Hey YA Fusioneers, today we are
honored with a visit from award-winning YA and middle-grade author Alan Gratz. http://alangratz.blogspot.com/. Alan's most recent YA book, STARFLEET ACADEMY:
THE ASSASSINATION GAME, came out this summer, and to celebrate we’re doing a
special signed “you choose the prize” giveaway.
But before we get to the prizes, let’s meet Alan.
Alan, thanks for taking the time to talk. I was introduced to your work by Dial editor
Liz Waniewski, who couldn’t say enough good things about your books, THE
BROOKLYN NINE and SAMURAI SHORTSTOP.
Since then, you’ve added the middle-grade FANTASY BASEBALL to the
lineup, but you’re not just a baseball man.
You also wrote two Shakespeare-inspired contemporary YA mysteries, and
have just released a YA Starfleet Academy novel. That’s quite a range of genres, which makes
me wonder: Is there a typical inspirational moment or Step One for you?
I'm interested in quite a
lot of things—often to the point of distraction, I'm afraid. It's a
long-ingrained habit of looking for story ideas in everything and anything.
Sometimes I begin with bare-bones, self-generated ideas, like, “What about a
Shakespeare play re-written as a young adult detective novel?” Or, “What about
a world where characters from famous children's books are all playing in a big
baseball tournament?” Other times, I'm reading about something and see a story
idea in that, like, “Baseball and samurai existed at the same time for a little
while in Japan? I have to write about that!” Once I have that idea, I write it
down. If it stays with me, if I can't shake it, I come back to it and I poke it
and prod it. I do more research, or I spend more time thinking about it in the
shower or on a drive, or talk incessantly about it with my family until they
can't stand to hear it anymore. If an idea makes it to that stage, then I begin
to actually build characters and a story.
I gather you’re a serious
outliner. Please tell us a little about
what you write before you write.
I do outline, in great
detail. It all began with Samurai Shortstop. In the two previous novels
I had written—neither of which was ever published—I had begun with an idea,
brainstormed a rough story, and then sat down to write it. I inevitably ran
into land mines along the way—places in the story where I didn't know what
happened next—and spent valuable writing time banging my head against the
keyboard, trying to figure out what happened next. I muddled my way through
those novels. Then I got the idea for Samurai Shortstop, and it wouldn't
go away. I wanted to write it, but I had never written anything that involved
historical research. I threw myself into the research, and when I was done, I
had an inch-thick notebook with research notes. How was I going to turn this
into a novel? How was I going to have all this information at my fingertips
while I wrote? I'm no genius—I was never going to be able to hold all that
information in my head at once. I wrote it down for a reason!
So I came up with the idea
of outlining this novel chapter by chapter. This was a basic, “This happens,
then this happens, then this happens” kind of outline. One longish paragraph
per chapter, one chapter per page in a Word document. Then I went through my
research notes, line by line, and every time I came across a note I knew would
be useful to the story, I copied and pasted it into that outline, beneath the
appropriate chapter blurb. If I ran into a note about how to write a death
poem, I moved that to chapter one, where we hear one. A note about what kids
ate for lunch? I moved that to the cafeteria scene in chapter seven, and so on.
Then when I was ready to write, I opened my outline notebook to page one, and there
in front of me was exactly what was supposed to happen in that chapter, and all
the historical research notes I needed to make that one chapter come to life.
And then, suddenly, I also
discovered I had cured my writer's block. Never again did I sit in front of the
computer, trying to think of what happens next. Outlining for the historical
research had forced me to put together the entire story before I wrote it. It
was a revelation. As writers, I think we often try to do two complicated and
very dissimilar things when we sit down to write: figure out WHAT to say, and
HOW to say it. By separating those two processes I was able to do both better
than ever. I had my breakthrough as a writer, and sold my first book. It won't
surprise you to learn that I've followed that model ever since.
What works for me may not
work for you, or anyone else. Writing is a very personal business. Some people
crave that organization before they begin, others enjoy the sense of discovery,
and for them, a first draft IS an outline, and the second draft is where the
book really comes into its own. Ellen Raskin, who wrote the wonderful and
cleverly-complicated middle grade mystery The Westing Game, was once
asked if she had outlined the book in advance to keep up with all the clues and
characters. Her response was something like, “God no—if I knew what was going
to happen, I'd be too bored to write it.” Me, I'm a flip to the last chapter
first to see how it ends kind of reader. She's not. All I'll say is that, if
you find yourself abandoning manuscripts half-way through because you can't
figure out how to get from point J to point M, give outlining a try. I love it.
Your first Horatio Wilkes mystery, the
wonderfully titled, SOMETHING ROTTEN, has a Hamlet-inspired plot, but Denmark isn’t
what or where it used to be. What were
some of the unexpected challenges of updating the story to the modern world and
another continent?
