don't Eat Spinach, and it was a play on a popular humor book at the time called Real Men Don't Eat Quiche. I think my mom still has it. I kept writing stories and newspaper articles all through middle school and high school, and studied writing in college. I guess I should have seen this coming.
Where do you get your ideas?
All over the place. In line at the grocery store, reading a magazine, surfing the internet. There are stories everywhere if you're looking for them. My favorite writing teacher showed me the trick of keeping an idea book, a journal where I can scribble a good piece of dialogue, an idea for a character, a random quote--anything. I've filled five and a half books in fifteen years. Not everything in my idea books will turn into a novel, but they're great places to experiment and have fun without the pressure of turning them into a real story.
How do I become a writer?
Well, you sit down at your computer and start writing. If you want to write well, I suggest you a) spy on your friends and family and listen to the way people talk, b) keep your eyes open and watch everything that happens in the world around you, c) always start in the middle of the action, d) make sure your story has a beginning, middle, and an end, e) read a lot and imitate your favorite authors. Note I didn't say copy what they write--just how they write. And did I mention you actually have to sit down at your computer and start writing?
When and where do you do your writing?
I write on a Dell laptop I bought with the money I made from my first television script sale. I love writing by hand, but it just takes too much time. I find that my thoughts get ahead of my ability to scribble, and then I lose whatever it was I was thinking about. Typing on the computer is so much faster, and allows me to cut and paste and rework with the words right in front of me. As to where I write, my family and I live in a house we designed ourselves, and I have a small office with a nice view of the woods. I research, outline or write from around 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every week day. I'm also a night owl, so sometimes I write very late at night after everyone else has gone to bed.
How long does it take you to write a book?
The research on historical novels actually takes longer than the writing. The idea for Samurai Shortstop had been percolating for a month or two when I thought of the title and a rough story idea. Then I hit the library, and for the next few months I only did research. When I felt like I could construct a chapter outline of my story, I stopped reading and started building the story. The outline probably took me a month to refine (it was very detailed!), and then I began writing. Once I begin writing, especially when I have a detailed outline that tells me where the story is going, I can write a chapter a day, sometimes two if I'm really cruising. At that rate, I can have a first draft in about a month--but then begins the long editing phase. I rewrite things that are choppy or don't work, bounce the story off trusted early readers, and then go through another round or three of corrections. From idea to final draft, it probably took me about nine months to write Samurai Shortstop. After it sold, I spent another year doing more research and going through even more rounds of revision with my editor.
What do you do about writers block?
I try to avoid the whole problem of writers block completely. I used to suffer from writers block all the time--I'd be sitting at my computer, ready to write, and have no idea what I was going to write. The clock would tick away, and with it would go the time I had to write that day. Then I'd come out of my office mad that I hadn't gotten words on the page. Then I learned to outline, and that's made all the difference. I now outline every novel I write, chapter by chapter, before I ever write the first word. If I hear a scene in my head, I scribble it down--when the muse speaks, you listen and take notes!--but I never try to push past the inspiration in the outline phase. Once I know in detail what is going to happen, I sit down to the keyboard and try to figure out how to tell it. Those are two very different processes, but most writers try to tackle them both at the same time. Separating them was a real breakthrough for me. I still get writers block (of a kind) when I can't figure out what's supposed to happen next during the outline phase, but at least then I don't come out of my office thinking that I've wasted time by not getting words and paragraphs and chapters written. Once I have the outline finished, I never get writers block--which is important when you're in a mood to knock out first draft pages. I open my notebook in the morning, turn to the next chapter, read what's going to happen, and then start writing.
Do you belong to a critique group?
I have a critique group of one--my wife, Wendi. She reads everything I write, and gives me good, honest feedback on it. Sometimes too honest, and I don't want to talk to her for a few days, but then I get over it. Usually.
I know many writers who thrive in larger critique groups, and many who have all been able to parlay their work as a group into publication. Larger critique groups just never worked for me.
Interviews
The Reading and Writing Podcast - 2013
Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire - 2011
Chapter 16 - 2011
From the Mixed-Up Files of... - 2011
The Happy Nappy Bookseller - 2010
TeachingBooks.net - 2010
Guys Lit Wire - 2009
Market My Words - 2009
Novel Journey - 2008
writing it out - 2008
joelleanthony.com - 2008
The Book Report podcast - 2008
Interactive Reader - 2007
Cynsations - 2007
Karen's News - 2007
Dulemba.com - 2007
Powell's Books - 2007
Paper Tigers - 2007
The Edge of the Forest - 2007
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