Part 2 - The Spencer Quinn interview continued

Here's part 2 of my interview with Spencer Quinn - bestselling author of the newly released Thereby Hangs A Tail - second book in the Chet & Bernie Mystery Series. As Peter Abrahams, he has written numerous books for adults and children. His most recent YA novel, Reality Check, was just nominated for an Edgar. His next YA novel, Bullet Point, comes out in April. Part 1 of the interview appears in the previous post (see below).

In the second half of the interview, Spencer talked about his daily writing routine, advancing the story, and his blog - written from the POV of Chet the Dog, Bernie's partner in the Little Detective Agency:

ChettheDog is a unique blog and a lot of fun to read - sort of a fix for your readers until the next book comes out. How do you go about writing it? Is that how you start your writing day?

I don’t think of it as part of my writing day – I think of it as part of what you have to do as a writer now. In today’s publishing world, there’s not a question in my mind that most writers have to pitch in and help. I actually enjoy doing this. It doesn’t take me long. Today there’s a thing about Martin Luther King and part 2 of a contest – the winner gets a copy of Thereby Hangs a Tail signed by Spencer Quinn and stamped with Chet’s paw print.

A redesign is happening. There’s a little button – Friends of Chet – where readers can post pictures of their dogs and whatever they want to say. I wanted to make it more prominent - the picture of the latest friend of Chet will appear on the home page. The default friend is my dog, Audrey. That’s part of the redesign. There’s another video being made now. It looks like a late night cheesey TV ad for a detective agency. There’s a business card for the Little Detective Agency - right now there’s no card but we’re having it made up.

I did a kind of mini-story on the movie Greed. When I do a book I have all the set-ups but with the blog, I almost lost track – very Chet-like. But it’s about the time. If all I did was the Chet and Bernie stuff – but I’m doing young adult too. So you have to be disciplined about the time.

How much do you write each day?

I have a goal – it’s not big. I’m a piece-maker (not a peacemaker - I’d be the very last person you’d want as a peacemaker ) but a piece-worker, as in an old fashioned factory. I try to produce a thousand words a day. At least, I try to produce something to advance the story. I think it would be depressing to sit down and not advance the story - I try to advance the story doubly.

What do you mean?

Every sentence has to push the story forward in some way – not necessarily in terms of plot – but move forward or add something. And if it doesn’t, it has to be cut. I never sit down to write and get up and leave it for the day with nothing done.

I remember you once saying you try to do something original on each page. I loved this idea. Can you talk about it more?

I try to have no boiler plate, ever - but without attracting attention to it – not the kind of being original that is just out there to show off originality - because everything has to advance the story. But that’s just me – it’s a protestant attitude. (And I’m Protestant to the core – High Church.) For example, with Chet and Bernie, the originality’s in the point of view, not the material. I’m not trying to do something where you’d say of the material, “that’s never been done before,” like I did with the earlier novels for adults, like Oblivion, and End of Story too - and some of the others.

With Chet and Bernie, I took the familiar music of classic mysteries but I played it on an unusual instrument. If I tried to take cutting edge material with a dog narrator, it just wouldn’t have worked.

Any inspirational advice for new or aspiring writers?

I just don’t know. There are two sides - one is the technical how to do this, and the other is character-related – which has to do with the amount of effort you’re willing to put in, how tough your skin is going to be and how good a judge you are of your own material. Those are the issues.

Publishers, readers – at least some of them - are always looking for something fresh and original, and I think there’s a disconnect there. Readers aren’t always looking for something new - they’re often looking for comfort. If we’re coming to the end of the gatekeepers, I’m not sure that’s a good thing in terms of the right stuff getting out there. It sounds a little paradoxical but that’s my opinion.

What are you working on now?

I’m almost finished The Peanut Case, the third Chet and Bernie book. I’m on chapter 29 now. It’s circus- related. The background of the book is the illegal trade in exotic animals. Peanut is an elephant.

When does The Peanut Case come out?

Early winter, 2011.

I can’t wait to read it - and Bullet Point, too. Thank you, and congratulations on the Edgar nomination.

Leave a comment, and you could win a copy of Thereby Hangs A Tail - signed by Spencer Quinn and stamped with Chet's paw print. Winner to be chosen by a random draw of all the names of people who commented on both parts of the interview.

Interview with bestselling author Spencer Quinn - Part 1

I’m delighted to post the first part of my interview with Spencer Quinn, NY Times bestselling author of Thereby Hangs a Tail, released January 5 (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster). In his prolific writing career, he has had 23 published novels - two as Spencer Quinn, and 21 as Peter Abrahams – yes, we’re related - he’s my big brother.

Of the Peter Abrahams titles, several are children’s books: His most recent YA novel, Reality Check, (Laura Geringer Books) was just nominated for a 2010 Edgar Award for best young adult mystery novel. Before that, there was the bestselling Echo Falls Series - three middle grade mysteries. The first, Down the Rabbit Hole, was a 2006 Agatha Award winner for Best Children’s Young Adult Fiction. The second in the series, Behind the Curtain, was nominated for an Agatha, followed by Into the Dark, also an Agatha nominee.

Peter has two upcoming children’s book: His YA novel, Bullet Point, to be released by Harper Teen April 27, and his first picture book, Quacky Baseball (Balzer & Bray/Harper Collins Children’s Books) illustrated by Frank Morrison, comes out in winter, 2011.

His newest Spencer Quinn release, Thereby Hangs a Tail, is the second book in the Chet and Bernie Mystery Series – which is written for adults but could easily be a YA crossover book. The series is written from the POV of Chet the dog, Bernie’s partner in the Little Detective Agency.

