After three years of blogging every day in May, there have been a few post topics I've repeated each year, just because they're fun to do. For one of them, I put out the call to my Facebook friends to see if anyone has questions they'd like to ask. I leave this very open to whatever they might come up with and always do my best to come up with actual answers. Here's the crop from this year:
Are there any individual TV show episodes that you either go back to rewatch or just consider the pinnacle of a series?
Skip this if you don't like spoilers, but since all of these shows have been around and over for awhile I think it's fair to say the statute of limitations on spoiler accusations has expired.
Breaking Bad: The episode where Walt finds a way out of Gus's employment by blowing him up in a nursing home.
The Walking Dead: Tougher for a definitive episode because it's more about moments for me on this show. But if pressed, I'd go with the episode when the Governor couldn't pull back far enough to see reason and killed Herschel. That set a lot of things in motion for the following seasons.
Freaks and Geeks: When Daniel played Dungeons and Dragons with Sam and his friends.
The Office: Michael's proposal to Holly. The arc that defined him the entire series was perfectly resolved in that moment.
The West Wing: Two Cathedrals. Period.
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Best of Both Worlds. I was surprised I felt strongly enough to include this one, but it really was great.
Community: The party at Troy and Abed's apartment that spawned the alternate timelines. Genius.
Will you retire to Florida with the rest of us?
My friend Dax used to live in Florida. When he’d tell me about the unusual things that seem to frequently happen there and I’d react with any amount of disbelief, his response, which evolved into a catch phrase for us, would always be, “And yet somehow Florida still surprises you.” So, I'm not sure about Florida. Plus the hurricanes. And for all we know, by the time I reach retirement age half of the state will be three feet underwater.
Pancakes or French toast?
Pancakes.
Do you think there will ever come a day when electronics is considered archaic technology?
Short answer: Yes. Longer answer: Unless humanity finds a way to destroy itself first. Side answer: Interestingly coincidental question to ask. I’m currently preparing a series of synopsis ideas to send to my agent for her input about which of those ideas might be the strongest for the next book I start writing, and one of them has a pretty big plot point involving a technology that could be the next step beyond electronics, or at least serve as a bridge between electronics and whatever would come next.
Will Cinnamon and Evil Barbie be back for next holiday season?
No spoilers. But I’d follow the remaining May blog posts closely if you’re curious.
What is your favorite place to visit?
My happy place is probably spending a temperate evening walking through downtown Poulsbo, Washington with my adopted PNW family, just visiting, enjoying the evening, looking out at Liberty Bay and knowing I have absolutely no responsibilities for at least a few days. And even though it’s probably more of a necessary evil to the people out there than anything else, I still love the novelty of the ferry ride into or out of Seattle. I don't know if it's a "favorite," but it's the first place that came to mind and it did so quickly.
Will you be my friend?
As long as I don’t have to clean up after the alpacas.
Are you truly a Gemini or a Taurus?
Gemini, dammit. There is no either/or at play here. Once upon a time it was May 21st. The end.
Do you find that every year you have a student that stands out to you in class, not academically?
Honestly, I don’t. Not every year. And I attribute that to specializing, just because there are so many more kids I work with each year now and I don’t have the chances to build the same kinds of relationships with them as I did when I worked with them all day long. But every so often some will stand out, for any number of reasons, in either positive or negative ways.
What is your funniest moment teaching?
I couldn’t possibly isolate one moment, but I’m sure when I sit down someday to think over my career and plan out my definitive work of literary fiction that will show exactly what teaching in 21st century America is like, it will probably be in there somewhere.
What one thing would you find life much harder without?
My huge, unusually close extended family. Just because there are so many people I rely on for so many different things in life, and I would be lost without them.
Why do you write middle grade and not YA? Is it because that’s what you teach?
Short answer: Yes, it’s mostly because that’s what I teach. That’s what I have in front of my face every day, and those are the people I think about as ideas begin to form. Longer answer: I personally believe that middle grade literature is more important than young adult, in a formative sense; I’m sure I’m oversimplifying this, but I think most YA books are written with specific, built-in audiences in mind. If you read YA in any genre, you have things about it that you crave, whether you’re 15 or 25 or 40. I think middle grade can be a harder sell because so many readers are still emerging and determining their preferences. I see a lot of kids read the same book over and over, not because they necessarily love it, but because they haven’t found better options for themselves yet. I want to be a part of providing those options. I have nothing against YA though, and I wouldn't rule out writing at that level someday if I found a story that needed telling. In fact, one of the synopsis ideas I'm preparing for my agent right now would be better suited as a YA novel just due to the subject matter. I'd call it a dark horse as far as winning the title of Next Project anytime soon, but it's definitely earned a spot in the queue.
Dog or cat? And why?
Dog. Because they’re better and I’m not as allergic to them. Having said that though, I can spend days staying with my friend Dax, his wife Melissa, and their pets -- one of which is a cat -- without any real kind of reaction, even though we're all pretty vigilant about keeping Kitty out of my lap. Some dogs don’t bother me at all, while some dogs (Toby) can just lick me once and fill my arm with enormous red insanity welts.
As much as I love dogs, I still put it at very long odds that I’ll be getting another one any time soon (I'm measuring that in years). There are different reasons why, but ultimately what I went through before broke me in half, and there are still too many wounds that will rip open on me with very little provocation.