The biggest challenge was
trying to make the actions of the characters from the play believable in a
modern setting. You know, if you look at classic works of fiction, we accept
the things characters do in them without question, because that's the way
Hamlet has always acted for four hundred years. But take those actions out of
context, put them on a new, modern character, and sometimes they don't make any
sense at all. Or don't work in a modern context. Case in point: the king's
reaction to the play within the play in Hamlet. Hamlet suspects his uncle
Claudius killed his father. He arranges for some traveling players to put on
“The Murder of Gonzago,” which is about a man killing his brother to take his
crown. Hamlet plans to watch Claudius's reaction when he sees it. “The play's
the thing wherein we'll catch the conscience of the king,” he famously says.
Claudius sees the play, gets up white-faced like he's seen a ghost, and runs
from the room. Boom. Hamlet knows he has his man.
To update this, I had the
idea that Hamilton, my Hamlet character, and his friend Horatio, my detective,
go rent The Lion King to watch with the family. The Lion King has
lots of Hamlet overtones, if you'll remember, with Mufasa's brother Scar
killing him to take over the Pride. So the family watches The Lion King, Uncle
Claude sees his own actions in those of Scar, and gets up, white-faced, and
runs from the room.
I turned in this draft to
my editor, Liz, and she told me this scene wasn't working. Why not? I wanted to
know. “Because no real modern day killer is going to get freaked out over The
Lion King,” she told me.
She was absolutely right. I
had tried to put the actions and reactions of classic characters into a modern
setting, and they didn't work. We accept King Claudius's reaction in Hamlet,
because that's what King Claudius does. He's done the same thing for 400 years,
in every performance. But put him in a modern day setting, and it doesn't fly.
So I reworked that scene entirely, losing The Lion King gag altogether.
To see how I managed to catch the “conscience of the king” in a more realistic,
modern way, you'll just have to read the book. :-)
In the original play, Hamlet is a
little self-absorbed for my taste—a problem you solve by retelling the story
from Horatio’s point of view. Please
tell us about your version of the last man standing.
Yeah. Hamlet's a whiny
wimp. I much preferred his friend Horatio, who was much more down to earth. I
based their whole relationship on the famous Hamlet line: “There are more
things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Horatio's response to that would be, “No, there aren't.” That's the two
characters in a nutshell, if you'll forgive the expression. Hamlet has his head
in the clouds. Horatio has his feet squarely on the ground. If it had been
Horatio's dad who'd been killed, he would have taken care of this business right
away, no philosophizing, no debating, no dawdling. I wanted my main character
to be take-charge.
For a certain part of the
book, Horatio lets Hamilton run the show. Then, when Hamilton takes a pot-shot
at Paul/Polonius, Horatio essentially says, “That's it. My turn.” From that
point on, we still follow the events of Hamlet, but it's Horatio's book. He
takes control and steers the plot.
I also based Horatio on
Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, my favorite fictional detective. I love his
acerbic wit and his dedication to a strict personal moral code. I gave Horatio
both of those qualities, which seemed to fit really well with the Horatio
character from the play.
As the title suggests, the second
Horatio book, SOMETHING WICKED, is a twist on Macbeth. There’s a strong Scottish influence in our
part of the country, including our own Highland Games. Did you toss a caber for research, or maybe
hurl a haggis?
Ha. No. But I did visit a
Scottish Highland Festival to do research. Since I already knew the character
of Horatio from the first book, I got to walk around “in his shoes,” looking at
things through his eyes. In particular, I viewed the Games with his wry
attitude. I found a lot of things to poke fun at. :-) I also wanted to be
respectful of the Games and the culture as well, and Horatio comes to have a
lot of respect for the Scottish traditions on display at the festival. But at
first, of course, he sees it with his sarcastic teenage eye.
At Scottish Highland
Festivals, they often have genealogy tents to trace your Scottish heritage. I
got the idea to see if Horatio had any Scottish blood in him, so I went up to
one of the tables and told them my name was Horatio Wilkes. I was super
nervous! I'm not a good casual liar, but I also didn't want to get into the
fictional aspect of Horatio. I was deathly afraid someone was going to ask to
see my driver's license—though why anyone would ask that, I have no idea. The
lady behind the table cheerfully connected Wilkes to Wilkie, and then
cross-referenced that Scots-Irish name to a list of Septs, which are families
who swore fealty to larger clans. She ran her finger down a column, looked up,
and told me, “Wilkie is a Sept of the Macduff clan.” If you know Macbeth at
all, you'll understand at once why that was an incredibly wonderful
coincidence. In Something Rotten, Horatio played the part of the Horatio
character. I hadn't yet figured out how Horatio would fit into Macbeth, but
right then and there, when she said that, I suddenly understood. From that
moment on, I began to see Horatio as the Macduff character, and the story began
to fall into place for me.
On a more serious note, Macbeth is a
grizzly story. Did you have a “should
I/shouldn’t I” conversation with yourself about a YA version?
