EasyLiving Front Range Colorado

10 Questions for ...author David Michael Slater

I got this idea to feature authors in a “10 Questions for…” segment. I ask each author the same 10 questions - mostly about writing life - and then post their responses. I decided to post my request for authors on HARO (Help A Reporter Out) and got more than 600 responses in a matter of hours! These responses offer some really interesting insights into a writer’s life. From “What’s a typical writing day like for you?” to “What’s on your desk?” I think you’ll find these as interesting as I did. I got authors from all genres: romance, business books, children’s books, writing books, how-to, cookbooks, chick-lit …you name it!

You can visit my site at http://askWendy.wordpress.com to read a different interview every day. Thanks!

Wendy Burt-Thomas, author of 3 books including:
"The Writer's Digest Guide to Query Letters" (Jan. 2009)
http://www.GuideToQueryLetters.com

10 Questions for David Michael Slater

David Michael Slater writes for children, teens and adults. He is the author of numerous award-winning picture books including Cheese Louise!, The Ring Bear, and Ned Loses His Head. Sacred Books, his first series for teens, launched in October of 2008 with The Book of Nonsense, a Children’s Booksellers Best Books 2008 List finalist. His first novel for adults, Selfless, will be released in March, 2009. David teaches middle school in Portland, Oregon, where he lives with his wife and son. More information about David and his books can be found at www.davidmichaelslater.com.

1. Tell us about your latest book.

I’m excited to say I have a number of forthcoming works. My five-part teen series, SACRED BOOKS, debuted in Oct., 2008 with THE BOOK OF NONSENSE. Volume two, THE INFINITE, will hit stores in August. (Fingers crossed for a possible pending film deal.) SELFLESS, my first novel for adults will be released March 14th. Advanced Readers are hitting reviewers right now! Later in ’09, a new set of six picture books will be released from Magic Wagon, along with a wordless picture book, THE BORED BOOK. Last but not least, a collection of short fiction will be published this summer.

2. How did you get started as a writer?

I was doing a Masters in English and not feeling especially good about the scholarship I was producing. As fate would have it, I took a class that introduced me to Jorge Luis Borges. I was stunned and amazed to learn that a genre existed in which fiction could be disguised as scholarship, or vice versa—exactly what I thought I was doing! I started writing short stories in that vein soon after, along with some picture books, which found homes first.

3. What does a typical day look like for you?

Can’t say I have one. I teach middle school (7th graders) full-time and have a wife and 8 year-old son. Thus, writing time is at a premium. I take it wherever I can find it!

4. Describe your desk/workspace.

It looks exactly like a laptop and goes wherever it can!

5. Favorite books (especially for writers)

FICCIONES by Jorge Luis Borges

THE REMAINS OF THE DAY by Kazuo Ishiguro

WATERLAND by Graham Swift

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O’brien

6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you

Hmm.

I eat almost everything plain (condiment phobic).

I have virtually no sense of direction (and that’s being generous to myself).

I met my wife on junior semester abroad in Australia (she’s from Oregon).

7. Favorite quote

They rotate. Here’s the latest: Pity the poor insomniac dyslexic agnostic. He stays up all night wondering if there really is a dog. — anonymous

8. Best and worst part of being a writer

Best: The most satisfying moments for me are those when a story reaches a point that I could never have predicted, when a solution is found that ties everything together, making all the effort and uncertainty worth it. You can gather from this that I don’t write from an outline and often have no idea where a story is going as I write it. Also best: watching people engage with and respond to my work.

Worst: the frustration of having books published that nobody knows about!

9. Advice for other writers

Rejection is part of the deal. Do not take it personally, and do not give up. Persistence is every bit as important as talent if you hope to be published.

10. Tell us an interesting story about your writing experience.

At a school visit recently I was showing off my three massive binders of rejection letters. A kid asked me why I keep “all those restraining orders,” a sad, but perhaps uncannily intuitive slip-of-the-tongue. First I eyeballed him a while to make sure he didn’t know more about me than was legally comfortable. When I determined he was cool, I said I lugged them around hoping to induce a hernia and file for Workman’s Comp. Which got a snort out of the teacher grading a forty-foot stack of papers in the back. Which is worth something.

Where can people buy your books?

Order through any bookstore or Amazon.com. Find me and my blog via www.davidmichaelslater.com.

Comments

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Comments 1 - 2 out of 2

Sunday
February 8, 2009
12:59 pm

JanMcNutt
Wendy - What a brilliant and interesting idea. I will send this on to my writer friends who will certainly appreciate it - especially the confirmation that rejection letters are part of the territory and the [poor] writer's slim chance of receiving legal Workman's Comp from carrying heavy loads of papers.

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Thursday
February 19, 2009
9:09 am

JanMcNutt
Hi Wendy,

It's me again. I am loving your blog. It is so informative and something I try to read daily. I even did a webinar the other day and I am signed up for another one. Thanks for doing this. I hope all my writer friends are following my suggestion to read your blog regularly.

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