Who has been the most influential in your writing style and do you share that with your students?
That’s really tough. Back in high school and college I got a lot of Stephen King comparisons, mostly because I wrote so much friggin’ horror. And then like ten, fifteen years back it was more Garrison Keillor -- not because of the goofy small town stories but more about striving for the same authenticity of voice in his more sincere moments. Now I mostly try to be like any number of writers I read who can come up with such a perfectly crafted line in their work that I don’t have any other choice but to be pulled out of the story to pause and admire it. (Justin Cronin is one who comes to mind.) Middle grade-wise, I love the way Katherine Patterson's "Jacob Have I Loved" does such a perfect job of creating characters and a realistic sense of place; I don't know if I'd call her specifically a favorite, but I've probably put as much time into studying that book as I have reading it. As far as sharing with the students...I don’t teach anything to do with reading or writing. Some people see this as a head-scratching irony, but that’s just how things settled. My students know about my author side and are well past thinking it’s any big deal anymore (though I did have to clarify for them once what the difference is between having an “agent” and a “spy”). The only way I could share anything to do with writing with them would be if I used something I wrote as a read aloud in class, and I would never do that. I’m too introverted to do it comfortably, and see it as far too self-serving.
If you couldn’t be a writer or a teacher what would you be?
I have never seriously considered anything else. However, to answer the question the best I can, other people have said before they think because of my reflective nature, the insights that follow that and perspectives I've shared, I would have been a good therapist. Not sure about that one myself....
If you could only eat five foods for the rest of your life, what would they be? Bacon. Smoked salmon, only from the PNW. Tortellini alfredo. Thanksgiving turkey. Soft, heavily-chipped chocolate chip cookies.
Is there a dream or goal that you have (outside of being a writer/teacher) that you are working towards? Outside of the whole “become a published author” thing, my ambitions for life have all been fairly modest. I suppose I still would like to get married someday, though admittedly this isn’t the easiest prospect for an off-the-charts introvert like me. Not to mention that as the years roll by, it seems to become less and less likely I’ll be able to find a woman willing to put up with this defining collection of idiosyncrasies I have that take the place of any kind of personality. (That’s just a self-deprecating joke, Mom -- calm down).
Do you want to keep living in Minnesota? Where will you probably retire?
I’ve never seriously considered living anywhere else, though the past few winters have me realizing there are some things about living here that I truly hate (January and, to a lesser degree, February, to be specific). I haven’t thought much about retirement other than a recently planted seed of hope that I might be able to do it sooner than I've always thought. It’s a fun little game to listen to people at school speculate how many years are left before I'll be able to write my way out of the classroom (which, trust me, is not guaranteed to ever happen anyway). I could easily see myself settling in the PNW, but I’m not sure how the whole cloud and rain thing there would work if it were more permanent.
Do you have any underrated movies in mind?
YES!! 1. "Mystery Men." 2. "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang." 3. "True Romance." Probably even more if I took the time to think about it. Maybe this year I’ll have a staff underrated movie marathon party/open house in the middle of summer. I’ll provide a schedule and people can show up to see the ones they’re interested in, and that can be a big fun summertime staff get together. Or maybe we can do it at someone else’s house. If they have a pool or something....or maybe I'll just lazily forget about the whole thing. Good chance, that.
If you could go back and go to college again, would you go to the same place or some place else?
I’ve always said if I had the chance to relive any month of my life, I would choose any random month I spent in college. I don’t think it had so much to do specifically with St. Cloud though. I think it was more about experiencing the way the whole world seemed to open up around me while I was there, which probably would have happened to most people wherever they may have gone to school.
Can you identify characteristics of dog people or cat people?
Dog people are probably just better in several ways because dogs. Cat people either seem a tiny bit off to begin with, or they surprise me because I can’t imagine why someone would choose a cat over a dog. There’s just no sense in that. Sorry, cat people. I won't be playing on your softball team anytime soon.
Best lines from movies, or books:
I took these from my Facebook quotes section:
"If we were not islands, we would be lost, drowned in each other's tragedies... we draw our lines around these moments of pain and remain upon our islands, and they cannot hurt us." --Neil Gaiman
"It's a wonderful thing to push on alone toward the horizon and have it be your own horizon and not someone else's. It's a good feeling, lonely and magnificent and frightening and peaceful..." -- Garrison Keillor
"It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it? The same with people." -- C.S. Lewis
Movies are tougher since there are so many lines I could quote. A current favorite is probably from "Avengers: Age of Ultron," when Captain America tells the rest of the team in a battle, “You get hurt, hurt them back. You get killed, walk it off.”
What is your favorite metal, and why?
Vibranium, because that’s what they use to make Captain America’s shield.
What are your five favorite commercials, and why?
Sorry, Paul. I thought about this and really tried to reward you with a clever answer, but I can't think of any commercials that have me lighting up with excitement, or even acquiescence, when they come on.
What is the book that made you want to write?
I think the writing was ignited by two things happening in very close proximity on my personal timeline: In 4th grade or so, I first read "A Wrinkle in Time" within months of seeing the original "Star Wars." Imagine that pairing being presented to a hyperactive young imagination that hadn't yet found the creative outlet it didn't know it needed.
Why is your sister, Jenny, so sexy?
I can think of no good way to answer this. Ask her husband.
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