Not really. It's “anything goes”
in YA today, and I felt that gave me the freedom to put in as much or as little
violence as I wanted. I'm naturally uncomfortable with high levels of violence,
so I knew I would have an internal sensor for that. Otherwise, I wanted to
reflect how bloody and grizzly Macbeth really is. The word “blood” is
used again and again in that play, and I made sure I used it a lot too.
Moving on to your newest release,
congratulations on STARFLEET ACADEMY: THE ASSASSINATION GAME. How does it feel to be part of the Star Trek
franchise? No pressure, right?
Right. :-) I'm a huge Trek
fan, so this was very exciting for me. True story: about 17 years ago, back
before we were married, my then-girlfriend Wendi pretended to be my literary
agent so we could submit a Star Trek novel I had written to Pocket Books. We
made up a letterhead for her “agency” and everything. Pocket Books didn't go
for it and soon after I focused on writing books for young readers, but that
submission officially represented my first real attempt to sell a novel.
Cut to a year and a half ago, when I learned that Simon Spotlight was
publishing a series of young adult Star Trek novels set in the universe of the
recent movie reboot. Trek? YA? That long-lost dream of writing a Star Trek
novel wasn't looking so hopeless after all! I got on the phone with my agent,
Barry, he got on the phone with the editor of the series at Simon Spotlight,
and a month later I had a gig as Star Trek's newest author. I suppose you could
say I've come full circle.
Your Trek book is part of the
alternate-universe reboot of the original Star Trek. The core characters were set decades ago, but
their alternate-self youthful stories haven’t been told. How much creative freedom did you have to
develop the characters?
Not a ton, to be honest.
Yes, there's much that hasn't been told about this point in these new
characters' lives, but since they're still making movies with these characters
in them, I can't go crazy and make up too much about them. Since the characters
are still “in continuity,” so to speak, I have to use what I know about them,
and not add too much more. One of my rules, for example, was that Kirk and
Spock can never meet. They meet in the movie, at the end of their time at
Starfleet Academy, so I can't even have them pass in the hallway without
speaking. They could never share a scene together! That's tough, particularly
when those two characters are really the core of the old Trek series.
At the same time, I got to
introduce the character of Sulu to the YA series, and in doing so I explored
his attitude and motivations at the Academy. I was given a lot of room to do
that. I also expanded on the relationship between Spock and Uhura introduced in
the movie, giving what I thought were really good reasons both of them would
end up together.
Star Trek fans are obsessive in both
their adoration and fact checking. What
was it like writing for that kind of audience?
Yeah, that's tough. I was
really nervous about that. I know a lot about Trek history, but I'm not a
super-fan. There's another level of fan above me, the kind of fans who know the
registry numbers for every ship and the names of all the tertiary characters
and what all the technobabble means. I relied heavily on published Star Trek
technical and historical guides, and I had someone at CBS/Paramount who knows
his stuff, who helped edit for that stuff. Still, people on Trek forums have
already begun to ask some nitpicky questions. It comes with the territory. Even
the show writers get that kind of scrutiny from fans, and what they write is
technically canon! But it looks like I got away with not making any egregious
Trek errors.
And in keeping with the obsessive fan
theme, what is Dragon-Con like?
My family and I go to
DragonCon just about every year, and we have a blast. It's a massive
geek-culture festival held in Atlanta every year over Labor Day weekend. If
it's sci-fi, fantasy, comic book, animated, gaming, or strange/weird and has a
fandom, it's represented at DragonCon. We've lately gotten really into costuming,
working up grand creations for the Sunday night Masquerade competition. Last
year, we won a prize for our renditions of Space Ghost, Brak, and Zorak. This
year, I'm building a ten-foot tall Totoro, from the anime movie My Neighbor
Totoro. It kind of dominates the whole downstairs right now.
I know the Starfleet book just came
out, but can you tell us what’s next?
Next up is something about
as different as you can get—a Holocaust narrative. Scholastic approached me to
write a novel based on the true story of a man named Jack Gruener, who as a boy
survived ten different Nazi concentration camps. He and his wife had written up
a brief memoir of his time in the camps, and I took that and expanded it into a
novel. The book is called Prisoner B-3087, and it comes out in March of 2013.
Thanks
again to Alan for taking the time, and for sharing such great insights into his
past and future work. I hope you got as
much out of his lessons as I did. Be sure to visit his website at http://alangratz.blogspot.com for more information, including author appearances and DragonCon pictures.
And now...
Here’s
how the giveaway works. I’ll pick one
random winner from among the commenters to this post. The winner gets to select one signed book
from among the three Alan Gratz YA novels discussed here. That’ s STARFLEET ACADEMY: THE ASSASSINATION
GAME, SOMETHING ROTTEN, or SOMETHING WICKED—something for
every taste, and remember, it’s signed!
Please comment below
to be considered for the drawing. Extra points offered for posting about the
contest on Facebook or Twitter (please include mention of this in your
comment). Email MUST be included in the comment to be considered. Open to US
and Canadian entries only - apologies. Contest closes at midnight EST on 9/22/12.