How did you come up with this great idea?

(My wife) Diana said, why don’t you do a thing about dogs? In the Peter Abrahams work, there are a number of dog characters. For example, in the Echo Falls series, there’s Nigel - the sidekick to Ingrid. So I decided to do a buddy PI thing – which has been done a million times – but from the POV of a dog.

Chet is a charmingly reliable narrator – for a dog. In some ways he’s deliberately unreliable. He falls asleep and misses things, etc. That’s convenient for a mystery series and also often very funny. How did you come up with this clever combination of reliability and unreliability?

It flows from the probably the most important decision I made on this – that he was going to be as close as possible to a normal dog – he can’t talk and he doesn’t have human capabilities – which people have done before. The unreliable part just came with it because he’s a dog – of course he’s going to be an unreliable narrator.

In this series you got inside the head of a dog. How were you able to do this so convincingly?

Is there some mixed up DNA in me? Really, this is all about the imagination. I consider it sort of a black box. Which is easy for me. I never have to do any self-searching.

Dog On It, (the first in the series) and Thereby Hangs A Tail, are very funny. For example, when Chet and Bernie are driving through the desert and Bernie mentions that Wild Bill Hickok once passed through the area - Chet figures Wild Bill Hickok must be the perp. Writing humor is sort of a departure from your other work. What’s your approach to this and is it especially fun to write?

In most of my other work, that side of me didn’t really have a chance to come out. It did from time-to-time. - I think there are parts of Their Wildest Dreams that are funny, and other places that are witty – but Chet and Bernie – this is more rollicking. I think it’s the material itself that allowed it to come out.

One big difference is, it’s first person, which I’ve done only once before in a short story. The story I wrote was Phase Two, for an anthology, Up All Night. I liked doing it and almost wished I’d done some of it before. For me, writing in the first person allows my own personality to leak into the story, because you’re saying I. Obviously, I’m not Chet – but I think that just allowed more of that side of me to come into it.

Is it different for you, a writer of many novels for adults, to write for children?

It isn’t different. Reality Check and Bullet Point are very similar to my adult work in tone and content, it’s just that the main character is a teenager and they’re a little shorter and simpler in plot. Otherwise, they’re very similar – dark with pent up violence. (I’m much more interested in pent up violence than break out violence. Hollywood, of course, goes the other way.)

Once I decide on the POV, the POV dictates the attitude, the tone. For example, if the Ingrid books (Echo Falls series) had been written for adults in third person close, it would have been written exactly the same way. There’s no shifting of gears here.

Did it help that you have four children?

Having kids of course, absolutely – living in a kid culture – it rubs off on you. I’m not saying it’s essential for people writing kid’s lit – but it really helped me.

Thank you, Spence/Pete.

Please come back for part 2 of the interview - to be posted soon. Here, Spencer talks about his blog, ChettheDog.com, his daily writing habits, advancing the story, and more.

In the meantime, if you leave a comment, you could win a copy of Thereby Hangs A Tail - signed by Spencer Quinn and stamped with Chet's paw print. Names to be drawn out of a black box.

Reading about Haiti

For several years while I was growing up, my family lived in the Bahamas - a country geographically close to Haiti, and with close ties to that country because of its large Haitian immigrant population. The experience of being exposed to these cultures has enriched my life and influenced my writing and art - I'm currently writing a work of fiction that is set in the Bahamas and has some Haitian characters.

While Haiti is so much in the news since the recent devastating earthquake, what a good idea to give children access to that country's rich history and culture through literature. In her blog, where she writes about, "books between cultures," author Mitali Perkins has made a great list of children's books set in Haiti. Take a look: Haitikidlit

Diary of a Reader

I went to the library regularly as a kid, but I still remember the satisfaction I felt when my mom came home from the local bookstore with a bag full of new books. In that bag, there would always be some books for me. The security of knowing I would never run out of something to read gave me a huge sense of comfort.

For a while, as a kid, I kept a diary of what I'd read - but then I lost track. I've thought about starting a book list as an adult - and even considered buying a journal designed for that purpose at a children's bookstore one day. But it wasn't until now, that I decided to start again - after reading a fabulous post by Kristi, a teen services librarian. She not only kept a list of all the books she read in 2009, but did an analysis of them in her blog, A Hundred Visions and Revisions: Booklog. This great idea has inspired me. As of 2010, I'm listing the books I've read this year - as a sidebar here (scroll up on the right).

Coming soon - an interview with Spencer Quinn, author of Thereby Hangs A Tail - the new book in the Chet and Bernie mystery series, which I'm savoring to the last page.

Thereby Hangs a Tail

I'm off to the bookstore to pick up Thereby Hangs a Tail - the second in the Chet and Bernie mystery series by Spencer Quinn - released January 5. The first book, Dog On It, was a New York Times bestseller and Barnes & Noble Recommends selection. The series may be primarily intended for adults, but it's perfect for YA readers too. I can say that with confidence - my 13-year old niece Rachel loved Dog On It, and if you've read my interviews with her, you know Rachel's a discerning reader - see 2Teens.

The mysteries are written from the witty and endearing pov of Chet the dog, Bernie's partner in the Little Detective Agency.

I won't be reviewing Thereby Hangs a Tail, because Quinn is my big brother - and even though he's undeniably a fabulous writer, I might be suspected of bias. However, I do hope to interview him in an upcoming blog post about his writing career and this great series.

Please check back. In the meantime, visit chetthedog - a most delightful blog - and you'll see what I mean.